Has some great moments that reminded me of just how good the AA series can be, but a few of the cases focused so much on excessive world-building and a few characters that I never felt fully engaged with (honestly, sometimes I was just waiting for conversations to end) that these top-tier moments were few and far between for me.
The courtroom sections are where this game shines most, although the occasional tactic of pressing a witness on every statement until another character on the stand 'reacts' felt a tad pointless. Similarly some of the deduction sections were extremely simple to the point of feeling like filler to try and get through as fast as possible.
While the first game of the two does have a few standalone merits, it feels like it serves mostly as a prologue to establish everything for the second game, which does admittedly have a fantastic final case. The music is amazing too, stays true to the classic AA feel while incorporating classical instrumentation of the era, wonderful stuff.
Doesn't compare to the heights of the series for me (TaT and/or AAI) but glad I decided to play through it.