For longer cases, an additional investigation/courtroom sequence or two are added, but the general structure remains the same. After a short, courtroom-only introductory case, the rest of the cases play out similarly - an anime cutscene introduces the murder, Phoenix, Apollo, and/or Athena show up on scene to investigate, and then present their findings in a courtroom sequence. The structure of the game will be familiar to any who have played any of the previous installments. It’s our own legal system taken to the extreme - while nothing in American jurisprudence is as blatant or overt as what occurs in Phoenix Wright, we’re reminded that we still live in a country where local prosecutors are often politicians looking to move up, and defense attorneys are paid to defend their client at all costs. It’s in a similar environment Dual Destinies takes place - Apollo, Phoenix, and new attorney Athena Cykes try cases, defend clients, and try to put an end to the Dark Age of the Law while sticking to their morals. It becomes a vicious cycle, and gets to the point the top legal academy in the country begins training it students to win at all costs, teaching that the ends always justify the means. If the prosecution is convicting by any means necessary, defense attorneys have to fabricate evidence to defend the innocent. Attorneys begin resorting to underhanded tactics to win cases - if Phoenix Wright was fabricating evidence to save his clients, why shouldn’t they? If defense attorneys are going to fabricate evidence, the prosecution needs to find a way to secure convictions. With two of the best attorneys on both sides of the aisle disgraced, the public loses faith in the system. Because of his talents, he’s still allowed to try cases while incarcerated, and is your main opponent in this installment of the series. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies (3DS )ĭual Destinies takes place after the events of Apollo Justice, in a time that the game refers to (over, and over, and over) as the “Dark Age of the Law.” Shortly after Phoenix’s disbarment in the early events of Apollo Justice for unintentionally producing false evidence thanks to Kristoph, Simon Blackquill, a rising star of the prosecutor’s office, was indicted and found guilty of murder. What happens when and if the public loses trust in the legal system entirely? How do you define justice? And, most importantly, what happens when “winning” becomes more important than finding the truth?
Despite the inherent ridiculousness of the Phoenix Wright series’ depictions of a courtroom, with over the top witnesses, constant objections, and streamers and confetti as a verdict is announced, Dual Destinies actually raises some valid questions about the legal process and how our courtrooms work. As someone who has been involved in numerous criminal trials and has been on both sides of the courtroom in murder cases, I’ve confronted these issues head-on through my own work, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them discussed in an over-the-top fictional courtroom game. However, these themes and ideas were introduced in the games’ final cases, usually brought out as a surprise near the end, and touched upon only briefly.ĭual Destinies uses all five cases to discuss much broader themes that are directly relevant to the real-world legal system. Apollo Justice came close when it examined the idea and consequences of a jurist system (something Japan was about to re-implement at the time, and an idea disappointingly dropped completely from this installment), and Justice for All posed an ethical dilemma in its final case when Phoenix discovered his client was actually guilty (although the solution to that dilemma was a cop-out).
Previous entries in the Ace Attorney series never examined the legal system beyond surface commentary. You can help the Ace Attorney Wiki by expanding it. This article is a stub or is otherwise incomplete. " Dual Destinies - Ending" is a music track in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies that plays during the closing credits upon completing Turnabout for Tomorrow.
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