Reviews from

in the past


This review contains spoilers

I love the atmosphere and the setting, I love the characters, and I love the setup this game has for the next game. I can tell that its cooking up something awesome for the sequel. But, holy crap the pacing and amount of exposition in this game is too much. The game is extremely long and padded out for an ace attorney game.

very charming game that captures a lot of the magic that ace attorney 1 had. it was refreshing to enter this new world with endearing main characters that felt fleshed out and distinct from other ace attorney offerings. far and away one of the game's strongest features is its animations being a lot crisper and detailed, due to being mo-cap'd. even minor characters had little animations that i found a joy to watch.

biggest flaw with the game, for me, is the unevenness of the narrative. the pacing is very peculiar, with a third case that feels like it belongs in the fourth case's slot due to how heavily referenced it is by the fifth case. and the cast is either incredibly endearing or absolutely repugnant with basically no middleground. i love characters like susato, gina, and even sholmes, but cannot stand characters like von zieks and gregson. also, it seems like this game has a pretty heavy recurring element of racism that doesn't ever get really touched upon in a meaningful way, which is an odd choice imo. it's definitely what i would expect from 1800s britain, but it's just weird to have sooooo many microaggressions (as well as the occasional outright "i hate the japanese" esque comment) and not really make a point of having naruhodo or susato react to them in meaningful ways. in many ways, this is the most divisive cast because the great characters are stellar, while the awful characters are series lowlights.

i'm very interested to see what tgaa2 does considering how heavily this game leans into being a duology. there were a lot of unanswered questions and dangling threads i didn't expect to remain unresolved by the game's conclusion, so i'm hoping that extending them into another game means the payoff will be even better. i've heard a lot of good things in passing about tgaa2, so it'll be hard to not have high expectations. if nothing else, i was pleasantly surprised that this concept that i had next to no interest in was able to deliver a charming experience.

Fantastic game. Starts a bit slow, and definitely feels like part of a larger "game" than the others do (the final case not being a real conclusion to anything, and feeling more like a midgame case from any other game), but that's not really a downside. Definitely looking forward to playing part two.

The quality of cases 3 and 5 almost made me forget the slog of cases 1 and 2. As for case 4 it was alright, it would fall under 3rd case syndrome but this game had a unique setting for its 2nd case which had no courtroom aspects whatsoever and sought out to introduce the deduction mechanic. To be honest I think this slowed the start of the game down alot and case 2 is probably one of my least favourites in the whole series, especially after case 1 which is a long and arduous journey to get through.
Once those first 10-15 hours of setup finally finish we're introduced to the setting of the game which I really enjoyed being from the UK myself. And then we get perhaps the best 3rd case in the series which completely blew me away. It introduces the jury mechnic which I was quite fond of and I think trial sections are at their best in the series in this game with alot of different mechanics working together in tandem.
As for the characters, Herlock was a great addition and he really grew on me towards the end, Ryunosuke just kind of seems like a less interesting Phoenix and is perhaps the most basic MC we have seen in the series, Wilson and Susato are both good companions I feel. There's alot of great side characters in this game I think, particularly the likes of Mcgilded and Ash Greydon. The OST was fine but felt more like a Layton clone than an Ace Attorney soundtrack at times.
Finally, I should say that the game felt like it wrapped up its main story pretty well but there's no denying that it left many questions unanswered in the end and it seems blatantly obvious that they had to cut content and make a 2nd game because they couldn't fit all their ideas into one game.


Sorry Yamazaki, but this is a real modern Ace Attorney game.

As a long-time AA fan who took way too long to play this despite knowing of it even prior to its original release, TGAA: Adventures really just pulled me in from the very start. The stakes are immediately established, and that first case is probably the best in the series.

Ryunosuke is just so damn endearing. He has real growth over the course of this game in a way I feel no other Ace Attorney protagonist does - his journey across the world is just one you WANT to see unfold and go along with him.

Even gameplay-wise, it pushes the series so far forward - much more than just adding a new gimmick. They were so confident that Sholmes and his Dance of Deduction could carry an entire case that this game has a chapter with no trial. Literally unheard of. And you know what? They were right. It slaps.

Visually, this game is exactly what I expect the series to look like now. AA5 and 6 have always looked a little off. TGAA is very PLvPW:AA (which makes sense), and it's perfect. I fell in love with that style immediately, and I'm so glad to see more of it.

My only real gripes are incredibly minor. Mainly, I wish it had more voice acting and a few more anime cutscenes. PLvsPW:AA nailed the usage of these, potentially almost perfectly, using them to enhance the game's presentation. If we can't have fully voice-acted AA, then voice-acting important lines and breakdowns is a great compromise. Unfortunately that's not what we get here (though the few anime cutscenes we get are stellar). And no matter how much you love a visual novel, for one as long as this, eventually reading endless lines of text can grow a tad dreary. Nonetheless, the game is so damn good and so well-written that I still pushed through and played for... more hours at a time than I care to admit over winter break.

There's just something different about The Great Ace Attorney. Takumi and his team clearly learned a lot from working with Level-5 on PLvsPW:AA, and this game is the fruit of their ambition to allow Ace Attorney to be more than just Ace Attorney and break countless series conventions.

And I apologize, but it may also just be proof that Ace Attorney belongs in Shu Takumi's hands.

This review contains spoilers

I'm kinda conflicted on this one. I enjoyed playing it and the new characters quickly grew on me. But you can really feel that this games story has just truly begun when the game technically already ends. If I didn't know that the second GAA game is supposedly really good, I think I'd give this game 3 stars. But I can't bring myself to rate it lower because I'm pretty sure I'll appreciate this game more when I have experienced the whole story of GAA.
Anyway, the graphics are pretty good (as this is essentially a 3DS game) and the best they've ever been in an AA game. The characters are beautifully animated and very lively. The soundtrack is pretty good, though I hope for more catchy tunes in GAA 2. Sucks Capcom gave this game only an English translation but I'm still glad these games finally made it to the west.

A new and fresh look at what Ace Attorney is, creative and interesting cases, and so much mystery about the Great Britain country

Game took soooooo long to get going, but at least the final case was a hit and seems to set up nicely for the 2nd game. The unmemorable music was also a low point for me.

No es que reinvente la rueda con respecto al resto de la saga, pero el nuevo setting le da una frescura sorprendente.

Pros:
- El nivel del guion sigue siendo muy alto, como nos viene acostumbrando la saga.
- La mecánica del jurado popular es uno de los mejores aportes al ritmo de los juicios, permitiendo además interactuar con muchos más personajes.
- Situarnos en una época más antigua en la que no existían los avances en reconocimiento de huellas o análisis de sangre le da unos enfoques muy curiosos a los casos.

Contras:
- Muchos diálogos siguen alargándose en demasía, reiterando una y otra vez evidencias que han quedado claras. Nada nuevo en el formato anime tampoco.
- Las fases de investigación no tienen demasiada profundidad, quedando todo el pescado por vender en los juicios.
- Parece que definitivamente se ha abandonado al público hispanohablante en las nuevas iteraciones de esta saga.

I can't believe they did the impossible.

They made Ace Attorney even gayer.

This review contains spoilers

dgs1 can't really stand on its own weight(including the final villain) and the endings of cases 1/3 + not being able to investigate case 4's scene are kinda stupid but the main characters make up for it. overall good experience, can't wait for dgs2 to utilize this game's potential.

Great Ace Attoney es el vivo ejemplo de juego "Ok" que he jugado. No hace nada mal, todo lo que ofrece es bueno, pero tampoco tiene algo que lo haga llegar a la excelencia. aunque suene crudo lo que dije, la verdad es que lo disfrute bastante y sinceramente tenía pensado esperarme al próximo mes para jugar un nuevo ace atorney con loa colección de Apollo, pero luuego de varios meses sin tocar un ace attorney no pude aguantar y empecé TGAA y lo disfruté bastante. buenos personajes, buena ambientación, buen OST, como dije, no hay nada que haga mal.

ahora bien, lo siento pero tengo que decirlo y es que capcom es un tacaño de mierda. hay desarrolladoras literalmente indies que han dado voces en todos los diálogos de visual novels que son 2 o 3 veces más larga que cualquier juego de la saga, pero Capcom se empeña en no darle voces a los personajes...

Es el juego más experimental de la franquicia con diferencia, desde su ambientación hasta sus mecánicas pasando por la estructura de sus casos. Esto se lleva hasta la última consecuencia con el hecho de que deja muchos cabos sueltos de forma explícita de cara a la secuela, cosa que por un lado deja a esta entrega un poco más coja pero que también aumenta el hype por la siguiente.

En cualquier caso, los puntos más fuertes de la saga permanecen: casos interesantes, personajes encantadores, momentos de pura emoción, mucho humor y una banda sonora exquisita.

A nivel jugable los elementos más destacables son las deducciones de Herlock Sholmes (divertidísimas, como todo lo que rodea al personaje) y la presencia del jurado en los juicios (que llega a dar un juego tremendo de las formas más insospechadas).

Mencionar, por último, que ni el setting victoriano ni la presencia del lore de la obra de Conan Doyle son, en absoluto, elementos puramente cosméticos; sino que se integran perfectamente con los temas de la historia y hacen la experiencia muy inmersiva.

It really was a the great ace attorney adventures

As someone who has only played the very first Ace Attorney game before, this kind of blew me away. The presentation is so fantastic, the music is absolutely amazing and while I usually prefer 2D sprites to 3D models in games like these, the 3D models were so expressive and full of life! Very cool. The story in this engaged me with its longer sort of storytelling rather than in AA1 where the stories were (mostly) contained to their episodic formats. And while TGAA was plenty serious and dramatic, it was also funny and delightful. The game has a few issues for me, mostly contained to ch.4, but on the whole I had a very cozy and fun experience with this. Chapter 3 is a masterpiece, do not @ me it just is.

This gets 4 stars because I can't give it 4¼. But just imagine it's somewhere between 4 and 4½ stars.
EDIT: Okay it's been a couple of days and i am listening to the OST constantly and can't stop thinking about this game and the few problems I had with it feels like barely anything in comparison to how much I enjoyed it, so congrats TGAA1 here are your 4½ stars

This review contains spoilers

my friend and i talk about magnus mcgilded genuinely every time we talk

Maybe a game that’s making me wish I didn’t stick to whole star ratings. A high-3, if only because I still don’t love Ace Attorney’s model, It’s just a little too long-winded for my visual novel tastes (the fifth chapter’s trial had me exhausted), and a little too visual-novel-y for my adventure game tastes. For me to stay engaged in a mystery where I can start to see the beats line up along a rail, but have to wait for the trolley to chug on through them all, I just need a little more momentum. The autoplaying of dialog really saved my overall experience with this game; I even opted to use the “story mode” for the final chapter just because I didn’t have the heart to play through it all myself, and I was interested in seeing how it worked.

I cannot deny, though, my experience with The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures was leagues more exciting than my time trudging through the first couple of games in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy a few years ago. Besides the aesthetic being enormously more intriguing, the “deduction” sections help break-up the investigation segments of the game so much better and I just found myself a lot less disengaged for half of the game. Herlock Sholmes clears, what can I say?

What also got me locked in here was the general politics of it all on display. The way this game is about the British Empire imposing on the world their own systems, looking down on all foreigners, especially non-white foreigners. I mean, this is basically a racism simulator. The over-arching story really grabbed me along with the over-arching vibe, so once again I am finding myself adoring the world and characters of Ace Attorney, but just not really able to get locked into the game. Does make me deathly curious how I’d feel about Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, since I really love the former’s gameplay and not the latter’s.

Herlock Sholmes is so incredible, and Von Zieks is even more extra than Edgeworth.... this game... it's peak I fear.

While this Ace Attorney chapter is a bumpy ride in terms of pacing, the new cast of characters are fun and lend themselves to an interesting exploration of the setting and an all around great character arc for the new protagonist.

A new height for Ace Attorney in terms of vibes and characters, and probably the best written that I've played so far. Did not appreciate how much Shu Takumi made these games until he returned. The second case was underwhelming, and realistically, this is only half of the complete experience. Nevertheless, I'm hooked. The visual comedy was spectacular, something which never struck me previously with these games. From Sholmes falling over, the baby in the first trial to the eccentricities of one Benedict Eggbert, the game was a joy to watch (and occasionally voice act). Sholmes and the jury system brought a necessary diversity into the gameplay loop. I really look forward to how the second part will run with and further enhance the plot threads.

i watched the subbed gameplay of this way back then. i was there gandalf i was there 8 years ago when capcom said they weren't ever gonna localize this

Really charming as usual for the series, the cases in this game are almost all really good! I did have problems with the second case not having a trial for some reason, which wouldn't be that much of an issue except I kept waiting for the trial to happen for two hours before realizing it just didn't have one. Other than that the rest of the cases had some really satisfying twists and reveals. This game has you grasping for straws very often, almost every case feeling unwinnable in the beginning and you just throw anything you can at it in hopes something will reveal the truth. It made this game feel very tense and therefore more satisfying to finally discover the truth!

A huge breath of fresh air after experiencing the sub par efforts of AA5 and AA6. Admittingly, some of the parts of this game's story tend to drag on, however the payoff in the end felt very rewarding. It serves as a great set up for the next game, and I am looking forward to concluding that journey.


Filled with a cast of memorable and hilarious characters, five enticing cases, and excellent pacing this is one of the best visual novels I’ve ever played. Highly recommended for those that like solving mysteries and turn of the century London.

Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2021/11/30/now-playing-november-2021-edition/

case 2 was annoying and the lack of investigation until chapter 4 was annoying but sholmes iris and gina make up for all the games flaws tenfold. best character writing ive seen in an aa game easily (though aai2 comes close) and im very excited to see where two takes it

This review contains spoilers

The game was good, worse than the first and third games of the original trilogy (I haven't played the Apollo and Investigations games yet).
The first case was good, but it kinda felt too long for being a tutorial case and the second while introducing the best character in the game, it felt lacking because it was only investigations and had no trial segments.
The third case is great, it felt similar to Farewell my Turnabout, with the whole defending guilty stuff.
The fourth was a good filler case, but I was getting tired of accidental murders by then and the fifth was great, but worse than the third.
My ranking of the cases is:
3 > 5 > 1 > 4 > 2

i just want to state that this is currently an incomplete review as i have only played the first game but this will be updated when that happens (who knows my backlog is massive)

the first great ace attorney is a very interesting package. i really loved the first case and i think it does the nervous person doing their first ever case trope better than all of the other games. when you hear that first objection and go oh shiiiiit. its a great case. after that i felt the game was a little slow. didn't help that the second case was all investigating but i felt like my main problem was the lack of stakes. this game has 5 cases and within those 5 they pull both the accidental murder trope and the no culprit trope which im not the biggest fan of in this games COUGH COUGH* turnabout reclaimed. its still a great time and i definitely need to play the second one at some point