Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, easily a fan favorite entry in the series, and for reasons that are pretty easy to understand, compared to its predecessors, TnT has a far more dynamic story that feels a bit more like a full story rather than a few semi-connected episodes, it fleshes out old characters, introduces some new great ones, and wraps up the trilogy in a really satisfying way. Trials and Tribulations is a game I do love, though I do have some personal issues with it that sorta prevent it from being my favorite. Still though, this is an undeniable highlight of the series, though the gameplay is quite literally 100% unchanged from JFA which I do think is just a tad lame, but thankfully the soundtrack here is my favorite of the original trilogy, it kinda has a bit of a cheap-tune feel to it which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or coffee in this case), but the compositions here are still really catchy, epic, and emotional, even if there aren’t all too many new ones, with the game opting to reuse a lot of tracks from the earlier games which I’m cool with. Anyways, time to look at the cases!

Turnabout Memories starts the game with a REALLY compelling hook, putting you in control of Mia Fey during her second ever trial, depicting her first encounter with Phoenix Wright as she defends him in court, eventually managing to convict the infamous Dahlia Hawthorne. This set-up does a far better job at contextualizing the tutorials compared to The Lost Turnabout, it’s really fun getting to see Grosberg and Payne through this new lens, and it does a great job subtle hiding things from you which created further intrigue, it is Mia’s second trial after all. The murder itself is not all too complex, but being the first chapter of the game, it does a really great job, easily the best opener in the trilogy.

The Stolen Turnabout is a really fun and subversive one! Part of me does wish the premise a case where the crime isn’t murder wouldn’t have been dropped halfway through, as I think the series could really benefit from covering more non-homicide crimes, but at the very least the little bit we do get of the Mask☆DeMasque case is really cool. Ron Delite is a really great defendant, as soon as he starts screaming about being Mask☆DeMasque, you immediately think that’s BS, and proceed to prove him innocent of that, but later when it turns out he was telling the truth in order to avoid a different crime, it’s a really surprising and memorable twist. The highlight of the case though is easily its villain, Luke Atmey, who pulls off one of the absolute dumbest murder plans in the whole series which literally INVOLVED him getting arrested over theft to avoid his actual crime. He’s very much just a flat jerk, but man he’s just so fun, unraveling everything with him and the whole blackmail ring he has going on is just really enjoyable, and the final testimony where you have to hold one correct statement out of like 15 is really cool. it’s a simple fun dumb case, which is NOT a knock against it whatsoever. I love how it lets you acclimate back into the series and sorta transitions you from the second game to the third, supported by the returning Adrian Andrews, who’s just a joy to see actually doing a lot better with her life, even if not quite perfect. Maya and Pearl get a lot of fun screentime, We get to see Larry again who was MIA during the last game, and as always, we’re introduced to the game’s main prosecutor, this time being the weirdo coffee lover Godot, who I’ll touch more on in case 5, but for now I’ll just say is a really fun rival for the game. But anyways yeah! Not a highlight of the series or anything, but a really creative one nevertheless.

Recipe for Turnabout then is kinda also just a really dumb fun one, though it’s not really quite as creative as the case its following up. I feel like your enjoyment of this one kinda really depends on how much you really gel with the game’s humor, like you pretty much discover NOTHING during the first trial, kinda just dicking around with Victor Kudo for an hour, which I usually would’ve found frustrating, but its saved by the games great writing, with there being a lot of “funny moments™”. That mostly comes from everyone BUT Victor though, because he, alongside others like Jean Armstrong and Lisa Basil, I really don’t care much for at all. Viola Cadaverini is easily the biggest disappointment here though, she has a really cool design and backstory, but her arc kinda just abruptly ends out of nowhere which is really disappointing. My favorite character beats here probably come from Gumshoe and the returning Maggey Byrde who is once again the defendant. They have a pretty cute dynamic, and Gumshoe coming in clutch near the end is a really cool moment, it’s not really much of a focus, but you know it’s neat. Once again the villain is a highlight though, Furio Tigre is kinda just a really dumb angry guy who is inexplicably red yeah, but again, I find him funni so it’s cool. So yeah I think this case is good enough, though it does kinda feel undercooked (eh) in some places, like the whole setup at the start with the culprit pretending to be Phoenix and failing to defend Maggey on purpose is really cool! But the game really doesn’t do anything with that setup which is really lame, like you could completely write that plotpoint out and barely anything would really be hindered, it really just screams mispotential and I wish THAT part was played around with more. But I mean eh, the case is fun to play through, I like the crime method, motivation, and backstory associated, and the finale with Phoenix pulling a fast one on Tigre is really creative, which is good enough for me.

But alright, now we’re finally getting to the big boys! Turnabout Beginnings starts with one of my favorite case opening sequences in the series, the atmosphere with the cold blue computer screen taking a look back at the case from ages past is just really chilling in the best way possible. This being Mia’s first ever case, there’s both a neat sense of finally finding some answers to just what was fully going on in Turnabout Memories, but also a really great sense of dramatic irony, as you KNOW who Dahlia Hawthorne is and that she’s bad news, but also that Mia Fey is doomed to lose this trial. This cases strongest suit is EASILY its atmosphere, even past the opening the whole thing just has this dreary dark feel to it, with the blurry old photo of the decaying bridge upon with the crime was committed, and everything just feels a tad off, not even the judge is the same as usual, and you get to go against Miles Edgeworth at his absolute cockiest, which provides a lot of great moments, all leading up to that absolutely CHILLING climax where the defendant Terry Fawles literally commits suicide on the wittness stand, regardless of if he knew his actions would lead to that or not, it’s extremely chilling, and Diego Armando responding by literally breaking his coffee cup out of sheer rage, with the blood of his glass-scratched hands literally dripping down his arm, MAN it’s such a fucking strong moment something about it just feels like a taboo as REALLY been broken. It's really here where it’s semented to the player just how evil Dahlia really is, you know she’ll end up getting arrested which is cool, but still it’s impossible not to be furious here. I know that as the years have gone on, this case along with Dahlia herself have grown to be pretty divisive, what with the game painting her as a pure evil which, and the defendant who has a pretty large age gap dating her, I feel like the intent was that she was manipulating people into doing her bidding from even a young age, but yeah… looking back now it is kinda awkward which sucks, I can kinda overlook it because this didn’t bother me back when I first played TnT, seeing as I was too young to really understand what was so wrong with the situation, but I wouldn’t blame you if this aspect kinda puts you off the case. Still though, I really do love this one, it’s really engaging throughout, and set up the finale superbly.

And here we have it, Bridge to the Turnabout! The final case in the original trilogy and easily among the most beloved in the series. As a finale, this case honestly excels in pretty much every way, loose ends set up throughout the whole series thus far are neatly tied together, pretty much every major character from all games is presents, and it generally just ends in a really epic and memorable fashion, Though they don’t really progress the plot much, I love the segments in which Wright is out of commission and you get to take control of Edgeworth for the first time, he works surprisingly well as a protagonist, and this framework was basically what the Ace Attorney Investigations games would go on to be based on, Edgeworth is generally a lot more held back outside of the courtroom which is an aspect of his character I feel a lot of people tend to miss, his interactions with Gumshoe are great, and I love that he gets some semblance of peace with Fransizka. The case itself largely revolves around Iris, who mysteriously looks like Dahlia and is later revealed to be her twin sister, I personally like Iris, and I think the twist with her being the one who was dating Phoenix all along was good, but I do have some issues with how she connects to the overall plot, particularly I found her and Dahlia benign secretly connected to the Fey clan felt a tad forced in order to tie things together, and while I why it was done, I feel that this case goes a little too hard using spirit channeling as a crux, I was fine with it as long as it didn’t interfere with the crimes, but personally it just makes this murder plan feel sorta cheap, even if it’s really cool getting to see Maya’s mother, and Bikini is a really fun and likable witness. I know a lot of people really get annoyed with Larry here, but eh, again I think the court segment with him is funny enough. by the end, I do still really enjoy Dahlia Hawthorne’s role here and her take down, though she’s definitely far from the best villain in the series as the game could’ve portrayed her as a tad more gray, and when Iris asks you to forgive her, it really just feels like too little too late. And then we go to the final confrontation against the games TRUE final culprit, Godot, who’s easily one of the best characters in the trilogy, I know a lot of people dislike him because he’s kinda sexist, but to that I say: let characters have flaws, Godot literally commits murder, but it’s too much to like him just because he has cringe opinions on woman? Godot is a flawed character with dumb, twisted worldviews, but that just what makes him so compelling, he’s so hell bent on his petty revenge against Wright, but at the same time he’s willing to throw away pretty much everything just so that he could save Maya here, he’s wonderfly gray in the best way possible, his relationship with Mia is really believable I find, and MAN, it’s kinda just a plot dump, but the moment where he reveals his backstory and motives hits so hard every time, largely thanks to his second theme song, “The Bitter Taste of Truth” one of the best in the whole freaking series honestly. And this has been said to death, but yeah, the final moment with Pursuit 2001 playing and Mia’s shadow backing Phoenix up with nailing Godot down, instant classic man, so freaking good.

At the end of the day, yeah I love Trials and Tribulations! I think it’s a tad more flawed than most do, but it has enough hard hitting fun and emotional moments to make up for that, I don’t care much for the actual overarching plot, but the characters here easily make up for that, this was the perfect finale to the trilogy, and despite being far from the series best, from the perspective of people who just played the original trilogy and called it a day, yeah man, I can see it.