This is it. My ultimate review. You knew it was coming eventually.
Is there anyone who hasn't played Ace Attorney though? I have to imagine there's always someone.
I've been playing the Ace Attorney series (or Phoenix Wright in Europe) for decades. I remember trying it on an NDS emulator way back in 2005 when I could barely get 5fps on it.
When I say decades, I mean decades. It's a trilogy I come back to every 2 or 3 years - it's the perfect wind-down games that you can play while falling asleep because it only moves when you do.
Ace Attorney is a visual novel at heart. It took me years to realize, but that's why once I did I started looking for more visual novels in this style. I realized I didn't dislike visual novels necessarily, I just needed the right ones in the right conditions.
When I say Ace Attorney, I mean the original trilogy: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations.
In my opinion, the original trilogy is meant to be played as one game. It's not that each game builds off the last (though they do follow a precise timeline over a few years) - in fact, each game is separated into 4 different cases that have little connection to one another, except through Phoenix, the titular lawyer, and the prosecutor for the game.
But the reason you play through all of it is for the fifth case in Trials and Tribulations. The one that ties everything together between the prosecutors and Phoenix's own past. The entire trilogy is very good, but what you really look forward to is that fifth case. It's full of plot twists following the short-mid-long formula, as I call it. Give readers short-term problems, mid-term answers, long-term plot twists. Things that you thought you figured out get recontextualized with a twist, and then twisted further at the end. Stuff that you already solved and moved on from comes back in a different way, or only fully makes sense later.
What's funny is every time I replay the trilogy I think differently of it. Years ago I thought the twist in the last case was incredible. Then I replayed the games at the beginning of this year and thought it was good, but not amazing or anything. I think it means different things depending on which era of your life you play it. With that said due to my latest playthrough, I think ever17, Virtue's Last Reward, and Paranormasight's twists are better.
But this last case, case 5 on game 3, is still incredible. It's a very nice farewell to the trilogy, the ending that ties everything together and a way for Capcom to thank the players for sticking with them for so long. The only drawback is that it introduces pivotal characters only for this case or game, so the effect is kinda lessened because you didn't grow with them over several games. You do get to know these new characters and appreciate them, but I can't help but think how much cooler it might have been if they had made an appearance in other games, even briefly. I don't want to spoil it but it's basically about Phoenix's past even though you never, ever heard about it before in any of the games. So it's kinda dumped on you as "this is how it is now".
What is Phoenix Wright even about anyway? He's a fledgling lawyer in the first game, barely 24 and bumbling his way to victory. But, he never gives up, no matter how bad things get for his client. And he always seeks the truth, no matter where it might take him. And in the end, against all odds, he makes it out.
You can clearly tell they got more comfortable writing Ace Attorney games as time went on. The first game is shockingly short, though it can be explained by needing to get people acquainted with the mechanics. I think we all thought we were gonna need to learn law to play it at first lol. It's a visual novel where you progress by presenting the right evidence on the right statement, so two conditions. There's no alternative routes or endings, it's pretty straightforward. As they got more comfortable they started making the games harder and introducing new mechanics. The second game was kinda weaker for using not only evidence but profiles - meaning you can present either a piece of evidence, or a character profile on a statement. It makes the game needlessly harder and they correctly removed it for the third game.
These stories live and die on their characters, and everyone in Phoenix Wright is larger-than-life in their own way. At its core it's drama between Phoenix and the prosecutors. The first game is actually pretty down-to-earth and, like I said, absurdly short. I think the third game is about as long as 1 and 2 combined, or at least it feels like it. The characters get progressively more outlandish as time goes on, but it works. Except for the circus case, I hated everyone there and the music too lol.
It's a VN with gameplay, what can I say. you investigate the area of the crime and because this is Japan, everybody hates defense lawyers and nobody will help you. Then you get into the courtroom with a half-baked case you didn't have enough time to prepare for, while the prosecutor has an airtight confession you didn't hear about. Everything is stacked against you, but you still manage to carefully pick apart witness statements until you somehow stumble upon the truth. The real truth. Every one of the 4 cases in each game is different, introducing different characters and a different murder, and every case has its unlikely ending.
It's solid gameplay but it does get a bit stale after a while. They started to introduce new mechanics to vary it up but nothing major before the Apollo trilogy. If you're stuck on something, you're stuck. You won't progress until you find the right combination. But it's alright, just take a break and come back when you feel refreshed.
I guess we need to get into the Apollo Trilogy now.
So game 3 was the farewell to Phoenix, the fledgling lawyer full of piss and vinegar we came to know and love. The trilogy was released between 2001 and 2004 - we only came to know it in the west on the Nintendo DS in 2004 or 5, but it originally came out on the GBA in Japan. It was only in 2007 that Capcom published the first Apollo Justice game, still using a 2D engine but native to the DS this time.
The first Apollo Justice game was perfectly fine. I found it a bit too 'out there' for me, like it was trying to emulate the spirit of the original trilogy but didn't quite get it. The prosecutor was just boring, he's a german playboy who also plays in a rock band and moonlights as a prosecutor in his off time, yawn. Even at 16 I didn't really find it interesting. The game introduced a mechanic during court battles where Apollo can tell the witness is lying and you have to move over a closeup of their sprite while they talk to find the micro gesture that gives it away. This is what I said by the normal gameplay gets stale and they want to freshen it up. But this is less puzzle and more reflex gameplay. I don't know, I didn't really find it engaging.
It's still a good entry, though many people didn't like what they did to Phoenix. What do you mean he left the job? What do you mean he's a pianist? He has a daughter and she's a magician?? Stop!!
I think many of us would have just wanted more Phoenix adventures, and Apollo is not different enough from Phoenix to warrant being a main character imo. They even look similar, and Phoenix barely makes an appearance.
But that was that for a long while, and the future of the series seemed uncertain. After 2007, Capcom published Miles Edgeworth Investigations 1 and 2 only in Japan. They've released an official english port in 2024 but the crafty ones knew how to get a rom and the english patches. They're solid games, they play differently. 1 is just okay, 2 is much better - but you have to play both to get it.
Then they also made a Prof Layton crossover in that time and Phoenix just looks weird in 3D - unfortunately, they'll use this model for the next 2 canon games. It was also a solid game, though it was kinda unfit for Phoenix and focused more on Layton and Luke. It introduced the five witness thing, where you question 5 witness at once instead of just one. Again, kind of adding gimmicks and seeing what sticks. It was still fine, it's just not one I readily come back to playing.
It was only in 2014 that we were graced with a new main series game, Dual Destinies. And... thanks but you can take it back ._.
I tried playing Dual Destinies earlier this year after I finished the trilogy. I couldn't do it. I really couldn't. And apparently it wasn't the first time I gave up, because I saw there was a mid-game save in my 3ds from years ago.
Where to begin? It introduces another MC, Athena Cykes. I like her, at least she's different enough from Apollo and Phoenix, but it's kinda just too much. You play Athena and Apollo is your sidekick, then Phoenix is there (with his horrible 3d model) to help out at times, then there's an anime cutscene where Apollo is wearing bandages while looking wistfully at a bombed courtoom. What are we even doing here? Literally just give us more Phoenix that's all we want 😭
It's a mess. you have the Apollo microgesture mechanic, and Athena has a widget that allows her to calm other people's emotions. I still don't really get how that works. So if they're 'happy' during a witness statement when they should be scared you can point to the contradiction, I think. Like I said, just adding gimmicks so it varies gameplay a bit but it's just getting to be too much.
The story was so bad. So it's the dark age of the law or something, but it's never really explained what that means or how it impacts your cases. they also did it in game 2 already. Someone detonates a bomb in a courtroom, so now there's terrorism in the ace attorney series when before you defended a children's show star or a famous cat burglar. The second case is about a yokai in a rural village and idk, they tried to do something scary? It's just very topical to Japan. The third case is when I gave up, it takes place in a school that makes judges prosecutors and defense lawyers lol. you know, instead of studying law and then choosing a path or becoming a judge after years of practice, you can just go to trade school for it at 17. The prosecutor is not interesting. His whole thing is he plays 'mind games' with the judge when you just want to move on. Godot had a cool laser mask and a jazz soundtrack. There's no competition.
And it's long. And pointless. I stopped when I realized I didn't really care about any of what was happening. I wasn't invested. The terrible 3d models didn't help.
But then something peculiar happened. Capcom made The Great Ace Attorney.
I say peculiar because the first one came out a year before Spirit of Justice, the last of the Apollo Justice trilogy. It took years to get it in the rest of the world - a fan translation project was in the works in the late 2010s and only got the first game, and most of the second game, out before Capcom decided to release all the Ace Attorney games and spinoffs to the rest of the world. You can even get them on Steam now.
The Great Ace Attorney starts in Meiji era Japan (so 1870s or so), though most of it takes place in London with an ancestor to Phoenix. Sherlock Holmes is in it.
It was amazing. The models looked much better - it's a theater play. It's much more focused on the story, and it's long. Very long. I started playing the two games back to back early in the year and it took me months to finish them. By that time it was already late spring. They're not even particularly difficult games, they're just that long to read through.
The only downside I would say is they should be played back-to-back, because the first game ends with cliffhangers and more questions than answers, and the second picks up right where we left off. They are one big game, but thankfully now that they exist in a bundle you don't have to wait 4 years to get the conclusion to the story.
The characters are endearing again. They're fun. Sherlock Holmes is as much of a fool (affectionate) as Phoenix and Naruhodou (the ancestor) are, they pair well together. The ending though is, I mean, there's not really any twists or anything. Actually the second half of the second game is full of twists in rows, but it was also kinda predictable and idk, it didn't hit me as hard as the first trilogy did. But they did fix what I said about the original trilogy's twist: in GAA, you are introduced to all the characters over the two games, it's really a one-shot story. Even people that don't seem connected at first have their role to play (when we met miss Tusspells I thought wait, what is she doing here? Why are we investigating this? but it pays off and makes sense).
The story structure is really interesting. In the original trilogy, the cases start with a murder and you being introduced to your client right away. In GAA, there's more breathing room before the case actually starts. And even when it starts there's some "side quest" that take you away from the investigation. Even when a theft happens and you think that's gonna be the case, no, it's not. It really takes its time more, which is enjoyable. You end up with a LOT of evidence in your folder, more than in any other game combined.
I don't necessarily wish for more GAA games because I think they basically told the story, though I loved Susato's character and I would totally play a game focused on her, but if they finally made a new ace attorney game, I just want Phoenix back where we left him off in Trials and Tribulations with what they learned from GAA. Pretend the whole AJ timeline was just a dream or something. Alas, with how many games there have been and how long it's been since the last one (almost ten years), I'm not sure we'll ever get that.
You still have months of games ahead of you if it's your first time playing the series.
If you want to play the games:
- Original trilogy: either Nds or 3DS trilogy. You can easily mod a 3DS now that it's stopped receiving updates. There's the trilogy bundle on steam or Switch too. Don't play Game 1 Case 5 straight away. I hate that they did that. They added that case for the bundle, and it's good, but it's also super difficult if it's your first time playing and bridges the gap between game 3 and 4. It introduces Ema Skye for example, who is going to be the detective in Apollo Justice. I would say finish the trilogy first and then play case 5. They should have added a warning for new players.
- Apollo Justice trilogy: The first AJ game came out on nds with a 3ds port in 2017, the others on 3ds. So you're probably better off with the PC or switch bundle (I think it came out on the switch?). you don't have to play them to enjoy the rest spinoffs though.
- Miles Edgeworth Investigations: both on NDS, with an english patch. It's been out there on the internet for years. Or, you guessed it, the official bundle translation. Oh, you will need the microphone at some points so emulation might soft-lock you (my 3ds emulator, Citra, never recognized microphone on my phone, so I modded my 3ds).
- Layton Crossover: 3DS only as far as I'm aware. Came out in English officially.
- Great Ace Attorney: originally for 3ds. There's a fan translation for the first game but they didn't finish the second since the official version came out. So it's Switch or PC version for the second game. They changed Sherlock Holmes to Herlock Sholmes for the english because of copyright. It... kinda works, I guess. It's pretty important to the story that Sherlock Holmes actually exists but sure.
There are iOS and Android ports as well but I can't say if they'll work on modern devices. You're better off saving your money there.
Reminder that I made a switch emulation guide in another post. On my snapdragon 8gb device Great Ace Attorney worked perfectly, though I had to be careful of overheating.
