Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

Concluding the second trilogy of mainline Ace Attorney games, Spirit of Justice is exactly what I expected Dual Destinies to be and more. The story focuses heavily on Apollo and Phoenix's intertwining stories, brings focus back on the plot set up in Apollo's first game, and builds upon the gameplay established in the previous titles. While Trials and Tribulations is still my favorite game in the series, Spirit of Justice absolutely gave it a run for its money and is easily the best in the sequel trilogy.

Splitting time between Phoenix visiting Maya in the spirit medium kingdom of Khura'in and Apollo holding down the fort at the Wright Anything Agency, the story starts out a bit disjointed. Even the court cases are handled differently between the two settings, with Khura'inese trials introducing the ability to see a murder victim's last moments through their eyes. This discrepancy isn't bad though. In fact, I think it helped keep the game engaging because every new case felt fresh and different. Striking a masterful balance, the final chapter combines the two structures for a roller coaster of an ending.

Containing two separate court cases, the concluding chapter starts in America, but ends in Khura'in, taking advantage of both court styles. Thanks to its impressive length, it was also able to fit in a great number of surprises and revelations. I thought I had the twists figured out long before they were revealed, and I was right about a few of them, but there were enough to catch me off-guard and make for a thrilling conclusion to an already excellent game. Story aside, even the gameplay got me excited this time around.

Dual Destinies significantly pared down your options when investigating for the sake of convenience and clarity, which worked, but often made it feel like you were watching the game instead of actually playing it. Spirit of Justice reintroduced those lost options, like the ability to investigate any location whenever you want, but it still managed to avoid feeling as obtuse as the older games could. Somehow, it was able to nudge me in the right direction without ever feeling like it was holding my hand. That's especially good because of how much content there is packed into this title.

Even after the main story concludes, there are DLC episodes to keep you invested just a little longer. The full episode that made its way to the HD trilogy release is a nostalgia-fest, bringing back characters from the original trilogy and returning Edgeworth to the prosecutor's bench. I enjoyed the extra episode in Dual Destinies, but this was a real treat, and it felt right at home with the last game in the mainline series. The other two episodes are brief non-canon joke stories with the subtitle "Asinine Attorney", and they were left out of the HD re-release. Before I had actually played them, I was baffled by this decision. After booting up the original 3DS release just to try them out, I understand a little better. While I'm glad to have the entire Spirit of Justice experience under my belt, I don't think I'd recommend anyone seek out the Asinine Attorney episodes unless they are truly committed to completing the full Ace Attorney library.

Despite the imperfection of the complete package, Spirit of Justice is an excellent Ace Attorney game. All the complaints I had about Dual Destinies were corrected, the story competes fiercely to be one of the best in the series, and the main DLC episode is a welcome blast to the past. While we haven't seen a new game in the franchise in seven years, the HD re-releases and new localizations that Capcom has been pushing out give me hope that they're gearing up for a new title. While Spirit of Justice had a perfectly satisfying conclusion, the implications left by the ending could set up a new trilogy and I'm waiting on the edge of my seat to find out if that might happen. For a game this long to still leave me wanting more, it must be doing something right!
The game is available for Steam here (as of 11/1/24): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2187220/Apollo_Justice_Ace_Attorney_Trilogy/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 11/1/24): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/apollo-justice-ace-attorney-trilogy-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 11/1/24): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/apollo-justice-ace-attorney-trilogy/9p5l65vntwcv
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 11/1/24): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10006390
The game is available for Android here (as of 11/1/24): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.capcom.gyakusai6en&hl=en_US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 11/1/24): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ace-attorney-spirit-of-justice/id1248661960

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