This game is weird. For as many good ideas as I think it DOES has it tends to miss a lot too. Notably speaking, I think a majority of the good ideas are fantastic, and probably some of my favorite things to come out of the series. My favorite cases were 5-3 and 5-DLC, as I thought the characters in those cases were really fun, and they’re just fun. Dual Destinies is easily one of my least favorite Ace Attorneys but I still had fun. I also liked 5-4 and 5-5, even though 5-5 is probably one of my least favorite finale cases. A lot of the story beats with Simon and Athena are really good, and both of them are easily some of my favorite characters to come out of this series. I really like Simon’s whole samurai aesthetic and how he interacts with his bird, Taka, in his animations. His role in the plot is cool and I enjoy him a lot. Similarly, I love Athena. Not only does she have one of my favorite objection themes in the series, but she’s just really funny, speaks phrases in different languages just for fun, and her new gameplay gimmick, mood matrix, is a really great way to change the way courtroom testimonies are typically handled, even if it is stupidly easy at times. She is definitely one of my favorite takes on the “assistant character” that Ace Attorney loves doing.
One of the biggest issues with the game though, I feel, are that the second trilogy of games cannot decide whether they want Phoenix to be Apollo and Athena’s mentor, or be the main character again, but I don’t like how they try to have their cake and eat it too. People really like Phoenix Wright, and I do too, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to introduce new main characters that could use the spotlight more just to be constantly overshadowed by Phoenix in almost every case in the game. Remember how I referred to Athena as an “assistant character”? Yeah, she’s a lawyer, and the plot is technically focused on her, but Phoenix is always in the drivers seat most of the time and I wish this wasn’t the case. I mean, out of the game’s 6 cases, Apollo leads 1, Athena leads 1 and a half, and Phoenix gets the other 4 and a half. The game is about issues both Apollo and Athena face yet they don’t get the opportunity to actually be the player character more than once. Combine that with the fact that Dual Destinies takes the poker-playing hobo version of Phoenix and throws it out the window in favor of having his trilogy self back, and I think it should be pretty obvious why I don’t really love Phoenix in this game compared to previous titles. He’s still a fun character, but to me, disbarred Phoenix felt like a harsh, but logical progression of the character (in the sense that Phoenix isn’t the one running cases all the time anymore) that Dual Destinies instead decided to treat like just another phase in his life.
Dual Destinies is a ok game, but a very lacking sequel to Apollo Justice and fails to capitalize on the true potential it could have as a sequel. Instead of trying to make something out of the unresolved plot threads from Apollo Justice, they instead do a reboot of a reboot and throw away mostly everything from that game in favor of new ideas. Some work well. Some don’t. Some really annoy me. For reference, I don’t think any Ace Attorney games are actually bad, but they can be pretty ok at times. Dual Destinies, in my opinion, misses a lot of what was interesting about Apollo Justice by lowering the tone that was present in that game and choosing to go a safer, less morally gray route. It’s a game that feels lacking because it plays it too safe, and while I did enjoy my time, I think the game could’ve been much better.
One of the biggest issues with the game though, I feel, are that the second trilogy of games cannot decide whether they want Phoenix to be Apollo and Athena’s mentor, or be the main character again, but I don’t like how they try to have their cake and eat it too. People really like Phoenix Wright, and I do too, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to introduce new main characters that could use the spotlight more just to be constantly overshadowed by Phoenix in almost every case in the game. Remember how I referred to Athena as an “assistant character”? Yeah, she’s a lawyer, and the plot is technically focused on her, but Phoenix is always in the drivers seat most of the time and I wish this wasn’t the case. I mean, out of the game’s 6 cases, Apollo leads 1, Athena leads 1 and a half, and Phoenix gets the other 4 and a half. The game is about issues both Apollo and Athena face yet they don’t get the opportunity to actually be the player character more than once. Combine that with the fact that Dual Destinies takes the poker-playing hobo version of Phoenix and throws it out the window in favor of having his trilogy self back, and I think it should be pretty obvious why I don’t really love Phoenix in this game compared to previous titles. He’s still a fun character, but to me, disbarred Phoenix felt like a harsh, but logical progression of the character (in the sense that Phoenix isn’t the one running cases all the time anymore) that Dual Destinies instead decided to treat like just another phase in his life.
Dual Destinies is a ok game, but a very lacking sequel to Apollo Justice and fails to capitalize on the true potential it could have as a sequel. Instead of trying to make something out of the unresolved plot threads from Apollo Justice, they instead do a reboot of a reboot and throw away mostly everything from that game in favor of new ideas. Some work well. Some don’t. Some really annoy me. For reference, I don’t think any Ace Attorney games are actually bad, but they can be pretty ok at times. Dual Destinies, in my opinion, misses a lot of what was interesting about Apollo Justice by lowering the tone that was present in that game and choosing to go a safer, less morally gray route. It’s a game that feels lacking because it plays it too safe, and while I did enjoy my time, I think the game could’ve been much better.