Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations (known as Gyakuten Saiban 3 in Japan) is the third game in the Ace Attorney series. Players take on the role of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney known for taking on seemingly impossible cases. While the game focuses on a few specific cases, the overarching story of the Phoenix Wright franchise spans the length of the series, involving obscure characters from large families and intricate webs of lies, plots, and murder. The nature of the series remains generally lighthearted, something that's reinforced by its playful, anime-inspired visual style, but the nature of the crimes committed can be cold and downright disturbing. While the game's legal acumen is highly dubious, its aim seems to be more about producing comedic or stereotypically dramatic courtroom moments. Ace Attorney 3 makes light use of the DS touch screen, allowing the player to examine crime scenes and inspect evidence and character profiles. The top screen is used more for storytelling purposes, displaying various dialogue and conversations between characters. During these sequences the lower screen becomes a selection menu, displaying a series of questions to ask witnesses and further your investigation in search of evidence to use in defense of your client in each chapter.

In her first trial, rookie attorney Mia Fey and her partner Diego Armando defend death row inmate Terry Fawles, who is under suspicion of murdering policewoman Valerie Hawthorne during an escape attempt. Facing off against Miles 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 the girls' father. Dahlia then betrayed 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 her and planted the 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, leaving him comatose, and begins posing as university student Phoenix Wright's girlfriend to hide the evidence. Months later, Phoenix is charged with the murder of his classmate Doug Swallow. Mia, acting as his lawyer, exposes Dahlia as Swallow's killer and Armando's assailant, who was planning to kill Phoenix 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 be his mentor.