Are any of the post DS Ace Attorney games worth playing?
I played the original trilogy, Apollo Justice and the first Edgeworth game on the DS back in the day.
I also played Duel Destinies when it came out but found it a little meh.
I know a few have come out since then, as well as an official English translation of the second Edgeworth game. Are any of them any good?
Yes! The second of the Edgeworth games is one of the best in the series in my opinion, leagues ahead of the game before it.
Though, I played the fan translated version of the DS release, so the remake is bound to have some writing differences, I assume. Excellent game, thoroughly recommend.Now, The Great Ace Attorney games, I wish I could have a more solid basis of recommendation, but as of writing I am on the final case of the first game. So with a grain of salt, I'd say that TGAA is also an excellent addition to the series. The mysteries are interesting, the characters fun (Looking at you, Herlock Sholmes) and the gimmicks non-overbearing. Also there's a jury, have fun convincing a bunch of racist Londoners into believing a Japanese law student over the prosecutor with "Lord" in his title. Yes, do play them if you enjoyed the original trilogy and AJ.
The crossover with professor Layton is fantastic and very underrated. I'm pretty sure it's the only ace attorney game with a story that's present throughout the entire game and it's so much better for it. By that I mean that you don't meet some characters, dick around for three trials, and then haphazardly try to make everything thematic at the last second.
Though I will say that the solution to the overall mystery is dumb as hell but it's so absurd it's funny imo. It has that Layton fairytale vibe so if you're not willing to suspend your disbelief you're gonna be pissed at the end.
2nd Edgeworth game is definitely worth a play IMO, same with The Great Ace Attorney 1 and 2. All 3 are pretty great and are at least as good as the original trilogy. I also thought Dual Destinies was pretty meh and felt the same way about Spirit of Justice. Both just kinda feel unfocused and I found the shift to 3D really killed a lot of the charm in regards to the art and animation. TGAA does much better visually I think, it feels more like they were willing to take steps away from the iconic style the DS Games had in a way that Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice isn't willing to do, and looks much better for it. Similarly, having a fresh setting and cast of characters lets the writing in TGAA shine, whereas DD/SoJ feels bogged down by neither being willing to move away from the Phoenix Wright cast, nor willing to commit to a story that actually builds off of the previous games in a meaningful way. I ended up just not caring by the end and honestly, it kinda felt like Capcom didn't care about the overall plot either. DD/SoJ aren't terrible games by any means, but I don't feel like they hold up to the rest of the series. I personally think you can skip SoJ, at least until you are out of other AA games to play and are hungry for more, and if you are willing to overlook its flaws.
AA4 was supposed to be Phoenix-free until Capcom demanded that he be shoehorned back in. Also from what I’ve heard (not sure if it’s true or not) the storyline in Capcom games are supposed to be playable/understandable standalone so there can’t be any arc that lasts more than a single game, so we end up with Apollo having more backstories than fingers.
My opinion is that 3D bad, at least the way they implemented it. Seemed like they wanted to keep the stylized 2D elements while forcing 3D onto it, so we get bizarre expressions like this: