This is a couple days late but it feels wrong not giving this at least something despite my internal love for it, so here's a "brief" gathering of what thoughts I have. (it was not brief, oop!)

Unfortunately, I really struggle to focus on VNs for long periods, and with these games being pretty lengthy with huge chunks of reading, the duology ended up taking me around 15 months to finish... Which as you can imagine means that thanks to my awful memory, I really don't remember all that many specifics, and therefore only the positives are left.

As such, I've simply forgotten about any gripes I took with either game, any weak or flawed case has been condensed so much that I can't recall anything negative to say, and what I'm left with is a heavily biased adoration for these games based on what I do remember: The characters.
(... and the music)

The cast of the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is nothing short of delightful. One of the better parts of playing this in chunks with such long breaks was that each time a character came back on screen I was beaming with joy. Those with their own themes would be especially welcome, making every time I picked the game back up feel special, like reuniting with an old friend.

I can say undoubtedly that some of the witnesses in the series bothered me, be it for their designs or disgusting animations, but everyone I remember strongly, I remember fondly, and that's pretty awesome. Susato is my precious bean, of whom I will hear no criticism whatsoever. Ryunosuke is an excellent protagonist - I haven't played any of the older Ace games but I'd be surprised if old fans thought he didn't fit the bill nicely, am I wrong? - Herlock Sholmes was a hugely pleasant surprise, Iris, Gina, Gregsy, TOBY! I love them all honestly. And of course, pray forgive the discourtesy of leaving Barok Van Zieks until last, a prosecutor so good that I'm genuinely a little worried the ones from earlier in the franchise won't live up to his impeccable demeanor.

Aside from the characters, the music in these games slaps, hard. Every song is a banger and I must've spent at least 90% of my playtime bopping or humming along while I read. I also got to enjoy the music for a lot longer on account of me getting distracted and having the game serenade me while I do shit on my other screen, making this game one of few that truly benefitted from me being really bad at playing it

As for the story, there are huge chunks of my memory missing but from what's covered in 2 and what 2 recounts of 1, I really like what they did. The whole foreign student practicing law in Britain (my homeland 😌) angle fit perfectly into the overarching plot, as well as making for some really interesting relationships and scenarios between the characters, even before establishing any personal history that may have played a role.
Hell even the journey itself plays a role! When I started I had basically no idea how Ace games worked, so there were multiple times where I felt like Leo DiCaprio in that meme, snapping my fingers at the screen thinking "No way! The thing!"-- It was just really fun to play, idk how else to say it. Nothing stuck out to me as feeling forced or shoehorned in, (but ofc take that with a grain of salt bc I played it over 15 months so) it just worked, and I think that's neat :)

Overall, while my memory is foggy as hell, I am absolutely certain that I adored these games. Resolve served as both a step up from the first game as well as building on it's story and cases for what I found to be a satisfying conclusion. Maybe the very very end wrapped up a little quickly but idk, the actual ending of the game was so long already idk that I would've even wanted to spend longer getting the specifics of the outcome, so it's forgiven.

If you like the Ace Attorney games then you'd be a fool not to try these two. I believe the cases may be longer but there is so much to each of them between the trials and investigation that I don't think that's a bad thing at all. Capcom have been killing it in recent years and I'm really hoping they plan to port/remaster 4-6 of Phoenix's games as well, at least before I beat 1-3.

That's about all I have to say, leave it to me to write walls of text just to say "character and music good :)" but y'all know what you're in for by now :p

Much appreciated to anyone still reading these, regular amount of thanks to those who just like the review or gloss over a few sentences 🙏 Next review is looking likely to be Lost in Play, possibly Like a Dragon: Ishin! after, as I need to beat both before Resident Evil 4 drops. Stay tuned.
Have a great weekend!