As a fan of the original Ace Attorney Trilogy, nothing could’ve piqued my interest more than the setting change to a Victorian era courtroom and all the miniscule setting changes that would entail such as the lack of better forensic technology. I see this as allowing them to have more freedom in the cases they can write as more simpler events can’t just be hand waived with just searching a single aspect like blood DNA or fingerprint.

Story-wise this entry is definitely a visible upgrade from the original trilogy, granted I can’t say much compared to the Apollo Justice games as I haven’t played those. Each case feels incredibly significant to not only the characters involved but also Naruhodo’s development as a lawyer in a foreign nation. With each chapter, there’s a sense of progress in the main character’s understanding but also how well realized the world is in which Naruhodo feels a stranger to yet acclimatize. This culminates with every courtroom battle feeling tense but also hype when he eventually gains his victory, with him being an underdog making it all the more rewarding when he does bring the truth to the court.

The gameplay remains largely the same with previous iterations in being mostly a visual novel with some interactivity when investigating and choosing options in the courtroom. There’s some added features to it which makes it more suitable for the era it's in but nothing substantial enough I would point out here. What’s worth noting though is the puzzle element in this game feels the most forgiving in previous games as although not obvious, they also never make it too apparent as to what is the key in solving a particular scenario which I appreciated a lot. This level of difficulty really lets me fully engage with the story while being challenged, yet never overwhelmed to the point of ruining my immersion which I feel these sorts of visual novel mysteries tend to struggle in balancing.

My biggest highlight for this game has to be its presentation. They just completely nail the 19th century London aesthetic creating this drab yet lived world where a couple of Nipponese ambassadors would feel unwelcome. The brownish color palette is just perfect in encapsulating the melancholic vibe of this fictional London’s unforgiving atmosphere perfect in the winter season this game is set in. Couple this with the elegant soundtrack which captures the British class culture, creating an enamoring experience where I’m just fully immersed in the setting of the world as Ryunosuke Naruhodo.

The Great Ace Attorney Adventures is an amazing entry to the classic Ace Attorney series, and works well even as an entry point as there really isn’t much background you need to know to get into this game. It takes its time in getting you invested with its world and characters while also providing a dramatic narrative with twists and turns as you navigate a mystery with its intuitive system in both investigating and the trial. There isn’t much negative to say about this game besides the fact if you’re not into this genre. 8.5/10, that cliffhanger ending makes me grateful the re-release comes with both games.

Budding lawyer

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is a breath of fresh air for the series and provides a new direction for the series. I really loved the setting and characters in this one but it sort of felt really slow to play and read through this time around probably because of how the game's format is now and the inability to speed up text with the only option actually skipping text by accident sometimes. Nonetheless it does a great job building up Naruhodo's story and rise as a lawyer and setting the scene for what's to come.

The story here true to the word feels like an adventure compared to the previous titles I've played. While the original trilogy felt like a sitcom with an overarching narrative being pushed forward, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures rarely has you sitting in one place for more than half of it at least with each case almost being in a completely different spot with the last couple of cases feeling familiar after a long journey. The characters are just as full of charm here and after beating it makes me want to continue onto the sequel immediately due to how tempting the resolution to everything is.

The gameplay is pretty different from what I've experienced in this series so far with the investigative element and how trials usually go. I will say I'm not a fan of the jury immediately makes you feel like the trials are even more of an uphill battle than they usually are but I sort of understand it due to the nature of just how people are in general. The "Logic and Reasoning Spectacular" is a cool mechanic to have during investigations but feels too long in that you can't course correct in the first time the detective gives their long winded deductions. The summation examinations are also a new mechanic which haves you pit jurors against each other in a final chance for the defense which is also cool. I also feel like this game is a bit more scripted and a fair bit easier compared to the previous titles too which I didn't mind that much but it's something to note.

The music and the overall graphical design is incredible though. The initial appeal to Ace Attorney for me was building my way up to playing these games due to the Victorian era England and Meiji era Japan. I really like how epic these court themes are and the violins popping off when you have a really good objection, it makes these moments feel like they have more oomph. The art for the game itself is amazing and it has translated extremely well in the three dimensional space including the classic Ace Attorney animations of sweating and defeat we're all too familiar with.

Despite how much of this title leaves wanting in tie up loose ends, Adventures is a great start into the possibility of the series heading into this direction in the future. Specific eras of Law could be interesting but if Assassin's Creed is anything to go by, it can be too much of a good or bad thing.

I have a bad habit of automatically anticipating spin-off titles to be lesser experience, but that proved very much not the case here. Thinking this was a spin-off in the first place was likely an incorrect assumption on my part. This game clearly got as much and more effort than any past Ace Attorney game, and is overall a lovely experience.

From the narrative and art, it seems to me that Level 5 rubbed off quite a bit on Director and Writer, Shu Takumi, after making Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton. The Ace Attorney series's move to 3D was already a graceful one, but was taken up a step this time around and infused with that same delightful charm I felt playing the Professor Layton games.

That charm infects the story as well as it moves to being a historical fiction set in Meiji Era Japan and Victorian Era Britain. It's a more ambitious tale this time around: though still told through a series of "seemingly" disparate murder cases, there're are clearer threads connecting them all. While the original trilogy did have connected cases, those felt mostly spontaneous. Here, there's an intent from the outset that the events will build into the next title. In some ways that does come a bit at the expense of this game's story, as the stakes were ever only going to get so high, but I think it stands well on its own despite that. By the end, there are no big cliffhangers or glaring loose threads, just an anticipation for what big events could be happening next.

The characters are just as fun as ever, but twice as charming I think. The series's trademark over-the-top animations are here, but somehow they managed to make that work with more grounded designs. If the original series was a saturday morning cartoon (lovable as that is), this was like a dramatic comedy from an esteemed theater troupe.

The gameplay is largely the same as previous titles: the core investigation and trial mechanics that have been there since the beginning, plus a few novel mechanics to shake things up a bit. I don't know if it's because I'm so versed in this series's logic now, but I thought these were the most fluid trials in the series. Only twice did I every really feel stuck trying to guess what the next step of the puzzle was, and both instances were in the last case, the intentionally most complex one. One could interpret that as this game being "easy" but the logic was enjoyable to deduce throughout, in my opinion. The new mechanics were likewise well used, with one exception being that the new "jury" mechanic was I felt leaned into too early on the last case.

So overall, I loved this game and it shows that there's still a lot of life in this long running series. The only thing holding it back was itself as it is pulling its punches a bit, but I think that's quite fine as it lets you settle into the new setting properly. Highly recommend.

I'd had this bad boy on hold for a really long time. I'm a huge Ace Attorney fan, so I'd been waiting for a long time to finally get to it. It was DEFINITELY worth the wait.

This is one of the best Ace Attorney games. It's got the best gameplay mechanics in the series, it masterfully uses its historical setting and curates a whole new cast of characters that are just as colourful as any other Ace Attorney games. It's a real triumph, and no Ace Attorney fan should sleep on it. It's the best game in the series not called Apollo Justice. Don't miss out!

Saccharine, endearing and endlessly surprising. That kind of thing is par for Shu Takumi but this game really doubles down on what works about Ace Attorney and finds room for a great deal more sustained character work and sentimentality than the Ace Attorney games typically go for. The structure of the game leaves the first two cases feeling a bit too much like tutorials, and as a result the exciting parts of the game feel pretty backloaded, but when they kick in the game hits its stride.

There is a concerted (and applaudable!) attempt here to reckon with English racism and xenophobia but its simplicity and ham-handedness maybe starts to strain the limits of credulity towards the end, and the absence of any similar scrutiny towards the Empire of Japan left me wanting the game to deliver a more comprehensive politic, particularly as the latter part of the game leans hard into international intrigue and global relations. Clearly Takumi had these things firmly in mind, so here’s hoping that’s in the second one!

I sorta mourn this translation only coming on modern platforms, as this game is absolutely gorgeous and I wish it were possible to see these assets on that lovely 3DS display, but that’s obviously not the game’s fault. I’d say this ranks third among the Gyakutens Saiban, after 1) Apollo Justice and 2) Ace Attorney.

With Shu Takumi returning to the series to direct and write, this is 'Ace Attorney' through and through. Everything wonderful and frustrating about the series is back in full bloom here. I enjoyed the change of century (19th) and place (London) here in this first game of 'The Great Ace Attorney' collection. I do however think the characters here are decidedly less colorful than those of the 'Wright Anything Agency.' New protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo, while exhibiting some of Phoenix Wright's original trilogy clumsiness, was never quite as engaging as Phoenix. I recognize that this may have been the intention...to bring the series back down to planet Earth.

I enjoyed the story of 'Adventures' and this was especially true of cases 3 and 5. Case 3 has a resolution that is surprising for the series and sets up a cliffhanger that isn't resolved until the final moments of the game. I really enjoyed both of the new game mechanics. 'The Dance of Deductions' was additive to the experience of investigation. And the jury system and 'Summation Examinations' were additive to the experience of trials. Like many games in this series, 'Adventures' is long-winded. Your understanding of the case will almost always be ahead of the characters in the game and they will sometimes take literal hours to catch up. It took me 40 hours to complete this game. Now consider that this is a game where you, almost exclusively, read text. In 40 hours, the average reader can read ~1600 book pages. So the act of playing 'Adventures' is akin to reading a 1600 page book. Sixteen...HUNDRED...pages. I really think that's too long for an 'Ace Attorney' game or for any visual novel, really. It's the literal equivalent of four to five complete novels.

Great Ace Attorney Adventures could have been a flawless game, but some cases are really frustrating because real culprits and their motives were not interesting or believable. However, Great Ace Attorney is still a fun game, as the story is good enough, the characters are memorable, and watching their improvement is enjoyable. In particular protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo's character improvement was well-written and final of the game made me wonder if i should start 2nd game but i am exhausted, it took 54 hours from me and 2nd game seems much longer than first one