#i wrote too much dkkfd this was a bad idea on my part

[ask-the-reaper-conspiracy]

To OP: what do you think we can expect for the next AA (if we get one)? :3 and what are your thoughts on Spirit of Justice?

~~also for some reason, Tumblr is burying your posts so I can't see them on my homepage :(~~

:O Hard to say when we're not even sure who'll be writing the next AA game.

I think the only thing I can expect for certain is that Athena will be the one undergoing character development, since that was a hanging plot point in SoJ. That doesn't necessarily mean she'll be the player character for the entirety of it (Apollo finished his character arc in a game where Phoenix was the main character for a large portion of it) but she will probably be the central focus by the end.

Considering how long we've had without an AA game, I also fully expect a gimmick to draw in new players. Potentially this will be a new setting, a new main character, or a new mechanic--I'm leaning on the side of there being a heavier supernatural focus (or at least superhuman, like Athena's hearing and Apollo's eyesight) but I don't really know :o

I'm sure there will be returning characters too, as well. Hopefully Gumshoe this time > >

Whatever they do, I'll probably be there for it.

As for my feelings on SoJ, that ended up being wayyyyy too long so it's under the cut.

I really enjoyed it! and idk what the tumblr opinion is on that, all I know is that they really hate it over on reddit, so, sorry fdgkfdkgfk

It is the best looking Ace Attorney game outside of the spinoffs, and in particular I think the character models and in-game animations are at their best, so that's one huge point for me. I also loved pretty much everything surrounding the seance mechanic.

I thought each case was consistently exciting. Phoenix traveling to a different country with a radically different culture high-key appealed to me, and I thought the higher stakes of his trials fit that feeling that he was far from home; on the other hand, I liked that the filler cases that were literally closer to home employed themes from the previous games that are more personal to the characters (expanding on the legacy of the Gramarye family in 6-2, developing Athena and Simon's relationship in 6-4.) I also just liked a majority of the supporting characters---I found most of them pretty memorable and fun to watch, especially the culprits (aside from.... ehh, Paul. Ga'ran wasn't my favorite either post-outfit change, but I was going nuts over Inga at the time so I didn't mind as much.)

I liked how the returning characters were handled. Maya got to finally make it as a spirit medium and was acknowledged for all her hard work, after the first game in the franchise ended with her powers only working as a deus ex machina. Ema's crabby attitude was believably dialed back to RftA levels now that she had her dream job (with Apollo justifiably being nervous seeing her again,) and she struggled with themes of being professional and sticking to her duties vs. not wanting to see the justice system screw over her friends again, which I saw as a believable character arc for her.

And I liked Nahyuta! I know a looot of people did not, and while intellectually I can see why, sometimes I feel like I must have been playing different games than them with how much hate he gets compared to other prosecutors in the series. I found his ultimate theme of controllable helplessness, masking itself as restraint and enlightenment, to be very fascinating. And tbh I liked how chill he is in the courtroom, which makes it more notable (especially for comedic purposes) when he slips up and shows how passionate he actually is as a person.

His biggest flaw as a character to me was that his arc was underbaked. There needed to be more time to unpack everything he'd done by the end, and the things that were at stake for him just, weren't quite impressive enough when put against the things he'd been an accomplice to. But I feel like he was so close in that regard, as I can imagine a million little ways they could have fixed it.

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Now this is my big rant dfgkdfks

Something I liked the most about this game, probably the biggest point that left me emotionally compromised towards it, was that it brought back some of the themes introduced in Apollo Justice that got dropped in Dual Destinies.

I left AJ frustrated by the fact that Apollo's first forays into being a lawyer featured him being manipulated, ridiculed and led along, mostly by his own mentor (Phoenix Wright, no less,) alongside being an orphan whose mother just... didn't want him to know she was still alive dgfkfkhdkgf and none of this actually got addressed by the end of the game. and then Dual Destinies completely ignored it, meaning I was never going to get closure on it.

But SoJ touched on those feelings again and actually gave me some closure. Looking broadly at what happens in the game--Phoenix finally does show that by this point, he trusts Apollo with even his own daughter's safety. Apollo finally does vent to SOMEONE about how hard it was starting out as a lawyer, and confronts a parental figure for abandoning him. He confronts Phoenix in court, and his relationship with Phoenix even seems to be characterized as "different" from that of his other allies. This is mainly because Phoenix is a mentor to Apollo more than a friend, but I like to think their bad first impression of each other was a contributing factor, too.

Yes, many of these are not exact follow-ups to Apollo Justice. A lot of them either touch on the story vaguely, or invent new scenarios to make these themes relevant to this specific game (like Apollo's backstory in Khurain was obviously not envisioned during AA4.) But considering how old Apollo Justice as a game was by this point, and that the writer evidently did not expect everyone to have even played it, I at least understand the decision to tie these themes to new plot points.

Also, I really like Dhurke, so I don't reaaally mind that he's a new addition to Apollo's backstory. Also like the idea that Apollo might have followed Kristoph as a mentor for so long because he bears a superficial resemblance to Nahyuta---cool-headed, confident, hair over his shoulder...

Like it's a bit weird to wrap my head around that Apollo spent his formative years in a different country/culture and this wasn't touched on in previous games, but I'm just not too stressed about it cause I got the core feelings I wanted dfkgsfdkk and Apollo just, has good chemistry with the new characters,

I could go on and on about all the little things I liked, but those are my big points. I think the game gets a lot of backlash nowadays, some of it fair and some of it I feel is unfair. But me personally, I liked it from start to finish, and the things it did wrong didn't bother me enough to take me out of my enjoyment of it.