Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the fifth main entry in the Ace Attorney series, and was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, with iOS and Android versions following in 2014 and 2017. It was also released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in 2024 as part of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy compilation. Dual Destinies takes place roughly a year after the events of the previous game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

The legal system has entered an era known as “the dark age of the law”, filled with false charges and fabricated evidence. The game features three playable protagonists: Phoenix Wright, the owner of the Wright Anything Agency who has retaken the bar exam to once again become a defense attorney; Apollo Justice, a junior attorney at the agency; and Athena Cykes, the agency’s newest hire who specializes in analytical psychology. During their court cases, they frequently clash with Simon Blackquill, a practicing prosecutor despite being an inmate on death row for murder.

Other characters include Trucy Wright, Phoenix’s adoptive daughter; Miles Edgeworth, the district chief prosecutor and Phoenix’s friend and rival; Pearl Fey, a spirit medium and Phoenix’s friend; Juniper Woods, a law student and Athena’s childhood friend; and Bobby Fulbright, an enthusiastic police detective who constantly claims to fight for justice. Dual Destinies is a visual novel adventure game in which the player takes the roles of three defense attorneys: Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes.

The player aims to solve multiple cases and get their clients declared not guilty, which is how the game’s episodes are cleared. The gameplay is split into two types of sections: investigations and trials. During investigations, the player goes to the crime scene, where they have access to a menu with four options: examine, which brings up a cursor used to search for evidence and clues; talk, which lets the player interview a witness at the current location.

Choosing from a number of a topics to discuss; present, which lets the player show the witness evidence; and move, which brings up a list of locations the player can choose to go to. At some points, the player can use Apollo’s “perceive” mechanic to watch for visual cues in a witness as they are talking, such as a twitching eye, that indicate that they are lying. The player can also sometimes use Phoenix’s “psyche-lock” mechanic to see locks on the hearts of witnesses who are hiding something.