So, here we are, again. All six mainline Ace Attorney games finished, with two journeys to Britain taken care of as well. The resting point for the series for over half a decade reached, and the conclusion of the second trilogy. Needless to say, I was really excited to get to this one, and I recommend you read my reviews on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (in that order) to get a full understanding of my perception and view on these games. But in short: I'm a series-as-a-whole enjoyer and really respect what both Shu Takumi and Takeshi Yamazaki do for the series.
Spirit of Justice had a lot on its shoulders, just as Dual Destinies did before it. It needed to both finish the ongoing trilogy about the law's influence on people and the concept of trust, as well as be a conclusion to Apollo Justice's story arc and provide meaningful content for more characters than you can shake a stick at. It needed to answer crucial, unavoidable questions for a game seeking to end a saga, not just the end of one trilogy but to establish a comfortable resting place for the series at large.
The game had to do all of that, yet it also set out to be the most ambitious, jam-packed, content filled and best Ace Attorney game the series had yet seen. I'm not here to argue that it absolutely succeeded at exactly all of that, but what I can say is that it is definitely close to- or IS, my favorite game in the series, and a near perfect conclusion to Apollo Justice's character arc. Despite the troubled development of this trilogy I believe it still achieved its goals, of telling the story of the new generation of lawyers growing up in a world far more oppressive and distrustful than the storybook tale Phoenix went through. And while it's undeniably more flawed than the original Trilogy, I believe all three games ended up being more interesting specifically due to this ambition. Because, say it with me: A Dragon Never Yields.
After Dual Destinies gave Phoenix such a perfect book-ended tale of rescuing both Apollo and Athena, it feels difficult to imagine a way where he would be able to get story relevance again in the series. Yet he IS the main mascot of the series, the appeal and key protagonist (yes, even in Apollo Justice). So how do we allow this relatively-concluded character to still play an important part in this conclusion to the second protagonist’s story, without just making it feel as if we’re treading on old ground? Simple: Focus on everything around Phoenix, instead of he himself. Thus the defining trait of this entry, Khura'in, becomes the focus of Phoenix's own cases, which gives Apollo and Athenas cases a distinct feel of their own whilst allowing them room to breathe and grow as characters. While I know Khura'in as a whole as a mixed reception with fans, it as a concept is a genius solution to so many things at once. Beyond mostly resolving the Phoenix issues up above, and giving AA6 its own distinct flair in the series, it gives the game a new perspective on the dark age of law theme that AA4 and AA5 established, showing us just what can happen when trust and humanity are forgotten in the law world: The outcome that AA4 very well could have led to, if it weren't for Phoenix's and Miles' efforts. I get that some find Khura'in's intensely aggressive anti-lawyer stance a bit ridiculous: executing all lawyers who align with criminals and all that, but given the traumatic origin of this law I can't help but draw parallels to some very real incidents and their outcome in real world countries. Its over-the-top in typical Ace Attorney fashion of course but I find it really thematically interesting and fitting for a trilogy exploring what happens when the law world fails to be trusted by the people. Its fitting for a law about punishing those who defend possible criminals to be tied to a land with heavy faith, where sin is actually thought of and reviled.
This thematic relevance of Khura'in extends to its main characters, who I almost all adore. People like Ahlbi, Rayfa, Inga and Datz are just plain fun to watch and be with, but then you have characters like Nahyuta, immensely layered with meaning and parallels to our main characters. Just like how Khura'in shows a world where the people completely gave up trust for the law, Nahyuta directly contrasts Apollo as someone who never learned the good nature of being a lawyer, of defending those you trust in. Apollo in AA4 defended weird, shady people he himself didn't trust or like, and it gave him a jaded outlook of his profession that he eventually snapped out of with the case of Clay's death in AA5. Nahyuta, just like his country, never had this revelation, staying loyal to his profession purely out of obligation, out of false hope that what he's doing might one day be leading to something good. His personality also contrasts Apollo really nicely, despite lacking personal attachment to the cases he takes on he's always calm, collected, and very respectful of all the details pertaining to the case. Whenever he snaps during a trial, it's not because he's angry that his argument's been dismantled: it's because he feels genuinely insulted that the defense disrespects the will of the dead to rest in peace. For Khura'in's anti-Lawyer stance seemingly being a gimmick, they weave it into its culture in a really natural way in that sense: Lawyers are seen as disrespectful of the dead by actively trying to twist the truth of their death, refusing to simply let the dead rest. This is why I LOVE Case 4, despite it often being derided as just filler: Its a case where, for once, we actually get to see a truly flawed defense of a client take place, and where Nahyuta and Khura'in's beliefs almost seem understandable for a moment.
I could genuinely go on for two paragraphs more than I just did on Nahyuta with Dhurke. This is the second time I'm trying to write this review, because my first got erased by Twitter acting up, and in that first one I genuinely could not shut up about Dhurke. He's an amazing character in the same way Nahyuta is: He parallels a main cast member, Phoenix, and shows just how different things could have gone had different things been prioritized in Phoenix's life. He's a great person, fighting for what he believes in with unwavering conviction, but in doing so faltered in caring for the new generation, his children: He felt it was his responsibility to save the world for his kids, rather than the other way, making sure his kids would be ready to take on the new world. Phoenix, however, after his defeat in AA4, reached out: He raised Trucy, played behind the scenes to rebuild the law world together with those around him, including seeking out Apollo and Athena to further reach that goal. Dhurke's flaws of being a determined good-hearted man failing in the sense of remembering the importance of our youth, makes him a super cool parallel to Inga, the tyrant of Khura'in who loves his daughter all the same. These kinds of analysies, contrasts, and connections to the themes of the game can be drawn everywhere, and its one thing I think all three games in this trilogy really excel at.
But cool theming and nice character depth can only get your game so far, yeah? Like I just said, I think AA4 nails its themes and meaning, yet I also think its by far the least fun game in the series to actually play. (Go read my AA4 review to find out why, I promise I like the game). Thankfully, I find Spirit of Justice to possibly be the most consistent quality game in the series: the only game where I would, honestly, say that EVERY case is a banger, both in terms of being fun to read but also in terms of being fun to solve. Sure, other games in the series have had far higher peaks than this game: The second halves of both Dual Destinies and Great Ace Attorney 2 are some of the best visual novel content I will probably ever experience, yet they're simply not able to contend with how constantly good and, most importantly, varied Spirit of Justice is. Thanks to the Khura'in setting and three lawyers in play at once, as well as the sheer amount of important characters present in the game, every case feels distinctly its own and goes to extreme lengths to fulfill the most of their potential. In a way it's like an Ace Attorney Greatest Hits album: An intro case that sets up so many mysteries in your head, a case that's very successful in being funny and unbelievable at every turn, a case that subverts everything you thought you knew about how an Ace Attorney case plays out, a case that's like a puzzle box of different interlinking mechanisms at play…these traits are shared with several golden cases in the series before, yet it doesn't at all feel derivative or redundant (except one moment in Case 5: You know exactly what I mean if you've played it, and it's the one part of the story I REALLY wish had been rewritten.)
But let's take a step back. This game at its core, as alluded to at the start, had to answer some very important questions, in order to truly allow the series to rest comfortably at its ending. -Where does Apollo Justice's character arc go and, finally, end, and
-How do we put a capstone on this entire saga of the Dark Age of the Law, after said age was unofficially ended in Dual Destinies? What message do we end the series with?
The game, in my eyes, delivers answers to those questions in the most satisfying way possible: After his Dual Destinies growth, Apollo now only defends people he genuinely cares and empathises with: be they friends like Trucy, complete strangers like Armie, or a mix of both like Dhurke. Unlike Athena, not knowing his client beforehand no longer stops him: He's learned the power and meaning of a mutual trust in your client, regardless of who they are. His newfound faith in others finally lets him take charge with newfound confidence and surpass Phoenix in a way we as players always knew was possible, but that he was just never able to do before due to his mentorship under Kristoph, and the looming distrust under the Dark Age of Law. Basically, he's someone who's risen above the effects of an age of distrust, and has become a more whole person than even Phoenix because of it.
The game, and series, ends on this note: That by not only banding together to solve the problems of the current day, but also ensuring that the next generation is given the help, care, mentorship and understanding that they need, the world will become a better place. If you ignore one, then the other will haunt you. It's a beautiful way to end the trilogy all about the new generation, passing the torch on in wonderful fashion, and putting a bookend on the Dark Age of Law once and for all.
And I have small gripes with how all this is presented, of course. The Case 5 story detailed I mentioned: Phoenix being blackmailed again, instead of them committing to a true moment of having the torch passed to Apollo. There's also the matter of Ga'ran, who for being the "final boss" of the game and arguably trilogy as a whole might not be as deep of a character as she maybe should be, especially compared to Nahyuta and Dhurke. (I still think she works really well as just an intimidatingly authoritative figure to take down). If I really wanted to, I'm sure I could go picking like a fine-toothed comb through Spirit of Justice and find small things to bitch about, yet I'll probably also find half a dozen more things to appreciate. Have you ever noticed, for instance, that every returning character in Spirit of Justice is finally living more or less completely happily, chasing the dreams they've always wanted? Trucy, Maya, Ema, Blackquill, Phoenix…through finding and sticking to the passion of their goals, they're happier than they've ever been, contrasting beautifully with Nahyuta's sorrowful compliance with doing his occupation solely because he believes he's right– okay, I'll shut up about him now, despite those above minor flaws and more…the ambition, consistency in quality, variety, theming and just, overall tons of emotional pathos packed into Spirit of Justice, make it tie very closely at the top of the series' best games for me.
And all of this Ace Attorney goodness, wrapped up in an extremely Takeshi Yamazaki-paced and designed game and story, with all the good and bad that entails. Every case, yes even 6-4, has meaning, has weight that mounts up and builds to the insane finale. Things are foreshadowed at every moment, even in the most subtle ways (Dual Destinies' Case 2 foreshadowing of its biggest twist still haunts me). The game also feels very cohesive to itself and the rest of the series, never directly spoiling things from the previous games but still making damn well sure existing fans are aware this is a continuation. Okay, so the Divination Seances aren't always the most fun, and for as much as I didn't care at all about Forensics in AA4 it and the Psyche-Lockes are painfully underused in this game. Like I've said before, Yamazaki's main weakness is his inconsistency in making fun-to-use mechanics. And that's what I've really grown to love with Ace Attorney: Despite just being ten games of pointing, clicking, reading and solving, their directions allow them to be so good in so many different ways. This isn't like Kirby where I'll gladly say every game in the series is good, but a lot of them are good in similar ways: Every Ace Attorney game is great, and each one can be someone's favorite for its very specific strengths and appeal. Do you love artsy, subversive, meaningful games where maybe the feeling you have while playing them shouldn't always be satisfaction and empowerment? Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney might be for you! Do you love seeing things built up for you over an immense span of time be resolved in the most satisfying manner imaginable? The Great Ace Attorney 2 is like made for you! Do you love a story that can pull the rug under you at the last minute, despite subtly foreshadowing said rug-pull throughout the game's runtime? Justice for All - the one most fans consider the weakest of the original trilogy, is actually my favorite of those three games specifically because of that!
Or did you read this entire, enormous review, and loved thinking about just how well put together a package Spirit of Justice is, not for its high peaks but for its pitch-perfect consistency, for how well it pays respect to the past whilst celebrating a new future ahead? Then yeah, this game may just be a contender. It sure is for me.
[Play Time: 48 Hours]
[Key Word: Ceremony]
[Note: DLC not played]
Spirit of Justice had a lot on its shoulders, just as Dual Destinies did before it. It needed to both finish the ongoing trilogy about the law's influence on people and the concept of trust, as well as be a conclusion to Apollo Justice's story arc and provide meaningful content for more characters than you can shake a stick at. It needed to answer crucial, unavoidable questions for a game seeking to end a saga, not just the end of one trilogy but to establish a comfortable resting place for the series at large.
The game had to do all of that, yet it also set out to be the most ambitious, jam-packed, content filled and best Ace Attorney game the series had yet seen. I'm not here to argue that it absolutely succeeded at exactly all of that, but what I can say is that it is definitely close to- or IS, my favorite game in the series, and a near perfect conclusion to Apollo Justice's character arc. Despite the troubled development of this trilogy I believe it still achieved its goals, of telling the story of the new generation of lawyers growing up in a world far more oppressive and distrustful than the storybook tale Phoenix went through. And while it's undeniably more flawed than the original Trilogy, I believe all three games ended up being more interesting specifically due to this ambition. Because, say it with me: A Dragon Never Yields.
After Dual Destinies gave Phoenix such a perfect book-ended tale of rescuing both Apollo and Athena, it feels difficult to imagine a way where he would be able to get story relevance again in the series. Yet he IS the main mascot of the series, the appeal and key protagonist (yes, even in Apollo Justice). So how do we allow this relatively-concluded character to still play an important part in this conclusion to the second protagonist’s story, without just making it feel as if we’re treading on old ground? Simple: Focus on everything around Phoenix, instead of he himself. Thus the defining trait of this entry, Khura'in, becomes the focus of Phoenix's own cases, which gives Apollo and Athenas cases a distinct feel of their own whilst allowing them room to breathe and grow as characters. While I know Khura'in as a whole as a mixed reception with fans, it as a concept is a genius solution to so many things at once. Beyond mostly resolving the Phoenix issues up above, and giving AA6 its own distinct flair in the series, it gives the game a new perspective on the dark age of law theme that AA4 and AA5 established, showing us just what can happen when trust and humanity are forgotten in the law world: The outcome that AA4 very well could have led to, if it weren't for Phoenix's and Miles' efforts. I get that some find Khura'in's intensely aggressive anti-lawyer stance a bit ridiculous: executing all lawyers who align with criminals and all that, but given the traumatic origin of this law I can't help but draw parallels to some very real incidents and their outcome in real world countries. Its over-the-top in typical Ace Attorney fashion of course but I find it really thematically interesting and fitting for a trilogy exploring what happens when the law world fails to be trusted by the people. Its fitting for a law about punishing those who defend possible criminals to be tied to a land with heavy faith, where sin is actually thought of and reviled.
This thematic relevance of Khura'in extends to its main characters, who I almost all adore. People like Ahlbi, Rayfa, Inga and Datz are just plain fun to watch and be with, but then you have characters like Nahyuta, immensely layered with meaning and parallels to our main characters. Just like how Khura'in shows a world where the people completely gave up trust for the law, Nahyuta directly contrasts Apollo as someone who never learned the good nature of being a lawyer, of defending those you trust in. Apollo in AA4 defended weird, shady people he himself didn't trust or like, and it gave him a jaded outlook of his profession that he eventually snapped out of with the case of Clay's death in AA5. Nahyuta, just like his country, never had this revelation, staying loyal to his profession purely out of obligation, out of false hope that what he's doing might one day be leading to something good. His personality also contrasts Apollo really nicely, despite lacking personal attachment to the cases he takes on he's always calm, collected, and very respectful of all the details pertaining to the case. Whenever he snaps during a trial, it's not because he's angry that his argument's been dismantled: it's because he feels genuinely insulted that the defense disrespects the will of the dead to rest in peace. For Khura'in's anti-Lawyer stance seemingly being a gimmick, they weave it into its culture in a really natural way in that sense: Lawyers are seen as disrespectful of the dead by actively trying to twist the truth of their death, refusing to simply let the dead rest. This is why I LOVE Case 4, despite it often being derided as just filler: Its a case where, for once, we actually get to see a truly flawed defense of a client take place, and where Nahyuta and Khura'in's beliefs almost seem understandable for a moment.
I could genuinely go on for two paragraphs more than I just did on Nahyuta with Dhurke. This is the second time I'm trying to write this review, because my first got erased by Twitter acting up, and in that first one I genuinely could not shut up about Dhurke. He's an amazing character in the same way Nahyuta is: He parallels a main cast member, Phoenix, and shows just how different things could have gone had different things been prioritized in Phoenix's life. He's a great person, fighting for what he believes in with unwavering conviction, but in doing so faltered in caring for the new generation, his children: He felt it was his responsibility to save the world for his kids, rather than the other way, making sure his kids would be ready to take on the new world. Phoenix, however, after his defeat in AA4, reached out: He raised Trucy, played behind the scenes to rebuild the law world together with those around him, including seeking out Apollo and Athena to further reach that goal. Dhurke's flaws of being a determined good-hearted man failing in the sense of remembering the importance of our youth, makes him a super cool parallel to Inga, the tyrant of Khura'in who loves his daughter all the same. These kinds of analysies, contrasts, and connections to the themes of the game can be drawn everywhere, and its one thing I think all three games in this trilogy really excel at.
But cool theming and nice character depth can only get your game so far, yeah? Like I just said, I think AA4 nails its themes and meaning, yet I also think its by far the least fun game in the series to actually play. (Go read my AA4 review to find out why, I promise I like the game). Thankfully, I find Spirit of Justice to possibly be the most consistent quality game in the series: the only game where I would, honestly, say that EVERY case is a banger, both in terms of being fun to read but also in terms of being fun to solve. Sure, other games in the series have had far higher peaks than this game: The second halves of both Dual Destinies and Great Ace Attorney 2 are some of the best visual novel content I will probably ever experience, yet they're simply not able to contend with how constantly good and, most importantly, varied Spirit of Justice is. Thanks to the Khura'in setting and three lawyers in play at once, as well as the sheer amount of important characters present in the game, every case feels distinctly its own and goes to extreme lengths to fulfill the most of their potential. In a way it's like an Ace Attorney Greatest Hits album: An intro case that sets up so many mysteries in your head, a case that's very successful in being funny and unbelievable at every turn, a case that subverts everything you thought you knew about how an Ace Attorney case plays out, a case that's like a puzzle box of different interlinking mechanisms at play…these traits are shared with several golden cases in the series before, yet it doesn't at all feel derivative or redundant (except one moment in Case 5: You know exactly what I mean if you've played it, and it's the one part of the story I REALLY wish had been rewritten.)
But let's take a step back. This game at its core, as alluded to at the start, had to answer some very important questions, in order to truly allow the series to rest comfortably at its ending. -Where does Apollo Justice's character arc go and, finally, end, and
-How do we put a capstone on this entire saga of the Dark Age of the Law, after said age was unofficially ended in Dual Destinies? What message do we end the series with?
The game, in my eyes, delivers answers to those questions in the most satisfying way possible: After his Dual Destinies growth, Apollo now only defends people he genuinely cares and empathises with: be they friends like Trucy, complete strangers like Armie, or a mix of both like Dhurke. Unlike Athena, not knowing his client beforehand no longer stops him: He's learned the power and meaning of a mutual trust in your client, regardless of who they are. His newfound faith in others finally lets him take charge with newfound confidence and surpass Phoenix in a way we as players always knew was possible, but that he was just never able to do before due to his mentorship under Kristoph, and the looming distrust under the Dark Age of Law. Basically, he's someone who's risen above the effects of an age of distrust, and has become a more whole person than even Phoenix because of it.
The game, and series, ends on this note: That by not only banding together to solve the problems of the current day, but also ensuring that the next generation is given the help, care, mentorship and understanding that they need, the world will become a better place. If you ignore one, then the other will haunt you. It's a beautiful way to end the trilogy all about the new generation, passing the torch on in wonderful fashion, and putting a bookend on the Dark Age of Law once and for all.
And I have small gripes with how all this is presented, of course. The Case 5 story detailed I mentioned: Phoenix being blackmailed again, instead of them committing to a true moment of having the torch passed to Apollo. There's also the matter of Ga'ran, who for being the "final boss" of the game and arguably trilogy as a whole might not be as deep of a character as she maybe should be, especially compared to Nahyuta and Dhurke. (I still think she works really well as just an intimidatingly authoritative figure to take down). If I really wanted to, I'm sure I could go picking like a fine-toothed comb through Spirit of Justice and find small things to bitch about, yet I'll probably also find half a dozen more things to appreciate. Have you ever noticed, for instance, that every returning character in Spirit of Justice is finally living more or less completely happily, chasing the dreams they've always wanted? Trucy, Maya, Ema, Blackquill, Phoenix…through finding and sticking to the passion of their goals, they're happier than they've ever been, contrasting beautifully with Nahyuta's sorrowful compliance with doing his occupation solely because he believes he's right– okay, I'll shut up about him now, despite those above minor flaws and more…the ambition, consistency in quality, variety, theming and just, overall tons of emotional pathos packed into Spirit of Justice, make it tie very closely at the top of the series' best games for me.
And all of this Ace Attorney goodness, wrapped up in an extremely Takeshi Yamazaki-paced and designed game and story, with all the good and bad that entails. Every case, yes even 6-4, has meaning, has weight that mounts up and builds to the insane finale. Things are foreshadowed at every moment, even in the most subtle ways (Dual Destinies' Case 2 foreshadowing of its biggest twist still haunts me). The game also feels very cohesive to itself and the rest of the series, never directly spoiling things from the previous games but still making damn well sure existing fans are aware this is a continuation. Okay, so the Divination Seances aren't always the most fun, and for as much as I didn't care at all about Forensics in AA4 it and the Psyche-Lockes are painfully underused in this game. Like I've said before, Yamazaki's main weakness is his inconsistency in making fun-to-use mechanics. And that's what I've really grown to love with Ace Attorney: Despite just being ten games of pointing, clicking, reading and solving, their directions allow them to be so good in so many different ways. This isn't like Kirby where I'll gladly say every game in the series is good, but a lot of them are good in similar ways: Every Ace Attorney game is great, and each one can be someone's favorite for its very specific strengths and appeal. Do you love artsy, subversive, meaningful games where maybe the feeling you have while playing them shouldn't always be satisfaction and empowerment? Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney might be for you! Do you love seeing things built up for you over an immense span of time be resolved in the most satisfying manner imaginable? The Great Ace Attorney 2 is like made for you! Do you love a story that can pull the rug under you at the last minute, despite subtly foreshadowing said rug-pull throughout the game's runtime? Justice for All - the one most fans consider the weakest of the original trilogy, is actually my favorite of those three games specifically because of that!
Or did you read this entire, enormous review, and loved thinking about just how well put together a package Spirit of Justice is, not for its high peaks but for its pitch-perfect consistency, for how well it pays respect to the past whilst celebrating a new future ahead? Then yeah, this game may just be a contender. It sure is for me.
[Play Time: 48 Hours]
[Key Word: Ceremony]
[Note: DLC not played]
1 Comment
REVIEWED ON JULY 1ST 2022
wheatie
1 year ago