If I had to describe this game with one word, it would be charming. Perhaps less of a game than an audiovisual experience, it's the gaming equivalent of cotton candy; delicious, but short lived and not very filling. Very pretty graphics that are confident in their style, a gorgeous soundtrack, and decent base gameplay that keeps from getting stale by slightly tweaking it's formula for each level/song. None of the levels overstay their welcome except the first segment of the last level, which is pretty forgivable.

An ambitious game that straddles genres, it's quite impressive for the Saturn. Charming sprites, voice acting, and even small 3D sections and CGs, the game has a lot going for it. It incorporates minigames well, not forcing you to participate in them but rewarding you for doing so; in fact, it's part of the interplay between the VN and SRPG segments. Treating the characters well and keeping them in a good mood improves their abilities in combat, incentivizing you to be kind and caring, and making it believable that they all end up liking you. The music is also really good, so overall there's a lot to like!

However, the game has some significant flaws. The VN sections can sometimes be too short, not allowing enough time to interact with the characters; the final boss is awful and requires multiple restarts and I had to RNG scum for crits in the emulator; and the combat overall is weak and unchallenging for the rest of the game. Still, a good experience overall and definitely worth playing.




Kohran Li my beloved

Almost a perfect game in my opinion, with only a few issues:
- It was a couple hours too long.
- Too many status effects in the Pyramid.
- The inventory system was bad.
- Enemy spawnrate was a little too high sometimes.

Despite these issues, it's still an incredible game well-worth playing, both on its own merits as well as to understand its place in the Video Game Canon.

I really want to like this game more than I did. I think for the purposes of this review, breaking the game into categories is particularly useful.

Art Direction: 4.5
Sound Design: 5
Concept: 4.5
Atmosphere: 5
Gameplay: 1

Rolling everything up is extremely satisfying, but the controls are as awful as ever (seriously, who thought tank controls were a good idea?), and there are a lot of other small issues with the gameplay, like the sensitivity toward collisions being ridiculous, inconsistent minimum diameters needed to roll some objects, and certain spots causing collision glitches that cause your katamari to shrink a lot. Still, a very good game worth playing, especially to understand its place in the canon of gaming. Hopefully the game will eventually get the remake it deserves that helps to alleviate these issues.

The pinnacle of the Ace Attorney series. Contains all the hallmarks of the series - contrived cases that somehow manage to make sense, wacky yet fantastic character designs and pun-based names, and loads of heart. Although it’s a bit of a slow burn, and starts to drag a bit toward the middle, the end is absolutely gripping and ties up just about every thread that was left dangling throughout the rest of the game. It goes beyond any of its predecessors in scope of both its cases and their fallout. Far more than any of the previous games, this one tackles the “what comes after” of the fantastic trials of the Ace Attorney world; not only is it the overarching plot, but many of the characters reveal how other cases have left them with deep scars, and you even see the repercussions of what you reveal on others who may themselves be victims. Compelling from start to finish.