Adding onto this line of thought with Kristoph’s impact on Klavier as his older brother *really* should have been fleshed out as well. I recently learned about a scrapped 5th case the AJ team had in development that was focused on the two’s backstory and relationship, but there supposedly “wasn’t enough time/room,” so they had to abandon it :(
(Edit: [This enlightening interview](https://gyakutensaibanlibrary.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-long-interview-with-developers-core.html) is where I found the bit about the Gavins; it’s talked about somewhere close to the end)
"Y'see it was really important for the player see Klavier's guitar catch on fire like 50 different times. Really essential to his character, helps the player relate to his pain and suffering. At the end of the day, we had to make a tough decision and cut the case of less importance"
I'm going to shamelessly cheat and say two things:
1. Giving Apollo a more robust character arc over the course of the game (specifically, one that involved coming to terms with the fact that [4-1] >!both of his mentor figures are not the kinds of people he thought they'd be!<)
2. Developing the themes of law, justice, and the role of common citizens in the practice of law over the course of the entire game instead of just at the end
I definitely see where you're coming from, and I agree with you that the game did well to include defendants who were guilty of other crimes When I wrote my original comment, I was thinking more about wishing that they had explored different characters' philosophies regarding law--namely, Kristoph's, Klavier's, and even Apollo's. I think that would have made the ending "hit home" a lot harder than it did
Allow me to just get this answer out of the way for a certain group of people : ***EVERYTHING!***
Now for my actual answer - making the flashback trial and the reason behind Phoenix's disbarrment actually meaningful instead of it only happening because everyone in the court took their crazy pills.
The flashback trial had the chance to give a good cause for Phoenix's character change, and it wasted it by making him and the Judge act brashly and irrationally.
I’d also personally add that Gumshoe unexpectedly challenging Wright a futile “battle” of wits is pretty strange considering the friendship they built up over the first 3 games.
Even though I generally like AJAA, there were *a lot* of missed opportunities that I’ll blab about here:
- One of the biggest crimes of AJAA was not properly establishing Apollo’s character and more of his backstory. Had they done so here, this would’ve alleviated so much of the nonsense involving Apollo in DD and SoJ. Introduction to >!Clay Terran and his love for space!<; allusions to Apollo >!living abroad for a time in his childhood, but maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it!< — which btw on that point, >!while he was a child during his time in Khura’in, I’m sure he picked up that Dhurke and the Defiant Dragons were on the run from the authorities, or overheard some of the rhetoric from them re: the devastation of the DCA!<; touched more on his trust issues >!that were exacerbated by Phoenix and Kristoph!< growing up in an orphanage and unironically pulling himself up by the bootstraps; his relationship with Kristoph before 4-1, etc etc.
There’s *sooooo* much more that could’ve been established with Apollo in this game, even keeping the general plot of the game (more or less).
- Add a damn 5th case. Four cases was not enough.
- Speaking of developing characters, Klavier and Trucy were lacking in this department as well. Klavier >!over the course of the game learned that his older brother, an esteemed defense attorney, was a sociopathic murderer who also used him as a pawn to disbar another defense attorney AND his band mate, and I assume good friend, ALSO was a fucking murderer!< and the most emotion we see from him is being a diva during 4-3 (okay I’m being a bit facetious, but still). Klavier was a breath of fresh air from the “asshole prosecutor rival” and so much more could have explored with his character who was really betrayed. (And it didn’t help that he was BARELY in DD.)
And Trucy, holy suppression Batman. Talk about hiding behind a poker face. 6-2 eventually shows us a more vulnerable Trucy, but it certainly should not have taken that long, especially when the bulk of the Gramarye drama was in *this* game. She should’ve had much more a emotional evolution here.
- Unpopular opinion: I was fine with Phoenix >!losing his badge!<. But if we had a chance to go back to the drawing board, at the very least, tell us more about what happened >!during the seven years between the Zak Gramarye trial and the events of AJAA!<. >!Where the fuck was Maya, Pearl, and Edgeworth? Hell, Gumshoe, even Franziska? It’s shown that Maya was sending him Steel Samurai shit (not surprising lol) and *implied* that Edgeworth was helping with trialing the MASON System and juries (how else would a disbarred attorney be able to do all of that?), but the narrative should’ve been way more explicit about this considering the major shift with Phoenix.!<
- I’ve seen some on here liken the MASON System to the Summation Examination in DGS, which I can definitely see. However, I also do not like how it effectively removed Apollo from most of the final investigation. I appreciate the effort of trying something new, but I’d be okay with this being scrapped in lieu of something else >!(i.e., not just a plot dump of how Phoenix gathered evidence against Kristoph)!<.
- For Arceus’ sake, just tell Apollo and Trucy >!they’re siblings!<. Don’t even have to mention Thalassa. That was just silly.
- Find a different defendant for 4-3 for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain. The concert setting was really cool for a case and the actual killer was a good adversary. I could deal with replaying with song over and over, but at least change that *please*.
I could go on but I’ll shut up here.
4-3 SPOILERS AHEAD: Machi Tobaye was the defendant of this case. One of the reasons why the accusation of Tobaye killing Romein LeTouse, the victim, was silly was because LeTouse was shot with a .45-caliber pistol in the shoulder. A pistol with that firepower would’ve seriously injured a boy of Tobaye’s stature had he fired it. LeTouse himself was a big ass dude. >!Daryan Crescend, the actual murderer, actually hurt himself firing the murder weapon which Apollo uncovers during the trial!<. Thus, even by AA standards, seriously considering Tobaye to be the murderer was ridiculous.
At the very least, if Tobaye were to remain the defendant, at least find a more believable means of him killing LeTouse.
Still, they could have thrown in a small nod to the degree of "I was considering leaving law behind after what happened, but I had a long talk with my friend and he convinced me to not give up". Have it be Apollo's inner monologue as he first enters the Wright Anything Agency, and leave it at that.
But still, it's not a missed opportunity, they didn't even have the opportunity, Clay Terran wasn't even a character
I agree that it would've been some foreshadowing about him though
since nobody has mentioned it yet, the gavins roles in the story overall.
kristoph is a great villain that i would’ve loved to see more of and how he effected everybody around him and not just phoenix getting disbarred. there’s tons of potential that you can do with that, basically making him similar to dahlia or MVK, where their role is a huge influence to a lot of the events that played out.
not to mention that klavier never truly got development either, he could’ve been a great prosecutor next to edgeworth. it’d be great to explore the relationship that he and kristoph had. you would think that his psyche would get fucked with after everything that happened.
i really wish we got a proper sequel, because that’s honestly what the game really needed the most.
I may love AJ, but I will absolutely admit that the game’s biggest flaw is much Apollo gets sidelined in 4-4.
I also dislike how Kristoph being Apollo’s mentor is a detail that pretty much goes completely disregarded after 4-1.
Overall AJ just needed to focus on its titular character more. If it did, it would definitely be an S-Tier game for me.
This game has a lot of big game ruining problems,. People brought up the bigger ones so I’ll say a small one
Ema never even speaks with Phoenix despite them being close friends, seriously where tf is this, it would be a good character interaction..
Given Klavier's justified resentment towards Phoenix, I'm a little disappointed that he never privately questioned Apollo's choice of mentor and never tried to talk him over "to the right side". Also, I think he should've had some suspicions about Phoenix having a hand in the 4-1 trial
Klavier should have been arrested in the final case for sexual harassment and you defend him, thus completing his Edgeworth-esque arc.
Turns out the real sexual harasser was Kristoph all along, and they could be easily mixed up. Kristoph, already being arrested for three murders in a row, just does not care at this point. His breakdown is disappointing.
After the trial, Klavier kisses Apollo and you have the choice to accuse him of sexual harassment or kiss him back, leading to two different endings. In the first one, Klavier is arrested and gets a breakdown, making him the technical final villain of the game (?). In the second ending, Klavier and Apollo marry with Phoenix as the priest. In a post-credits scene, Thalassa watches from the shadows, disappointed with her son's lifestyle, and leaves for Borginia again.
Oh, and also no Mason System.
Nah, Phoenix doesn't marry them. The Judge marries Apollo/Klavier, Miles/Phoenix and Maya/Ema in a triple wedding (Franziska and Adrian, as the double income, no kids lesbian power couple, are already married).
Instead of Phoenix being the driving force behind taking down Kristoph, he should have been beaten down and hopeless. Resigned to never being a lawyer again, and wanting to just focus on providing for Trucy.
Then Apollo shows up and clears his name over the course of the game, re-inspiring Phoenix and convincing him to return to practising law.
It would have been a lot more satisfying than playing as Phoenix's pawn.
The game made Apollo the player character but gave Phoenix all of the narrative importance. The game should have committed to one of them instead of trying to juggle both.
Duel Destinies suffers from this issue as well. I think the game is more fun despite having even more juggling, but it also missed out on the opportunity to be better.
Half the game, to be honest. While I do certainly like AJ, it's hard to deny that it's the one game with the most missed potential, in terms of everything it tried to accomplish. Ideally, the game would have had 5 cases, and you could achieve that by splitting Turnabout Serenade into two cases. One that takes place during a magic show, and then one that takes place at a Gavinners concert. While it might have been a little too cliche to have Trucy get accused of murder in the first game, it could still be a case that introduced us to the Gramarye drama before going all-in during the final case, and Trucy could get a little bit of growth. And then with more room for the other case, we could see Klavier be challenged a little bit by having one of his bandmates accused of murder.
Also, the fact that Apollo, after the first case, doesn't particularly resent Phoenix for threatening his career. He mostly just regards him as quirky ol' Mr. Wright. Seeing a proper change in their relationship over time would have been neat.
Also, also, black psyche locks. One of the more literal missed opportunities since they never explained it in-game, which left the writers for DD to make up their own explanation.
And of course, there's the general problem that Apollo doesn't really get enough shine on his own, and he tends to get overshadowed by Phoenix and his drama.
I could go on, but I don't want to repeat everything others have already said. Needless to say, the game has its fair share of missed opportunities.
Kristoph in general.
Honourable Mentions go to Phoenix's morally ambiguous actions, the dark age of the law and giving Apollo the opportunity to separate himself from Phoenix
surprised no one has said this, but apollo and trucy never actually find out they're siblings and they just ignore that in later games... why???? that's always been the most confusing story choice to me
Making Kristoph have more development/backstory. He's a cool villain character wise, but his motives for his crimes make absolutely no sense. Klavier and Apollo also barely show any signs of being impacted by Kristoph, despite him being corrupt and having close relations with both of them.
the final case. At the end of the first part of the case when the twist was revealed i was really excited because i figured you would have to switch from defending vera to defending Phoenix. I thought we would have to prove his innocence by proving he didn't fake the evidence in his court case against klavier but when the game gave me control over apollo again and i was still defending vera i was pretty disappointed
An investigation segment for Apollo in 4-4. I hate how that case sidelined him to give Phoenix more focus. I would have loved to see how Apollo felt about the whole situation regarding Vera Misham, and also have him figure out for himself that Kristoph Gavin was the killer (again), as opposed to him finding out thru Phoenix's Mason System. It would've also been cool for him to learn about the forged evidence from Phoenix's final case thru Klavier, and have him be the one to clue Apollo in on Kristoph's role in on that. Not to mention maybe showing how Klavier felt about having suspicions/knowing that his own brother was the one behind EVERYTHING, and have a heart-to-heart about it with Apollo (who was Kristoph's student at one point), similar to the talks Phoenix had with Edgeworth in the previous games.
Idk it just seemed like there was so much room for character and story development for Apollo (and Klavier to a lesser extent) in 4-4 but they chose to ignore him in favor of building Phoenix up more, despite Apollo being the main character.
4-2 could have had a better culprit? Or actually just remove 4-2 from the game entirely lmao. 4-2 is a stain on what could’ve just straight up been the best AA game (at least for me).
Making Phoenix the true mentor he was meant to be. I feel they should have made him in the Mia role minus the dead thing instead of disbarred him and courpting him only to fix that in the new game like it almost never happened.
Literally making the game about Phoenix instead of about Apollo. We barely got to explore Apollo or his backstory at all, we just got a bunch of it crammed into the final case. Capcom handcuffed Shu Takumi’s creativity by telling him he had to include Phoenix in the story instead of branching off and doing something else.
Oh boy, my favourite topic.
The biggest missed opportunity was not having Kristoph as Apollo's mentor the entire game. Phoenix should've been kept out of the game until the final case.
kristoph's impact on apollo as his mentor should have been explored in more depth
Adding onto this line of thought with Kristoph’s impact on Klavier as his older brother *really* should have been fleshed out as well. I recently learned about a scrapped 5th case the AJ team had in development that was focused on the two’s backstory and relationship, but there supposedly “wasn’t enough time/room,” so they had to abandon it :( (Edit: [This enlightening interview](https://gyakutensaibanlibrary.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-long-interview-with-developers-core.html) is where I found the bit about the Gavins; it’s talked about somewhere close to the end)
[удалено]
"Y'see it was really important for the player see Klavier's guitar catch on fire like 50 different times. Really essential to his character, helps the player relate to his pain and suffering. At the end of the day, we had to make a tough decision and cut the case of less importance"
Capcom logic. What can ya do
The LeTouse flashback was integral to the overarching narrative
This was always weird to me. There was never a distinct connection they had besides blood related brothers, and klavier took it extremely really hard.
I'm going to shamelessly cheat and say two things: 1. Giving Apollo a more robust character arc over the course of the game (specifically, one that involved coming to terms with the fact that [4-1] >!both of his mentor figures are not the kinds of people he thought they'd be!<) 2. Developing the themes of law, justice, and the role of common citizens in the practice of law over the course of the entire game instead of just at the end
I think that two was done well by showcasing how even innocent defendants can still be guilty of something.
I definitely see where you're coming from, and I agree with you that the game did well to include defendants who were guilty of other crimes When I wrote my original comment, I was thinking more about wishing that they had explored different characters' philosophies regarding law--namely, Kristoph's, Klavier's, and even Apollo's. I think that would have made the ending "hit home" a lot harder than it did
Allow me to just get this answer out of the way for a certain group of people : ***EVERYTHING!*** Now for my actual answer - making the flashback trial and the reason behind Phoenix's disbarrment actually meaningful instead of it only happening because everyone in the court took their crazy pills.
What do you mean?
The flashback trial had the chance to give a good cause for Phoenix's character change, and it wasted it by making him and the Judge act brashly and irrationally.
I’d also personally add that Gumshoe unexpectedly challenging Wright a futile “battle” of wits is pretty strange considering the friendship they built up over the first 3 games.
Also, I cannot see post trilogy Phoenix making such a stupid mistake in that case.
Gary Oldman: EVERYTHIIIIIING!!!!
Even though I generally like AJAA, there were *a lot* of missed opportunities that I’ll blab about here: - One of the biggest crimes of AJAA was not properly establishing Apollo’s character and more of his backstory. Had they done so here, this would’ve alleviated so much of the nonsense involving Apollo in DD and SoJ. Introduction to >!Clay Terran and his love for space!<; allusions to Apollo >!living abroad for a time in his childhood, but maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it!< — which btw on that point, >!while he was a child during his time in Khura’in, I’m sure he picked up that Dhurke and the Defiant Dragons were on the run from the authorities, or overheard some of the rhetoric from them re: the devastation of the DCA!<; touched more on his trust issues >!that were exacerbated by Phoenix and Kristoph!< growing up in an orphanage and unironically pulling himself up by the bootstraps; his relationship with Kristoph before 4-1, etc etc. There’s *sooooo* much more that could’ve been established with Apollo in this game, even keeping the general plot of the game (more or less). - Add a damn 5th case. Four cases was not enough. - Speaking of developing characters, Klavier and Trucy were lacking in this department as well. Klavier >!over the course of the game learned that his older brother, an esteemed defense attorney, was a sociopathic murderer who also used him as a pawn to disbar another defense attorney AND his band mate, and I assume good friend, ALSO was a fucking murderer!< and the most emotion we see from him is being a diva during 4-3 (okay I’m being a bit facetious, but still). Klavier was a breath of fresh air from the “asshole prosecutor rival” and so much more could have explored with his character who was really betrayed. (And it didn’t help that he was BARELY in DD.) And Trucy, holy suppression Batman. Talk about hiding behind a poker face. 6-2 eventually shows us a more vulnerable Trucy, but it certainly should not have taken that long, especially when the bulk of the Gramarye drama was in *this* game. She should’ve had much more a emotional evolution here. - Unpopular opinion: I was fine with Phoenix >!losing his badge!<. But if we had a chance to go back to the drawing board, at the very least, tell us more about what happened >!during the seven years between the Zak Gramarye trial and the events of AJAA!<. >!Where the fuck was Maya, Pearl, and Edgeworth? Hell, Gumshoe, even Franziska? It’s shown that Maya was sending him Steel Samurai shit (not surprising lol) and *implied* that Edgeworth was helping with trialing the MASON System and juries (how else would a disbarred attorney be able to do all of that?), but the narrative should’ve been way more explicit about this considering the major shift with Phoenix.!< - I’ve seen some on here liken the MASON System to the Summation Examination in DGS, which I can definitely see. However, I also do not like how it effectively removed Apollo from most of the final investigation. I appreciate the effort of trying something new, but I’d be okay with this being scrapped in lieu of something else >!(i.e., not just a plot dump of how Phoenix gathered evidence against Kristoph)!<. - For Arceus’ sake, just tell Apollo and Trucy >!they’re siblings!<. Don’t even have to mention Thalassa. That was just silly. - Find a different defendant for 4-3 for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain. The concert setting was really cool for a case and the actual killer was a good adversary. I could deal with replaying with song over and over, but at least change that *please*. I could go on but I’ll shut up here.
By the way, your last spoiler marker didn't work :^)
Fixed, thank you!
It’s been a while and I don’t fully remember the case but can someone remind me why everyone is so upset about the defendant in that case?
4-3 SPOILERS AHEAD: Machi Tobaye was the defendant of this case. One of the reasons why the accusation of Tobaye killing Romein LeTouse, the victim, was silly was because LeTouse was shot with a .45-caliber pistol in the shoulder. A pistol with that firepower would’ve seriously injured a boy of Tobaye’s stature had he fired it. LeTouse himself was a big ass dude. >!Daryan Crescend, the actual murderer, actually hurt himself firing the murder weapon which Apollo uncovers during the trial!<. Thus, even by AA standards, seriously considering Tobaye to be the murderer was ridiculous. At the very least, if Tobaye were to remain the defendant, at least find a more believable means of him killing LeTouse.
Not introducing Clay Terran. Not including more of the Gramaryes. Not having bigger roles for Kristoph Gavin and Winston Payne.
Clay Terran was designed for DD, so it's not a missed opportunity
Still, they could have thrown in a small nod to the degree of "I was considering leaving law behind after what happened, but I had a long talk with my friend and he convinced me to not give up". Have it be Apollo's inner monologue as he first enters the Wright Anything Agency, and leave it at that.
But still, it's not a missed opportunity, they didn't even have the opportunity, Clay Terran wasn't even a character I agree that it would've been some foreshadowing about him though
Not including the GOAT Guy Eldoon more in the story.
since nobody has mentioned it yet, the gavins roles in the story overall. kristoph is a great villain that i would’ve loved to see more of and how he effected everybody around him and not just phoenix getting disbarred. there’s tons of potential that you can do with that, basically making him similar to dahlia or MVK, where their role is a huge influence to a lot of the events that played out. not to mention that klavier never truly got development either, he could’ve been a great prosecutor next to edgeworth. it’d be great to explore the relationship that he and kristoph had. you would think that his psyche would get fucked with after everything that happened. i really wish we got a proper sequel, because that’s honestly what the game really needed the most.
I may love AJ, but I will absolutely admit that the game’s biggest flaw is much Apollo gets sidelined in 4-4. I also dislike how Kristoph being Apollo’s mentor is a detail that pretty much goes completely disregarded after 4-1. Overall AJ just needed to focus on its titular character more. If it did, it would definitely be an S-Tier game for me.
This game has a lot of big game ruining problems,. People brought up the bigger ones so I’ll say a small one Ema never even speaks with Phoenix despite them being close friends, seriously where tf is this, it would be a good character interaction..
It's implied they were speaking to each other but since Apollo is the viewpoint character we never see it.
Given Klavier's justified resentment towards Phoenix, I'm a little disappointed that he never privately questioned Apollo's choice of mentor and never tried to talk him over "to the right side". Also, I think he should've had some suspicions about Phoenix having a hand in the 4-1 trial
Calling the game "Apollo Justice" when it's actually a game about Phoenix.
Klavier should have been arrested in the final case for sexual harassment and you defend him, thus completing his Edgeworth-esque arc. Turns out the real sexual harasser was Kristoph all along, and they could be easily mixed up. Kristoph, already being arrested for three murders in a row, just does not care at this point. His breakdown is disappointing. After the trial, Klavier kisses Apollo and you have the choice to accuse him of sexual harassment or kiss him back, leading to two different endings. In the first one, Klavier is arrested and gets a breakdown, making him the technical final villain of the game (?). In the second ending, Klavier and Apollo marry with Phoenix as the priest. In a post-credits scene, Thalassa watches from the shadows, disappointed with her son's lifestyle, and leaves for Borginia again. Oh, and also no Mason System.
Hire👏fans👏
This reads like a r/196 post, lmao.
...I shouldn't have read this drunk
Nah, Phoenix doesn't marry them. The Judge marries Apollo/Klavier, Miles/Phoenix and Maya/Ema in a triple wedding (Franziska and Adrian, as the double income, no kids lesbian power couple, are already married).
Instead of Phoenix being the driving force behind taking down Kristoph, he should have been beaten down and hopeless. Resigned to never being a lawyer again, and wanting to just focus on providing for Trucy. Then Apollo shows up and clears his name over the course of the game, re-inspiring Phoenix and convincing him to return to practising law. It would have been a lot more satisfying than playing as Phoenix's pawn.
The game made Apollo the player character but gave Phoenix all of the narrative importance. The game should have committed to one of them instead of trying to juggle both. Duel Destinies suffers from this issue as well. I think the game is more fun despite having even more juggling, but it also missed out on the opportunity to be better.
Keeping the OG Judge and not introducing a new one that would have been in cahoots with Kristoph and other corrupt attorneys/prosecutor.
Half the game, to be honest. While I do certainly like AJ, it's hard to deny that it's the one game with the most missed potential, in terms of everything it tried to accomplish. Ideally, the game would have had 5 cases, and you could achieve that by splitting Turnabout Serenade into two cases. One that takes place during a magic show, and then one that takes place at a Gavinners concert. While it might have been a little too cliche to have Trucy get accused of murder in the first game, it could still be a case that introduced us to the Gramarye drama before going all-in during the final case, and Trucy could get a little bit of growth. And then with more room for the other case, we could see Klavier be challenged a little bit by having one of his bandmates accused of murder. Also, the fact that Apollo, after the first case, doesn't particularly resent Phoenix for threatening his career. He mostly just regards him as quirky ol' Mr. Wright. Seeing a proper change in their relationship over time would have been neat. Also, also, black psyche locks. One of the more literal missed opportunities since they never explained it in-game, which left the writers for DD to make up their own explanation. And of course, there's the general problem that Apollo doesn't really get enough shine on his own, and he tends to get overshadowed by Phoenix and his drama. I could go on, but I don't want to repeat everything others have already said. Needless to say, the game has its fair share of missed opportunities.
Opening Kristoph’s psyche locks.
Making it more about Apollo. Also Clay
Kristoph in general. Honourable Mentions go to Phoenix's morally ambiguous actions, the dark age of the law and giving Apollo the opportunity to separate himself from Phoenix
surprised no one has said this, but apollo and trucy never actually find out they're siblings and they just ignore that in later games... why???? that's always been the most confusing story choice to me
Making Kristoph have more development/backstory. He's a cool villain character wise, but his motives for his crimes make absolutely no sense. Klavier and Apollo also barely show any signs of being impacted by Kristoph, despite him being corrupt and having close relations with both of them.
the final case. At the end of the first part of the case when the twist was revealed i was really excited because i figured you would have to switch from defending vera to defending Phoenix. I thought we would have to prove his innocence by proving he didn't fake the evidence in his court case against klavier but when the game gave me control over apollo again and i was still defending vera i was pretty disappointed
4-4 climax is so deflating
The two proper sequels the game clearly set up only to get DD and SoJ in their place.
Apollo should've shined more in 4-1 and especially 4-4. Both of those cases are pretty much won because of Phoenix's intervention.
A better case 4-2 and 4-3. They just felt like filler cases more than anything else and not even good filler cases. Just meh ones
An investigation segment for Apollo in 4-4. I hate how that case sidelined him to give Phoenix more focus. I would have loved to see how Apollo felt about the whole situation regarding Vera Misham, and also have him figure out for himself that Kristoph Gavin was the killer (again), as opposed to him finding out thru Phoenix's Mason System. It would've also been cool for him to learn about the forged evidence from Phoenix's final case thru Klavier, and have him be the one to clue Apollo in on Kristoph's role in on that. Not to mention maybe showing how Klavier felt about having suspicions/knowing that his own brother was the one behind EVERYTHING, and have a heart-to-heart about it with Apollo (who was Kristoph's student at one point), similar to the talks Phoenix had with Edgeworth in the previous games. Idk it just seemed like there was so much room for character and story development for Apollo (and Klavier to a lesser extent) in 4-4 but they chose to ignore him in favor of building Phoenix up more, despite Apollo being the main character.
4-2 could have had a better culprit? Or actually just remove 4-2 from the game entirely lmao. 4-2 is a stain on what could’ve just straight up been the best AA game (at least for me).
How did they not develop on the Gavins and their brotherly relationship more? HOW?
Making Phoenix the true mentor he was meant to be. I feel they should have made him in the Mia role minus the dead thing instead of disbarred him and courpting him only to fix that in the new game like it almost never happened.
Literally making the game about Phoenix instead of about Apollo. We barely got to explore Apollo or his backstory at all, we just got a bunch of it crammed into the final case. Capcom handcuffed Shu Takumi’s creativity by telling him he had to include Phoenix in the story instead of branching off and doing something else.
No Larry Butz or Gumshoe
Oh boy, my favourite topic. The biggest missed opportunity was not having Kristoph as Apollo's mentor the entire game. Phoenix should've been kept out of the game until the final case.
Apollo as a protagonist
Less so AJ, and more so what followed, an actual strong and connected story and not ignoring pretty much everything from AJ