This page covers awesome moments in the fourth game: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The eponymous character in Apollo Justice gets two before the end of case one. One occurs if the player chooses to hear the testimony against Kristoph. Kristoph asks if Apollo is betraying him in an attempt to cow Apollo into obedience and Apollo replies "I'm sorry, Mr. Gavin, but this isn't about loyalty. This is about the truth." Then at the end, Apollo secures his position as Phoenix's replacement by punching Phoenix. The way Phoenix laughs it off was a crowning moment for him, too.
- Not to mention, in the fourth case, bringing down the man who got him disbarred by overhauling the entire judicial system, if only for this one case. For reference, this is the only time in the entire series where a jury is mentioned or used.
- For many fans of the original series, just getting to hear the objection theme from the first game again when Phoenix objects. The fact that he does his classic finger-point is the cherry on the cake.
- Klavier's air guitar
. In fact a lot of animations (like Mr. Hat appearing or Valant spinning his staff) are much more complex and fascinating than the previous trilogy, thanks to the power of the Nintendo DS and higher resolution sprites. - The beginning of case 4-2 has one for Phoenix, adding possibly his greatest physics-defying feat to his belt: getting hit by a car and flying straight into a lamppost headfirst, and only getting a sprained ankle as an injury. Plum Kitaki refers to him as "the one who flew thirty feet and just walked away", and says that apparently members of the family were considering hiring Phoenix as a point man on the basis of that incident alone.
- The introduction of Mr. Hat in case 4-2. How do Trucy and Apollo get out of a situation where the deck is completely stacked against them and their client? With a magic trick. She's able to fool everybody (except Klavier) into thinking that she's being kidnapped just to get the judge to call a recess, and it works. From there, Trucy is able to help Apollo turn things around.
- The Judge gets to deliver another decidedly epic Badass Creed at the end:The law is the end product of many years of history... the fruit of human knowledge! Like a gem, polished to a gleam through trials... and errors. It is this fruit we receive, and pass on, and face in our time. And it is always changing, growing. Nurturing it is our task as human beings.
- At the end of the final case of Apollo Justice, Kristoph, who you now know to be the true cause of Drew's death, has his own psychotic breakdown when he learns that Phoenix has implemented a jury system. During this, he screams Phoenix's name in anger as his hair blows straight up in the air while having what looks like a seizure.
- There's an additional awesome moment when you realize that after an entire career of murderers cursing other people's names when he wins a trial, someone finally curses his name.
- If you started the game with low expectations because you played as a different character, then the entire first case was a crowning moment, for sure. Yeah, it starts with Phoenix accused of murder (again) but we get to see him take complete control over his own trial, and pull a miniature version of Rise From The Ashes! (again!). All of this, and the Judge, if anything, praises him at the end! That's a stark contrast to everything he puts up with in his own games!
- For that matter, the first time we encounter him and, arguably, throughout the entire game, Phoenix seems to have gone from No-Respect Guy to The Chessmaster! That's quite the transformation... But when we get to play as him, it's obvious that he's the same Only Sane Man / First-Person Smartass we all know and love.
- And while it might fall into What the Hell, Hero? territory for some, if you've already beaten the game, then Phoenix gets extra Ironic Echo points for pulling A Taste of Their Own Medicine on the very man who framed him for using forged evidence and got him disbarred for it.
- The fake evidence basically paints the killer into a corner. Either Kristoph calls it a fake, and implicates himself due to being the only person who knows it is by virtue of being the killer who removed it (and he does precisely this), or he keeps quiet and is declared guilty all the same.Kristoph: N... No! Impossible! Unacceptable! The court can't accept this evidence! It's a fraud!
Phoenix: A fraud? How can you be so sure?
Kristoph: Wh-What...?
Phoenix: I would think the only person who could claim it was a fraud...would be the one who took the real card from the crime scene... The real killer!
Kristoph: ...! - Extra points for 4-4, where one can see, if one looks at the lapel, that Kristoph has been stripped of his attorney's badge just like Phoenix was.
- In 4-3, Apollo exposes Daryan Crescend when evidence alone won't suffice, by having Machi Tobaye testify about his involvement smuggling cocoons. This is not only a clever plan, but also shows Apollo's morals and ethics, as he points out that he's "not the kind of lawyer that can overlook a crime".
- In 4-4, when Kristoph is on the stand, Klavier tends to act unnaturally awkward and submissive with his brother looming over him. However, in the very end, Klavier seems to completely overcome any inferiority from his brother and delivers the ultimate slap in the face: "You're not needed anymore."
- In 4-4, the Judge gets another one when Kristoph learns that the trial is being watched, and will be judged by a panel of jurists.Kristoph: Common citizens? Wisdom? Is this some kind of joke? Entrusting our judicial system to a mindless, emotional mob of irrational mouth-breathers?The Judge: Common citizens have something called common sense. Common sense is not restricted by the law.
- The Judge gets a small moment during the first case, when Phoenix proposes a connection Kristoph Gavin may have to the crime and Apollo calls on him to testify about it. Kristoph objects and attempts to take over, but the Judge doesn’t stand for it, rightfully reminding him that the matter of Phoenix’s testimony comes down to the lead defense attorney, Apollo himself.
