Released in 2019, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was the reason I immediately jumped onto eBay to get hold of an old Nintendo 3DS and all of the Ace Attorney games I hadn't played yet. To say I quickly became obsessed with the series would be something of an understatement. And so it's with no small amount of excitement that Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy has appeared on the horizon, boasting another three games, two of which (as digital-only releases in the west) are nigh-on impossible to lay your hands on since the Nintendo eShop closed down earlier this year. All the more reason to be overjoyed at the coming of a second Ace Attorney collection.
Immediately, Apollo Justice, which came out on the DS, and the two 3DS sequels collected here look at home on a large display, the series' distinctive artwork every bit as beautiful and vibrant as you remember, assuming you played the originals, of course. If you didn't, then this ought to prove a real treat – three cracking visual novel adventures, all given a boost in resolution, adapted from a small handheld screen to shine on your massive telly. Granted, the three titles collected here aren't as beloved as the Phoenix Wright chapters that made up the first Ace Attorney Trilogy, but, as they say, you can never have too much of a good thing. And these are very good things indeed.
First port of call is Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the 2007 entry in which Phoenix Wright took a back seat to a new hotshot lawyer on the block, decked out in a fetching red waistcoat and trousers, and sporting his own spiky (though not nearly as multi-barbed as Wright's) hairdo. Of the three games in the trilogy, this shares far more in common with the original Phoenix Wright games, boasting deliciously bright and bold artwork and a similar tone. The twist here is Justice's ability to 'perceive' the actions of witnesses, challenging you to look out for tells and tics that likely mean their testimony isn't entirely reliable.
On a big screen, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is eye-popping stuff, Kazuya Nuri's distinctive character design benefitting from the collection's considerable bump in resolution, freed from the confines of the diddy DS display. It's the only game here that continues the series' hand-drawn style, however, as follow-ups Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice adopt 3D character models and environments, making for slightly more dynamic court proceedings. These latter two games lose little in moving from 2D to 3D (to utilise the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D), though you can't help but long for those vibrant, expressive characters. That said, when you witness witnesses losing their marbles as the case unravels, there's no doubting the energy and exuberance that creator Shu Takumi's series can muster, regardless of whether the bizarre characters are two or three-dimensional.
2D or not 2D, the Ace Attorney games have an enduring appeal, each case dragging you into Capcom's wonderfully weird world. “The characters and stories are very appealing, but beyond that, I think it's the level of care and detail that you can find in every aspect of the game,” Producer Kenichi Hashimoto tells us. “From the animations to the speed of the dialogue text and the timing of music and sound effects, everything is adjusted down to the last letter. This not only makes the thrill of solving the case more exciting, but helps keep the game interesting as you're reading a lot of text.”
There are plenty of gameplay wrinkles to discover in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, too (beyond reading text, of course), the former introducing Athena Cykes and the thought-spouting Widget around her neck. Using Athena's so-called 'mood matrix', you're able to detect conflicting emotions within a witness testimony, opening up new lines of questioning and paths towards the truth. Spirit of Justice, meanwhile, features a mystical element through 'Divination Séances', revealing a vision of the victim's final moments before their demise. Again, it's about pinpointing inconsistencies and contradictions, albeit by scrubbing through the vision, fast-forwarding, rewinding, and pausing until you find what you're looking for. And it all works very nicely, even without a touchscreen and stylus.
Those lovely animated sequences (with slightly jarring vocal performances for characters who'd never previously had actual voices) are present and correct in both Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, and the collection features a Museum brimming with bonus material and music to wade through – everything an Ace Attorney die-hard could possibly wish for. As collections go, then, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is shaping up to be rather special, and Hashimoto looks forward to fans and newcomers alike getting their hands on it, remarking “I'm very grateful to all the fans, and I hope everyone is satisfied with this collection!”
Monday, December 11, 2023
Released in 2019, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was the reason I immediately jumped onto eBay to get hold of an old Nintendo 3DS and all of the Ace Attorney games I hadn't played yet. To say I quickly became obsessed with the series would be something of an understatement. And so it's with no small amount of excitement that Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy has appeared on the horizon, boasting another three games, two of which (as digital-only releases in the west) are nigh-on impossible to lay your hands on since the Nintendo eShop closed down earlier this year. All the more reason to be overjoyed at the coming of a second Ace Attorney collection.
Immediately, Apollo Justice, which came out on the DS, and the two 3DS sequels collected here look at home on a large display, the series' distinctive artwork every bit as beautiful and vibrant as you remember, assuming you played the originals, of course. If you didn't, then this ought to prove a real treat – three cracking visual novel adventures, all given a boost in resolution, adapted from a small handheld screen to shine on your massive telly. Granted, the three titles collected here aren't as beloved as the Phoenix Wright chapters that made up the first Ace Attorney Trilogy, but, as they say, you can never have too much of a good thing. And these are very good things indeed.
First port of call is Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the 2007 entry in which Phoenix Wright took a back seat to a new hotshot lawyer on the block, decked out in a fetching red waistcoat and trousers, and sporting his own spiky (though not nearly as multi-barbed as Wright's) hairdo. Of the three games in the trilogy, this shares far more in common with the original Phoenix Wright games, boasting deliciously bright and bold artwork and a similar tone. The twist here is Justice's ability to 'perceive' the actions of witnesses, challenging you to look out for tells and tics that likely mean their testimony isn't entirely reliable.
On a big screen, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is eye-popping stuff, Kazuya Nuri's distinctive character design benefitting from the collection's considerable bump in resolution, freed from the confines of the diddy DS display. It's the only game here that continues the series' hand-drawn style, however, as follow-ups Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice adopt 3D character models and environments, making for slightly more dynamic court proceedings. These latter two games lose little in moving from 2D to 3D (to utilise the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D), though you can't help but long for those vibrant, expressive characters. That said, when you witness witnesses losing their marbles as the case unravels, there's no doubting the energy and exuberance that creator Shu Takumi's series can muster, regardless of whether the bizarre characters are two or three-dimensional.
2D or not 2D, the Ace Attorney games have an enduring appeal, each case dragging you into Capcom's wonderfully weird world. “The characters and stories are very appealing, but beyond that, I think it's the level of care and detail that you can find in every aspect of the game,” Producer Kenichi Hashimoto tells us. “From the animations to the speed of the dialogue text and the timing of music and sound effects, everything is adjusted down to the last letter. This not only makes the thrill of solving the case more exciting, but helps keep the game interesting as you're reading a lot of text.”
There are plenty of gameplay wrinkles to discover in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, too (beyond reading text, of course), the former introducing Athena Cykes and the thought-spouting Widget around her neck. Using Athena's so-called 'mood matrix', you're able to detect conflicting emotions within a witness testimony, opening up new lines of questioning and paths towards the truth. Spirit of Justice, meanwhile, features a mystical element through 'Divination Séances', revealing a vision of the victim's final moments before their demise. Again, it's about pinpointing inconsistencies and contradictions, albeit by scrubbing through the vision, fast-forwarding, rewinding, and pausing until you find what you're looking for. And it all works very nicely, even without a touchscreen and stylus.
Those lovely animated sequences (with slightly jarring vocal performances for characters who'd never previously had actual voices) are present and correct in both Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, and the collection features a Museum brimming with bonus material and music to wade through – everything an Ace Attorney die-hard could possibly wish for. As collections go, then, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is shaping up to be rather special, and Hashimoto looks forward to fans and newcomers alike getting their hands on it, remarking “I'm very grateful to all the fans, and I hope everyone is satisfied with this collection!”
We're pretty sure we'll be more than satisfied.