Pokémon White - Trio Badge

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Fundamentally it doesn't feel like much has changed from the 4th Generation, yet little things here and there can make all the difference. So begins the adventure of high school dropout Jaye and his friends Iden Cheren and Camilla Bianca (oops, I guess you can't rename your rivals) as they prepare to traverse the untamed terrain of Unova. This game is just fun, it looks good, it sounds good and it seems like it has the best story yet. If someone knows how to take screenshots of a DS, let me know otherwise you'll jsut have to take my word for it. Or alternatively, buy it.

By the way if you didn't know, the Liberty Pass granting access to the island where legendary fennec fox Victini dwells is available for a limited time over wi-fi - Until April 10th in North America and April 22nd in Europe for some unknown reason. Like Mew, Celebi, Jirachi and Shaymin, Victini has an evenly distributed 600 base stats but considering the Fire/Psychic typing, its greatest potential comes in attack even without the Japanese movie versions exclusive V-Create attack with 180 (!!!!!) base power.

The Journey So Far after the jump.

Ace Attorney Investigations - Finale fails to light my fire

I can't shake a feeling of disappointment. I'm not exactly sure what I would have done differently or how I would have liked it to play out... but that wasn't quite it. Perhaps it's because upon finishing it felt more like the middle of the story than the end. That may be the effect of lacking the courtroom and the finality of the Judge's gavel. Could be the jumbled timeline of events or a lack of memorable characters. Or maybe, with the imminent release of Ace Attorney Investigations 2, it really was the middle of the story. The Logic system was a big fail. In the final showdown with the killer, you get handed new pieces of logic to connect in the middle of the affair. What? No, this is when we should be going full throttle in confrontation. This happened all throughout every case actually; Rather than being a cool skill for Edgeworth to have, it felt more like a convenient deus ex machina to lump in last minute revelations they'd been hiding.

Overall the game had its moments. If you're a fan of Ace Attorney, it's definitely worth playing. Just be aware that the atmosphere is very different. In tone, it's more similar to Apollo Justice than the Phoenix Wright trilogy.

"Turnabout Ablaze" spoilers and score after the jump.

Ace Attorney Investigations - Back to the future, case very much open

This case was a marked improvement on the previous three despite once again being confined in scope to one area. Less smoke and mirrors and more straight-up investigation - even a courtroom battle although it seemed to end a little abruptly for me. Intriguing new characters were introduced and it sets up nicely for the final case, which has been epic in every game so I'm looking forward to it - my faith in the project has been restored! The references were toned down, even with the return to the courtroom and the lore and feel of a Miles Edgeworth investigation were allowed to flourish in their own right. I'll have to reserve final judgment on the story until the final case is solved though. Although interesting, it's somewhat confusing and likely not as emotional as any in the Phoenix Wright trilogy.

"Turnabout Reminiscence" spoilers after the jump.

Ace Attorney Investigations - No danger of Stockholm Syndrome here

A great final twist saved this case from being kinda dreadful, but overall it was still underwhelming. I'm on the edge, about to jump and declare this game a disappointment but there are still two cases to go, so I'll maintain some patience and see how it unfolds. For a game that should be simple, the main appeal of the original trilogy being fun scenarios and characters rather than gameplay, it feels extraordinarily complicated despite the fact that so far it's been even more linear than the first half of FFXIII. Every situation you find yourself in is force-fed and every solution is bizarrely different, there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Another thing that's force-fed is the separation of chapters. I've complained about it before, but the cut off points don't feel natural. They probably should have just eschewed them; Just because they were in previous Ace Attorneys doesn't mean they had to be shoehorned into this one. It's odd that they waited until the third case before introducing Agent Lang and Kay. The characters on the box have in the past all been introduced by the second case and with the fourth case being a flashback, that could leave Lang especially as almost a peripheral character rather than a cover star.

"The Kidnapped Turnabout" spoilers after the jump.

Ace Attorney Investigations - Second case just flew by!

Despite mastering the controls, the second case ends up disappointing. As a standard filler case, it works fine but it just felt like there was something missing... I can't quite put my finger on what just yet.
My concerns about the lack of clear cut off points between chapters were confirmed - They seemed forced, with the difficulty and length of each section feeling inconsistent. The partner system also feels clunky in that access to them doesn't flow with the game and beyond the typical Gumshoe humor, doesn't seem to add much to the investigation. We shall track if that changes with the upcoming cases.

"Turnabout Airlines" spoilers after the jump.

Ace Attorney Investigations - initial impressions

Having finished my replaying of the original Phoenix Wright trilogy for Nintendo DS over the weekend, I turned my attention over to the latest game in the series, Ace Attorney Investigations starring the crimson-clad prince (as Bikini describes him) Miles Edgeworth. I've only played through the first case so far ("Turnabout Visitor") but all signs are leading to fun.

At first I was thrown off by the gameplay - familiar, yet somehow very different. It seems as though there are no courtroom scenes in this game which sadly means no Judge and no slamming of hands on desks. The Testimony and Cross-Examination sections have been renamed "Argument" and "Rebuttal" and have been smooshed together with the Investigation scenes so, unlike previous Ace Attorney games, it appears there will no clear division between chapters. That way there's a lot more to think about (or get confused by) and the path through the game could be less logical, more intuitive. Well, that remains to be seen and is probably untrue but it allows me to make a joke about that being ironic considering the new Logic system, which together with Deduction replaces the Psyche-locks of the Phoenix Wright era. By combining relevant notes like an alchemist, new trains of thought are opened, and by combining compiled evidence with investigation scenes, breakthroughs are made at which point Edgeworth will shout "EUREKA!"

"Turnabout Visitor" spoilers after the jump.