Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban 5 (逆転裁判 5?, lit. "Turnabout Trial 5"), is an adventure video game published and developed by Capcom for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the seventh total game in the Ace Attorney series, excluding cross-overs, and the fifth installment of the main lineage. It was formally announced with a partial logo in Japan on January 29, 2012, alongside Gyakuten Saiban 123 HD as part of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Event.
It is the first in the series to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Phoenix Wright returns as the main protagonist. The game was released in Japan on July 25, 2013. The game was released as a digital-only release in North America and Europe in October 24, 2013. The game was also only localized into English for the European release.
The development team is the team responsible for Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2. Scenario director Takeshi Yamazaki replaced the role of series creator Shu Takumi, who reportedly was already busy with Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney.
Characters
Playable protagonists
- Phoenix Wright - The protagonist of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Justice For All and Trials and Tribulations. A previously disbarred defense attorney who has regained his badge. His magatama allows him to see Psyche-Locks around people, showing that they are hiding something from him.
- Apollo Justice - The protagonist of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has the ability to detect subtle, subconscious movements that witnesses make, aided by his bracelet. At one point in the game he is injured, with both his arms and his right eye swathed in bandages. While wounded, he also sports a slightly tattered long blue coat that hangs from his shoulders over his usual apparel.
- Athena Cykes - The new playable protagonist, partner character and newest addition to the Wright Anything Agency's defense team. She has a great drive to win, distinguishing her from Maya Fey. She can examine witnesses' emotions using a computer on her necklace, the "Mood Matrix".
Other main characters
- Simon Blackquill- The game's rival prosecutor. A pale man with black eyeshadow and a feather in his mouth, he was ordered to stand in court despite technically serving a murder sentence; made quite clear with the large pair of handcuffs connected by a chain on his wrists. Blackquill also carries a hawk named Taka on his right shoulder. Blackquill uses psychological manipulation techniques. He also has a unique interjection in court, which can be roughly translated as "Shut it!".
- Bobby Fulbright - A hot-blooded detective with the catchphrase "In justice we trust!". He has worked with Simon Blackquill many times and is paired up with him in court. The detective hopes to help the prosecutor redeem himself, and he seems completely oblivious to Blackquill's attempts to manipulate him. Bobby has such a strong sense of justice that he is compelled to intervene to help those in trouble, and he will even help defense attorneys if it will lead to a fair trial.
- The unnamed judge who has presided over most of the cases in Ace Attorney series.
Returning characters
- Miles Edgeworth - A renowned prosecutor prodigy and the childhood friend and longtime rival of Phoenix Wright. He is also the protagonist of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2. By the time the game takes place, Edgeworth has become the Chief Prosecutor.
- Trucy Wright - Phoenix Wright's adopted daughter and Apollo Justice's former investigative partner. A young magician from a well-known family of magicians, she is still working at the Wright Anything Agency and continues to aid the lawyers in their investigations.
- Klavier Gavin - Rival prosecutor to Justice in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and former lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band "The Gavinners".
- Pearl Fey - A member of a Fey clan branch family and the younger cousin of Phoenix Wright's old assistant Maya Fey.
Story and episodes
Story
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies takes place roughly one year after Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. By this time, Phoenix Wright has regained his attorney's badge. The plot has a darker theme than previous games in the series, in accordance with Wright's warning in the fourth game, "A dark time is coming for our legal system. We have to set it right". However, it has the same overall light tone of the other games in the series.
Episodes
It was stated by the development team that the game has roughly the same amount of content as Trials and Tribulations and would take 25-30 hours to complete.
- Turnabout Countdown - Phoenix Wright takes on Winston Payne's younger brother Gaspen, in the case of a high school girl named Juniper Woods, accused of planting a bomb to destroy one of the courtrooms at the District Court. This episode introduces Athena Cykes as Wright's co-counsel and the new "Mood Matrix" game mechanic. Phoenix is the playable lawyer for the case with Athena as co-counsel.
- The Monstrous Turnabout - The Wright Anything Agency is invited by Trucy Wright's friend Jinxie Tenma for a celebration at the Nine-Tails Vale village. The festivities are abruptly interrupted however, when the mayor of Nine-Tails Vale is found with a spear through his chest and Jinxie Tenma's father is arrested as the main suspect. This episode introduces the convict prosecutor Simon Blackquill and the justice-obsessed police detective Bobby Fulbright. It also features the return of Wright's adopted daughter Trucy Wright. Apollo Justice is the playable lawyer for the case with Athena as co-counsel.
- Turnabout Academy - The third case takes place at Themis Legal Academy during a culture festival. Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin face off in a mock murder trial at the school, but when the murder becomes real, Athena Cykes steps up to the plate to represent Juniper Woods (who set up the mock trial and finds herself as the defendant in a real trial) against Simon Blackquill. This episode features the return of prosecutor Klavier Gavin who reprise the mock trial with Justice in order to gain more insight into the real murder. Athena is the playable main lawyer for the case with Apollo as co-counsel.
- The Cosmic Turnabout - Apollo's best friend Clay Terran turns up dead right after a spaceship that he was on blows up. Right before witness Candice Arme comes to the stand, the courtroom bombing from Turnabout Countdown occurs. Apollo decides to take a leave of absence to investigate the case on his own, so it is up to Phoenix Wright and Athena Cykes to defend Clay Terran's mentor, Solomon Starbuck.
- Turnabout For Tomorrow - A crucial piece of evidence appears implicating Athena Cykes on the murder of Clay Terran. This case might involve an incident from seven years prior to the start of the game.
- Turnabout Reclaimed - Downloadable extra case. This is Phoenix Wright's first case since regaining his attorney's badge. The case takes place at an aquarium, and the defendant is a Killer Whale named Al (エール, lit. "Arru").
Gameplay
The classic courtroom gameplay of Phoenix Wright's previous adventures returns, including Wright's magatama and Apollo Justice's bracelet. Added to this formula are the "Mood Matrix" and the "Thought Route".
The player character uses the Mood Matrix to examine the emotions of a witness and find contradictions between the witness's emotional state and his or her testimony. The Thought Route comes into play at a critical point in the trial. Similarly to the "Logic" feature in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2, the player character reviews the known facts and builds up a train of thought to reach a conclusion. The player is presented with a series of facts of many kinds, such as items and evidence connected to the case, and must choose the correct one to advance the reasoning towards a final conclusion.
Dual Destinies includes several new features to make it easier for newer players to get into the game. A backlog function which allows players to review previous dialogue, and an investigation memo lets them keep track of things that need to be done. Additionally, two save files can be recorded into a single copy of the game. Moreover, during trials, when the penalty health bar is at half-filled or less, the player can obtain hints by pressing the "X" button. Moreover, the penalty system is restricted to the trial segments of the game, and not used for Phoenix Wright's magatama segments. When new evidence is found, the entire evidence profile is shown, as opposed to previous games, in which detailed descriptions were not shown until the new evidence was looked up in the court record.
In addition to this, the game world has transitioned into 3D with fully orchestral music, allowing for dynamic camera angles while retaining the 2D "touch" of the characters by taking measures to maintain the sense of speed sharpness from the 2D games. The 3D transition also allows the player to look at rooms from different angles during investigations.
The game also feature animated scenes by Bones, similarly to Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney which also has animated cutscenes from the anime studio.
Downloadable content
Free downloadable costumes were available in Japan until a month after the game's release. The costume pack includes the Old-School Suit, Phoenix Wright's old suit and appearance from the first three games; the Stylin' Street Clothes, a new casual outfit for Apollo Justice by character designer Kazuya Nuri; and the Themis Academy Uniform, a sailor fuku for Athena Cykes.
In addition to this is a downloadable extra case called Turnabout Reclaimed. This content is also available for the American version of the game. If the game was bought from the eShop from October 24, 2013 to November 7, 2013, the player will get access to the outfits for free.
Another downloadable costume is the old outfit Wright had worn during Turnabout Memories. The outfit is a reward for completing the extra quiz DLC. In the English version, this outfit will be unlocked upon the player completing the DLC case, Turnabout Reclaimed.
Music
The music used in Dual Destinies is almost entirely from the Gyakuten Saiban 5 Original Soundtrack. That is, almost every music track used in the game is either original or a new version of a track from a previous game. Even "Suspense", which survived unaltered through all six games in the series prior to Dual Destinies, was replaced by a "Suspense 2013". However, Dual Destinies uses "Guilty Love" and "Surging Eyes" from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney's soundtrack.
Trivia
- Capcom USA’s Senior Vice-President, Christian Svensson, cited difficulties with ensuring retail support for physical releases of Ace Attorney games as a reason for a download-only release in the West.
- Athena Cykes' first name is a reference to the goddess Athena in Greek mythology, this is likely meant to link her name with the given names of both Apollo Justice (whose first name comes from the Greek god of the same name) and Phoenix Wright (whose first name originates from mythology). Her last name, Cykes, is possibly a word play on "psychology" or "psyched".
- Simon's English given name "Simon" comes from the Classical Hebrew "שִׁמְעוֹן" (shim'ón), meaning "hearkening" or "he has heard". His last name, "Blackquill", is a combination of "black" (dark colors being prominent in his character design) and "quill" (a writing implement made from the molted flight feather of a bird).
- Excluding the European box art for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (which only has Phoenix Wright on it), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies is the first game in the Ace Attorney series to have voiced speech bubbles for all the characters featured on the front cover of the box art.
- This is the first Ace Attorney game where all the culprits are males.
- Dual Destinies is the first game in the series to feature more than five cases.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies is the first game in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series where the first case has taken 2 days to resolve instead of the usual 1 day.
- Dual Destinies is also the first game in the series to have the last case be only one day long.
- Excluding the original format for the first Phoenix Wright game, Dual Destinies is the first game to have all playable cases and trials in one year.
External links
Box Art
