I finally beat: Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney
Dang. That 5th case is really long.
The initial tutorial case is short, and the next is double its length. What you do not expect is that each case doubles the length. Save points between each of the 3 days stretches to between phases of each day. Then during particularly long court sequences you may get another auto-save. During the 5th case, you get several checkpoints during a single conversation.
I can see the appeal of this series. It is a dialog heavy adventure game. But you don’t have a lot of choice in the dialog itself. It is mostly reading. If I had to pick something the game was similar to….it would be Zork. You read walls of text, hunt around the environment for a few key items to move on, and then read more. Sure, there is no sword fighting or treasure hunting; but that’s just the setting. TF2 is no less an FPS just because it has a great sense of humor and art style. Phoenix Wright is an often funny romp through a linear exploration of crime scenes and court room dialog.
The game has a limited audience. If you still like the idea of adventure gaming as a story device, then this game comes recommended. If you don’t like reading or ‘cinematics’, stay the hell away.