Stop me if you've heard this one before. A cartoonishly intimidating prosecutor with a heart of gold and a talented but inexperienced defense attorney walk into a courtroom, and leave having solved an infamous, decade-old case that every single main character is somehow connected to. I'm not accusing Takumi of self-plagiarism, or of running out of ideas, but his proclivity towards familiar motifs ends up making things feel stale. If anything, this is less of a critique and more of a testament to his writing prowess. Grand, sweeping mysteries and their dramatic resolutions are so routine for Ace Attorney (and Ghost Trick...) that they no longer wow as they once did. I think my review of the first game completely missed the mark, because, despite being similarly underwhelmed with this one, pretty much everything that I complained about has been greatly improved. The pacing's far better, the side characters are more memorable, Sholmes isn't as annoying, and, most importantly, foresight feels required, especially in that behemoth of a final case. The one unpatched hole is the utilization of duology-specific gimmicks. Juries are hardly used, and are eventually straight-up abandoned. Deductions are still far too simple, meaning that the investigation half of every case ends up boring- the mini-trials afforded by psyche locks are sorely missed. Combine this with the aforementioned plot outline similarities and it feels like this game doesn't have much of an identity. Once you pick up on certain story seeds being sewn, it's pretty easy to predict how things will play out in a general sense, even if you're not sure of all the details. My new guess as to why I wasn't ever gripped or totally intrigued is simple: it's just another Ace Attorney game. And, unfortunately, as much as the original trilogy led me to believe otherwise, I think I've realized that the series ultimately isn't for me.