Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, October 24, 2023. Below, we reexamine the possibilities and shortcomings of its attempt to soft-reboot the Ace Attorney story.
Ruins signify a collapse. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies begins with the most heavy-handed representation of it, portraying an explosion inside a courtroom. This imagery is meant to echo the narrative breaking point that the law is going through. Yet, for a brief moment, it stands as a promising clean slate–it leads the player to believe Dual Destinies is rising from the ashes of a disruptive predecessor, determined to continue strengthening a new vision for the series. It’s unfortunate, then, that the promise of reforming a decaying law system and passing the mantle to a different generation is never fulfilled.
October 24 marks the 10th anniversary of the Western release of Dual Destinies. Its release marked the series’ jump to 3D, as well as being the first mainline entry without the involvement of original director Shu Takumi. Looking back, the introduction of characters like Athena Cykes and Simon Blackquill remains one of its strongest appeals. Yet, as interesting as some of the story threads are to untangle a decade later, the true potential at play is deliberately ignored. Mimicking the likes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it disregards the attempts to break past foundations to present familiarity once more instead.