Lets put it this way, yes the AA games are about the gameplay. However, the gameplay always stays nearly the same, which means if you like the gameplay in one, you'll probably like the gameplay in all of them. The story however, is what makes or breaks the games. For the most part, people here will generally like the three original games, but if you ask which one is the best you'll get differing views. General fan consensus is that JFA is not as good as the original, not because of the gameplay (it adds the Magatama) but because of the story.


Firstly, I'm sure a lot of people here don't passionately love the AA series. They like it, sure but part of the reason they're here might be because this forum happens to be a really good one. Secondly, it's just come out in the US so you can't really give such a sweeping generalisation. Thirdly, if you look at the CR poll you'll see that out of the people who've finished the game, nearly half of them loved it. I think that's pretty good going. :3

Besides, on a personal note, I loved it. And the fan consensus doesn't reflect the public consensus that bought a record amount of copies. True, they'll probably change some things; but I don't think they'll change it drastically and I'd be pretty PO'd if they did. New protragonist, new rules. ^_^

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Can't agree with that. I thought Phoenix had changed a bit, yes, but not such a lot - this is what he is when you can't see his inner thoughts as in the first three games. He is somewhat smug.

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Well, at least for me, I didn't like JFA as much as the original for two main reasons:
1) Only four cases. Okay, fine, the original version of AA (GBA version) only had four, but I'm judging them by the remakes. They added an entirely new case that was possibly the longest in the game to AA. It's disappointing, therefore that JFA only had four.
2) The typos. I think there were more typos in JFA than in the other three games combined, including "the "miracle" never happen" which is on the level of "all your base are belong to us." Fine, I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a grammar freak. I personally don't think in this day and age any typos are permissible in a video game, but JFA just stretched my limits, especially because it had so many compared to the other ones.
3) Otherwise I thought it was of the same quality as the previous game (except for the first half of 2-2), though I did dislike how infrequently your lifebar is restored. It did it a lot more in the original, and the way it's set up now it pretty much forces you to to the save/restart trick if you want to get through.

I really thought the story was of the same quality as AA, it was the typos and shortness that really rubbed me the wrong way. And I'd definitely put it above AP in quality, even with the typos. Compared to "Farewell, My Turnabout", "Turnabout Succession" is really nothing. Even though I kind of got some parts of it spoiled for me (like who the murderer was), "Farewell, My Turnabout" was just plain awesome all the way through. I personally think its climax might have been the best of any PW game. "Turnabout Succession" was average, then pretty good, then below average the rest of the way (including the "climax" if it can be called that). I seriously thought "Turnabout Serenade" felt more like a final case than Turnabout Succession.

I think there's probably a good chance of Maya or Edgeworth showing up in 5, at this point. GS4 probably owed a lot of its sales to people being curious about this crazy hobo that Phoenix has become - from a marketing perspective it was a great move, because it got everyone talking like crazy. Unless GS5 announces a shocker like that before it's released, it might not stand a chance.

Which is a shame, because they could probably slap Godot on the cover of 5 and I'd still buy it, that's how much I want to know what happens next XD;;;

But if they hint towards Edgeworth, maybe give him some hot glasses...that might do the trick and earn enough curiosity from fans that they'll be willing to give Apollo another chance.

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