LogFAQs > #932710655

#34





Years of release: 2013 (3DS), 2014 (iOS), 2017 (Android)
Beaten?: I've beaten it three times

Right, like I was saying. After the original trilogy, which was obviously universally beloved by fans, Ace Attorney went through a bit of a dark period, to say the least. Thanks to questionable directorial choices and ill-conceived plot issues, what followed were a run of three games that, for me, really did a lot of damage to my interest in the franchise (although the third one was surprisingly good, actually) and left me wondering if they would ever make a really good Ace Attorney ever again. Fortunately, the seventh installment of the series (and its newly-introduced female protagonist) took a back-to-basics approach in reviving the series, reintroducing a lot of the old cast while also starting fresh, acknowledging the mistakes made in previous installments, and while it may not have been the most original story ever told, hitting many of the same cliche beats, it reinvigorated my faith in the franchise and filled me with hope for what was to come - an interesting, exciting, and wholly original sequel followed, but sadly, only disappointment after that.

Okay, maybe casting AAI2 as Revenge of the Sith didn't quite work, and casting Athena as Rey was a bit silly. But otherwise, it's not too much of a stretch, is it? Dual Destinies is absolutely the Force Awakens of the Ace Attorney franchise. It's not perfect and it doesn't hit the highest peaks, but it's a completely serviceable return to form for a franchise that desperately needed it, after my faith had been shattered by the Phantom Menace that was Apollo Justice.

I was ready to have a new protagonist and move on from Phoenix, but I have to admit, his triumphant return to being an attorney in this game made me kind of fist pump a little bit, and it's great to have him back. The plot of this game feels like it's trying to right the ship after the poorly-executed AA4, and I think it succeeds. It doesn't quite stick the landing at the very end for me, for reasons that I won't talk about here, but maybe I'll get to if I do an AA ranking at some point down the road. However, the DLC case more than makes up for it, being possibly one of the most fun and surprising cases in the series, and I love that in canon, Phoenix's first case after coming back to being a lawyer was to defend an orca. It's classic Ace Attorney.