I did say that talking about Apollo Justice was complicated but things are more complicated when talking about Dual Destinies, the sequel of Apollo Justice and the fifth main game in the franchise, the reason being is that DD is not as good as the other AA game, one could say it´s even the lowest point in the franchise, I don´t think that´s true, despite everything, I still enjoyed this game, more than Apollo Justice, but I can´t deny there is a downgrade regarding quality. This game is hated among the fanbase, so my expectations were low, even so, I think the game is cool, it´s fine really, some people over there makes you think is the worst videogame you´ll ever play in history but nothing like that, still...as I said before, I can´t deny the downgrade.
After the events of AJ, Phoenix decides to be a lawyer again, he gets into courtrooms once again, and also, the game introduces a new character named Athena, the game is based on her, she´s not just another character, but one of the main characters alongside Phoenix and Apollo, she even has her own gimmick throughout the game. Keep in mind that we´ll play as the three of them in many chapters, was it necessary to focus on three characters to develop? I don´t think so but that´s the game wanted to do.
The game was released on Nintendo 3DS and Capcom wanted to make use of that, the franchise got a new look, 3D sprites and 3D environments. That´s right, 3D environments, whenever we had to examine for new clues in order to help our clients, we had to do it in 2D environments, a classic but lineat investigation, but that changes in Dual Destinies, since it is a 3D environment, there are a few perspectives on the scenary, said perspective can change whenever we want it with the right stick, the one we normally use in other games to move the camera. I won´t say that this makes the investigatios to be lots of fun but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
The game looks fine visually speaking but I don´t like the 3D sprites, I really liked it more when there were just 2D sprites, had more personality into them and managed to express more emotions, these 3D sprites look ugly and I can´t help but feel uncomfortable whenever I have to look at them. I don´t want to be a critic, I do understand it was their first time using 3D stuff but it truly looks awful in the sprites, but whatever, it doesn´t ruin the experience that much.
We play as Phoenix, and playing as him is the same, like, we use the magatama whenever someone is hiding something or just lying, it helps us to get more clues to defend our clients, there´s not much to say about him, same thing could be said about Apollo, it´s the same gimmick from Apollo Justice, meaning we use his bracalet, searching for other people nervous tics, and it´s pretty cool, the newer gimmick is about Athena, which is about exploring the emotions of the witnesses in court. Besides being a lawyer, Athena is a psychologist, she uses a widget so she can read other people emotions in court, it´s useful because a witness may say that they felt surprised while doing certain thing but if the emotion while saying that doesn´t match, you get a contradiction there, as you can see, it´s pretty useful and it gives a fresh air to the courts, if I had to complain about it, I´d say that it´s far too easy, and that I think only four emotions is way too basic, this is people we are talking about here, to reduce the human behaviour to four emotions only is kinda lame.
Personally, I have many problems with Dual Destinies, let´s begin with the fact that this game great turnabouts or the worse turnabouts in the franchise, funny thing because there is no middle point, you can find yourself with a turnabout that will give a good impression, and you can find a turnabout which will make you feel sick. Turnabout Countdown is the first case of Dual Destinies, and let me tell you something, this is by far, the worst turnabout I´ve ever played in this franchise, it´s so bad that I stopped played the game for two weeks, take into account this is the FIRST case of the game, basically giving you the worst impression you can have. Next, we have Turnabout for Tomorrow, being one of the best cases in the entire franchise, which is crazy when you think about it, it´s more than a solid turnabout, it´s actually fantastic and pretty great, that´s the thing with Dual Destinies, it´s either pretty great or the worst thing you´ll ever play in your life.
Dual Destinies follows the whole ¨dark age of law¨ thing that it was unfinished in Apollo Justice, I like subtlety, and that´s a thing that Apollo Justice had when talking about this dark age of law, I mean, you could feel through the atmosphere of the game that you were yourslf not in the best of times regarding the legal system, the darker tone was actually helpful and it didn´t need the game telling you 438430850380805805840 times that you are in the dark age of law, one thing I really dislike about Dual Destinies is how it treates you like you were a baby, bro, I already know I´m inside into the dark age of law, could you please stop repeating it? By the way, this game gets rid off the darker atmosphere and tone, which means it´s the same atmosphere you had in the main trilogy, that sucks and that´s why the game needs to repeat you 450504 times that you are in the dark age of law, I know it sounds stupid but trust me it´s really frustrating.
On a personal level, I like the new characters, the game shows you a new detective who is pretty cool, a new prosecutor who is amazing and many new characters who are fine, that´s cool actually, even Athena, which I thought she could be a filler character, turned being a well written and fleshed out character. However, I disliked some other characters such as Apollo, I mean, he´s fine but he gets all edgy of all sudden and yeah we get to understand why he acted like that but I felt that all of his plot in Dual Destinies was kind of forced, mostly because all of his sudden change and development is due to a character that only makes presence in this game, we never get to interact to him, I really didn´t like what they did to Apollo in this game to be honest.
I have my complains on Phoenix as well, there´s an interesting debate through the internet if he had suffered a character regression and I really didn´t want to believe that but it seems like it, at first he looks all professional, as the Phoenix from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, however, when you get to play as him in Turnabout for Tomorrow, he acts as a rookie, I can understand he is not depressed anymore because he got his job as a lawyer, there is no need for him to act so badass, and I actually kind of like when he acts as a normal person, but there´s obviously a character regression here. At this point, I think Phoenix should act more as a support or a secondary character, all of his arc already ended in Trials and Tribulations but whatever. I like that you are able to play as the three of them but was that really necessary? I mean, the previous game had only one protagonist for a reason, so the plot can focus on them, but when you add three characters to the recipe, it´s noticeable that sometimes the game sometimes doesn´t know what to do with Phoenix, and what they do to Apollo is not good, only Athena is cool.
This is the first game of the franchise that actually have DLC content and it´s pretty bad, horrible. This is supposed to be the first case actually, because it´s the first case after Phoenix gets back his attorney badge, one could think that being the comeback case it should be pretty epic and change your life, but it´s not, there´s some people that defend it and I respect that but as for me, not being the worst case of the franchise, I still consider that it´s pretty bad. It´s known that Ace Attorney is a frachise that doesn´t take itself way too seriously, but this time, seems to me they exceeded. The whole turnabout feels as a parody and a really bad one, there are cool things though, but most of the times is just absolute cringe, but if you turn off your brain and accept this is a filler case, you might enjoy it, I actually luaghed from times to times because of how stupid the turnabout gets.
All of the screenshots were taken by me