Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Take moments specific to the Phoenix arc or Investigations to those pages, please.

  • The part where you play as Phoenix in his last trial, and the game forces you to present evidence that you know will get him disbarred because he doesn't know it's a forgery. It makes a person feel like quite the villain. In fact, anything concerning Phoenix losing his badge is saddening, but special mention has to go to one of the best tragicomic lines I've ever seen, which you get when you examine a doll doing the classic objecting pose and Phoenix bellows his old Catch Phrase one more time, before saying 'it's been seven years! I need to stop torturing myself with these things! I know, I'll just pretend it's saying something else. 'Why yes sir, the post office is right over that way. It's difficult to know whether that should be met with laughter or tears.
    • If you consider Phoenix Wright's situation in this game with exception to Trucy and maybe Ema Skye, he may end up Dying Alone. Where is Maya Fey, Pearl Fey, Miles Edgeworth, Franziska Von Karma, Detective Gumshoe, and maybe Prosecutor Godot?
      • It's heavily implied in 4-2, upon examining the DVDs, that Phoenix at least still keeps in touch with Maya, and probably Pearl by extension. Though it is quite saddening that we never get any direct evidence of Phoenix seeing his old friends.
  • The bad ending of Apollo Justice. It's extremely easy to avoid, given how you get it, but it's also extremely easy just to see, and this troper, being curious (and something miffed at the lack of such a bad ending during T&T) simply had to let it play. She had to take a rest for several minutes before going back to the game and finishing it properly.

"The verdict was postponed...for eternity."

  • The last scene of Apollo Justice, where Klavier, having realized what his brother's done and the part he himself played, looks up towards the ceiling, clearly on the verge of tears, and takes that final step to convict Kristoph of murder once and for all. When you consider that just a few months ago, Klavier also helped sentence his friend and band member to death, the entire game really was just a Kick the Dog experience for the poor guy, especially since he's certainly the friendliest and least corrupt prosecutor in the series.
  • Speaking of the end of Apollo Justice, the final reveal that Trucy is an even greater master of the poker face than Phoenix himself, as Phoenix explains that he's the only one who knows how she truly feels at the same time as the player gets a shot of her crying. Realizing how hard the return and death of her real father must have hit her had a similar effect on this troper
  • Turnabout Serenade could also have a moment of this, when you first see Machi in the Detention Center. Just think how far away he was from home... and possibly unable to tell what was going on, due to being blind and couldn't speak English. Of course, it turns out he wasn't blind and could speak basic English, but the thought of that loneliness if he was...
    • Think of it this way: the kid can't go home. Because the government there will execute him.
  • At the end, when Phoenix is talking to Lamiroir about Apollo and Trucy, he promises her to take care of them, because they're important to him. That's one thing about him that has never changed. He goes on to add that he must especially look after Trucy, because he's the only one who knows what she feels inside -- and then it cuts to an image of Trucy with tears on her cheeks. Poor Trucy!
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