Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review - A Fair Turnabout

The Ace Attorney series of games has long been popular since their debut on Nintendo handheld systems. As a series of visual novels centered on the courtroom experience, they’ve always been highly regarded as something that’s pushed that particular genre forward in the West. 

Because of that popularity, there have been several sequels and spinoffs made available. However, until very recently, those games were limited to outdated hardware. Capcom has since made an effort to expand their presence on modern platforms with the release of such projects as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. These are important because they’re not only compilations of those past games, but they’ve been shined up for the HD generation after many years of being unavailable beyond their original release.

The latest fruits of Capcom’s labors comes in the form of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy. This time around, fans can get ahold of, as the title suggests, three more releases in the series. There’s the titular Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice.

It’s a mouthful to be sure, but being able to play these games on something other than a Nintendo DS is more than just a novelty. The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy sets the stage by opening up game and chapter selection as soon as the title screen loads. You’re not beholden to starting with just Apollo Justice - and that’s great for those who may have already played that game previously but not the others. It’s also notable because you’re not railroaded into linear progression to unlock each subsequent game, despite the stories themselves being linear in nature.

This presentation is propped up by colorful menus with animated art from the series. The anime art style is highlighted here with several sequences, and from here it’s easy to swap between the three games with the tap of a button. The Trilogy also hosts a Museum mode with plenty of visual spoilers.

This setup is simple and effective, but for the purpose of this review, I was keen on exploring from the beginning. Apollo Justice being the place to start, and it begins the way the Ace Attorney games usually do - there’s been a crime, and it’s up to you to help uncover the truth in a series of trials involving witnesses, clues, and cross examination. There’s even a few twists along the way, which is something of a series staple. 

I remember the original release of Apollo Justice being notable for its quirky characters, and expansion of the Ace Attorney worldview. Those elements are still here, but they’ve been reframed with HD visuals that replace the old sprites, cleaned up backgrounds, and increased resolution. Despite its status as a remaster, I was a little disappointed Capcom didn’t take this opportunity to go a little further. There’s a lack of voice acting, for example, and it stands out to me when other games such as 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors did bring that to the table when it was upgraded for contemporary platforms.

Other than that, there’s some subjectivity in whether or not the old sprites had more charm for what they were, but I feel like the HD redraws are fine enough. They’re clean and colorful and do work well with the background style they’ve gone with here.

The lack of voice acting is less of an issue in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, however. Having released on the Nintendo 3DS and later iOS and Android, these two games feature voiced anime cutscenes to help tell the story. Whilst the main gameplay dialogue remains unvoiced, it was nice to see at least some elevation in the level of presentation. It’s still another area that would have benefited from this remaster release.

Dual Destinies also marks the return of series mainstay Phoenix Wright. Naturally, it’s set after the events of Apollo Justice, so there are some returning characters there. The general gameplay loop is largely similar, but the presentation sees plenty of changes.

I was surprised to see the sprites had been replaced with 3D rendered models. I suppose it makes sense given the gimmicks of the 3DS, but the style is a departure from the previous games by quite a lot. I wouldn’t say they’ve necessarily been translated well into the remaster, but they can still emote enough for what it’s worth. Characters like Athena or even Phoenix himself feel like they could use some more polygons, and tighten up the animations. They can look especially hokey when doing exaggerated expressions, but it’s at least funny to look at.

Visuals aside, there are a couple other points of interest in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy to talk about. I was surprised to see that you can forgo playing the game entirely and consume it just like you would any other novel. In the menu options, you can select to toggle Story mode, which removes having to solve puzzles and clues, selects choices for you, and progresses the narrative on its own. This can be turned on and off in real time, though it does warn you about losing out on certain accolades for using it.

The other thing I quite liked was just the general auto play feature. I found it super helpful with the transition to playing these games on a big screen. Being able to sit back and let the game flip the pages for you is a great benefit when you consider just how long each chapter and game itself ends up being.

All in all, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a solid release, even if it does miss the mark on voice acting and some questionable modeling and animations. It’s good to have these games available elsewhere after so many years, and with any hope, we’ll maybe see a full on series revival to follow. In any case, there’s still plenty here to explore for new fans, or those wanting to experience the story of Phoenix and friends once again.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by Capcom over roughly 46 hours of gameplay.