(spoiler drop at the end of the review)
Ambitious as it is messy, Apollo Justice is an interesting hodgepodge next entry in the series. It was a super pleasant ride for the good majority of it, but ultimately led to more frustration than I ever could've expected.

To start things positively, there's the general case mystery structure. Other than really 4-2, case mysteries are superwell structured in terms of the 'how' and 'why', with genuinely more grounded murders all wrapped in a different but welcome new tone. The pacing of it all tends to wobble between awful and bearable, but I still had an excellent experience putting the pieces together in something like 4-3.

The new characters range from completely new different types of cardboard to stare at like Apollo and Skye, to more interesting well developed characters, like the magicians, the Gavinners, and Trucy. They overall all feel very fresh and their own thematic struggles with the law and truth were interesting.

This does not extend to the massive elephant in the room. I can appreciate the outer workings and surface level wonders AJ pulls for a good amount of time, but there is something that needs to be addressed. Apollo Justice follows Trials and Tribulations with having a slowly moving and opened up puzzle box that reveals connections between cases that were always there that you can slowly pick up on and piece together.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Just kidding, Phoenix fucking Wright is here to tell you that he actually 5headed the entire game from day 1, and that you're literally on the coattails for him metanarratively pulling all the strings just so he can get revenge on this one dude in the most epic cucking ever staged. Words do not begin to describe the amount of frustration the final case for me was just to see all of the interesting thematic threads be tied to the dumbest character story I've seen thus far. Phoenix Wright actually brings down the entire game with his inclusion and having the whole story revolve around him. Fuck him, he was always cardboard in the previous games anyway and yet they somehow dropped the ball at even making his new struggle interesting.

Overall, despite my ridiculously jaded final impressions, I'd still recommend playing AA4 to an extent if you liked all the games previous. But you better be prepared for when it trips over the finish line and lands on its face.

The Perceive mechanic could be really cool, but… you know what all video gamed players really love to do? Go on spot the difference hunts over a gigantic sprite and search for the witness crying blood a little bit or whatever stupid poker tell they have.

Klavier was in this game and Capcom decided that actually he wasn’t that interesting GOODBYE KLAVIER and he hasn’t appeared since. I have a headcanon that he just prosecutes corporate finance law now and has a very cosy home life with Apollo and just listens to Apollo’s crazy ass stories

the bad:
perceiving was so annoying it was like the only thing i consistently used walkthru on bc i just didnt want to deal w it
i never wanna watch that video of lamiroir and klavier again
wesley stickler
i think apollo and trucy shouldve had more of a role in the final investigation but i get that it was like phoenix passing the torch to apollo

the good:
whoever thought up disbarred cynical phoenix is a genius
i love the new cast so much 😔 their new dynamic is so fun i wouldve loved to see them all hash it out in continuing games 😔
the cases were super charming too 😔
TRUCY
tbh i thought kristoph was a super interesting villain

also not sure yet if i feel like this is a good or bad but i feel like phoenix shouldve said smth abt them being siblings at the end

tl;dr ily trucy and klavier technically not as good as the main trilogy but i guess im just more invested in this story than i was before

Apollo Justice traz uma trama pós eventos da trilogia Phoenix Wright, com um mistério envolvendo a perda do direito de ser advogado do lendário Phoenix.

Entram em cena Apollo Justice e Trucy Wright, a nova dupla dinâmica que irá não só dar continuidade ao trabalho de Phoenix, como também adentrar no mistério o envolvendo e descobrir fatos extraordinários que também os envolvem.

Como primeiro título totalmente produzido para DS, AJ traz as mecânicas de investigação introduzidas no caso extra do primeiro jogo da série, adicionado como prova de conceito das funcionalidades que só viriam a ser exploradas neste título.

Excelente roteiro com pitadas não lineares e entrelaçamento de eventos ocorridos no presente e no passado. Infelizmente, as mecânicas novas não foram tão bem utilizadas como poderiam ter sido, deixando a desejar.

A sensação é que o último caso do primeiro Ace Attorney esgotou as melhores ideias e AJ foi deixado com ideas sobressalentes.

This is, in my opinion, the best game in the series. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney takes place 7 years after the previous game and proposes the question: "What happened to Phoenix Wright?" The game develops Wright himself through the eyes of Apollo - a pawn in a larger game, trying to find his place in the world. It's a fantastic story, with each case being of a high standard and contributing to a general theme of questioning the legal system itself. New gameplay mechanics and a new cast of characters help keep everything fresh. All of this, on top of a fantastic reworked set of visuals and an amazing soundtrack, solidifies Apollo Justice as a classic and a personal favorite.

This game does have some problems, like kicking off the worrying trend of Phoenix continuing to basically be the protagonist despite having had a full trilogy and character arc to himself, which only got worse when Capcom decided this game was a failure... However, it's still pretty good. The culprit of the final case is still one of my favorite villains in the series, and the game really does start off with a bang.

I don't really think any of the cases are particularly... bad... per se... but there are definitely segments of cases that are bad. You're sure gonna make us watch that video that many times, huh. We get it, you're proud of the DS's new graphical capabilities.