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| A new attorney appears. |
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is the fourth game and light reboot of Capcom's court-drama series, Ace Attorney. Released back in 2007 for the Nintendo DS, it starred a new attorney with an appetite to object. Often regarded the weakest of the series due to it missing its iconic lead, I've always wanted to check it out since the new characters looked interesting. As such, I've had the game in my backlog in what feels like forever, so I finally gave it a play recently.
Seven years after the events of the terrific Trials and Tribulations, we follow rookie attorney Apollo Justice who take over as Phoenix Wright's successor after a tragic case lost him his attorney badge. Joining him is the cheerful Trucy, Phoenix's daughter who is a magician and acts as Apollo's side-kick throughout the game. Science-obsessed detective Ema Skye also aids Apollo during crime scene investigations while rockstar prosecutor Klavier Gavin clashes with him during trials. Both of which had their quirky personalities and fun moments as I always looked forward to seeing them.
The cast were a fantastic bunch as they oozed personality and you couldn't not like some of the minor ones during certain cases too. As for the story, it was good with an overarching plot cleverly tying the cases together. What happened to Pheonix seven years earlier? Is Trucy really his daughter? And does Apollo scream "Objection!"? All of which gets answered in the story.
Like its predecessors, Apollo Justice is a visual novel with point-and-click elements. Gameplay is split into two segments: investigation and trial phases. During the former, you'll move from one location to another, investigating crime scenes, gathering clues, interviewing suspects, and piecing-out events before the trial phase. New additions for the DS include touchscreen controls where you take part in forensic segments that have you spraying solutions to reveal poison traces and fingerprints, which were cool.
The court phase sees you defending your client by presenting evidence, cross-examining testimonies, and slowly piecing-out events to win the case. You have a life bar that upon getting wrongful accusations will deplete and it's game over, so you'll need to play carefully. Fortunately, Apollo's bracelet gives him the special ability to perceive "habits" during witness testimony to pinpoint weakspots in their testimonies. Basically you touch the screen to activate the bracelet then slowly read their statement and observe unusual changes in their body language, which was a pretty neat idea.
Apollo Justice looked great on DS with its unique character designs and neatly-drawn backgrounds. The 3D models due to the DS hardware might have been impressive back in the day but look ancient now though. As you'd expect from Ace Attorney, the soundtrack is stellar with many catchy and lovable tracks. My faves were easily Kalvier and Trucy's themes.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was a solid adventure all things considered. Despite the absence of its main lead, it still delivered an engaging experience along with interesting gameplay features. While Apollo might not get another game, I'm pretty eager now to find out what's in store for him next. Recently, the game received an HD remaster along with its sequels on modern hardware, so it's worth a play more than ever.
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