Ace Attorney!

[autumnal.]

Tumblr is usually very positive about everything. It's rare to see people criticize something on there, so that's probably why.

[Apollo Justice]

I think I actually saw someone's rant on how SoJ was/was going to be a terrible game, but that was a while ago and I didn't save it. Other than that, I don't think I've seen anyone critically critiquing anything.

[NormalHero]

I do know a few people who absolutly despise anything after Apollo Justice. But at the same time I think they came into DD and SoJ with a sour taste in their mouth already so it just came down to trying to find anything wrong with it. They just hated the fact that the arc that AJ could have made was interrupted. So now they just kind of hate anything that isn't Apollo and his relationships as seen in AJ. It's like you can't even make a joke criticizing a plot hole or some aspect of a character design in either game without them going off on a tangent on how bad they think they game is. Basically they are not very fun to talk to

[autumnal.]

I knew that there are people that refuse to move on from the Phoenix trilogy but I had no idea that there were people who were like that with AJ. And...what arcs exactly weren't tied up? There's the obvious one that was teased at the end of SoJ, but that's it. We found out what happened to Phoenix, we figured out why it happened, and we took down the main villain. Are the black psyche locks what they're hung up on? DD did kind of shoot themselves in the foot by saying that they're secrets that the person isn't even aware of, therefore meaning that Kristoph didn't know what his own motivations were and was just psychotic enough to do kill someone for apparently no reason. ...Which, actually, is completely possible, by the by. Some people are just really messed in the head.

[NormalHero]

Yeah I'm surprised by the number of people that are such purists about AJ. Possibly because it was the first game they played so it feels like the true AA game to them, anything that deviates from that is poorly done in their eyes, similar to what the purists of the PW trilogy can be like. In my opinion I didn't think AJ was that great of a game, I don't dislike it but I don't think it's one of the best. I love Apollo as a character, but the game itself seemed like it didn't really know where it wanted to go. One minute it was about Apollo, the next about Phoenix and don't even get me started on how many plot holes that whole jumping between timelines thing made. A lot of people complained that SoJ focused too much on old characters, but isn't that what ended up happening in AJ? They introduced this new character, it was supposed to be about him but in the end it didn't do Apollo justice (hehe), and ended up trying to push a Phoenix story, but that's just my take on it, it's not like I think less of people who make it their fav, I'm sure they think my choice of favorites is weak too. I liked SoJ because I think it did a good job of giving some amount of closure about Apollo.
I've heard a few fans that say that black psyche locks may not have one single meaning. Fans who believe that the mystery of Kristoph's psyche locks has been solved say that the reason they were black was to give the vital role of breaking Kristoph down to Apollo. They were black because nothing would make Kristoph confess to Phoenix. Kristoph refused to let Phoenix win. The question that made the psyche locks spring was 'why did you kill Shadi Smith?'. Apollo pieces together Kristoph's plot in trial to seal his guilt, and that is what leads to his breakdown and ultimately breaks his locks.

[autumnal.]

I definitely can get behind the multiple reasons for black psyche locks theory, and I think Apollo inadvertently breaking them makes a lot of sense. Phoenix doesn't have any reasons to tell Apollo this and since we're playing as Apollo, the player won't learn this either. I do wish the game cleared some stuff like that up a little. And then Phoenix using evidence ... from the future. In a simulator. I'm starting to think Phoenix is a time lord, despite what he claims in 6-1.

Wait, people are complaining that SoJ focused too much on old characters too? But...but...we already have three main characters. The game was literally advertised to be personal to the already-existing characters. Apollo's history with the main prosecutor and history in general, Maya's return to the series after nearly ten years, the threat of the WAA being taken away, etc..

[NormalHero]

Yeah the jumping around through time thing is so confusing to me. I mean PW v PL has a lot of plot holes but it doesn't bother me that much because the game wasn't relevant to the timeline, unlike AJ where the events directly impact the storyline of the series.I can deal with Phoenix chronologically going through and holding onto evidence that would be relivent in ye future but he literally goes back in time to present evidence from the future. Phoenix is like a god of time in AJ and its just never spoken of again.

Yeah that's why a lot of the criticism confuses me. They complained about DD because it doesn't have Apollo backstory, but then a game comes along that has Apollo's backstory and new characters that are relevant to that backstory, but it's not the right backstory? I could see if the backstory was poorly written or disregarded what we know of Apollo's past already, but it did a pretty good job I think. Some say it's lazy but I dint really see what is lazy about it. I don't know what they were expecting.
As for the bringing back old characters criticism, they brought back only 2 characters, Ema and Maya, and it's not like either of them got in the way of Apollo's story. Heck Ema is already relivent to Apollo's story, she was in AJ, and DD hinted to a Maya return so it's not like they couldn't deliver at that point.

[autumnal.]

I think the criticism for Apollo's backstory mainly comes from how bizarre it was and that it came out of pretty much nowhere. It didn't contradict anything we knew about him prior to SoJ (he had a friend in grade school, his father died in a stage accident, and he probably grew up in an orphanage; I doubt he was fostered). I can actually kind of understand where it's coming from though--Apollo was raised by a rebel leader somewhere near Nepal. And also the aforementioned rebel leader married the queen of this country so that technically means Apollo could have been adopted royalty. Oh, and his foster brother's the prince, and through adoption, he may or may not be distantly related to the Fey Clan. Yeah, it's weird. The less you think about it the better, I think. I can understand people not really getting behind his backstory, but I'll definitely take it.

Phoenix has the most normal backstory in the game and he was nearly poisoned by his sorta-girlfriend-but-not-really-because-it-was-her-twin-sister-pretending-to-be-his-girlfriend-but-his-actual-girlfriend-was-pretending-to-be-the-twin-pretending-to-be-her. And Athena stabbed a superspy who wanted to steal a spacerock and had two robots, are hardcore weeb, and a hippie as her BFFs.

[NormalHero]

No normal backstories ever, and they all have to tie to someone else's past as well
I don't really think males have any real ruling power in Khur'ain or even any kind of royal title. Inga for example is just referred to as Justice Minister Inga, and his power is limited enforcing the queen's laws. Since you need to have spiritual power to rule, and only the women in the line have the ability to even have it. Dhurke isn't really royalty, he's just the husband of the queen who helped her bear a daughter who would be the future ruler, and Nayhuta is never even regarded as a prince, he's just a monk who assists in the queen's legal system who happens to be the son of the queen but could never actually rule. And it's not like Amara would have wed another royalty, as there's really no purpose to it and Khur'ain likes to keep to itself as a small spiritually based country. So Amara marrying Dhurke isn't really all that impressive if it just came down to he happened to be the average joe she decided to wed because she needed to continue her lineage. And who knows what Khur'ain's population size is like, so I guess we can't get reliable odds as to the likelihood that Dhurke would be Amara's chosen husband
But that's me just over analyzing again as I do

[autumnal.]

Ah, no worries! Over-analyzing things is one of the most fun things to do ever, so it's fine, haha.

The reason Nahyuta isn't regarded as a prince is because he got disowned, with the whole "sins of the father" thing Khura'in has got going on, and how Ga'ran was able to blackmail him using Rayfa. Dhurke referred to himself as former royalty when talking to Apollo in the detention center as well. I agree with you, though; the title doesn't really do much, but they're still regarded as such, I think. They just acknowledge them for other things because it's something they accomplished themselves rather than being born into it, and the people respect it more. I think Phoenix even acknowledges that the titles of prince and king don't mean much when he's talking to Inga in case three. I think it went something like, "Yeah, I'm married to the queen so that means that I'm the king," and Phoenix thinks to himself that they all know who's really in charge.