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Those of you wanting to hop into the Ace Attorney series beginning with Apollo Justice, I advise you not to. Despite the name change, the Phoenix Wright trilogy plays a more important role in Apollo Justice than what you may initially think. While it certainly isn’t vital, you will have a diminished experience and a weaker grasp on specific characters and events. I urge you to play through the series in order. They are all excellent games and well worth your time, and as is widely known, the Ace Attorney series is all about the stories and characters.

Now saying that, Apollo Justice is a welcome addition to the series, filled with new characters, new storylines, and new additions to the gameplay. It retains a sense of familiarity that is comforting, but also introduces enough for it not to feel stale. The previous Ace Attorney games were all ports from the Gameboy Advance, with Apollo Justice being the first game in the series developed specifically for the DS. The final DS-exclusive case in the original Phoenix Wright game provided fresh gameplay elements, such as dusting for fingerprints by tapping on the screen and then blowing away the dust using the mic, or examining items of the case in 3D. These gameplay mechanics are all now commonplace, whether it is examining items in 3D for clues, dusting for fingerprints, taking molds of footprints, or my favorite, using a mixing board to determine when certain events take place in a song, each add to the Ace Attorney experience, making the gameplay more interesting and varied than ever before. Oddly enough, however, some gameplay elements are removed (one for story purposes). Presenting Profiles at will is no longer an option, and using the Psyche-Lock is a thing of the past. Detecting a person’s lies however, isn’t. It is just done using a new technique, in which Apollo is able to “Perceive” a person’s body language to detect when they are lying or unsure of something, which is imperative when there is a lack of decisive evidence to prove the contradictions in their testimony.

Showcasing new gameplay

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By touching the bracelet on Apollo’s wrist, the screen zooms in on the witness giving their testimony, and their speech is slowed down and split up into sections. During this point, the player moves the screen around to detect abnormalities in the witness’s body language during specific phrases, so nervous ticks that could not be noticed before, such as sweating, swallowing, or fidgeting, become clear, revealing the weakness in their testimony. You won’t have to try and guess when to use this technique though, as the bracelet will glow when it is available. Along with this, the final case in the game takes a twist and uses a style of story-telling never before tried in the Ace Attorney series, but cannot be mentioned in detail due to spoilers. Just know it was refreshing yet a little odd at the same time.

New gameplay is all well and good, but the question on everybody’s mind is: how does Apollo Justice compare to the legendary Phoenix Wright?
 

 
This isn’t something that can be fairly answered at this point in time. We had three games starring Phoenix, yet this is Apollo’s first appearance. It is also hard to answer because Apollo as a character isn’t as fleshed out as you would expect. He’s a great character with his own personality, but he’ll need another game with a more focused story to be able to stand up against our favorite defense attorney. And just as Maya helped reveal a lot about who Phoenix was, your new adorable sidekick Trucy does the same in this game. Comparisons can certainly be made to the previously noted relationship, in the way that Apollo and Trucy interact with each other (Trucy being the goofier one), but you never get the feeling that the developers are just rehashing worn out character dynamics. Trucy has placed herself upon my “favorite character” list, with her innocence and seeming naiveness that leads to a large chunk of the humor. Her and the other characters in the game are fleshed out more than ever before, with sharper graphics and more animations that bring the outlandish characters to life. Even familiar locations have been spruced up. This becomes more noticeable when past characters from the PW trilogy pop up, and their out-dated models provide a sharp contrast against their environment and when compared to the new characters. You don’t notice how much better the game looks than the others until you see assets from the previous games placed side-by-side with those in Apollo Justice.

See how the graphics have changed from the Phoenix Wright games

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The graphics, however, aren’t the only thing that have improved, as the music in this game is absolutely fantastic, and some of the best heard in the series. Noriyuki Iwadare set the bar high with providing the best soundtrack the series has seen with his work on Trials and Tribulations (a soundtrack I lovingly own). This time however, Toshihiko Horiyama, who has worked previously on the Mega Man X series, provides the composition, and he doesn’t fail to deliver. And while it may just be my imagination, I found the music to vary more often this time around.

All in all, if you loved the Phoenix Wright games, you’ll love this game just as well. The gameplay is essentially the same: Watch the crime through an intro, investigate the crime by interviewing characters and searching for clues, and then go to court and use your evidence and knowledge to extrapolate the truth from the person on the witness stand. Great dialogue and music help the game live up to the quality of the Phoenix Wright series, but new gameplay additions specific to the DS, and even added touches such as FMV’s (yep!!) help this game stand out so you don’t feel like it is just a rehash of the same old stuff. While the game does include characters and other surprises from the previous games, don’t expect everything to be cleared up or you’ll be disappointed as I was. Apollo Justice is its own story and an interesting one at that, and it’ll be exciting to see where it goes.

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Thanks to Court Records for the images and Final Turnabout for the music.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 2:47 pm and is filed under DS Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.