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Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney | 
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| From: Capcom USA
New (13) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $17.56
Format: Cd
Platform: Nintendo Ds
Genre: Action Games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0 x 0
MPN: 32012
UPC: 013388320127
EAN: 0013388320127
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Step into the shoes of a slick young lawyer in Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice - the fourth game in the thrilling courtroom series that puts your skills as a solicitor on trial. Featuring a cast of dynamic new characters and four fascinating cases for you to cut your teeth on, Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice brings all the drama of an action-packed crime thriller directly to your DS. The first game in the series crafted specifically for the DS, Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice puts you in charge of title character Apollo Justice at the outset of his legal career. Controlling the game almost exclusively by pointing and clicking on the DS Touch Screen, you must guide Apollo through an investigation phase before defending clients in the courtroom. During the investigation phase you gather evidence by interviewing witnesses and scouring crime scenes for clues. After you've built a case, you must stand before a judge and defend the innocence of your client by cross-examining witnesses and revealing your findings. Whichever case you are working on, you can expect to become immersed in the deep and entertaining storylines that have become a trademark of the Ace Attorney games. As well as introducing Apollo, the game marks the arrival of several more fascinating characters to the series. There's Apollo's assistant; the young magician Trucy, who's mysterious powers can help you to tell when a witness is giving false evidence. There are also brothers Klavier and Kristoph Gavin - one a rock star and ace prosecutor and the other a level-headed lawyer who is always on hand with helpful tips for Apollo. On top of that, you'll cross paths with the star of the previous Ace Attorney games, Phoenix Wright, in the most dramatic of circumstances. In some of the toughest cases in the Ace Attorney series yet, you'll have to unravel multi-layered mysteries, defend more seemingly indefensible causes and even persuade a jury of your client's innocenc
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 amazing game xD May 18, 2009
Amaya (in my imagination)
This is game full of drama and excitement. Eventhough we can no longer play as our favorite character, Phoenix Wright, but this new game still doesn't lack the excitement and the fun that was contained in the first 3 games. The cases, in my opinion, is a little harder than the first three games, and it requires a lot of investigation work, but it's all worth it in the end when you finish the cases. I was so disappointed when I finished the whole game, wanting some more of this fun.
 Great game, but loses it's steam after the second chapter. March 6, 2009
zOMGREI (NJ, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Pros:
-Graphics and sound truly are a step up for the series
-Gameplay retains the same PW charm
-Forensics add significantly to the fun factor of the game
-Chapter 2 is the gameplay pinnacle of the series to date
Cons:
-Story has continuity issues
-Still a very linear series
-Solutions can be obscure and frustrating at times
-Everything past Chapter 2 is disappointing by comparison
-Not much to do with the PW story arc aside from a few returning characters
-Very likely the last game in the Ace Attorney series
Short synopsis: Still caters to a niche crowd---won't expand the Ace Attorney fanbase beyond what it already is. Retains all the flaws of the PW games without adding much beyond the semi-new (for US gamers) forensics system. Better introduction to the series for new people compared to the original PW games, but not by much. Fun for current fans of the series, although story will disappoint.
Detailed review:
Having played all of the Phoenix Wright games, I was looking forward to this one. Ultimately, it was a mixed experience. The game starts out strong, with the traditional court-only tutorial sequence (and with a hefty spoiler right at the start for those that have played the previous entries---I can't go into detail here). Users that have played previous entries in the series or are already familiar with the mechanics through other means can skip the following bracketed section.
[A summary of the game mechanics for the uninitiated:
The core of the game is still the same as it was in the Phoenix Wright games. A crime is committed, you take the case, and begin your own investigation. The game is divided into two separate phases---the "Investigation" phase and the "Courtroom" phase. Traditionally, you will have two of each phases per case in an alternating pattern (i.e., I-C-I-C) although this is not guaranteed, sometimes you will have more than 2 court phases, or just one investigation phase and one court phase.
During the Investigation part of the game, you visit varied locales, interview witnesses and suspects, and collect evidence via the "Examine" command. This is the traditional Adventure genre part of the game, and is similar to older PC games like Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion. You spend most of the game in this phase. There is always a marked end to this phase which leads into the Court phase.
The Court part of the game is what is truly unique about this series. The Court phase is structured in a manner similar to an actual trial. A witness, suspect, or your client is called to the stand and testimony is given. After hearing testimony, you are able to cross-examine the person on the stand. Cross-examining consists of paging through their testimony, pressing them for more information, and presenting evidence to call out contradictions. The objective is to essentially discredit the testimony and/or reveal new information that leads the case in a new direction (which doesn't always work out in your favor---but this section is linear and you don't have a choice). These portions of the game are markedly shorter than the investigation phases, but the court proceedings further the story, whereas the investigation phases usually only provide information that you have to sort and decode once you get into the courtroom.
The obvious objective is to get a "Not Guilty" verdict, which will lead to a epilogue and the unlocking of the next chapter in the game.]
Review continues here:
Immediately it's obvious that this game, unlike the other Ace Attorney games, is not a GBA port. The character sprites have been revamped and look hand-drawn---they brought back memories of the old SF:Alpha games for the PS1. Additionally, the backgrounds were redone to take advantage of the DS's significantly larger color palette and no longer suffer from the serious dithering and lack of detail they used to. The music has also been updated to CD quality tracks that are also very reminiscent of CAPCOM's PS1 days (which is an excellent thing).
It's impressive that even after all of these revamps and updates, that the game still feels familiar and retains that classic Phoenix Wright charm. All of the updates seem like an organic evolution of the original, and players of the Phoenix Wright games will immediately recognize characters, locations, and even the music despite being drastically modernized.
After playing through the tutorial, the player is presented with an almost "open world" scenario with multiple objectives to be accomplished during the investigation phase. The investigation portion of the game has (thankfully) been updated to match the way the game played during the DS-exclusive case in the first Phoenix Wright game. Instead of solely relying on moving from location to location, talking through all of the subjects with every person possible, with the occasional "Examine" evidence collection; the game now utilizes a forensic element which makes the investigation part of the game significantly more fun.
Players of the first game will be familiar with this forensics concept. In addition to conducting interviews, you will now be responsible for tasks such as dusting for prints on evidence, spraying Luminol to check for blood, and creating plaster casts of footprints embedded in the ground at the crime scene. You will also be required to examine your evidence and interact with it in such a way that can either reveal the true function of the piece of evidence, or expose more evidence inside or on the original piece evidence itself.
A final thing worth mentioning before going into the problems this game has is the change to the court proceedings. Gone are the psych-locks from the investigation phases of the second and third Phoenix Wright games. Instead, a new feature was added to the court phase to make up for this. During certain parts of testimony while cross-examining someone, you'll have the option to slow time down and get a magnified view of the person you're cross-examining. During the slow replay of testimony, you examine the witness closely to check for a "tell" (for those who don't play Poker---you're looking for a nervous twitch or some other sign that indicates the person is lying), locating the tell allows you to press the person on the stand for more testimony.
With this said, the game is far from perfect.
Players of the original Phoenix Wright games will likely be disappointed that this game seems to take place on an alternate timeline that was created for the DS exclusive chapter in the first Phoenix Wright. There are only three returning characters (not counting The Judge), and a few (rather lame) references to other characters in the original timeline are thrown out there. The returning characters also feel almost out of place, which is likely due to the fact that the development team originally did not want a connection to the Phoenix Wright games aside from the "Ace Attorney" franchise name.
The game also really slows down after the second chapter. After being teased with a huge amount of freedom (for the series) in Chapter 2, the game quickly brings itself back into an extremely linear, contained world in the subsequent chapters. While it's not a game killer, it's disappointing because it almost feels as though the true potential scope of the game is realized, then quickly yanked away from you as though to tease you.
Additionally, the court sequences still feel too linear and "puzzle-like" with only one path to a "Not Guilty" verdict. This path can, at times, be extremely obscure as well, forcing multiple replays because of the "guess and check" method or requiring the help of a FAQ. There is only one "two choice" option at the very end of the game in the very last court session, and it feels like a token choice; since one option leads to a short "bad" ending. It seems that the developers weren't afraid to toy with the Investigation part of the game, but were horrified to change the Courtroom sequences (excluding the new special ability).
Finally, the story, even taken out of context of the rest of the series, is also somewhat disappointing. Most of the new characters don't have as much personality as those in the old series did, and a few of the characters are really just dopplegangers of past characters from a story and personality perspective. The ending, while touching, doesn't tie up a number of loose ends. This would be forgivable if not for the fact that the ending doesn't indicate that there will be a second Apollo Justice game.
 For fans only February 11, 2009
J. Shafer
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Apollo Justice is the 4th game in the ace attorney series and is the first to have a somewhat entirely new cast of characters. The gameplay is still the same as the previous 3: investigate crime scene, talk to people, gather evidence, and go to court. A new feature in this game is the Perceive ability which replaces the Psyche Lock from previous games and instead of presenting evidence to make people tell the truth, you look at people, study their actions and when they do something abnormal, you start to break them to cause them to talk. I acctually enjoyed it more than the Psyche Lock, mostly because that feature esstially made court time pointless because you would have figured out who did it by then.
The 3 things that ruin this game the most are:
1. The Characters
All of them werent unique and esstianlly replace previous characters and act in the same way they did. Apollo is like a rookie Pheonix Wight, only he never really develops and is never sure of himself. Pheonix was able to acctually solve things by himself whereas Apollo for the most part has to be lead through the case to come to a conclusion. Hes a smart kid but just doesnt apply himself very much. Trucy is like Maya, only she swtiches from being more annoying than her or more helpful. Klavier is a cross between von Karma and Edgeworth, he really only cares about the truth and acctually helps the defense for the most part, but at the same time, hes a german rockstar. Why you ask? Because the game says so. I could go on but you should get the point by now. Also on a side note, the supporting characters for the cases were beyond annoying. One case involves a whiney 19 year-old punk who acctually talks gangster ("Im totally straight up O.G. man!" for instance) while another case involves a "russian" who says "dah" every other word.
2. Flashbacks
Having a few flashbacks every now and then is fine, but having nearly every other dialoge sequence a flashback on something we learned just 5 minutes ago gets extremely annoying and is unacceptable. How many times do I have to see a guy be murdered? How many times do I have to watch the same music video?
3. The Cases themselves
The cases for the most part werent very interesting and the entire case itself will completely do a 180 every time you prove something wrong. One witness will completely change their location over 3 times which will make the entire case either more confusing or annoying. The murderers are so painfully obvious that they might as well be wearing a large neon sign saying "I did it!" and it becomes more apparent who it is by the time the second investigation starts.
While the game was for the most part fun, it was also annoying at most times for the 3 reasons listed above and at one point I had to put the game down and take a break because I couldnt stand the characters anymore. The game was extremely easy compared to the previous ones and I had to consult a guide maybe twice. If youre new to the series, go start with the first game, Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney, and decide if you like it or not. The previous 3 games are by far better than this one and I suggest checking them out because if this game wasnt part of a series, I wouldnt be able to reccomend it.
difficult, abstract maybe, but very fun February 6, 2009
guy incognito (OC, CA)
as the ace attorney series has continued, its become harder and harder for me to solve the cases without cheating, but regardless the storylines are always amusing and deliver very good gameplay and comedy.
this particular game shifts the focus to a new crew and attorney, which may alienate some, but let it go since the game is worth the play. just be warned, because you really have to think outside the box in solving these cases.
An extremely intriquing and delightfully humorous game January 8, 2009
Kevin D. Walsh
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First off, those who may be put off by average ratings of this game need to be told something: most of those reviews are by people who have played previous games in the series. Having particular expectations that were not met in the sequel is what ruined the game for them.
If this will be the first time you've played an Ace Attorney game, rest assured that this game will leave you feeling rewarded and definitely satisfied with your purchase.
Apollo Justice is an interactive novel. That means you'll be reading for probably over half of the time that you spend playing. Everything that you read will be a part of helping solve each case, so you're never without an incentive to read carefully and not just click through the dialogue. Not that you would want to, either; Apollo Justice is brimming with humorous anecdotes, jokes, and a few references that will go over a younger players head -- all of them treated in the same intellectually niche style that is exuded from the entire game.
Apollo Justice has its own set of court mechanics similar to real life but with a few twists. Witnesses make a testimony, the entirety of which can be reviewed by you (usually each testimony is only a paragraph or two long). You can then have the witness elaborate on each segment of testimony or try to refute their statements with evidence. Evidence can come from many sources, and using the correct item at the correct time can at times be one of the hardest intellectual parts of the game.
When you're not in court, you'll be at other locations picking up evidence or pieces of info that move the story along and just may be helpful when deciding the correct path once you're in court.
Along the way you'll meet many varied characters. For the most part, the characters in the story are interesting and quite relevant. All of them keep the game interesting while adding interesting elements to the story. The main characters especially are fully fleshed out and really shine in the later stages of the game.
Once you've played for a while, you'll fall in love with the soundtrack. It always sets the right mood and never seems to get boring.
All in all, this is a five-star game experience if you're playing the series for the first time. With so many things to do, the gameplay is never lacking. Using forensic tools, examining evidence, grilling witnesses, picking apart contradictory statements, and getting swept into the story are what the game is about. The entire game is polished with an intellectual humor that makes it at once sophisticated yet accessible. The last court case gets everything right in a smooth synchronization of all the gameplay elements that will leave you dazzled by the complexity of the entire game, and how beautifully connected everything was all along.
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