Taken as a whole The Great Ace Attorney reaches the highest heights in the Ace Attorney series. It utilizes its hefty 10 cases to build towards a bombastic conclusion that feels well-earned after the long road to get there. Every member of the main cast is really well fleshed out, to the point where you often understand their motivations long before its ever explicitly spelled out. The relationship between the main three exchange students is a particular highlight in this regard. Also Herlock Sholmes OWNS.
Speaking of Herlock Sholmes owning - the new deduction mechanic that he brings to the game is a huge breath of fresh air. The deductions make the investigation segments as interesting as the trials are. The changes to trials - multiple witnesses in the stand and the jury system also help break up the traditional flow of the things in a good way.
The presentation is the best in the series too. Every character has a great model and set of animations that I don't mind seeing over and over. One detail I really love is that Ryunosuke's animations become more confident as he develops his skills as an attorney early on! The orchestral soundtrack is great too, the themes in the first game get stuck in your head so hard that by the time they show up with a remix in the second game it feels like a huge deal.
Really my only complaint here is that the fact these are two separate games leads to some structural issues. The first game feels like half the cases are tutorials, which makes sense in the context of the games as a whole, but on its own leaves them feeling kind of limp. There's certain plot threads in the first game that feel like they're only there to give it some sort of conclusion, that's ultimately unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. The 2nd case in Resolve also feels extremely out of place considering the rest of the game.
Overall, this is pretty much the peak of the franchise for me. When Capcom eventually makes a new entry in this series they need to base it off of this, because in nearly every regard TGAA nails what I want from an AA game.
Speaking of Herlock Sholmes owning - the new deduction mechanic that he brings to the game is a huge breath of fresh air. The deductions make the investigation segments as interesting as the trials are. The changes to trials - multiple witnesses in the stand and the jury system also help break up the traditional flow of the things in a good way.
The presentation is the best in the series too. Every character has a great model and set of animations that I don't mind seeing over and over. One detail I really love is that Ryunosuke's animations become more confident as he develops his skills as an attorney early on! The orchestral soundtrack is great too, the themes in the first game get stuck in your head so hard that by the time they show up with a remix in the second game it feels like a huge deal.
Really my only complaint here is that the fact these are two separate games leads to some structural issues. The first game feels like half the cases are tutorials, which makes sense in the context of the games as a whole, but on its own leaves them feeling kind of limp. There's certain plot threads in the first game that feel like they're only there to give it some sort of conclusion, that's ultimately unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. The 2nd case in Resolve also feels extremely out of place considering the rest of the game.
Overall, this is pretty much the peak of the franchise for me. When Capcom eventually makes a new entry in this series they need to base it off of this, because in nearly every regard TGAA nails what I want from an AA game.