Game play
Phoenix Wright is spilt into 2 game play modes and 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 witness, present evidence and make important decisions that will affect the outcome of the verdict. Before each courtroom mode (apart from the first trail) you will have a chance to go out and gather evidence to present later in court.
Actions in Courtroom mode
Here is a list of the different actions you can use during Courtroom mode.
Cross-Examination
Cross-Examination is an important part of the game play. During trails witnesses will provide a testimony for the court. It is your job to find the contradictions in their testimonies and present evidence to support these contradictions. The witness will say their testimony for the court then the cross-examination will begin. The touch screen will have forward and backward arrows in the middle and in the top corners there will be “Press” and “Present”.
Pressing
You can press any part of a testimony; doing so will generally provide a little more information. You will never be penalized for pressing so get in the habit of pressing all statements. Sometimes you have to press certain parts of the testimony, however pressing all statements will not cause any harm. Occasionally, pressing a statement will provide Phoenix with a multiple-choice decision. Generally you need to choose the correct option in order to advance the plot, however if you make the wrong choice you can simply press the statement again. This will cause the multiple-choice screen to display again.
Presenting
When you discover something that is contradicting a piece of evidence you have in the court record you will present it to the court. Doing this makes the witness unreliable and ultimately helps your client. If you present the wrong piece of evidence, or happen to present it against the wrong statement you will get penalized. If you do this 5 times in one day your client will be found Guilty and the game will be over.
Every so often the Judge will ask you to present evidence to back up your arguments. This works the same as during cross-examination. If you submit the wrong evidence you will receive a strike.
The Court Record
The Court Record holds all of the evidence for the trail. As the trail progresses you will collect a lot of evidence. This can be found during the investigation mode or presented by other people during the courtroom mode. The Court Record can be accessed at any time during the game. Each page of the Court Record holds 8 items but you are able to toggle to the next page to view other items. If you click on an item you will get a brief description of it. Some items will also have a ‘Check’ option were you can have closer look at photos or reports.
In Case 5, you have more ways to examine evidence. Scientific Investigation is key in this case, and you will receive additional tools to perform these tasks.