As a man who once worked in the legal sphere, I’ve always wanted to give Capcom’s Ace Attorney series a shot, but for one reason or another I never did. I was happy to be assigned this new game, however, as it would finally give me a chance to see what I’d been missing! After the first two games, Capcom has seemingly dropped Phoenix Wright from the title and replaced him with rookie defense attorney Apollo Justice, and thus the series begins anew…or does it?

Apollo Justice is basically a point-and-click text adventure. Half of the game takes place in a courtroom while the other half involves investigating cases. The game opens with a murder case in which the defendant (and supposed killer) is one Phoenix Wright himself! Don’t worry—I’m not giving anything away. One of the perks of Apollo Justice is that nothing is as it initially seems. Your job is to tap through paragraphs upon paragraphs of surprisingly well-written dialogue before cross-examining the witness, which really just leads to more talking. When you notice a contradiction in the witness’s testimony, you can reach into your trusty court record and whip out some evidence to expose their lies! It’s all very dramatic and well-paced. If you pull the wrong evidence, the judge will penalize you. Enough penalties result in a “Guilty” verdict, and you lose!

Thus, in any cross-examination, your options are limited. You know that some crucial piece of evidence will progress the story, but the challenge is to carefully listen to the facts, make connections, and present a good case. In addition to trying to figure out connections between testimony and evidence, you must look over diagrams of crime scenes, analyze spatial relationships, and make on-the-spot decisions about the direction in which to take your inquiry. Sometimes there are consequences, and other times the story moves forward in a way you never saw coming! The storytelling aspect of the game has a certain soap opera flair to it, but there’s nothing quite like revealing a witness’s lie and watching them crumble in defeat. During cross-examination, you can hold down the Y button, then speak into the mic (“Hold it!” or “Objection!”) to activate further questioning or evidence presentation (or just tap those buttons on the Touch Screen).

During investigations you basically do nothing but read. You can investigate scenes by tapping areas of a static image and then tapping “Examine,” which leads to…more reading. You can talk to witnesses by tapping “Talk,” and then the topic you want to discuss, which gets monotonous. It’s lucky the writing is so good, or this game would be a snoozer.

Pieces of evidence can be viewed on a 3D viewer and rotated to see every angle. Suspicious things (like a splotch of paint) will cause the “Examine” button to appear so that you can take a closer look. Some of the forensic tools are fun to use; for example, fingerprinting powder has you tap powder over the screen and then blow it all away using the mic to reveal a print. However, the menu navigation feels pretty robotic after a while.

What’s more, your next goal isn’t always clear. If you miss one little thing during a scene examination the plot will not progress, and you’ll be left wondering why nobody will talk to you anymore. Additionally, some of the questions posed to you in the courtroom aren’t well-worded. For instance, during the very first case, you’re asked to look at a diagram of the murder scene, with colored dots marking the people in the room. You are then asked, “Which person’s location is a contradiction?” Huh? What does that even MEAN? After some trial and error, I came to realize that the question really meant “given this most recent piece of evidence, and given where everybody in the room was facing, which person’s position doesn’t add up?” There are actually quite a few times when badly-worded questions leave you unsure of what you’re supposed to do.

At least the game looks good. Nothing is animated in the traditional sense. Rather, detailed cartoony characters flip between different poses in a very anime-like manner. It works, in part thanks to the light flashes and camera shakes that go along with them. To go along with the dramatic posturing, the music is similarly overzealous, at least in the courtroom. And of course, while there is no spoken dialogue (besides “hold it!” and “objection!”), it’s very easy to imagine a different voice for each character. The writers were careful to imbue Apollo, Trucy, Phoenix, Gavin, and everybody else with a distinct personality.

Overall, Apollo Justice is a good game, but it comes with a few caveats. First, you have to like reading, because this game is essentially a book. Second, your patience for menu-based dialogue trees and environmental interaction must be high. Finally, you should be willing to take a few cheap hits from poorly-worded questions. If you can do all that, then Apollo Justice is a very fun “game,” even though it’s really a mystery novella.