Monday, March 3, 2008
Death by Awesomeness
Yo. After playing and beating the latest installment in the Gyakuten Saiban series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, it has occurred to me that among the series' four installments, none of them was as satisfactory to me like the first one. I've put some thought into the reason for that, and I narrowed it down to the legacy that game left to its sequels, which inevitably had to meet the unfair expectation it generated. Such awkward situation fits particularly well here, because the first chapter was already complete: granted, it was a no-gimmicks type of gameplay (no magatamas or scientific analysis at work), but its strengths outweigh by far the additions made to the original concept.
It all comes down to three elements, mainly: the first would be, of course, the music. PWAA was mind-blowingly awesome in that respect: the themes were just perfect for their roles, from the soothing vibes of the Fey sisters' theme (which got remixed to all hell and back in JFA) to the annoying themes used for characters such as April May or Lotta Hart, quite fitting in context; from the anticipation the music caused when cornering a guilty opponent, straight to the aural climax of having him in your hand and yelling OBJECTION! to one of the most incisive, satisfying themes to ever appear in a game. That's simply something I never saw again in the series, and it's a shame because if there ever was a game element I wouldn't mind seeing reused over and over, that would have to be it.
Second on the list is good storywriting: the genre PW falls in can be viewed as interactive mystery literature, and as it happens novels need a compelling story to be deemed successful works. In PWAA every case left you hanging with that familiar "I'll just play a little more to see how it goes" feeling that forces you to advance further in the game, and the narration either didn't really tip you off to the murderer's identity until it wanted you to, or built around the obvious culprit in order to fuel the player's drive to nail him; something that was never pulled off as masterfully as it was in PWAA.
Specifically, JFA had plain dull writing, except for case 4 which literally sparked the player's lust for revenge; T&T mostly tried to wrap up Phoenix's past and the Fey family's bizznazz, so the writing had a specific purpose on that one (although it came close to the original there) and AJAA is too obvious for comfort; you're simply not left wondering on the culprit's identity, he's usually the most obvious person in the cast.
Last but not least are the characters and their interactions: the very soul of the game. Throughout the entire series, bystanders wouldn't just cough up the info you needed but made you go through hoops to obtain it: case in point, Grossberg and Gumshoe, with their whole "I wish I could help you but my hands are tied" attitude. You often would have to do something else in order to get them talking, but as a personal preference I can't seem to find magatama-based third grades as satisfactory as directly facing the other characters and see them confess thanks to the player's deduction was, but that's just me.
But these interactions shone their brightest during the trials: the rivalry between Phoenix and Edgeworth, arguably one of the most fortunate duos to appear in recent gaming history, gave birth to fierce arguments between the two, leaving the player in awe at the battles of wits that appeared before his eyes. This simply doesn't happen in future games: either the opponents posed a dull or annoying resistance, or actively worked with the player to solve the cases at hand, which while being an interesting (and maybe more realistic) idea -- one that was amazingly pulled off in PWAA's case 4, by the way -- it's simply not as exciting as an outright animosity between the involved characters.
After all of this, we can safely conclude that given any work of art of good quality, such as PWAA was, its sequels will have a tough time trying to live up to that kind of reputation, causing them to be paradoxically marred by the sheer awesomeness of their prequels; we see this phenomenon everywhere, from games to movies to comics, and it's especially peculiar when the sequels have original ideas that miserably pale in the shadow of their legacy, such as magatamas, different viewpoints on court interactions and, why not, even musical accompaniments.
In closure I'd like to leave you with a question: in these specific situations, would we have seen the later chapters of a given series under the same light, had they been unleashed earlier on an audience still unaware of just how great the original concept could become, and would they have had the same dynamics and gimmicks they usually end up with in order to try and keep the charm of the new installment up to par with the original work? I wouldn't bet on it.
It all comes down to three elements, mainly: the first would be, of course, the music. PWAA was mind-blowingly awesome in that respect: the themes were just perfect for their roles, from the soothing vibes of the Fey sisters' theme (which got remixed to all hell and back in JFA) to the annoying themes used for characters such as April May or Lotta Hart, quite fitting in context; from the anticipation the music caused when cornering a guilty opponent, straight to the aural climax of having him in your hand and yelling OBJECTION! to one of the most incisive, satisfying themes to ever appear in a game. That's simply something I never saw again in the series, and it's a shame because if there ever was a game element I wouldn't mind seeing reused over and over, that would have to be it.
Second on the list is good storywriting: the genre PW falls in can be viewed as interactive mystery literature, and as it happens novels need a compelling story to be deemed successful works. In PWAA every case left you hanging with that familiar "I'll just play a little more to see how it goes" feeling that forces you to advance further in the game, and the narration either didn't really tip you off to the murderer's identity until it wanted you to, or built around the obvious culprit in order to fuel the player's drive to nail him; something that was never pulled off as masterfully as it was in PWAA.
Specifically, JFA had plain dull writing, except for case 4 which literally sparked the player's lust for revenge; T&T mostly tried to wrap up Phoenix's past and the Fey family's bizznazz, so the writing had a specific purpose on that one (although it came close to the original there) and AJAA is too obvious for comfort; you're simply not left wondering on the culprit's identity, he's usually the most obvious person in the cast.
Last but not least are the characters and their interactions: the very soul of the game. Throughout the entire series, bystanders wouldn't just cough up the info you needed but made you go through hoops to obtain it: case in point, Grossberg and Gumshoe, with their whole "I wish I could help you but my hands are tied" attitude. You often would have to do something else in order to get them talking, but as a personal preference I can't seem to find magatama-based third grades as satisfactory as directly facing the other characters and see them confess thanks to the player's deduction was, but that's just me.
But these interactions shone their brightest during the trials: the rivalry between Phoenix and Edgeworth, arguably one of the most fortunate duos to appear in recent gaming history, gave birth to fierce arguments between the two, leaving the player in awe at the battles of wits that appeared before his eyes. This simply doesn't happen in future games: either the opponents posed a dull or annoying resistance, or actively worked with the player to solve the cases at hand, which while being an interesting (and maybe more realistic) idea -- one that was amazingly pulled off in PWAA's case 4, by the way -- it's simply not as exciting as an outright animosity between the involved characters.
After all of this, we can safely conclude that given any work of art of good quality, such as PWAA was, its sequels will have a tough time trying to live up to that kind of reputation, causing them to be paradoxically marred by the sheer awesomeness of their prequels; we see this phenomenon everywhere, from games to movies to comics, and it's especially peculiar when the sequels have original ideas that miserably pale in the shadow of their legacy, such as magatamas, different viewpoints on court interactions and, why not, even musical accompaniments.
In closure I'd like to leave you with a question: in these specific situations, would we have seen the later chapters of a given series under the same light, had they been unleashed earlier on an audience still unaware of just how great the original concept could become, and would they have had the same dynamics and gimmicks they usually end up with in order to try and keep the charm of the new installment up to par with the original work? I wouldn't bet on it.
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