Apollo tries, but just doesn't do Phoenix Wright justice.
Apollo Justice starts with a card game gone wrong. A man is killed and the other player is arrested for suspicion of murder. This mysterious man calls a lawyer friend of his for help but for reasons unknown, a new defense lawyer has been assigned to him instead. The mystery man just so happens to be Phoenix Wright, no longer a lawyer himself after losing his lawyer's badge seven years ago. This isn't the same Phoenix Wright you used to know. His attitude carries with it a sense off smugness and indifference; he's more reserved now that he isn't a lawyer anymore. And his newly appointed defense attorney? Apollo Justice, a young man with spiked hair tall enough to rival even Wright's of ages ago. Now Wright can only hope Apollo is as talented as he was when he first stepped into the courtroom as a lawyer himself.
The story line and characters might not be as interesting as the previous Ace Attorney games, but the presentation has been upped a little to compensate for it. Cutscenes now feature several moments of CG, and there's a lot more to do gameplay wise when investigating. For starters, you can once again examine your evidence in 3D, a feature that was absent since the first title. Certain cases in court will have the scene of the crime recreated in 3D as well, allowing you to examine it from different angles. Once you meet Ema Skye, she'll give you forensic tools such as Luminol to search for chemical residues, fingerprint powder, and plaster of paris to create footprint molds. Because so many gameplay features have returned, you feel more involved in the game than just simply reading everything everyone is saying.
The newest feature to Apollo Justice is the ability to perceive. Whereas Phoenix Wright used the magatama to see psyche locks and break them to reveal the lies people were hiding, Justice uses his mystical bracelet to closely study someone's subtle habits and call them out. It works like this. When Apollo is cross-examining a witness, he may sense that they're holding something back in their testimony. A bracelet prompt then becomes available and you select which part of their testimony you wish to examine. Time is then slowed down while each part of their sentence is being dissected. Your focal point is narrowed down so that you can only see part of the character. You have to move this focal point around while they're repeating their testimony and look for a bad habit; a nervous tick, a gulp, a shift of the eyes. Then, you choose Perceive, and Justice calls them out and makes them reveal more information.
Aside from the returning gameplay features and the new Perceive ability, Apollo Justice plays out just like any Ace Attorney game before it. The game's broken up into four episodes, each one starting with a murder. Then, you must select new places to go, talk to witnesses and then when enough information and evidence is gathered, proceed to court. In court, you battle it out with a prosecutor. This time it's Klavier Gavin, younger brother of Kristoph Gavin who originally was to defend Wright, and a leader of the justice themed rock band The Gavinners. A witness will be called, they'll give their testimony, you cross-examine them by presenting the proper evidence, and the prosecutor will do his best to counter your objections and force a guilty verdict. As with the previous games, if you offer up the wrong evidence, you'll be penalized. Get penalized too much and the game is over, but you can save the game at any time and simply restart, so it defeats the purpose.
The final case is perhaps the real saving grace of the game, as it begins to weave together the threads of the entire story into one convoluted tapestry. During an intermission of the episode, Phoenix Wright goes over his related case files of the past seven years. You'll be playing as him as he talks to witnesses from seven years in the past to the present. Since you're playing as Wright, you'll once again have the magatama, so you'll have to present the proper evidence to break the psyche locks. It's nice to finally be in control of Wright again to break up the banality that is Apollo Justice.
The main problem with Apollo Justice is that the main character just doesn't stand out well enough on his own. His personality is greatly overshadowed by many of the outrageous new characters. His development as a lawyer is also underwhelming as he practically can't do anything on his own. Take a few lines copy and pasted from past Ace Attorney games, and it's almost like they went for a Phoenix Wright Lite character. His partnership with Wright's adopted daughter Trucy also doesn't have the same exuberant chemistry that Phoenix and Maya had, although it's obvious that's what they were going for.
Aside from a few cutscenes done in CG, Apollo Justice really doesn't bring anything new to the graphical table. Some of the familiar backdrops such as the courtroom have been touched up, and there are quite a number of new screens drawn up. Apollo Justice shares its predecessors' cheap way of recycling character images, though, as they appear in every scenario with the same clothing, looking no worse for wear. For instance, sick people in the hospital are still in the street clothes they were when you talked to them. The character designs also range from goofy to mysterious to flat out appalling and irritating. At least the animations of their reactions are entertaining, but Capcom could do well to add more frames for smoother animations.
Just as with the graphics, there isn't much new to talk about in the way of audio. Every sound effect has once again been lifted directly from its predecessors. The only new voices are those that come from Apollo and the Gavin brothers as they scream their infamous catch phrases, "OBJECTION!" There are of course newly composed songs for the new character themes, and this is an area that never disappoints. You instantly recognize each character the moment they come on the screen by their music, but the only song that grows tiresome is that of the blind singer Lamiroir. When her case comes up, the song will be repeated over and over again as its dissected in court, and although there are no vocals, there are lyrics for the song and they are not well written at all.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has been considered by many to be the black sheep of the series. Considering the story, writing and cast of characters are the weakest yet, it's no surprise. One could even become grossly irritated with the amount of time spent talking about Trucy's missing panties. Yes, "missing panties". Parts of the game go on and on and pointless cross-examinations waste precious time, disrupting the pacing a great deal. Add to the fact that Capcom continues to recycle material from previous titles, and you have a half-hearted game. Thankfully, its biggest strength comes from those aforementioned returning gameplay features so while the story suffers, the gameplay shines. Fans of the series will still want to play it just to see what happens to Wright seven years later, but those that grew tired of the Ace Attorneys with Trials and Tribulations should not bother investing their time with Apollo Justice.