I’m not all that fussed about it. The first AAI wasn’t all that great.
They better localize this.
Without the courtroom battles, it felt like a standard adventure game. No problem there, except that adventure veterans have very exacting tastes, given all the classics there were, back in the day. It just couldn’t compete and they were pretty foolish to even try.
I was upset they chose to milk the franchise with Apollo Justice, though. I didn’t like any of the new characters and the few old characters who popped up just seemed drastically different. They should have left it at 3, since it neatly wrapped up everything imo.
The first 3 cases were more or less fine, but the last one was very poor. Nevertheless, I really liked Apollo himself (particularly how he’s much more ambitious than Phoenix and actually wants people to think he’s the best etc).
Like most people though, I thought the enemy prosecutor for the game (Klavier) was a real let-down. He had no menace about him, and it just wasn’t a good idea to only have 2 prosecutors in the whole game, anyway.
On the flipside, I wasn’t a huge fan of Trials and Tribulations. The overarching story with Godot was very good (the 5th case is excellent), but there was too much retcon to make it work at times, and Phoenix and Maya were very peripheral to the game, I felt. They felt like characters whose best times were behind them, and I think the developers were absolutely right to shake it up in AJ.
I also didn’t think much of T+T’s first 4 cases. 1,3 and most of 4 (until the ending) were bland. Playing as Mia wasn’t nearly as much fun as it should have been. And the various combos of defence and prosecutor don’t really work (even Edgeworth and Franziska’s bout in the 5th case is fairly dull until Larry pitches in).
And whilst Godot is a great character, his languid style makes him almost invisible during some of the court battles. Rather than leaping down your throat and pressuring you like Edgeworth or the Von Karmas, he just lets you spin your wheels, then drops a devastating fact or bit of evidence on you.
Really cool when he does it, but it takes him out of the dialogue exchanges and often makes it seem that he isn’t really doing anything.
If they insist on indefinately postponing AJ or saying what happens with Phoenix, I personally think they should stick to their guns and do another Edgeworth game. No messing around trying to develop other supporting characters into lead characters, and definately no completely new lead characters.
A game with Edgeworth pitting his wits over 4-5 cases against a Moriarty style criminal mastermind (like an anti-Edgeworth) would be just the ticket. A villain that actually is menacing, interesting and has some personal connection with him (unlike the jokey main villain from AAI 1).
Level-5 Vision 2010 Live Blog (andriasang.com, 10.19.2010) (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/19/l5vision_2010_live_blog/)
The big announcement of the night: Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney! This collaboration with Capcom is in development for 3DS and will feature a scenario from Shu Takumi.
I just hope 3DS isn’t too expensive 🙁
When I heard the name I was totally hoping it was going to be an Ace Attorney/Umineko crossover. ; ;
What further discourages me is the collapse in decent games for the DS. It’s such a great console and for a long time, it was my favourite console of this gen. But the good games have really dried up in a big way in recent times.
And I want the 3DS for pretty much all the announced AAA titles already announced…there’s a lot to choose from. I’m quite tantalised!
What further discourages me is the collapse in decent games for the DS. It’s such a great console and for a long time, it was my favourite console of this gen. But the good games have really dried up in a big way in recent times.
I don’t get it. You really aren’t interested in any other 3DS games?
I already own Starfox64 and the SMT games. I’m not interested in Metal Gear Solid games, and I’m not holding my breath for that Resident Evil to be much cop either.
I am excited about lots of games coming to the 3DS though!
Animal Crossing
Etrian Odyssey
Kid Icarus
Mario Kart 3DS (I hope it’s been directed by the MKDS guy though, since that was probably one of my favourite games on DS)
Mega Man Legends 3
Paper Mario 3D
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle
I am pretty excited about the 3D remakes of MGS 3, OoT and Star Fox too though.
And other than the Layton game, none of those you mentioned interest me in the slightest. I like SMT, but the Devil Summoner series was poor IMO. There will need to be a much better line-up than that to get me interested in a 3DS.
Also, a report I read this morning on Metro, suggested that Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton may be Japan only.
By the way, I’ve never owned nor played Star Fox so I am hoping my time with it in 3D will be a fun time. I do own OoT and I have rented and completed MGS3 but I still want to own them for the minor changes and even the novelty of 3D and portability.
I absolutely insist you buy it! It’s a fantastic game (especially the battles against the StarWolf team and the Tank level). Along with Starwing (the first Starfox game on the SNES), they are head and shoulders the best games in the series. It’s a crime how this series has been treated since then.
One of my favourite games ever. I never get tired of playing ‘Enter Star Wolf’ and ‘The Last Hurrah’.
Yes. I love the first game because, among other things, there are many prosecutors, and Edgeworth and Von Karma are awesome.
And whilst Godot is a great character, his languid style makes him almost invisible during some of the court battles. Rather than leaping down your throat and pressuring you like Edgeworth or the Von Karmas, he just lets you spin your wheels, then drops a devastating fact or bit of evidence on you.
Well, that’s a different style of prosecution, but it’s pretty cool too.
And it probably a better way of doing things.First person views are primarily good for when a game wants you to feel like you are the hero and its you doing all this stuff. And yet Phoenix and Apollo are very obviously their own characters, so third person fits the bill much better IMO.
Therefore, I’ve found AAI is one of the easiest to just ‘pick up and play’, the easiest to slip into, whereas the other games often don’t truly come to life until the court scenes.
But that said, my original concerns about the game still stand. I still find the cases a bit lightweight, and the overarching story is a pretty dull one. Cases 2 and 3 have good starts, but quickly get quite boring (case 3 is particularly weak).
There are far, far too many cameos and recurring cameo appearances at the expense of new characters. (One of the only characters I did find quite amusing was Jacques Portsman, because of his inability to stay still). But the game has very few (if any) keepers as regards new characters. They simply don’t use characters like Lang or Kay enough to make us really care about them.
And both of them feature so little, despite being main characters. Lang is only in 2 cases out of 5, Kay is only in 3 out of 5 (and she is very minor in case 4, and case 5 as well for large portions).
It does have some priceless lines, many of them involving Edgeworth’s fury at Larry in the final case for commiting the ultimate blasphemy, and the game does have its moments (I love the intro to the first case Turnabout Visitor). Overall though, AAI 2 needs to really up its game, if it wants fans to hold it in the same regard as they do the PW games.
And I too will be seriously put out if they don’t do Apollo Justice 2.