An alright follow up to the original AA Trilogy.
I was surprised by how much I liked Apollo. He doesn't quite hold up to Phoenix, but he's definitely interesting and charismatic. Trucy is probably my favorite of the new cast members though. She's hilarious, adorable, and extremely compelling throughout. Most of the cast otherwise I was rather indifferent on if I'm being honest. Gavin was a bit unbearable at times, and most of the Witnesses were intended to be comic relief but were honestly just kind of annoying. It failed to capture the classic AA charm in many categories and instead came off a bit jarring.
The Trials and Investigations were also a lot more one note than AA1-3. It was rarely ever challenging and everything was rather straightforward. I remember having to aggressively examine location after location in the first three games, wheres each case in AA4 you MAYBE examined one or two things? And Gavin wasn't a very good rival for Apollo. He barely challenged you, only really chiming in occasionally with the same one or two phrases.
The writing in general was a step down though. In Turnabout Serenade I knew who the culprit was the second they showed him on screen. Each case was just generally easy to guess what happened, and who was guilty. Turnabout Trump was probably my favorite case in the game, and it's the very first one and the shortest one by far. I didn't care for Turnabout Corner at all. I'd say it was still better than Big Top though at least.
I do like the ending a lot. The connections between Apollo and Trucy that were established is a good direction. The Jurist system seems to be a good thing, and I hope to see it more in the future. Phoenix stole the game from Apollo though. His overarching story and the theme of creating a better courts system just blew away any of Apollo's personal development, and often times made Apollo feel like a side character in the greater scheme of things.
The biggest problem the game has tho is no Miles Edgeworth. Automatic 0/10 for no Miles Edgeworth
I was surprised by how much I liked Apollo. He doesn't quite hold up to Phoenix, but he's definitely interesting and charismatic. Trucy is probably my favorite of the new cast members though. She's hilarious, adorable, and extremely compelling throughout. Most of the cast otherwise I was rather indifferent on if I'm being honest. Gavin was a bit unbearable at times, and most of the Witnesses were intended to be comic relief but were honestly just kind of annoying. It failed to capture the classic AA charm in many categories and instead came off a bit jarring.
The Trials and Investigations were also a lot more one note than AA1-3. It was rarely ever challenging and everything was rather straightforward. I remember having to aggressively examine location after location in the first three games, wheres each case in AA4 you MAYBE examined one or two things? And Gavin wasn't a very good rival for Apollo. He barely challenged you, only really chiming in occasionally with the same one or two phrases.
The writing in general was a step down though. In Turnabout Serenade I knew who the culprit was the second they showed him on screen. Each case was just generally easy to guess what happened, and who was guilty. Turnabout Trump was probably my favorite case in the game, and it's the very first one and the shortest one by far. I didn't care for Turnabout Corner at all. I'd say it was still better than Big Top though at least.
I do like the ending a lot. The connections between Apollo and Trucy that were established is a good direction. The Jurist system seems to be a good thing, and I hope to see it more in the future. Phoenix stole the game from Apollo though. His overarching story and the theme of creating a better courts system just blew away any of Apollo's personal development, and often times made Apollo feel like a side character in the greater scheme of things.
The biggest problem the game has tho is no Miles Edgeworth. Automatic 0/10 for no Miles Edgeworth