I went into this game not expecting to like it as much as the original trilogy based on how often I see it cited as the where the series went downhill, and while I do have friends that liked this game a lot I still wanted to keep my expectations in check in case this game actually was worse than the the first three Ace Attorney games.

That being said, Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice is just as good as the original trilogy, if not better in some instances, in my opinion.


This game is just absolutely oozing with charm and has so much to love about it. Everything just comes together in such a fun way that really feels well crafted to me. The characters, story, art direction, and music all build off each other to make this game another incredible entry in the Ace Attorney series. I do want to start off by properly talking about the characters though, since in my opinion they're what really elevate this game and are the core part of it.

I will warn that this entire review will be filled with spoilers, since due to the nature of this game it's impossible to talk about without talking about extremely spoilery content so while I will try to avoid spoiling the main plot as much as possible, a good chunk of information about the story and characters will come through here.

Going into this game I was a bit worried about the cast, I've spent the past three games getting used to a certain cast of characters (minus the revolving door of prosecutors) so to suddenly have them uprooted and replaced with a new generation of characters did leave me a little uneasy. I'm glad to say that that worry was unfounded, because man is the cast of this game great.

The replacement for Phoenix in this game, and the game's namesake, Apollo Justice is an absolute gem. He feels distinctly more serious than Phoenix did in his games and I personally felt like it was a good direction to take the character. While Phoenix seemed to just embrace the wacky antics of the Ace Attorney universe's courtrooms right off the bat Apollo seemed to just be blindsided by the kind of shenanigans that happen in the court of law and it's a great thing to see as a contrast to how weird the cases in the universe get. Apollo's surprise at the weirdness of the Attorney world feels like a nice way to relate to new players who might be starting with this entry; but at the same time as someone who's played the games before this one I thought it was a nice (and pretty funny) change of pace to see someone go into what he thinks is a normal trial and then spend the next four trials just going through progressively more bizarre and intricate cases.

Otherwise I do love how Apollo comes into his own as attorney over the course of this game. Seeing him start as a scared first timer who has to have his boss arrested with the help of a disgraced pro and then growing into a confident person in his own right who solves a seven year old case centered around the people from the first case of the game is great and really feels like a great character arc for him; that while not directly about him does feel right to have him at the center of in these instances. Though Apollo is great on his own, he is made infinitely better by his dynamic with Trucy Wright, his co-counsel.

Trucy was a character that I was especially unsure about going into this game. Trucy is the adopted daughter of Phoenix and the head of the "Wright Anything Agency", which is where you work for most of the game. I was a big fan of Maya and Pearl as our co-counsel in the original trilogy so going into this I was worried that I wouldn't like Trucy as much since she didn't seem as interesting from what little I knew about her at the start; but I have to say that Trucy is probably one of the best parts of the game for me. The way she interacts with Apollo and messes with him gives me brother and sister vibes reminiscent of Phoenix and Maya, while also putting their own spin on it and making the dynamic feel like it's own thing even with the similarities to how Phoenix and Maya were.

Outside of her banter with Apollo though she's great on her own. Her way of seeing the world feels deceptively innocent when you first meet her but it becomes very clear as the game goes on that she's wise beyond her years. You're given hints about how Trucy came to be Wright's daughter and other small tidbits about her life through cases 1-3 but once you hit case 4 and get the full picture it really puts into perspective how strong Trucy is as a character and how intense her determination to make others happy is after she's endured so much; yet she basically pushed all that down in order to ensure that she can help Phoenix after his life was ruined. Trucy is a really well written tragic character and I cannot wait to see how they follow up on her story in future games. Speaking of future games, lets talk about a character that we probably won't see much of going forward: This game's prosecutor, Klavier Gavin.

As I mentioned earlier the prosecutors in this series tends to change to a new main one every game, and considering I liked all three before this I was expecting to enjoy whoever the new one was well enough. Enter Klavier Gavin, the best prosecutor this series has seen so far. Everything about this man just hits the right notes for me and it actually kinda surprises me how much I enjoyed him in this game. From the moment you first meet him he just has this aura of "I'm better than you, but like in a respectful way." and it's super interesting to me because of how generally the prosecutors up to this point have been a lot more meanspirited and aggressive at first. Gavin on the other hand, is friendly from the start and makes for a really fun dynamic between him and Apollo.

Despite his friendliness with Apollo, Klavier still acts as a formidable rival in the courtroom. Calm, collected, yet fierce he challenges you at every turn throughout the three cases he's in. He manages to capture the energy of a friend who wants to push you to be the best that you can be, and the way he starts working with Apollo throughout the trials once the truth starts to become clear is always so much fun. This is due mainly to the fact that much like how being the best and revenge drove the other prosecutors, the main drive that Gavin had was finding the truth. I find this aspect of him really interesting because it's a fresh take on how the prosecutors usually are in this series when you first meet them. He's just a guy who wants the true culprit to be caught, and even if he loses the cases he's just glad that the real criminal got put away. We also actually get to see where Klavier Gavin's quest for truth started in game which is cool; ir also just so happens to coincide with Phoenix Wright's fall from grace.


Full disclosure I knew about old man Phoenix coming into this game, I've seen the design around a lot but I had no idea what the context of it was. Seeing him as the defendant of the first case though, and from there seeing how much he's changed in the seven years since the end of AA3 really caught me off guard and got me extremely invested in the main plot of the game. Slowly being given details about what happened to Phoenix through the first three cases and then having it all be revealed to you in a section where you get to play as him again in case 4 for a flashback was great and I think they did a great job of revealing all the information around what caused him to become this person.

An older, more cynical Phoenix that's been warn down by being framed and kicked out of the job he's dedicated his life too felt like a compelling place to take his character in this game and helped to provide a continuous hook throughout the game of wanting to find out how he became this tired, kinda sad guy after being a lively fun person in the original trilogy. I think what this game absolutely nails about him though is it showcases just how smart Phoenix is. His entire plan to not only clear his name, but finally get closure and justice for the case that ruined him seven years ago was brilliant and showed that while the years had dulled his spirit, they hadn't dulled his mind. Phoenix isn't the only returning character though, he returns with forensic expert Ema Skye who functions as the new detective to help (or hinder you sometimes) you during investigations.

While I did like Ema Skye, I do think she's the one character that didn't reach the same standard of the other new generation characters from me. I still think she was great but the character she was replacing, Detective Dick Gumshoe, was just too good in the original trilogy. Her personality is distinct and different from his enough to make them two very different characters who ultimately function differently and are enjoyable on their own; but it does still feel like she's missing something when compared to who she's replacing.

I will note that while I would like to focus on how all of these characters stand on their own, it is a tad difficult to do so when they are all effectively replacing other characters. It's the unfortunate risk writers run when they try to introduce a new cast to an ongoing series, it can be hard to get out of the shadow of what you've done previously. Ultimately I do think the game for the most part does manage to live up to the expectations of having the same great core cast the trilogy did and I love how all of them are throughout this game's story.

Regarding the story, I really liked how they managed to pull off the style of overarching plot that AA3 did again. I feel like as Shu Takumi worked on the series he became a better and better writer and that is exemplified here. So many small things throughout each case that felt like they would be irrelevant to the main plot of the case all end up factoring in and as I started to realize this it was fun trying to figure out which minute details would become important to the endgame of the case. This game has its fair share of sudden twists and turns throughout the cases like all the other games, and I do love how it all comes together in the end with case 4, which is tied for my second favorite case of the series.

The overarching plot of the game focuses on the mystery of Phoenix's final trial seven years ago and what really happened that day that got him disbarred. I've mentioned it a few times in this review already but the way they managed to weave breadcrumbs throughout every case felt organic and like it was never detracting from the current focus, but still reminding you that plot was still going on in the background. The way everything came to a head in case four was so damn cool and I just absolutely loved how they wrote that entire case. The whole idea of trying to use a jurist system for this case instead of the evidence only approach was a fun idea that I hope continues to show up in future games as it felt fresh and unique in how the case was presented due to it not needing to be won in the same way as every other case so far. Apollo Justice's story is great and definitely a fun time if you decide to playthrough it.

While the story is great, I do think part of what makes this game so great is the presentation.

Playing this game you could really tell Capcom were taking full advantage of the ds's visual abilities. The bounciness and general movement of the sprites, as well as just how clean they look visually, was super neat to me and really made all the fun new character designs pop much more than they would have if they had the more static look of the gba games I feel. The designs are also just all really fun in general as well. I think it says a lot that when trying to think of my favorite design pretty much all of the main cast come to mind. The animations and art are definitely made even greater by the music though, which may be my favorite soundtrack of the series so far.


Like I said with the FFX review I'm not the best at talking about why I like music, I just know when I like something I like something. That being said, I just wanted to say that Apollo Justice's soundtrack is phenomenal. Tracks like their renditions of the cross examination and the cornered themes in this game are some of the best I've heard so far, and new themes such as Klavier Gavin's theme are just incredible. Even if you don't play the game give some songs a listen, they're great.

Though I've spent most of this review talking about aspects of the games that I love, there were a few things about the game that did rub me the wrong way.

I think one of the two places this game is lacking though, are the investigation minigames. This time around during the investigation portion of cases you will often enlist the help of Ema Skye in order to gather evidence left behind at the crime scenes that you couldn't get through normal means. Cases two and four have one or two new minigames that cover gathering evidence in different ways. For example you make casts of footprints in case two, using an X-ray machine to read a letter through an envelope in case four, etc. case three meanwhile has a soundboard that you have to adjust and listen too carefully in order to hear sounds that help build your case in that specific trial. While most of these are fine and not that big of a deal they felt not super fun to play at best and just tedious at worst like with the aforementioned X-ray minigame. While I'm bringing up tediousness, that brings me to my other big problem with the game: repetition.

While this may seem like a petty complaint, I was extremely not a fan of just how often the middle cases would use flashbacks and make us reread parts of the game that we've already read. Or in the case of case three specifically, replay the same clip of video on repeat every two minutes or so during a section that was reliant on talking about this piece of video. I do understand to some degree that it was necessary for people to see the different clues and stuff that they may have missed when they weren't specifically looking for them, but I do think it still went overboard to some degree.

All in all though, Apollo Justice is a lot better of a game than I think its given credit for online. Fun characters, incredible writing, great music and visuals, all ingredients in the recipe for a good Ace Attorney game. Give this game a shot if you're on the fence after the trilogy, it's a great time.

9.5/10