The first case is probably the worst first case of any AA game I've ever played. It's overflowing with exposition that it gets in the way of actually playing the case. I came here to point fingers and object, but like in Dual Destinies, I'm constantly having to go through lots and lots of dialogue before I get to play the game. AA1 got straight to the point, and I hate that in this game it's just like Dual Destinies. But only the first case suffers from an extreme example of this; the rest of the game isn't as bad as it is in Dual Destinies. Still, the first case gives a very bad impression of the rest of the game. It's just boring.

My biggest problem with the game is on Apollo's backstory. Phoenix had been meshing well with the Khura'in cast, and then case 5 comes around and says, "Here's a bunch of preexisting relationships Apollo has in Khura'in," and expects me to accept that.
- Apollo had actually spent 10 years in Khura'in
- He knew Nahyuta as a child, who was different then.
- This is just like Edgeworth, right? Only Nahyuta isn't likable and he hadn't redeemed himself.
- Really, he isn't likable. He just spews childish insults like Rayfa, a child.
Forgive me if I'm suddenly not onboard with this.
The difference between Edgeworth and Nahyuta is Edgeworth had that moment in 1-3 where he cast aside a chance at victory in order to pursue the truth. Blackquill has a similar moment in 5-3 in which he encourages Athena not to give up. But Nahyuta doesn't have that. I suspected something to happen given that in the end of 6-3 he says that he owes Wright a debt, and he even mentions this in 6-4. I presume he was talking about Apollo, but the whole thing gets dropped after he mentions this (and of course Apollo wasn't around in 6-4).
I think that's an issue with the premise. Nahyuta had no opportunity to have an Edgeworth-like moment in 1-3 because he was being controlled by the queen.
Plus, everything just got crammed into 6-5 that Nahyuta's resolution doesn't feel earned. It does for Rayfa because she began to doubt herself in 6-3.
Maya got arrested again. Maya got kidnapped again. *Sigh*
I don't see the significance in Apollo facing off against Phoenix. Phoenix was being coerced and there was no conflict between them anyway. This isn't like Dual Destinies where they had their reasons for going against each other and they did it of their own free will. It feels so contrived, as does forcing Apollo into Khura'in does.

More use of the models in cinematics as opposed to anime cutscenes is great, but it kills my 3DS's poor framerate. Still better than the Vigilantes in PLvsPW, though. I think they could have used the voice actors more in these segments because with less anime cutscenes their role is very little. I think Phoenix only had two lines: when he met Maya and when he left Khura'in on the plane. For what little voice acting there was it wasn't as cringy as Dual Destinies.
Personally, I rank this game below the trilogy, Dual Destinies, AAI2, and Apollo Justice.
My ranking for the cases: 3 > 2 > DLC > 4 > 5 > 1

Honestly, I'm with you on Apollo's backstory. It came out of nowhere for no good reason and really didn't fit that well. However, I felt that the whole Apollo-Dhurke bond was very good and emotional and kinda made up for that.

DEATH METAL HIPPIE JESUS

I know it's a relatively silly thing but this guy really made the case for me. Best character of SoJ (ok that's an exaggeration but still)

Is this the game with the most assistants? Most games have a designated assistant and maybe one other but here, he have Athena, Rayfa, Simon, Dhurke, Maya, Edgeworth, and Phoenix.

Ahlbi and Trucy. That's a lot of people, yeah.

And in case 5, they did. Off-screen.

I recall at the end of 4-4's trial, Klavier and the judge are having a discussion about the law. Apollo, however, has no input - his inner dialogue is "Someday, I'll know what law is. And I'll fight to change it if I have to!" Fast-forward to SoJ, and that's exactly what he's doing. This might have come from Dhurke, because in a flashback Apollo asks Dhurke why he still wears his badge, and he tells him he does it to remind himself of his goal to change Khura'in's legal system.

You can make T&T comparisons since both games introduce a new part of Phoenix/Apollo's past to move them in a new direction, but the big difference and the issue I have with SoJ's story is that it waits until the last case to reveal all of this. T&T did this in a the first case, a flashback case, and at the end of the case Phoenix hints that this case is connected to something much bigger (DD did this as well).

Of course, Apollo isn't even involved in case 1 unlike Phoenix in 3-1.

I'm reiterating what linkenski said a few pages ago: that there's no build-up to Apollo's side of the story in a narrative sense (maybe case 4 could have done this?).

Also, the feudal setting is not what I think of for Apollo, but that's my opinion.

The whole Khura'in reveal with Apollo was too heavy for me. Apollo lived there for 10 years, with Dhurke, who happens to lead the revolution, and Nahyuta. I could accept parts of it, but the whole thing feels forced. Like they had to give Apollo an Edgeworth-style prosecutor rival so he had the motivation to save them like Athena and Phoenix.

And it seemed like Phoenix was more surprised to learn that Nahyuta was Dhurke's son than that Apollo was raised by him.

The animations are way too long for the new characters. I'm tired of waiting for Nahyuta to sigh, shake his head, and for a butterfly to land on his finger. I'm tires of Nichody pulling his cloth out of his pocket to clean his monocle.

On a similar note, I'm tired of the transformations. By this time we know from a meta-sense that a witness that transforms is the culprit. Name one witness that transforms that isn't the killer. Okay, you got me with Amara.

Ga'ran's transformation was way over the top. I know it was meant to make her look like a spider, but it comes off as plain silly as opposed to hilariously awesome like Metal Jesus.

I think there's an issue with three playable characters. It's too many. DD handled this better because Athena was new and so the plot could involve integrating her into the cast. They didn't rehash that this time, which was good. The developers wanted to make her playable but couldn't work her into the plot, and so 6-4, the most filler case ever, happened. You could remove it and nothing would change. Just keep her as an assistant and let her do her Mood Matrix thing.

As for the music: Phoenix and Athena's court themes are at the top of my list. I don't like Apollo's, however. It's too electronic for my liking. I prefer the orchestral style we got in DD. Cross examination themes are better in SoJ than DD, but DD has better reminiscence, courtroom, and investigation themes. However, the Khura'in music is the best of the whole game.

I'm not sure where I stand on the Divination Séance. I like finding contradictions in statements and there's some good ones here, but the interface is clunky. If it returns in the future I hope it's more intuitive.

Difficulty is higher than DD, which is great. It was challenging for pence.

Visually, I prefer DD over SoJ. SoJ has duller colours for some reason and DD had thicker outlines around the characters. With thinner outlines around the SoJ characters it makes the pixilation on a 3DS more apparent. Models are better, of course. Phoenix doesn't look as dumb as he did in DD.

Also, on the last case: I was expecting the revelation that would "shake Khura'in to its core" would better than "the queen is a fraud." Do something like 5-2 where the mythical figure existed in a different form or something. Or maybe Lady Kee'ra was the real Holy Mother?

There were decent mysteries and turnabouts but I prefer those of other games. But this game gave us the remote murder in 6-2, the suicide in 6-3, and the defendant being a murder victim in 6-5. That was a kick in the teeth.
But who can forget that the murder weapon was udon dough?

Well, there's Betty, Uendo, and technically Sarge as well. They transform, but they aren't culprits.

I actually like the lack of outlines in SoJ, it makes the characters look more polished imo.

I don't get what's wrong with Apollo being from Khura'in, nor that it was shoved into us. I mean, there's a photo of kid Apollo in Episode 3, so it wasn't shoved to us in Episode 5. It was kinda obvious that it was a piece of foreshadowing for what the narrative was going to tackle in a near future in the game. Plus Apollo technically isn't from Khura'in. He was born in Japanifornia, but Jove brought him to Khura'in for a performance, and ended up getting himself killed, and leaving his baby boy orphan, which Dhurke took into responsibility to raise.

Apollo's backstory was shoved upon the player, but that's because it was also shoved upon Apollo himself. Trucy said in case 2 already that he always changes the subject when it comes up (foreshadowing that it very likely will come up later in the game). Not only does he not want to talk about it, he doesn't even want to think about it. He seems to have suppressed a lot of memories into the back of his mind to the point where he has almost consciously forgotten about them until Dhurke suddenly re-appears in his life and everything is forced back onto him. (His and Trucy's dialogue at that point could also serve as a bit of a nod to the player, when she's shocked to learn he grew up in Khura'in and he just goes "um, yeah, did I forget to mention that?")

It came suddenly because it became relevant suddenly. AJ gave us some information about the circumstances of his birth and such, DD about his relation with Clay and Starbuck, SoJ filled in the blank space between those timeframes. It doesn't erase anything, it doesn't contradict anything (I've seen a lot of people claiming that Jove was said to be a magician in AJ, but he's only said to have been a performer, so the collective assumption was reasonable since they also said he'd been performing with the Gramarye's, but we can now assume he played music at their performances or something, based on what we know now). His Khura'in upbringing hasn't been actively hinted at or touched upon (obviously), but people don't really walk around thinking about their pasts in everyday life. What we have been given before this has been what was relevant at the time, just like with Phoenix and the class trial and the Dahlia-thing. Surely his past has shaped him, but just because we haven't been actively showed what and how it's connected to his Khura'in-childhood doesn't mean it's not there. For example he seems skeptical about spiritual things, that could be a reaction against his past because he's hurting, or it's just because his life in the very spiritual country is so distant, after all, it was over ten years since he was there, meaning he has lived most of his life and turned into an adult in Japanifornia, plus with Dhurke's situation and them living away in the mountains I can't see them engaging a lot with the city life and the royals and spirituality in general, so what he remembers from it might not be a lot different than growing up in a fairly religious home.

I didn't mean to rant, my point is just, I guess I can understand why people don't like it, but I disagree that it was badly done or contradicts anything.

"Ah, so that is Apollo on that photo, I felt I recognized him from somewhere. Apollo is a nice lad."

Yeah, I like Apollo. Maybe I should give him a raise.

Wait a second. Oh, no way. Is that...

BABY NAHYUTA?!

Yes Phoenix, that's the right thing to be freaking out over.