Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban 4)

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The fourth game in the Ace Attorney series that is set 7 years after the 3rd game, Trials and Tribulations. The biggest change is a new protagonist, Apollo Justice, a defense attorney rookie. The previous games has been on the Gameboy Advance, but this game came out for the NDS so the music and graphics have a bit of an upgrade. Though the overall design and gameplay stayed the same.

Other than Apollo, there's a new character name Gavin who guides you through the trial and the gameplay. At least in this game you can actually skip the tutorial, but still gives you a brief reminder of how to play anyways. The first case is Apollo's first trial ever which has some resemblance to the first case in the 3rd game. I will be spoiling this case a bit so this a early warning. Apollo's first client is a man he has looked up to, Phoenix. It was hard to really recognize him at first since he's wearing a funny looking beanie that covered his hair which is his key feature. Plus the 7 year gap obviously made him more older looking, plus he has a different job so he wasn't wearing his signature blue suit. So Phoenix once again finds himself in the defendants chair, and both the judge and prosecutor Payne has commented that they haven't seen him in awhile. So right off the bat it seems like what happened to Phoenix will be the story of this game. The first case is not easy, and it definitely took an unexpected turn. This is Apollo's first trial and its already pretty weird.

So far the game has better animations with the introduction cutscenes and regular character animations. Also the music is pretty good too with some new ones as well as old ones. Though all these are to be expected with changing the console from Gameboy advance to NDS. The new features from the special extra case in the first game are included in this game as well: 3D inspecting evidence, and fingerprint powder. Later you learn to take foot/shoe prints as well. During trials there will be a new way to get at the witnesses that involves detecting the witness body language, and habits for when they are uncertain about something in their testimony. This is a reasonable skill to have but they play it up quite a bit by having Apollo have the "power" in a sense, haha. You have to call out on them about their habit which is kind of weird. But then you have to figure out the reason for it and reveal the lies. Everything else is still the same though. Each case after the first one will have a Investigation, trial, investigation, and then trial pattern. Characters are mostly new, and there is one character from the special extra case in the first game that returns here. Since the extra case is made for the NDS, it makes it seem kind of lame to put that in the first game just to tie the character in Apollo Justice.

After the first case, Apollo winds up "working" for Phoenix and takes on 4 requests with one being to defend a mobster (yakuza) brat. The other 3 requests do end up being related to the case thankfully. Even though you're working for Phoenix he won't be helping you that much with this case, but a new character name Trucy will. She is the new Maya for this game as your assistant. She will mostly help you out the most during the trials. You can visit Phoenix for help as well in this case. I won't say anymore about this trial so I'll move on to the next!

In the second case, Apollo and Trucy go to Gavin's concert and has backstage access. Backstage they meet the guest artists who came from a foreign country. During one of the acts, Apollo hears gun shots, and ends up defending the suspect for this murder. This case wasn't too difficult, and its the first time in this Ace Attorney game that I feel quite frustrated with how slow these characters are. Although in the end I wasn't entirely right. One annoying thing I didn't like about this case is having to watch and listen the same thing over and over again. You have to spot the "odd" thing which isn't as easy as it should be. This case is not bad otherwise. Phoenix barely showed up in this case either.

The third case, Phoenix announces that there will be a test trial of a new system with using juries. He has Apollo signed up as the defense attorney at the last minute. Phoenix doesn't tell you what the case is about so Apollo and Trucy goes out to investigate for themselves. Apollo's client is a sheltered girl who doesn't speak to anyone, and is accuse of murdering her father, a painter who doesn't go outside. You get to use some new tools in this case: a poison detector spray, and a x-ray machine. This case is similar to the last case in Trials and Tribulations where a past case is connected. You do go back in time and be Phoenix again to learn what happened. The neat thing about this part is the art style in the older games is back. Then the last trial starts.

The ending wasn't bad but it is one of my least favorites out of the Ace Attorney games. Though I do miss the old characters so it might play a factor there.

Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice