Sights & Sounds
- The visual design is extremely eye-catching. It's consistently good throughout the game. It's hard to not have a soft spot for a game that looks like a bunch of old-timey political cartoons
- The character designs all follow the "realistic animal head on human body" theme
- The music is all classical all the time. I'm not a classical music whiz, but I did recognize some Bizet and Debussy. Not sure if all of the composers are similarly French. Some of the music also appears to be original, and these tracks do a good job fitting in with the classical composers
- There's no voice acting, so you'll just have to imagine all the animals speaking with exaggerated French (or in one case, Belgian) accents. That's what I did anyway
Story & Vibes
- It's basically Ace Attorney with animals. You're a bird person instead of a person named after a bird. Your sidekick is a spunky little sparrow instead of a spunky anime schoolgirl. Similarly, your rival is a also no-nonsense prosecutor with whom the protagonist shares some backstory. But in this game, he's a rooster (with a riding crop, for some reason)
- The vibes are also similar. Like the Ace Attorney franchise, Aviary Attorney doesn't take itself too seriously either
- With all these similarities, you may be tempted into suspecting that this is a parody. It's really more of an homage
- The story has its own unique flavor, fortunately. Everything takes place during a French revolution, and the class struggle between the idealistic, democracy-starved laborers and the entrenched, greedy nobility makes for a surprisingly interesting backdrop for the narrative
Playability & Replayability
- The commonalities aren't merely surface level; the gameplay is very similar. If you've tried an Ace Attorney game, you'll be familiar with what's going on. You travel around and investigate different locations, gathering clues and conducting interviews to help you defend your client
- Eventually, you'll wind up in front of the judge to cross-examine witnesses and make good use of the evidence you gathered and point out inconsistencies
- None of this is too difficult if you're paying attention. The game does hold your hand a little too much at times, in my personal opinion. There were a few times where I was about to screw up, but the game essentially screaming, "Are you sure?" then, "Are you SURE you're sure?" quickly set me down the more favorable path
- There's three different endings, but I'm fairly pleased with the one I got. I might try to shake things up in a replay, but it'll be a while before I'm back for that
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I'm pretty sure this game could run on anything, and there's not a ton of action going on at any point, so I didn't encounter any bugs or other issues
- If you wind up buying and enjoying Aviary Attorney, also check out Chicken Police. It's an extremely similar game, right down to the character designs (the protagonist and his sidekick are also birds) and investigative gameplay
Final Verdict
- 7/10. Now let's say you and I go toe-to-toe in bird law and see who comes out the victor?
- The visual design is extremely eye-catching. It's consistently good throughout the game. It's hard to not have a soft spot for a game that looks like a bunch of old-timey political cartoons
- The character designs all follow the "realistic animal head on human body" theme
- The music is all classical all the time. I'm not a classical music whiz, but I did recognize some Bizet and Debussy. Not sure if all of the composers are similarly French. Some of the music also appears to be original, and these tracks do a good job fitting in with the classical composers
- There's no voice acting, so you'll just have to imagine all the animals speaking with exaggerated French (or in one case, Belgian) accents. That's what I did anyway
Story & Vibes
- It's basically Ace Attorney with animals. You're a bird person instead of a person named after a bird. Your sidekick is a spunky little sparrow instead of a spunky anime schoolgirl. Similarly, your rival is a also no-nonsense prosecutor with whom the protagonist shares some backstory. But in this game, he's a rooster (with a riding crop, for some reason)
- The vibes are also similar. Like the Ace Attorney franchise, Aviary Attorney doesn't take itself too seriously either
- With all these similarities, you may be tempted into suspecting that this is a parody. It's really more of an homage
- The story has its own unique flavor, fortunately. Everything takes place during a French revolution, and the class struggle between the idealistic, democracy-starved laborers and the entrenched, greedy nobility makes for a surprisingly interesting backdrop for the narrative
Playability & Replayability
- The commonalities aren't merely surface level; the gameplay is very similar. If you've tried an Ace Attorney game, you'll be familiar with what's going on. You travel around and investigate different locations, gathering clues and conducting interviews to help you defend your client
- Eventually, you'll wind up in front of the judge to cross-examine witnesses and make good use of the evidence you gathered and point out inconsistencies
- None of this is too difficult if you're paying attention. The game does hold your hand a little too much at times, in my personal opinion. There were a few times where I was about to screw up, but the game essentially screaming, "Are you sure?" then, "Are you SURE you're sure?" quickly set me down the more favorable path
- There's three different endings, but I'm fairly pleased with the one I got. I might try to shake things up in a replay, but it'll be a while before I'm back for that
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I'm pretty sure this game could run on anything, and there's not a ton of action going on at any point, so I didn't encounter any bugs or other issues
- If you wind up buying and enjoying Aviary Attorney, also check out Chicken Police. It's an extremely similar game, right down to the character designs (the protagonist and his sidekick are also birds) and investigative gameplay
Final Verdict
- 7/10. Now let's say you and I go toe-to-toe in bird law and see who comes out the victor?