The case seems to focus on Apollo, and starts in court.

It probably would be the case in where the courtroom gets bombed. Maybe...

Hey, they should have given Odoroki this backstory in GS4! And Jin's sister is awesome :3

WTF end! (in a welcome way). The case was too long though, and the way Odoroki disappeared from the case is not really satisfying, considering Aoi, and Odoroki knowing Hoshinari and all

And who is the guy dressed like a captain? I just saw his breakdown and I honestly thought it was one of the best I have seen. I mean, he damaged court property in his breakdown!

Hoshinari Taiyou (Astronaut /defendant)
Aoi Daichi (Victim/Apollo's best friend)
Oogawara (don't remember first name. It think it was Uchuu though) (Head of GYARAX / the Battleship Yamato captain)
Yuugami Kaguya (the robot scientist / sister of Jin)
Ponko-chan (robot)

I'm going to assume that Aoi is his first name, even though all the other names have their last name placed first. Unless I'm wrong about that and Daichi is indeed his first name.

And I'm actually happy to see that Apollo has a friend or two. Is Hoshinari another friend of Apollo's?

Daichi is his first name. And they are indeed friends (or at least at very friendly terms), they know each other through Aoi

I noticed that Kaguya has a green robot accompanying her. What is its name?

Ponta

What the heck just happened...? This is definitely a new way to end a case...!

Well, the overarching plot is starting to show itself, it looks like. Young!Apollo was cute to see, and he's finally getting some actual backstory. Meanwhile Blackquill's sister is... well, she's there. I'm guessing she's not the criminal this time around (though that pretty much leaves the chief as a suspect), and she'll have some bigger role in case 5 (victim?). Then again if she were guilty Blackquill would probably pop his top at Wright and co., which could be interesting.

Also, I wonder if there'll be another investigation part? This is day two of the trial, after all, but there was no day one investigation.

And where's Pearly? I thought for sure she'd show up to reintroduce Psyche-Locks, but nope. If they're leaving her and Edgeworth (and anyone else) for case 5, it's going to be a mite crowded in terms of reintroductions.

The defendant found not guilty but the culprit is still at large?

Is the legal system starting to make more sense? This is definitely a new way to end a case for Ace Attorney.

It is a bit of fresh air, isn't it? Though considering Athena suddenly gets pinned for the crime right after the verdict is handed down, it's not quite as far off as I'd hoped. I'm kind of glad it transitioned into the next case as it did, I don't think crowding so much into one case would've worked as well.

I thought it fine at first, also because the case would become too long, but looking back, I still think it feels strange to have a case end like that. Case 4 & 5 aren't seperate cases: they are the one and the same, and now it just stops somewhere w/o any resolution. In the past, like in GS1-2, defendents have switched during cases, so just 'the defendant changed' shouldn't be enough of a reason. The GK team like to connect cases to present a larger storyline, but this isn't connecting cases, just cutting them up.

It was an interesting case, though about halfway through the second trial I realized we weren't going to be getting a culprit. That's actually a pretty cool twist on the formula, but I am a little disappointed it looks like case 5 will just be Athena on trial for the exact same case; I was thinking this case would go unresolved, and then another murder would pop up in case 5 and solving that would solve this one.

That said, it was a great shocker of an ending! Once Blackquill started freaking out about the fingerprints I thought it was going to be his sister, but nope, Athena!

Also, jeez, no Pearl yet after all. I wasn't expecting her and Edgeworth to be saved for the last case; that's going to get mighty crowded, especially if Klavier pops up again...

Except I thought we would finally get a third day of court. If you count case 5 as the same case, though...

Also why do I have a random hunch Ban is the Big Bad...? He was there when the bomb went off, and now he randomly gave us decisive evidence at the last second? HMMMMMMM just random theorizing, though

That astronaut carrying the other astronaut in the beginning... Was that Aoi or Hoshinari?

It's actually Aoi.

It's thanks to his stress-relief medicine that Hoshinari occasionally falls into a deep slumber. It was bad timing that day, with the explosions and all.

Ogawara knew that there would be a bombing, so he didn't plan to launch the rocket in the first place. He was able to get Aoi to cooperate, but he knew that Hoshinari wouldn't be able to lie about the faked rocket launch etc., so he got Aoi to slip Hoshinari a large dose of the tranquilizers, which knocked him out.

How does Apollo get the bandaged eye if the beginning of Case 4 is right before the bombing?

If I remember correctly, he used it to hinder his perceiving powers because he suspected Athena was guilty and he didn't want to feel that way. Or something of that sort...

Why does he feel that way immediately after the crime?

I wouldn't know if he started "immediately after", but perhaps it's because Athena kept fidgeting whenever Apollo would talk about the incident or his friend. She had some bad memories of the space center, after all.