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I feel like I'm the odd one out when I say I liked Dual Destinies. Granted there were a few things wrong with it but I feel like I took away more things that I liked than I disliked.
Still have to give it all to Trials and Tribulations though. Definitely one of the more intriguing games in the series, it's the first time the game seems to have a story that flows from case to case and actually goes more deep into some of the issues and strife within the Fey clan that popped up in Justice for All.
Yeah, the third case is pretty awful, but the second one is not so bad in my opinion. First one is just a tutorial - a bit daft, but most tutorials are.
AJ case 2 is by far my least favourite in that game, and in fact the entire series - goddamn Wocky kills it for me - but I have a lot of problems with every case in it, and the game in general (the soundtrack is hell. I'd rather PW1's primitive GBA soundtrack than AJ's). The touch-screen forensics games were the best thing about that game, though.
I'm just going to copy/paste a short review I did of AJ on the other site here (note that this was a few months ago. Since then I've replayed most of the original trilogy and DD, and my opinion of AJ has fallen further):
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
+ The writing, while it doesn't stand up to the originals, still has its moments. It's still better writing than I've come to expect from most video games.
+ There are a couple of good characters - the Gavin brothers are the two strongest characters in the game, in my opinion. The witnesses aren't as interesting as in the original games, but there are a handful of standouts.
+ The forensic examination sections are quite fun, and make a nice diversion from the simple "point out the contradiction" gameplay the few times they come up.
~ The interaction between Apollo and Trucy feels like a weaker facsimile of that between Phoenix and Maya. This isn't a bad thing as such, since I like Phoenix and Maya, but more could have been done to make the two pairs of characters more distinct from each other, rather than just magic vs. spirit channelling.
~ The general plot regarding Phoenix's disbarment works - but it completely consumes any chance Apollo might have had of having his own story, distinct from Phoenix's, develop.
~ I like the idea of perception, but I just feel like it should be more strict about penalising trying to perceive the wrong statement/body part. As it is, you can perceive whatever you want, whenever you want, with no risk. It's fairer than penalising getting a Psyche-Lock question wrong (since that affects you in court as well as out), but still imbalanced.
- Phoenix. His personality just feels wrong. "But he's been disbarred for 7 years" - no. You don't just become aloof and head-in-the-clouds like that for no reason, and it isn't adequately explained why he is the way he is.
- The soundtrack is the weakest overall in the series. It has a few standout tracks, like Apollo and Klavier's themes, but otherwise it's quite poor. I can't even begin to describe how much I dislike the cross-examination themes.
- The real culprits in the second and third cases are immediately predictable as soon as they're introduced, to the point that you're basically figuring out how to confirm your suspicions, instead of finding who did it. Even the first case - the real killer may seem like a big plot twist at first, but when you think about it, it's pretty obvious.
- The defendant of the second case is unlikeable; at no point did I actually feel like I wanted to save him, which in a game about saving people from false accusations is a pretty glaring weakness.
- Phoenix doesn't feel like Phoenix, in the one part of the game in which he's supposed to be "classic" Phoenix (the "7 Years Ago" trial). He's always had his moments of ****iness here and there, but he comes across as downright arrogant here: "there's no substitute for experience" or however he puts it. I can picture Winston Payne saying that, but not Phoenix.
- Maya's total absence in the past sections, which is a plot hole - she doesn't even get mentioned, despite the ending of AA3 stating that she wasn't going anywhere, and I doubt she was going to miss a trial as significant as Zak Gramarye's, or abandon Phoenix in his hour of need.
The main problem, in my opinion, is that the game in general just feels like "Shu Takumi's Contractual Obligation Game", whereas with the original trilogy, it really felt like he was doing them because he wanted to, and not just because of the money/his higher-ups told him to; in particular, the simple fact that Phoenix appears in the game at all. I honestly think the game would have been all the better without him, since it would have given the space needed for Apollo to have his own story, and to have some character development of his own.
6.9/10 because, as much as I struggled to think up positive points, the game still had something that kept me from outright disliking it - I can't quite put my finger on it, but the overall experience feels more positive than negative - just. I mean, something is clearly wrong when your personal highlights of the entire game are two pieces of background furniture in the second case (which is otherwise my least favourite case in the entire series), but I still can't say I actually dislike the game.
Am I like the only one who really loves AJ's OST the most in the series? Not my favorite game ever, but I can sit on YouTube and listen to the OST for years. Also, I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney series as well, just got into the series earlier this year and have now played every game except the Layton crossover and MEI2.
The general style of some of the more prominent tracks is what I don't like - sort of dance-ish? which is one of my least favourite music genres. I also found the Guitar's Serenade pretty weak, for something you have to listen to about 30 times - it started grating on me pretty quickly.
I just went through the soundtrack, and while there's a few more decent tracks in there that I'd forgotten about, I still don't rate it that highly.
also, I dunno why, but Trucy's theme depresses me more than anything, despite how upbeat and cheery it's supposed to be :P Probably because it plays in Phoenix's office, which was where it finally struck home (for me) just how far he'd fallen.
The general style of some of the more prominent tracks is what I don't like - sort of dance-ish? which is one of my least favourite music genres. I also found the Guitar's Serenade pretty weak, for something you have to listen to about 30 times - it started grating on me pretty quickly.
I just went through the soundtrack, and while there's a few more decent tracks in there that I'd forgotten about, I still don't rate it that highly.
also, I dunno why, but Trucy's theme depresses me more than anything, despite how upbeat and cheery it's supposed to be :p Probably because it plays in Phoenix's office, which was where it finally struck home (for me) just how far he'd fallen.
I dunno, but it's tracks like these I can't really get tired of, I probably just have a different music taste honestly, though I'll admit I'm not a fan of the Pursuit theme:
Splendid, an Ace Attorney social thread. Now I can share my love for a series I've played countless times.
And then ruin any credence I had by saying my favorite games are Justice For All, Investigations 2, and probably Professor Layton v. Ace Attorney. I love all AA games, and honestly Apollo Justice would've been on this list over PLvAA if it wasn't for how... short Apollo's involvement was. That length of story was okay for the first game, but here it made Apollo seem like an unimportant character until Case 4, and even then that wasn't all him.
Since it'd be cheating to say Cornered 2001 (2004 Mix) is my favorite song, I'd say my second favorite, honestly, is either the lobby theme from Apollo Justice, or "Mass Inquisition" from PLvAA. ...Or Synaptic Resonance from AA5. Or the original Suspense theme. O-Or the Reveal The Truth theme from the first Investigations... ah, too many good songs. @/@;
I know all of these songs without even needing to click the links <3
Thanks for reminding me of my true favorite song.
All the other songs I love just happen to capture the moment just right. Everytime this played, even during mid-sections of investigations, I felt like I really worked something out. In general AAI2 felt like I really was unraveling a pretty tangled mystery from start to finish, as opposed to the usual "individual cases that all end up having meaning during Case 4/5". That ending could've been better tho'.
I feel like I'm the odd one out when I say I liked Dual Destinies. Granted there were a few things wrong with it but I feel like I took away more things that I liked than I disliked.
Still have to give it all to Trials and Tribulations though. Definitely one of the more intriguing games in the series, it's the first time the game seems to have a story that flows from case to case and actually goes more deep into some of the issues and strife within the Fey clan that popped up in Justice for All.
Dual Destinies was a decent game. Not the best in terms of plot and writing, but probably the most polished so far in terms of gameplay (though there were a few changes I didn't like, such as not being able to examine everything). The soundtrack was amazing, too. Hopefully the next game improves on the writing flaws, like how GK2 improved on those of AAI (assuming it's the same writer again; if Takumi comes back I'll probably have even higher expectations of it :P).
Big fan of the Ace Attorney series here. After a long hiatus, I finally buckled down and finished Apollo Justice in April, bought Dual Destinies, and finished it two weeks ago. Love the series, although I've gotta go back and play through Rise from the Ashes.
Only games left to tackle are Miles Edgeworth Investigations (and its sequel, of course) and PLvsAA. Any suggestions on which to tackle first?
I'd say Investigations > GK2 > PLvsPW, since the Edgeworth games have some connections and nods to the main series that you might appreciate more while they're still fresh in your memory, while the crossover doesn't have as much (except for the post-game bonus chapters).
