Fans of Capcom’s venerable Ace Attorney series have been clamoring for a new installment for nearly a decade now, which makes today’s news a bit puzzling. In all of its infinite wisdom, Capcom has announced that a new Ace Attorney game is coming… except it’s not a new game… and it’s also exclusive to Meta’s VR headsets. Talk about a monkey’s paw type of situation.
If you happen to own a Meta Quest 2, 3, 3S, Pro, or have pre-ordered the upcoming VR glasses, then you can grab Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR when it releases next year for the devices. As the title would suggest, it’s a port of a now 13-year-old 3DS game that was the first time the series was rendered in 3D. Dual Destinies is a pretty decent game, all things considered, but this is such a weird way to bring the Ace Attorney series back.
Being in VR, that means the courtroom segments are now rendered in first-person view, which is pretty neat. The announcement trailer shows next to nothing about how menu navigation or even map interaction will work, but I assume players will bring up a menu and grab items from it to present as evidence. It would be pretty neat if talking to suspects and NPCs in the investigation parts was more open-ended, though I don’t believe Capcom will be tweaking much here. At least the ability to shout “OBJECTION!” is staying in the game, as I’ve always loved that silly gimmick from the DS games.
I’m not sure what this means for the future of the series on Meta’s devices, though. While I happen to love looking at 2D games rendered in 3D environments (give me old-school Doom sprites for every modern game), most people find that jarring. Porting the original trilogy and Apollo Justice would look awkward, so are Ace Attorney fans only going to get two games in VR? Who really knows, but I guess the series isn’t completely dead.
Check out more Ace Attorney content
Capcom initially believed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney would not do well in the West
The Ace Attorney Trilogy is getting a free title update with new features and language options
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
