Can you imagine celebrating your 20th birthday, and someone comes up to you and tells you that your nervous, short friend/mentee is much more interesting than you? Well, it's Ace Attorney's 20th birthday, and while that's not exactly what I'm doing (and I'll explain why in more detail in a moment), I have to say: as a person who's played all of the Ace Attorney games (except for the fan translation of Investigations 2), I firmly believe that Apollo Justice is one of the best, even though most people generally rank it below almost all of the other games.
First off, let me assure you: I love Phoenix Wright. In fact, one of the main reasons I adore Apollo Justice is because of Phoenix Wright.
At this point, we've gone through three games with Nick as either a chaotic junior attorney who keeps forgetting the names of his clients, or a relatively self-assured Edgeworth-botherer who accidentally stumbles into and then solves various cold cases that stretch back long before his career even began. At the start of Apollo Justice, there's no Nick to be seen — instead, we get a time-skip of seven years, and we meet this dishevelled weirdo who's into back-alley gambling and bad piano playing.
And that garbage human turns out to be the same besuited, spiky-haired lawyer we all know and love. What a fantastic twist to start off the story: to take everything you know about the games, and turn it on its head. It's a clever way to signal that Apollo Justice — and the games from this point on — won't be afraid to play with convention, to subvert what people have come to expect.
And, of course, in Ace Attorney style, this rugged version of Phoenix Wright is not only disgraced and disbarred, but he's on trial for murder. Okay, that one's not really a subversion — that's Ace Attorney storywriting 101.
But I have to make a small confession, here: I like scruffy Phoenix. He's cute. In fact, the Ace Attorney series really started to lean into making its characters extremely Bad Boy Attractive around the time of Apollo Justice, with Edgeworth turning into a strict, glasses-wearing silver fox in the game afterwards, and, you know, the entirety of Klavier Gavin's existence.
You might be thinking that this isn't really relevant to why Apollo Justice is one of my favourites, but it totally is — Ace Attorney has always been incredibly beloved by its female audience, and every now and again, a game will actually recognise that, and the artists will lean into drawing through the lens of the female gaze. We've got enough beefy lads who don't know how to talk about their feelings; I want more well-dressed lads who read books.
I promise I don't just love the game for the hunks, though. Apollo Justice introduces a new, Magatama-style mechanic in the form of Apollo's magical bracelet that tightens when someone's lying — which you'll have to prove by pointing out their nervous tic, as if that would stand up in court. It's goofy, yes, but Ace Attorney has never really shied away from the ludicrous: Remember the witness who was a parrot? Or all the times you were allowed to call literal ghosts to the stand? How about the fact that your murdered mentor keeps inhabiting the body of her live sister in order to keep an eye on you? Exactly.
On top of the magical bracelet, Apollo Justice also introduces an entire recorded live concert that you'll have to scrub around to answer the questions surrounding a crime, a family of magicians surrounded by mystery and tragedy, and a case that involves time travel. Fans, of course, are divided by these gimmicks — and the lack of Phoenix as protagonist — but I loved them all, and the time travel case in particular remains one of my favourites to this day because of how it wrangles a seven-year narrative into a number of shocking twists.
I think that the best (and sometimes, most confusing) cases are the ones that implicate the cast themselves — I don't necessarily mean "oh no, Maya's been accused of murder again", but the ones that outline the characters' backstories. Finding out about Edgeworth's dad (and resulting trauma), Mia and Maya's mother, Dahlia's betrayal of just about everyone, and the shared childhoods of Larry Butz, Phoenix Wright, and Mile Edgeworth fleshes out the people that you'll meet time and time again, making them more than just your rivals and assistants.
Apollo Justice takes that one step further, with every single case being intricately tied to the strange and enigmatic Gramarye family, Phoenix and his disbarment, Phoenix's mystery child, Trucy, and Apollo Justice himself. Although previous Ace Attorney games have occasionally dabbled in backstory, we've never really got to know Phoenix that deeply, beyond knowing that he was friends with people as a kid, and gets really dirty when he's not a lawyer. Apollo Justice, on the other hand, has secret family, more secret family, and a bunch of question marks around his existence right from the word go.
I may not be able to convince everyone that Apollo Justice is the best Ace Attorney game — and that's okay. The best part of the Ace Attorney series is that none of the games are missteps, and every single one is someone's favourite — but Apollo gets a lot of flak, and I don't necessarily think he deserves it. His debut game was a tentative step in a new direction for Ace Attorney, one that's defined many of the newer games, especially Spirit of Justice, and Phoenix and friends just couldn't be where they are today without Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
Make sure to check out our user-generated ranking of the Ace Attorney games, especially if you agree with me — poor Apollo is lagging behind.
But tell me: why do you love/hate Apollo Justice? Have I managed to persuade you with my opinions on the game? Let me know in the comments!
Comments 45
Wow, no comments yet... why not be the first? :thinking emoji:
I'm surprised this doesn't fit the ranking you yourselves made like hours ago? Wasn't Trials and Tribulations the best one?
I totally agree
It may well be that how you feel about Apollo Justice depends entirely on how you feel about Klavier Gavin. To me, he's an arrogant berk who has nothing approaching a character arc, and never feels like he gets his comeuppance unlike most of the other prosecutors you square off against; and to me, Apollo Justice is the worst game in the series.
...yes I am a straight man, why do you ask?
I tip my magician's hat to you, @KateGray 😉 I also rank this one very highly personally, and the awesome German Guitar-playing prosecutor only comes second to Godot.
@inenai the ranking was user-generated. I explained that in the post itself but no one seemed to notice 😭
@Broosh my partner is playing AA3 and... he stopped just before the Godot-focused case. I want to make him play it more without telling him why!
I am happy to find other people who have finally ascended and understand that this game is the best of the best. Granted, I haven't played a bad AA game but Apollo felt like it added so much compared to the first 3, it just felt fresh and Trucy remains my favourite character.
Apollo Justice was my first foray into the Ace Attorney world. I didn’t know about the predecessor games that came before, and that scruffy, sexy Phoenix had three whole games I could munch on(which I did of course, though slightly disappointed by the lack of scruff myself with his hey day looks). I found the idea of the game, solving a series of cases in court, to be right up my alley and bought it immediately and fell in love. I owe a lot to Apollo. His dorky side won me over, and thanks to him, I became a huge fan of the universe and characters. Klavier miiight have had something to do with that too.
@Desa Apollo's animations are so overboard I adore them. I especially appreciate his thinking pose where he mashes his index finger into his forehead 😆
One thing that's usually forgotten nowadays is that Apollo wasn't very warmly received by the fanbase at the time, due to replacing Phoenix and not really standing out on his own. More people started liking him with Dual Destinies, which had some developments that helped flesh him out as a character, and the turnaround was firmly established with how important his part was in Spirit of Justice - in which he was essentially the main character, despite the initial focus on Phoenix.
Come to think of it, similar things happened to young, hip "replacements" of other Capcom protagonists (Nero and Axl).
I mean, it’s objectively not the best one. I quite like it and overlook its many many faults though. So many irritating cases, characters and gameplay mechanics too. Urgh. I do quite like the final case and especially the villain.
@nessisonett Nothing can be worse than Turnabout Big Top though, right?
If there's one thing I really love about Ace Attorney, it's the fact that it turns story into gameplay.
It's a visual novel first. But uses its detective genre to force you to pay attention and use deduction to progress the story. It's a unique approach to making a game.
That, and the characters are as fun, expressive and wild as one would expect from a Japan based developer.
Respectfully disagree - Apollo Justice is the last Ace Attorney game I've gotten around to playing so far (tackling them in order), but IMHO while still enjoyable, it's probably the weakest of them.
Scruffy Phoenix - fine. Mysterious bracelet powers - fine. Trucy - a cutie. But the framework of the trial system loses a lot of its driving narrative tension by having its main "antagonist" in Prosecutor Gavin be such a by-the-books, heart-of-gold guy - instead of battling to reveal the truth in a nefarious system determined to hide it, it all too often comes across as just trying to play your assigned role with enough threadbare competence to not entirely grind things to a halt while the opposing prosecutor leads you along by the hand at getting to the truth of things.
Beyond that, the final case in particular ends up being a trainwreck, with glaring plot holes big enough to drive a noodle cart through (I'd say more about them, but wouldn't want to get into spoiler territory), and a "time travel" system as you put it that's rendered a hot mess by its inability to keep the past and future causally separated - asking questions to people in the past about things you've only learned of in the present day (to say nothing of presenting evidence to them that you won't have picked up for years to come) is cool gameplay-wise, but it makes absolutely no actual sense. Additionally, putting so much of that case's attention into the past/present investigation gimmick leaves the trial itself as being just... dull - mostly just a relatively straightforward presentation of all the things you've uncovered, at least as it struck me, without much of any challenge or surprise to speak of. To top it all off, the subversive commentary and moralizing around the in-game judicial system is highly dubious, and arguably drastically undermines a lot of what the previous games had built, in a not-good way.
And while the music case may have been conceptually quite clever, if I never hear or see that banal set of chords with poorly-matched lyrics again, it'll be too soon!
@Broosh Big Top is awful but let’s face it, Corner comes close.
Gonna have to respectfully disagree. Imo Apollo wasn't a very interesting lead (which makes sense as the game was very much still focused on Phoenix's character over his), Klavier Gavin is a step down at prosecutor (in fact is probably my least favorite prosecutor in the series), Trucy Wright is kinda just, there, as an assistant it felt like to me. As far as the cases themselves, Turnabout Serenade felt like pulling teeth near the end there. All that said, it has one of the best, if not the best, villain in the series.
On a side note, was there a "Who can be the worst possible parent" competition going on? Because Phoenix, Gramarye, Mishram and a couple others are seriously awful.
I like Apollo Justice way better that Dual Destinies and Spirits of Justice shrugs
To each their own
Not one of my top faves, but on par with the rest as a quality Ace Attorney experience. I was initially a bit baffled by a time skip of borderline Elder Scrolls caliber, but we got excursions to the dramatic past as well, and back to the future with its own memorable characters. I particularly liked Trucy and the returning Ema Skye (whom I rejoiced to see come back in Spirit of Justice as well), but the game also gets the arguable credit for the most civilized prosecutor across the courtroom - don't get me wrong, I value the others' quirks as a series staple, too, but seeing a relatively level-headed and amicable guy not nearly as prone to chewing the scenery and abusing whips/katanas in public remains an admittedly welcome breather in the formula.😄 It was neat to see him show up, if briefly, in Dual Destinies as well. And Apollo's gameplay gimmick is even more fun than Psyche-Locks (of partly because the latter mostly just replicate the standard gameplay in a different context).
I'll leave delusions of "noodle cart sized plot holes" to fanheads who ultimately discredit nothing but their analytical capability, and so should uninformed audiences - tastes differ, but this game deserves to be experienced on your own, especially since it remains integral to the overall Attorneyverse and can fuel a lot of resonance with what's going on in the subsequent 3DS diamonds.
Nah. Apollo got only one solo game for a reason
Apollo was a nice game, but it played it too safe in my opinion. It was too centered around Phoenix, starting off with a case where he's accused of murder while Apollo just appears out of nowhere defending him.
Ace Attorney 1 had many people with personal connections to Phoenix, such as Larry, Edgeworth, Mia and Maya... Whereas the only one connected to Apollo was his mentor, a relationship that wasn't explored at all. He felt disconnected from the world around him, if that makes sense.
Now, my following complaint is mostly about Dual Destinies, but it should've at least acknowledged the jury system introduced at the end of AJ, they just needed to say that while the last case of AJ is valid, the government decided to not use it going forward, especially because of the ugly last case of Phoenix.
Anyways, Kate, go play Investigations 2 right now. It's great. There's a reason why many consider it the greatest in the series. You can find it on ebay for 20-30 pounds (for morality reasons) and then download a rom and patch it with the translation. It plays like the first one, but has a much more connected storyline and features some elements you enjoyed from Apollo Justice.
I like the game, no doubt about it. Some of the new characters here didn’t click with me like the original characters, but I do like Trucy and Apollo. I do think Gavin is the worst prosecutor in the series, but I do like his theme music.
@nhSnork You may not be directly replying to me, but I see you calling me out there. Perish the thought of getting into an argument over it, for many reasons, so let me instead reemphasize that for all my griping, I'm coming from a place of love - I still enjoyed the game and am glad it exists; it's just almost as fun to chew it out as it was to play, too.
A large part of how I feel about the Apollo Justice game is tied to the final case. It didn't really make sense to me and felt like a very unsatisfying way to end a game.
It doesn't really help that it also only had 4 cases (I guess at the time it wasn''t a big deal but in hindsight when games usually have 5/6 cases these days it's noticeable)...and it's not really a case of quality over quantity because the cases overall aren't much better or worse than other games.
I actually kinda prefer Apollo to Phoenix, but that doesn't really sway my opinion of the game he debuted in.
It's still a great game, just one of my least favourites looking back. (the musics brilliant though!)
@Fath it's always fun for fans and tabloids, perverse fun as it may be. But in Ace Attorney where there are enough things to amicably "chew out" in-universe? After all, this realm itself is undeniably and most intentionally wacky in many regards including its legal systems. And it's consistent throughout the whole franchise. But "chewing out" the franchise itself mostly tends to generate facepalm catalysts, like pretty much all fan "analysis" coming from a place of a feeling that's technically antonymous to something as egocentric and parasitically hedonistic as fanship. And even when it doesn't have much to do with yellow press, it shares the penchant for sharp-tongued hyperboles that are meant to be denigrating but end up sounding juvenile at best.
Apollo Justice played around with a number of interesting ideas and has a spectacular opening case, but the quality of the writing goes downhill pretty quickly. Definitely has the worst final case in the entire series.
Haven't played it since it was released. But I remember leaving it thinking, while I enjoyed it, it would probably be the one game in the series I wouldn't rush to play again. Though, I have yet to play Spirit of Justice. So maybe I might feel the same way with that one too. I do have both loaded up on my 3DS and I'm currently going through the entire mainline series for the first time in years. On the first case of Trials and Tribulations. So we'll see if my feelings on AJ might be different after so much time away from it
Apollo Justice has great music, but the story was weak. Apollo and Klavier's dymamic was awkward, and case 3 was a pain to play.
@Bobb
Me too. I don't like it as much as the first three games, but like it better than any of the ones that came after.
@Verg You went beyond and explained exactly how I feel about these games. Yeah, the original trilogy stands first
@Parkour_LMan I dunno, Investigations 2 has its moments but the ultimate villain feels very left-field and the pacing is glacial at times (also, personal gripe, the fan translation is a bit too reference heavy/meme-y, even for a series that often has pop culture references)
Sure, it's my 11th favourite Ace Attorney game in the series.
everything about aa4 is so legendary...polly, trucy, klav, beanix, ema!!!! iconic. thank you for being brave enough to speak the truth <3
best pursuit theme hands down
I think Apollo Justice has the best soundtrack, one of the best casts, and a fantastic final case...but I really, REALLY do not like case 3.
Though I think PW's depiction in AJ made things far more interesting, the overall game didn't feel as good as the original trilogy and I think the characters are to blame, everyone is sort of an ass in this game. But I will admit seeing Ema in what was basically Gumshoe's role was really hype.
AAI:Miles Edgeworth ended up being infinitely better. And I feel this bears true for the characters too, Trucy in DD is basically an overrun joke, while Kay became a lot more likeable in the sequel.
It's the best of the new "trilogy". But I don't think it's as good as the original games.
Yesterday evening I commented the ranking writing that apollo is my favourite. Thank you!
This article could also be seen as ‘all the reasons why Apollo Justice is one of the worst games in the series’ lol
When did NintendoLife start turning into Kotaku
Well, I wish they made the game more available so I could actually play it. I've been stuck with the original trilogy only exactly because Apollo Justice only seems to get released on the most awkward platforms possible.
Agreed, it's one of my favourites and I didn't realise it wasn't universally beloved. But then I also don't understand why people hate the circus bit from the second game so I guess I'm just easily pleased.
This game is terrible, from the god-annoying npc's, to the culprits being obvious from a mile away, to the poorly implemented bracelet feature that will make you want to pull your hair out. And let's not get into the awful resolution of the game's overall plot. There's some fun in playing it for the first time, but this is the one ace attorney game I will never go back to, even if they release games 4-6 in HD I will only replay dual destinies and spirit of justice.
I thought it was kinda average really. Not my fav by far.
It's a good game and deserves respect, to be fair. Interesting read.
@KateGray Um not Ace attorney: Wario edition is the best
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