http://tay.kotaku.com/a-lawyer-revisits-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-1694116058/+andrasneltz
Always fun to talk with people in the profession of a game about said game. Had good talks with my med school friends about Trauma Center series
That ending is fantastic.
Worth reading the whole thing when ya have time. I needa replay the games again... got halfway through the 2nd game when the 3ds one came out and got distracted by other stuff.
Nice long read.Requiring a trial verdict within three days of arrest is absolutely ridiculous. I feel like this is a violation of the kind of stuff we figured out a thousand years ago with the Magna Carta. Even the most ardent, hardened, fear-pandering "tough on crime" politician would never attempt to impose this kind of rule, no matter how overburdened the courts are. Actually, the "tough on crime" crowd would probably hate this rule too. How can you prepare a case overnight for trial the next day? Wouldn't you want to give the prosecutor a little bit more time to ensure he has what he needs to secure a conviction? I get that the objective behind the rule is to maximize courtroom efficiency, but in no universe would efficiency be so prioritized over the basic mechanisms in place to help make sure you have the right culprit.
Almost every other inaccuracy with real courtroom procedures flows from the three-day rule. Defendants apparently have no right to bail, probably because they'll know their fate within three short days anyway. The rules of evidence are nearly non-existent, with hearsay restrictions and chain of custody requirements nowhere to be seen. There are no pre-trial motions, like a motion to suppress evidence or a motion to dismiss. There is no formal discovery - the standard process by which attorneys get information about a case in preparation for trial. Instead, Ace Attorney's bumbling law enforcement gathers evidence haphazardly, attorneys are forced to visit crime scenes themselves to build their cases, witnesses are explicitly told not to talk to the defense, and basic forensic testing like autopsies and DNA analysis is frequently unfinished at the time of trial. Most of this stuff could actually get a prosecutor fired in the real world, but in Ace Attorney, no one bats an eye.
I hate to say it, but some of the pathos and gravitas might have been lost to me during my revisit playthrough. Sometimes in a sticky situation during a case, I shook my head and said to myself, "None of this crap would have happened if you all simply did Basic Standard Logical Legal Thing XYZ."
I know what you're thinking: "It's a game! That's just a part of the game's world!" And yes, that's true. All the stuff I listed above wouldn't make it into a lawyer game, because that stuff is boring. Legal fiction is dominated by the investigation phase because that's what is interesting, not a bunch of jargon-filled legal technicalities that only lawyers understand. A game where you sit through a three-hour deposition or spend an entire day doing legal research would be accurate, but it wouldn't be fun. Falsification of evidence, new and unforeseen details suddenly changing an entire case in the middle of trial, a witness confessing as the real murderer on the stand... that's the fun stuff. It's juicy and scandalous and makes for great stories. That's what people want out of a game like this.
Always fun to talk with people in the profession of a game about said game. Had good talks with my med school friends about Trauma Center series
That ending is fantastic.
Phoenix is My Spirit Animal
Maybe it's pure coincidence. Like, maybe they just wrote him that way and it just happened to be 100% perfect. Maybe it's an unintentional side effect of the localization. I don't know. But I have maybe never related to a video game character more than I related to Phoenix during my replay of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Phoenix has absolutely no idea what he's doing. He's just graduated law school. He's completely broke. He's inexperienced. He's outmatched by the prosecution, who has all the information and power and resources. He needs his boss to back him up during trial. He bluffs and fumbles through each case, just barely winning by the skin of his teeth.
He's even got a so-called "useless" undergraduate major - Art - thus incorporating a negative stereotype of today's young lawyers that's actually hilariously true if you look closely enough. I'm guilty as charged myself. That's pretty topical of you, Capcom.
You see, doctors, another group of people with a lot of professional responsibility and educational demands like lawyers, have a period of employment called "residency" after they graduate medical school. It's basically an extension of your education. Doctors recognize that when you've just graduated, you're not actually ready to treat patients with no oversight. There's too much you need to know that you can only learn through experience. So, even though you have a degree and you're a doctor, there's another 3-6 years of low-paid work that's essentially an extension of your education. Once you're done with that, you're more prepared to be a fully-fledged doctor, working and helping clients independently.
Lawyers don't get that. There isn't a formalized method for us to pick a specialization and slowly build experience in the same the way new doctors get to with their residency programs. Once we graduate and pass the bar exam, nothing is technically stopping us from accepting complex high-profile cases that are normally handled by a millionaire who graduated from Harvard in the 1970's. There's no extended education for us. We're booted out the door and told to be free. Go, young lawyers. Try cases, sue people, have fun. Oh... you don't know what you're doing? Better go find a mentor to help teach you the ropes. (And Phoenix's case, he found a mentor with fantastic cleavage. Bonus.)
Phoenix is that guy who just got booted out the door to fend for himself. I love Phoenix. I mean, I loved him when I first played PWAA, but I love him even more now as a young lawyer myself. He screws things up, gets yelled at by the judge, and talked down to by the prosecutor... but he doesn't fall victim to cynicism, and he still makes it out on top. Even if its courtroom procedures are bunk, PWAA does an amazing job communicating what it's like to be a ramen-eating, exhausted, exasperated young lawyer. Phoenix's realism helps me stay grounded through the more unbelievable trial developments, bringing the story back to the point where I can get invested in what will happen to him and his client.
Worth reading the whole thing when ya have time. I needa replay the games again... got halfway through the 2nd game when the 3ds one came out and got distracted by other stuff.