Apollo Justice : Ace Attorney

The fourth instalment of the Ace Attorney series has arrived and once again I step up to bringing justice to my defendants. Re-routing accusations to the true criminals, pointing fingers at phoney testimonies and throwing contradictory evidence in a liar’s face. Watching the witness and prosecutors burn and stutter as they struggle to improvise a bogus account. A smile grows and I blurt out a laugh like Nelson Muntz. Nothing gets better than the satisfaction of being right and seeing our opposing bench fall into humiliation.

A heavy but well written text based game with plenty of wit and humour. Apollo Justice is a mix of CSI and Hotel Dusk, traditional anime visuals and it brings exciting drama. A kind of game that gets you eagle eyeing over every bit of information, reading things five times over to boost your memory, practicing general logic and commending yourself when you’ve outsmarted someone. Using these skills there are a series of case episodes to knuckle through. Each have a nice animated opening showing mysterious crime scenes. Instantly initiating the mind to find out the five “w’s”, who, what, where, when and why.
Speaking of “who”, fans of the series may be wondering, “Who’s Apollo Justice and where is Phoenix Wright?” Fear not my friends, among the new cast of colourful characters Mr Wright hasn’t disappeared all together. He’s actually the first person we find sitting in the defendant’s seat (gasp!) Why?! Well all is explained about Phoenix as we play more under the new protagonist, Apollo Justice.

So we now have a new rookie taking up the defence attorney position, fresh from the field and totally nerve wrecked. Feels like we’re starting all over again doesn’t it? However it doesn’t take long to appreciate the new main man who’s got a very useful bracelet. Not just any old bracelet, it reacts when there’s a dirty lie within a testimony and when that happens we can perceive them during cross examination. Usually the witness has some sort of habit such as twiddling their thumbs when they’re telling porkies. This new ability makes Apollo’s game a bit easier than the Phoenix’s ones.
There are two stages in court, first the witnesses account where they describe what they saw. Secondly the cross examination (my favourite!), our chance to reveal lies, inconsistencies or present evidence to the court that contradicts their statement. While you might get soaked into the intensity of the drama, you’re given the chance to further satisfy your fight for justice by shouting, “Objection!”, “Hold it!”, “Take that!” or my new favourite during perceiving, “Gotcha!”
You have to expect the unexpected and the unexpected are well placed. When you think you’ve nailed the court trial, BAM! Suddenly there’s a new twist to the story. You gasp, you pull your hair, your jaw drops and your mind goes mental as you yell, “but how can that be?!” Things can turn into a completely different direction and that’s what I love about Apollo Justice. Once thought I was just chasing after a thief who stole panties and a noodle cart, it all soon wove into a case of murder!

Outside of the courtrooms we can perform our own investigations, giving us a chance to look over the crime scenes, visit various relative locations and interview the people involved. Along the way we can squat down, taking a closer look at the scene and pick up any pieces of evidence that can prove handy.
The judge, prosecutor, police and other characters can also hand over items they have found relating to the case. All are stored in the inventory known as the “court records” and you’re free to refer to it anytime, anywhere. Some things you find can also be viewed in 3D and with that, it means there’s something to be found.
A little more detective work features in this latest Ace Attorney edition which introduces new mechanics to the investigation. One for example is dusting for fingerprints, tapping the stylus on the touch screen applies the dust over the area and blowing into the microphone revealing the print. Other new toys involve a spray to find traces of certain liquids, making plaster casts, taking out a piece of music from a whole track and more. So Capcom have spruced up what use to be a monotonous process but I’ve still got a problem with the tricky navigation between locations! It becomes a tedious task when getting to certain places because you have to go here first to get over there.

The new Ace Attorney may not have brought a dramatic change to the game play of the series but I feel that, that aspect doesn’t matter. It’s all about the new stories that keep us clutched on and once you start playing Apollo Justice, you won’t stop till you see the end!