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Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – Capcom (2007)

April 9, 2009

Anyone who has talked to me about DS games will inevitably find out that I am a complete fanboy when it comes to what I call “The Lawyer Games.” This catchall title is used when talking about any of the Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice games. I’ve talked about previous installments of the series, and so now that I find myself with a little time (shockingly) I thought that I should probably get off my ass and get to writing! Self-deprecating aside, I’ve always enjoyed the Ace Attorney series, but I honestly found this one to be a little lost. Well, a little lost until the end when the grand machinations of the writers come to fruition.

Self-deprecating, machinations, and fruition, all in two sentences. I think my brain is having some kind of vocabulistic everything-must-go sale. Of course then I go ahead and say something like vocabulistic, and all of my grammar street cred get’s shot to hell.

Anyways! Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney! Review! Commence!

So what is it about playing a lawyer on a DS that makes it so much damn fun? Is it the intrigue? Is it the ripping apart of testimony? Is it the sharp suits and crisp air of determination? No. Though very good things all of those, to most it is probably the thrill one gets when you bust out a solid “Objection!” when you know the witness is a lying sack of shit.

This thrill usually turns into panic when you realize you just screamed into the tiny microphone of your tiny game device on a crowded bus on your way to work.

Still, it feels fucking sweet to let ‘er rip.

Synopsis

Much like the previous installments, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is about, wait for it now, wait… wait… an attorney! Not only that but he’s brand new (just like Phoenix was in the first one, and his boss in a later flashback episode). I assume this is so that anyone who is green and playing this for the first time can get yet another walkthrough on how to be a lawyer. Sadly, If you haven’t played the earlier games, the insane plot that develops in this one will be somewhat pale in understanding, depth, and appreciation. You go up against the same guy from the other games (the douchebag with the glasses… I can’t remember his name) and slowly rip his case apart. Even the first case causes some brain melting when you realize what’s going on. I swear this game wastes no time ruining your understanding.

Apollo learns the ropes from his boss, but later finds himself at the Wright Talent Agency. Here is he introduced to his future side-kick, Trudy. Trudy is 15, a magician, and apparently Phoenix Wrights daughter. This is somewhat puzzling, because this title is set 7 years later, and in the last installment – Trials and Tribulations if you’re curious – he didn’t even have a love interest a living love interest in which to house his unborn spawn. So right from the get-go, thing’s aren’t what the seem.

Let me assure you that by the time you get to the third case, you will throw your hands in the air and scream at your DS. “This is insanity!” I was quoted to say, “It’s like they got all the old writers from LOST and threw them at the franchise!” Trust me when I say that though I was a gibbering idiot – made so by the utter and complete batshit nonsense that was going on – my statement was completely accurate. The story does culminate to some sort of sense at the end, but by Jove did they have to stretch to get it all to fit. Much like a fat woman who thinks that wearing a smaller size will actually make her look smaller, Apollo Justice simply has too much required back-story to fit into it’s size 2 hotpants.

Mechanics

Very little has changed throughout the series, with three notable exceptions.

First, The Magatama is not exclusively used. Now I say “exclusively” because there is a point where it is put into play. It is not, however the secret weapon of Apollo Justice. In his case, his bracelet, a large wooden thing, tingles. When it tingles it allows him to focus. When he focuses, he can detect small ticks people exhibit when fibbing out their ass. Granted, a facial tick is a bit of a stretch when it comes to court proceedings but, hey, I’m not a lawyer. In any case, when detecting ticks, you get a blown up view of the witness, and while looking though something distinctly “Eye of Sauran-y” you canvas their body while they speak. When you find the phrase in question, you bust them. This is followed by the presentation of evidence.

The second element is actually an older one, but you can now examine every piece of evidence in your possession. This very rarely serves an actual purpose, but it’s nice that they included the ability. Many little useless yet useful tidbits of information can be gleaned from such investigations. I’m sad that this sort of scientific analysis doesn’t factor in more.

Third, but no less a change of pace: 3d stuff. Like, a lot of 3d stuff. Like a lot of actually cool 3d stuff. They actually recreate murder scenes using 3d renderings and I have to say that for what it is, it’s pretty sweet. It works to add a depth to the court proceedings, but sadly it isn’t really used enough to warrant it’s existence at all. It’s cool for the sake of being cool, which is a real shame, given how cool it actually is. It’s like the Fonz jumping a shark. It’s cool in theory, but in practice… well we all know where the saying came from now don’t we?

There is a fourth exception, but it’s an integral part of the plot so I’m unwilling to talk too much about it. The Jurist System is introduced to the story, though it doesn’t play too much of a role short of an eventuality. You eventually take on the role of a jurist to decide the fate of the accused, but other then that I shall let you decide on it. I personally thought it was neat but not a required move on the developers part.

Omissions

I have to make a point that certain things were omitted from the game this time around, and it actually irritated me. Certain characters were missing, but 7 years had passed, and I was willing to let that slide. Onwards and upwards and all that. What irritated me the most was the fact that in previous games, you could present both evidence and profiles to people as part of your investigation. In this installment, the ability to present profiles to people you are interviewing has been removed, and that bugs me. It’s not like they had to have a completely different system for it, and yet they scrapped it. Why? To make room for new-fangled systems (I’m looking at you electronic picture scanner thingimabob) or meerly to simplify the investigation process for new-comers to the series. Either way I’m not impressed with their choice.

Also, there are only four stories to be found in Apollo Justice. This came to a shock to me, because I’m used to enjoying 5 mind-bending stories of deceit and subterfuge. Instead I was given four utterly mind-crushing, completely bollocks-level stories. Now I don’t mind the fact that they assault the psyche, but I do mind that in order to fit in additional frilly things, they had to drop an entire story.

Overall

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I loved the earlier installments with a passion, but this one? Well I enjoyed it. It brought my pleasure and killed time – roughly 23 hours over a flight to and from Japan – so I can’t fault it too much on that level. It had sharper and more elaborate graphics than the older games, so in that respect it was great. I think the big failing here was the enormity of the over-arcing story. I could see it all coming a mile away, and yet it was still there was so much left unanswered. Hell, by the end of the game, I was just going through the motions because the game jumped a plot-induced hyper-shark, and I could finally just accept everything they threw at me.

This is not what should happen in a game.

So there you go, I was happy about it, but they reached a little too far, and tripped up on themselves. They got feature-crazy, and forgot what made the series great: investigating, interrogating, and being pimp-assed awesome in the courtroom.

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