Spirit of Justice reeks of desperation.

Following up a game that stifled continuity so severely left the series very little room to expand. Phoenix and Apollo’s trajectories were cut off after AA4. Athena’s poor excuse for an arc was open and shut in her debut game. What ground does the series have left to stand on? Naturally, Capcom didn’t aim to slip out of the corner they backed themselves into. They raised the stakes and cornered themselves even further.


It would be remiss of me not to mention the overt orientalism present throughout the game. The original Ace Attorney trilogy centralized a family drama around a modernized depiction of spirit channeling. The ritual was used not only as a component to multiple murder mysteries but as a conduit to express generational trauma. The design aesthetics of Kurain Village and the Fey family borrowed only from traditional Japanese architecture and fashion, harmonizing with the cosmopolitan city life of Japanifornia.

Spirit of Justice not only contains uninteresting and stagnant characters that make far worse use of spirit channeling as an in-universe plot device, but the aesthetics of Khura’in (additionally a full-blown kingdom…one of this game’s many retcons) seem to broadly take design inspiration from the Middle East and South Asia without any tact or reason. The kingdom is presented as a theocratic (while also secular?) monarchy that has a ridiculous hatred of defense attorneys and wishes to execute them alongside their wrongfully charged defendants. While AA5’s only overarching theme to stand on was the pitiful and heavy-handed “dark age of the law,” completely overturning the moral argument presented to the player in AA4, Spirit of Justice’s moral argument, if you can even call it that, disavows a fictional and vaguely oriental monarchy for having a made-up law that criminalizes being a defense attorney.
I never thought I’d say this but maybe The Great Ace Attorney should learn a thing or two from this game about being anti-monarchy
AA6 continues to cast away the character drama present in the first four games to tell a story about a strawman political viewpoint and stereotyped culture that doesn’t exist, simply to raise the stakes for the player in an act of extremely misguided fanservice.


Speaking of fanservice, all of your favorite characters are back and they’re all shells of their former selves! I could go on about how The Magical Turnabout in particular is a masterclass in character assassination. In fact, I will.

Well written characters have desires. In AA4, Ema Skye was introduced to the player as a disillusioned police detective who never accomplished her goal of becoming a forensic scientist. Her grudge against the police force extends back to her debut in Rise from The Ashes, and her bias against the current justice system go hand in hand with AA4’s broader themes of disillusionment. Her viewpoint is remarkably different from the police presence in past games, and her willingness to cooperate with Apollo and Trucy (along with her past allegiance to Phoenix) subverts the player’s expectations to create a distinct web of relationships not present in newer games.

In AA6, Ema is not a police detective anymore. She achieves her goal of becoming a forensic scientist offscreen, and her disillusionment with the justice system is cast aside completely. She no longer has greater desires, and her character is no longer multidimensional. She isn’t set up to change or grow at all.

Here’s another example. Trucy was introduced in AA4 as an assistant with a lot more agency and wit than her predecessors. She frequently held her own during courtroom conversations, stalled a trial with a fake hostage, and was brave enough to confront her family trauma in Turnabout Succession. In the post-trial conversation between Phoenix and Thalassa, Phoenix mentions that he’s the only one who knows how hurt Trucy feels deep down. She puts on a face, but never truly reckons with the evil deeds done by her father, grandfather, and Valant.

In AA6, Trucy is accused of murder during her magic show. Not only does this magic show retcon a secret fourth member into Troupe Gramarye that was entirely irrelevant to the love triangle and accident that formed Trucy and Apollo’s original backstories, but this case also seems to completely rewrite and exonerate Magnifi Gramarye from his original misdeeds. Remember that original source of Trucy’s anguish? Yeah, it’s totally erased. Magnifi is genuinely portrayed as a kind and benevolent mentor here (You know, the man who blackmailed his troupe, tried coaxing one of them into murdering him, framed his suicide after that failed...). The game still tried to keep her concealed anguish as a character trait, so we’re left with a Trucy who feigns a smile for no discernable reason.

I talked about Apollo’s rewriting in my AA5 review, so I’ll keep this one short; once again, he is portrayed as a protégé who looks up to Phoenix, when his debut game had them act more like puppet and puppet master respectively. It’s the same in AA6, Apollo simply sees Phoenix as a generic mentor and the tension he felt towards Phoenix (which also fueled his desires as a character!) is completely gone.


I think it’s funny that spirit seances were chosen as the new big mechanic for this game even though the video analysis minigames in past entries were like, universally hated among fans.


Look, I could go on about how the Ace Attorney series effectively backed itself into a corner with stagnant characters and childish shonen writing (…and I probably will in a separate review for the Trilogy release), but in short, this series is left with nowhere to go. Phoenix Wright as a character is a husk of his former self, Apollo Justice is whatever the hell each game wants him to be, and Athena Cykes is a focus grouped cookie cutter “new protagonist” whose goal of exonerating Simon has been accomplished, leaving her with no more desires as well, effectively also making her a husk of what little depth she had.

Also I’ll say it as many times as necessary: DLC cases in this manner are inherently depraved. Remember when RPGs were sold as full games? Oh right, that means there has to be an actual cohesive story arc.


The stakes have been maxed out, and we’re 6 numerical entries in. This is unsustainable. What next, yet another hostage situation?

note: I played the Nintendo Switch version of this game on the trilogy collection, though I am logging it as this since I am exclusively talking about this third title

If you want to hear my opinions on the previous Ace Attorney games up until this point, I have reviews from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney up until Dual Destinies. As these games tend to be pretty similar in terms of their mechanics and ideas, I don’t feel the need to repeat myself every time- especially given I have yet to reach a point where I feel negatively towards these wonderful games.

With that being said, I am just going to outline my thoughts on the game rather than weave them into a more essay-esque review. The TLDR is that I thought this game was fantastic, but if you want to know why..

-Insanely great time here. I wasn’t expecting it given the first two were so strong, but this is probably my favorite of the Apollo Justice trilogy and has some of my favorite moments in the entire series.
-Returning cast is fantastic as always. While I think some were a little underused- Athena definitely feels like she was thrown in because they had to and not necessarily because she was integral to this story, for example- but even that criticism is outweighed heavily by how strong everyone is presented, and they do give some smart time allocation too. To counter my own criticism, having the starting intro case for Apollo and Athena be defending Trucy, for example, is a great way to give her some screen time while serving as a compelling backdrop for a case. Phoenix is used in a really fun and unique way given the new setting for his trials, and I love that they give a chance to go up against him briefly later on. Apollo really shines for me here especially, though. I love his story- and while being a little silly he never brought up his childhood in the past, I can easily overlook that given the story told here for him is genuinely compelling and serves as a great character arc and story for him. I was very invested, and it really solidified him as one of my favorite characters. I also loved the return of Maya- I think it could be argued it was a bit of a cheap way to tickle nostalgia.. But it’s Maya- it works and I was so excited to see her once more. Some other highlights were the defense pairing of Athena and Simon from the previous game- I loved that dynamic and was glad to see Simon again given how much I enjoyed him, and I loved the banter from Ema, Larry, Pearl, Edgeworth- and really just everyone. I only wish Gumshoe made a little cameo to round it all out, but what we got was excellent.
-The new characters didn’t hit with me right off the bat- but as I played more I found myself loving them more alongside it. By the end, I think this has one of the strongest rosters of new characters. Nahyuta initially seemed a little dull, but I found his story fascinatingly compelling and full of some great twists. Rayfa is a little grating at the start, but in a way that lends itself to some excellent character growth. While in different ways, Alhbi and Datz ended up being some of my biggest highlights just due to how fun they were to talk to. My favorite of the bunch, however, was Dhurke. His personality is so fun to be with, but his dynamic and story with Apollo is one of the series highlights for me. The twists and turns by the end of his story were executed amazingly and I loved every second. The lineup of antagonists were also really fun as all Ace Attorney games tend to be.
-The ramped up stakes in this game led to such a tense and fresh dynamic all around. Being under the threat of execution upon failure is just an inherently fun and exciting new spin on the courtroom battles, and I think beyond that it ties into the story in a fascinating way to unravel, and provides some equally fascinating character moments and thematic identity. Which lends itself to..
-The cases here are excellent. With the exception of case 4 (which as I said I loved the Athena Blackquill dynamic and had some standout witnesses to cross-examine) being pretty filler-y, I feel like this is one of the most fun lineups of cases in the series and the way it crescendos was presented perfectly. Case 1 isn’t my favorite intro case in a vacuum, but it teaches the new setting, stakes, and characters wonderfully. Case 2 is another great introduction to the other side of the cast and is just a ton of fun altogether. Case 3 is pretty high tier for me, with a great ramp-up of mystery, character drama, twists, and a great exploration to the overarching narrative and ideas. And then case 5 is about as wonderful a finale could possibly be for this story, and I think it isn’t far behind other final cases like the respective for Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations. Excellent stuff here. The DLC case was also excellent.
-The new divination mechanic is an outstanding evolution for the series in a gameplay sense, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t return in the future- given the spirit medium backdrop and mysticism of Ace Attorney, it is a wonderful, creative, and incredibly fun mechanic and it really adds to the games identity. I loved it, especially with it being alongside the other mechanics like Psyche Locks or Perceiving.
-Great presentation all around. The animations are so, so good- and the character design is out of this world as always. It always fascinates me how expressive everyone is. The music matches the quality, too.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about this game. It clicked with me just as all the other games have, and I had a consistently fun time through the six cases. With one of my favorite stories and some of my favorite characters in the series as a whole, I think of Apollo’s trilogy this is the one that gets closest to the Phoenix Wright trilogy for me. I would have to think about it for a long while, but this could be in my top 3 so far depending on what I’m feeling about Justice for All on the day of debate. Either way, this game was a blast and a perfect ending to the trilogy for me. My highest praise is that I played six Ace Attorney games in the span of like a month and a half and it never once got dull. I love this series !!

the game rocks! lots of course corrections from dual destinies to mesh things better into the overall franchise while still maintaining the sort of batshit absurdity that seems to sort of give this 3ds duology its identity.

yes of course the extra backstory for apollo is kind of ridiculous but i would say hardly moreso than all the retcons in aa3 and everyone knows that game rules. in my opinion it works great and finally gives him a lot more of his own stuff to do. i found it weird that in aa4, apollo's titular game, he is largely just going through phoenix's story and battles for him (still prolly the best one besides tgaa tho).

there is no case i did not enjoy, although i will say for as fun as the game is, a bit more focus would have been good. if it were up to me, one improvement i'd make is i'd spend all 5 cases in khurain besides the first trial of case 5 and save the trucy thing in case 2 and the simon case 4 for the inevitable aa7 with thena.

datz arebal best witness ever lol

Spirit of Justice vai ser meu último Ace Attorney por agora, desde novembro estou fazendo uma maratona da franquia e FINALMENTE terminei a timeline principal, e nossa, foi uma grande jornada hein.

Spirit foi um jogo que não me pegou tanto, boa parte dos casos achei só normal mesmo e o final apesar de ser muito único e fechar perfeitamente o personagem do Apollo (caba que gosto muito) não supera os casos finais de outros jogos pra mim.

Ainda assim, é um final digno, quanto mais a franquia avança mais os finais vão ficando cada vez mais malucos de seu próprio jeito, Spirit of Justice tem uma trama épica de revolução te esperando nesse final.

Não sei o que o futuro Ace Attorney 7 vai ser, mas espero que seja focado na Athena, porque eu quero muito ver um dia todo mundo de volta a ativa em mais um jogo com uma trama extremamente foda, eu confio.

Spirit of Justice is a bit of a complicated game for me. It starts out promising, but I feel it never fully realizes some of it's ideas, and instead goes in other directions instead of backing up what's already been established. A lot of the game didn't sit right with me, but before I go into what I didn't like so much, let me start with the many things I did like, because I did really enjoy SoJ.

I: Regardless of What I Say, I Think Spirit of Justice is a Good Game
Regardless of how my feelings may seem, I do think SoJ is a genuinely good entry to this series and very worth playing. Solving the game's mysteries was especially fun. A lot of them are based around scenarios that seem pretty cut-and-dry, where you hardly have any information and the only plausible explanation seems to be that your client was the only person who could've done it. Many Ace Attorney games follow this structure, but I particularly like how SoJ frames a lot of it's mysteries around locked rooms and special areas. It leads to many of the puzzles themselves flowing very nicely.

I particularly enjoyed how 6-2, The Magical Turnabout, handled this. I won't spoil too much of what happens, since SoJ is now pretty relevant again due to the Apollo Justice Trilogy, but figuring out the mystery around how this murder happened and how your client didn't do it is really incredible. It was easily my favorite case in the game.

A lot of the reason I like The Magical Turnabout is actually another cool thing about SoJ. Trials feel like they wrap up fast. Magical Turnabout, for instance, is 1 day 1 trial. 6-1 and 6-4 are trials without investigations. Cases in this game feel faster paced, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, but I think it's a decent change for the series.

Additionally, the character writing in this game is really good! Like DD, I tend to enjoy a couple of the newer characters more than the returning ones, but even the returning cast is mostly all around enjoyable. This game has basically fixed most of the issues I had with Dual Destinies' character writing. Villains are no longer goofy and feel like they have more to them than being evil (mostly). Characters feel less one note in general. Throughout my playthrough I ended up liking a lot of the side characters; the cast here is genuinely really good. It does have a few misses, though.

AA6 has a lot of positives. On paper, it seems like an excellent game, fantastic even. I would agree, but I think the game fumbles on the execution of many of it's great ideas. Ideas like:

II. The Absolute Failure of a Character That Is Nahyuta Sahdmadhi
If you like Nahyuta, that's fine. I'm very sorry, though. I hardly have anything positive to say about this guy aside from the fact that his theme is good and I like his design. There's not a lot of Ace Attorney characters I genuinely dislike, and most of the time when I do dislike them, they're only around for 1 case or so. Nahyuta however, is one of my least favorite main characters to come out of this series BY FAR.

Imagine a shoddy attempt at making another Edgeworth, except he’s instead an annoying prick who’s obsessed with winning and has the personality of white bread while cycling through the same couple of insults that boil down to telling you you’ll turn into (insert creature) and burn in some kind of hell. He has no witty banter, no smart counter-arguments, and not even a fun gimmick. He’s literally just a brick wall that does nothing except waste your time in court and add nothing meaningful to the courtroom sections.

He’s extremely missed potential, and you have to deal with him for three and a half of the 6 cases in this game. I was already tired of him by the end of the second case. The game wants you to like him, and I want to, since he's a major character, but there's nothing that makes me want to like him and it's frustrating.

III. The Failings of Khura'in
There's so much I could say about why Khura'in negatively fails for me. Firstly, It's a place that seems grander than it actually is. The whole premise of SoJ is that this is a huge kingdom, yet you hardly meet a lot of people from Khura'in though-out the game. This is of course, probably due to the fact that half of the game's cases are in America and the others are in Khura'in, but it leaves the narrative very confused. The game clearly wants you to be invested in the story of Khura'in, but it's difficult to when most of the information about the country isn't even revealed until a super long and poorly spread out info-dump in 6-5. Khura’in feels really tiny and lifeless in a game where it’s supposed to be the big new locale, so much to the point where it hardly feels like a country.

Another issue I have with Khura'in also has to do with the Defense Culpability Ace itself. I'm not gonna elaborate on it too hard, as I'd like this to be pretty spoiler free, but having something that artificially raises the stakes in every Khura'in trial sucks. It doesn't make me worried for the characters, it just feels like it's trying to randomly build tension without understanding what actually makes you worried about characters.

The DC Act also feels so not Ace Attorney. It's genuinely baffling how less grounded the game becomes as a result of it. The thing I always loved about Ace Attorney was how immersive and real the worlds felt; It’s hard to get immersed in Khur’ain as a place the same way you can get immersed in the unique ancientness of Kurain Village (No, not Khura'in; they're different places, yes it might be confusing), for instance. Khura'in feels so much less personal, to me. It doesn't feel like this could be a real place, and feels instead oddly like a fantasy adventure town plopped in Ace Attorney.

IV. The Complicated Role of Maya Fey
Maya Fey, in the Phoenix Wright trilogy (AA1-3), was basically the heart and soul of that game for many people. I love Maya Fey, she's one of my favorite characters from these games. With Maya, Shu Takumi had managed to create a girl that was funny because she was an isolated village girl who was overly excited about the world around her. Maya Fey has so much to her in the original trilogy. She's strong to ensure the people around her are happy and doing well, and the whole trilogy practically always involves her, emotionally or spiritually, the entire time. She's a pivotal and necessary character for the narrative of those games.

So, to commemorate the return of one of the series' fan favorite characters for the first time in a mainline game since 2004, SoJ chooses to honor this by doing a terrible job with the implementation of Maya in the game.

Maya Fey is terrible in this game, and it's not even her fault. In SoJ, Maya's big issue is that she doesn't get to do anything. Whenever she's around, it's because the plot needs her and that's it. She's never just hanging around with Phoenix in Khura'in, whenever she's around, it's always because she's being used as a plot device and it really sucks.

The one case where she isn't forced to be a plot device is Turnabout Time Traveler. One case out of 3 Khura'in cases. Maya being stuck to only having a role in Turnabout Time Traveler sucks when she's supposed to be one of the big things about the game. She's an important character to this series and it really sucks how SoJ refuses to do anything with her.

V: Apollo Justice
Look. There's a lot I wanna say about Apollo in SoJ. Most of it is spoilers, though, and this review has already gotten long enough. Like Dual Destinies, Apollo has another backstory, and I actually find the content of Apollo's new backstory to be fine, it's just the way it's executed in the final case of the game and how it connects to the story that I don't like. That's incredibly spoilers, though.

So that's Spirit of Justice. With the release of Apollo Justice Trilogy, Spirit of Justice is relevant again. Will it have the same staying power the games of the original trilogy has in game discussion? Maybe not. But I particularly enjoyed Spirit of Justice. It's a game that has a lot of good ideas, and even if it doesn't follow up on all of them very well, I still greatly enjoyed my time. Spirit of Justice is a good game, and if you like Ace Attorney you'll probably like it. But for as good as it is, it misses quite a bit and I don't think it matches up to the quality of most other Ace Attorney games. Here's hoping the next game ends up being more in line with how good the previous entries were.

Played this for nearly an hour before deciding enough was enough. The Yamazaki team have been one disappointment after another, managing to squander the themes which made the series compelling beyond the "wow, cool mystery!" aspect.

Spirit of Justice revels in the worst excesses the franchise: bloated scripts, a fetishisation of technology and black-and-white characterisation of the cast. Add the weird orientalist feel, the setting's naïve portrayal as well as the fact that almost fifteen years in we still have to deal with fixed speed textboxes and you've utterly lost me.

It's as if every title from Investigations 1 onwards were building up to this: a complete reimagining of the series, shaped one game at a time into something alien beyond the most surface aspects. The writing had been on the wall since the gutless Investigations 2, the hints it left of things to come taking monstrous shape in the dull Dual Destinies. Spirit of Justice is just the final form of this new beast, one living in a courtroom-shaped hyperreality entirely detached from its origins.

The game enjoys a healthy rating, the series still has fans clamoring for a seventh mainline entry. As for me, if things don't change drastically going forward I can safely say I'm good, thank you. Time for this old geezer to step off the ride. You kids have fun.