Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy review: Triumphs and tribulations

The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a wild ride, and I don't just mean the cases. The three games starring Capcom's second legal hero have some of the series' brightest ideas and most memorable characters sat alongside some of the most dismal storytelling and narrative decisions. Uneven as the second Ace Attorney trilogy is, though, it's still a sparkling collection of inventive adventure games.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Apollo Justice has the unenviable task of following three acclaimed games starring a fan-favorite hero, and it’s a challenge the young lawyer is more than capable of meeting. Capcom has a formula for its Ace Attorney protagonists – bumbling, enthusiastic, and full of earnest conviction. While the eponymous lawyer in Apollo Justice sticks to that formula, there is an extra level of underdog charm that makes him almost instantly likeable. Apollo doesn’t have the top-tier training that Phoenix did. His introduction sees him thrown into a high-profile case with the expectation of failure, so seeing him not only triumph in that, but unravel an even bigger case makes his victory even more enjoyable.

Apollo Justice is a tale of conspiracy and malice that unfolds years after the events of Trials and Tribulations. It opens with a satisfying twist that sets the tone for the following three cases. Phoenix Wright appears on the stand, debarred and accused of murder. While he eventually restores his good name, his experiences and events in the world in general mean the bubbly, happy mood of the original trilogy is gone. It’s a fitting change, though. What follows this initial case is a dark series of seemingly disconnected murders that eventually expose a scandal in the heart of the legal system.

It’s exciting stuff and a much stronger opening than you might expect from the first game in a new trilogy.

Apollo’s new mechanics don’t earn quite that same level of praise, though. Apollo Justice introduces a welcome selection of new investigation methods that give it that “big next step” feeling you’d hope from a fourth sequel, though uneven implementation means they often feel like underused gimmicks. You can scan for footprints and fingerprints, use x-rays, and even employ a sound mixer in one case, but these are all unique to the episode they appear in. 

It’s a shame, too. Combining some or all of them for really in-depth investigations could’ve helped elevate Apollo Justice even further.

Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

I don’t know what Capcom was doing with Dual Destinies, and frankly, I don’t think Capcom did either. The plot is confused, character development runs amok – or, in Athena’s case, stands completely still – and the cases are wildly uneven. On the bright side, though, Dual Destinies does introduce a strong new character and a handful of investigation innovations that help freshen the slightly stale Ace Attorney formula.

All the messiness of Apollo Justice is gone at the start of Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright reclaims his place as Chief Protagonist. Apollo gets a foil in Athena Cykes, a woefully underused character whose self-assuredness outside court is a welcome complement to Apollo’s insecurity. All is not well in law land, though. The dire warning Phoenix issued at the start of Apollo Justice, about the “dark age” of the law, has come to pass.

What does that mean? I don’t know, and to be fair, Dual Destinies doesn’t either. Apparently, people lost faith in the legal system after the end of Trials and Tribulations, and they think law is just about attorneys serving their own interests. That premise could lend itself to some unique cases and character situations – except Dual Destinies just sort of forgets it exists. Two of the cases tangentially relate to the concept, including one where a perpetrator tries detonating a bomb in the court, but the broader plot is more concerned with a superspy-slash-terrorist’s antics. 

The thing is, none of this is particularly bad. The narrative itself is rather confused, and the cases don’t match Apollo Justice in quality – though defending a killer whale accused of killing is a particular highlight. However, Dual Destinies is easy to enjoy in the moment, assuming you don’t think too closely about what’s going on.

Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

Spirit of Justice is easily the best game in the trilogy, confident in its investigation twists and storytelling and even brave enough to put Phoenix in some serious new situations. Spirit of Justice feels like what Capcom might’ve wanted out of Dual Destinies. It’s split between Phoenix and Maya in a foreign country called Khura’in and Apollo and Athena at home, before their cases eventually intertwine in Khura’in as the country’s citizens stage a revolution.

The overall plots are quite good, especially compared to Dual Destinies, but what stands out the most is how Spirit of Justice gives its characters room to develop. Athena finally has time to shine and feels like a natural complement to Apollo, who comes into his own as a protagonist in a way that should’ve happened in Dual Destinies. 

Spirit of Justice also introduces one of the series’ best trial features: divination. Khura’in lawyers believe their work brings justice and peace to victims, and trials include divination that lets you witness what a victim saw and experience their emotions while the perpetrator committed the crime. Your task is finding discrepancies in that felt testimony and the rest of the evidence, and while it’s essentially the same as cross-examining a witness, that extra connection between the victim and the facts of the case make your work feel deeper and more exciting.

The Apollo cases don’t involve divination, since it’s unique to Khura’in, but Athena’s matrix of emotions returns and is just as interesting to work with. The cases in Spirit of Justice are consistently high quality with some of the series’ most memorable witnesses, including my personal favorite, the deranged balloon artist Geiru Toneido, and the rapport between the main cast more than makes up for their shaky development in Dual Destinies. It’s up there with Trials and Tribulations as one of the best Ace Attorney games.

All three games use the upscaled 3D models from their 3DS re-releases, and while I prefer the original Nintendo DS 2D art, the models do look fresh and clean. The collection comes with a few extra features that are nice to have, though inessential, including an art gallery and an animation studio that lets you mess around with character models. They’re decent bonuses, but the real draw is easy access to the trilogy.

The three latter Ace Attorney games are certainly uneven, and the first two never quite reach the level of narrative power, or even general coherence, of the original trilogy. However, they do challenge the idea of what an Ace Attorney game can be and introduce some memorable characters in the process. Dual Destinies might be the sour one of the bunch, but Capcom wins the case of Apollo Justice v. the test of time.

This review is based on a Steam copy of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy that Capcom provided. The Apollo Justice Trilogy launches on January 26, 2024, for PC and console.

Josh Broadwell

Contributing Editor

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or VG 24/7 or on Twitter, shouting about Trails. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or curled up with an RPG of some description.