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Should I get the Ace Attorney series on sale?


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The Ace Attorney games on 3DS are all on sale for 60-70% off for another week. This seems to be by far the cheapest opportunity to get into the series.

 
  • Ace Attorney Trilogy
  • Apollo Justice
  • Dual Destinies
  • Spirit of Justice
 
But are they all worth playing? And in what order?
 
I know they're inaccurate to actual legal proceedings, but I'm very interested in the logical processes (like in Layton puzzles). I know there's a supernatural element involved, and I'll lose interest if/as it becomes increasingly influential. I also wouldn't be interested in games which focus more heavily on crime scene investigation. These will be the entirety of my studying for the LSAT.
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... YES! I love the series to death! As a long time fan, I can say that at the price you would be getting them are totally worth it. They have mostly never forgettable casts and cases. Murder cases. 
 
But I recommend the trilogy first. Start off with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The next game in the series, Justice For All, is hit and miss, but it has perhaps the greatest case in the AA history. Trials and Tribulations is a great conclusion for the first arc. The trilogy as a whole don’t focus too much on investigation, as the investigation part takes at least a half hour to an hour to complete if you know what you’re doing, and they’re set in 2D planes because they were originally made for the GBA. (But, beware: the fifth case in the first game is notorious for heavy investigation. That’s because it was made for the DS.)
 
Apollo Justice... is kind of black sheep. It’s of the worst of the series, but some of the characters and “ lore” reappear in the next two games. And, investigation wise, it’s one of the most annoying. There’s some really good moments, but it’s one of the weakest. STILL, at the price it’s at right now, do what you want. 
 
Dual Destinies is a warm reunion to the series. It’s my third favorite, but don’t let that detract you from it. The investigations are 3D, so they’re a little bit longer, but not as tedious as Apollo Justice.  
 
Spirit of Justice... is hit and miss as well. Good and bad. Some of the cases feel rushed, and it’s strange in its investigation. 
 
As for the supernatural elephant in the room...  I’m going to give you some soft spoilers, as I won’t spoil the specifics of the whole games. 
 

 

In the first game, it does have some presence, but it doesn’t affect the game too much, like only two of the four/five cases. But, the element is mostly backstory, and that’s because one of the main characters is basically a medium teenager. (Don’t worry, she’s not too much of a “religious” zealot.)

 

Here's a goofy look of her!

 

 



 
Image result for maya fey faces



The second and third game basically give her “religion” some more backstory. There’s one case in each game that delves into it, while the rest talk about other interesting cases. It’s a thread, but it doesn’t impact all of the cases. There is a supernatural gameplay mechanic that appears in the second game and continues on, but it’s not truly intrusive and not really game breaking and is one means of finding the truth, as finding evidence and such is maybe more than important. (The judge doesn’t really accept the supernatural stuff anyways, even if he’s one of the quirkiest characters of the games.)  

Apollo Justice and Dual Destines throw most of the spiritual stuff out of the window. You might know why.  
 
Spirit of Justice... is 30-50% supernatural and 70-50% logical. The game takes place in two places, and one of them is in a spiritually devout country where... you might know where I’m going with this.  

But, the supernatural stuff isn’t only political. It’s much more tragic.

   

 

 

And if you like Professor Layton, even though it might not be on sale, there’s a certain crossover I recommend that features both series. It might be a watered down version of what each series is like, but it got me into Professor Layton by extension.  
 
If you want to ask me more stuff, feel free. Be wary, some questions might have some soft spoilers.  

 

The games are also riddled with jokes and some memes (mostly from the 2000s) and localization stuff. I won't tell you the most FAMOUS one of them all! 

Edited by Link, the Hero of Dreams
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Wow, that was great run down of the series. Got a real fan here

 

I was gonna mention the cast of characters, gameplay breakdown in court and investigations And finally the price, order of play and the Trilogy is a must to play fist.  Not so much the reception of each game and the supernatural elements. (even tho DH asked about that) For me personally the supernatural stuff did not deter me at all, I find it a refreshing addition to the games but to each their own.

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Yeah, there's a lot of characters that range from one note mediocre to really strange and wacky. Not everyone is going to be memorable, but the cast, even the ensemble, are not always the same. The gameplay for all of the games are simple, since the games gives you simple instructions of what to do (even though there are THOSE TIMES). Both investigation and trial. Once a tutorial or explanation is given, that's all. I think Apollo Justice to Spirit of Justice are more guilty of tutorials, but that's just because some mechanics of other games return later on, and the developers might have assumed that some players haven't played the games beforehand or forgot how they worked. 

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So Trilogy of course, and Dual Destinies. I played the demo for Spirit of Justice and actually really enjoyed it--the foreign trial still progressed the same, and the supernatural gimmick is basically just a glorified security camera. I liked it much better than Athena's emotion-vision, which felt like a Tell-Don't-Show cop-out  Maybe I'll flip a coin for Apollo--I'll already have 5 other Phoenix Wright games to play through!

 

The Layton crossover isn't on sale, so it wasn't on my list. Investigations (the DS game which has never been ported), I now realize, is the one for which I played a demo ages ago. That's the one that's more about point-and-click CSI, which didn't interest me as much.

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Ace Attorney is the kind of series where it feels ideal to play the games in release order since they tend play out chronologically (with a few exceptions, like the Layton crossover). I personally wouldn't encourage skipping Apollo Justice even if may not hold up, since I liked seeing the growth of the namesake character in Dual Destinies, but they did make Dual Destinies something of a reboot for the series, so it's not like it's mandatory.

 

For what it's worth, Capcom puts these games up for sale on the digital storefronts pretty often (except the Layton game, that's more on Nintendo and they never do), so you could just focus on Trilogy for starters and decide for yourself if the series is right for you, since it's pretty much the same from there. I can recommend the series if you're looking for thrilling adventure games with colorful characters, it's pretty great. My favorite one is Trials and Tribulations, and I played that when they had ported it on the Wii.

 

It's not for 3DS, but Capcom did release a port of the Investigations spin-off for Android/iOS devices a while back. I can't vouch for it, but that's the only way to play that game without getting the DS cart or emulating it. Dunno if they'll ever make it available on even more platforms, but that would be great if they ever did.

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24 minutes ago, Chrom said:

It's not for 3DS, but Capcom did release a port of the Investigations spin-off for Android/iOS devices a while back. I can't vouch for it, but that's the only way to play that game without getting the DS cart or emulating it. Dunno if they'll ever make it available on even more platforms, but that would be great if they ever did.

 
... Along with Gyakuten Kenji 2. Their old-school logic makes no more sense, since that game is praised a lot more than the first. True fans been waiting for nearly ten years. 

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4 hours ago, Chrom said:

Ace Attorney is the kind of series where it feels ideal to play the games in release order since they tend play out chronologically (with a few exceptions, like the Layton crossover). I personally wouldn't encourage skipping Apollo Justice even if may not hold up, since I liked seeing the growth of the namesake character in Dual Destinies, but they did make Dual Destinies something of a reboot for the series, so it's not like it's mandatory.

 

For what it's worth, Capcom puts these games up for sale on the digital storefronts pretty often (except the Layton game, that's more on Nintendo and they never do), so you could just focus on Trilogy for starters and decide for yourself if the series is right for you, since it's pretty much the same from there. I can recommend the series if you're looking for thrilling adventure games with colorful characters, it's pretty great. My favorite one is Trials and Tribulations, and I played that when they had ported it on the Wii.

 

It's not for 3DS, but Capcom did release a port of the Investigations spin-off for Android/iOS devices a while back. I can't vouch for it, but that's the only way to play that game without getting the DS cart or emulating it. Dunno if they'll ever make it available on even more platforms, but that would be great if they ever did.

I do see these on sale often, but I think this 3DS sale is more drastic than those. For example, Ace Attorney Trilogy's Switch sale is $20, but on 3DS it's $12 along with Spirit of Justice. For whatever reason Apollo is $10 and Dual Destinies is $9. Makes sense when the 3DS eShop is falling into obscurity.

 

But now Aviary Attorney enters the ring on the 30th! I've also been looking at some games people say are similar to Phoenix Wright: Ghost Trick, Hotel Dusk, and Jake Hunter. But those are detective games, while what draws me here is specifically the courtroom setting.

 

Anyway, I think I'm going for Apollo. Reviews say the main issue is that often multiple pieces of evidence are applicable but only one will be accepted, and you can figure out the mysteries early. But I still see a good and fair challenge in determining which evidence is most applicable, while leading others through the case-solving logic step-by-step.

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Despite the graphic novel genre being famously slow, I feel like I've just been thrown into the third dungeon of a Zelda game--with the seventh boss at the end. Immediately followed by the secret postgame DLC boss. It's the most urgent, dire, nerve-wracking video game I've played in a long, long time.

I'm only about three hours into the first game, yet already I can't imagine how the plot could possibly escalate further from here. Whelp, time to buy the rest of the series anyway!

 

(... Wow, Dual Destinies is the first M-rated game I've ever bought. Maya better drop some f-bombs to help me celebrate.)

Edited by Destiny Hero
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2 hours ago, Destiny Hero said:

(... Wow, Dual Destinies is the first M-rated game I've ever bought. Maya better drop some f-bombs to help me celebrate.)

Not sure if this is a spoiler but there's one anime cutscene where there's blood everywhere and that is why the game is rated Mature. If you look up the rated the description you see about the blood description.

 

I completely forgot the game is rated mature much less the only one in the series rated as that.

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21 minutes ago, DLurkster said:

Not sure if this is a spoiler but there's one anime cutscene where there's blood everywhere and that is why the game is rated Mature. If you look up the rated the description you see about the blood description.

 

I completely forgot the game is rated mature much less the only one in the series rated as that.

Yeah, I looked that up--there's a scene with lots of blood. Come to think of it, I've also never played a game with more blood than Ocarina of Time. I'm one wholesome little gumdrop.

 

Despite the memes, humor, and broad general appeal, this game has been upsettingly dark and bleak. But I guess that just means the writers have done a great job of getting me to despise the antagonists and want to destroy them with every fiber of my being, especially if doing so requires purchasing the next installment.

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56 minutes ago, Destiny Hero said:

Yeah, I looked that up--there's a scene with lots of blood. Come to think of it, I've also never played a game with more blood than Ocarina of Time. I'm one wholesome little gumdrop.

 

Despite the memes, humor, and broad general appeal, this game has been upsettingly dark and bleak. But I guess that just means the writers have done a great job of getting me to despise the antagonists and want to destroy them with every fiber of my being, especially if doing so requires purchasing the next installment.

The last 2 turnabouts really makes you believe the worse in ppl and that it actually exists in the world. (And for me I always see the good in ppl, no matter the circumstance) So yeah the upsettingly dark and bleak is definitely pretty apt there.

Edited by DLurkster
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I've awoken in the middle of the past three nights from Ace Attorney-induced stress dreams.

 

This time it was because I'm going into the last day of Case #3 with zero idea of how my client could be anything but completely guilty. But hey, as of 2 AM I think I've actually unraveled every beat of this entire incident.

 

edit: Actually, I'm ragequitting this game for a while. The linearity is killing me. I just got two Game Overs because there was some point where you have to press one specific statement, and then press another which seems to have nothing in common with it, in that order. No indication of what Phoenix might be pressing about, or where statements like "X was the victim" will go. Every time, I have one argument in mind, but choosing that option results in Phoenix making a totally different argument. There's a HUGE disconnect between the player's options and Phoenix's line of thought. I don't actually know what argument "I'm" about to make.

Edited by Destiny Hero
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Whoa, like the earlier games have some wtf that evidence works here. For the first time playing those sequences, it's best to do trial and error and in this case go with the options that you have present with how many warnings before its game over till you find the right answer.

 

Like I said it doesn't happen often but is annoying only the first time around.

 

Also take a break from one play session to another. I at least never heard anyone stressing out from these games.

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2 hours ago, DLurkster said:

Whoa, like the earlier games have some wtf that evidence works here. For the first time playing those sequences, it's best to do trial and error and in this case go with the options that you have present with how many warnings before its game over till you find the right answer.

 

Like I said it doesn't happen often but is annoying only the first time around.

 

Also take a break from one play session to another. I at least never heard anyone stressing out from these games.

I'm an "if you die in the game you die in real life" kind of player... I limit myself to one segment per day now.

 

I maintain that it's a terrible design choice to not actually tell the player what argument they're about to make. This game really shines at the points where the player DOES get a choice of which specific argument they want to make. Like when the judge says "What is this evidence supposed to prove?" and your options are "He's the killer" vs "He's actually the victim" vs "There was no killer".

 

I found a major discrepancy in the third trial, and I was convinced that Phoenix would at least ask about it at some point. Yet it never came up. 

Spoiler

Wendy Oldbag said Photo #1 on the security camera, which was deleted, had merely shown the kid, Cody. But an experienced security guard would NEVER delete ANY possible evidence of a MURDER, especially the murder of someone she held in such esteem. In addition, Cody said multiple times that he had sneaked around through the woods, raising the high probability that he never passed through the welcome gate. Thus it was VERY likely that Photo #1 was the killer moving from Studio 2 to the employee area to get the Steel Samurai suit, and later deleting that photo before Wendy ever saw it. (The info about the 15-minute break hadn't yet entered the court record.)

 

Another contradiction the game never let me press was Dee Vasquez claiming she ate the steak... in a way that makes sense (how the hell was I supposed to know about the steak and the bones thing!? I'm a goddamn vegetarian. I don't even know what a steak is.) What I WANTED to press about was the scene about everybody being shocked about Sal Manella eating that steak in just 15 minutes. That was already a stretch, but Vasquez had said she was feeling ill that day, which is why they drove the van instead of walking. Yet there's no way to press her about how she could've eaten the whole steak while supposedly feeling sick.

 

Edited by Destiny Hero
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