Opening Statements

Despite boasting three games in a single package, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is ꩵoddly named. The titular lawyer being the central protagonist in only the first of the collection, though it’s a fitting epithet nonet🐼heless: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney kicked off a new era for the series, characterised by more serious plots and an attempt to ground the universe, if only a little.

Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice span roughly 80 hours of content, broken down into discrete cases that have you investigating ♚murders and defending the inevitably innocent client from an unjust legal system where the cards are stacked against you and them. They expand the cast significantly, notably with new POV characters to play as, providing some much-needed variation to the model that worked so well for Phoenix Wright but may have grown stale had it outstayed its welcome. Trucy makes for a refreshing new partner, the new prosecutors have distinct brands of antagonism that make them interesting, and Apollo and Athena are compelling as new protagonists, with detailed backstories baked into th𝐆eir personalities (as opposed to Phoenix’s backstory being filled with late reveals).

While Apollo Justice takes only around 20 hours to complete, Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice are far longer games thanks to having more cases and including the DLC 🍨that was released for both.

While billed as a visual novel, I’ve always considered these games more puzzle-like. Dissecting statements during cross-examination and picking the correct times to press for more information or presenting the proper evidence to destroy a claim requires logic and creativity. They mas꧋terfully put you in the mind of a lawyer, figuring out where a person may be mistaken or tryin🍎g to obfuscate the truth, with evidence as your weapon and shield both.

Trials make for the most exciting segments almost by default, with the climactic showdowns against true culprits and frustrating witnesses providing the series' most iconic moments. Investigation segments are more lowkey but still interesting, letting you feel your detective oats and examine crime scenes, interrogate witnesses, and question the supporting cast without the overbearing pressure of the courtroom. It’s also a great opportunity for each game to flesh out characters and relieve the tension of an otherwise bloodthirsty courtroom.

A Cross-Examination

Until now, these games were constrained to original DS and 3DS architecture or the occasional mobile port, none of which compare favourably to the trilogy as it plays on modern tech. Backgrounds and models are clean and pleasing to the eye without losing the originals' charm, and the touch-screen controls are updated for mice and controllers. It feels and looks nicer than ever, all its personality intact despite jumping headlong into the modern era.

Each port comes with some great bells and whistles, too - episode selection is available from the very beginning and even allows🅷 you to jump to specific points in time. A notable addition is a mode that turns the game into a bona fide visual novel, removing the puzzle elements and automatically following the story as it was meant to be, with no room for missed clues or throwing yourself blindly at a witness because you don’t fully grasp the very specific logic the game requires of you. This is bound to be a valuable function f꧙or some, so it’s a wonder that it isn’t presented as a major selling point.

There’s also a Museum menu that is typical of the genre, with all the art and music available to peruse at your leisure. In a world where streaming services can take away access to music at a whim, it’s refreshing that such features 🐈are still included within games, especially as composer Noriyuki Iwadare is a master of the genre, having created some of the catchiest and most adrenaline-filled tracks known to gaming. This is not an effortless port, and-

OBJECTION!

These are straight-up ports, so problems with the visual novels themselves have stuck around, resonating like a far-too-large gong. As has become a standard of Ace Attorney, middle ‘filler’ cases often outstay their welcome, and sometimes the mysteries are far too easy for the player to figure out yet spend far too long unsolved by the cast. Working out that a character is related to another character or that a certain person is the killer long before you’re allowed to read 🐎any confirmation of such is a common occurrence if you’re paying attention.

This extends to the aforementioned obtuse logic. Whiไle more forgiving than its Phoenix Wright-centric predecessors, there’s still an ample level o✤f strictness regarding what constitutes a legitimate argument. Sometimes, you’ll have two pieces of evidence that would prove your point in any realistic setting - the game, however, inevitably prefers one over the other.

A frustrating example of this crops up in the second case of Apollo Justice, the first game of the trilogy; your task is to prove that a witness stole some panties, and youඣ have two pairs of panties in your court record (please, trust me, it makꦉes sense in context) - either would be sane choices, though only one is accepted by the game. These inconvenient logic leaps can stack up, getting you only one mistake away from a Game Over, which leads to a lengthy bit of holding down the progression button just to get back to the same spot you failed. There are safeguards in place, of course, with an optional ‘hint’ system for those who keep failing at the same hurdle, but trials are long, and you don’t have very many ‘lives’ before the judge gets frustrated at your incompetence and declares your client guilty. On a first playthrough, it’s a uniquely frustrating experience.

Closing Remarks

Ace Attorney is a wacky series, balancing murder plots and despair in the face of injust꧂ice with punny names and the supernatural. Despite this clash in tone,ও its narrative and character writing are strong enough to carry each entry and make this collection a worthy successor to Phoenix Wright’s original trilogy. Bringing these particular games to modern platforms is a worthy effort in itself, but Apollo Justice is guilty of going above and beyond to produce an experience worth the time.

A review code was provided by the publisher.