This probably isn't going to get as many hits as the character fan-club threads. That said, to me, the sleek, unobtrusive interface of the Ace Attorney games is one of their big draws. I think you need to have suffered through previous attempts at mystery adventure games, and through a lousy visual novel or to, to understand how brilliant AA really is in this regard. The Court Record is not just a souped-up inventory, not with all the innovations that accompany it.

Things the AA interface does well:

* It guides good puzzle design: By putting everything the player needs to know in an icon-based Court Record, the design ensures that:
** Whatever you need to solve the latest puzzle is always accessible.
** Knowledge is kept concrete, not abstract.
** You can examine photos quickly and easily. Attention to detail is rewarded with an intuitive "use the stylus to point" set-up.
*** Gimmicks aside, I think the stylus, not the voice-recognition, is the reason that Ace Attorney is the series that got me to buy a DS.
** Every contradiction puzzle comes down to a physical act of showing something off, not an abstract logic puzzle or multiple-choice question. For problems that absolutely can't be solved this way, the multiple-choice setups are kept straightforward.

* It abolishes the need for a 'notebook' interface: This serves two good purposes. First, notebook interfaces are ugly and rarely worth the trouble to use, so nobody looks at them. Second, it ensure that whenever the player 'checks their inventory' to solve a puzzles, they're consciously or unconsciously reviewing the facts of the case.

* It's wonderfully simple: The interface removes the mess of scene navigation that plagues a lot of adventure games, and may hurt AAI. It also eliminates fiddling with icons, and discourages too many 'use this random item to progress' puzzles, with the exception of some evidence presenting scenes.
** All buttons are kept invisible until they are necessary, for the most part.

* Multiple input techniques are accepted: Stylus or buttons, it's up to the player, and I switch back and forth with ease.

* The button mapping makes sense: Buttons on the DS are associated, whenever possible, with the relative positions of buttons on screen.

* The interface accommodates mini-games well: The mini-games are kept visually consistent with everything else, and not too involved.

* It's pleasant to look at and listen to: The adventure games I grew up with did not use sliding, fading, and sound effects nearly as well as this. The interface feels and sounds like a well-oiled machine, and all of its pieces are visually consistent.

* 3D inspection works: Even though the 3D objects look awful with DS graphics, there's no denying that the slider setup is lovely, and the cursor hotspots make the whole process fair.

Things the AA interface does not do well:

* Movement across long distances: This is a case where AA's visual novel roots and system of event triggers really hurt it. In order to ensure the player sees all the scenes, the games make it impossible to travel quickly.

* Magatama presentation in games 2 and 3 is awkward: Fixed in game 4.

* No custom options screen:
** No adjustable text speed: This is a huge peeve for me, especially on the first play.
** No adjustable music volume: Usually, the music isn't too grating. Some people find it intolerable.
** No difficulty settings: An option to turn down the hints your assistant gives you... that would be golden.

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So, what are your favorite and least-favorite aspects of the AA interfaces?

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The only gripe I've got right now is that sometimes when you have to point out the problematic part in a scene/photo, they hide the court record for whatever reason - probably to give you a better view of the aforementioned scene/photo (Although they also stop the R button from accessing it, which is quite annoying). It means you have to save right before and find the contradiction in the court record whilst looking at the photo, which is irritating.


I agree, but you don't really need a difficulty setting for that, since in all other aspects a difficulty setting is pretty much impossible. More:

Do you want to hear my opinion?
No.
Your sync rating just fell a little


Hey, be fair. I know a lot of players (me included, actually ) find the normal talking pace much too slow, but a translating team spent months putting rests after the punctuation, as well as slowing down, speeding up, syncing the sounds, sprite animations and flashes. If there were adjustable text speeds development of the games would be that much slower.

Other than that, I pretty much adore the Ace Attorney interface. The brown is prettyful :3
Can't exactly say the same about AAI's magenta, though...

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