Hit me with the guilty verdict, G!

I love talking about the characters in pretty much any series I've seen, read, played, or heard about. And the reason I love the Ace Attorney games so much is primarily for the dynamic characters. I've heard Apollo Justice described as being a "novel disguised as a game". To some extent, I agree. Although I would probably amend this to say that it's an anime disguised as a game, at least in the department of characters. All of the characters in the game are created for the game, which classifies them all as fantasy characters. Since it's supposed to take place in modern-day Japan (or possibly San Fransisco in the English version), I'd have to classify them all as human characters as well.

I played through the second case, "Turnabout Corner", and I can already tell that our protagonist Apollo is going to be a transformational character. The weird part about playing as Apollo is that it's seems to be first-person POV for half of time (during investigation), and third-person for the rest (the trial). The only way I know what Apollo is doing during the investigation is by his running commentary. I said in a previous post that I felt sorry for Apollo...and I guess I still do. He's such a scaredy cat during both investigation and trial.

But! As you can see in the bottom two pics, some confidence is already transforming this poor lawyer's heart. Or...at least he understands what the lawbooks tell him (I can't say the same for Phoenix). The farther along I got into the case, the less he seemed to hide behind his assistant. This may be due to the fact that the prosecutor, who is supposed to be the antagonist (at least as far as I remembers from the previous games. The prosecutor in Justice For All actually knocks Phoenix unconscious with a whip in the middle of the courtroom) is actually not intimidating. AT ALL. The prosecutor, Klavier Gavin is actually the biggest playboy I've ever seen, and he hardly pays attention to the trial! I'm beginning to wonder if Klavier is also going to be a transformational character. Probably not for the good, however. We can't have him helping out the defense all the time like that sissy Edgeworth always did. Hahaha Edgeworth was such a pansy...okay I'll stop. We're talking about Klavier here.

The verbal interaction with Klavier Gavin clearly suggests that he is going to be obnoxiously German and obnoxiously...well, this:

I'm liking Klavier's character design. He's clearly hotter than Apollo will ever be, making him perfect for winning over the judge and getting witnesses to say whatever he wants them to. I certainly hope he actually does these things in the next couple cases...because otherwise I'm not going to have much trouble defeating him in court.

The fact that Apollo put Klavier's older brother in jail has been brought up numerous times. I'm just taking a wild guess here...but maybe the reason he's suddenly the prosecutor is because he wants revenge? Certainly it's not because he's in love with the defense attorney (I'm talking to you, Edgeworth...).

The characters reveal everything through dialogue in this game. Actually, dialogue is all that really happens in this game, hence the "novel disguised as a game" accusation. We do get some signature movements, however, that apparently Phoenix was too much of a hobo to copywright. Haha get it? Copywright. I'm so sorry ><.

Apollo Justice, getting his Objection on.





Speaking of Phoenix, he'll be Apollo's mentor for the duration of the game. He's not exactly going to help me with much, though...because these seven years has somehow changed him from a kickass defense attorney to Mr. Vague.

Backstory!!! We're getting Phoenix's backstory!!!! Yes, it's just in a passing comment...but I know we're going to at some point be dealing directly with that case from seven years ago. I'm looking at that ridiculous "Papa" hat on his head, and remembering that I haven't introduced my lovely assistant--Trucy Wright! Magician extraordinaire, Phoenix Wright's "daughter", and a person who clearly knows more about law than Apollo (which means she also knows more than her father).

Trucy is cute, I'll give her that. Her commentary is hilarious and very reminiscent of Maya Fey. I don't think a fifteen year old girl is going to become the love interest for Apollo...but I think she's going to provide a lot of needed comic relief in this game. She's an ally-type character, helping me out with pretty much EVERY task that needs accomplishing. Not that I wouldn't be able to figure it out myself...but Apollo's apparently a very incompetent cross-examiner at this point in the game.

Judging by some of the one-liner comedy that's already come up during investigation, it's pretty obvious that these two are becoming fast friends. However, if she weren't already on my side, I'd have to call her a "trickster" type character...mostly due to the theatrics she's been displaying in the courtroom. Visually, I'd say her outfit fits her personality extraordinarily well.

Another character I'm going to just briefly mention (mostly because I don't know enough about her yet) is Ema Skye, the lovely police detective in charge of investigation. I'm glad she's not a complete dumbass like the previous detective was (his name- Dick Gumshoe. Yeah. Seriously). She's CLEARLY in love with Phoenix in a similar fashion to how Edgeworth was CLEARLY in love with Phoenix. The police detective character's job is to NOT help you out with your own investigation...while also inadvertently giving you all the information, clues, and evidence you need to get through the trial. At the very least, Ema's a neutral character who looks like she might play some sort of part in the assumed final trial dealing with Phoenix. I just have a hunch about these things.

Ema Skye, telling Apollo about her previous role in Death Note.




I'm not going to get much into the minor characters, as they change with each case. But one important thing to point out about the random people you meet while investigating is that you NEVER KNOW when one of them might turn up as a witness. Also, you NEVER KNOW when the sweet, innocent girl you meet in front of the local Japanese mafia's house might just turn out to be a cold-blooded killer. Even prosecutors themselves turned out to be murderers in the previous Ace Attorney games...so I wouldn't put it past Klavier to suddenly try and kill Trucy in the middle of the courtroom. That's how we know these cases don't actually take place in a true court system.

A character triangle is apparent between the defense attorney, the defendant, and the prosecutor. However, judging by this particular case's defendant...who was innocent but really wanted a guilty verdict...I'd say it's not always going to be that easy to figure out who's on my side. The odd theatrics displayed by the prosecutor and the witnesses help to bring out Apollo's true colors as a defense attorney. Sadly, Apollo's not one for theatrics himself (the complete opposite of Phoenix, who once cross-examined a radio).