ace attorney does a couple of things really, really well. character development is one, high-impact emotional moments are another. and, while the mysteries are pretty hit or miss, there’s many more hits than misses, and even the worst cases have their moments.

so imagine an ace attorney game where every mystery is, at the very least, pretty good. a game with the highest emotional highs, a larger-scale story that fills a lot of the holes of the previous game, and a final case that wraps an entire trilogy up with the most illustrious bow you’ve ever seen. that, my friends, is trials and tribulations.

this game is incredible, and is up there with not only my favorite visual novels of all time, but my favorite GAMES of all time. very few games have a story so full of interesting nuances while being comprehensible to the average player. very few games have deeply layered, convoluted mysteries that still create an easy throughline to understand. and, well, very few games have the sort of emotional impact the third ace attorney game has.

the gameplay follows the ace attorney formula up to this point. investigations take you around various scenes involving the crime, where you talk to witnesses and find evidence. psyche-locks, where you present evidence to witnesses to uncover more testimony, return from justice for all, and they’re still a great change of pace from the normal investigating. if you’ve played justice for all before, you know the gameplay of trials and tribulations.

same thing with the trials: witnesses head up to testify, and you press their statements and present evidence to break down their testimony. they’re just as intense as usual, and the gameplay helps that out.

speaking of trials, we’ve got yet another new prosecutor, a man by the name of godot. he’s a smooth, coffee-addicted prosecutor with a grudge out for phoenix. his dislike of the defense seems a lot less general than the prosecutors past; he seems to have something out for phoenix himself. godot’s level of experience is odd, as he’s quite good at his job, yet he has no prosecutorial experience. he’s also got gray hair despite being quite young, and wears a red mask, implying some kind of medical problem. huh.

the whole rest of the phoenix wright gang returns as well, being our titular main character, assistant maya fey, and token small child pearl fey. their dynamic is much less on edge compared to the last game, and pearl gets a lot more screen time, which i really like. either way, the mix between silly interactions and genuine care for one another is still here in full force.

we also flashback to a couple of mia fey’s early cases! with either her mentor marvin grossberg or the… suspiciously familiar office senior/boyfriend diego armando at her side, she rocks her way through 2 cases in this game. it’s clear where lots of phoenix’s lawyerly mannerisms come from, as mia exhibits a lot of the same behavior that phoenix does in his trials, even early on in her career. she’s spunky, funny, and incredibly annoyed with grossberg’s constant mentions of his hemorrhoids. frankly, i am too.

SPOILERS AHOY - - - - - - - - - - - -

the game’s first case is mia’s first case to have a verdict. your defendant is a younger phoenix wright, stricken with grief as his girlfriend, dahlia hawthorne, is convicted of murder. he’s mostly played for comedic relief, but between the cracks, you can see his determination even in the face of trouble. as dahlia walks off, arrested for killing another student, a radiant smile remains on her face, a chilling omen for the cases to follow. it’s a fantastic opener, and getting to see any mia is nice, as her screen time has been pretty limited throughout the series.

back to phoenix for case 2, where instead of defending a murderer, he’s got a thief on his hands. ron delite claims he is mask demasque, a serial napper of goods known for stealing high-profile items. he is actually demasque, but as the true scope of the case unfolds, a murder pops up as well, which he hasn’t done. your true culprit is actually the detective on the case, one ace detective luke atmey, who’s entire reputation lays on his sleuthing of mask demasque’s crimes. the case as a whole is quite fun, with some extremely silly characters and a really interesting premise.

next up, we’ve got a pretty goofy one. phoenix is re-defending a crime, after an impostor took his place in court with a paper badge and terrible lawyerly tactics. it’s clear that whoever our culprit is also our faux-lawyer, and that culprit becomes clear when you run into the dim-witted furio tigre. he’s got a similar build, is a suspect in the case, and has clear ties with the mob. taking him down isn’t a terribly difficult ordeal, because he does half the job himself. there’s some rather suspect (and definitely offensive) characters here, but i still found the case in its entirety to be a pretty good time.

mia’s back for her actual first case; by her side is one diego armando, who to anyone with eyes, is godot with brown hair and without his trademark mask. he’s also mia’s boyfriend at the time. your defendant is terry fawles, a prisoner sentenced to the death of… dahlia… hawthorne. who we know is very much alive. turns out, terry took the fall for dahlia’s death, and was already on death row, and then was framed for valerie’s death by dahlia. oh, sorry, not dahlia - melissa foster, a suspiciously dahlia-like girl who was in a relationship with fawles? despite her being a 14 and him being 20? either way, she was likely to be blamed as the murderer… had fawles not drank a bottle of poison. the same bottle of poison that dahlia would use to poison diego, then to kill another man years later. while the mystery isn’t super interesting itself, the backstory this one brings transitions well into the final case.

and then the best case in the trilogy. both the final case to the game and to the series, bridge to the turnabout. it’s the culmination of the fey plot, combining characters from every game past to create one massive, creative, insane mystery with the highest highs in the series. phoenix, maya and pearl head to hazakura temple and everything falls to shit. maya’s arrival was planned to take her down, one last stand from a now-dead dahlia and morgan fey, to get rid of maya and make pearl the head of kurain. pearl was dragged along, helping the plot, unknowing of the true scheme behind her involvement. a counterplan was put in place to stop our murderers, by misty fey, maya’s now deceased mother, iris, dahlia’s disgraced twin sister, and… godot.

godot wanted to save maya, but he also wanted to be the hero. he was still upset with phoenix after mia’s death, saying that phoenix “didn’t save mia.” he found the plans before they got to pearl, yet didn’t destroy them; he created a plan that put him at the center of everything, his selfish whims placing him as the one to take down dahlia.

when everything went awry, misty channeled dahlia, to ensure nobody else could. she, of course, attacked maya, cornering her with a knife, ready to strike. before she could though… godot slashed her in the back, and in the process, killed misty as well. he ended up with blood on his hands, blood of maya’s mother… that he couldn’t even see. yet through it all, despite his mistakes and less-than-stellar motivations… he still did it to rescue maya.

taking him down, despite it being the truth, is a far from satisfying final cross-examination. he barely defends himself, almost wanting to be caught, but forcing phoenix to prove it. as he breaks… it’s not satisfying. this is a man who killed to save maya, but in the process, took away the last remnants of hope she had to see her mother again.

“That night, in the darkness of the garden, when I saw her silhouette… A part of me must have known the truth… The truth that it wasn’t really Dahlia Hawthorne standing in front of me. It could’ve been Misty Fey… Or even that little girl. But I still picked up the blade… It was like I was dreaming! I’m not sure exactly what was going on in my mind at that point… Was I really motivated by the pure desire to protect Maya Fey? Or was it something else…? Was it my hatred for a woman who had stolen everything from me 6 years earlier…? Could it have been simply a desire for revenge? And now, I don’t know anything anymore!

I did learn something today, however. I finally realized that I was the arrogant one. I was just… chasing an illusion, a fantasy. The stupid fantasy of defeating you in the courtroom… You were the one who made me realize my folly. You never ran away from Mia’s death. Instead, you picked up where she left off, as a true defender of the people. In that one moment… I understood everything!”

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this game is wonderful. the characters are extremely well developed, with one of the best endings of any game i’ve ever played. there’s a great overarching mystery, but also some great in-between cases that are still a good time, even without much impact on the overall story. are there flaws? sure. but i could look at anything and point out a couple of issues. this game isn’t perfect, but it’s the closest thing to it. at its worst, it’s still a joy. at its best, it’s a masterwork in storytelling and character development. i don’t think you can ask for much more than that.