Crams in a huge amount of story and gameplay without any filler. A couple of the internal logic to the puzzles threw me off, one was moving to a specific object automatically always triggering a timed event no matter what, which I hadn't really noticed in other missions before this point so I figured I was just not moving fast enough. I just looked up one or two very specific moves I had to make, but I probably would have got it eventually if I kept on with it.

The generally light tone was very well executed considering the amount of death but I did find it hard to feel much impact from anything going on until near the end which, to be fair, is easily the most important to get right for any story. The mystery itself still served as an excellent main hook.

You can tell how much Ace Attorney is in this thing with how unique each character moves and acts, each with little quirks that you have to take advantage of - I would have loved for this very specific aspect to be drilled down on a lot more but the puzzles themselves are still very clever and interesting considering how much planning would have gone into them just to have them work and make sense at all.

I really enjoyed my time with it. I wasn't swept away as much as others but it's really a faultless game and it's impressive how it gels all of it's many moving parts together so neatly. The brisk pace kept me coming back daily until it was complete. Being a handheld game in scope really helped narrow the focus but that didn't stop them from achieving anything they could with the concepts and characters they created for themselves.

I think this whole review was me trying to figure out why I couldn't give this a perfect score despite the game being objectively perfect. It is very, very good.

The sound is absolutely fucked up on PC, panning all over the place, cutting itself off and not propagating properly. So many tiny elements are bugged that you can't tell if they were always there but firing up the original makes it clear that this has problems.

The new graphics are faithful but a bit over the top at points. Some textures that are clearly just upscales which clashes with the completely new ones. Missing global lighting from the original PC release which is a shame. The 2007 release is a bit of a mare to get running but just follow this guide and you should be solid (DX9 mode recommended).

Not an awful way to experience it if you have no other option but if you're on PC then you absolutely do.

Having played many metroidvanias I (eventually) appreciated how it makes movement more restrictive but fine-tunes it's difficulty as a result so you can't really steamroll bosses. Progress is fairly slow except for the charms, so character builds can be quite important and I would recommend switching things around for different bosses after respawning at the bench.

The final area was an absolute nightmare and I didn't appreciate being forced to play what was essentially Super Meat Boy with less interesting physics and hazards clearly placed just to make every single normal jump into a needle-threading exercise.

I would have preferred if they designed the map to have a couple of sideways tubes or something so you could use Crystal Heart, it was a bit annoying having a random small enemy or bit of geometry breaking up otherwise completely straight pathways and my speed boost with it. A game this long with combat this basic did not need to be so restrictive with travel options right up until the last quarter or so; I was begging for more bosses to just show up and kick my shit in at many points to break up the long repeated journeys.

I enjoyed my time with this game after taking about 4 attempts to get properly into that metroidvania-type obsession of uncovering every unexplored part of the map. I was getting a little tired of the lack of combat variety and limited player movement considering how long this game is but I overall enjoyed it and appreciate what it brings new to an otherwise samey genre. Though some of those conventions were there for a reason and the progression could have been tweaked to allow at least a bit more freedom a little earlier on.