Ace Attorney 4 Apollo Justice
The Ace Attorney series has always walked a fine line between charming whimsy and irritating absurdity, and Apollo Justice doesn’t always hit the mark. The characters are wonderfully expressive with their varied poses and animations that bring them to life, but their wacky personalities can swing from comically entertaining to just plain irritating depending on the moment. (I’ve played all Ace Attorney games so I can say with confidence it’s a trademark of the series.)
The cases themselves are usually engaging, requiring you to piece together logical arguments over time; there’s some satisfaction in connecting the dots and building a compelling case, even if it’s a bit too easy.
However, the game sometimes undermines its own strengths with frustrating design choices. The text crawls at a painfully slow pace with no option to adjust it, and the point-and-click examination mechanics become repetitive after a while.
Most aggravating is when the game halts your progress over tiny, inconsequential details you forgot to examine: petty items that don’t add much to the case but somehow block story advancement. The hand-holding can also feel excessive for players who’ve mastered the series’ mechanics. (Please, game developers, stop making games easier and easier.)
Apollo Justice himself proves to be an inconsistent protagonist, and the supporting cast occasionally ventures too far into whimsical territory for their own good. When the game hits its stride, it delivers compelling legal drama and shenanigans; when it doesn’t, you’re left wondering why you’re stuck examining every pixel of a room for no good reason.