Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

[toblix]

I like this! It's like Phoenix Wright -- in fact, from what I can tell the game engine and much of the graphics are the same as all the earlier games -- but it's also a bit different. At least to me it seems there's more of a story going on than in the previous games. It's great that the first case isn't too simple, and that there's lots of stuff like in PW's DS episode, and also that it seems they managed to kick the perviness up a notch, with almost loli hentai action already in the second episode! Those Japanese, I tell ya... Anyway, the character art in this game is better than ever, the dialogue seems to be on par and it seems the cases are going to be as interesting and complicated as ever. Hopefully they'll do a CSI and have two Ace Attorney series now, and not retire Phoenix completely. So far even Apollo Justice seems to be focusing more on Phoenix than the new protagonist, so maybe interesting things will happen. Anyway, just buy this so they'll make more, I'm hooked.

[Twilo]

As a hardened, incurable turnabout addict, all I have to say is:

I love you, grown-up Ema Skye

We can eat Snackoos together, forever.......

[toblix]

Finished it today. It was awesome. Hopefully they have a million Japanese working their asses of making new PW and AJ games.

[Noyb]

Just finished it. Mostly enjoyable, although I felt like it was lacking something.

In the first game, it really felt like I was playing as Phoenix Wright. His epic bluffs were my epic bluffs, Edgeworth's word twisting were infuriating in the best possible way. But with Apollo, I don't feel any of that. I'm not sure whether it's because the cases are easier, the game gives more hints, the near-constant stream of flashbacks to important moments, or maybe just that I've become jaded after four games, but I didn't feel much of a sense of unfolding surprise. There were some clever bits, though.

I did like the twist in the beginning where you accuse your legal partner. I'm still waiting for an Ace Attorney game where you accuse the judge! (logical progression after witness, prosecutor, defense attorney, right?) And the perceive system where you look for nervous tics was very cool, although the game pretty much spells out which lines of testimony to look in.

Hmm... maybe my problem is like the poorly flagged hints in the first season of Sam and Max. Telltale made Max give out hints in conversation, but they also incentivized going through his dialogue trees to hear jokes. Maybe something similar is going on with my desire to hear all the conversations from pressing each statement? Then again, I was playing the same was as the first games, and I never felt that strong before.

What I liked about the previous games was that it felt like a murder mystery that forces you to figure it out as you go along, but these scenarios (only four cases this time? ) mostly played their cards far too early. (spoilers for last case)

It seems like the developers realized that on the final case, since by the time you get done doing all the investigation before confronting the final villain, you know pretty much everything about what went down, so he confesses absurdly quickly in court.

[toblix]

I wonder, since a lot of time goes by between each release of these games, do they spend all their time on these convoluted plots, to make sure everything fits? When unraveling them, it seems like it would be a nightmare to set these things up. Also, the UI never changes (much), and how long can it possibly take to draw the characters? It would be sweet to read about how they go about developing these cases.

Also, how long till the next game? Will the point and click one come out before the next AJ one? Thinking about it, the next one hasn't even been announced yet, has it?

[Roderick]

I'd be interested in reading about the development process too, though it's a bit trickier to get as they're all done in Japan. There are some interviews with the translators though, which is already interesting.

The next Ace Attorney game hasn't been announced yet, so it's safe to say we're gonna see Perfect Prosecutor first. Don't know if it's the same team, actually.

[toblix]

The way I understand it it's not the same team, no. I also read the translator interview, which was cool.

Has there been any word on a PP release date? It would be awsome if this new series was great, and then the release interval between PW games could be halved if they timed their releases right.