""Here comes Justice!""

Two floors under the ground. In a secluded room, there are three people. Two are playing an intense game of poker. One side loses, and a bottle flung onto somebody's head. Screams. As per usual, in comes Phoenix Wright: But he is now in a different position.

Phoenix Wright, legendary Ace Attorney, takes the stand as a defendant.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban 4) is a sequel of the Ace Attorney series, being the 4th in the series. The previous ace attorney, the legendary Phoenix Wright, is no more an attorney, let alone an ace attorney, in this game, due to (SPOILERS). Justice finally meets the courthouse, the courthouse finally meets Justice. Enter Apollo Justice and his trusty companion Trucy Wright: It's time for Justice! Phoenix's legacy ended, and his attorney badge was passed on to no other than the main character who is named after a god: Apollo Justice! There was a 7 year gap between Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney which will be filled in due time. In this time span, Phoenix Wright ultimately loses his attorney badge, where Apollo Justice picks it up and takes his place as an Ace Attorney.

Objection!

We have a new game, a new era, a new hero and loads of new characters. Sadly, Maya and Pearl Fey are both out of this game and never mentioned of (I guess since it's already 7 years... whatever.). This leaves a lot of characters out as well: Franziska von Karma, Miles Edgeworth, Godot, Mia Fey, Dick Gumshoe (Yes, as persistent as a gum stuck on your shoe, he still got ridden off finally... =.=) and lots more. But their roles are filled in by new characters, and some old ones to boot: Detective Ema Skye (Rings a bell?), Prosecutor Klavier Gavin, Defense Attorney Kristoph Gavin, Trucy Wright and a new Phoenix Wright (He's now hobo. Uh-huh.). In this game, you play as the person who is named after a god: Apollo Justice. He's a freshman, and his first trial... Let's say it's a tad bit difficult for him. He has a gifted eyesight and an ability to sense people's nervousness and perceive their nervous habits. Say BYE-BYE Psyche-Locks, say HELLO Perceive. The ability to 'perceive' at a given time, when the witness tenses as he/she testifies. Apollo, being one of the (SPOILERS) bloodline, is able to see their nervous habit and perceive it, using it as a weakness against the witness. You are required to focus his eye on certain parts of the witness' body while he/she talks about the testimony slowly. The witness' nervous habit will show when he/she reads about certain parts of the testimony, and you have to perceive it at the correct moment at the correct place. This also opens up a new yell in the game.

Gotcha!

In terms of sound, it is just normal; The testimony music somewhat fits, the theme music is nice, that's all I have to say about music, really. Graphic is a huge concern. I can see it has greatly improved since PW: AA T&T. The intro videos are nicely done, the sprites are okay, the evidence are nice. Talking about evidence makes me think something, actually. In this game, you can check every single evidence in every angle possible using the zoom in/out gauge and dials to rotate the item. You can check a blood spot on an Ace, a hidden card in a bottle, a mismatched card in which one is blue while others are red, etc. etc. It is great though sometimes you can get some puns by examining absolutely unrelated objects, which has no real contradictions, like a button on a remote, etc. Likewise, this is a nice feature to have, albeit a good one. In the game, sometimes puns will come out unexpectedly when you do the unexpected: Examine the plant in the defendant's lobby late in the game as Phoenix Wright, and you get the message "This plant has seen me grow from a rookie to an ace... To a has-been. I hate you, plant."

Hold it!

The character speeches are well-made too. A German-addicted prosecutor chips in some German accents like "Achtung!" and "Ja", a wacky punk talking in Gangstanese, which is in essence, gangster talk, a nasty and annoying overactive reporter phrasing everything he says as possible headlines in the press, a Russian waitress in a bowl club that speaks somewhat broken English and says "Dah" and "Nyet", even a make-believe language that consists of symbols and some matchstickmen throwing Hadokens from your very own witness. All characters have their own style. Now Hobo-Phoenix speaks like a father (Yes.). Anyway, Apollo Justice is still not the type to take over Phoenix Wright. He has not suffered any of the abusing Phoenix went through, what with Franziska's constant whipping, Godot's coffee throw, Manfred's stun-gunning, Pearl's slapping his face and his falling down a bridge to a river with super-high currents and survived with a nasty high fever making his body temperature skyrocket to the 100s. Meanwhile, all Apollo got is Trucy's constant meddling (What with her forcing Apollo into an X-ray machine thingy and spraying some sort of spray that can detect poison over his face.) and Klavier's (Yes, he is that German-addicted prosecutor) constant teasing of Apollo's broad forehead (or an explanation made by Apollo that the murderer shot the victim's forehead) by calling him "Herr Forehead". Seriously, everybody wants to see Apollo get abused more.

"Take that!"

The length of this game is not that great. The final case, to say the least, is fairly short and disappointing. There are only 4 cases in this game but nevertheless, this is just the first Apollo Justice game. That said, all Ace Attorney games have NO replay value at all, so this point is better be forgotten and dumped into the recycle bin. Likewise, you can try playing the game again and catch up on some things you missed or challenging yourself to a timed challenge OR trying to complete the game without FAQs. Apart from that, there's nothing else to do after you've played this game to the end, but you can play it again and examine things and sometimes unearth some good puns and jokes. Once you're done, chuck this game away and send a blackmail letter to Capcom telling them to finish up with the next Ace Attorney game. Oh, and there's also a somewhat new feature: the culprit's breakdown point, which are sometimes witty. A screwed murderer being able to create earthquakes simply by bringing up his fist, a murderer screaming and makes infinite feathers fly around, an accused using his pointed gangster-style hair to shoot around like a missile, and the very same murderer from an earlier case going Super Saiyan.

Buy? Rent? Avoid? Chuck it away? Forget about it?

BUY. Justice is here to bring justice to the court. You wouldn't want to miss the making of a new era --- and a new hero. If you are a die-hard Ace Attorney fan, I'll spell it out for you: B. U. Y. If you are a first-timer, buy and play, and you will be craving for the rest of the series (At least, I did). If you are skeptical, you may rent, but nothing else. No comment to those who can't understand how great this game is, haha. If you don't like Apollo Justice, fine, avoid this game. If you are one person who doesn't like confusing riddles, chuck this game away then. If you're one person who doesn't possess good brains, keen eyes and rock-hard persistence and most importantly, lacks patience, forget about it.

I am actually willing to give this game a whopping 11.5/10... yes, but the possibility of me having an opportunity to give this game that score is almost as likely as Phoenix becoming known as Beethoven.
Now, let me have one final word:

"Objection!"

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/08

Game Release: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (US, 02/19/08)