It only made sense for the follow up game to the masterful Trials and Tribulations to be one that wanted to act almost as a soft reboot for things as opposed to trying to build off a plot that had already established such a powerful sense of finality to it, and Apollo Justice fills this role pretty well. This is a game that feels like the embodiment of all the best and worst elements of the Ace Attorney series up to this point in time, both extremes cranked up to ridiculous degrees to make for quite a bizarre experience. All the standard hallmarks of the series are present, with the wacky (and often annoying) witnesses being even more ridiculous, the conspiracies running even deeper, the cases being even more silly and convoluted, the list goes on. It's such a shame then that this approach ends up making the middle portion of the game as bland and sometimes outright bad as it does, because with a bit of work to the core approach to make those bits of filler more engaging, this would perhaps be peak Ace Attorney.

The tone that Apollo Justice goes for is a bizarre one that simultaneously feels far darker and more outlandish and silly, and I'm not sure I like how its utilised for a good portion of the game. A lot of the themes presented dive deeper into the broken legal system that pervades the series, but it often feels difficult to truly be invested in what's being discussed when everyone feels like a ridiculous cartoon character turned up to the highest degree. While these games have never been a stranger to utter absurdity, it just goes a bit far in this one where I feel as if basically none of the characters act like actual people to any degree and are defined exclusively by their character gimmicks. Basically feels as if you took the infamous circus case from Justice For All, and then made basically every character follow the same approach to ultimately culminate in an experience that either should've fully committed to its ridiculousness or toned these elements down considerably. On the other hand though, the more ridiculous elements of the game have their own benefit when applied to some of the more convoluted and insane twists this game can bring out in the high points of the game. The downright ridiculous power moves that go on during these end up being cool enough for some of the finer plot details being underwhelming to feel entirely forgivable, which in itself is a pretty cool feat (even though obviously I'd have liked some of that to have been fleshed out as well).

I also wish that a bit more time was spent actually focusing on the titular character of the game instead of devolving into "Phoenix Wright 4" during most of the important moments, as while yeah, it made me appreciate him as a character even more than I had before, it further has the character of Apollo himself feel rather flat, which is a problem when you consider that you are still playing from his perspective for the majority of your time here. There are so many weird little character choices here that affect the game as a whole in some pretty negative ways that I just can't fully overlook even beyond Apollo himself as well. Klavier Gavin makes for a pretty bland prosecutor from moment to moment thanks to the way he just feels a bit too "fair" throughout, and while this could be seen as further representation of the game's legal system being so broken that both sides of the case essentially need to work together to get anything done, it's just off nonetheless. It feels harder to get invested in the cases themselves when you don't have as strong and opposing force to go up against, and half the answers basically feel handed to you by another character, once again weakening Apollo's own sense of resolve and motivation and making the player often feel as if they weren't the ones to have contributed as strongly to the events as they should have.

Despite my complaints, half of this game still feels like some of the best stuff that the series has had to offer and it's just a real shame that the other half stops it from truly being amongst the greats in the series. Too many tonal issues and smaller bits and pieces end up piling up by the end of the game and a certain sense of charm gets lost in the process as well, but at the same time, it's still a solid game that 'd probably think higher of if it wasn't competing with such awesome experiences you can find elsewhere in the Ace Attorney franchise. Give it a play nonetheless though if you enjoyed the other games, it's certainly got some interesting ideas bouncing around especially once everything all connects in the final act.