I beat a game!!: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorny: Justice for All

Almost as good as the first game--it's Capcom, guys, so there's not going to be that much in the way of innovation. The major addition is the Psyche-lock system. At certain points during the investigation, a bunch of locks appear superimposed over the character you're talking to, and you've got to question them to get them to open up. It becomes a little mini-trial sequence, except without the guarantee in the trials that you have everything you need. It ensures you know what's going on a little better: if you're in a trial and completely stuck, you can scrub everything against a witness and eventually get through; if you haven't investigated the proper things, you won't be able to beat a psyche-lock. And it's friendly enough to let you back out and try again if you don't think you're ready enough.

The cases simply aren't as intriguing as the ones in the first game, until you get to the last one, which features a lot of really cool twists and exciting things. So far it's the best case in the series. I'm told that the third game is just as good if not better, so I'm excited for it.

The translation is not nearly as good--the localizers seem to think that commas are excellent (there's a ton of "What are you doing Phoenix" type things) and the phrase "What in the world..." is used pretty much every other line. And there's the infamous "the miracle never happen" from one of the game over screens. It's a shame because, at least as far as I remember, the translation of the first was excellent. It's not that this was a bad translation--it just needed a good editor. Which is why I really should be hired by some game company--I'd much rather review videogames than software manuals like I do.

That's the one problem with games like this: they're so similar to their predecessors that there's really nothing new to say about it. But again, I like the series so much that I'm excited for the third and fourth.