Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

This article is about the game. For the character, see Apollo Justice (character).

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Cover art, featuring the main characters. Left to right: Apollo, Klavier, Trucy, and Kristoph.
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Director(s)	Mitsuru Endo
Producer(s)	Minae Matsukawa
Artist(s)	Kazuya Nuri
Writer(s)	Shu Takumi
Composer(s)	Toshihiko Horiyama Hideki Okugawa Akemi Kimura Shu Takumi
Series	Ace Attorney
Platforms	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Adventure, visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Japanese: 逆転裁判4, lit. "Turnabout Trial 4"), is a visual novel adventure video game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is the fourth video game in the Ace Attorney series, and was originally released in Japan on April 12, 2007; it was later released in North America on February 19, 2008, in Europe on May 9, 2008, and in Australia on May 22, 2008.

The game takes place seven years after the previous game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. Phoenix Wright, the main character of previous titles in the series, has been stripped of his attorney's badge, and Apollo Justice, an up-and-coming attorney, becomes his apprentice, working with Phoenix's adopted daughter Trucy on four cases. The player's goal is to get their clients declared not guilty; to do this, they investigate the cases and cross-examine witnesses. When finding inconsistencies in witness testimonies, the player is able to present pieces of evidence that contradict the witnesses' statements. They can also use the "perceive" system, in which they are able to see nervous motions or actions during witness testimonies, similar to a tell in poker.

The game was developed by a team of 28 staff members, including producer Minae Matsukawa, director Mitsuru Endo, and character designer Kazuya Nuri. Series creator Shu Takumi, who wrote the game's scenario and took on a supervisory role for the production, had wanted the series to end with Trials and Tribulations, as he felt that Phoenix's character had been explored fully; when it was decided that the game would get made, he wanted it to have a new main character with a new story, and wanted Phoenix to not make an appearance. Despite this, it was decided that Phoenix would be the accused in the first case in the game. Apollo Justice sold around 250,000 copies during the first retail week and 515,417 by the end of 2007. It has aggregate review scores of 78/100 and 79% from Metacritic and GameRankings, respectively.

Gameplay

Apollo Justice introduces the new "perceive" system, in which players can look for nervous motions or actions during witness testimonies.

See also: Gameplay in the Ace Attorney series

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is, like the rest of the Ace Attorney series, a cross between the adventure game and visual novel genres. The player's goal is to defend their clients in four cases, and prove their innocence. The gameplay is separated into two types of situations: Investigations and trials.

During the investigation phase of each case, the player explores the game world by either using the stylus or the D-pad to select the actions they wish to engage in: Examine, Move, Talk, or Present. The player converses with non-player characters by selecting dialogue and can move around the game world by selecting the locations they wish to travel to. Information gained during Investigation Mode can be used during the Trial phase of the game and items picked up can be used as evidence. The player cannot progress without completing certain actions. Ema Skye, a character from the DS remake of the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game, often provides the player with opportunities to use DS features such as the microphone to perform actions such as dusting for fingerprints.

The trial portions consist of listening to and cross-examining witness testimonies. The player is given the option to either Press or Present evidence in response to statements made by witnesses. The player can either select their choice or yell into the microphone. By choosing Press, the player questions the witness's statement, which sometimes causes the witness to change their testimony. When finding inconsistencies in the testimony, the player may choose Present in order to show a piece of evidence that they think contradicts the testimony. The player has a health bar, representing the judge's patience. If the player presents incorrect pieces of evidence or choose incorrect answers to questions in court, health is lost. If the health bar reaches zero, the player loses the game and their client is declared guilty. A new system, known as the "Perceive System," can be used to look for motions or actions made by witnesses that show nervousness, similar to a tell in poker. The move comes with the catchphrase, "Gotcha!" ("There!" (そこだ!, Soko da!) in Japanese). The game also includes a "Crime Recreation Mode" that models evidence or the crime scene in a 3-D rendition and allow the player to explore the recreation to look for clues. Additionally, the game often recreates the crime in cutscene sequences, allowing the player to observe the action and find contradictions.

Plot

See also: List of Ace Attorney characters

Setting

Apollo Justice takes place seven years after the previous game in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. The game consists of several cases and trials, called Turnabouts. In four separate Turnabouts, the main character, Apollo Justice, must defend his clients against the charge of murder. After the first Turnabout, Apollo works for retired attorney Phoenix Wright, who lost his attorney's badge due to unknowingly falsifying evidence and now runs the "Wright Talent Agency" to support his adopted daughter, Trucy Wright, a magician from the disbanded Troupe Gramarye and who helps Apollo out during investigations and in court.

Story

In the first case, Turnabout Trump (逆転の切札, Gyakuten no Kirifuda), Phoenix, now a pianist, is accused of murder. Apollo, under the tutelage of Phoenix's friend, Kristoph Gavin, is called to defend Phoenix and find the true murderer. Unbeknownst to Apollo, he uses falsified evidence to find the real murderer, Kristoph, and proves Phoenix's innocence. The second case, Turnabout Corner (逆転連鎖の街角, Gyakuten Rensa no Machikado, lit. "Turnabout Connected Corners"), begins with Apollo joining Phoenix's combined law office and talent agency, the Wright Anything Agency. He and Trucy investigate three separate but simultaneous incidents: a hit-and-run, a panty-theft, and a missing noodle stand. Seemingly unrelated at first, it is proven that the cases are all connected to a murder that occurred on the same night; Wocky Kitaki, the son of the local Kitaki family gang, is accused of the crime. Apollo defends him, and faces off against Kristoph's brother, prosecutor Klavier Gavin, in court; Apollo connects the cases to convict the true murderer, Wocky's fiancée, Alita Tiala.

In Turnabout Serenade (逆転のセレナード, Gyakuten no Serenādo), the third case, Klavier invites Apollo and Trucy to a concert for his band, the Gavinners. A murder occurs during the show, and Apollo and Trucy receive the task of defending the main suspect, pianist Machi Tobaye, one of the concert's guest stars. Apollo proves Tobaye's innocence by unraveling a complicated plot to smuggle cocoons and uncovers the real murderer, detective Daryan Crescend.

In the fourth and final case, Turnabout Succession (逆転を継ぐ者, Gyakuten o Tsugu Mono, lit. "Successor to Turnabout"), Apollo defends Vera Misham, who has been accused of poisoning her father, Drew. As the finale of Apollo Justice, Turnabout Succession reveals the mysteries surrounding Phoenix's last case as an attorney, as well as the history of Troupe Gramarye and how Trucy came to be his adopted daughter. This is the sole session of the game where the player can interact as Phoenix. In the end, it is discovered that Kristoph Gavin was responsible for the deaths of Drew Misham and Zak Gramarye, the attempted murder of Vera Misham, and the fake evidence that forced Phoenix to retire. At this point, the player can determine Vera Misham's verdict through the Jurist System. Choosing "Not Guilty" results to Vera being declared not guilty, while Phoenix considers trying to regain his position as an attorney. Choosing "Guilty" leads to an alternate ending in which the court agrees on a "hung jury," leaving the actual verdict to be decided the next day. Vera's condition worsens and she dies of poisoning before her verdict is decided.

Development

Series creator Shu Takumi wanted the series to end with the previous game.

Apollo Justice was developed by a team of 28 staff members. It was produced by Minae Matsukawa and directed by Mitsuru Endo, with character design and art by Kazuya Nuri, while series creator Shu Takumi wrote the game's scenario and took on a supervisory role. Takumi had wanted the series to end with the previous game, as he felt its main character, Phoenix Wright, had been fully explored and that his story had been told; he said that it is important to know when to end a story, that he did not want the series to become a shadow of its former self, and that he did not see any reason to continue it. When it was still decided that a fourth game would be made, Takumi wanted it to have a new main character and a new story; he did not plan to have Phoenix appear in the game, but his colleagues wanted him in the game in some form, which led to him being the accused in the first case in the game.

Early in development, it was proposed that the game would use 3D graphics, as a way to make a big impact worthy of the start of a new Ace Attorney series; eventually they settled for a 2D style, with a few 3D elements. Apollo Justice was the first game in the series to feature videos created using motion-capture data. A male staff member of the Research & Development team was chosen to be the motion-capture actor for a female character; the producer described him as being "a natural" at it. Voice acting was also provided by Capcom staff members. During development, staff members visited real courts to watch and study the trials. Most of the game's music was composed by Toshihiko Horiyama, with Hideki Okugawa composing three songs and Akemi Kimura and Shu Takumi composing two songs each. A soundtrack album, Gyakuten Saiban 4 Original Soundtrack, was released on June 27, 2007. A concert, based on the music from Ace Attorney and entitled Gyakuten Meets Orchestra, took place in Tokyo in April 2008. A CD of the concert was published on July 16, 2008.

Alexander O. Smith, who worked as a writer on the localization of the first Ace Attorney game, also worked on the localization of Apollo Justice. Localization of the game was already in progress by August 2007. The name "Apollo Justice" was decided in collaboration between the Japanese and American divisions of Capcom; it took them twenty-two meetings to decide on it. The name refers to how Apollo fights for justice. During the localization, there was some debate about the use of the word "panties" to describe Trucy's magical bloomers, a prop she uses in her magic shows; some on the localization team felt that it was inappropriate to joke about an underage girl's panties, and wanted them to be localized as "magic pants", while some felt that the joke would be lost if the player already knew that they were massive bloomers. Janet Hsu, one of the staff members working on the localization, made an argument for "emotional accuracy", saying that the Japanese version of the game was trying to make the player feel at unease over looking for what they might imagine to be "sexy lingerie", and then let the player feel relief at finding out it's a prop for a magic show. In the end, they were referred to as "panties".

Release

The game was announced in 2005, and was originally planned to be released in 2006 in Japan. A demo version of the game was first made available at Tokyo Game Show in 2006, and an English trailer was presented at the following year's Tokyo Game Show. The game was eventually released in Japan on April 12, 2007, with North American, European, and Australian releases following on February 19, 2008, May 9, 2008, and May 22, 2008, respectively. In Japan, a limited edition of the game was made available. It includes branded headphones, an Ace Attorney dictionary on a DS card, and a series highlights DVD. A keychain of Apollo was included as a preorder gift from GameStop and the online Capcom store.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 78.39% (based on 46 reviews) Metacritic 78/100 (based on 48 reviews) Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com A- Eurogamer 8/10 Famitsu 36/40 GamePro 7.5/10 GameSpot 7/10 GameSpy IGN 8.3/10 ONM 82%

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has received generally positive reception, holding an aggregate score of 78/100 and 78.39% from Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. It received four nines out of ten, totaled to thirty-six out of forty, from video game magazine Famitsu. However, 1UP.com commented that, "the Phoenix Wright games are by far the best-written titles you'll find on the DS, and Justice is no different." 1UP.com also commented that the added features made especially for the DS were "super engaging even though the actual actions aren't that difficult to do." On 21 November 2013, RPGFan placed the game 5th on their top 20 Nintendo DS games list.

IGN largely agreed with 1UP but commented that "the first Apollo Justice title plays identically to the Phoenix Wright trilogy". IGN Australia noted out that complaints about the previous games, such as that "finding the right path through the game feels like a process of trial and error" and that players could beat the game by "routinely pressing at every available opportunity and then using a minimum of logic," were not fixed in Apollo Justice. " Additionally, "the game's rather obtuse, long-way-around approach to problem solving" caused what IGN viewed to be unnecessary delays to the game. IGN also felt that new features were "a little gimmicky" but did not "detract from the experience in the slightest." However, IGN Australia thought the game was "great" overall. The game was nominated for "Best Story" in IGN's 2008 Video Game Awards, though it did not win.

These views were echoed by many reviews. GameSpot felt that the story, while strong, "moves along at a snail's pace" and that "many of the series' flaws are still present." A "lack of innovation and change" was the main sticking point for GamePro, who thought of Apollo Justice as "a solid distillation of the franchise formula." The Nintendo World Report felt that the game "builds upon the Phoenix Wright trilogy" even though "[g]ameplay remains mostly unchanged." GameSpy pointed out that the game's use of the DS's touch features, "vastly improves the experience" though the crime scene reenactment is "all too brief."

Apollo Justice sold around 250,000 copies during the first retail week, and had more than 500,000 copies shipped by the end of its second week in Japan. By the end of 2007, it had sold 515,417 units. While not as successful in terms of sales in North America, the game still placed fifth in games sold for the Nintendo DS during its release week.

External links

• Template:Official websites in
• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney at The Visual Novel Database