Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies/Gameplay

As with previous Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Dual Destinies is very easy to pick up. The first mode is during court and the second is investigation. During the courtroom mode you will cross-examine witnesses, present evidence and make important decisions that will affect the outcome of the verdict. Before each courtroom mode (apart from a couple of exceptions) you will have a chance to go out and gather evidence to present later in court.

Courtroom mode
Below is a list of actions you can do during Courtroom mode.

Cross-Examination
Cross-Examination is an important part of the game. Witnesses will during trials provide testimonies to the court and it is your job to find contradictions in their testimonies and present evidence to prove their existence. The witness will first say their testimony before the cross-examination begins. The touch screen on the Nintendo 3DS will have forward and backward arrows in the middle and "Press" and "Present" on the top corners. New to the series is a conversation button that will show you what characters previously said up until now, which is located alongside the save button in the middle of the lower part of the screen. On the bottom right corner is a button that toggles voice command on or off if you feel like shouting "Hold it!" or "Objection!" (just make sure you don't do it in a public area with a lot of people).

Pressing
At any point in a testimony, you can press the witness on a statement for some information. In general, pressing a witness won't penalize you, so don't be afraid doing it whenever you feel you need some more information or clarification. Certain statements will provide multiple choices and in general, you need to choose the correct one to move the plot forward. If you do pick the wrong choice, you can simply return to and press that statement again and pick another choice instead.

Presenting Evidence
If you find a statement that contradicts a piece of evidence currently in your court record, you can present it to the court. Doing so will make the witness and their statement unreliable and will help your client in the end. Remember, if you present the wrong evidence or present it on the wrong statement, you'll get a penalty.

Several times throughout the game, the Judge or other characters will ask you to present evidence to back up your arguments and works similarly to cross-examinations. And just like cross-examinations, you'll get a penalty if you present the wrong evidence.

Mood Matrix
New to the Ace Attorney series is the Mood Matrix. With the help of one of the characters in the game, you'll be able to pick subtle emotional cues from witnesses on the stand and do a different cross-examination that what you're used to. During these alternative cross-examinations, you can see the emotions the witness is experiencing while giving testimony. On each corner on the upper screen, four faces called Mood Markers will flash at various intensities based on the witness's emotions (they may even not flash at all). They represent happiness, anger, sadness or fear and shock or surprise. What's more, the screen also provided a visual re-enactments based on the witness's testimony.

If you find an emotion is in conflict with the statement in question, you can press the Pinpoint button and then press one of the four mood markers in question. This will change the testimony to become more clearer as the witness's memories resurfaces.

At times, contradictions between the testimony and evidence may appear as you help the witness amend their statements. at these points, just like regular cross-examinations, you can present evidence at the statement in question.

Occasionally, when one or more emotions have much more powerful readings than normal, the Mood Matrix will enter Overload mode. You must then find the source of these powerful emotions images in the upper screen. Once you've found the source, you can click the Probe button and click on the object in the image to help calm the witness down.

The Court Record
Just like the previous games, the Court Record holds all the evidence for the trial and profiles for individuals related to the case in hand. The Court Record is accessible at all times in the game. New to the game and exclusive to the investigation mode, however, is the Notes tab. The tab is a to-do list of things needed to complete to advance the plot, while also keeping a check on things done.