Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy brings three more strong Ace Attorney games to current consoles, making nearly all of the titles available in one place. It’s an excellent collection that brings plenty of additional content to the table and allows for the best possible experience one can have while playing through each of these gems.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Developer: Capcom
Price: $50
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review
I’ve been waiting for the latter three Ace Attorney games to come to consoles for a good while. I’ve had friends come to the series later than others who, as of a while ago, couldn’t play the latter titles on a console after the 3DS eShop closed. Given how great the games included in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy are, this was a bummer to me – plus, I’ve been meaning to revisit the games again, and the 3DS screen feels so small these days. At last, the trio has arrived on consoles, and they’re all as grand as ever.
This trilogy contains Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. These three games primarily follow Phoenix and Apollo but feature a wide range of memorable characters within the twist-filled narratives. The stories are as consistently intriguing and exciting as they were on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, and the inclusion of the majority of the DLC episodes and costumes make it the definitive gathering of these games.
Being able to select specific episodes and chapters right from the start is a wonderful way of making the trilogy perfect for new fans and those who have already played it. Worth noting for fans of trophies/achievements is that the Accolades section even lays out how to get specific trophies in each game, making for a more straightforward hunt.
Playing these three games so quickly in a row is a bit more of a jolt than before, as Phoenix is a somewhat different and more reserved character in Apollo Justice – something I’ve always found quite interesting – before once again becoming his goofy self in Dual Destinies. That being said, this doesn’t especially harm the following two games as he’s still as charming as ever. Also, despite the title, newcomers should know that Apollo isn’t really the main character beyond the first game of the collection. He’s still present, though, so I guess it passes on a technicality.
The visuals and music are wonderfully crisp in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, particularly for games that were on the last two generations of Nintendo handhelds. Apollo Justice has the illustrated style of the remastered Ace Attorney games, which certainly makes it scale to TVs better, though my nostalgia for the pixel style is strong. The 3D models of the other two games look great and on par with the Great Ace Attorney collection from 2021.
A major highlight of the collection is the Museum, which is filled to the brim with goodies. You can listen to the top-notch tracks from throughout the three games, watch cutscenes and videos, and look at concept art at your leisure. One great touch is the studio, which lets you use character art and models to make your own little scenes. If you want a character from any of the games to perform any of their animations or voice lines with different backdrops, there’s a wide range of options available to you. I’m certain this will be used in goofy shitposts by the Ace Attorney fanbase for a good while to come, but it’s also just fun to mess around with between games.
The Final Word
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a pleasantly loaded collection of the latter three mainline Ace Attorney games that newcomers and fans both should turn to for the best version of these games. The group of games is filled with twists and turns that look excellent and come with dandy extras. Now, if we can just get both Ace Attorney Investigations games in a collection …
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
