Tagged, as I'm not on my computer and I hate writing chunks of texts on my mobile.
I did see that Edgeworth reference since I love rubbing the Attorney's badge on everyone's face. Since Apollo is where he is now, it's a plausible theory that Gumshoe will be working where Nick, as opposed as Ema on Khur'ain.
I don't really think Apollo is being retired, like Cloudman says, and the main reason is that they won't simply ditch the "Insight" mechanic introduced here. The only way to keep it though, is to leave someone on Khur'ain. It makes perfect sense!
On a honest note, I didn't like Phoenix attitude on the final case. I loved that Apollo got the spotlight, since they made an amazing development on his character throughout, but as a consequence Phoenix suffered greatly; he batantly lied and warped the truth during the first half of the case (and accused an innocent man, and before you say "but Maya", might as well remind you that Phoenix already went through a very similar situation in Justice for All, and he acted entirely different, for that was his purpose as a lawyer), throwing his character development off a window just to make him Apollo's rival. And during the second half...he's barely useful. Maybe they were trying to make the point that Apollo has surpassed his master, but heck, even Phoenix says he would have given up several times (really? He of all the people?)...nghhh. It was painful to watch.
Case 4, as great as it was seeing Blackquill, it felt like pure filler, without even an investigation sequence thrown in. Sure, that has been done already in other cases (3-4, for example), but it really felt like "let's give Athena something to do" and call it a day.
Overall a good game, but I struggle to rate it highly. At least it was a bit more challenging than AA5.
