Replacing the main character of a successful video game series is a gutsy move, but that’s exactly what happened in the fourth instalment of Ace Attorney. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apollo Justice makes for an unconvincing facsimile of Phoenix Wright, and his debut game saw that beloved character sunken into what looked like ruin, stripped of his licence and turned into a dishevelled pianist/professional poker player. For this, Apollo leaves a bad taste in many mouths; he was the𝓰 first sign of a shifting foundation - the harbinger of Ace Attorney committing the fatal crime of taking itself seriously.
Apollo Justice may be the fourth in the series, but it’s the first to finally tackle the upside-down world of Ace Attorney’s legal system. Earlier games poked fun at the three-day trial limit, corrupt prosecutor tactics, and the unfairness inherent in the system, but in ways that justified the games’ structures rather in ways that affected the characters and the world around them. With its focus on the ‘Dark Age of Law’ and the testing of a ‘jurist’ system, Apollo Jus♕tice adds some much-needed legal gravitas to the setting, making the game about lawyers actually committing to dissecting the zany laws they deal with.
Apoꦦllo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Revi⛄ew - Guilty Pleasure
Apollo Justice is a worthy succeꦗssor to Phoenix Wright and the trilogy that bears his name ☂is a wonderful collection of stories.
That’s not to say the game is without levity - it’s still an Ace Attorney game. Your assistant is an underage magician who pulls objects from comically large panties, your prosecutor opponent plays air guitar in court, and the judge is still the cloudcuckoolander that we’ve come to adore. The game’s most infamous case has you analysing footage of the prosecutor’s rock band (it makes sense in context) and using a soundboard to solve mysteries in the middle of the courtroom - this is still an Ace Attorney game through and through. The fact that the game manages to tackle serious issues while retaining this inherent zane is a testament to how wellꦓ-balanced the writin🍸g is and enables the series to pivot from solely character-focused arcs to setting-defining storylines cleanly.
From Apollo Justice, the series went on to tackle the morality and the sense of the legal system it had created to sustain its gameplay, treating issues such as the death penalty and cross-border policing with care. It’s when Ace Attorney grows up and starts to reckon with its own messiness and explores deeper themes, such as the meaning of justice, the public reckoning with a failed justice system, and the complications inherent in tackling high-level corruption. It does this all without losing heart, keeping its characters at the centre of the piece and never failing in its goal of telling a compelling story about wacky characters who are so intrinsic♑ally loveable.
I’m sure plenty would have been more than happy to keep Phoenix and Maya together forever, happening upon yet more bodies and exploring spirit chann🍷elling until it’s as stale as Maya getting kidnapped and Edgeworth being unable to deal with his obvious homosexual feelings for Phoenix. The series is better for the off-piste direction it took with Apollo Justice, and his introduction allowed the series greater experimentation both in narrative scope and with mech🌊anics, which is appreciated in a long-running visual novel. Ace Attorney needed Apollo Justice, and we should have been far more thankful for him than we were.
