It's a pretty fun game, so I can certainly see why so many people like it. It has a lot of charm and personality, the characters are pretty true to their cartoon selves, and there's plenty to explore and collect. I think it's missing that element of difficulty and optimization that other platformers like A Hat in Time and Super Mario 64 have though (bosses are pretty simple, no deeper movement tech, etc). Still a worthwhile time if you just want something to chill with and/or want a nice looking 3D platformer to keep you entertained for a little while. I'll give the original on GameCube a try later to see if there's any big differences.

A lot of the investigation sections seem to drag on a little too long and unfortunately a lot of the opponents' rebuttals are some form of "bUt ThAt'S jUsT a ThEoRy, AcTuAlLy AlL oF yOuR eViDeNcE iS CiRcUmStAnTiAl", but when this game's twists get revealed, that's when the game goes full throttle and does not let up. It also helps that most of the lovable characters from the original trilogy are back in some form, and most of the new characters are quite entertaining in their own right. All in all, it's a good game with a bit of filler; all the great parts of an Ace Attorney game are there, just need to reduce some of the needless rambling and meandering.

I actually like this a bit more overall than Apollo Justice; in particular, the investigation sections flow much more nicely and are fairly easy to follow and complete in comparison to the previous game. My main complaint, however, is how similar this game often feels to Apollo Justice in terms of its theme. It spends so much time talking about the "dark era of the law" but isn't that basically the entire premise of Apollo Justice too? It's my belief that if you combined the best parts of Apollo Justice and this game, you'd easily have one of the best Ace Attorney games, one that could potentially stand up to Investigations 2, the original Ace Attorney, and Trials and Tribulations. Instead, you have two separated but similarly themed games that feel a little incomplete without one another. It's still a good game, but I feel like its potential isn't completely realized.

Way harder and definitely more fulfilling than Dual Destinies. It's themed differently than the previous two games to stand out more, and the new gameplay mechanic of the Divination Séances is not only creative, but fits rights in with how much the game forces you to bend your mind to reinterpret scenarios. I'll admit that there were a few bumps in the road with some annoying witnesses during some of the trials, but otherwise, it's a solid Ace Attorney game. They really turned it up to 11 in the last chapter with all the well executed twists, which more than makes up for its length. Absolutely recommended title with a fantastic narrative and as usual, a fantastic cast.

I think the first game is just alright, it's a lot more consistent but at the same time also doesn't have any really stand out cases or moments.

The second game though... they turn it up to 11 and I was constantly on the edge of my seat. Fantastic reveals and plot progression culminate in one of the best final chapters offered by the entire franchise.

All in all, it's a pretty fun experience and I had little difficulty navigating the investigation sections, which is not something I can say about most of the Ace Attorney games. Not my favorite out of the franchise, but it's still got a great cast and I'd say it's very much worth your time.

This is probably one of the worst attempts at creating a 3D platformer that I've dealt with in recent times. The jumping feels extremely restrained with little horizontal movement, so every jump feels unsafe. You'll also splat if you fall more than the height of two jumps, so you'll be finding that you splat a lot because surfaces often look very non distinct in this world that's filled with this mix of bright lights and dark blocks and walls. And if you fall off the stage, you'll usually have to fall the entire vertical distance until you splat on the ground below... which can take upwards of 15 seconds or more because the platforms are usually elevated well above the ground. As a result, there was a ton of downtime because it's so easy to fall off the stage in the worlds with a subpar jump and no mechanism to cut your falling momentum (or improve your somewhat slow walking speed inbetween your jumps) in the beginning of the game.

The combat is also a giant problem. Firstly, your weapons feel like peashooters against most of the enemies' lasers and shots. I get that this is probably intentional, but this makes combat an uphill battle when it's already so tedious. You can't fire your weapon unless you're aiming down your sights, and when you do, your movement slows to a crawl. As a result, you can't strafe your enemies' attacks effectively. This results in this awkward cycle where you have to aim down sights, fire a few shots, get out of aiming down sights, try and anticipate and dodge an attack, and then aim down sights again to try and attack the enemy. Or you could just try and stomach the attacks, but that also doesn't work very well because the enemies drop far less health pickups than any damage they inflict upon you. It's also worth mentioning that enemies are often flying above you, and the extent at which you can angle your aiming upwards is very noticeable and rather limited, so you often have to run away from the enemy just to be able to aim at the enemy (and that's no small task on these small platforms where you could very easily fall off!). So combine this with enemy attacks that are fairly difficult to react to (the lasers are almost instant in their appearance and you have to anticipate it coming), difficult aiming (at least on a controller, since I use a controller for 3D platformers; a slightly faster reticle speed and a lock on for enemies would have been greatly appreciated) and a constant need to reaim, respawning enemies very early on, and very weak firepower at the beginning of the game when there are plenty of enemies you will have to confront, and combat is a disaster.

The one thing I'll give Recompile credit for is the way it attempts to spin its narrative, through indirect storytelling conveyed using logs scattered throughout the worlds. Unfortunately, all the platforming and movement and combat in-between just makes the storytelling not feel worthwhile. I really wanted to like this game and progress further to get more upgrades, but the barrier of entry due to its lack of understanding on how to make a mechanically solid 3D platformer with good combat was just too much. If Balan Wonderworld didn't exist, I would state with no reservations that this is the worst 3D platformer I have ever played that still had a respectable budget to put effort into its outer appearances.

Honestly, it's a pretty chill time. The movement is a bit of a step down from Pirate's Curse (so it's not quite as fun to speedrun), but it's still got the same charm and aesthetic as the rest of the series, and all the different abilities and transformations you get while exploring make it quite worthwhile. Only major complaint would be that some of the individual sublevels are a bit long, and falling off the stage or colliding with spikes forces you to start back at the beginning of the sublevel, which can be a bit of a timewaster. We have the technology Wayforward; checkpoints exist after all!

It's like the original in terms of writing but with way better combat and platforming and tons more content. This might be my favorite release of 2021, it's got the same charm and personality and is such a thrill to explore. In fact, I found its quality so compelling that I uninstalled my Game Pass version and bought a copy on Steam after finishing the tutorial level. If it takes 16 more years for a game of this quality to be produced from the franchise... well I wouldn't be happy with the wait, but at least we'd have a pretty damn good game.