tl;dr: One of the best story-based games ever made, localised to perfection.

The Ace Attorney series is legendary for a reason, and this trilogy is where it all began. You play as the lawyer Phoenix Wright, defending clients who are usually being falsely accused of murder. Each game has four or five cases, and each case is split into alternating Investigation and Trial sections. During investigation, you investigate the crime scene, talk to witnesses, and gather evidence. In trial, you cross-examine witness, find contradictions, and expose the truth (this is where you get the famous "Objection!").

Both sections of gameplay are very fun. The investigation parts are slightly more open and less focused, and in the second two games the "Psych-Lock" mechanic pulls some of the courtroom fun into the investigations. The trial sections are where the game really shines, though. The game is essentially a puzzle/mystery game, where you are slowly uncovering the truth by breaking down testimony and presenting evidence. It requires a great deal of out-of-the-box thinking and creativity to solve the cases, although by the nature of the game it is possible to solve everything by brute force (although this will be very slow).

Most of the cases are very interesting and gripping. Out of 14 cases I would say only two are duds, most are very good, and three or four are absolutely excellent. In total you should get around 60-80 hours of gameplay (less if you skip through the text). The characters and stories are wonderfully crafted, and keep you interested and figuring things out until very near the end. The game has a lot of humour, which has been fantastically localised into English - I can honestly say I have never played a game with as good a translation as this, except perhaps the Dragon Quest games. However, within the humour are also very serious, dark, and heart-rending stories. I would say though, if you are an actual lawyer, or want to play a game that takes itself seriously, this is not the game for you - off the top of my head: cross-examining a parrot, spirit channeling, innocent until proven guilty, throwing coffee at people in court...this is not a realistic game, and if it were it would be dreadfully boring (do you have any idea how much paperwork lawyers have to do?!).

Technically, the game is fantastic. It will run on a potato (it was originally for the GameBoy Advance), has gorgeous remastered graphics, and one of the best soundtracks of any game ever. It has easy controller support despite Steam not saying so. The only thing missing is that you can't use the microphone features the DS version had, and of course you can't use the physical gestures from the Wii version, but this is hardly a loss and you can download a program that lets you shout "Objection!" and "Hold It!" if you want.

All in all, these games are amazing, and it's so wonderful to finally have them on PC, and in HD too! This game is most certainly worth full price. I would also recommend the other games in the series, especially the Investigations games, which will finally be in English for the first time ever!

Such a wonderful overall game.

From making me love characters to bits and then follow with me disliking some only to understand them afterwards a bit, this game overall threw me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
A gasp here and there, thinking through these cases beyond what I think I could have and then when everything clicks it just brightens up your mind beyond the extreme.

This has been some of my most enjoyable hours in a game-trilogy and it is a shame not more people are playing it than there already are.
If you know nothing about this game, much like I was when I started, then please go and at least try it out. It will be worth the ride.

no words can describe how HOMOSEXUAL this game is, the homosexual moments between edgeworth and phoenix in the court is a chef's kiss. every character in this game is homosexual, even the judge is homosexual 'order order' he say it so zesty probably even zestier than me, what more can u ask for with two homosexual lawyers fighting in court, they explore each others bodies after trials (headcnon, probably true) and that what makes them homosexual, edgeworth told phoenix to strip down and run naked once in a trial so its EVIDENT and its REAL that edgeworth has HOMOSEXUAL feelings for phoenix. it is canon and argue with a wall if you disagree, its also implied that mia fey is LESBIAN and is infact real. to those who dont believe me, you should, because the government, the government is killing off HOMOSEXUALS and justice is here to save the day phoenix wright ace attorney, a game where HOMOSEXUALITY is the norm