History VisualNovel / ApolloJusticeAceAttorney

** Alita Tiala hires Apollo as a defense attorney when her fiancé is accused of the murder she committed.
** Kristoph Gavin planted a fake diary page on Phoenix to get him disbarred for presenting forged evidence. In order to avoid suspicion, he voted against disbarring Phoenix, the only member of the Bar Association to do so. Seven years later, he serves as co-counsel to Phoenix when he's accused of a murder committed by Kristoph.

* OffModel: When Klavier is rendered in 3D in the concert, his skin looks very orange.

[[caption-width-right:300:He is as [[NoIndoorVoice loud]] as he [[LargeHam looks]]. And [[BunnyEarsLawyer surprisingly reliable]].]]


->''"A bold New hero has claimed the defense's bench!"''
-->--from the first English trailer of Apollo Justice

** It may also double as a CriticalResearchFailure for American players and, weirdly, a BrokenAesop with regard to the law being absolute. [[spoiler:Short form:''intent follows the bullet.'' Whomever laced the items with poison did so with the intent to murder the recipients. The time-elapse and the fact that Drew Misham was the one to lick the stamp is irrelevant (transferred intent). On the issue of intent, the law ''is''; if not absolute, certainly ''very clear'' with no room for debate. It wouldn't be ''exciting'' gameplay to track down an invoice for the specific poison and connect it to Kristoph, but that would be more useful evidence.]]

* SpinOffspring: [[spoiler:Apollo turns out to be Trucy's brother, and by extension Phoenix's step-son.]]

* NothingIsScarier: One part of the MASON segment in Case 4 has [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright ask Kristoph Gavin in his cell about his motive for murdering Zak Gramarye. Said prompt triggers Phoenix's Magatama and displays five psyche-locks. ''Black ones''. After returning back to the cell upon clearing all other MASON segments, Phoenix examines a yellow envelope, taking advantage of Kristoph's absence, which ends up being the last item needed to complete the roster. Kristoph immediately confronts Phoenix and chastizes him for searching his cell without permission. The MASON segment comes to an abrupt end. The explanation behind the black psyche-locks is never revealed in the game nor does Phoenix/Apollo ever get a chance at unlocking them, though the next entry in the series, ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyDualDestinies'', provides a plausible origin]].

* MagicFeather: Zig-Zagged. Apollo's ability to hyperfocus is innate -- two other members of his family have it -- and not something caused by his bracelet. However, the bracelet helps him know ''when'' to start focusing on something, so it's a massive help.

** The third case resembles ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' in that the pattern followed by the killer appears to mirror something (the seven trumpets of Revelation in the book, the Guitar's Serenade lyrics here), and not only it turns out to be a coincidence after all, but when this theory is discussed openly, the killer decides to run with it, which complicates things further.

* BreakingOldTrends: This is the first game in the series in which the final case does not have a different prosecutor than the second and third cases. Even ''Trials and Tribulations'', which had Godot as the prosecutor for the second half of the final trial, had Franziska replace him in the first half.

Set seven years after the [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright Trilogy]], the story follows a young and eager HotBlooded lawyer called Apollo Justice. Apollo idolizes the famous "turnabout attorney" Phoenix Wright... but Phoenix has fallen on hard times, having been disbarred following a shady scandal involving forged evidence.

* NothingIsScarier: The end of the MASON segment in Case 4 has [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright go to Kristoph Gavin's cell one last time, only to notice that he isn't there. After investigating a yellow envelope which ends up being the last item needed to complete the roster for the upcoming trial, Kristoph confronts Phoenix and chastizes him for searching his cell without his permission. After Phoenix asks Kristoph for information regarding the case as a whole, Phoenix's Magatama displays five psyche-locks. ''Black ones''. The MASON segment comes to an abrupt end. The explanation behind the black psyche-locks is never revealed in the game nor does Phoenix/Apollo ever get a chance at unlocking them, though the next entry in the series, ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyDualDestinies'', provides a plausible origin]].

* OddballInTheSeries: Has been left as this for numerous reasons, including being the only main-series game to be specifically designed for the DS, the only game in the franchise (not counting the two ''Investigations'' and ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'' games) in which Phoenix Wright is not the main player character, a very different soundtrack style to any of the other games, and an emphasis on "scientific investigation" minigames that was massively toned down in all the entries that followed. Lessened a little after the release of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', which gave Apollo near-equal prominence to Phoenix, had this game's composer come back to do some work on the soundtrack, and added in a few more scientific investigation segments (though less than in this game).

*** [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright]] said the Jurist System was needed to improve the flawed justice system and avoid the dark age of law he knew was coming. However, the Jurist System is never used or even mentioned again after this game, implying that [[spoiler:Phoenix]] lost interest in trying to implement it after gaining his vindication.

* NotProven: It always comes close to this in the franchise, but this game really emphasizes this flaw of the legal system. Two cases exemplify it the best:

%%* ArcWords:
%%** Any variation on "seven years ago".
%%** "Darkness" is frequently used. [[spoiler:It's used by people associated with the case done seven years ago.]]

* ArcWords:
** Any variation on "seven years ago".
%%***Apollo even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how often it comes up. '''Please cite the lampshade'''.
** "Darkness" is frequently used. [[spoiler:It's used by people associated with the case done seven years ago.]]

* AdultFear:
** [[spoiler: Kristoph Gavin]] tries to kill [[spoiler: ''a 12-year-old girl'', Vera.]] The method? So utterly ''sneaky'' and "innocent": [[spoiler: since the girl has the bad habit of biting on her nails, he'll just put poison in her nail polish bottles, so she'll ingest it while seeking solace for her ShrinkingViolet nature.]] Not only it's sneaky, but like a punch in the gut since it involves [[spoiler: attacking a shy little girl when she's at her most vulnerable]] - and not exactly easy to discover.
** It also invokes the fear of losing your career and reputation over something you didn't even do [[spoiler: which is what happened to Phoenix]].
** In the last trial, Klavier Gavin [[spoiler:has to face that his older brother Kristoph, whom he seems to respect very much, is a psychopath who murdered someone, tried to murder another person, and used Klavier himself as an UnwittingPawn to get Phoenix disbarred. It's obvious the idea that he wrongly accused Phoenix has been tormenting him for years, ''and his own brother was behind it''.]]
** Wocky Kitaki is [[spoiler:shot by a rival gang member, then the operation to remove the bullet is aborted and covered up by a corrupt surgeon since he's not skilled enough to remove it by himself and he fears that admitting his inability to remove the bullet or attempting and failing to do so would both result in having him being killed in retaliation, leaving Wocky in a condition that can potentially kill him at any time and hopefully absolving the surgeon of any consequences when he does. All of this combined is enough to convince his hardened gangster of a father to get out of the mob game completely.]]

* AdjustingYourGlasses: Kristoph Gavin tends to do this. [[spoiler:Of the "by the bridge" variety, naturally, and he combines it with ScaryShinyGlasses. Also serves as his equivalent of FingerTenting, as his hand completely obscures the lower half of his face when he does it.]]

* NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin, the so-called "Coolest Defense in the West"]], is portrayed as a very calm and level-headed person. Where many other Ace Attorney villains would react to incriminating evidence and inconsistencies being pointed out in their testimony with flamboyant, over-the-top [[{{WildTake}} Wild Take]]s, [[spoiler:Kristoph]] responds mostly with annoyed frowns, eye-twitches and [[AdjustingYourGlasses adjusting his glasses]] to make them [[ScaryShinyGlasses reflect light in creepy ways]]. Even his first VillainousBreakdown is tame compared to others in the series, as he just pounds his fist on the desk in frustration rather than, say, strangling himself with his scarf or repeatedly banging his head on the wall. He maintains his calm demeanor until the end of the game, when he learns that [[spoiler:a ''jury'' will be deciding the verdict of the trial he is testifying for (and is the true guilty party of). This REALLY pisses him off, and he goes off the handle about how their inferior minds cannot make judgments in a court of law. When Apollo reveals that the one responsible for getting a jury assigned to this trial was Phoenix Wright, he completely flips out, screaming Wright's name as his hair flies up in a torrent of fury and he is reduced to a twitching, disheveled, seething wreck, a far cry from the composed man seen just minutes before. After the Not Guilty verdict is declared, he just starts [[LaughingMad laughing insanely]].]]

* ScaryShinyGlasses: [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin]] combines this with AdjustingYourGlasses. During one Perceive session, you get a close-up view of the glasses that allows you to see through the reflection and into the hidden eyes: [[KubrickStare There's a reason he was hiding them.]]

* AnimeHair: Daryan has a 'do that's oddly suggestive (FanNickname: Dickhead), Drew Misham's looks like half of its hair was frozen at an angle from its head in the shape of a painting brush, and the Gavin brothers' hair forms a G at the side while the lower part forms a drill. This trope also gets subverted in the case of Apollo's hairstyle: Apollo himself actually said that he used hair gel when Olga refused to testify due to being scared by his 'demonic horns'.

* AnachronicOrder: The last case [[spoiler:takes you back seven years to Phoenix's last trial, and makes you jump between the present and seven years ago in a "game" of sorts.]]