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Having reviewed games professionally for more than 20 years, it’s the rare game that evades my grasp. The Apollo Justice games fall into that category. That’s why, when I saw the game was at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, I made up my mind that I’ll be damned if I let Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy slip through again!
Promise kept!
I’ve now played through the games and can do a review! One that’s not coloured by nostalgia or fan bias!
So…how is it? You really want to know? Then you’ll have to read on!
What is Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy?
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a compilation of three visual novel games from Capcom’s Ace Attorney series that features (in part or in the starring role) Apollo Justice. The games included are Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is developed and published by Capcom. They were also awesome enough to provide us with a review code for the game! Thank you so much!
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was one of the first games I reviewed for The Technovore, way back when the site started in 2019. In a way, I suppose it’s fate. I distinctly remember thinking that I wished that Capcom would port over the other Ace Attorney games onto modern consoles.
Lo and behold, my wish was granted.
If you’ve not experienced Capcom’s Ace Attorney series, the games are all visual novels where you play as the titular character. You investigate crime scenes, talk to witnesses and of course, engage in courtroom battles as you press and prod witnesses to find holes in their testimony.
It’s the same formula as in this one too.
The three titles in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy all play brilliantly, and the plots always have surprising twists and turns before the day’s out. The writing’s great too and definitely is part of the charm of the series.
That and the kooky cast of characters. I love how everybody’s got their own distinct personalities, even opposing lawyers who you only see when you’re in the courtroom. Hell, the judge himself (who returns from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy) is characterized brilliantly! I love that he’s not your no-nonsense type of character, but one who can poke fun at himself yet still be completely, naive, dense and clueless.
I always wondered how he managed to even become a judge sometimes.
The gameplay sessions in the courtroom are the meat of the series and those in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy continues to impress. The cast interaction is really well done and the writing breathes life into the characters well.
The cases themselves are well thought out too and you really need to pay attention to spot the discrepancies in the witness testimonies for you to present evidence to contradict them. It’s really fun to work out lies and expose them for the world to see…though there’s really not much stakes to them.
If you fail or get stuck, you can always reload and retry until you stumble on what you need to do to progress.
Low stakes aside, the gameplay is still solid enough to warrant a playthrough in my opinion.
I just wish there was a way to skip text you’ve seen before.
Sometimes I cock up and select an option or choose to press a witness on something that they’ve talked about before. The game doesn’t let you skip those long (sometimes VERY long) sections. You can hammer the buttons to fast forward through them, but not outright skip. A function for that would’ve been much welcomed.
Owing to the games being on the Nintendo DS (the Phoenix Wright games came out on the Game Boy Advance, the DS’s predecessor), all of the games included in this compilation are much more visually elaborate this time around.
The cases are filled with short animations pieces and the character animations are noticeably more fluid than before.
There’s a caveat though; Capcom’s PC settings for the port are as barebones as they come. That’s not surprising considering this is a visual novel, perhaps filters or some other visual additions could’ve been thrown in as well?
Capcom’s also done more than just port the DS games to the PC (or whatever console you’re playing this on). They’ve added a bevy of extras, from the games’ soundtracks to an art and animation viewer.
They’re nothing really worth writing home about (unless you really, really love the series) but they’re great extras to have nonetheless.
Again, as I do harp on about in compilation reviews like this, I do wish the extras were more extensive though. Surely, promotional material (like flyers, interviews or other media) could’ve easily been included too. Design documents (the holy grail of game design) or even the games’ scripts would have been incredible too!
I understand not everybody cares about this, but it’s a great way to preserve material related to the game as well!
The Bottom Line.
As the second batch of Ace Attorney games, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is an easy home run. There’s really no way Capcom could’ve flubbed up this release considering how Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy already laid the groundwork.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is certainly a safe compilation with the usual smattering of extras that you’d expect. Even the PC visual settings are nothing to write home about.
That however, doesn’t diminish the fact that the games included in the compilation are of great quality. The stories are awesome, and if you’ve played the games prior to this, it’s like meeting up with a group of friends you’ve not met for a long time.
Do I wish there were more extras? Hell yes. I’m kind of bummed with the offerings to be honest. However, that’s just a small nitpick for an otherwise excellent collection of games.
TLDR:
Great compilation of Ace Attorney games, though the extras could be better.
The Good:
- The art style is still great.
- Awesome (and funny) writing.
- More animation and visual flourishes compared to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
- Very fun cases.
The Bad:
- Lacking in extras.
- Not much replay value.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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