Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations

***Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations*** is a 2004 visual novel game, and is on the list of games that will eventually be played on ***Butt Spectrum Club***. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations is the third game in the ***Ace Attorney Series***, following up ***Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All***, and was followed by ***Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney***.

## Game Info

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations is a 2004 visual novel game developed and published by Capcom for the Game Boy Advance, PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, iOS, Android, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.

Trials and Tribulations is a visual novel adventure game in which the player takes the roles of Phoenix Wright and Mia Fey, defense attorneys who defend their clients in five different episodes. The gameplay remains unchanged from Justice for All, the previous title in the series.

From the start, only one episode is available to play; when the player completes an episode, a new one is unlocked. The episodes are divided into chapters, which consist of investigations and courtroom sessions. During investigation sections, the player aims to find evidence for use in the courtroom sessions; the game moves on to the next chapter within the episode when the player has gathered enough evidence. The player moves and performs actions through a menu with four options: "examine", which lets them move a cursor over the environment and examine items; "move", which shows a menu with locations the player can move to; talk, which shows a list of topics the player can discuss with witnesses in the area; and present, which lets the player show evidence or character profiles to a witness. Some witnesses do not want to discuss certain subjects, leading to a lock symbol appearing over the subject. By showing the witness a magatama, the player is able to see the secret they are trying to hide in the form of locks, called a "Psyche-Lock"; by presenting correct evidence or character profiles, the player can break the locks and be able to discuss the subject.

During the courtroom sections, the player defends their client and cross-examines the witnesses. They can move back and forth between the statements in each testimony; if they find a contradiction between a statement and the evidence, they can point out the contradiction by presenting a relevant piece of evidence or character profile. The player can also choose to question a statement, which sometimes leads to changes in the testimony. A life bar, representing the judge's patience, is shown in the upper right corner of the screen. If the player presents incorrect evidence or profiles, the bar will decrease; if it reaches zero, the player loses and their client is declared guilty. The bar will also decrease if the player makes mistakes while trying to break psyche-locks; however, the player cannot lose while trying to break psyche-locks. 50% of the life bar gets restored when the player manages to break a psyche-lock, and it gets fully restored when the player completes an episode.

## Plot

The first case, "Turnabout Memories", takes place five years prior to most of the game's story. University student Phoenix Wright is charged with the murder of his classmate Doug Swallow. Mia, acting as his lawyer, exposes prosecution witness Dahlia Hawthorne, Phoenix's girlfriend, as the real murderer, revealing she used Phoenix to hide evidence tying her to the poisoning of Mia's former partner Diego Armando, planning to kill him as well. For her efforts, Dahlia is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. Phoenix, who was already planning on changing majors to study law, asks Mia to allow him to study under her, as he has a friend he needs to save.

In the present, case two, "The Stolen Turnabout", has Phoenix representing thief Ron DeLite in court, faces off against prosecutor Godot. Although Phoenix is able to get Ron acquitted, Ron is subsequently arrested for the murder of his former boss Kane Bullard, based on evidence Phoenix presented in his defense. At the last second, Phoenix manages to identify corrupt private investigator Luke Atmey as the true culprit, having realized Atmey framed Ron so he could use double jeopardy to escape punishment.

The third case, "Recipe for Turnabout", is set months later. Phoenix is informed he supposedly failed to properly defend former client Maggey Byrde against accusations of poisoning programmer Glen Elg. Realizing someone impersonated him, Phoenix secures a retrial and conducts his own investigation, discovering that Elg was developing a computer virus on behalf of loan shark Furio Tigre. He deduces Tigre killed Elg to steal the virus, needing money to repay a large debt to a mob boss, before framing Maggey and posing as Wright to ensure her conviction. Despite no conclusive evidence, Phoenix manages to get Tigre arrested by tricking him into identifying the bottle of poison used in the murder, exposing himself as the killer.

The fourth case, "Turnabout Beginnings" depicts Mia's first case six years earlier, in which she and Armando defend death row inmate Terry Fawles, who was under suspicion of murdering policewoman Valerie Hawthorne during an escape attempt. Facing off against Edgeworth, also on his first case as a prosecutor, Mia's persistence pays off when she learns the truth: years earlier, Terry, Valerie, and her younger sister Dahlia staged a kidnapping to steal a priceless jewel from their father. Dahlia then betrays Terry by faking her death, leaving Terry to be convicted of murder based on Valerie's testimony. Terry had escaped in the hopes of learning the truth from Valerie, but unbeknownst to him, Dahlia had already killed Valerie and planted her body in his car. Before a judgement can be passed, Terry commits suicide by consuming poison received from Dahlia years earlier, forcing a mistrial and freeing Dahlia. She subsequently poisons Armando after learning he was investigating her further, leading to Phoenix gaining the bottle, ensuring that they would both cross paths with Mia months later.

In the fifth and final case, "Bridge to the Turnabout", Phoenix is visiting a mountain retreat with Maya and Pearl when fellow guest Elise Deauxnim is murdered. While looking for Maya, he falls into a river and becomes ill, forcing Edgeworth and Franziska to temporarily fill in as attorney and prosecutor to keep his client, a nun named Iris, from being found guilty. When Phoenix returns, he explains Elise was really Maya's long-lost mother, Misty Fey, and that her death was the result of a plan engineered by her sister Morgan to kill Maya with the help of the now-executed Dahlia, who turns out to be Iris' twin. Through cross-examination, Phoenix reveals that not only is Dahlia impersonating Iris, but she is also using Maya's body to do so. With Mia's help, Dahlia is exorcised from Maya and the real Iris is declared innocent. Godot is revealed as the one responsible for killing Misty to protect Maya from Dahlia, leading to the discovery of his true identity as Diego Armando. Having spent his time since awakening from his coma blaming Phoenix for Mia's death and seeking revenge, he concedes that Phoenix has done more to continue her legacy than he had. Iris is arrested again as Diego's accomplice in Misty's murder, but reveals to Phoenix that it was her he had dated in college, as she posed as Dahlia to protect him from her sister before eventually and genuinely falling in love with him. Reuniting with his friends, Phoenix celebrates finally being free of his past.