Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

[G-type | 2,479]

Ok, so I've currently completed 2 out of the 4 cases so far, but I think I've seen enough to drop a review.

They reuse a lot of the same courtroom graphics from Phoenix Wright 1-3... the backgrounds, the judge, etc... even the new character Apollo doesn't really feel like a new character. His personality, mannerisms, even his general appearance all look Phoenix Wright. So much so, that I don't really get why they didn't just call this game Phoenix Wright 4? Not really sure what adding a new character did, other than give you a reason to be a "Rookie" attorney again. The mysteries themselves are easy to  moderately challenging. Some parts force you to guess, even if you're not sure, which the game penalizes you if you guess wrong. This is a strange design choice as the REAL punishment of guessing wrong and losing is having to replay all the dialogue that you've already read prior to your last save game (a particularly tedious punishment), which consequently trains you to save the game before any decision point. The save game feature is just slow enough to make this step slightly annoying as you have to exit out the the menu screen and relaunch the game from the save point. It would have been far better if they had come up with some other penalty system.. perhaps point scoring? So you don't have go through the "save every few minutes" routine (It's almost like playing a Sierra game).

Complaints aside, its got all the stuff you liked from the previous Ace Attorney games, plus even interactive forensic features and a neat bit where you can zoom in on the witness while they're testifying, to try and spot subtle body language "tells"

Edited September 7, 2022 by G-type

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

I'm playing Ace Attorney 2 and didn't even realize you could reload to a decision point, unless that was added later.

If I ever get to the verge of losing a case, I usually admit defeat and use a guide until I get a recovery.  Otherwise replaying all of the dialogue and cross examinations is just too tedious.  Luckily that doesn't usually happen.

[Lynda Monica | 350]

Apollo Justice was the only one of the DS games I didn't finish. The third case is really good and showcases the new cast finally getting into the swing of things. Then boring old man Phoenix shows up again, monopolizes the final case and ruins the fun. For a game that people criticized for not starring Phoenix Wright, he sure won't go the hell away and let the new cast shine.

I liked Trucy way more than Maya, (who I never really liked in the first place) and I liked Apollo's rival prosecutor way more than any of the others the series had up to that point. Apollo himself had an interesting ability that Phoenix didn't, making him unique. I also loved 20+ year old Ema Skye, and she may be my favourite character in the whole series.

The game just doesn't have enough confidence in its likable new cast though, and shoves Phoenix in your face constantly out of terror that people will freak out without him being there. I honestly would have loved it if the Apollo Justice series continued and abandoned the old cast entirely, but the game shot itself in the foot as a reboot by latching itself so hard to the old protagonist.

That's kind of how I feel about the game. An absolute gold mine of completely wasted potential.

[G-type | 2,479]

On 9/7/2022 at 4:09 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm playing Ace Attorney 2 and didn't even realize you could reload to a decision point, unless that was added later.

just hit "start" and save.... then continue from save point.

Edited September 9, 2022 by G-type

[Sumez | 2,933]

I've never played Apollo Justice, but I in the first three Ace Attorney games, I'm not sure I ever tried getting enough penalties that I was actually forced to reload a save. The system is super lenient, only giving penalties for very few things, and the penalties reset every time the case moves forward, so usually you can just bruteforce your way through until you stumble on the correct thing to examine, in the few cases where the game doesn't already knock you over the head with the right answer.

On one hand it seems interesting that Apollo Justice apparently tries to punish you more heavily for doing the wrong thing, but on the other hand I'm with G-Type that I don't really see how the game could realistically punish you it becoming tedious. Yeah, you could have a scoring system - but every case is completely pre-written, so you can just go back and replay it, and pass with a perfect score if you really wanted to go for that.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

7 hours ago, G-type said:

just hit "start" and save.... then continue from save point.

In AA2 it's a suspend.  But I guess I never checked to see if it could be reloaded from as well.

[G-type | 2,479]

Just finished this “game”. Really more of a visual novel. Whether you enjoy it will all come down to How much you like the story and characters. They’re… fine. I wasn’t blown away.

The actual gameplay is pretty repetitive and boring. Press every statement. Usually it’s pretty obvious what evidence you need to present. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of opportunities to use logic of critical thinking. I particularly don’t like when you know what item to present but you just don’t have it your inventory because you haven’t talked to the right person yet or it’s not quite the right time yet.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Apollo Justice is usually regarded as more or less the worst game in the series. Outside the first case its cases are not generally well-liked and Phoenix himself is kind of annoying and monopolizes too much attention instead of letting Apollo have his own story. At least they eventually got around to giving Apollo the spotlight in a later game.

[G-type | 2,479]

Also, there's some weird-ass sexualization of the young girl character... where a major plot point of the second case revolves around a panty-snatcher that's played for comedy. And she starts calling Phoenix "Daddy" soon after she meets him.