LogFAQs > #933890930

#71. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice


Out of all the Ace Attorney games, Spirit of Justice is probably the most difficult for me to rank properly. It has very high peaks, but it also has some pretty glaring flaws. This game basically puts all of its eggs into two baskets. Not to say the other four cases in the game are bad, but Id say theyre all average at best, although they certainly have their moments, as every Ace Attorney case does. Spirit of Justice also feels a bit bloated. Its the longest game in the series by a decent margin, and the pacing suffers a bit as a result, I think. It probably has the weakest set of breakdowns in the series, which is disappointing because I thought theyd use the new animations to craft some creative ones. Nahyuta is probably the worst prosecutor in the series, and Im not sure its particularly close. I dont think they used him well at all, aside from 6-3. There are three playable attorneys, but it feels like Athena kinda gets the short end of the stick. To be fair, I think Dual Destinies had the same problem, only with Apollo being the one to get shortchanged that time, so I hope future Ace Attorney games (should there be any) limit it to two at most.

But when Spirit of Justice is good, its really good. I loved the new Khurain court system with the Sance Vision and all that comes with it. This was really the only way to challenge Phoenix at this point in the series, so Im glad they went with it. Spirit of Justice touted the grand return of Maya, and while it was a bit predictable, I still really enjoyed it. They also introduce some really good new characters, Dhurke and Rayfa being my personal favorites of the bunch. The soundtrack is fantastic. I think Id only rank it behind the first Ace Attorney Investigations in that department. More than anything, this is the game where Apollo earned and solidified his place in the series. Dont get me wrong. I really liked Apollo in the previous two games, but it felt like they didnt totally know what to do with him with Phoenix around. They let him shine in this game, and hes so good.

Its hard to talk about what makes an Ace Attorney case great without spoilers, but the two best cases in Spirit of Justice are 6-3 and 6-5. I think the main thing I like about 6-3 is that this is probably the first time since 2-4 that the deck feels this stacked against Phoenix. It also bears a lot of resemblance to 3-5, so they combine aspects of two of the best cases here to make one really good case! I dont want to get into the specifics of 6-5 at all, but suffice it to say that its such a good surprise in so many ways. It completely defied my expectations, and it might deserve the moniker epic case more than any other in the series. The scale and the stakes are unprecedented for Ace Attorney, and Id say its easily the best case weve seen since the original trilogy.

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