Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice Trilogy

AA4 Playtime: 20.9 Hours

Played the 3DS version, which is just the DS version ported to a 3DS digital download I'm pretty sure. Finished all 4 cases, decided to choose the good ending (Not Guilty) for the last case. Was pretty fun, the format of the last case was really interesting though I don't really imagine any subsequent games do anything similar.

AA5 Playtime: 34 Hours

Played on the 3DS before the release of the remastered trilogy; I bought it about half a year before the 3DS store shut down. Finished all 5 of the episodes, plus bought and played the DLC case as well. Interestingly enough, I generally felt like none of the cases were particularly long but pretty much every case but the first was very consistent in terms of length. I'm quite surprised to see how long the total playtime ended up being (though this is with 6 cases compared to the 5 of most others).

AA6 Playtime: 42 Hours

Finished the trilogy on the 3DS while on vacation (during downtime, of course). Completed all 5 episodes, plus the DLC special throwback episode and the two Asinine Attorney mini-stories. In comparison to AA5, which was very consistent with its case lengths, I felt the pacing of AA6 was far more uneven and muddled from the two separate locations. In particular, case 4 didn't really justify its existence as a part of the story, feeling like a 3-4 hour intermission, and case 5 should have really been split into 2 episodes. Given how long some of the cases in this game are, I'm a little bit surprised that AA5 actually ended up being relatively close to AA6 in terms of its total length; subjectively, I felt that AA6 took a lot longer to play through. This is the last entry in the series for me! I've had my fun but after almost 50 cases I feel like the series has just about run its course, so I don't know if I'd be interested in a hypothetical AA7.

Despite the change of protagonist, AA4 is still basically the same overall game as the trilogy that preceded it, so most mechanics available previously still stand in this game. Apollo Justice is supposed to be a "successor" of sorts to Phoenix, but it's a bit hard to tell since his personality is almost the same as trilogy Phoenix, while Hobo Phoenix plays a completely different role as a very different character to his past self, being significantly more jaded (and cocky in his final case, which didn't really sit quite right with me). I think the hobo personality worked very well this game, but it definitely started to get old by the end. Klavier, the new prosecutor, is just as annoying as ever but I don't think I've really liked any of them other than Edgeworth anyway. Phoenix also has an adopted daughter in Trucy from his last case before being disbarred, who acts as your assistant in this game. She's quite lively, as is Ema Skye, who came back from RFTA to act as the main detective in this game - I liked both of them, but ultimately still prefer Maya and Gumshoe. I feel like the chemistry of the cast in this game isn't quite there; in contrast, even within just AA1 I felt the rapport between the entire main cast.

I thought the first case in this game was pretty cool - it's neat how such an intricate mystery with several twists can be told in such a succint format, within just a couple of hours. In comparison, I felt that the second case started to drag, especially since it was pretty clear who the killer was very early on as soon as you learned some initial information about Alita. Meanwhile, the defendant for that case is potentially one of the worst ever and I'm glad he doesn't come up again; as usual, Case 2 in this game isn't really related to the overarching story in any way. Thankfully, I liked case 3 a lot more; some of the mechanics were pretty cool, the smuggling plot was interesting, and the number of times they repeated Klavier's guitar burning is pretty funny (I feel like they replay that clip at least 10 times). The main thing I disliked was the absurdly long tail to the final trial - the back and forth with Daryan being the "final try" about 5-6 times got extremely old very quickly, and I was pretty much done with it after the game cried wolf about twice; an awful ending to an otherwise cool case. Note that you pretty much figure out Daryan is the only main suspect about halfway into the case, so it's simply a case of the game stalling to make the case longer without a good reason. The last case is somewhat mixed, as well; the new system doesn't change anything except for a brief gotcha moment at the end, but the case itself is pretty neat, and ties itself to Cases 1 & 3 of this game. The Mason system where you investigate memories and the callback to the Psyche-Locks is neat, but the final trial for Kristoph after that was somewhat meh, for the same reason as Daryan's trial: it overstays its welcome a little bit.

As far as the mechanics go, I really don't like the way the perceive mechanic is implemented in this game. You literally just sit there watching the same statement repeatedly looking for some random fidgeting on the witness. This would be fine if they were in clear spots, or if the window was wider. However, as it is, I often had to comb the witness upwards of 5 times to find the spot; the worst for this was probably Spark Brushel, who did not have any kind of tell on his sprite that his "fidgeting" was just a spot of sweat under his armpit. The worst part is that this isn't even really a useful mechanic, since it really just gates off another evidence prompt anyway. The regular fidgeting that a witness does on the stand could create a more subtle mechanic that ultimately works better and wastes less time. On the other hand, being able to 3D-inspect many pieces of evidence is very cool - I think this was also in RFTA, and it allows for much more depth to one piece of evidence than before. That's especially important, because just like the previous games there still isn't a good repository of evidence notes and other miscellaneous information important to the case and trials. For a game that relies on perceiving small details, the lack of any of these features makes cases hard to play outside of a single sitting. When most cases in this game are several hours long (and some cases in later games reaching ~10 hours), this becomes especially critical. Lastly, I noticed that AA4's investigations are severely limited in comparison to the trilogy. Several times in the game, all except one location is abandoned so each phase of the investigation forced you to just find the person who exists like a game of whack-a-mole. I'm not really sure why this is necessary since it's not like there are any important developments when the disappear and reappear - that's only done to force you to have each conversation in a very specific set order which kind of kills the purpose of an "investigation". Also, examining a scene is pretty annoying in some cases as well, since there isn't a clear tell for what has and has not been examined, making smaller details harder to find for no reason. The trilogy had a cursor that would change color when new dialogue is available; I know AA4 is much older, but it would have benefited greatly from that same treatment.

Lastly, a brief mention on the judicial system plot point in this game. I think it's definitely really funny near the end of 4-3 that there is an acknowledgement on the poorly-implemented justice system in these games, which is very accurate. The problem comes when the final case, based on the jurist system, has the same bullshit writing as all of the other cases, with little no actual change to reflect convincing arguments vs. the constant requirement for "hard evidence". The poor implementation of judicial logic continues to hamstring these games severely; the writing would fit if the games took place in a mafia or street justice system. It's astounding how there is no light shed on the glaring hole that is the guilt-until-proven-innocent mantra of the FIRST suspect, not even the most likely suspect. Alita, Daryan, and Kristoph are framed through the trial as far more likely killers yet no actual pressure is ever put on them. The writing would make a bit more sense if the challenge was to present evidence to lock down a guilty verdict for the real killers, but when that is simultaneously tied to the not guilty verdict of the first unfortunate soul who was suspected, any semblance of rationality is completely burned away. A solution to this would be to have each case take place across 2 phases: the first, proving a very reasonable probability that the defendant is not the perpetrator of the crime, and the second, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt who the real killer and their motive is. This makes the cases far more reasonable; the back-and-forth makes sense when there is a rational reason to paint a complete picture of the real killer's crime, and the stakes aren't any lower anyway since the consequence is to let a killer roam free. It also allows for more prosecutor and defense characters. There's a lack of justice-seeking prosecutors and slimy defense attorneys anyway - this would rectify that problem, while dispensing with the shitty theatrics common to all of the games thus far.

At its core, AA5 is very similar to all of the previous entries in the series. All of the same strengths and weaknesses of the storytelling and puzzles exist in pretty much the same form, so there's little reason to tread over them again. However, as the first entry to release on the 3DS, there are a few more major changes this time around. First off, the characters are all in 3D now, and I think they did a really good job of switching over to these new models while keeping the visual style surprisingly consistent with the old sprites. Animations are a little bit slower and more drawn out which can get a bit tedious, but all of the energy and expression is still there. For better or worse, this does definitely feel like an 'evolution' in the series which has since carried into the TGAA games as well. These new models also haven't detracted from the goofiness of many of the character designs either - Solomon Starbuck's rocket hair, Aristotle Means's entire character, etc. contribute greatly to a vibrant cast that I consider to be just about as good as any other game I've played so far in the series (+ spinoffs).

Speaking of characters, the cast for this game includes not only another prosecutor of the week, but also yet another lawyer. In contrast to each of the previous games which more or less focused on a single main character, this game introduces a team of lawyers - Phoenix and Apollo return from the previous games, and Athena Cykes is added as a third protagonist. I quite liked the addition of Athena; unlike Apollo, who mostly feels like a Great Value version of Phoenix with little distinguishing character, Athena's spunky and competitive personality contrasts very well with the exasperation of the other two. Simon Blackquill, the new prosecutor, is OK but pretty much just feels like another one of the same - except he's a prisoner this time who is also a wannabe samurai and has a pet falcon somehow. He's not particularly interesting nor intimidating, and the theatrics and jokes get pretty old after a case or two so I just started tuning him out. I really wish they'd decrease the amount of wasted time and dialogue in these games, since the near constant aggression just makes them all seem childish. Those moments should be saved for truly case-flipping moments which are pretty few and far between. Lastly, Bobby Fulbright is a pretty fun character, though at the end of the day he's still no replacement for Gumshoe or even Ema Skye.

I thought the cases this time around were pretty good! I can't really pinpoint any single case that was particularly horrible, though of course there are quite a few moments where I thought the inflexibility of the puzzle system really came back to bite the story. The bomb case was pretty decent, then the next two in Nine-Tails Vale & Themis Academy are pretty fun. The last two connected cases bring the overarching story to a very satisfying close; wrapping up the game in a destroyed courtroom is quite the climactic ending, bridging the gap between the bombing in the first case to the Phantom in the last. I think it's kind of interesting that this single story essentially wraps up the majority of Athena's character arc in bringing closure to her mother's death, while Apollo is sort of left floating; it makes me think that Apollo was so poorly received that they wanted to just pivot the narrative away from him and focus on something new for a while. The DLC case is a lot of fun though - you have an orca as a defendant, and later call it to the witness stand for a testimony, a clear nod to Yogi's parrot in AA1. It's a pretty goofy episode, and has an interesting twist where it's actually comprised of two separate cases, requiring you to first defend Orla the orca before defending Sasha Buckler (her trainer) the day after. As it turns out, it's ultimately more of a case of attempted murder & accidental death (two separate subjects) which is another first in the series.

Finally, mechanical changes to AA5 are pretty interesting. To start with on a more fundamental level, much of the game has been heavily streamlined this time around. Conversations are more clear-cut, you are given a set of notes during investigations so you won't get lost, and sometimes you will automatically move to different locations so you don't even need to think about where to go. On top of all of that, you can only examine a few specific scenes per case when the game requires you to do so, and presenting evidence during investigations/conversations is rarely required, with the game also cueing you in pretty clearly about what to present to who. This is true in general, even during trials - hints tend to be much clearer than I remember them in any other game I've played so far (everything except AA6). This probably saves a lot of playtime, but I can see why some people might not be very enthusiastic about the amount of color commentary that's cut out because of these changes. The purpose of each of the three protagonists is more mechanically distinct this time around, as each of them have certain powers that assist with deductions during both investigations and trials. Phoenix has his magatama and Apollo has his trusty bracelet, and Athena has her partner/necklace Widget, which keys into her superhumanly sharp ability to sense emotions in others and isolate abmormal feelings. In almost every case, she will pull this out a couple of times to help witnesses uncover repressed or incorrect memories, revealing new details and key testimony that helps win the case. The minigame is much more involved than the others and also quite interesting, but doesn't feel quite right in this game; a lot of the logic tends to be weird or inconsistent so some of the puzzles turn into a loop of just guessing which emotion to target and isolate.

Overall, I thought this game was pretty good. I can see why some people really don't like certain aspects of the game, particularly in the ways it was simplified, but I ultimately didn't have anywhere near as much of a problem with the streamlined gameplay as I thought I might. These games are already 90% reading anyway and the evidence doesn't present itself so the identity of Ace Attorney is still perfectly intact here, just with less random presenting and examining. I'm quite ready to finish the series off with AA6; I'll see if that can also surprise me like this one did.

This is the last entry in the series, and the final part of the "Apollo Trilogy" that the DS/3DS games are being marketed as for the remastered bundle. In general, though, it doesn't really feel like a particularly conclusive ending to anything; kind of like AA5, this game presents a self-contained storyline that doesn't interact much with plotlines set up in previous entries, while also not foreshadowing anything big for future entries. If I had to guess, when this game was under development there may have been some doubts as to the sustainability of the series. The decision to write a 'final' throwback case reuniting Wright and Edgeworth in the courtroom for one last battle was ultimately a nice flourish to the series, ostensibly wrapping the games up where they began - though the DLC case itself was completely new except for the return of Larry Butz. I'm kind of pissed that Gumshoe didn't make an appearance in it to be honest.

With those generalities aside, AA6 at its core is really just another AA game, plain and simple. Of course, the scenarios are all new and there are a couple of new mechanics but there's nothing big enough to shake up the core gameplay that has persisted from the very first entry, with all its strengths and flaws. Mechanically speaking, the ability to examine every scene for color commentary is back (having been removed in AA5 to great dismay), while the rest of the UI is essentially a carbon copy of the systems in the previous game. The only new mechanic added in this game is for evaluating Insights offered via a Divination Seance, which take place in each of the cases set in the newly-introduced kingdom of Khura'in (not to be mixed with Kurain Village). These basically require you to analyze the sensations of each victim's last moments to find explanations for how a murder or death may not have actually happened quite in the way it appears. It's honestly a horribly implemented mechanic because the game focuses in on the minutiae of the sensations too quickly, kind of like how the emotion mechanic introduced in AA5 immediately switches from hunting for contrary emotions to hunting for arbitrarily-changing emotional strength. I kind of wish the writers would stop feeling the pressing need to stack on these shitty gimmicks, because they typically don't turn out very well.

All of the other discussion worth considering about this game is singly related to the new story, location, and cases - as everything else has already been covered thoroughly by my comments on AA5 and the games prior to that. The most obvious is the split between two different locations in this game - half of the cases take place in the familiar courtroom of 'America' (otherwise referred to as Japanafornia by the fanbase), while the others are set in the new kingdom of Khura'in. The name definitely feels like a product of a lack of creativity and/or desperation, but the kingdom itself seems to be more or less modeled after Nepal or Tibet - a high-altitude mountainous region with a heavily central-east Asian style and a religion centered around spirituality that is reminiscent of Buddhism. For the past 23 years, this kingdom has had no lawyers because of a 'Defense Culpability Act', which states that the defense of any defendant who is found guilty will share the same sentence, including capital punishment. Now, instead of any real trial, court hearings simply consist of a Divination Seance - which allows the Priestess (Princess Rayfa) to see a victim's final moments, and in most cases results in the condemnation of the suspect without any due process. Obviously, such a rule is BS, but it doesn't really impact the game much - technically, Wright does get condemned in the first part of Case 3 under the Act but it's so clearly just another instance of the pointless theatrics endemic to the series that you can pretty much ignore it altogether. Over the course of the game, Wright's defenses end up fanning the flames of a dormant rebellion intent on overturning this Act to restore the proper rule of law to Khura'in, which comes to a head in the final cases, revealing yet another aspect of Apollo's frequently-revised history and (hopefully) finishing his character arc once and for all.

The main prosecutor for the meat of the game is a guy name Nahyuta Sahdmadhi (don't know if I spelled it correctly), who is just another prosecutor of the week without any particular characteristics of note. However, his animations are longer than Blackquill's from AA5 and he likes reciting some really long dialogue sequences when performing pointless theatrics which automatically makes him a worse character. The case progression also doesn't help things too much - the 3 episodes set in Khura'in are linked together pretty well, but for some reason the writers didn't have any confidence in committing to the new environment, and so interlaced these more interesting segments with two completely non-sequitur cases in Episodes 2 and 4. Case 1 is also about twice the length it had any reason to be, mostly owing to the fact that the culprit's testimonies took an hour and a half for no reason, and staring at Great Value hippie-metal-Jesus for an hour and a half is pretty demotivating - enough to make me question whether or not I wanted to bother playing the rest of the game. Cases 2 and 3 were pretty great (excepting the usual problems), but Case 4 came out of nowhere with a completely random and pointless case which literally only served to make Athena look like a horrible lawyer dependent on the help of Simon - which is something I thought AA5's entire plot was aimed at resolving. Meanwhile, the last episode is actually 2 separate cases - they were both good and well-paced, but made me question why 6-4 was even needed to begin with. I expected 6-5 to be a slog, but given the fact that it's pretty cleanly split in halves and the depth of each case, I felt like the seemingly-ridiculous 12-15 hour runtime was actually very well deserved and brought this game, somehow, to a pretty satisfying end. The DLC case was probably one of my favorites in the game, though - I don't particularly care for the return of Larry, but the Wright/Edgeworth dynamic makes a very welcome return and the case is very well paced, in my opinion. Over a 6-8 hour runtime, the investigations and (especially) the trials never felt like they sank into a rut. The killer was obvious from second 1 of meeting him, but the pacing of the different topics and situations progressed very smoothly and painted a very full & complex tale. While many might disagree, I think it was a bit of a return to form.

Series 'Post-Mortem' / Afterword

Over the course of playing and analyzing the last few games, I feel like I've gotten more and more fatigued of the franchise as a whole - even if I've had a fair share of entertaining moments while playing through the games. Part of it might be from oversaturation, since I did end up playing TGAA/5/6 pretty close to one another, but at some point you start to see patterns in everything that begin to collapse the foundations on which the intrigue of the cases is built. In other words, these games have gotten too predictable. Each new prosecutor is virtually indistinct from the ones that came prior to them - each one will have some randomly-generated stupid gimmick that results in lots of pointless dialogue and slow animations, each one will have some kind of sad backstory which the game will attempt to use to "redeem" them on the course to seeking truth, and they are more frequently being pressured by higher-ups in attempt to show the player that they did not have any agency over their own behavior. Witness testimonies are increasingly subject to constant interruptions, random needling, and pointless wasteful dialogue that exists only to pad the games' lengths, while the chances to expediently present evidence and push the case forward are ever decreasing. Investigations have been streamlined into oblivion (AA6 did reverse course a little bit, to be fair), to the point where there is little left to investigate in each scene. Many characters and witnesses are being built upon increasingly specific tropes that get old the second time you see them, and feel dispassionately designed for "color and explosiveness" - a problem that I find commonly afflicts Japanese media. Almost all cases essentially follow the same formula; a murder, with the defendant falsely accused. There is always a third party present, there is always some kind of incredible cover-up or coincidence, the real culprit always has the same type of sob story. Most of the culprits are very clearly telegraphed (for AA6, only 6-3 managed to take me off guard at all - because of Tahrust's suicide); if the game doesn't literally show you in the opening of the case, they give themselves instantly away through their demeanor as soon as you speak to them. With no sense of mystery in most cases, there is little interest in discovering the deeper connections between characters and events as you know it'll all tie back to one of only a few candidate culprits anyway. Additionally, it's very easy to stay several steps ahead of the trial in most of the recent games, so even that part of the trial is more about trawling through dialogue to find opportunities to present the evidence you know you have; a general feeling of impatience, not desperation. There are probably a decent number of additional tropes and annoyances that haven't ever been revised within the stale formula that the AA series has found itself stuck in that I've missed in this list, too. Suffice to say that I can't put any faith in any new entries alleviating any of the above, either - people see value in these longer games, and the remaining tropes have been an incurable disease in media since long before the genesis of this series. Maybe AA7 would turn out well if at all, but at the moment I don't think I'd care to stick around and find out.