Maxie
Guest
This text is meant to be a lengthy retrospective and as such it’s full of spoilers. Because of this, the text is aimed at people who are familiar with the games, or who care little about the games being spoilt. It’s written from the perspective of someone with no prior exposure to the series, except for the OBJECTION! meme. I went in blind and played all six of the mainline games on a 2DS over the past few months. By ‘mainline’ I mean I have not played any of these:
Ace Attorney Investigations 1&2 – NDS games about Edgeworth’s prosecutor adventures
Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton spin-off
Due to the retrospective’s nature and length, I’m putting it whole behind a spoiler tag. It’s sometimes a review, mostly a rant, usually a summary of the games, always a good chance to remember what they were all about. I must admit that the reason for writing this piece was the annoying rambling of some of you who keep insisting that only the Trilogy is worth a play-through, and that it’s a stellar play-through.
EDIT: I include a similar text on Great Ace Attorney
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ace-attorney-retrospective.132452/#post-6650222
Ace Attorney Investigations 1&2 – NDS games about Edgeworth’s prosecutor adventures
Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton spin-off
Due to the retrospective’s nature and length, I’m putting it whole behind a spoiler tag. It’s sometimes a review, mostly a rant, usually a summary of the games, always a good chance to remember what they were all about. I must admit that the reason for writing this piece was the annoying rambling of some of you who keep insisting that only the Trilogy is worth a play-through, and that it’s a stellar play-through.
1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – the big boy
AA1 starts off very cute. The first case sets the tone just perfectly, with the delightfully laughable premise of a full courtroom turnabout – not only you’re expected to fend off the prosecutor’s accusations, you also indict the real killer! Whether or not the indicted gets a guilty verdict in their own respective trials is something players are never informed of, nor do we even know who in the hell will defend people proven guilty by you. Your job is to prove beyond doubt that your client did not kill the victim, and hurling a valid accusation at someone else seems to be the easiest way to do so, right? Otherwise, you’re bound to lose by default. In AA games, having a shit attorney is a death wish. Courts are biased, prosecution is near almighty, evidence gets submitted willy-nilly.
This turnabout is only the first one I encountered, with way more to come. It took me a good while to start taking for granted what we’re shown in every single trial, that is absurd turnabouts regarding the evidence. In the first trial, we prove that the statue of the Thinker is, in fact, a trick clock, complete with an alarm, leading to the indictment of a witness, a Frank ‘Sawhit.’ The series is full of such silly puns in people’s names. Nevertheless, the first trial’s silliness has to give way to the second one’s more canonical tone and form.
Your boss, Mia Fey, is killed off instantly, but this does not inconvenience her in the slightest, showing up in all three Trilogy games, thanks to the spirit channelling gimmick. Your sidekick, Maya, Mia’s younger sister and the first real client you have (because, let’s be honest – fuck Larry), is able to to channel dead people, transforming her body completely – the dead come back to life, for as long as Maya is able to handle them. You defend Maya in court against a typically absurd accusation of murder, utilizing logic, but also some hearty bluffing. It’s great so far.
Maya’s a cute character, but not really that important in the first game I believe, as she only ever summons her sister, and only to tell Phoenix to shape up. Otherwise, her wisecracks, constant hunger for junk food, and wasting Nick’s (Phoe-nick’s, get it?) money on bullshit get old quick. The first trial also introduces Miles Edgeworth, the character we’d expect to be the biggest and recurrent opponent of Phoenix Wright, except he prosecutes like three cases in AA1 and not many more after that. Consider him your anime childhood friend with a redemption arc.
The murder of Mia Fey is resolved, and we hop to the next murder right away, this time of some actor working on a stupid tokusatsu show. There are next to no non-murder cases you work in whole of Ace Attorney. The case this time is whimsical for way longer than I would’ve desired, with the granny character being a major (and, unfortunately, recurring) offender, but this nonsense passes the moment we face the final witness, also the obvious killer – the show’s producer, Dee Vasquez. The contempt she has in store for the whole judicial charade is uncanny in the context of AA1, but, unfortunately, many-many more characters like her are going to appear in the series.
The final case, Edgeworth’s apparent killing of his late father’s associate on a boat just before Christmas, with its legendary “It wasn’t Christmas yet!” turnabout, Manfred von Karma’s meltdown and absurd tie-in of both the actual incident of Edgeworth not-killing somebody and his father getting shot ages ago is something unique, at least in AA1. Half the fun of the last case lies in figuring out the time frame, because the investigation itself isn’t fun at all, for fuck’s sake, with the disgusting bum and his disgusting snot bubble. Edgeworth is given an anime-tier redemption and all ends well.
All in all, AA1 turns out to be a pleasant surpri-
Wait, what the hell. The story is blatantly over, why is there one more case? Apparently it was added much later, designed by post-Trilogy staff and glued to the first game as an excuse for selling it the second time at the same price. And I must tell you, Rise from the Ashes overstays its welcome hardcore. The premise itself is great – Chief of Police Gant being the murderer and blatantly meddling with your investigation, the game demanding you NOT TO submit the final piece of evidence, lest you invalidate the whole trial, thanks to Evidence Law (never mentioned again), the sheer chutzpah on the guy! He’s great people.
The characters, a mixed bag – with Gant and the whole Joe Darke thing being good, but also idiots like officer Meekins with his loudspeaker making me drop the fucking game for a week. Rise from the Ashes is absurdly long, too long to justify even its great finale. It also adds your client’s sister, Ema Skye, to the main plotline. She’s a high school girl aspiring to be a forensics expert one day, replacing Maya as your barely legal aide. She’s chipper and enthusiastic for now, but God, is her future sombre.
All in all, AA1 turns out to be a pleasant surprise, although I do not fully understand why was it so forcefully localized, made to take place in a fictional and weirdly Asian version of Los Angeles. Next instalments only add to the confusion as the pretence becomes more and more difficult to uphold, with more people dressed very overly like the Japanese, acting like them, working in their traditional trades, even selling ramen from a street stall. I believe the ‘Japamerica’ universe the translators conjured up is a big meme at this point, and let’s leave it at that. Frankly, if AA1 was to be the first and last game in the series, I wouldn’t even be disappointed. It was kinda good, all in all.
2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All – the sequel we never wanted
Oh Christ. AA2 is an awkward game, much shorter than AA1, much worse than AA1, at least until the stellar last case. Until we reach it, we have to suffer through a number of some abhorrent shit, though. The prologue doesn’t make one optimistic in the slightest, and I don’t mean that they changed the stellar soundtrack. Our boy Nick can’t remember how to do anything, having been hit on the head by the murderer. I was actually afraid they’re going to pull full-on amnesia, but thankfully, we were spared this.
The real killer of Maggey turns out to be a bigger dumbass than usual, and she herself seems awfully chipper for a girl just recently victim to her boyfriend’s demise. I think this tone shift is what brings AA2 down a lot – it’s a lot more goofy than the first game, even character design-wise. Still less goofy than Rise from the Ashes, the case added to AA1 already after the Trilogy was completed, with its ridiculous cowboy character and Damon Gant’s anime-coloured suit. Something must have happened to the designers at some point. Nevertheless, let’s hop to the first real case.
Maya’s accused of murder, again. This time we see her spirit channelling gimmick as an actual trade she and her clan have had going on for centuries… Imported from Japan, of course. The absurd localization makes us believe a rural anime village just sprung up somewhere in the US, complete with Japanese housing etc. At least we’re given a lollipop for our trouble – Maya’s magatama amulet allows Phoenix to sense when people are lying, their lies coiling around them like chains, which we’re to dispel with proper arguments and evidence. It makes for more lively investigations, since you can actually lose if you fuck up magatama sequences.
The case also introduces Maya’s shitty family, which is going to come back soon and bite us in the ass. Her asshole aunt and cute as a button cousin Pearl are a welcome addition, if only due to the former’s machinations and the latter’s absurd shipping of Phoenix and Maya together. Silly girl, in the sexless and loveless universe of Capcom games your little fantasies are worth less than the next case of AA2. I must say the final turnabout of this case was mildly amusing, with the twin sisters’ switcheroo, however much contrived it appears.
Let’s go next. Turnabout Big Top is the circus murder case. It’s loud and obnoxious, with the whimsical shit getting actually unbearable. Sorry, but I choose not to remind either myself or you of its contents. Never again, I thought to myself. Poor, stupid me. If I were to know what comes in the sequels…
I’ve deliberately avoided mentioning prosecutor Francisca von Karma, the last game’s main bad guy’s daughter, replacing Edgeworth in AA2. Her whipping people with an honest to God whip! inside the courtroom! was such an odious addition to the game I decided to avoid mentioning her altogether, if only to spare myself the memories of her role in the game. Luckily, these are limited to AA2 and that one case in AA3. She’s somewhat better in the final case of AA2, if only because the final case of AA2 is amazingly good and it could salvage anything.
Farewell, My Turnabout has you finally defending someone who actually killed a guy, even though you don’t know of it yet. Your client, an action flick star, happens to secretly be a giant asshole who hired an assassin to kill his rival, having first ensured that his assistant suffering from dependency syndrome will never testify against him. Cue Phoenix’s despair once he finds this all out. The main gimmick of this case, whether or not the assassin is to be considered a ‘tool,’ adds to the atmosphere greatly. Finally no family dramas, no contrived bullshit, just a plain ol’ contracted hit, along with layers of deception. Even the assistant being a weak character did not spoil my fun.
Remember how this one ends? Your client begs the judge to be found guilty, so as to be spared the assassin’s retribution for mentioning his existence in court. The payoff is great, and putting Francisca on that plane to fuck off for good was just the perfect way to end my gameplay. AA2 is undoubtedly worse than the first one in many regards, but the magatama gimmick and the final case salvage it somewhat. If you were into Maya’s antics, even the first real case can be considered good. Now, brace yourself for full-on Maya fans pandering.
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations - coffee memes and lots of melodrama
This one straight up sets a precedent for the series, in case you weren’t forewarned by the glimpses of it in the first two games. The courtroom turns into Phoenix & Co.’s therapy session. Let’s get to it slowly, shall we? The game starts with a throwback to Mia Fey’s first case – Phoenix himself being accused of murder. Turns out his bitch lolita-esque girlfriend did it and tried pinning the thing on him. Be prepared to see Dahlia Hawthorne again, of course being related to a different crime. AA3 was somewhat inventive in this regard, but, unfortunately for the series, the novelty of this turnabout runs out once we see it again and again in the sequels. Cases are no longer stand-alone adventures, now they form whole arcs.
I was happy to see the first case handled by Phoenix in AA3 not to be a murder, at least to a point. It starts as a grand larceny case, only to turn into a murder case once you have some good old blackmail going on. The case is unrelated to anything else, although it sports prosecutor Godot for the first time. Godot is some masked maniac constantly sipping coffee, allowed to prosecute seemingly out of nowhere and for no good reason, which alone makes him an unbearable meme. At least his demeanour is markedly different from Edgeworth’s smugness and von Karma family’s haughtiness and forcefulness. Godot doesn’t seem to give a fuck about his job, frankly. He’s in court just to see late Mia’s student at work – the student being Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney.
The next one is as silly as they go. Some gangster impersonated Phoenix to have Maggey Byrde framed for murder of a guy who owned him money, you’re defending her in a retrial, almost forced to do so by Gumshoe. Also, you get to meet and indict the gangster, a fellow called Furio Tigre, straight up snarling at you in court. It involved signature Ace Attorney switcheroos and… that’s about it. It’s not very interesting. Phoenix wins a not guilty for Maggey, detective Gumshoe does not rip out your guts.
Turnabout Beginnings is a peculiar little case, an investigation-free court thing with Mia defending a death row prisoner from being convicted for even more murder. The prosecutor is young Edgeworth, for all of you thirsty fangirls out there. Also, it includes Godot before he put on the mask, as Diego Armando, Mia’s partner and lover. That is, right before he sipped one coffee cup too many, losing hair colour, eyesight, and all professional dignity, falling into coma and waking up to see Mia dead since AA1. Also, Dahlia Hawthorne returns to be her usual bitch self. All in all, an intense piece with an interesting gimmick – your client does not really mind being convicted, already being a death row prisoner.
Ladies and gents, AA3 is less whimsical than the previous game, but I believe the final case to be weaker than Farewell. Bridge to Turnabout is divided into two trials – with attorney! Edgeworth facing the returning Francisca von Karma, then with Wright facing Godot. And believe you me – Edgeworth’s half, less melodramatic and relying strongly on old-school Ace Attorney logical traps, trumps the second half, ie. the murder case proper. The strongest turnabout of it is, of course, Maya channelling executed Dahlia all this time, in order to avoid getting killed by her, were she to be channelled by little Pearly in turn, prodded to do so by her bitch mother, also Maya’s aunt. Jesus. It has also the brilliant moment of turning off the lights to prove that Godot is a shine in the dark beaner.
The second part includes a shitload of spirit channelling switcheroos, twin sisters, locked room mysteries, fallen bridges, Larry’s retarded rambling, all in all – Ace Attorney standards. Whether or not it’s a fitting end to the Trilogy is another matter. It does put a lid on the Fey family drama, at least. Finally our heroes decide to stop channelling Mia every other day to have her butt in, despite her being dead as a doornail for years. Frankly, I was let down by Trilogy somewhat, yearning for more of that AA1 courtroom game, rather than AA2-3 courtroom antics and sob stories. Trilogy fanatics keep ranting that Ace Attorney ends at PART THREE! So I’ve decided to call their bluff. Is the sequel any good?
4. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – double the memes, some fun slips in
This one was a big ass fucking bother. As the first game designed for NDS, AA4 is significantly more impressive tech-wise, with 3D evidence poking and prodding, some touch screen forensics thrown in for good measure, higher resolution, more lively animations… But is it also good substance-wise? Despite being just four cases, AA4 is far from being short, with each and every case having dramatic resolutions as well as a shitload of overdesigned, often ugly-looking characters. And extended conversations, rolling endlessly in the visual novel way. In this regard AA4 strayed far from the first game – not that the Trilogy is blameless, because even AA2 is markedly more silly than the big boy.
The first case is a shocker. Game’s set quite some time after the Trilogy, with Phoenix being disbarred, apparently for forging evidence. He’s now a bum in a garish beanie, making money as a trick poker player, being paid for providing the challenge – he’s unbeatable. His stage magician daughter helps him cheat, is why. Did he finally fuck Maya? Of course not, it’s a Capcom game. He’s adopted one of his clients’ daughter. I’ll get back to this one later. For now, we’re introduced to our new protagonist – Apollo Justice, a well-meaning kid with a way too loud voice, trained by Kristoph Gavin.
Apollo adds a refreshing new mechanic to the game, namely – his bracelet. Apollo’s unusually acute sense of sight makes him react to people’s tells as they lie, making the skin on his wrist push on the bracelet a little with the power of anime. Whenever Apollo feels uncomfortable around the bracelet, someone’s gonna have to speak up and get molested by his gaze. For us it means moving the camera to look for weird little twitches, playing with clothing, even sweating profusely, as the witness repeats themselves. It’s tells, because the first case involves poker, right? AA4 and its sequels tend to be incessantly thematic.
Anyway, Apollo’s first client is Phoenix Wright himself, who’s apparently just killed his daughter’s disguised father, only he didn’t do it, it was Kristoph Gavin, in a fit of absurd jealousy over not being employed seven years ago by Phoenix’s daughter’s now-disguised former stage magician father, to defend him from being accused for killing his troupe leader and father-in-law. That’s it, that’s the plot of AA4. Apart from the next case, Turnabout Corner, all are a part of one arc. Get used to it. What you shouldn’t get used to is Phoenix himself being a much darker figure than usual, seemingly chill and adult (he’s much older and raised a kid, after all), but scheming and detached whenever necessary. All to stage Gavin’s eventual demise at the hands of the Jury system, employed for the first and last time in the series.
Turns out we’ve been spoilt rotten by detective Gumshoe’s warm blanket of silliness and incompetence. The pain never ends once Gumshoe disappears from Ace Attorney, replaced in AA4 by Ema Skye, the forensics nerd who helped you in Rise from the Ashes. Ema still hasn’t been appointed a forensics specialist and serves as a police detective, to her dismay, as well as to ours. She’s bitchy and unbearable at first, and only ever grows less so towards the end of the game. The other personality we weren’t prepared for is Klavier Gavin, prosecutor since 17 years old (because they let you prosecute in high school in Europe, apparently). Kristoph’s kid brother is the proverbial chad, often straight up mogging our goofy-looking protagonist with his absurd good looks, charisma, and real rock star career. This guy would make warpig explode, for sure.
Thanks to younger Gavin’s rock career, we have to suffer through one of the most annoying cases in Ace Attorney. His concert is the site of the murder of his co-star’s producer/Interpol agent off to blow someone’s damn head off with a with a giant revolver for stealing an insect cocoon, supposedly the material for some rare medicine. Of course the killer is Gavin’s annoying band member, why did I waste several hours getting to this no-brainer? The sheer writing quality drops significantly in minor cases, a tradition since AA2’s infamous circus case. It has a cute musical puzzle though, with you listening to a recording of the music and checking which instrument fucked up, and why (because of murder!). It’s almost clearly designed and not annoying, too!
Luckily, we’re introduced to some meaty stuff in the finale. I must say that the final case of AA4, while not as cool as AA2’s, is one of the best ones out there. Kristoph Gavin plants a time bomb inside a shut-in art forger girl’s study, framing her for the murder of her father and ensuring that she’s not gonna survive the trial – you may call it contrived, but the poisoned nail polish she uses when going out, combined with her habit of biting nails while stressed, makes for a decent enough plot device. What follows is the throwback to the infamous case in which Phoenix Wright used forged evidence.
And we get to experience the MASON System, ie. access to Phoenix’s memories scattered around two timelines – after the trial which cost him the badge, and after Apollo’s investigation of the art forger father’s murder. Pieced together they make for the finale, with you being finally able to indict Gavin for all the fuckery in AA4, leading to the rehabilitation of Phoenix. So, more sequels. AA4 wasn’t a bad game per se, but I believe the transition to NDS to be largely forced and not that beneficial to game structure. The art style and writing grew more tiresome, though. Don’t get used to the idea of Apollo being our new protagonist, either. What future has in store is way more cruel.
5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies – our boy is gone
I hated this game so much. It introduces yet another lawyer trainee, Athena Cykes, her gimmick being the extraordinarily acute sense of hearing – she can hear people’s hearts, folks. God knows what she thinks hearing someone with arrhythmia. This discrepancy in heart rate leads to her conducting short therapy sessions on the spot, ie., lengthy sequences of you trying to pinpoint which statement feels odd as the guy’s talking about murder. His statements are supplied with four emotional state gauges; happiness, anger, surprise, sadness, growing weaker or stronger. I disliked these sequences. Even their usage in the final case, with you trying to take down the ‘emotionless’ secret organization agent masquerading as the new detective, was a big waste of time and effort.
Athena being an annoying cunt doesn’t help either – she’s too young and forcefully chipper, in the brawny and goofy way Maya never was. Maya never pretended to be a trained lawyer at 18 either. Luckily, AA5 isn’t exclusively Athena’s game. Our protagonists trade places throughout the cases, with some stuff being handled by her, some by Apollo, and a smidgen landing in Phoenix’s lap. The confusion is strengthened by the game’s non-linearity. While four of the five cases belong in a single arc, they’re not chronological, leading to an awkward in medias res moment I found weakening to the plot. I did not play the DLC case, as it’s apparently some whimsical bullshit.
So – your first case, but actually the last but one, is really awkward. The complete revamp to 3DS aesthetics doesn’t help – suddenly the game has 3d models, evidence lists are no longer a tasteful grid, instead becoming an annoying list, Athena’s Mood Matrix minigame deducts from the usual logical romp in favour of armchair psychology and endless replaying of testimonies. So we detected happiness, but you were also a little sad? What the f-
Who cares about the bombing. It’s introduced in medias res, with Apollo dressed up as some anime avenger in bandages and a dramatic coat, your client being obviously framed in an asinine way, the whole premise serving only as a stepping stone before the game’s finale. But it’s put right in the beginning, because fuck you. It is the next case which serves as a proper introduction to AA5, the visit at a whimsical not-Japanese village full of Japamerican yokai enthusiasts, with a wrestling feud and the real killer introduced in the case’s anime cinematic intro. I shit you not, it’s spoilt from the very beginning, by design! Multi-angle investigations are cool, but they come at the expense of being unable to investigate anything else than crime scenes – no more silly comments from your aide. There’s also a new prosecutor I will discuss later.
The next case formally kickstarts AA5’s plotline – the Dark Age of the Law, introduced by Phoenix’s disbarring between the Trilogy and AA4, makes Themis Legal Academy teach its students how to adapt to this peculiar period of notorious evidence forging, bum raps, and record low trust in the legal system. The murderer this time, finally revealed after obligatory court drama and power of friendship antics, is fully convinced that this is the way to proceed in law, and that his way is well worth being taught to students. The challenge of AA5 is – how to stop the Dark Age? Apparently, by proving the new prosecutor Simon Blackquill not guilty of the murder he has seemingly committed years ago.
Blackquill is a character quite symptomatic of latter days Ace Attorney. It’s some absurd man in a Japanese-inspired garb (we’re in Japamerica, people), formally a death row prisoner, brought shackled into court to prosecute. He breaks his shackles all the time, has a pet falcon bringing him documents and pestering the defence, throws fucking knives at people – it’s ridiculous. Whether or not you find it amusingly ridiculous or unbearably ridiculous is your personal choice. His tard wrangler is an equally ridiculous detective, Bobby Fulbright, the paragon of justice. Bobby’s loud and overbearing in his paladin-ish zeal, which I sincerely thought just bad design. The trademark turnabout in the finale comes out of nowhere, if only to get played down by the Mood Matrix sequence. Bobby could’ve been a better character.
I’ll handle the whole not-JAXA fracas at once. Apollo’s cosmonaut friend gets killed, his doomer senpai is framed. Athena’s mother’s murder by Blackquill from seven years ago gets connected to it. Athena’s mother’s crazy lesbian co-worker, also Blackquill’s elder sister, holds the whole facility hostage until the killer of Athena’s mother is found before Blackquill himself gets executed (next day!) To make it even more melodramatic, Athena was apparently the real culprit all along, or so we’re led to think. That’s right, we’re facing yet another retrial of a case from seven years ago, delightfully composed into a convoluted storyline including robots, a samurai, and the face-thief detective Fulbright, actually some international spy with a peculiar psychological condition – he doesn’t feel very strongly about anything and learnt how to fake having a personality. We bring down this Codexian gentleman with the power of the Mood Matrix. Oh happy days.
AA5 is not a good game. It’s probably the one I liked the least. The additions of Athena and her gimmick are dubious at best, the transition to 3DS tech came at the steep price of everything getting streamlined to save money on producing 3d assets, the cases tend to turn into long dramatic rants interjected with rather middling logical puzzles, the flow of the game is interrupted by incessant “show X on a picture” moments. Also, the family drama bullshit from AA3 and AA4 appears to be stronger than ever. Well, that was a big waste of time, let’s get to the last mainline game. It’s bound to be good, right?
6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice – Tibet-hating simulator
We’ve reached the conclusion of AA, provided no game will be released on Switch. This one is a peculiar beast, in two ways. First of all, AA6 is a big fanservice bait, with most of the supporting cast (well, except for Gumshoe and Larry) coming back, if only for a moment. On the other hand, it introduces a wholly new locale, that being – the Tibetan kingdom of Khurain, the home of spirit channelling. You know, Maya’s shtick from Trilogy times. Maya herself returns too, studying the finer details of the channelling technique in Tibet, where she invites Nick to, heh, celebrate her imminent graduation. Murders ensue, letting Nick take part in a brand new flavour of court drama.
In Khurain, being an attorney is a death warrant. The locals hate attorneys, because one of them killed their queen. Due to the murder, the Defence Culpability Act was introduced, making attorneys suffer death penalty along with their clients, were they to lose in court. The few who dare to work never win, because of the Seance – the royal priestess invokes the victim’s last memories as a piece of evidence, regarded by Khurainians as conclusive. The gimmick this time is – last memories tend to be subjective and selective, therefore Nick is able to overrule them, given enough evidence and sheer bluffing. The Seance is certainly better than the Mood Matrix. The problem is, getting to the good parts is gruelling.
Nick ends up defending his kid Khurainese guide framed for murder, causing great shock and distress to the nation. Nefarious plans get sped up both on the gov-side and on the side of the revolutionaries, the Whatever Dragons, led by Dhurke, the last queen’s apparent murderer. I must admit that the premise looks kind of enticing on paper, but it’s realized the same way AA5 handled its plot – in a whimsical and melodramatic fashion, full of family feuds and sob stories. Khurain cases form a story arc, as opposed to two Japamerican cases, handled by Apollo and Athena respectively. There are five cases in total, excluding the DLC, which I did not play.
Japamerican cases are as wacky as ever, although even their wackiness is a welcome change from big dramatic arcs. If only the Mood Matrix did not swamp them as usual… The first one includes salty stage magicians trying to ruin Trucy’s career, only you manage to stop their wild accusations. It includes some logic dive as you try to figure out the trick utilized to kill the victim, the trial is peppered with fiddling with a video recording. It’s not even that bad, if not for the twins and the long-dead-actually-alive magician turnabouts. The second one is bad, though. A traditional Japamerican rakugo master gets suffocated with noodles, Simon Blackquill’s favourite Japamerican udon noodle craftsman get accused. There’s no Apollo, just Athena being inept, Blackquill saving her ass the time as an aide, prosecutor Sahdmandhi being absurdly abusive in court. You win, proving that Athena is not a rubbish lawyer. Turns out having a split personality helps with rakugo.
Sahdmandhi is the new prosecutor, an international one at that, meaning – he hops on that plane all the time to handle both Japamerican and Khurainese cases. He’s smug and abusive, despite larping some sort of a Buddhist mystic, and looks like an anime protagonist. If Gavin and Blackquill were ridiculous characters, then Sahdmandhi is straight up vile. He has none of the professional charm good old Edgeworth had. Also, he happens to be Apollo’s adoptive brother, the murdered queen and Dhurke’s son, a former revolutionary, currently blackmailed to uphold the regime, in order to avoid punishment directed at his kid sister, the royal priestess. Soap opera plot strikes back. It’s not a great achievement to predict the rest of AA6 once you know of these facts. Let’s just say that the final trial, with queen Ga’ran acting as prosecutor and actively overriding laws (!) in the middle of a trial going on (!!) is one of the dumbest parts of Ace Attorney to date.
It was a tiresome journey, and even Ema Skye finally not being a jaded cunt, and Edgeworth coming by to say like a dozen lines and fuck off, did not help me enjoy AA6 any better. In fact, over the past few months I’ve noticed I’m forcing myself to carry on, oddly fascinated with the downfall of this series, at first witty and interesting, then turned into a festival of cringe-worthy memes and recycled anime storylines. If I were to play some popular VN/adventure game instead of the Ace Attorney series, I’d consider stuff like 999, or the first Danganronpa game. AA1 really was the best instalment of its series, with every next one being plainly worse.
Trilogy fanatics were partly correct in their assessment – the first three games, also due to having been re-released half a dozen times at this point, are the most reasonable Ace Attorney experience. However, the sickness sets in quite early, and you shouldn’t really stick along once you feel it’s kind of getting tiresome to follow. It simply does not get any better. Gimmicks add up, technological side gets more impressive, but the core is gradually getting eroded. It’s my first and complete exposure to the mainline series, so my accusations cannot even be considered just some boomer grumbling. I probably couldn’t have even mustered enough autism to complete the run, had I not been spoilt rotten by AA1 and the stellar final case of AA2.
AA1 starts off very cute. The first case sets the tone just perfectly, with the delightfully laughable premise of a full courtroom turnabout – not only you’re expected to fend off the prosecutor’s accusations, you also indict the real killer! Whether or not the indicted gets a guilty verdict in their own respective trials is something players are never informed of, nor do we even know who in the hell will defend people proven guilty by you. Your job is to prove beyond doubt that your client did not kill the victim, and hurling a valid accusation at someone else seems to be the easiest way to do so, right? Otherwise, you’re bound to lose by default. In AA games, having a shit attorney is a death wish. Courts are biased, prosecution is near almighty, evidence gets submitted willy-nilly.
This turnabout is only the first one I encountered, with way more to come. It took me a good while to start taking for granted what we’re shown in every single trial, that is absurd turnabouts regarding the evidence. In the first trial, we prove that the statue of the Thinker is, in fact, a trick clock, complete with an alarm, leading to the indictment of a witness, a Frank ‘Sawhit.’ The series is full of such silly puns in people’s names. Nevertheless, the first trial’s silliness has to give way to the second one’s more canonical tone and form.
Your boss, Mia Fey, is killed off instantly, but this does not inconvenience her in the slightest, showing up in all three Trilogy games, thanks to the spirit channelling gimmick. Your sidekick, Maya, Mia’s younger sister and the first real client you have (because, let’s be honest – fuck Larry), is able to to channel dead people, transforming her body completely – the dead come back to life, for as long as Maya is able to handle them. You defend Maya in court against a typically absurd accusation of murder, utilizing logic, but also some hearty bluffing. It’s great so far.
Maya’s a cute character, but not really that important in the first game I believe, as she only ever summons her sister, and only to tell Phoenix to shape up. Otherwise, her wisecracks, constant hunger for junk food, and wasting Nick’s (Phoe-nick’s, get it?) money on bullshit get old quick. The first trial also introduces Miles Edgeworth, the character we’d expect to be the biggest and recurrent opponent of Phoenix Wright, except he prosecutes like three cases in AA1 and not many more after that. Consider him your anime childhood friend with a redemption arc.
The murder of Mia Fey is resolved, and we hop to the next murder right away, this time of some actor working on a stupid tokusatsu show. There are next to no non-murder cases you work in whole of Ace Attorney. The case this time is whimsical for way longer than I would’ve desired, with the granny character being a major (and, unfortunately, recurring) offender, but this nonsense passes the moment we face the final witness, also the obvious killer – the show’s producer, Dee Vasquez. The contempt she has in store for the whole judicial charade is uncanny in the context of AA1, but, unfortunately, many-many more characters like her are going to appear in the series.
The final case, Edgeworth’s apparent killing of his late father’s associate on a boat just before Christmas, with its legendary “It wasn’t Christmas yet!” turnabout, Manfred von Karma’s meltdown and absurd tie-in of both the actual incident of Edgeworth not-killing somebody and his father getting shot ages ago is something unique, at least in AA1. Half the fun of the last case lies in figuring out the time frame, because the investigation itself isn’t fun at all, for fuck’s sake, with the disgusting bum and his disgusting snot bubble. Edgeworth is given an anime-tier redemption and all ends well.
All in all, AA1 turns out to be a pleasant surpri-
Wait, what the hell. The story is blatantly over, why is there one more case? Apparently it was added much later, designed by post-Trilogy staff and glued to the first game as an excuse for selling it the second time at the same price. And I must tell you, Rise from the Ashes overstays its welcome hardcore. The premise itself is great – Chief of Police Gant being the murderer and blatantly meddling with your investigation, the game demanding you NOT TO submit the final piece of evidence, lest you invalidate the whole trial, thanks to Evidence Law (never mentioned again), the sheer chutzpah on the guy! He’s great people.
The characters, a mixed bag – with Gant and the whole Joe Darke thing being good, but also idiots like officer Meekins with his loudspeaker making me drop the fucking game for a week. Rise from the Ashes is absurdly long, too long to justify even its great finale. It also adds your client’s sister, Ema Skye, to the main plotline. She’s a high school girl aspiring to be a forensics expert one day, replacing Maya as your barely legal aide. She’s chipper and enthusiastic for now, but God, is her future sombre.
All in all, AA1 turns out to be a pleasant surprise, although I do not fully understand why was it so forcefully localized, made to take place in a fictional and weirdly Asian version of Los Angeles. Next instalments only add to the confusion as the pretence becomes more and more difficult to uphold, with more people dressed very overly like the Japanese, acting like them, working in their traditional trades, even selling ramen from a street stall. I believe the ‘Japamerica’ universe the translators conjured up is a big meme at this point, and let’s leave it at that. Frankly, if AA1 was to be the first and last game in the series, I wouldn’t even be disappointed. It was kinda good, all in all.
2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All – the sequel we never wanted
Oh Christ. AA2 is an awkward game, much shorter than AA1, much worse than AA1, at least until the stellar last case. Until we reach it, we have to suffer through a number of some abhorrent shit, though. The prologue doesn’t make one optimistic in the slightest, and I don’t mean that they changed the stellar soundtrack. Our boy Nick can’t remember how to do anything, having been hit on the head by the murderer. I was actually afraid they’re going to pull full-on amnesia, but thankfully, we were spared this.
The real killer of Maggey turns out to be a bigger dumbass than usual, and she herself seems awfully chipper for a girl just recently victim to her boyfriend’s demise. I think this tone shift is what brings AA2 down a lot – it’s a lot more goofy than the first game, even character design-wise. Still less goofy than Rise from the Ashes, the case added to AA1 already after the Trilogy was completed, with its ridiculous cowboy character and Damon Gant’s anime-coloured suit. Something must have happened to the designers at some point. Nevertheless, let’s hop to the first real case.
Maya’s accused of murder, again. This time we see her spirit channelling gimmick as an actual trade she and her clan have had going on for centuries… Imported from Japan, of course. The absurd localization makes us believe a rural anime village just sprung up somewhere in the US, complete with Japanese housing etc. At least we’re given a lollipop for our trouble – Maya’s magatama amulet allows Phoenix to sense when people are lying, their lies coiling around them like chains, which we’re to dispel with proper arguments and evidence. It makes for more lively investigations, since you can actually lose if you fuck up magatama sequences.
The case also introduces Maya’s shitty family, which is going to come back soon and bite us in the ass. Her asshole aunt and cute as a button cousin Pearl are a welcome addition, if only due to the former’s machinations and the latter’s absurd shipping of Phoenix and Maya together. Silly girl, in the sexless and loveless universe of Capcom games your little fantasies are worth less than the next case of AA2. I must say the final turnabout of this case was mildly amusing, with the twin sisters’ switcheroo, however much contrived it appears.
Let’s go next. Turnabout Big Top is the circus murder case. It’s loud and obnoxious, with the whimsical shit getting actually unbearable. Sorry, but I choose not to remind either myself or you of its contents. Never again, I thought to myself. Poor, stupid me. If I were to know what comes in the sequels…
I’ve deliberately avoided mentioning prosecutor Francisca von Karma, the last game’s main bad guy’s daughter, replacing Edgeworth in AA2. Her whipping people with an honest to God whip! inside the courtroom! was such an odious addition to the game I decided to avoid mentioning her altogether, if only to spare myself the memories of her role in the game. Luckily, these are limited to AA2 and that one case in AA3. She’s somewhat better in the final case of AA2, if only because the final case of AA2 is amazingly good and it could salvage anything.
Farewell, My Turnabout has you finally defending someone who actually killed a guy, even though you don’t know of it yet. Your client, an action flick star, happens to secretly be a giant asshole who hired an assassin to kill his rival, having first ensured that his assistant suffering from dependency syndrome will never testify against him. Cue Phoenix’s despair once he finds this all out. The main gimmick of this case, whether or not the assassin is to be considered a ‘tool,’ adds to the atmosphere greatly. Finally no family dramas, no contrived bullshit, just a plain ol’ contracted hit, along with layers of deception. Even the assistant being a weak character did not spoil my fun.
Remember how this one ends? Your client begs the judge to be found guilty, so as to be spared the assassin’s retribution for mentioning his existence in court. The payoff is great, and putting Francisca on that plane to fuck off for good was just the perfect way to end my gameplay. AA2 is undoubtedly worse than the first one in many regards, but the magatama gimmick and the final case salvage it somewhat. If you were into Maya’s antics, even the first real case can be considered good. Now, brace yourself for full-on Maya fans pandering.
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations - coffee memes and lots of melodrama
This one straight up sets a precedent for the series, in case you weren’t forewarned by the glimpses of it in the first two games. The courtroom turns into Phoenix & Co.’s therapy session. Let’s get to it slowly, shall we? The game starts with a throwback to Mia Fey’s first case – Phoenix himself being accused of murder. Turns out his bitch lolita-esque girlfriend did it and tried pinning the thing on him. Be prepared to see Dahlia Hawthorne again, of course being related to a different crime. AA3 was somewhat inventive in this regard, but, unfortunately for the series, the novelty of this turnabout runs out once we see it again and again in the sequels. Cases are no longer stand-alone adventures, now they form whole arcs.
I was happy to see the first case handled by Phoenix in AA3 not to be a murder, at least to a point. It starts as a grand larceny case, only to turn into a murder case once you have some good old blackmail going on. The case is unrelated to anything else, although it sports prosecutor Godot for the first time. Godot is some masked maniac constantly sipping coffee, allowed to prosecute seemingly out of nowhere and for no good reason, which alone makes him an unbearable meme. At least his demeanour is markedly different from Edgeworth’s smugness and von Karma family’s haughtiness and forcefulness. Godot doesn’t seem to give a fuck about his job, frankly. He’s in court just to see late Mia’s student at work – the student being Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney.
The next one is as silly as they go. Some gangster impersonated Phoenix to have Maggey Byrde framed for murder of a guy who owned him money, you’re defending her in a retrial, almost forced to do so by Gumshoe. Also, you get to meet and indict the gangster, a fellow called Furio Tigre, straight up snarling at you in court. It involved signature Ace Attorney switcheroos and… that’s about it. It’s not very interesting. Phoenix wins a not guilty for Maggey, detective Gumshoe does not rip out your guts.
Turnabout Beginnings is a peculiar little case, an investigation-free court thing with Mia defending a death row prisoner from being convicted for even more murder. The prosecutor is young Edgeworth, for all of you thirsty fangirls out there. Also, it includes Godot before he put on the mask, as Diego Armando, Mia’s partner and lover. That is, right before he sipped one coffee cup too many, losing hair colour, eyesight, and all professional dignity, falling into coma and waking up to see Mia dead since AA1. Also, Dahlia Hawthorne returns to be her usual bitch self. All in all, an intense piece with an interesting gimmick – your client does not really mind being convicted, already being a death row prisoner.
Ladies and gents, AA3 is less whimsical than the previous game, but I believe the final case to be weaker than Farewell. Bridge to Turnabout is divided into two trials – with attorney! Edgeworth facing the returning Francisca von Karma, then with Wright facing Godot. And believe you me – Edgeworth’s half, less melodramatic and relying strongly on old-school Ace Attorney logical traps, trumps the second half, ie. the murder case proper. The strongest turnabout of it is, of course, Maya channelling executed Dahlia all this time, in order to avoid getting killed by her, were she to be channelled by little Pearly in turn, prodded to do so by her bitch mother, also Maya’s aunt. Jesus. It has also the brilliant moment of turning off the lights to prove that Godot is a shine in the dark beaner.
The second part includes a shitload of spirit channelling switcheroos, twin sisters, locked room mysteries, fallen bridges, Larry’s retarded rambling, all in all – Ace Attorney standards. Whether or not it’s a fitting end to the Trilogy is another matter. It does put a lid on the Fey family drama, at least. Finally our heroes decide to stop channelling Mia every other day to have her butt in, despite her being dead as a doornail for years. Frankly, I was let down by Trilogy somewhat, yearning for more of that AA1 courtroom game, rather than AA2-3 courtroom antics and sob stories. Trilogy fanatics keep ranting that Ace Attorney ends at PART THREE! So I’ve decided to call their bluff. Is the sequel any good?
4. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – double the memes, some fun slips in
This one was a big ass fucking bother. As the first game designed for NDS, AA4 is significantly more impressive tech-wise, with 3D evidence poking and prodding, some touch screen forensics thrown in for good measure, higher resolution, more lively animations… But is it also good substance-wise? Despite being just four cases, AA4 is far from being short, with each and every case having dramatic resolutions as well as a shitload of overdesigned, often ugly-looking characters. And extended conversations, rolling endlessly in the visual novel way. In this regard AA4 strayed far from the first game – not that the Trilogy is blameless, because even AA2 is markedly more silly than the big boy.
The first case is a shocker. Game’s set quite some time after the Trilogy, with Phoenix being disbarred, apparently for forging evidence. He’s now a bum in a garish beanie, making money as a trick poker player, being paid for providing the challenge – he’s unbeatable. His stage magician daughter helps him cheat, is why. Did he finally fuck Maya? Of course not, it’s a Capcom game. He’s adopted one of his clients’ daughter. I’ll get back to this one later. For now, we’re introduced to our new protagonist – Apollo Justice, a well-meaning kid with a way too loud voice, trained by Kristoph Gavin.
Apollo adds a refreshing new mechanic to the game, namely – his bracelet. Apollo’s unusually acute sense of sight makes him react to people’s tells as they lie, making the skin on his wrist push on the bracelet a little with the power of anime. Whenever Apollo feels uncomfortable around the bracelet, someone’s gonna have to speak up and get molested by his gaze. For us it means moving the camera to look for weird little twitches, playing with clothing, even sweating profusely, as the witness repeats themselves. It’s tells, because the first case involves poker, right? AA4 and its sequels tend to be incessantly thematic.
Anyway, Apollo’s first client is Phoenix Wright himself, who’s apparently just killed his daughter’s disguised father, only he didn’t do it, it was Kristoph Gavin, in a fit of absurd jealousy over not being employed seven years ago by Phoenix’s daughter’s now-disguised former stage magician father, to defend him from being accused for killing his troupe leader and father-in-law. That’s it, that’s the plot of AA4. Apart from the next case, Turnabout Corner, all are a part of one arc. Get used to it. What you shouldn’t get used to is Phoenix himself being a much darker figure than usual, seemingly chill and adult (he’s much older and raised a kid, after all), but scheming and detached whenever necessary. All to stage Gavin’s eventual demise at the hands of the Jury system, employed for the first and last time in the series.
Turns out we’ve been spoilt rotten by detective Gumshoe’s warm blanket of silliness and incompetence. The pain never ends once Gumshoe disappears from Ace Attorney, replaced in AA4 by Ema Skye, the forensics nerd who helped you in Rise from the Ashes. Ema still hasn’t been appointed a forensics specialist and serves as a police detective, to her dismay, as well as to ours. She’s bitchy and unbearable at first, and only ever grows less so towards the end of the game. The other personality we weren’t prepared for is Klavier Gavin, prosecutor since 17 years old (because they let you prosecute in high school in Europe, apparently). Kristoph’s kid brother is the proverbial chad, often straight up mogging our goofy-looking protagonist with his absurd good looks, charisma, and real rock star career. This guy would make warpig explode, for sure.
Thanks to younger Gavin’s rock career, we have to suffer through one of the most annoying cases in Ace Attorney. His concert is the site of the murder of his co-star’s producer/Interpol agent off to blow someone’s damn head off with a with a giant revolver for stealing an insect cocoon, supposedly the material for some rare medicine. Of course the killer is Gavin’s annoying band member, why did I waste several hours getting to this no-brainer? The sheer writing quality drops significantly in minor cases, a tradition since AA2’s infamous circus case. It has a cute musical puzzle though, with you listening to a recording of the music and checking which instrument fucked up, and why (because of murder!). It’s almost clearly designed and not annoying, too!
Luckily, we’re introduced to some meaty stuff in the finale. I must say that the final case of AA4, while not as cool as AA2’s, is one of the best ones out there. Kristoph Gavin plants a time bomb inside a shut-in art forger girl’s study, framing her for the murder of her father and ensuring that she’s not gonna survive the trial – you may call it contrived, but the poisoned nail polish she uses when going out, combined with her habit of biting nails while stressed, makes for a decent enough plot device. What follows is the throwback to the infamous case in which Phoenix Wright used forged evidence.
And we get to experience the MASON System, ie. access to Phoenix’s memories scattered around two timelines – after the trial which cost him the badge, and after Apollo’s investigation of the art forger father’s murder. Pieced together they make for the finale, with you being finally able to indict Gavin for all the fuckery in AA4, leading to the rehabilitation of Phoenix. So, more sequels. AA4 wasn’t a bad game per se, but I believe the transition to NDS to be largely forced and not that beneficial to game structure. The art style and writing grew more tiresome, though. Don’t get used to the idea of Apollo being our new protagonist, either. What future has in store is way more cruel.
5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies – our boy is gone
I hated this game so much. It introduces yet another lawyer trainee, Athena Cykes, her gimmick being the extraordinarily acute sense of hearing – she can hear people’s hearts, folks. God knows what she thinks hearing someone with arrhythmia. This discrepancy in heart rate leads to her conducting short therapy sessions on the spot, ie., lengthy sequences of you trying to pinpoint which statement feels odd as the guy’s talking about murder. His statements are supplied with four emotional state gauges; happiness, anger, surprise, sadness, growing weaker or stronger. I disliked these sequences. Even their usage in the final case, with you trying to take down the ‘emotionless’ secret organization agent masquerading as the new detective, was a big waste of time and effort.
Athena being an annoying cunt doesn’t help either – she’s too young and forcefully chipper, in the brawny and goofy way Maya never was. Maya never pretended to be a trained lawyer at 18 either. Luckily, AA5 isn’t exclusively Athena’s game. Our protagonists trade places throughout the cases, with some stuff being handled by her, some by Apollo, and a smidgen landing in Phoenix’s lap. The confusion is strengthened by the game’s non-linearity. While four of the five cases belong in a single arc, they’re not chronological, leading to an awkward in medias res moment I found weakening to the plot. I did not play the DLC case, as it’s apparently some whimsical bullshit.
So – your first case, but actually the last but one, is really awkward. The complete revamp to 3DS aesthetics doesn’t help – suddenly the game has 3d models, evidence lists are no longer a tasteful grid, instead becoming an annoying list, Athena’s Mood Matrix minigame deducts from the usual logical romp in favour of armchair psychology and endless replaying of testimonies. So we detected happiness, but you were also a little sad? What the f-
Who cares about the bombing. It’s introduced in medias res, with Apollo dressed up as some anime avenger in bandages and a dramatic coat, your client being obviously framed in an asinine way, the whole premise serving only as a stepping stone before the game’s finale. But it’s put right in the beginning, because fuck you. It is the next case which serves as a proper introduction to AA5, the visit at a whimsical not-Japanese village full of Japamerican yokai enthusiasts, with a wrestling feud and the real killer introduced in the case’s anime cinematic intro. I shit you not, it’s spoilt from the very beginning, by design! Multi-angle investigations are cool, but they come at the expense of being unable to investigate anything else than crime scenes – no more silly comments from your aide. There’s also a new prosecutor I will discuss later.
The next case formally kickstarts AA5’s plotline – the Dark Age of the Law, introduced by Phoenix’s disbarring between the Trilogy and AA4, makes Themis Legal Academy teach its students how to adapt to this peculiar period of notorious evidence forging, bum raps, and record low trust in the legal system. The murderer this time, finally revealed after obligatory court drama and power of friendship antics, is fully convinced that this is the way to proceed in law, and that his way is well worth being taught to students. The challenge of AA5 is – how to stop the Dark Age? Apparently, by proving the new prosecutor Simon Blackquill not guilty of the murder he has seemingly committed years ago.
Blackquill is a character quite symptomatic of latter days Ace Attorney. It’s some absurd man in a Japanese-inspired garb (we’re in Japamerica, people), formally a death row prisoner, brought shackled into court to prosecute. He breaks his shackles all the time, has a pet falcon bringing him documents and pestering the defence, throws fucking knives at people – it’s ridiculous. Whether or not you find it amusingly ridiculous or unbearably ridiculous is your personal choice. His tard wrangler is an equally ridiculous detective, Bobby Fulbright, the paragon of justice. Bobby’s loud and overbearing in his paladin-ish zeal, which I sincerely thought just bad design. The trademark turnabout in the finale comes out of nowhere, if only to get played down by the Mood Matrix sequence. Bobby could’ve been a better character.
I’ll handle the whole not-JAXA fracas at once. Apollo’s cosmonaut friend gets killed, his doomer senpai is framed. Athena’s mother’s murder by Blackquill from seven years ago gets connected to it. Athena’s mother’s crazy lesbian co-worker, also Blackquill’s elder sister, holds the whole facility hostage until the killer of Athena’s mother is found before Blackquill himself gets executed (next day!) To make it even more melodramatic, Athena was apparently the real culprit all along, or so we’re led to think. That’s right, we’re facing yet another retrial of a case from seven years ago, delightfully composed into a convoluted storyline including robots, a samurai, and the face-thief detective Fulbright, actually some international spy with a peculiar psychological condition – he doesn’t feel very strongly about anything and learnt how to fake having a personality. We bring down this Codexian gentleman with the power of the Mood Matrix. Oh happy days.
AA5 is not a good game. It’s probably the one I liked the least. The additions of Athena and her gimmick are dubious at best, the transition to 3DS tech came at the steep price of everything getting streamlined to save money on producing 3d assets, the cases tend to turn into long dramatic rants interjected with rather middling logical puzzles, the flow of the game is interrupted by incessant “show X on a picture” moments. Also, the family drama bullshit from AA3 and AA4 appears to be stronger than ever. Well, that was a big waste of time, let’s get to the last mainline game. It’s bound to be good, right?
6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice – Tibet-hating simulator
We’ve reached the conclusion of AA, provided no game will be released on Switch. This one is a peculiar beast, in two ways. First of all, AA6 is a big fanservice bait, with most of the supporting cast (well, except for Gumshoe and Larry) coming back, if only for a moment. On the other hand, it introduces a wholly new locale, that being – the Tibetan kingdom of Khurain, the home of spirit channelling. You know, Maya’s shtick from Trilogy times. Maya herself returns too, studying the finer details of the channelling technique in Tibet, where she invites Nick to, heh, celebrate her imminent graduation. Murders ensue, letting Nick take part in a brand new flavour of court drama.
In Khurain, being an attorney is a death warrant. The locals hate attorneys, because one of them killed their queen. Due to the murder, the Defence Culpability Act was introduced, making attorneys suffer death penalty along with their clients, were they to lose in court. The few who dare to work never win, because of the Seance – the royal priestess invokes the victim’s last memories as a piece of evidence, regarded by Khurainians as conclusive. The gimmick this time is – last memories tend to be subjective and selective, therefore Nick is able to overrule them, given enough evidence and sheer bluffing. The Seance is certainly better than the Mood Matrix. The problem is, getting to the good parts is gruelling.
Nick ends up defending his kid Khurainese guide framed for murder, causing great shock and distress to the nation. Nefarious plans get sped up both on the gov-side and on the side of the revolutionaries, the Whatever Dragons, led by Dhurke, the last queen’s apparent murderer. I must admit that the premise looks kind of enticing on paper, but it’s realized the same way AA5 handled its plot – in a whimsical and melodramatic fashion, full of family feuds and sob stories. Khurain cases form a story arc, as opposed to two Japamerican cases, handled by Apollo and Athena respectively. There are five cases in total, excluding the DLC, which I did not play.
Japamerican cases are as wacky as ever, although even their wackiness is a welcome change from big dramatic arcs. If only the Mood Matrix did not swamp them as usual… The first one includes salty stage magicians trying to ruin Trucy’s career, only you manage to stop their wild accusations. It includes some logic dive as you try to figure out the trick utilized to kill the victim, the trial is peppered with fiddling with a video recording. It’s not even that bad, if not for the twins and the long-dead-actually-alive magician turnabouts. The second one is bad, though. A traditional Japamerican rakugo master gets suffocated with noodles, Simon Blackquill’s favourite Japamerican udon noodle craftsman get accused. There’s no Apollo, just Athena being inept, Blackquill saving her ass the time as an aide, prosecutor Sahdmandhi being absurdly abusive in court. You win, proving that Athena is not a rubbish lawyer. Turns out having a split personality helps with rakugo.
Sahdmandhi is the new prosecutor, an international one at that, meaning – he hops on that plane all the time to handle both Japamerican and Khurainese cases. He’s smug and abusive, despite larping some sort of a Buddhist mystic, and looks like an anime protagonist. If Gavin and Blackquill were ridiculous characters, then Sahdmandhi is straight up vile. He has none of the professional charm good old Edgeworth had. Also, he happens to be Apollo’s adoptive brother, the murdered queen and Dhurke’s son, a former revolutionary, currently blackmailed to uphold the regime, in order to avoid punishment directed at his kid sister, the royal priestess. Soap opera plot strikes back. It’s not a great achievement to predict the rest of AA6 once you know of these facts. Let’s just say that the final trial, with queen Ga’ran acting as prosecutor and actively overriding laws (!) in the middle of a trial going on (!!) is one of the dumbest parts of Ace Attorney to date.
It was a tiresome journey, and even Ema Skye finally not being a jaded cunt, and Edgeworth coming by to say like a dozen lines and fuck off, did not help me enjoy AA6 any better. In fact, over the past few months I’ve noticed I’m forcing myself to carry on, oddly fascinated with the downfall of this series, at first witty and interesting, then turned into a festival of cringe-worthy memes and recycled anime storylines. If I were to play some popular VN/adventure game instead of the Ace Attorney series, I’d consider stuff like 999, or the first Danganronpa game. AA1 really was the best instalment of its series, with every next one being plainly worse.
Trilogy fanatics were partly correct in their assessment – the first three games, also due to having been re-released half a dozen times at this point, are the most reasonable Ace Attorney experience. However, the sickness sets in quite early, and you shouldn’t really stick along once you feel it’s kind of getting tiresome to follow. It simply does not get any better. Gimmicks add up, technological side gets more impressive, but the core is gradually getting eroded. It’s my first and complete exposure to the mainline series, so my accusations cannot even be considered just some boomer grumbling. I probably couldn’t have even mustered enough autism to complete the run, had I not been spoilt rotten by AA1 and the stellar final case of AA2.
EDIT: I include a similar text on Great Ace Attorney
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ace-attorney-retrospective.132452/#post-6650222
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