What is better than one game for the price of a game, three games bundled for the price of one game! One of the best lawyer games is back in action, highlighting defence attorney Apollo Justice—alongside his mentor and the series’ original protagonist, Phoenix Wright. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy spotlights the thrilling cases and stories involving both defence attorneys and other notable, recurring Ace Attorney characters such as Trucy Wright and the third fan-favourite attorney—Athena Cykes.
After playing these games for the last ten or so years, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy has to be one of the best ways to enjoy this collection. If you enjoyed the previous collection, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy or The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles from a couple years back on the Nintendo Switch, this is another awesome collection of Ace Attorney-based gameplay—filled with its usual twists and turns.
For those unacquainted with the Ace Attorney games, they are essentially split into two phases or parts. Typically, the first chapter throws players into the courtroom to give them a flavour of half of the game. But in the investigation phase, players will do numerous visual novels and adventure-style exploring. The tasks could range from interrogating characters at various locations to discover evidence and testimonies that could be used to defend the protagonist’s client. These moments are fairly straightforward and offer some riveting, yet sometimes cringey dialogue—but entertaining nonetheless.
“Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy spotlights the thrilling cases and stories involving both defence attorneys and other notable, recurring Ace Attorney characters.”
By far, whenever the player is put into a courtroom (especially in this collection), the entertainment value is at peak levels. This is where witnesses will be called to the stand to testify about what happened, and the player will have a chance to review the statements made while pressing the witnesses for more information. Also, players have the option to present evidence that contradicts the witnesses’ statements, which is mainly where cracking the case wide open in new avenues takes place!
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney opens up the trilogy, introducing budding new defence attorney Apollo Justice. And it continues to be one of the greatest ways to start a collection. It is definitely the favourite of the way the first cases from each game begin. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Spirit of Justice had some interesting starts but Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney just had one of the best cases of all time. Out of all the games, this one also had some of the most nonsensical humour and just a whirlwind cast of characters.
“Capcom did a really good job nailing the aspect of making this collection feel like one massive game.”
Capcom did a really good job nailing the aspect of making this collection feel like one massive game. Upon starting the game, players can select which game they want to play and which cases they want to play first. First-time players should play the games chronologically for the best storytelling experience. But long-time fans can also relive their best cases from the collection in a quick and easy way too.
To add to the list of improvements, numerous modes and settings have been added to make the gameplay smoother and drive the narrative further in a more interactive way. So, autoplay mode is available in other visual novel games and in previous collections. This allows the player to have conversations constantly flowing without having to mash the button yourself. It also pauses for the player when a choice needs to be made. The speed at which Autoplay works can also be adjusted.
A nice additional mode to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is the Reader/Story Mode. This mode is great for beginners or players who just want the best narrative-driven experience. In this mode, players will automatically progress through the game without having to press anything—all answers and evidence will be presented automatically. For the more experienced players and fans, this option may seem to defeat the purpose of the game. However, more options for different play styles is always a plus. The worst thing a game can do is isolate its audience, not that hard games like Elden Ring or the Souls games are putting people off anyway.
The menu also includes a place called the Orchestra Hall, where players can view the art gallery and music from the three games. Players can customize each of the main screens, but the animation customization is the most interesting. The most satisfying parts of the Ace Attorney games are when the player objects or the characters get heated in the courtroom. You can set up a scene with a character, a pose and a voice line to create unique animations that don’t appear in the game. These little cosmetic touches are always appreciated!
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy has many highs in the beginning but begins to be lacklustre in the back half—specifically when comparing the latter games after Apollo Justice. The first game is so energized in its 2D art style, while the other two games jumped to 3D visuals. But this was all that happened with the other two games. They just felt like they had a visual upgrade and that was all, not much reworking or remastering was going on. Other than some of these inconsistencies, the trilogy holds up fairly well, from its humble Nintendo DS/3DS roots to its now being upscaled and cleaned up for consoles.
With this brand-new, enhanced experience in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, fans will easily navigate through all of the menus and UIs. Comparing this version to the initial 2007 release version, it is a blast from the past! The collection has countless modifications and allows players to relive special moments from the three games in a whole new way, with the Orchestra Hall. This is a perfect step into the Ace Attorney world for newcomers and a nostalgic, improved-upon masterpiece for returning players.
