Ace Attorney review: the path to a turnabout lies within
Two of my favorite BGM tracks
Philosophy matters more than logic
Think about the kind of turnabout philosophy you can find in other games:
- 《Death Stranding》: ropes meant for protection and sticks meant for attack switch places.
- 《Red Dead Redemption 2》: instead of showing the glory days of the West, it shows an era and a protagonist already in decline.
- 《Elden Ring》: it is not that the enemies and levels keep getting harder; it is that the player keeps getting stronger.
- 《Honkai Impact 3rd》: it is not Fu Hua turning into a Herrscher, but the Herrscher turning into Fu Hua.
- 《In/Spectre》: the protagonist has to fabricate the truth instead of exposing it.
These examples are not meant to say that every design above is “turnabout thinking.” I only want to say— “if you look at a problem through a framework that flips one of its key elements, you can end up with a surprisingly interesting perspective.”
- In a familiar detective setup where clues are used to catch the criminal, how do you reverse it? You make a game where evidence is used to defend the suspect !
- Do not think about what evidence can prove the criminal did. Think instead about what consequences must follow once the criminal has done it .
- Do not ask why the culprit wanted to do it. Ask instead about the reason the culprit had no choice but to do it .
To me, the elegance of Ace Attorney lies in the way it brings in a turnabout-like philosophical perspective rather than airtight logical deduction. (If you want to pick apart the cases, you definitely can.)
Rhythmic expression
Using courtroom debate as its core mechanic, Ace Attorney attacks by finding holes in testimony and presenting evidence. Paired with the “Hold it! Objection! Take that!” voice clips, the trials give you the thrill of trading moves in a turn-based battle.
Every character has a distinct animation set, and the controller rumbles a lot, too. As for the way each case builds, the way the characters perform, and the way the BGM rises at exactly the right time, there is not much more I need to add. The one weak point is that when several pieces of evidence relate to several statements, the game often expects a strict one-to-one match, and that can be misleading.
The story works more as suspense than deduction. In other words, the pleasure comes from seeing earlier setup pay off, not from predicting the big reversal in advance. When the ending suddenly runs through everything that came before it, that is the moment when even the toughest player starts tearing up. The true ending is always written for the people who stay with the whole story. That is where Shu Takumi is strongest.
What I like even more is the rhythm of thematic escalation across the cases in games 1 through 3.
First layer: the lawyer’s stance, the pursuit of innocence.
At this stage, the core idea is to let the evidence speak, fight to the very end, and never give up on the defense.
Second layer: the prosecution enters, and the focus shifts to truth and trust
After the first game lays the groundwork, the defense attorney feels almost heroic. But then what about the prosecution, the side responsible for securing a conviction? The defense pursues innocence, and the prosecution pursues guilt. When the same piece of evidence is pulled back and forth by both sides, it becomes possible to see it from a more objective angle. Truth is born from that struggle between guilt and innocence. What matters in a courtroom system is that both sides can trust it. If each side fully carries through its own convictions, truth has a chance to emerge from the collision.
Third layer: the player’s own sense of ethics
The setting may be fictional, but ethical philosophy always shines in thought experiments. In the game, innocence is the result the player chases, and it usually lines up with a happy ending. But what if innocence leads to the bad ending instead? That is the contradiction the defense has to face. An innocent verdict that hurts people, and a guilty verdict that comforts them: the game throws out the question and refuses to hand over an answer. (Still, when the friendship-and-bonds energy kicks in, it absolutely works.)
Visual novels never really end
Even though Ace Attorney is not a galgame, its pixel look and looping BGM always remind me of 16bit Sensation. Even rough technology can still produce a great story. Even if the story has already drawn to a close, a brief moment of persistence might still spark a miracle.
A lawyer should smile more when things get dangerous. Maybe that is the final turnabout spirit. Trust in your client, trust in your opponent, digging into contradictions, pursuing the truth, the will to never give up…… It can all begin with a single line—
“異議あり!”
