Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice/Gameplay

The game takes place in two phases: the Trial phases and the Investigation phases. During the trial, you will have to listen to the statements of witnesses, contradict them, present evidence and make decisive choices. During the investigation phase, you will need to question witnesses and others, find evidence for the trial, except for the first trial. This phase is usually the simplest.

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

Cross-Examination
The Counter-Examination part is the most important part of the trial. During this one, people will come to the bar and testify. You will then have to find contradictions in their testimony by presenting evidence. But the witness will start by testifying before the cross-examination. On the touch screen of the 3DS are two arrows, one forwards and backwards, and two buttons "Press" and "Present" in the two upper corners. As in the previous opus, there is a conversation button allowing you to replay the previous mesages. There is also a save button. In the lower right corner is a button that turns on or off the voice command if you want to shout "Hold it!" or "Objection!" (just make sure you do not do it in a public area with a lot of people)

Pressing
During cross-examination, you can press on the witnesses' statements. This will allow you to get more information about what the witness saw or did.

Present
If during a testimony you find a statement contradicting evidence, you can ‘’’present’’’ it to the court. This will make the cookie less reliable. Nevertheless, remember that if you make a mistake, your gauge will go down.

Many times during the trial, the judge or other people will demence you to present evidence to assert your arguments. As in cross-examination, an error will lower your level.

The Mood Matrix
As in the previous episode, Athena Cykes and you will be able to detect the emotons of the witnesses. This element is called the Mood Matrix. It will allow you to start a cross-examination different from the others. During these cross-examinations, you will be able to observe the emotions of the witnesses. At each corner of the top screen are four icons representing joy, sadness, surprise and anger. They are called Mood Markers. During the testimony, some will blink. In the center of the screen images illustrate the testimony.

If you notice that an emotion contradicts the testimony, you will have to press the button at the top right called Pinpoint. After, the testimony will change.

Sometimes evidence will contradict the testimony of the witness. In these cases, you will have to present evidence, such as during a real cross-examination.

Sometimes the witness's emotion will be so strong that the Mood Matrix will overload. It will then select on the image that makes this emotion so strong.

Investigation Mode
During the investigation phase, you will have to talk to the people involved in the case, look for evidence or even present it. You will then have several choices:

Talk
If you find yourself in front of someone, you can talk to him. On the touch screen will be several choices of discussions. You can unlock more if you advance enough in the game.

Move
The option Move allows you to move in different places useful to the investigation. You can unlock more if you have enough in the game.

Present
Sometimes you will have to Present the evidence obtained during the investigation. If you choose the right evidence to present, you can unlock discussion topics, locations and even other evidence. Note : If you present the wrong proof, you don’t left a life.

Examine
The examine option will allow you to examine the different survey locations. You will need to use the touch screen and your stylus to drag the image of the hand onto the top screen. If the hand turns red, there is something interesting to look at.

Perceiving
Whenever he senses that the person is lying, Apollo can use his bracelet to look closer to the witness's body language if neither evidence nor pressing would do the trick. Simply press the bracelet on top of the screen to start perceiving the person.

When looking closer, you have to find suspicious movement on the certain part of the statement. You will have to watch the statement slowly go by. If a witness reaches a part of a sentence he or she isn't sure of, he or she will fidget in some way (twitching, shrugging, sweating, etc.) If you find the nervous movement, put the cursor on it and press A button to proceed. If you initially can't find anything by the end of the sentence, you can hear the statement again to try and find it once more.