This review contains spoilers
I feel that Ace Attorney and Yakuza are the only two video game franchises where I couldn't allow their faults to hold me back from loving each game. Ace Attorney's way of carrying itself instantly gives me a feel that not many games have managed.
Spirit of Justice is probably the most flawed Ace Attorney game, right ahead of Justice for All. The entire emotional core of SOJ hinges on the idea that you can look past the deep, deep retcons that plague the game. As the "new protagonist", Apollo has been fighting for relevancy the last two games, and it is quite clear that the new team is equally fighting to carry Apollo on after Takumi gave very little room for expansion. This means that Apollo's now 3 backstories have to attempt to coexist on a single cohesive timeline. It was never going to not feel awkward, but despite all of that, i feel that Apollo's third story present in Spirit of Justice, just may be his best, and the peak of his arc. SOJ sees the franchise take its first change in setting in the mainline series. Instead of Japanifornia, we now take the story to the fictional kingdom of Khura’in, where lawyers are nonexistent, and verdicts are handed down by a very flawed and misguided seance. In the very first case, Phoenix bursts into court and looks death in the face as he fights for the right to a fair trial. It is the absolute highest the stakes have ever been in AA, and I found myself speeding through the case just by how enthralling this new scenario managed to be. It wasn't then until the second case that my hype deflated significantly.
Spirit of Justice has a very confused, and two-sided structure. Where 3 of its 5 main cases revolve around the very politically charged revolution of Khura’in, the other two remaining cases slot in between these "main story" chapters, and tell very inconsequential filler stories. The first filler case even has the balls to step on Takumi's feet with retcons to one of the stories he wrote for Apollo Justice. Yet the second still somehow gets worse, as it features not a single investigation stage, only 2 parts of a single trial. It just comes across as the team not writing enough of the Khura’in plot, so to fill the quota of 5 cases, they pull some meaningless stories out. The cases aren't awful by themselves, I was sufficiently entertained by both, but it kills the pacing when the plot in Khura’in is so fast, and impactful in comparison. There is absolutely nothing wrong with less intensive cases, but the way it is implemented here is poor to say the least.
By the time the final case came around however, I found that my interest in the actual core plot was entirely cemented once I began to see how everything fit together. The plot with Dhurke and the royal family is excellently thought out and realized, and Dhurke's deeply personal relationship with Apollo served to ultimately give me the motivation to see the mystery through to the end. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at Apollo's decision by the end of the game, but I really don't know if that was because of Apollo's emotional arc, or because I came to realize that this was the end of the Ace Attorney saga.... for now.
Spirit of Justice is probably the most flawed Ace Attorney game, right ahead of Justice for All. The entire emotional core of SOJ hinges on the idea that you can look past the deep, deep retcons that plague the game. As the "new protagonist", Apollo has been fighting for relevancy the last two games, and it is quite clear that the new team is equally fighting to carry Apollo on after Takumi gave very little room for expansion. This means that Apollo's now 3 backstories have to attempt to coexist on a single cohesive timeline. It was never going to not feel awkward, but despite all of that, i feel that Apollo's third story present in Spirit of Justice, just may be his best, and the peak of his arc. SOJ sees the franchise take its first change in setting in the mainline series. Instead of Japanifornia, we now take the story to the fictional kingdom of Khura’in, where lawyers are nonexistent, and verdicts are handed down by a very flawed and misguided seance. In the very first case, Phoenix bursts into court and looks death in the face as he fights for the right to a fair trial. It is the absolute highest the stakes have ever been in AA, and I found myself speeding through the case just by how enthralling this new scenario managed to be. It wasn't then until the second case that my hype deflated significantly.
Spirit of Justice has a very confused, and two-sided structure. Where 3 of its 5 main cases revolve around the very politically charged revolution of Khura’in, the other two remaining cases slot in between these "main story" chapters, and tell very inconsequential filler stories. The first filler case even has the balls to step on Takumi's feet with retcons to one of the stories he wrote for Apollo Justice. Yet the second still somehow gets worse, as it features not a single investigation stage, only 2 parts of a single trial. It just comes across as the team not writing enough of the Khura’in plot, so to fill the quota of 5 cases, they pull some meaningless stories out. The cases aren't awful by themselves, I was sufficiently entertained by both, but it kills the pacing when the plot in Khura’in is so fast, and impactful in comparison. There is absolutely nothing wrong with less intensive cases, but the way it is implemented here is poor to say the least.
By the time the final case came around however, I found that my interest in the actual core plot was entirely cemented once I began to see how everything fit together. The plot with Dhurke and the royal family is excellently thought out and realized, and Dhurke's deeply personal relationship with Apollo served to ultimately give me the motivation to see the mystery through to the end. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at Apollo's decision by the end of the game, but I really don't know if that was because of Apollo's emotional arc, or because I came to realize that this was the end of the Ace Attorney saga.... for now.