Game #1345: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

  You've been served!

 Well, Phoenix Wright is back.... back to the past, as now we take control of Ryunosuke Naruohodo, Wright's ascendant, in a game I never thought we'd ever see officially translated: The Great Ace Attorney Chonicles. This is a two-in-one compilation of the duology, and if you know anything about Ace Attorney... it's that these are lengthy games, so boy, are you in for a ride...

 These games don't really break the mold, they are the same visual novel/graphic adventure mix that the original games are. Divided into chapters, each is compromised of two different gameplay segments: Investigation, in which you, in first person, travel from place to place, usually the crime scene, in order to talk to NPCs as well as gather clues from the environment to use on the other segment, the court case itself. The Court is when it gets interesting, as Witnesses will offer their testimony and it's your job to find contradictions by presenting the appropriate evidence. It's as great as it's ever been.

 This duology adds a new addition to the gameplay as well as a couple of new wrinkles to the court cases. Joined by Herlock Sholmes himself, during certain Investigation phases you'll have to 'help' Sholmes arrive to the correct deduction. This is done by observing the environment or presenting the right piece of evidence. One of the new tweaks to the formula is the Jury, sometimes, the Jury will decide that your client is guilty, so you must pit jury member against jury member, by getting them to say stuff that contradicts another member, in order to continue the trial. I wouldn't say I was particularly fond of either, but I didn't mind them. The other addition is that sometimes two witnesses will present a joint testimony, in which case, sometimes they might react to what the other one said, and you can 'pursue' them for more information. I wasn't particularly fond of these new additions, but I didn't mind them.

 The new cast of characters was quite endearing, and I think I ended up caring more about Ryunosuke than Phoenix, but it's been a while since I last played a proper Ace Attorney, so I might be downplaying Pheenie! Ryunosuke's assistant was irritating at first, with all her 'Susato takedowns', but she grew on me. This is also true about Sholmes, he was infuriating at first, but the more you realize he is not as stupid as he acts the more you'll like him. But, yeah, most of the characters ended up growing on me, while Ryunosuke I liked from the get-go. The story was fairly interesting too, although I felt that reusing so many characters from the first game was a bit... lazy.

 The first game breaks a lot of series' conventions, which felt a bit off to me. The Investigation and Trial sections were clearly divided, meaning, while in the original games a single chapter would swing you from the court to the investigation to the court again to more investigating.... in this one you don't go back and forth, first you investigate and then you go to court until the chapter ends. Heck, one of the cases didn't even have an investigation phase, and another one is just an investigation phase!

 It also felt a bit cheap. In a few Correction sections I instantly realized what I had to point out, but the game wouldn't accept it until I inspected it before. Like, dude, I already figured it out, just move on! And, thankfully, this game comes bundled with its sequel.... because this one leaves a TON of stuff unanswered, it's egregious.

 The sequel plays it closer to home, so now you do go back and forth between investigations and trials, which I enjoyed a fair bit. You can also equip alternate costumes on Ryunosuke, Susanto and Sholmes! My one gripe, is that I hated the second case's setup, because, naturally, you want the plot to move forward, but this case is set during the first game.... why? It was so annoying, I wanted the plot to keep on pushing, but this feels like such a pace-killer. I realize they were using it to set-up somo of the big reveals for the finale, but it was still annoying. They also brought back the most annoying character of the original game.

 That said, if the Ace Attorney developers know something.... it's how to deliver an emotional finale, and this is no exception. It was very fulfilling and exciting. Overall, I'd say that despite the second case... the sequel is a much superior game, but there's no point to playing it without playing the first game, as you are missing out if you don't play the sequel, and a lot of stuff won't make sense unless you played the first. Two halves of a whole.

 I loved coming back to the Ace Attorney series, and this game is yet another banger. Court dismissed!

9.0