Isn't violence against hair a crime, Your Honor?

(Warning: contains spoilers for Apollo Justice)

I am very happy to be analyzing the story for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney a full seven months after I finished the first three Ace Attorney games. It gives me a fresher look at the characters, and I've lost most of my animosity for the replacement of Phoenix.
Oh course, it helps that Phoenix happens to be the defendant in the very first case! As immersed as I am in the fandom of GyakuSai (short for Gyakuten Saiban, the original Japanese title for the Ace Attorney games), I honestly had NO IDEA Phoenix would make a cameo in this game. From what I can tell, he's going to play an important part in the plot point that ties together each case...so why the heck isn't he on the cover?! 7 years after Trials and Tribulations and Phoenix has lost his badge and become a piano playing hobo and an expert poker player, sporting facial hair and what appears to be a beanie that says "Papa" on it. Okay wait. Blogs should have an automatic reject button for when I blabber on about fandom for too long. I'm really here to analyze the story.

I've completed the first case: "Turnabout Trump", which, as I had expected based on my knowledge of the previous games, was the one-day, beginner court case that doesn't involve any prior investigation. The prosecutor for every beginning case is wimpy Winston Payne (complete with 7 more years of balding), and the judge is still the same blissfully confused old man.
Apollo Justice, on the other hand, I actually feel sorry for. He's so cute and innocent...and I believe only 22 years old.





Here's our first glimpse of the main hero.






Apollo finds himself dropped into his first case as a defense attorney, originally supposed to go to his mentor, Kristoph Gavin. Kristoph and Phoenix appear to be friends, but there's some sort of hard to describe tension brewing between them as Phoenix insists on using Apollo as his attorney instead of his friend. Poor ickle Apollo is terrified of defending someone like the great Phoenix Wright (although he apparently knows more about Phoenix's tragic downfall than I do). It doesn't help that Kristoph Gavin is an inherently terrifying person, unlike the beautiful ghost of Mia Fey who used to help Phoenix out.





Kristoph Gavin: a man who would not get away with that hair in real life.






It was clear from the very beginning of the case that Phoenix was going to be the one leading Apollo through this battle, instead of this creepy Kristoph bloke. And he did. I felt a bit unneeded during this court case. Like, that Phoenix could have represented himself or something. Because he gave me a million vague, metaphorical hints in order to prove my client innocent. The plot of the case was simple: A man with a pun-tastic name (Shadi Smith) was murdered in a bar by Phoenix Wright after a poker game. After cross-examining both Phoenix and the typical two-faced witness (Olga Orly- last name clearly for the Internet fans), it is revealed that the murderer was actually Kristoph Gavin. Woah. Wait, isn't it supposed to work like this: Kristoph Gavin : Apollo Justice :: Mia Fey : Phoenix Wright ????






Phoenix's finger: doing what it does best.





What? Apollo's unemployed already? And what's with Phoenix's daughter who he clearly did not have with Maya Fey?

Underlying plot: My guess is that Phoenix's mysterious daughter (who I'm going to assume is adopted, judging by her age), the locket with said daughter's picture (which was around the victim's neck), and the court case that stripped the great Phoenix Wright of his lawyer status will play heavy roles in the Turnabouts that follow. Daughter seems cute and peppy enough to play the role of my sidekick, so I'm going to assume we will see her again. At the end of the case, Phoenix asks Apollo to come work for him. I don't know how this is going to play out, considering he's not a lawyer anymore.

Appeal: Although the first case never has much of a mystery, I was drawn into the game because of the anticipation that more is to come. A lot of foreshadowing has been chucked in my face here. In Trials and Tribulations, 3 of the 5 cases were tied together and had an underlying plot that had me screaming in surprise as the story unfolded. With Phoenix as a main plot point in Apollo Justice, I can already tell this game will be epic. My only worry is that some might not appreciate the Phoenix Wright-based story if they've never played the other Ace Attorney games.

Apollo Justice is bound to become an expert lawyer by the end of the game. Twisted murder plots always seem to find the main characters in the Ace Attorney games. My guess is that Apollo will be relatively close to a couple of those murders. It already happened in the first case.





"Grace juice"...sure.










Ooooh. The plot thickens in the very first Turnabout!