Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review – If It Ain’t Broke…

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a collection of games 4-6 in the Ace Attorney visual novels series. The games are Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. All three were originally released for the Nintendo DS. Modern console owners have had access to the first three games in the form of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for a few years. We’ve also had access to the two latest games in the series The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy finally collects the missing middle portion of the series, and is the best Ace Attorney collection Capcom has released because of its excellent collection of extras.

The story of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy takes place 7 years after the conclusion of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. The new Protagonist, Apollo Justice, is Phoenix Wright’s apprentice. Each game in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy somewhat stands on its own, and in the same sense each episode has a contained plot. But each game builds on the characters and events of the prior games. While they can technically be played in any order, the Ace Attorney games are best played in chronological order. Phoenix Wright has evolved a lot as a character, and Apollo is very similar to Phoenix at the start of the series (which is a great example of how these games play things too safely).

Episodic Visual Novels

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a visual novel. Each of the three games has 4-6 episodes, which contain an investigation and trial. Most chapters begin with a cutscene of a crime taking place. Then there’s an investigation section where Apollo or Phoenix goes to different locations. Some areas have point-and-click room searches, where the player is looking for bits of physical evidence. The player also spends time talking to people and gathering information about the crime.

After the player gathers all their evidence, they play through a trial. The courtroom sequences involve presenting correct evidence and finding errors in witness testimony. It’s a very fun gameplay loop that hasn’t changed much since the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game. But that’s partially forgivable because the formula was so perfect from day one. My only major complaint about Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is that there’s a missed opportunity for some element of mystery in the narrative. It’s usually pretty obvious who’s good and evil based on character design alone. And trials often play out as our heroes defending the innocent when they look very guilty. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a much more charming courtroom comedy/ drama than procedural mystery. Some mystery would have been an easy way to shake up the formula.

A Complete Package

There are tons of upgrades and extras in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, on top of the HD visuals. All preorder DLC from the original DS games is included. This includes some selectable character costumes, and bonus episodes for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. Considering each game is only 4-5 episodes long, these extra episodes add a lot of value to the package.

In the original DS games, each chapter had to be completed to unlock the following chapter. All episodes are selectable from the beginning in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy. Although they really should be played in order, this is a nice bonus for anyone who’s already beaten the original games. There’s also an autoplay story mode, where players can just watch the games unfold. All of the gameplay will succeed automatically. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney now has the backlog feature found in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. There are English and Japanese voice language options (as well as 5 other languages).

Archival Extras

On top of that, there’s also a menu section called the Museum, which contains tons of archival extras. Orchestra Hall is like a jukebox. Full soundtracks from all three games and performances from Ace Attorney series orchestral concerts can be listened to. There are 175 tracks in total. Art Library is a gallery of production artwork for all three games. All the anime cutscenes are watchable and don’t need to be unlocked. There’s also a short prologue anime for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. Animation Studio was a very unexpected and interesting addition. Players can take images, and dialogue from the games to create their own animated sequences. This reminded me a lot of early 90s PC animation programs. The options are limited, but it’s such a unique bonus for a collection of remastered games. There are also trophies or “Accolades” built into the Switch version.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a fantastic set of 3 Nintendo DS classics. This package contains all of the modernizations and features one could hope for in a collection of older games. But it goes above and beyond with an extensive Museum of archival extras, and an Animation Studio feature. My only complaint is that this second trilogy of Ace Attorney games follows the formula of the original trilogy exactly. If you’re already a fan of the Ace Attorney games this collection is a must-own.

***Nintendo Switch code provided by the publisher***