Man I really don't even know what to say about this game, I play tons of games its my main hobby, and RPGs are my favorite and this might be one of the best I've ever played, the writing is fantastic (especially the character writing and voice acting performances) very fun and often funny and heartfelt in a way I rarely feel from RPGs lately. The towns and cities are full of life and unique culture and lots of things to do and people to talk too.

The combat is easy to pick up with a lot of depth for individual characters, groups and gear/materia combinations. It fixes all of my problems with XVI (no whimsy, no real towns, no minigames, no life, weird misogyny, no party, stale combat) and then some, I was worried I no longer liked Final Fantasy but its really just whatever CBU3 is..trying to do. It's fun, its heartfelt, it isnt afraid to be both a love letter to the original and something entirely new, its just refreshing while still being nostalgic and familiar. My ONLY complaints about the game are: a 4k, 45 fps mode would do wonders, performance mode feels great but sacrifices a ton of visual fidelity and quality mode looks great but 30fps feels awful in the combat. There are a small handful of minigames that are kinda bad, i think most of them are at least decent and more that are actually good, there's one in particular that verges on being an accessibility issue that I could see preventing some people from 100%ing the game. And my final complaint is that it ended, even after 99 hours I was not ready to let go of this world and characters, I'm so excited to get back into the post-game content and hard mode that I'm struggling to even pay attention to other releases right now. This review might not mean anything to most people but after a lot of disappointment thank you Rebirth for making me remember why I love Final Fantasy and making me feel like I can love it again.

I have a lot of thoughts on this one. Overall I like it, but I think it has a fair bit of aspects I don't care much about. The gameplay is good, blasting stuff is fun, Star-Lord's elemental blasters was always videogamey as shit, and it translates well to the combat and environment. It would be nice if each element had the same depth as the wind setting, instead of just color-coded shields. I didn't care that much about a few of the abilities. Drax and Gamora's AOEs especially when they both feel inferior to Rocket's. I think I ran into more glitches than the average person would, there were a handful of moments where I had to reload the checkpoint because the next scene would not happen or characters were trapped in the level geometry. This game has the thing where characters will be constantly interrupting each other when you hit the next scene, I feel like I missed out on good stuff because of it. The story was a big part of why I played, they made it very clear that their biggest inspiration was Guardians Of The Galaxy (2008), which is one of my favorites, and the first time these characters are a team. It has the comics influence, totally, but the tone is definitely more in line with the James Gunn movies, which is to be expected. The music choices are way more "ultimate 80's nostalgia mix" than the movies' tracks, and they don't always match the tone and themes like the movies. If you liked the movies or enjoyed games like Marvel's Spider-Man, Id recommend this one for sure.

You know what since this will probably be my last new AA experience for a while, I'll make this review more serious than usual and also write a little reflection on my relationship with this series in general

I've been following Ace Attorney for 10+ years now and it was honestly love at first sight. When I first played AA1, I had no clue what a visual novel even was, and the idea of a "courtroom simulator" where you play as a defense attorney intrigued me. And I was hooked all the way once I started playing. The original trilogy, Apollo Justice and Investigations all made a massive impression on me, and while the games were of varying quality, I could still say even the weakest games were at the very least good, and the best of the series still stand among my favorites.

And my love for the series only amplified once the series hit the 3DS. Dual Destinies was the first game I ever played on the day of its release, the localization of the Layton crossover got me insanely hyped, and I went even as far as playing the fan translation of AAI2 back when it was fully completed. However, over the years, I became more and more cynical about discussing the series. Not because I thought the games were bad, but the opposite; every AA game was at least good in my eyes. And I felt that with most fans being very vocal about which games they disliked, I felt discouraged to start any discussion about the games "targeted by the masses", and eventually I started to become less and less passionate about the series in general, to the point where I convinced myself I had fallen out of love with it.

That brings us to present day, and the release of TGAA Chronicles. When it was announced, I could feel myself getting actually really excited, even though I had already played the fan tl of TGAA1. It was mostly because the second game, which was still untranslated, was also included in the package, but also because it felt amazing to have these long-time Japan-only titles come to the west OFFICIALLY. It made me feel downright giddy, and at some point, I found myself replaying some earlier AA game "in preparation" for the Chronicles release. And when I started playing my way through, that old flame started burn brightly again. I realized that even though this series has had its ups and downs, no matter what anyone else has to say about the games I love, I will always love Ace Attorney.

And The Great Ace Attorney 2 was just the game I needed to truly solidify that realization. Like AAI2, it improves on pretty much everything the first game set out to do, and seeing all the cliffhangers from the first game solved and laid out in satisfying way made me feel alive like few other game series do. And by the time I witnessed the breakdown of the final culprit, I was absolutely enveloped by the magic that captured me about the series in the first place.

In conclusion, The Great Ace Attorney 2 is one of the best games in the series, and I'd like to thank Shu Takumi and everyone at Capcom who worked on this franchise for giving life to one of my favorite pieces of media out there.

I love Ace Attorney so fucking much.