High Dynamic Range Lying

DS owners are no stranger to court drama. The Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright series, while never being translated during its Game Boy Advance incarnation, were finally translated for the english speaking audience when each title was remade for the DS. With the 4th installment in the series already out in Japan, and looking to drop in english speaking territories in mere months, now seems as good a time as any to finally translate and release the best game in the series to date; Gyakuten Saiban 3.

Fans of the series should not take such an opinionated statement so lightly. In every way, Gyakuten Saiban 3 is the best game in the series, for more than a handful of reasons. The game takes the mechanics introduced in the first two games, and not only perfects them, but intertwines them to such an extent, even veterans will wonder how they managed to enjoy previous games without this level of refinement.

Gyakuten Saiban 3 takes place a year after the second game, and places players once again in the shoes of defense attorney Ryuichi Naruhodo (Phoenix Wright for US players). This time, players will actually begin the game in the high heeled shoes of his mentor, Mia Fey. Astute fans will probably be quick to point out that Mia Fey is indeed dead. The introductory case in this case takes place 6 years before the events of the third game, and recount the events of Mia Fey’s second court case, where she faces off against the cocky but shortsighted Prosecutor Payne.

While the case gives a bit more background into what kind of person Mia Fey was, it also serves as an excellent prologue to the game proper. While past games in the series had seemingly unconnected cases, Ace Attorney 3 not only connects storylines between cases in the same game, but several cases from the other games as well. By the time players reach the final case, heads will spin as one realizes how intertwined the three games really are.

For all intents and purposes, Gyakuten Saiban 3 is the final installment in the story of Phoenix Wright. He plays a supporting role in Gyakuten Saiban 4 (which largely surrounds the adventures of an entirely new attorney), but the long sweeping story that was first introduced in the first game is resolved by the end of the third game.

The final case of Gyakuten Saiban 3 is quite literally the Ultimate Turnabout. Not only does it involve story elements and characters from all three games, it brings resolution to a long standing mystery in the series that was first introduced when Phoenix meets Mia in the first game. Like any great case in the series, the final case not only has multiple twists and turns, but the conclusion is so wacky, that it manages to change the way players will view some characters, and even the way players will view the murder itself. Its difficulty is not nearly as high as that of Yomigaeru Gyakuten’s fifth case, but it still requires players to think outside of the box, considering possibilities that might never enter one’s mind normally. For Gyakuten Saiban, it is business as usual.

Gyakuten Saiban’s lifeblood has always been in its story and dialogue, and it is good to see that the third installment does not fail in this regard. The english version of the Japanese release was translated internally by Capcom’s Osaka translation team, just like Gyakuten Saiban 2, but unlike the original DS remake, Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten (逆転裁判蘇る逆転). Much like the second title’s japanese version translation, Gyakuten Saiban 3 manages to change a lot of the Japanese names and puns to be more culturally relevant to english speaking players, while still maintaining the level of humor in the original script.

The script in Gyakuten Saiban 3 also includes a number of pop culture nods in its script, from wrestler turned actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to gaming forum epicenter NeoGAF. While these nods tend to liven the script up and provide additional humor for those in the know, it also dates the game heavily. Vic Ireland and Working Designs took a lot of flak for their translation of Lunar Eternal Blue due to a numerous pop culture references including Former President Bill Clinton, and it would not be surprising if Gyakuten Saiban 3 received similar complaints.

Unfortunately, just as in Gyakuten Saiban 2, the third game’s english translation has quite a few spelling and grammatical errors, many of which could have easily been corrected with a little more careful editing. It’s no surprise that the grammatical errors are in dialogue strings that do not pertain to details in a witness testimony, as these sections of dialogue were likely highly scrutinized by the translation team to avoid rendering a section of the game completely unplayable. Often times, the errors are small, and not show stopping. Capcom USA promises that the US release of the game will not include any of these errors, but the same promises were made for the US release of Gyakuten Saiban 2, and were never fulfilled.

Graphically, the game is more of the same. Gyakuten Saiban has never been about graphical prowess, but Capcom insisted on reusing sprites from the first game, including Miles Edgeworth, and even Phoenix himself. Considering the higher color count of characters introduced in the third game, the difference is a stark and jarring contrast. The new characters are impressive, and are just as endearing, if not more so, than characters introduced in previous games. Mr. Godot, the new prosecutor introduced in the third game, is not only full of hilarious and obscure metaphors and idioms, but he comes alive with a completely different attitude and feel than both Miles Edgeworth and Franziska Von Karma.

Gyakuten Saiban 3 for DS is the first time the game has ever been released in the English language, and its release is well timed, sliding in just before the release of the US version of Gyakuten Saiban 4. Fans of the series cannot miss out on arguably the best installment in the series, and general adventure gamers cannot go wrong with this fantastic game. Those who are interested in the game would be best served buying the previous titles in the series before playing this one, as the story is a very integral part of the game’s enjoyment. Those looking to support Capcom’s translation of its more obscure series should pick up the US release, if only to let Capcom know that they are doing the right thing by translating such a great game.