Apollo Justice Ace Attorney is another one of many love it or hate it titles in the series, it’s got some pretty low lows, but also decently high highs I think, I don’t really consider this one among my personal favorites for reasons I’ll get into later, but I still very much think it’s underrated, and has a lot of great things going for it that the Phoenix Trilogy didn’t. For one compared to those games, the visuals are just on another level man, they really used the jump from the GBA to the DS is really clean man, I love the characters all look great, and the background work here is excellent, I especially really like how the court looks in this game, always found it a lot more visually pleasing than that of the original trilogy, oh and man the case intros are so freaking atmospheric, easily among the series’ best. Soundtrack is also top notch, it doesn’t quite have the emotional highs of TnT, but the stuff here is super memorable, unique, banging, and there are even some legitimately really foreboding tracks that always really get to me, Forgotten Legend especially, that shit is eerie as all hell and I adore it. As for the new gameplay features, the DS gimmicks can be a tad hit or miss, there are some fun ones like messing with the soundboard, but then some stuff like deciphering the painting in case 4 can kinda drag, though I still sorta enjoy the novelty of it ngl. The Perceive mechanic though I could probably do without, it kinda just feels like something that’s here so that they could put it as a selling point on the back of the box, and outside of the one time in the final trial, it doesn’t really have many memorable moments associated with it. Similar to JFA, the cases here are generally regarded as a mixed bag, though interestingly unlike that game, the fan favorite chapter here isn’t the final one, but the first one.

Turnabout Trump is pretty dumb classic, and for good reason, I feel that this case does a really great job at setting up what AJ is trying to go for. Phoenix Wright’s character here is easily one of my favorites in the whole series, this takes place 7 years after TnT, so it makes sense for him to feel like a somewhat different person, he’s become a lot more sleazy and somewhat lazy, but it’s still made pretty clear that behind that mask, he’s still an unrivaled genius, he’s become somewhat displeased with the law, turning to backhanded technics he would previously mock to get his achieved results, I love how it feels like the player is right there with Apollo, wanting to punch him in the face for it, this really sets up an interesting mystery with the question of just how did Phoenix get to this point. Apollo himself is a really fan protagonist, and although he doesn’t really get much when it comes to development, I actually think he makes for a pretty good self insert of the player, behind someone who admired Phoenix and red up on his previous cases, coming into this business behind shocked by the man he’d become, it’s pretty much just Raiden from MGS2, and I love that. There’s also the villain here Kristoph Gavin, who I do feel it a tad overhyped honestly, but he’s still very memorable and works great for this game, the twist with him being the culprit very out of left field, but it works because it’s set up really well, I personally don’t think Trump is one of my favorite cases in the series or really even my favorite intro case, but it is still a DAMN fine one, and it deserves its fan favorite status.

Turnabout Corner then is a case I don’t have too many strong emotions over, yet I also feel it’s a tad misunderstood, it mainly serves the purpose of introducing most of the game’s cast similar to Turnabout Sisters from the first game, there’s the assistant Trucy Wright, the prosecutor Klavier Gavin, and the Detective Ema Skye, all of which I enjoy, Trucy is a pretty fun assistant that has good chemistry with Apollo, Klavier is a really fun spin on the prosecutor trope with him actually being a pretty nice guy overall, and I really like the turn they took with Ema here, with her failing to achieve her dreams, it’s a pretty neat parallel to Phoenix Wright, and I enjoy how she can be kind of an asshole honestly. As for the case itself, I think it has a really cool setup honestly, it involving a lot of smaller crimes that eventually lead to and connect to a murder, it’s really fun slowly peeling the lairs and eventually connecting it all to find the culprit, who’s a tad generic, but a pretty solid one, in general the characters here are pretty fun, I don’t know what it is about Guy Eldoon that I really like, but idk he’s just a really neat guy. The main issue most folks seem to have with this case is that the defendant, Wocky Kitaki, is kind of an unlikable asshole who you wouldn’t really want to defend, but honestly I feel that most people kinda missed the point here, Wocky is only like 19, he’s just a dumb teen that was raised trying to be a Mafia member, of course he’s be an asshole, but I don’t think you’re defending him for HIS sake, you’re doing it for his poor parents who are desperately trying to break away from their past, and want to save their dying son, the ending with Wocky’s father is a really heartwarming moment for that, it’s a unique feeling this series doesn’t give upon victory usually, and I honestly love that. So yeah, Corner isn’t really that great per-se, but I still think it’s a fun case with some unique emotional gravitas for this franchise.

Oh boy though Turnabout Serenade, yeah this isn’t exactly a liked one now is it? I think it’s largely due to the serenade video they make you watch a bunch of times, and while yeah this crap can get pretty damn tiering, it also leads to a lot of REALLY fun and creative contradictions, the crime itself here is honestly one of my favorites in the whole series, it’s really integrated put together and I love how Apollo plays a witness role here, the fact that the defendant is a presumed 14 year old boy presumed to be blind is a tad over the top yeah, and some parts like the super heavy gun that was used could’ve been changed to make the prospect of him being the culprit more believable I think, the actual culprit is pretty fun to take down, but not really much of a noteworthy one, I find it pretty disappointing that Klavier doesn’t have much of a reaction to them being the killer considering that they’re literally in a band together, like Jesus, between this and the arest of his brother, Klavier loses so much throughout the game, and it could’ve really hit hard if they portrayed how hard it is on him, but as it is he’s mostly able to play it cool and hide it all. Back on the topic of Serenade, I like some of it’s auditions to the lore like the existence of made-up countries like Borgania, and unlike previous third cases it also continues to introduce characters who will become important later which helps it feel more substantial, yeah the plot kinda goes of the deep-end later on with all the cocoon smuggling, but idk it’s still pretty fun to solve and fits in with the conflict nicely, Serenade’s not really that good, but I also wouldn’t call it bad, it’s kinda just a bid mid ig.

And finally, Turnabout Succession. This is a really weird one honestly, it manages to have a lot of really cool stuff in it, while also kinda feeling undercooked in a lot of ways, like the final trial is by far the shortest in the whole series, Kristoph literally breaks down after a single testimony due to the jury system. I honestly kinda wish Phoenix’s final trial got to be its own case, letting this one put more screen time on Apollo and the gang, though as it is I do really like said trial, with it using the visuals from the original trilogy, it’s cute. A lot of people say Phoenix didn’t “deserve” to get a penalty for what he did, but consider he pretty much just got a random page from some random girl and considered it to be factual evidence. This is something that has happened numerous times in the original trilogy, and this here is pretty much a critique on Phoenix and why he couldn't just trust everything that’s handed to him. I do like the Mason system, those parts are pretty neat, but it alongside some other stuff actually has a lot of REALLY chilling implications which the game never really touches upon. Phenix pretty much time travels here to unravel the “truth” of the case, and this is presented as something he’s showing to the jury before the final trial. Thing is though, it’s not really made clear how much of what we see actually happened, and how much could have literally just been made up by Phoenix, considering he presents evidence in the past segments he got from the future, it may seem weird that he’s even lie about this, but consider for a second that according to what we know, Phoenix literally KNEW that Drew Misham would die in 7 years time, yet REFUSED to save him and stop the plan, why would he do that though??? The answer is revenge, the entirety of this case is just one massive plan orchestrated by Phoenix Wright to get revenge against the people who ruined his life, Kristoph is literally ALREADY in jail, yet Phoenix is petty enough to drag him down even further, and from what we know, people in Ace Attorney who have killed more than one person receive the death penalty, meaning this plan literally involved killing them both. In the end though, he can’t really be indicted on this, Kirstoph did it to himself after all. The whole thing seems to be uplifting at first, being a lesson on how sometimes the law needs to be changed, and can be flawed, but once you look deeper, you realize that no matter what, the law will ALWAYS be corrupted, such a system handled by humans is not something that can be stable. I personally believe that these themes were originally going to be explored further in sequels to Apollo Justice, but unfortunately, that never happened, and so much of the brilliant stuff that this game setup ended up falling by the wayside.


I still love Apollo Justice for what it is, it’s a fun Ace Attorney game with great characters, and a really fascinating overall story that tackles dark themes you wouldn’t expect initially, the issue with it however is that it feels like the first instrument of a trilogy, setting up a lot of plot points to be resolved in sequels, however, this game never really got a direct sequel, leaving it's story feeling incomplete.There is still a lot of good to be found here, but it doesn't live up to it's incredible potential, which is a crying shame.