This feature contains key details about the first case in Apollo Justice: Ace AttorneyThere’s something magical about the world ofAce Attorney, so when Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney trilogy launched the other day, I was ready to jump right back into its colourful world of intrigue and courtroom drama. From the title, you may assume it’s about an all-knowing attorney, defending tons of clients from wrongful conviction. And while that is true on the surface, the series' typical lead is the actually sweaty and panicky Phoenix Wright. He starts the first game as a greenhorn who shows promise by deducing completely bonkers logic that leads to the correct solution, baffling the true culprit of the case with how correct his wild guess was.
The games (visual novels, technically) are a melodrama, a sort of soap opera with massively over-the-top plots and characters. The fourth game in the series, and the first in this newly released trilogy, Apollo Justice, decided to go a bit darker. With a few years of character development, it made sense for Phoenix to stop being so panicky, and instead to pass that torch down to the new lead, Apollo.
Phoenix didn’t just become a mentor figure though, the darker side of this entry turned Phoenix into a disgraced attorney and a jaded anti-hero. It was divisive, but I for one think it makes for one of thevery best entries in the series. I love this dishevelled, cynical and jaded twist on Phoenix Wright.
10 Best Ace Attorney Games, Ranked
From Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit Of Justice to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, these are the greatest games from this beloved series.
Drowning My Sorrows In Grape Juice
Often called “Hobo Phoenix”, thanks to the ugly hoodie and beanie combo making this formerly sharp-suited lawyer look homeless. This is where a lot of the detraction comes, but I love it!
A great character is able to shine when they’re at their best,andwhen they’re at their worst. For Phoenix, his worst was seven years before the start of the game. A case went horribly wrong for him and he was discredited from practicing law.
Now he spends his days as a piano player who’s terrible at playing the piano, with the real money coming from endless poker games that he always wins, in an establishment known as a former gangster hideout. He also has a daughter now, meaning this shady income has to feed two mouths.
An easy way to rewrite his personality would’ve been to make him nothing but bitter, a prickly type who won’t open up to you until the end of the game. You know the drill. Instead, Phoenix is seemingly cheery whenever you talk to him, laughing at his own bad jokes and willing to listen to whatever you bring to him. He’s still cynical, to the point that his main reaction to being hit by a car is to track the driver down and sue them for quick cash.
But mostly, he’s more focused and mature than when we last met him, free from the public panic attacks. He’s a sweetheart to his daughter Trucy, and constantly reassures Apollo that he has the raw talent to be a wonderful attorney. A natural evolution from a doe-eyed optimist to a pained realist, his morals and character haven’t changed as much as you would’ve thought.
10 Games To Play If You Love Ace Attorney
This series of wacky yet gripping court dramas has garnered quite the passionate fan base that’s hungry for more mysteries and murders.
Analyzed From A Single Sentence
But just how has Phoenix evolvedmentally?That’s maybe the best part, but I have to spoil the first case to explain it.
It turns out the real killer of the first case isn’t the accused Phoenix Wright, it’s actually Kristoph Gavin, the attorney Apollo works for! Gavin and Phoenix are old friends, to the point that Phoenix calls Kristoph after the murder, knowing he could sort him out with a good cheap lawyer. However, Kristoph makes a harmless comment about the murder victim being bald, and while Kristoph and the victimdidmeet that night, the victim had been wearing a hat the entire nightexcept for the moment he was murdered.
From just that slip of the tongue, Phoenix is able to figure out Kristoph is the killer, and immediately sets up a trap. Phoenix scans the room and realizes what piece of evidence Kristoph must have removed to hide his crime, perfectly fabricates a copy, and gets his daughter to hand in that fake evidence to an unsuspecting Apollo atjustthe right time.
And that feelssoAce Attorney. It’s seven-dimensional chess, underhanded and yet also justified. I’ve heard Phoenix goes back to his old characterization starting in Dual Destinies, which I’ve yet to play, so I hope at least some of his stunning intelligence is kept. I get hating on the beanie, but with this brain underneath it, I would have personally kept both.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
WHERE TO PLAY
10 Best Ace Attorney Trilogy Cases, Ranked
The Ace Attorney Trilogy offers a large collection of dramatic court cases to get lost in, and these are the best ones!
