Sno

The end-of-the-generation retrospective megathread.

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I would be remiss not to mention the best thing gaming has spawned over the last decade, in total, regardless of system, neutral of affiliation, and that is the Ace Attorney series. It had simply the largest impact on me. I have two separate, elaborate cosplays from that series, I took part in a Phoenix Wright play (as Mr. Godot), and since 2005 I've played six games in the series and written about as many articles on it for various print magazines (the latest of which, the review of Dual Destinies, will feature in AniWay, out in about a month in the Netherlands).

Ace Attorney is one of my favourite series ever, because it does so many wonderful things that video games almost never do. Games this past generation, I feel more than any previous generation, really started to explore the idea of social commentary and satire -which is a great thing- but also seemed to be limiting themselves to criticism or analysis of the medium of video games. Spec Ops, Braid, and Bioshock all come to mind. Ace Attorney predates all of those, and yet it has something frankly way more important to talk about (the Japanese legal system be fucked, yo) and does the lion's share of it expression through pure gameplay.

I also feel like Ace Attorney teaching me how to manipulate conversations, remember small details, and find inconsistencies really helped me out more than a few times when I was working at an insurance company with a high amount of fraudulent claims coming in. I know it seems like a bit of a stretch in this case, but I love it when games teach actual practical skills or knowledge.

 

 

 

 

...but with that being said, the first three games were all originally made for the GBA and are more than a decade old, so I'm not sure if I think it's fair to consider them last-gen.

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The DS version of the first Ace Attorney game had a new 5th case added in that used some of the DS's features like the mic and touchscreen.  Plus there was Apollo Justice, which I believe is the best entry in the series, and the Miles Edgeworth Investigation games.

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Wait, the first few AA games were originally on GBA? Huh, I had no idea.

...I also wish I had been able to find more of them, I was only ever able to find a copy of Trials and Tribulations. Which I have played through about 3 times and loved it. (Except the Mask de Masque case... I got stuck there for a very long time my first time playing through...)

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The GBA versions of the Ace Attorney games were never released outside of Japan. The first three DS games are updated remakes of those with some new content.

AA4 and the Investigations games were built specifically for the DS. (The second Investigations game is the only DS game that wasn't localized, which is a shame, people seem to think it's pretty good.)

And now AA5 is out on the 3DS, and apparently we're getting the Layton/Ace Attorney crossover too.

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I do hope so, fervently!

 

It's true that the first three games in the series were for GBA, but the West didn't see them until their rerelease on DS. For all intents and purposes, it belongs to that generation for us.

 

Ucantalas; if you played T&T, you've arguably played the best game in the series... though they're all great. Luke Atmey!

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