Apollo Justice Ace Attorney
- February 21, 2008 13:31 PM PST
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I was a big fan of the Phoenix Wright series. Note that I said was. When I first got my taste of the kooky, over-the-top court room drama, it was pretty much love at first "Objection!"
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It may not be standard courtroom etiquette but in the world of Phoenix Wright, it's par for the course
But after playing through the latest entry in the franchise, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, I've now lost my taste for the antics of spiky haired lawyers.
Objection(able)
The biggest culprit here is the lack of innovation and change. Apollo Justice does feature some cool DS-specific twiststhe new "Perceive" system is a nice addition, you'll be treated to neat 3D recreations of specific crime scenes, and there's a cool fingerprinting mechanic that makes smart use of the microphonebut the game is such a rehash of past titles that I ended up feeling a little jaded by the whole thing.
The main protagonist may be differentyou play as spunky new lawyer Apollo Justicebut the gameplay remains largely the same. You still travel between different locations, gather clues, interview bizarre characters then head into the court room to interrogate witnesses and present evidence in order to solve the rather ridiculous mysteries.
What's Old Is New
You can scan areas and get more info on the things you see. Here, you're scoping out a crime scene at People Park.
What's most frustrating about the title is that it recycles a lot of old content. The art style hasn't changed a lick and I even noticed that certain pieces of dialogue were being reused. Adding to the feeling of "been-there-done-that" is the fact that the first chapter is basically a long tutorial. That might be fine for series noobs but for someone who's played all the other games, it felt like an unnecessary chore that dragged on far too long.
The storytelling in Apollo is also rather subpar. Past cases were predicated on convoluted premises but they still managed to contribute to the game's overall charm; in other words, the zany stories were all a part of the fun. But I had a hard time buying into the twists and turns that infest the cases presented in Apollo Justice; they're silly but not always in the good sense of the word.
Hung Jury
Phoenix Wright fans who loved the past games and want nothing more than another docket of crazy cases to tackle will no doubt love Apollo Justice. It's a solid distillation of the franchise formula and if you haven't yet had your fill, I wholly recommend the game, because you will no doubt enjoy it. But I personally couldn't get over how derivative the game felt. There were moments when I enjoyed myself but for me, the magic of the series has slowly worn off and I truly hope Capcom takes the franchise in a bold new direction. Otherwise, I might have to consider turning in my badge and leaving the courtroom for good.
