Well, tentative review.

I’m in the middle of the 3rd of 4 cases (apparently there are only 4, which is a little disappointing), so here’s a preliminary review. The gameplay is pretty much the same as in the Phoenix Wright games, with a few minor differences. The Magatama is gone, and psychic silliness has been replaced with magic/sleight-of-hand silliness. This means that in investigations, you no longer have the Magatama challenge sections, which I prefer. In court, you’ve now got Apollo’s bracelet, which lets you focus on the witness and see little nervous tics that can indicate a lie. There are also a bunch of neat forensic tools added, such as taking fingerprints, footprints, and inspecting items.

The problem is that all these new cool things just become minigames in a linear adventure, rather than being added as open-ended investigative tools. The bracelet isn’t available for use in every or even most cross-examinations; just in a few where there isn’t an obvious piece of evidence to present. You can’t dust every item for fingerprints; you can only dust items when a giant black smudge shows up saying, “fingerprints here!”

The stories are as good as always; I prefer them to the early cases of Phoenix Wright 3, and some of the twists are cooler than usual. Supposedly the last case has the best story, so we’ll see.

Takeaway: More of the same, with a few new tricks.