It’s not for nothing that the main character in the Ace Attorney series is named Phoenix. No matter how often this battle-hardened defense attorney has his back against the wall, he always manages to rise from the ashes and prove his client’s innocence in court. Likewise, many games in the series tend to return with new vigor. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy introduced the original to a new modern audience, while The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles eventually brought two Japan-exclusive spin-offs to the West. Now, Capcom is back with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, putting a new coat of paint on a series of games that never got the love they deserved.
The series includes the fourth, fifth and sixth games in the series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. The trilogy introduces a ton of new characters and mechanics, but if you’ve only played one of the other chapters in the series, you’ll feel right at home. These games all build on the solid foundation introduced with the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. This means you’ll once again investigate the crime scene and interview witnesses, later using the evidence and testimony gathered in a dramatic court battle where you must navigate an increasingly complex web of lies and deception.
The first thing new players may want to know is whether the series provides a good starting point. The short answer is undoubtedly yes. In many ways, the trilogy wiped the slate clean, and while many old fan favorites were later reintroduced, you always dutifully filled in their backstories. In some ways, this new series may be better than the earlier ones, as the trials fit together more logically than before. Don’t get us wrong—the characters remain delightfully quirky, and the plot threads are as convoluted and implausible as ever. However, a slightly helpful script provides a better overview and has lots of subtle hints about what evidence you should provide and which statements you should press.
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Whether you’re a new player or an old fan, the obvious place to start is, unsurprisingly, the first title in the series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which introduced a new protagonist, Apollo Justice, in the form of a newly graduated defense attorney. Although his clothes are red instead of blue, and his hair is spiky instead of pointing back, he is very similar to Phoenix in many ways – a bit naive and absent-minded, but once the trial begins, he is very open to lies and contradictions Has an incredibly keen eye. In the game’s first instance, Apollo finds himself at odds with his former mentor, and a large part of the entire narrative is about how he learns to stand on his own two feet.
The game is the first Ace Attorney game to be developed from the ground up for the Nintendo DS, which is evident in the many ways the game attempts to capitalize on the successful handheld computer’s unique features. Sure, you no longer have to blow on the console and keep track of your stylus, but unfortunately that doesn’t change the fact that it’s forensic gameplay in which you dust off fingerprints, analyze boot prints and discover blood stains , didn’t feel particularly challenging or even entertaining. At the very least, Apollo’s unique ability to expose witnesses’ lies by observing subtle body language does have some merit.
The forensic investigation fits the game’s worldview, but the otherwise interesting puzzles end up being little more than menial tasks.
Overall, Apollo Justice doesn’t quite live up to the later chapters. As with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, the vivid 2D backgrounds look a little flat and artificial when blown up to 1080p, and the 20-hour story takes a long time to really get going. It’s still a decent game, but it’s clear that Capcom – like Apollo himself – needs to find its footing after the original trilogy ends.
Thankfully, it was greatly improved in subsequent games like Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, which were originally released for the Nintendo 3DS. The backgrounds are less cluttered and the vibrant characters lose none of their sparkle in the transition from sprites to 3D models. Newer games also do away with the mundane element hunting of each scene during investigation, as you can now only explore selected environments. This results in better pacing, although the games are much longer than their predecessors, each containing five long chapters and an additional DLC episode.
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The remastered backgrounds in Apollo Justice give off a cheap mobile vibe. Fortunately, other games offer decent 3D graphics and, more importantly, better investigations.
Chapter Five, Dual Destinies , is a return to former glory in every way, emblematic of Wright’s return to the defensive end, where he now shares duties with Apollo. But it’s the new characters who steal the show, including the delightfully cheerful Detective Fulbright and arts law student Robin Newman. You don’t need a 3D slider to realize that the cast of characters has more depth than before, so it’s fitting that the game introduces a new assistant in the form of psychologist/lawyer Athena Cykes and her little AI sidekick Widget. By activating what she calls the Mood Matrix, Cykes can analyze the emotions of witnesses and find inconsistencies in their statements. This mechanic adds variety to the trials, and in many ways, it’s the icing on the cake that makes the fifth Ace Attorney an excellent experience from start to finish.
Athena Cykes uses her psychological insights to challenge witness testimony.
Spirit of Justice is the final game in the series, shifting the action to a completely new setting, specifically the Kingdom of Hulayin, located between China and Nepal. Phoenix Wright visited the country as a tourist, but his professional responsibilities soon overcame him when his tour guide, Albie Urguid, was arrested for murder. Nothing should come as a surprise to Wright, but the veteran attorney is even more shocked when he learns that the Mountain Kingdom trial is a little different than the ones he’s used to, relying on supernatural clairvoyance. force, rather than evidence and testimony.
This leads to a new game mechanic called Divination Séance, which lets you gain access to a murder victim’s last memory. The insights themselves are rarely flawed, but the prosecution’s explanation is, and so, at this point, Wright and his sizable team of companions present evidence and point out inconsistencies by – you guessed it – Make a hazy vision clear. Even in this faraway place, there’s nothing new under the sun, but as mentioned, it doesn’t matter because the series at this point needs a breath of fresh air, not a hurricane turning everything upside down. The narrative touches on ancient traditions, spiritualism, and legal revolutions, and is (spin-offs aside) the most cohesive narrative in the series’ history, and it’s hard to really point to any aspect of the game.
The Kingdom of Hulayin provides an interesting location that adds a new twist to familiar characters and court settings.
Simply put, the quality of the games included in this collection is top-notch and you get a lot for your money, maybe even a little too much. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy can drag things out a bit at times, and while I personally don’t have a problem with that, some players might be a little impatient. Whatever your preference, it’s telling that the dialogue is excellent throughout – you could even compare it to a well-played riff, with new characters building on the previous ones with their own clever or quirky lines. . There’s still no voice acting, save for the iconic outbursts during court cases and animated cutscenes, but the way the text scrolls across the screen, with pauses and varying speeds, means you’re never at a loss for words amid reams of text. As expected, veteran Noriyuki Iwadare’s music is very atmospheric.
That being said, while it’s easy to recommend the series to new players, it’s much harder to justify purchasing a new game for those who have already played the trilogy on mobile devices or Nintendo handhelds. First, the extras are a bit sparse. The music player and art gallery are nice bonuses, but that’s about it, and the new animation studio is unfortunately a major letdown. Here you can combine backgrounds, characters, and sound effects – but you can’t write your own text or put together your own experiments. What could have been an excellent tool that, with a few tweaks, can provide hundreds or even thousands of hours of entertainment, ends up being a minor distraction that you’ll get tired of after a few minutes.
The extra material – especially the animation studio – is disappointing.
As mentioned, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy looks beautiful, but that’s more due to the original design than any new improvements. Many of the textures look primitive and graphical, and you don’t need Wright’s eye for detail to realize that Capcom was sloppy with the polish. It’s also disappointing that the game is locked at 30fps – even on PC and newer consoles. In a game that’s mostly made up of still images and text, one wouldn’t think this was important, but the low frame rate can sometimes cause images to be slightly choppy and make menus a bit sluggish. Speaking of menus, using a mouse and keyboard to navigate the game can be very frustrating, as Capcom rather inexplicably chose to emulate a touch screen rather than an actual cursor! Thankfully, if you’re using a controller, there’s no real problem.
In particular, the two 3DS games included in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy should reach a much larger audience than they would have if they were released as digital-only downloads in the West. The fact that they’re now getting a second chance, and that the entire series – with the exception of the Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney and Miles Edgeworth Investigations games – is now available on modern platforms is something we can only applaud. For their 49.99 euros, new players get good value for their money. Unfortunately, long-time fans of the series were treated to some half-baked desserts that ended up leaving a bad taste in our mouths. We hope Capcom makes up for it with a new chapter soon, because this trilogy – despite its over 80 hours of content – has left us hungry for more.
