Eagerly awaited, the fourth installment of the Ace Attorney series has arrived, with a brand-new leading defense attorney. Of course, not one week after I got my copy, I’m done. It kept me up at nights and made me come in to work late; well worth it.
To those who are not familiar with the Ace Attorney games, it’s hard to explain the appeal of the game; with all the thinking and reading to be done, it’s definitely not exciting to watch. Anyone who’s finished one of them knows what it is though. There’s that feeling you get when you all the testimony and evidence finally come together, and you figure out how it was done but you still have to figure out how to prove it!
Detailed review (and spoilers) follow.
Apollo Justice does not disappoint. Case one was the usual introductory case, with Winston Payne reprising his role as would-be slayer of rookie defense attorneys. Unlike previous AA games, case one is a bit longer this time, and leaves several questions that would not be answered until the fourth case.
Case two and three are by far the best in the game. The plots are involving, and the mysteries take all your effort to decipher. Each case seems so simple but it’s up to you to unmask the layers of deception and arrive at the truth.
Case four is by far the weakest of the four cases, though still enjoyable. My main problems with it are that it’s (a) easy – the path to uncover the truth is almost handed to you directly. I would have expected the last case to be the most difficult one; and (b) it doesn’t satisfy all of the unanswered questions from case one.The most important unanswered question of course being: what happened to Maya? Really, we get to see Gumshoe _and Meekins (?!?) _again, but no Maya Fey? Oh well, I guess they had to leave something for future episodes.
Inevitably, one must compare Apollo to Phoenix. And Apollo’s main problem here isn’t the fact that PW already has 3 games under his belt or that he’s still a rookie; his main problem is that he has no Edgeworth. No ruthless opposition who will eat him up if he makes a single mistake. Don’t get me wrong, Gavin is fine. But he’s too… nice. I don’t have any other way to say it.
And really, Apollo and Trucy turn out to be brother and sister? What is this, Star Wars? Well, ok, that one’s not so bad.
Mr. Hat is awesome though. I’d love to get one of those.
See Also