In Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane, you play as a defense attorney who practices law in a world of fantasy and wizards. You must defend clients accused of various crimes committed using magic and use the rules of magic to prove them innocent.
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This is an obvious paid Ace Attorney fangame and that will understandably put people off. I won’t sugarcoat the flaws of this game: Amateur writing, breakneck pacing, inconsistent art, VERY messy ending… I am sorry for being harsh, but this is far from achieving true excellence and if you come with the high expectations of a mainline Ace Attorney game, you will be disappointed.
But despite it all, I have to seriously congratulate the team, because I did not expect to enjoy myself as much as I did. The characters in Tyrion are so incredibly likeable, and the way their relationships are built throughout the entire game achieved the exact same comfort space the original AA universe managed to do for me back in the day. The writer takes many tropes from AA but makes them their own in a familiar, but fresh perspective, that consistently brought a smile to my face (the relationship between Tyrion and Celeste is the prime example to this).
I was very surprised at how well-built the world was, the way the cases are connected to each other feels incredibly cohesive. They managed to reuse assets in really clever ways that crafted a believable world with clear direction and consequences. And all the new gameplay mechanics are well executed into this fantastical world with above average solid cases. This game is very smart by having its first and final cases being the best of the experience, considering they are the most important part of AA (I would even argue of most stories). And I NEED to mention the music. I cannot complain how little of it there is because every track is absolutely fantastic and elevates what the writing lacks.
So yeah, Tyrion is not a masterpiece, but I am incredibly happy I bought it. Likeable characters and fantastic music with some fun murder mystery action mixed in is the entire reason why I fell in love with Ace Attorney in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, this experience can be polished in many ways, but the writer and his small team should be proud of this one and I will absolutely buy Tyrion 2 whenever it comes out.
I only ask there is less Marvel humor next time in place of sincere ingenuity. My friend and I laughed so hard whenever “Well… THAT was awkward” jokes popped up time and time again. Maybe it served their purpose?
-----------------------
Case Ranking:
Fantastic:
Case 4
Great:
Case 5 and Case 1
Very Good:
Case 3
Good:
Case 2
But despite it all, I have to seriously congratulate the team, because I did not expect to enjoy myself as much as I did. The characters in Tyrion are so incredibly likeable, and the way their relationships are built throughout the entire game achieved the exact same comfort space the original AA universe managed to do for me back in the day. The writer takes many tropes from AA but makes them their own in a familiar, but fresh perspective, that consistently brought a smile to my face (the relationship between Tyrion and Celeste is the prime example to this).
I was very surprised at how well-built the world was, the way the cases are connected to each other feels incredibly cohesive. They managed to reuse assets in really clever ways that crafted a believable world with clear direction and consequences. And all the new gameplay mechanics are well executed into this fantastical world with above average solid cases. This game is very smart by having its first and final cases being the best of the experience, considering they are the most important part of AA (I would even argue of most stories). And I NEED to mention the music. I cannot complain how little of it there is because every track is absolutely fantastic and elevates what the writing lacks.
So yeah, Tyrion is not a masterpiece, but I am incredibly happy I bought it. Likeable characters and fantastic music with some fun murder mystery action mixed in is the entire reason why I fell in love with Ace Attorney in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, this experience can be polished in many ways, but the writer and his small team should be proud of this one and I will absolutely buy Tyrion 2 whenever it comes out.
I only ask there is less Marvel humor next time in place of sincere ingenuity. My friend and I laughed so hard whenever “Well… THAT was awkward” jokes popped up time and time again. Maybe it served their purpose?
-----------------------
Case Ranking:
Fantastic:
Case 4
Great:
Case 5 and Case 1
Very Good:
Case 3
Good:
Case 2
Competent Attorney-like game that has enough fun twist on the classic games to feel fresh. The writing is good, the characters are decently written; overall, a great little story for $20.
YES YES YES YES THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT IN LIFE
Obviously takes a lot of inspiration from Ace Attorney but doesn't try and hide it. Instead, by being all around a really solid game it elevates itself from a mere fan-game to it's own thing and I'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the genre.
time to review this 7 months after beating the game LMAO this game wears its ace attorney inspirations on its sleeves, but in my opinion it definitely reaches those same heights while having its own identity. cases 4 and 5 of this game especially are, imo, every bit as good as some of the best cases in ace attorney. the cast is very memorable and goated with characters like tyrion, celeste, aria, and ruby being stand outs and while i will say this games a bit rough around the edges in the same way a lot of indie games are, theres clearly a lot of love put into this game i cant wait for the sequel
This review contains spoilers
Pretty good Ace Attorney style game. It could use some polish - I encountered quite a few typos and it ain't an AA game without times where you are aware of the contradiction but can't figure out which evidence the game has decided is right, or you figured out a contradiction that you weren't intended to yet. I don't begrudge the game these flaws, the typos in particular can pretty easily be patched and the evidence issues are endemic to the "genre" as a whole...
In terms of story, the main cast is great. Celeste has a couple portraits that are eerily similar to Maya (obviously intentional), but tapping into the fans' nostalgia is probably not a bad thing. The prosecutor is great, the detective is great, the judge is a judge, et cetera.
Some of the supporting characters have their designs tilted a bit too much towards the sensual end of the scale for my taste, although the fact that the credits list a "waifu consultant" means I'm actually pretty happy with how much restraint the character designer apparently had.
Speaking of which, this game was pretty much made by one guy. Definitely makes it a lot easier to forgive any flaws, and I had a better experience with this than with some actual AA games so... easy recommend to fans of the series. The pacing in particular I felt was a genuine strength, I plowed through this game in like three days.
Goes without saying but I'm gonna say it anyways, Carlos's OST is great. His involvement was most of the reason that I backed this project in the first place (look mom, my name's in the credits!) and I've been listening to the soundtrack off my phone since I finished the game. I think my favorite track might be "Smitten"? Also the main theme. Also... all of the "Pursuit" style songs. Also Celeste's theme.
Maybe I shouldn't try to pick a favorite track.
Gonna venture a bit into spoilers here...
When the "meta" character appeared in chapter 2 I was a bit wary as to how she'd be executed... Overall I think it worked out ok. I could've done without the direct reference to the name of my Windows username, it never comes up again in terms of "talking to the player and not to the character".
But aside from that, my main complaint is that this villain was a bit too powerful. When she can modify people's memories willy-nilly then it's not really a whodunit (er, in the case of AA it's generally a "how did they do it") case. I can't piece together a mystery when all of the evidence is false. This culminates in the apparent betrayal of Celeste, but actually she only thought she betrayed you because her memories were changed. Makes the reveal that she was lying kinda cheap.
The climax where the villain was defeated was great though. I just feel like it wasn't necessary to torch all our other methods of obtaining information to get there.
Also I felt the multiversal teasing was putting the cart before the horse a bit... I'm not sure what a "multiverse" would even mean in this context, but given that we know very little about the upper planes, circles of hell, and heck, even countries that aren't called Wyverngarde, using the word "multiverse" just makes me think of alternate selves and the like, which all seems to be a bit much for a sequel.
On that note, I think a sequel would be great. I spent a significant portion of this review complaining but those are mostly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. This is a quality AA-like experience and definitely deserves your money.
In terms of story, the main cast is great. Celeste has a couple portraits that are eerily similar to Maya (obviously intentional), but tapping into the fans' nostalgia is probably not a bad thing. The prosecutor is great, the detective is great, the judge is a judge, et cetera.
Some of the supporting characters have their designs tilted a bit too much towards the sensual end of the scale for my taste, although the fact that the credits list a "waifu consultant" means I'm actually pretty happy with how much restraint the character designer apparently had.
Speaking of which, this game was pretty much made by one guy. Definitely makes it a lot easier to forgive any flaws, and I had a better experience with this than with some actual AA games so... easy recommend to fans of the series. The pacing in particular I felt was a genuine strength, I plowed through this game in like three days.
Goes without saying but I'm gonna say it anyways, Carlos's OST is great. His involvement was most of the reason that I backed this project in the first place (look mom, my name's in the credits!) and I've been listening to the soundtrack off my phone since I finished the game. I think my favorite track might be "Smitten"? Also the main theme. Also... all of the "Pursuit" style songs. Also Celeste's theme.
Maybe I shouldn't try to pick a favorite track.
Gonna venture a bit into spoilers here...
When the "meta" character appeared in chapter 2 I was a bit wary as to how she'd be executed... Overall I think it worked out ok. I could've done without the direct reference to the name of my Windows username, it never comes up again in terms of "talking to the player and not to the character".
But aside from that, my main complaint is that this villain was a bit too powerful. When she can modify people's memories willy-nilly then it's not really a whodunit (er, in the case of AA it's generally a "how did they do it") case. I can't piece together a mystery when all of the evidence is false. This culminates in the apparent betrayal of Celeste, but actually she only thought she betrayed you because her memories were changed. Makes the reveal that she was lying kinda cheap.
The climax where the villain was defeated was great though. I just feel like it wasn't necessary to torch all our other methods of obtaining information to get there.
Also I felt the multiversal teasing was putting the cart before the horse a bit... I'm not sure what a "multiverse" would even mean in this context, but given that we know very little about the upper planes, circles of hell, and heck, even countries that aren't called Wyverngarde, using the word "multiverse" just makes me think of alternate selves and the like, which all seems to be a bit much for a sequel.
On that note, I think a sequel would be great. I spent a significant portion of this review complaining but those are mostly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. This is a quality AA-like experience and definitely deserves your money.