Apollo Justice: Ruminations.
Warning: Spoilers for the Apollo Justice game, and probably for the previous Ace Attorney games as well. Somewhat tl;dr, and makes shameless use of parenthetical remarks (because it's 4am and I'm too lazy to put them in footnotes lol).
***
I'm unhappy about how Phoenix Wright's life turned out in Apollo Justice. Even if I inadvertently spoiled myself while checking out the Ace Attorney entry on Wikipedia several months ago (yeah, I know, dumb move... I'm a curious kid lol). I finished Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations fearing the worst, only to be relieved when I realized that, at the time AA: T&T was being made, the creators of the game probably hadn't thought of what would happen to Phoenix in the follow-up to the trilogy. All the same, the sight of hobo!Phoenix in Apollo Justice - and a defendant yet again in the very first case - shocked me. I hadn't thought that he'd changed so much, and yet he had.
Don't get me wrong, I love character development. Even drastic character development, as long as it's justifiable (I'm currently reading George R.R. Martin's Storm of Swords; his idea of character development hurts, and there's always a promise of more hurting to come, yet I keep reading anyway). All the same, painful character development hurts me deeply, especially when the character being developed is a beloved one. Though I hadn't really realized how much I loved Phoenix's character until his whole world fell apart, and I had to see how he ended up afterwards. >.>
I suppose my reaction would be different if Phoenix were a book character. I generally expect this kind of gritty "realism" in my books, and it would make sense given the circumstances of his disbarment. My expectations of anime and anime-ish games, however, is apparently pretty different; I like the optimistic, lighthearted, cute things in anime, and Phoenix Wright's younger self is no exception. He stood for everything good and noble and true, and seeing his dignity smashed to pieces so easily is a very bitter thing indeed. His profile description in Apollo Justice as "formerly an ace attorney of some renown" was galling for the first three cases; I hated seeing it. =_= I also somewhat resented Apollo for taking Phoenix's place as the awkward young rookie stumbling to success in each case; he was lovable, adorkable, everything I enjoyed about the game...only I wished that he hadn't appeared at the cost of Phoenix. :(
When I started playing Apollo Justice, I liked to think of it as an alternate reality. In my mind, Phoenix's real future had him living out his years as an ace attorney, and perhaps retiring in his old age in the company of friends. (If I hadn't spoiled myself before playing Apollo Justice, I would've assumed that Phoenix would be a more-or-less wise mentor to Apollo, the way Mia had been for him.) I resisted the familiar charm of the game, though I was already smitten after the first few minutes with Apollo and Trucy. Before long I was hooked. I was initially worried that I wouldn't finish the game out of frustration because of what happened to Phoenix, yet I found myself playing as intently as I had played the previous three games. The story is just as compelling as the third Ace Attorney game...and perhaps it's because Phoenix is still in center stage, even if he isn't technically in the starring role anymore. The story still revolves around him as it chronicles his fall from grace and subsequent painful rebirth. (I'll admit, I now appreciate how apt his localized first name is.)
I'm still around halfway through the fourth and final case. This case is definitely an oddball, in that it introduces a somewhat different style of gameplay through the MASON System (which, surprise surprise, Phoenix apparently developed), and in that Phoenix addresses the player directly, unlike any previous case in any of the games. It's a strange feeling, having to look into those sweet, sad eyes of his and reading his jaded, sarcastic dialogue. The graphics for the MASON System somewhat resemble the neon green-on-black curtain of characters used in the Matrix movies; they gave me an eerie feeling, as if Phoenix somehow knew that he was fighting against something bigger than his own world, a bit like Sophie from Sophie's World. (I read about this idea of Phoenix knowing he was at the mercy of the game's creators from a thread with similar sentiments to mine...unfortunately I don't remember which thread it is now.) I suppose there's a lot of things I have yet to discover - this is an Ace Attorney game, after all - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm hoping that the ending will be as satisfying as the ending of the third game, considering how heavy the plot material is.
As a final note, I wonder if the reason why Apollo Justice doesn't have a sequel is because Phoenix's story will likely be concluded in the final case. Apollo doesn't seem to have enough steam to continue on his own, outside Phoenix's shadow...or maybe there's a lot about him that I (or the creators, for that matter) haven't figured out yet lol.
***
I'm unhappy about how Phoenix Wright's life turned out in Apollo Justice. Even if I inadvertently spoiled myself while checking out the Ace Attorney entry on Wikipedia several months ago (yeah, I know, dumb move... I'm a curious kid lol). I finished Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations fearing the worst, only to be relieved when I realized that, at the time AA: T&T was being made, the creators of the game probably hadn't thought of what would happen to Phoenix in the follow-up to the trilogy. All the same, the sight of hobo!Phoenix in Apollo Justice - and a defendant yet again in the very first case - shocked me. I hadn't thought that he'd changed so much, and yet he had.
Don't get me wrong, I love character development. Even drastic character development, as long as it's justifiable (I'm currently reading George R.R. Martin's Storm of Swords; his idea of character development hurts, and there's always a promise of more hurting to come, yet I keep reading anyway). All the same, painful character development hurts me deeply, especially when the character being developed is a beloved one. Though I hadn't really realized how much I loved Phoenix's character until his whole world fell apart, and I had to see how he ended up afterwards. >.>
I suppose my reaction would be different if Phoenix were a book character. I generally expect this kind of gritty "realism" in my books, and it would make sense given the circumstances of his disbarment. My expectations of anime and anime-ish games, however, is apparently pretty different; I like the optimistic, lighthearted, cute things in anime, and Phoenix Wright's younger self is no exception. He stood for everything good and noble and true, and seeing his dignity smashed to pieces so easily is a very bitter thing indeed. His profile description in Apollo Justice as "formerly an ace attorney of some renown" was galling for the first three cases; I hated seeing it. =_= I also somewhat resented Apollo for taking Phoenix's place as the awkward young rookie stumbling to success in each case; he was lovable, adorkable, everything I enjoyed about the game...only I wished that he hadn't appeared at the cost of Phoenix. :(
When I started playing Apollo Justice, I liked to think of it as an alternate reality. In my mind, Phoenix's real future had him living out his years as an ace attorney, and perhaps retiring in his old age in the company of friends. (If I hadn't spoiled myself before playing Apollo Justice, I would've assumed that Phoenix would be a more-or-less wise mentor to Apollo, the way Mia had been for him.) I resisted the familiar charm of the game, though I was already smitten after the first few minutes with Apollo and Trucy. Before long I was hooked. I was initially worried that I wouldn't finish the game out of frustration because of what happened to Phoenix, yet I found myself playing as intently as I had played the previous three games. The story is just as compelling as the third Ace Attorney game...and perhaps it's because Phoenix is still in center stage, even if he isn't technically in the starring role anymore. The story still revolves around him as it chronicles his fall from grace and subsequent painful rebirth. (I'll admit, I now appreciate how apt his localized first name is.)
I'm still around halfway through the fourth and final case. This case is definitely an oddball, in that it introduces a somewhat different style of gameplay through the MASON System (which, surprise surprise, Phoenix apparently developed), and in that Phoenix addresses the player directly, unlike any previous case in any of the games. It's a strange feeling, having to look into those sweet, sad eyes of his and reading his jaded, sarcastic dialogue. The graphics for the MASON System somewhat resemble the neon green-on-black curtain of characters used in the Matrix movies; they gave me an eerie feeling, as if Phoenix somehow knew that he was fighting against something bigger than his own world, a bit like Sophie from Sophie's World. (I read about this idea of Phoenix knowing he was at the mercy of the game's creators from a thread with similar sentiments to mine...unfortunately I don't remember which thread it is now.) I suppose there's a lot of things I have yet to discover - this is an Ace Attorney game, after all - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm hoping that the ending will be as satisfying as the ending of the third game, considering how heavy the plot material is.
As a final note, I wonder if the reason why Apollo Justice doesn't have a sequel is because Phoenix's story will likely be concluded in the final case. Apollo doesn't seem to have enough steam to continue on his own, outside Phoenix's shadow...or maybe there's a lot about him that I (or the creators, for that matter) haven't figured out yet lol.