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33. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (Dragon66116)


Spirit of Justice is an oddly structured game for the series. It doesn't strive for balance between all of its cases the way its predecessor, Dual Destinies, did, which has four high quality cases out of six (or even four out of five if you're one of those weirdos who combines 5-4 and 5-5 into a single case). Spirit of Justice clearly puts all of its eggs in two baskets, with two of the other cases building up to them and the remaining two essentially being filler and having no relation to the rest of the game at all (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, so don't get me wrong). At first, it doesn't totally feel like it's trying to tell a single cohesive story like Dual Destinies or the Edgeworth games do, since the game is split between two entirely different locations and legal systems. Then they manage to bring it all together in the finale in an amazing way in perhaps the biggest epic case ever, both in terms of size and scale.

Speaking of size and scale, Ace Attorney has steadily been growing in both of those departments. The first game was short and simple, and it was mostly the story of Phoenix trying to save Edgeworth from what was tormenting him. Fast forward ahead to Spirit of Justice, and you have Phoenix spearheading an entire legal system overhaul in a foreign country. I almost sort of get why they had to do that with him. By the time you get to this point in the series, the best way to use Phoenix is to put him in the craziest situations imaginable and see how he gets out of them, and in that regard, they succeeded. He's essentially a fully formed and developed character, so there's not much else you can do with him on that front. Most of the character development is reserved for Apollo (and it was about time, by the way). His first case in Spirit of Justice is used to prove he's capable of standing on his own as a lawyer without Phoenix's help, and his role in the epic case is nothing short of incredible. I still don't know if anything will ever be able to assail Ace Attorney's long-standing triumvirate of epic cases (1-4, 2-4, and 3-5), but 6-5 made a valiant effort. It belongs in the conversation with them, if nothing else.

The basic format of Ace Attorney is still largely unchanged, since you still have investigation segments and trial segments. In Spirit of Justice, you have a different legal system in the Kingdom of Khura'in, where defense attorneys have practically become defunct and court proceedings in murder cases are almost entirely decided by communing with the deceased, so unlike in Japanifornia, spiritual powers are unquestioned and are considered the most valid way of reaching a verdict. As such, there's a new wrinkle in the gameplay during Khura'in cases called the Divination Seance, where the player has to use what they see from the victim's final moments to overturn suspicion against the accused and arrive at the truth. It's usually pretty fun and a good challenge. They use it in some interesting ways, but they did the smart thing by usually just reserving the Divination Seance for the opening act instead of making it the primary focus.

In terms of the characters, perhaps the thing they promoted the most was the return of Maya Fey, who made her first mainline appearance since the third game. It was definitely great to have her back, although I think they could have used her a little better than they did. The two new characters I liked the most were Dhurke and Rayfa. It's hard to discuss what makes Dhurke so good without delving into spoilers, but Rayfa is the series' first good tsundere, which is quite the accomplishment. Her evolving relationship with Phoenix over the course of the game is really interesting to watch, and she develops a lot on her own as well. I think they took a big risk with this game, and it paid off for me.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite Ace Attorney epic case?
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