Gender: None specified
Location: Missouri, US
Rank: Desk Jockey
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:35 am
Posts: 111
Okay, so I've gotten a lot of crap from some friends of mine about this game being my least favourite of the series. People say that I just don't like change. Well, I want to justify my dislike for this game in general.
The biggest quirk is that Apollo is, quite frankly, completely worthless. In 4-1, Phoenix essentially defends himself. In 4-2, Trucy takes most of the credit. In 4-3 and 4-4, Klavier does most of the work for you. (Generally this is story-wise, though the same could be said about gameplay in some parts, too, even)
However, what about the moments in which you DO something? You don't use evidence like a legitimate attorney. Instead, you somehow manage to get witnesses to admit their guilt because their neck was itching when they were talking about something. >_> Wow, that makes a lot of sense. Without that bracelet, Apollo probably would have lost every case in the game. At least with the Magatama, you could have gotten the info out of them on the witness stand (Proven by Edgey in 3-5), so it wasn't like your case ever hinged on it. It just helped you out.
Next, are the cases. 4-1 and 4-4 are decent. But 4-3 is really just a big mess...Not only does it have the most obvious killer in the series, they shove that little 30-second clip of Lamiroir singing down your throat multiple times. Also, after re-beating 4-2, I'm now under the impression that it's the worst case in the series, hands-down. Every character in it is really boring. The panties subplot is not only unnecessary, it also makes a completely unfunny subplot. It feels like a one-off joke that they kept repeating over and over again.
Though 4-4 is decent, as I said, one huge quirk is just the way it ends. Instead of one final piece of evidence that brings down the big villain, all you get is Klavier saying "Oh yeah, there's a jury" and then Kristoph breaks down. It's like, oh, okay, why am I here again?
Now then, let's move on to Trucy. At this point, I think the developers thought, "Hey, what if re-use Maya, but with a different name, slightly more annoying personality, and make her a magician?". Maya was perky in a fun and cute way. Trucy just acts like she drank coffee before each scene. Coffee laced with crack.
Klavier is just boring. He never seems to care about any of the trials at all. He tries to copy the badassness of PW2/3 Edgey or Godot, but he just ends up looking like a terrible prosecutor. Oh, and for some reason he's also a rock star. Um...Neat? Ultimately, other than Payne, Gavin is the worst prosecutor we've seen so far.
Then there's AJ Phoenix. I never really thought that keeping Phoenix was a great idea in the first place, since they were trying to move away from his arc. Well, keeping him leaves us with a horribly simplified and honestly, completely different Phoenix. Phoenix is a lovable oaf who struggles to succeed but barely manages to do so in the end. He's not a cryptic badass who always knows everything about every case before it happens. Additionally, 4-4 Flashback Phoenix is absolutely terrible. Again, they completely ruin his entire personality, this time by making him into an arrogant jerk, like an angrier PW1 Edgeworth or something.
The same could be said about 4-4 Gumshoe. The first three games built him up as a lovable detective with a small rivalry with Phoenix, but he's ultimately his friend and is very dependable and stuff. In 4-4, they made him seem like Phoenix murdered his family or something.
Now, there are some good things that came out of AJ. Namely, Olga, Vera, Spark, and Ema to some extent. Olga was legitimately interesting as a witness and rather fun in general as someone evil, but not a villain. Vera was just pretty cool overall. Spark managed to remind me of Lotta in a good way, except being helpful and stuff instead of trying to beat you. Ema was interesting when not in irritated Snackoo fanatic mode.
Point is, they could have done a lot more with Apollo. The are all pretty eh, most of the characters are annoying ripoffs of PW characters, the returning characters just return for emotional impact but otherwise are nothing like they were before, and Apollo/Klavier are both just absolutely terrible at what they do.