Underground Games: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

The Ace Attorney series is very close to my heart, so in celebration of Phoenix Wright being added to Marvel vs Capcom 3, I just knew I had to cover this niche series as the next underground game. The question then became which one would get the spot? Trials and Tribulations was the best one overall, whereas the original will always hold a special place in my black heart for starting the trend of awesomeness, but the theme I’m trying to go with are games that didn’t get a fair shake. Games that for whatever reason, were ignored or overlooked by the public. Within the Ace Attorney family of games, Apollo Justice would be the black sheep that everyone pretends doesn’t exist, but I don’t think that’s fair. Apollo was different… he even stepped on a few family traditions, but he was still great to have around.

Ace Attorney series in general follows an upstart attorney as he attempts to defend his innocent clients from false charges across numerous games and cases. These text adventures are broken up into investigation sections, where players gather evidence and collect witness testimonies, and the trial sections where the defense and prosecution have an epic battle of justice while using evidence to find contradictions with witness testimonies. Yes, I understand that most of what I wrote is a detective’s job, but come on. Was the game supposed to just have you sit on your piles of money waiting for a class action suit to fall on your desk? What makes these games special are the eccentric characters, memorable animations, top notch writing and interwoven plots that are some of the best this decade. Yeah, I said it.

Now by the time Apollo rolled around, he had some huge shoes to fill. This particular game was supposed to be the start of a new trilogy made from the ground up for the Nintendo DS, (all of the previous games were GBA ports). Phoenix Wright and the rest of the cast took a back seat to a new attorney, with new stories and cases after the last trilogy was wrapped up so perfectly… or at least they were supposed to take a back seat. There are a few main reasons that this game has the fanbase divided, and part of the reason believe it or not was Phoenix’s inclusion.

Yep, that homeless looking guy is Phoenix.

Fans were pissed that all of Phoenix’s accomplishments were pretty much erased at the very beginning of Apollo Justice. Now a disgraced former lawyer, he helps the new heroes in some pretty shady ways that go against everything he stood for in the original trilogy. It should make you feel sympathy for Justice, but you barely get to know him since the main plot revolves around the circumstances surrounding Phoenix’s fall from grace. These are all legitimate gripes, and trust me, I was mad at how they butchered Phoenix too. But I think we should cut the game some slack in this aspect. As the story goes, this disgraced lawyer was supposed to be a brand new character and the story was supposed to focus much less on him, but the suits at Capcom were afraid the game wouldn’t sell without Phoenix, so he was kind of shoehorned in to please the higher ups. It goes to show that they don’t always know what’s best.

Phoenix wasn’t the only character to come back either. Phoenix’s assistant from the DS exclusive case in the original Ace Attorney, Ema Skye, returns in the detective role. I was a fan of her character and thought it was adorable in a weird way how she had grown somewhat bitter about ending up a detective instead of an enthusiastic scientific investigator. But when she got to show off the power of science, that’s where the game really stood out from its predecessors. Using new methods of evidence gathering such as searching for blood stains, footprints and the like really took advantage of the advanced DS hardware. Throw in the 3D crime scene re-enactments and it made it feel like it belonged on the newer generation handheld. Apollo himself also had a new ability that let him search for nervous twitches on the witnesses when he couldn’t prove they were lying with evidence. It was really weird, and that’s saying a lot for a series that had a parrot called to the witness stand. There was no penalty for failing these parts, so it didn’t feel like a completely fleshed out idea, but a similar feature is being added to Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, so hopefully it will be expanded on then.

But aside from all the new features, there was one new addition that brought upon almost as much controversy as Phoenix. The new prosecutor: Klavier Gavin. Prosecutor by day and rock star by night, he came off as disinterested in his less glamorous job, but cared about finding the right verdict. This is where people don’t like him, but I can’t say I agree. It seems fans who hate him feel that way because he goes as far as to help Apollo during trials instead of berating him at every second. But to say he wasn’t antagonistic was far from the truth. Just like his predecessors, he puts up a strong fight and rebukes Apollo at every point… until he starts to realize that the defense might be right. After three games of having prosecutors who put personal grudges and petty win records over doing their job properly (in the context of the game at least), I found it refreshing to have a guy who actually cared about serving justice as much as the playable characters, but came off as charismatic while doing so. Plus, he had some kick ass theme music!

So in the end, I’ll be the first person to admit that Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney failed to improve overall on its predecessor, but after coming off such an amazing build up that lasted three games, what really could? I know our beloved Phoenix became someone he wasn’t, Apollo never became much of anyone and some of the jumps in logic were too much to take, (especially in the final case,) but that doesn’t mean that this game can’t be enjoyed for what it was, which is a solid entry in one of the greatest DS franchises that was just starting to find its footing after the credits rolled. Since this game’s release, a proper sequel has been put on hold in favor of spin-offs, crossovers with Mr. Layton and even a brand new series, (which I’m sure you’ll be hearing about from me real soon,) but with enough support, hopefully Mr. Justice will find his way back into the court room.

And with that, the defense rests. If you’re a fan of the series and stayed away from this entry because of the negative reaction, I implore you to reconsider (yay, Kung Pow reference)! If you’re new to the series, start from the beginning with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on DS, WiiWare or iOS devices, so you can work your way to Apollo and either share our immense joy or utter disappointment with the rest of us. And besides, it was better than that Edgeworth spinoff. Now that game sucked!