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.

Seventh Lair is a weird one, and honestly I'm still kinda conflicted about a lot of it, but overall I think it does more that I like compared to some of the questionable stuff. This was released as an "April Fools game" so I don't really think it's worth getting too up in arms about it, but I don't think this being a spin-off of The house in Fata Morgana is really doing it any favors. For a bit I was kinda worried it would try to tie itself into the Fata Morgana in some canonical way, but thankfully it's made clear by the end that this is just an AU, so I'm cool with some of the cast being out of character, considering they're just depictions of the original cast.

The writing has some low points, particularly I don't care much for all the Isekai stuff, the music in those sections kinda such, and most of the jokes are pretty generic, and also MAN did they do the Yukimasa proxy here dirty, it's honestly really dirty just how watered down his character has become, so yeah that part didn't really do it for me, and it's a shame how much time it takes up though.

With all of that said though, I weirdly ended up kinda loving this? While not touching upon them much, I adore how this game tackles struggles many people struggle with in the internet age, from loneliness, to hiding behind a mask, to gender dysphoria, it's really cool getting to see that kinda thing in a visual novel like this, and I particularly really resonated with the struggles of the main character struggling to find a planform and desperately wanting people to actually invest themselves in his art, he knows that in the vast reaches of the internet it's pretty much impossible, but also that some people HAVE succeeded, and that jealousy really hit dangerously close to home for me. It all comes to ahead with the final twist and the sequence thereafter, which was heartbreaking as hell. Keika Hanada ones again proves themselves to be the undisputed king of tragedies, and the one here is unironically almost up to par with some of Fata Morgana's best, which for an "April Fool's game" is insane. I do kinda wish they would've made a specific song kinda bad on purpose, that would've hit REALLY hard I feel, but still I get the vision, and it end up great in my opinion.

So yeah this is still kind of a really weird one, but I enjoyed enough of what it did to think it was worth my time, and I can't wait to see what Novectacle has in store for us in the future!

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, easily a fan favorite entry in the series, and for reasons that are pretty easy to understand, compared to its predecessors, TnT has a far more dynamic story that feels a bit more like a full story rather than a few semi-connected episodes, it fleshes out old characters, introduces some new great ones, and wraps up the trilogy in a really satisfying way. Trials and Tribulations is a game I do love, though I do have some personal issues with it that sorta prevent it from being my favorite. Still though, this is an undeniable highlight of the series, though the gameplay is quite literally 100% unchanged from JFA which I do think is just a tad lame, but thankfully the soundtrack here is my favorite of the original trilogy, it kinda has a bit of a cheap-tune feel to it which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or coffee in this case), but the compositions here are still really catchy, epic, and emotional, even if there aren’t all too many new ones, with the game opting to reuse a lot of tracks from the earlier games which I’m cool with. Anyways, time to look at the cases!

Turnabout Memories starts the game with a REALLY compelling hook, putting you in control of Mia Fey during her second ever trial, depicting her first encounter with Phoenix Wright as she defends him in court, eventually managing to convict the infamous Dahlia Hawthorne. This set-up does a far better job at contextualizing the tutorials compared to The Lost Turnabout, it’s really fun getting to see Grosberg and Payne through this new lens, and it does a great job subtle hiding things from you which created further intrigue, it is Mia’s second trial after all. The murder itself is not all too complex, but being the first chapter of the game, it does a really great job, easily the best opener in the trilogy.

The Stolen Turnabout is a really fun and subversive one! Part of me does wish the premise a case where the crime isn’t murder wouldn’t have been dropped halfway through, as I think the series could really benefit from covering more non-homicide crimes, but at the very least the little bit we do get of the Mask☆DeMasque case is really cool. Ron Delite is a really great defendant, as soon as he starts screaming about being Mask☆DeMasque, you immediately think that’s BS, and proceed to prove him innocent of that, but later when it turns out he was telling the truth in order to avoid a different crime, it’s a really surprising and memorable twist. The highlight of the case though is easily its villain, Luke Atmey, who pulls off one of the absolute dumbest murder plans in the whole series which literally INVOLVED him getting arrested over theft to avoid his actual crime. He’s very much just a flat jerk, but man he’s just so fun, unraveling everything with him and the whole blackmail ring he has going on is just really enjoyable, and the final testimony where you have to hold one correct statement out of like 15 is really cool. it’s a simple fun dumb case, which is NOT a knock against it whatsoever. I love how it lets you acclimate back into the series and sorta transitions you from the second game to the third, supported by the returning Adrian Andrews, who’s just a joy to see actually doing a lot better with her life, even if not quite perfect. Maya and Pearl get a lot of fun screentime, We get to see Larry again who was MIA during the last game, and as always, we’re introduced to the game’s main prosecutor, this time being the weirdo coffee lover Godot, who I’ll touch more on in case 5, but for now I’ll just say is a really fun rival for the game. But anyways yeah! Not a highlight of the series or anything, but a really creative one nevertheless.

Recipe for Turnabout then is kinda also just a really dumb fun one, though it’s not really quite as creative as the case its following up. I feel like your enjoyment of this one kinda really depends on how much you really gel with the game’s humor, like you pretty much discover NOTHING during the first trial, kinda just dicking around with Victor Kudo for an hour, which I usually would’ve found frustrating, but its saved by the games great writing, with there being a lot of “funny moments™”. That mostly comes from everyone BUT Victor though, because he, alongside others like Jean Armstrong and Lisa Basil, I really don’t care much for at all. Viola Cadaverini is easily the biggest disappointment here though, she has a really cool design and backstory, but her arc kinda just abruptly ends out of nowhere which is really disappointing. My favorite character beats here probably come from Gumshoe and the returning Maggey Byrde who is once again the defendant. They have a pretty cute dynamic, and Gumshoe coming in clutch near the end is a really cool moment, it’s not really much of a focus, but you know it’s neat. Once again the villain is a highlight though, Furio Tigre is kinda just a really dumb angry guy who is inexplicably red yeah, but again, I find him funni so it’s cool. So yeah I think this case is good enough, though it does kinda feel undercooked (eh) in some places, like the whole setup at the start with the culprit pretending to be Phoenix and failing to defend Maggey on purpose is really cool! But the game really doesn’t do anything with that setup which is really lame, like you could completely write that plotpoint out and barely anything would really be hindered, it really just screams mispotential and I wish THAT part was played around with more. But I mean eh, the case is fun to play through, I like the crime method, motivation, and backstory associated, and the finale with Phoenix pulling a fast one on Tigre is really creative, which is good enough for me.

But alright, now we’re finally getting to the big boys! Turnabout Beginnings starts with one of my favorite case opening sequences in the series, the atmosphere with the cold blue computer screen taking a look back at the case from ages past is just really chilling in the best way possible. This being Mia’s first ever case, there’s both a neat sense of finally finding some answers to just what was fully going on in Turnabout Memories, but also a really great sense of dramatic irony, as you KNOW who Dahlia Hawthorne is and that she’s bad news, but also that Mia Fey is doomed to lose this trial. This cases strongest suit is EASILY its atmosphere, even past the opening the whole thing just has this dreary dark feel to it, with the blurry old photo of the decaying bridge upon with the crime was committed, and everything just feels a tad off, not even the judge is the same as usual, and you get to go against Miles Edgeworth at his absolute cockiest, which provides a lot of great moments, all leading up to that absolutely CHILLING climax where the defendant Terry Fawles literally commits suicide on the wittness stand, regardless of if he knew his actions would lead to that or not, it’s extremely chilling, and Diego Armando responding by literally breaking his coffee cup out of sheer rage, with the blood of his glass-scratched hands literally dripping down his arm, MAN it’s such a fucking strong moment something about it just feels like a taboo as REALLY been broken. It's really here where it’s semented to the player just how evil Dahlia really is, you know she’ll end up getting arrested which is cool, but still it’s impossible not to be furious here. I know that as the years have gone on, this case along with Dahlia herself have grown to be pretty divisive, what with the game painting her as a pure evil which, and the defendant who has a pretty large age gap dating her, I feel like the intent was that she was manipulating people into doing her bidding from even a young age, but yeah… looking back now it is kinda awkward which sucks, I can kinda overlook it because this didn’t bother me back when I first played TnT, seeing as I was too young to really understand what was so wrong with the situation, but I wouldn’t blame you if this aspect kinda puts you off the case. Still though, I really do love this one, it’s really engaging throughout, and set up the finale superbly.

And here we have it, Bridge to the Turnabout! The final case in the original trilogy and easily among the most beloved in the series. As a finale, this case honestly excels in pretty much every way, loose ends set up throughout the whole series thus far are neatly tied together, pretty much every major character from all games is presents, and it generally just ends in a really epic and memorable fashion, Though they don’t really progress the plot much, I love the segments in which Wright is out of commission and you get to take control of Edgeworth for the first time, he works surprisingly well as a protagonist, and this framework was basically what the Ace Attorney Investigations games would go on to be based on, Edgeworth is generally a lot more held back outside of the courtroom which is an aspect of his character I feel a lot of people tend to miss, his interactions with Gumshoe are great, and I love that he gets some semblance of peace with Fransizka. The case itself largely revolves around Iris, who mysteriously looks like Dahlia and is later revealed to be her twin sister, I personally like Iris, and I think the twist with her being the one who was dating Phoenix all along was good, but I do have some issues with how she connects to the overall plot, particularly I found her and Dahlia benign secretly connected to the Fey clan felt a tad forced in order to tie things together, and while I why it was done, I feel that this case goes a little too hard using spirit channeling as a crux, I was fine with it as long as it didn’t interfere with the crimes, but personally it just makes this murder plan feel sorta cheap, even if it’s really cool getting to see Maya’s mother, and Bikini is a really fun and likable witness. I know a lot of people really get annoyed with Larry here, but eh, again I think the court segment with him is funny enough. by the end, I do still really enjoy Dahlia Hawthorne’s role here and her take down, though she’s definitely far from the best villain in the series as the game could’ve portrayed her as a tad more gray, and when Iris asks you to forgive her, it really just feels like too little too late. And then we go to the final confrontation against the games TRUE final culprit, Godot, who’s easily one of the best characters in the trilogy, I know a lot of people dislike him because he’s kinda sexist, but to that I say: let characters have flaws, Godot literally commits murder, but it’s too much to like him just because he has cringe opinions on woman? Godot is a flawed character with dumb, twisted worldviews, but that just what makes him so compelling, he’s so hell bent on his petty revenge against Wright, but at the same time he’s willing to throw away pretty much everything just so that he could save Maya here, he’s wonderfly gray in the best way possible, his relationship with Mia is really believable I find, and MAN, it’s kinda just a plot dump, but the moment where he reveals his backstory and motives hits so hard every time, largely thanks to his second theme song, “The Bitter Taste of Truth” one of the best in the whole freaking series honestly. And this has been said to death, but yeah, the final moment with Pursuit 2001 playing and Mia’s shadow backing Phoenix up with nailing Godot down, instant classic man, so freaking good.

At the end of the day, yeah I love Trials and Tribulations! I think it’s a tad more flawed than most do, but it has enough hard hitting fun and emotional moments to make up for that, I don’t care much for the actual overarching plot, but the characters here easily make up for that, this was the perfect finale to the trilogy, and despite being far from the series best, from the perspective of people who just played the original trilogy and called it a day, yeah man, I can see it.