I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! With the kids out of school, I accidentally took an entire week off from doing pretty much everything. But I did play a ton of the Phoenix Wright games I have in my possession. I finished Apollo Justice and then moved right on to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. Because I was so determined to get it all done before Santa arrived, I finished DD rather quickly. It helped that this is, by far, the easiest of all the PW games. It also helped that the stories weren’t as deep as usual.
Overall, I give DD an “Okay.” It’s the weakest of the series, and coming off both Trials and Tribulations and then Apollo Justice really hurt it. T&T is by far my favorite with AJ at a close second. DD tried too much to be a repeat of AJ. A new attorney is brought in. They’re all struggling to solve a case in the present that is tied to a case from seven years ago. I really wish they picked a different number than seven, just to change it up a teensy bit. I also wasn’t a fan of the court cases revolving around the bonds of friendship, which then of course reflected back to Wright’s own law firm. Let My Little Pony tell the friendship stories, mmmkay? They’re pros at it and it’s not as hamfisted as this was. Remember how the first three games wove together the friendship between Phoenix and Miles? And that was subtle? That’s how to do it.
Other big complaints include lack of Miles Edgeworth, even though he did sneak in at the end. I wanted to yell at him and ask where he was and what he was doing those seven years Phoenix was disbarred. So he helped move along Wright’s bar exam; I guess that’s something. His noticeable absence in AJ, when Wright was completely down on his luck, bothered me to no end. Yes, it’s cool to see other prosecutors behind the bench, and I did like Gavin and Blackquill. I just wanted to see more Edgeworth in the background with Wright in some way.
Last complaint is the lack of Gumshoe. They dropped him like a bad habit after the original trilogy, and I don’t know why. He’s so lovable in his own way, and it’s adorable how he follows after Edgeworth like a lost puppy. There was a big reason why Gumshoe wasn’t present in DD, but I missed him in AJ as well. I honestly can’t remember if he was in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. I’ve been very very tempted to replay that one, especially since SoJ brings in even more of a twisted tale to Apollo’s background. I need to draw up a family tree to try to understand the ties to it. Or maybe I should just smile and nod and let it go.
After all, I do have so many other massive RPGs to play, including Pokemon Moon that arrived from Santa.
