LogFAQs > #980045218

9/10

Okay now I get to ramble a bit about this and 5-4. The biggest problem I have with this case and the previous one is actually Aura Blackquill.

Specifically, that she's maybe the best new character to come out of Apollo Justice Trilogy. She commands every scene she's in right from her introduction. She fits the theme of the dark age of law as a person with no connection to the law completely broken by the terrible system screwing her over about as hard as possible into doing something awful out of sheer desperation to save an innocent family member, and she is the perfect villain for this chapter in the story. She even gets a fantastic Bad End, and she corrupts Apollo over to her side, which isn't even the 'bad' side, just a misguided one to show how Apollo is just as broken as she is. Aura is the standout star of Dual Destinies, not Athena, or Simon, or Phoenix.

...And then she disappears about 75% of the way through this case to make way for the real villain, the Phantom, whom...I kinda wish they had done something like introduce Fulbright's family at some point to make it cut deeper. Going from the very personal grudge of Aura to the extremely impersonal Phantom feels like a step down, and this drags down the 5-4 ending to me by making the attempts to frame Athena feel like...just doing it for the sake of doing it instead of some truly wicked plot.

Of course, despite my criticisms, that I give this case an 9/10 should say all it has to about how fantastic of a 'villain' Aura Blackquill is. She carries this case as far as the story will let her, and I hope that if the next Ace Attorney Trilogy (if it happens) has Athena in more of a leading role that we get Aura back, in all her damaged, bitter glory.