Figured there’s gotta be a bunch of AA fans around here! It’s my main fandom besides WTC, personally, and was probably my first exposure to the VN genre. So, how long have you been a fan and how did you get into it? Favourite characters, games, cases? Discuss!
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I’ve only played the first two games but I really enjoyed it! Gotta find time to continue the series.
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I have played all of the games except Justice for All and Spear of Justice (that was what the newest one was called, right?). My favorite game is a toss-up between Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies, my favorite case though definitely goes to the final one in Apollo Justice (AJ spoilers) I’m counting the present and past segments together for this one.
The crossover game with the Professor Layton series was one of the first games that made me cry, actually. Also, the Ace Attorney series was my first VN series as well.
Favorite character, hmm. I know that Gavin is my favorite prosecutor. Favorite character in general, though… Phoenix himself was awesome in Apollo Justice, and I personally liked Trucy a lot. Among characters that only appeared in one case, though, there isn’t really anyone I remember that fontly to call them a favorite character.
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Truth.
As for my actual thoughts… I LOVE I1-5 sooooooo much. So much interesting… ahhhhhh
SO GOOD! I should go through it again some time soon.
As a standalone entry I really liked 5, it had really nice and memorable cases and executed the jump to 3D models surprisingly well. Unfortunately I also kind of hate 5 at the same time for it’s regressions to Phoenix’s character but… eh.
Best character? Kay. Easy. I need to go finish I2 sometime…
Okay this thread makes me want to go do that right now.
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@VyseGolbez I hadn’t been planning to pick up the PL crossover because I’m not a big fan of the PL game mechanics and it’s not canon but it sounds like maybe I should! Seconding basically all your points, I love everything about 4 and its characters and cases.
@pictoshark Agree with your thoughts on 5, the last case is my favourite in the series but it’s clear they tried to sweep 4’s events by the wayside a bit. I’m also watching I2 on YT right now. 
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I love this series. Played the first game more than 7 years ago, and have played all games since.
Heck, I’ve made some fancases, even. Hard to deny it’s probably my main fandom.
Not sure which I’d call my favorite. Weirdly enough it might be the second game of the Investigations spin-off.
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate Apollo Justice more for the things it tried to do (The Phoenix in that game is best Phoenix), so that one gets second place.
Well, maybe it’s tied with the third game for wrapping to the original trilogy pretty well.
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A good of mine just posted a comparison of Ace Attorney with Aviary Attorney (a very similar type of game) that goes into some of the shortcomings of AA, how it doesn’t really address the issues of being a public defender and having to defend the guilty. I hope you won’t mind if I shill it here: https://parttimestorier.tumblr.com/post/159724362253/phoenix-vs-falcon-how-aviary-attorney-plays-with
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A massive jump in quality after Justice for All? That’s nice to know. Finishing Danganronpa 1 recently got me back into the mood for Phoenix Wright (currently at Justice for all).
To the leading question: friend of mine recommended it, started last fall with the first game
Case 4 in the first game was pretty good, although everyone conveniently falling unconscious in the elevator was a tad cheap, but that’s just a minor gripe. Case 5 was good as well.
In contrast, Game 2 has been pretty disappointing so far (currently at the third case), the cases just bore me. At first I was willing to assume that I just needed a break but even after the break I don’t find it particuarly engaging. I also somewhat dislike the whole dicking around in court of everyone. It was bearable and sometimes endearing in PW1, but it seems to have gotten worse with Franziska and especially the third case.
So it is good to know that it picks up with the third one.
@BunnyAdvocate: Aviary Attorney sounds pretty interesting! Another game to add to the steam summer sale list I suppose.
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@qno It’s pretty much agreed fandom-wide that the first three cases of 2 are some of if not the weakest in the series, but the last one is fantastic and a lot of people’s all-time fave so hold on in there! 2 more than anything probably served the purpose of setting up to make 3 really fantastic.
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Ah, the first visual novel I ever played, long before I even knew what a visual novel was.
I like Ace Attorney. While it hasn’t stood the test of time as well as other games and I’ve pretty much stopped caring much about it over the years, I still get some good fun out of them. My favorite game in the series is still the very first game, followed closely by Trials and Tribulations, though the whole series just kinda blends together in my head and I don’t clearly separate the games when thinking about the series.
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I agree with the popular opinion that Justice for All is the weakest game in the series overall. Only the fourth case is actually good, so it’s still kind of worth playing for that, especially if you’re already in the third case anyway.
@Antra Caught me. Right, I remember your introduction. The author of The Assistant’s Turnabout would be thrilled to hear their secret Higurashi agenda bore fruit. But I digress.
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I love love love Ace Attorney so much. I’ve gone through every game except for Spirit of Justice, the prequel game, and the Layton crossover.
I’ve been a fan for a few years and I got into it from the original trilogy, though I tend to like the next gen cast better as a whole (if I had to rank the protagonists, they’d probably go Apollo, Athena, and then Phoenix, though that’s not saying a lot because they’d all be in my top 10 Ace Attorney characters overall.)
I don’t agree about Justice For All being the weakest game, actually, I think both 2-2 and 2-4 are legitimately good cases (the latter is actually my favorite in the entire series) and I don’t hate 2-3 as much as most people. Maybe I just really like Franziska Von Karma. I think the weakest game is actually Investigations 1, which is weird, because my favorite game in the entire series is Investigations 2, followed pretty closely by Trials and Tribulations. Investigations 1 just don’t give a lot of insight into the characters, the cases were weak except for the flashback game and the ending draaags. It does give us tiny!Franziska and and tiny!Miles and the delight that is Calisto Yew though, so I have to be a bit thankful.
As for favorite cases: it’s hard to do an overall list so I’ll just say favorite case each game. 1-5, 2-4, 3-4, 4-1, 5-4, I1-4, 12-5. Other than that, I like 1-4, 2-2, 3-1, 3-5, 4-4, 5-2, 5-5, and every case in Investigations 2 a lot.
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I actually agree that I1 is the weakest and definitely a lot weaker than 2 though a lot of people seem to think otherwise. I don’t dislike 2 at all, the rest of the series is just even better. I also loved everything about I1-4.
Joining the current discussion here, I’d agree, even for my personal taste, having played all games of the main series apart from the 4th and 6th game (so basically every game putting Apollo Justice in a favourable light), the second game was relatively uninteresting and more of a tedium to play through simply for the sake of understanding the story progression.
Unlike most, but, since I replay a lot of the series’ cases, I’ve found I prefer 2-2 by leaps and bounds over 2-4. Don’t get me wrong, 2-4 is amazing on the first run through, but subsequent plays didn’t leave me with much entertainment. One of the things that I particularly enjoy with these series are convoluted testimony and testimony with traps, since navigating such testimony, though difficult, provides important insight into how the characters think. Also, it supplants one’s abilities to see through lies. In my opinion, that’s why 2-2 is superior to 2-4.
I am aware that Adrian Andrews probably gives one of the most annoying series of witness testimony to cross examine, but I never found it difficult to overturn, whereas the second case was more difficult for me, since the evidence to be presented was slightly more ambiguous. De Killer’s testimony has to be one of the best parts of 2-4 for me, but I find 2-2 enjoyable on the whole.
Of course, I’ll jump on the bandwagon and say that 3-5 is my favourite episode of the series because of the amazing setup, but ln viewing playthroughs of Apollo Justice and Spirit of Justice, 6-5 is a strong contender for that position, since it receives similar buildup, but 4-4 also deserves a mention because of Kristoph’s testimony.
Favourite character from the series?
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I actually think 2-2 is really great in a lot of senses, it’s definitely interesting on the crime side and I loved the chance to explore Kurain and the Feys more, I just didn’t enjoy it as much as that would suggest I should for some reason, which was a trend that continued throughout the game.
6-5 is my second favourite case in the whole series. Miles has to be my favourite character but Klavier, Mia, Phoenix and Franziska are all close contenders. I love pretty much all the main characters and many others, it’s just such an incredible cast. Kind of a uniting factor for me between AA and WTC and perhaps why they share a lot of fans? Besides the more obvious visual novel and murder mystery aspects.
One of your spoiler tags didn’t work by the way, fyi!
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I am aware of that and it took 3 edits and several confirmations to adjust the post to prevent spoiling the game.
I agree, AA does share a lot of similarities with the series, although thankfully Umineko’s mysteries never came into the main series.
That said, PL vs AA touched upon a matter very similar to Umineko, i.e. the use of ‘magic’ to commit crimes, although in the former, the tricks were much simpler and you didn’t have to defy existence of witches but rather use the logic behind magic spells and human ability to commit crimes, which I thoroughly enjoyed with the game, and why I have replayed it the most.
How many want to see the remake/sequel?
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I have played all of the mainline games although I got stopped on Spirit for reasons and never got back around to it.
Trials and Tribulations is my favorite.
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