The official release date for Ace Attorney 3: Trials and Tribulations was yesterday in Japan but, the game was already dumped a good few days before then as usual with big titles. Didn't have time to try it out though but anyway, my own legitimate copy of the game arrived this morning along with Capcom's first press edition gift.

It was kind of a gamble pre-ordering it with Play-Asia but, looks like I got lucky and got it anyway! They do pack games with these kind of bonus goodies but not all the time. Only happens when the publishers they order from send them it and even then, it's a "first come first served" basis so that's why you never see any mention bonus goodies on their site.

So, kind of the usual contents you would expect in the box. The Nintendo Club serial for redeeming points (the Japanese club gets much nicer goodies than the West!), an ad for the other Gyakusai DS titles and the manual itself. There's also a questionnaire you can take for a chance to win some original Capcom goodies but unfortunately, it's limited to Japan residents only of course.

Manual's no different from the last DS port really except this time, there's no mini comic to read!

And here's the little pre-order gift from Capcom. A quad cover that was announced a while back so that you can change the boxart if you felt like it.

The funny thing was the cover had "Best Prise" written on them during the announcement but unfortunately the source seem to have fixed up the spelling mistake in the images now. Wonder if it's anything to do with that post I made on 2ch telling them to correct it... Probably not.

And yes... Some blogs and forums has also been joking about where the arm in the logo is positioned. I'm sure it wasn't deliberate.

Only had time to play through the first case and about half-way through the second I think. The formula's really the same. As usual the first and early parts of the second case served as a tutorial about how to play the game. I liked how they added in reminders of what happened in the previous two games though since it's been so long since I played them.

The game still has a lot of hilarious script and an interesting cast of characters which is why I enjoy playing through the series. It's the first time I've played the third game which, according to Gyakusai fans, is supposedly the best in the series so I'm interested to see how the rest of the game turns out.

Phoenix Wright is up against another strange prosecutor named "Godot" who wears a visor and drinks a lot of coffee. Apart from that he actually talks quite normally compared to previous rivals (with the exception of Edgeworth!). Godot also mentioned something about "returning from the depths of Hell" so I presume he's a past character back for revenge... I wonder who he is. He kind of reminds me of Manfred von Karma with that big grin. In any case, I now know where that "Dark Coffee" track on my Gyakuten Meets Orchestra CD came from.

A few other little things I've noticed is... Doesn't Dahlia Hawthorne resemble the circus girl with the bouncy blonde "rabbit ears" Regina Berry from the last game? I guess it's just because it's the same character designer. Then there's that "shocked" sound effect in the game... It reminds me too much of the "miss" sound effect from Trauma Centre.

And in case you're wondering, yes, the Japanese port once again has the English option in it. If you own the original GBA game, you can also plug that in to unlock all episodes immediately just like the previous two DS ports. Those of you in the US can get the game on October 23rd and I would suggest supporting domestic sales if you're a fan. That would keep any future Gyakusai games coming in official English.

So, that's my Phoenix Wright trilogy collection complete but I'm still not sure whether I should pick up the Japanese or English version of the fourth game. The thing about enjoying Japanese media in their original language is that you don't know what the official English translations are so, if you ever wanted to discuss something in say a forum, it's pretty difficult. I guess I'll just wait and see what appears in the English version first...