Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies Review

Can it be considered a bad thing if a game exists for no reason other than the fans wanted it? As much as it sucks when a franchise dies before its time, "fans" can demand a property to stretch itself to its breaking point. Once that happens enough the property has become culturally and critically irrelevant and then the "fans" claim that they love getting the same thing over and over again and to the rest of the gaming world it's become a complete joke. See the majority of Nintendo's lead franchises for this crash course.

It's worth thinking about, due to the fact that any seasoned Ace Attorney player will tell you that Dual Destinies is undeniably a retread of old ground. But is that the damning criticism it might originally appear to be or does Dual Destinies dig deep into the series' bag of tricks to present them in a way that's fresh?

There's definitely some change in the air. Original director and series creator Shu Takumi, who was responisble for the two best games in the series (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Trials and Tribulations) and the two worst (Justice for All and Apollo Justice) is out of the picture, and the director of Ace Attorney Investigations spin off titles Takeshi Yamazaki is in. 

Now the original Ace Attorney Investigations title (with the sequel stubbornly refusing to leave Japan) was a great game, it got a bit too bogged down in international politics and forensics to have the same goofy feel of the Takumi games however. The man is clearly very talented at creating insane scenarios for murders and frame jobs, but his scripts do seem to lack the same heart as the Takumi games. 

For example, it was revealed in the pre-release hype by Capcom that new defence attorney Athena Cykes and new prosecutor Simon Blackquill have some kind of relation to each other, which is thoroughly revealed as the game goes on. But none of their dialogue or interaction before that moment shows any signs of this, a second play through of Dual Destinies would probably have a lot of lines that don't make sense once you know the games ending. In the Takumi games, most notably Trials and Tribulations, tension between characters could be felt throughout the entire game, that way it didn't feel unnatural when you got the full story and was a lot more effective. 

It also has to be said that the localisation of this game isn't up to the series' standards. Finding a spelling or grammatical error in the original titles was bizarre, you'll probably stop caring by the time you get to the third case in Dual Destinies just due to the excess of them, it's almost bad enough to warrant a patch. One of the silliest things about the series has been the English versions instance that it doesn't take place in Japan when it so obviously does with Steel Samurai fandom, police department mascots and well...everything. The second case of Dual Destinies is probably the worst example of this yet, the script is a mess of poorly explained Japanese culture, jokes and charactertures that just makes a Western player feel distinct from the events of the story. 

The scenarios for Dual Destinies are absurdly clever, they're almost too elaborate in how they force the attorney of choice (you play as Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes in different cases) into a corner and slowly work their way out to the truth. But basic elements of the cases are getting familiar, it's hard to explain but when the game tells you something or gives you a piece of evidence you just already know this is going to turn out entirely differently in the end. The series has showed its hand for six games now (eight including Japan) and you know when not to trust the current narrative, the surprise of "turnabouts" isn't as strong as it used to be. Also, the new prosecutor Simon Blackquill is very grumpy and aggressive while being in prison for murder, if you're played an Ace Attorney game before you can probably guess his entire character arc in this game from that alone (which I did).

Individual elements of each murder are starting to get a little old now too, it's impossible not to notice plot points like "the victim left a message in blood but it was faked somehow" have appeared in the opening case of THREE games now. The final case, as clever as it is, does sort of feel like the final cases of the original Takumi trilogy plucked for ideas and mixed together. This was almost certainly unintentional, but it is evidence of how this game is more of a retread than an exciting new instalment. 

Also if you are a veteran Ace Attorney player then you're pretty off not having played Apollo Justice before you play this one. Other than some of its characters returning, the plot of Dual Destinies pretty much flat out ignores it. It's hard to not be slightly annoyed by this, Phoenix Wrights character went through a lot of development and part of that games overarching plot was his redemption, which meant a lot of changes for the court system which Dual Destinies retcons entirely with little mention of it. Considering how Trials and Tribulations made a spirited attempt to wrap up the story for all of the characters and Apollo Justice tried to introduce changes to the court system, it seems like Shu Takumi made two spirited attempts to end his own series which Capcom continue to stubbornly ignore. 

So Dual Destinies isn't prime material for veteran players, but it's probably fair to say its not a great jumping on point for new players either. Many characters from previous games (including arguably Phoenix Wright himself) come back for little reason other than fan service, some of them don't even do anything and have literally no reason to be in this game at all. Also the sheer over-elaborate nature of every single case (including the first one, which are traditionally short tutorial cases but drags on here) seem to assume you're already on board with Ace Attorney's nutty logic and tropes. Not that it's inaccessible to new players, but if you're new to the franchise there are far better places to start than here. 

The core gameplay of Ace Attorney is largely unchanged, aside from a few minor additions. Investigation mode is far less painless and less rooted in awful adventure game logic, the designers clearly caught on that no-one liked the gameplay in those sections anyway so essentially removed it to keep the pace of the story. Athena Cykes introduces a new courtroom mechanic by way of analysing the emotions of the witness for inconsistency, a mechanic that is far more interesting than the "Perceive" nonsense from Apollo Justice which also returns but is mostly kept out of the courtroom.  Also the new character animation is great, the 3D bounces back and forth between unnoticeable and annoying like 90% of all 3DS titles, and it's bloody long. People may hate the fact it's a download only title but you definitely get your money's worth. 

Overall, Dual Destinies is a good entry to the series. Fans will get what they want which is five more deviously clever murder mysteries to break down with all the twists and turns you would expect. The point really is that this series has thoroughly showed its hand and there's very little in this entry that will grab you like previous titles did. The individual story's are incredibly clever, but as an overarching plot and character drama the heart and soul that the series' best game Trials and Tribulations held so strongly is just not here. 

Bringing things back to the opening paragraph of this review, why does Dual Destinies exist? The original trilogy exists due to Shu Takumis interest to explore the philosophy of law and the behaviour of people on the witness stand, as well as some tragedy with the core cast of characters along the way. Apollo Justice extends this with its discussion of the court itself, and the Investigation games focus more on the crime scene. Dual Destinies doesn't have a point of its own, it exists because you wanted it to exist, so eat up yum yum.

Dual Destinies is very good, but it's not special. The fact that that's a criticism at all show the quality of Ace Attorney, but it's also worth mentioning to avoid disappointment.