![]() ![]() The new 3D game engine will take some getting used to if you’ve been weaned on past entries. Whereas Apollo Justice featured a similar gameplay gimmick that acted merely as an activity to break up long testimonies, the Mood Matrix is a demonstrably more substantial and better integrated tool for storytelling purposes. Teasing out the reason for this anomaly reveals a previously obscured character in the scene, which increases a player’s understanding of not only the correct sequence of events, but also the subconscious emotions of the woman telling the story. It’s often clever how these sections play out, and even better is how they help flesh out character motivations.Īn early example sees a defendant recounting her fear at being trapped under a pile of rubble, only for the Mood Matrix to indicate how happy the memory makes her feel. This activity is incredibly basic, but the presentation of the Mood Matrix itself is excellent. Using a device called the “Mood Matrix”, players flip through a short storyboard sequence before tapping on an emotion bubble adjacent to the visual feed. This is accomplished via a screen layer where players must detect mismatches between what a witness is saying and what they are feeling. Cykes is a psychology graduate (get it?) who utilises her empathic powers to coax further testimony out of her traumatised witnesses. In terms of actual gameplay, Dual Destinies remains very similar to its predecessors, with the exception of a brand new interrogation gimmick that’s introduced alongside its innovator, Athena Cykes. Overall Duel Destinies has one of the weaker soundtracks in the series. The brand new music is better, but the common courtroom themes are not as strong as the ones heard previously. Several (arguably inferior) remixed tunes appear on the soundtrack. Although we lose a lot of additional flavour and character banter because of this, I think the new approach is easier and more streamlined overall. The button that allows players to examine the environments has been simplified too. Series beginners will appreciate the verbose hinting for instance, but the excessive reliance on flashbacks to repeat important information is not so elegant. Similar issues concerning accessibility appear in other areas. All that triggers following a game over now is a redundant continue screen that doesn’t need to be there, so why not just remove the penalties altogether and save us the bother? ![]() Whilst I would never question the decision to finally address this dumbfounding issue, I’m not sure I understand why the penalties are even needed anymore. Like the execrable “HM” moves that Pokémon Sun and Moon finally did away with, this was a long-awaited change that does Dual Destinies a real favour in the playability department. This simple change saves players a whole heap of hassle, as they no longer need to skip through multiple pages of text following a game over. The highest rank of awesomeness is reserved for the tweaks made to the penalty system, where a player can now return to an incorrect deduction from the exact point they failed it. The navigation screen now displays all destinations on one panel (which makes exploring much easier) there’s a task list that tracks each chunk of the investigation and a new consulting feature that offers hints whenever players are struggling to pin down a contradiction during cross examination. It’s all good stuff, and there’s a lot more of it to mention. The replay arrow that finally makes it clear where testimonies end the helpful conversation history window being able to skip text right from the beginning and a much faster process for saving your progress mid-game. Indeed, some of the improvements made here are so good it makes you wonder how Capcom ever managed without them. Both games are the fifth entries in their respective franchises, and both tried solving some of their lineage’s most persistent aggravations. The reinstating of Phoenix Wright as a lead character combo-ed with the game’s exclusivity to Nintendo’s digital store front suggested that Capcom were taking fewer commercial risks this time around, especially since the series creator, Shu Takumi, was busy working on other projects and wouldn’t be directing the new instalment.ĭual Destinies has a few things in common with Pokémon Black and White. ![]() Six years after Ace Attorney divided fans with Apollo Justice, came the franchise’s long overdue return, this time on Nintendo 3DS. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies ![]()
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