What is Ace Attorney?

Ace Attorney is a visual novel released and developed by Capcom and written by Shu Takumi. The series of games follows ace attorney (lol) Pheonix Wright and his assistant, Maya Fey, as he maneuvers through the legal world and defends clients, whilst chasing his own ambitions. The game spans six main-line releases on the DS and 3DS, with four spin-offs; two of which focus on Miles Edgeworth, Pheonix's so-called rival, and uh, something else if you catch my drift, and the latter, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, follow the same sort of legal business but instead take place waaaaaay in the past and focus on another set of characters.

When I was younger, I knew what Ace Attorney was, but more with a passing familiarity and mostly because he was the game that my dear Professor Layton had a crossover with (which is what mattered more to me). Although I did want to play it, the idea of playing Ace Attorney and getting something wrong in court really scared me for some reason, lol. It wasn't until 2021 that I actually got into it thanks to RTGame's Ace Attorney playthrough. Give it some time, and later in 2023 I end up playing the Apollo Justice Trilogy and fall in love with the Ace Attorney cast. That being said, I think I have a pretty clear bias for which set of games I prefer more lol

My Favourite Characters

I'll put pictures here later, but...

  • Vera Misham
    • What, you think the introverted artist girl ISN'T gonna flock to the other, introverted artist girl in the series? It's a pretty obvious pick!
  • Myriam Scuttlebutt
    • Similar name to mine, plus I just thought she was really funny and cute.
  • Bonny & Batty de Famme
    • I discovered her prior to playing Spirit of Justice and immediately fell head over heels (and spoiled myself but whatever). She's just cute. What else can I say about her.
  • Athena Cykes
    • I thought she was silly and thought her backstory was sad too. I am going to beat up Capcom for only letting her have like a single 'half-case' in Spirit of Justice (it didn't even have an investigation section!!!) Her sprites are really cute, her theme is quite catchy (It reminds me of Missle's from Ghost Trick!) and the one that plays in court goes soooooo freaking hard!!!! I liked the Mood Matrix and how it was utilized in the final case, and the whole thing with Athena being sensitive to other peoples emotions and such....yeah me too girlie. Anyways! the sort of dynamic between Athena and Blackquill was really interesting, especially near the end...
  • Bobby Fulbright
    • Very silly! I found him kind of weird at first but he really started to grow on me. His sprites are really silly, he's got a pretty good theme, and his dynamic with the other characters is quite fun. Also his name is mf BOBBY. What a silly name. Now, if you've played Dual Destinies, you know just what I'm about to get into...
    Before playing DD, I got a brief glimpse of some spoilers unfortunately, and I saw the Phantom's breakdown on Youtube and saw Fulbright and was like. hmm. something is amiss here, so I was kind of suspicious of Fulbright the whole time because apparently he's like, some evil bad guy and like KILLED Athena's mom. Or so I thought. Once I found out that ACTUAL Fulbright had been dead for months and that the one we had been with the whole time was, well, an imposter(LOL!!!!!!!!) everything got turned on my head. Now I just cry whenever I see him.
  • Simon Blackquill
    • Sometimes I forget this guy is named Simon. Honestly, in my head, he's definitely British to me and kind of sounds like Descole from Professor Layton. This guy is honestly ridiculous to me but in a good way. He's got a bird, an edgy-ass haircut, a kick-ass theme and speaks like a samurai, he's nuts. I also can't believe that he straight up just fucking DIES in one of the bad endings. I think I got one of them, whoops. The prosecutor-detective banter in each of the games is quite fun to watch and this one is no exception either. Gotta love that one moment where he just walks out in the middle of a case with Fulbright because he thought it was bullshit. Something else goin on there, guys..?? ;)

    Blackquill is honestly quite great. I liked him a lot, 9/10.

Apollo Justice

Technically my first Ace Attorney game if you don't count the crossover. I watched a playthrough of the main trilogy and was like, yep, now I wanna play an Ace Attorney game! I went in knowing most of the stuff, like, Trucy is Pheonix's adopted daughter, Kristoph's got something going on, Klavier likes men, so on so forth, and I really enjoyed the game!

I got some of the story spoiled for me but it was a fun ride either way. I don't really have toooo much to say about the game, so I think I'll just write my opinions of each case, if anything.

  • Turnabout Trump
    • Starting case that went on for...it felt like it went on too long. It was all right though I liked Olga (unsurprising)
  • Turnabout Corner
    • Nothing too strong here, but I love the Kitaki family. Plum grew on me and I freakin LOVE Wocky!!! Kind of tragic thinking about it. Everyone loses in this one. Wocky loses his fiancee, Alita, like, I know she shot a guy and was kind of a bitch but I was kind of felt bad for her near the end....Oh yeah Eldoon exists also. Found him pretty amusing
  • Turnabout Serenade
    • I liked it but then I didn't. It started going on for too long and the coccoon smuggling started to lose me...I ended up using a guide a lot because I just stopped caring LOL
  • Turnabout Succession
    • I liked this one! The MASON system had me confused at first so I had to pull up a guide but it was cool execution and stuff. I knew about the sudden reveal of Apollo and Trucy being siblings spoiler like. because I accidentally got a glimpse of spoilers on pinterest WHOOPS but it still surprised me as to how they were connected. like. THATS what it is? Huh!
    I also really love Vera and her dad and can't help but feel really bad for them too. ;_;

Dual Destinies

Ace Attorney Dual Destinies is a game. Is it a good game? I mean, I liked it, so...

I initially started playing DD before Apollo Justice because I wasn't sure how the order worked, so the whole "Apollo Goes EDGY" thing confused me because 1. I was not really sure who Apollo WAS 2. I didn't. Really care for him? Sorry, Apollo!! but I set it aside until after I finished Apollo Justice. Then I returned to it.

Dual Destinies is...well, I don't really have any strong opinions on it. I LIKED it, that's for sure! The characters are pretty ok at best, Klavier was there briefly but honestly I feel like he was forced in there (his 3d model is very uncanny to me) and Blackquill is very silly to me. So is Fulbright but BOY do I have a lot of words for him. I like Athena a lot. At first she didn't really stick with me (it felt like, I dunno, it felt weird that there was a newbie all of a sudden. but that's how it is I guess) I kind of got spoiled for a lot of Dual Destinies because I originally thought I wasn't gonna play it but then I did. I still got my socks blown off by the end of it, though! I had been spoiled about some things, but that didn't ruin my experience of the game 'cause I still had some JAW-DROP moments. Also I'm never going to get over how The Cosmic Turnabout is just an Among Us game

Final thoughts on Dual Destinies...Uh, yeah, I liked it. Nothing too strong. I didn't really care for the school one or whatever, somethin somethin yeah you get the point. I rate it like...8/10.

Spirit of Justice

Spirit of Justice was good until I stopped caring. I hate to say it, but honestly, the whole Khurainist religion part REALLY lost me and I found myself preferring the cases in America a lot more. The Divination Seance was a pretty cool aspect of the game, I will admit, but like aside from that I really did not gaf about some of the characters motivations or my brain just shut off midway...Nahyuta fans I'm sorry your guy is cool in some aspects but I REALLY didn't care bruh

Things I Liked

I liked the Magical Turnabout and Turnabout Storyteller....except for the fact that there wasn't any investigation sequence for that one..?! Basically I just preferred the cases back in America because a lot of the religion aspect threw me off.

Things I Didn't Liked

Turnabout Revolution. Was a case. That I can say. The "Founder's Orb" thing was like, ok sweet cool, I found Paul Atishon (fucking PAUL ATISHON SERIOUSLY) like. I liked him as a character but I also hated his guts so I guess the game worked there. I cannot fucking believe that all happened in a span of like a week. Like the fact that Apollo almost drowning in a cave, getting fucking STRIPPED DOWN, getting CHASED BY THE AUTHORITIES, learning his adoptive father was dead and almost GETTING SHOT all happened within a week is so, so funny to me. But aside from that, I really just found the case more ridiculous than, like, actually intruiging in a sense? The royal family is huge as hell and it's nuts.