It’s always a little weird reviewing Ace Attorney games. Mechanically, they are flawless. These amazing visual novel games function fine, and I’ve never had one randomly crash or glitch out. Which is a good thing, considering that it’s hard enough to keep up with the many twists and turns that players face with each of any given game’s many stories. Or rather “mini” stories, as each case serves like a chapter in a book. In the end, is that resulting “book” any good? is the ultimate question. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, the second game in the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, offers up six chapters (five main and one DLC case) that go big on character growth, making and maintaining connections, and showing off what the series does best: bringing mysteries to light. However, for all its pomp, is Dual Destinies a good “read?” Let’s dive in.

Dual Destines begins with two “big bangs.” The first is the return of Phoenix Wright, who’s back as a full-fledged attorney ready to take on the “dark age of the law.” The second “bang” is a literal one, as the game opens with the bombing of a courtroom, which leaves new ace attorney, Apollo Justice, badly injured. The bombing suspect turns out to be a young girl named Juniper who happens to be the childhood friend of Athena Cykes, a new face in the game and a new lawyer, no less. With Phoenix’s help, the duo helps clear Juniper’s name. From there, we take a trip back to review Athena’s first case, with Apollo in tow. This case ventured into the realm of the supernatural…eh, sort of…as she helped the accused mayor of a small village obsessed with “yokai,” i.e. ghosts, demons, and the like. This case brought onto the scene two primary characters with key roles in the remaining cases: prosecutor with a dark past and seemingly darker future Simon Blackquill and upbeat, justice-driven police detective Bobby Fulbright.

From Athena’s past, we move forward to meet Juniper again, who is now a student at a prestigious legal academy. When she, once again, falsely ends up on the wrong side of the law, Athena and Apollo step in to take on her case. They meet up with several familiar faces, Phoenix’s for one, but also Prosecutor Klavier Gavin, whom Apollo had previously faced. The trial puts Athena to the test, but she rises to the occasion. She and Apollo would be at work again the next case that would eventually lead back to the courtroom bombing, as they sought to clear a famed and somewhat depressed astronaut of murder charges. From there, both Athena and Apollo would be pushed to their limits in the final case. More familiar faces entered the picture – Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth and burgeoning psychic Pearl Fey – and family secrets came to light. All this would lead to good news for the defense team of Athena, Apollo, and Phoenix, very good news for “doomed” Prosecutor Blackquill, and very bad news for, well…let’s just say, justice.

The five main cases in Dual Destinies follow the familiar “turnabout” format – Countdown, Monstrous, Academy, Cosmic, and Tomorrow – providing players with investigation opportunities intermingled with courtroom scenes. Gather up existing evidence during investigations, and then present it as it makes the most sense in court. During investigations and courtroom scenes, characters can make use of their own individual “powers;” Apollo can “perceive” when characters are lying thanks to his bracelet, while Phoenix can break through character’s “psyche-locks” with his magatama to find out what information they are hiding. New character Athena, with her advanced knowledge of analytical psychology, brings to the table her “mood matrix,” a virtual device she uses to detect conflicting emotions. Altogether, these individual mechanics add nicely to story progression and help allay moments of question-answer monotony.

If I have but one issue with Dual Destinies, or rather, one new issue, it concerns its many, many, many lengthy scenes of questioning. Oddball logic leaps persist throughout in matching evidence with statements, which remains the most frustrating part of Ace Attorney games, generally. I did hit unwanted “guilty” verdicts from time to time; but in games that are, remarkably, all about death, the player never dies. I simply started over (and over and over) at the necessary scene to try again. This annoyance I expected. What I didn’t expect was for the game to “talk at” me to the point of becoming confused as to what information mattered. This became especially noticeable and exasperating in the third case, Turnabout Academy. I found its plot to be incredibly confusing both in swapping between staged and real cases and with its large cast of characters, two of whom declared themselves guilty in defense of the accused. Some of the cases’ scenes of questioning felt interminable, with my attention span dwindling as my eyes glazed over. Throughout all the game’s cases, I encountered similar instances of overly long scenes that felt more far more yada-yada-yada than pertinent.

That said, I appreciated meeting so many new and interesting individuals in Dual Destines. Even the “big bad” proved the old idiom of not judging a book by its cover, even though that character’s true fate was not resolved. (Or, at least, not resolved in a meaningful fashion.) Save for some wonderfully animated cut scenes, the game was as voiceless as ever. However, thanks to excellent writing, each character’s “voice” came through loud and clear, from various, quippy inner monologues to exuberant speeches. Nowhere was this more evident than in the game’s DLC case, which involved, of all things, an aquatic creature being accused of murder in a pirate-themed fantasy, of sorts. The Ace Attorney games work best when they stretch beyond the bounds of reality. I may not remember every single case I’ve played from beginning to end, but I’ll always remember cross-examining a parrot in a previous game, and now a new animal in the case Turnabout Reclaimed. Talk about memories to treasure!

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is am enjoyable game that builds up and out from previous games in the series. It swings for the fences and eventually, and slowly at points, rounds the bases to bring us back home to find Phoenix Wright where he belongs, as the head of his own legal firm that will take on any case, no matter how big, small, or strange. With partners Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes at his side, along with a huge cast of supporters (and detractors), there’s nothing he can’t accomplish. Dual Destines’ main stories do grow a bit word weary at times, and its non-chronological approach to storytelling can be confusing, but the game has a lot to say. Most of the time, it relays what it needs to well enough, but it’s stories are not hiccup-free.

With how things went for our now-famed legal trio here, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how things go for them in the third and final game of this Ace Attorney trilogy. Spirit of Justice, here I come!

All images, including lede, were captured by author during Nintendo Switch gameplay of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (© Nintendo).