i loved the artstyle evolution for this one... still keeping the charming pixel style of the originals that the HD remasters ruined so horribly, but making it smoother. some of the animations are also crazy, particularly klavier's air guitar. the guilty love sequence has been much memed on but it's... fine. the story kinda goes off the rails closer to the end but what else is new for an ace attorney game. i do wish the juror system wasn't introduced like this, esp. with lamiroir's involvement, but i also wish the future games still dealt with what this game introduced instead of... ah................... dual destinies.......................................... oh well

it's... a mixed bag. i dislike the visuals for new demons quite a lot. something about the gameplay just felt so tedious, and i can't even place why... tedium is expected of jrpgs but. something about smt4 just really didn't click with me. main cast is interesting, law/chaos elements of the story can get quite silly at times... seriously, one of the test questions is like "are short people allowed to exist" or something, like height discrepancies hurt law, its funny. it does kind of work, especially since merkabah tells isabel off for manga and such so it's a consistent thing, but idk... it just felt so silly shdhfs. man the mikado reveal is fantastic though. like my jaw dropped when i saw that. the OST is also fire, probably best SMT ost? but i did not actually enjoy playing the game. the neutral ending is also really obtuse to get and its easy to fuck yourself over, and the existing ending are... hm... the lucifer with that gross growth on his arm design was. something else as well. nightmare fuel for sure

i will be forever thankful for the impact this game had on my life and all the friends i met thanks to it but holy shit, everytime i think on it i remember some new horrible thing about it. literally every group event in it is a nightmare! be it yosuke being gross, or morooka being gross, or just some other fucking miserable thing happening. the game also constantly walks back on its own themes. actually it's not the society that is wrong! once you accept your failings, you will realize that everything is fine and you should stop acting up actually! like literally every character is like "yk i shouldn't have been different and i will do what my parents want or w/e" like what. also. the nurse link . precursor of takemis and kawakamis of the world. horrible

but the good tidbits are still there beyond the oceans of trash... but i don't think they are worth it nowadays. still, yosuke's social link did something gay to my psyche back in the days. and generally, being a kid from a small town, i could relate to a story about kids from small town. the murder mystery is... fine. idk. i just outgrew this series severely

the dungeon variety is pretty great, though the floors remain repetitive. vocal OSTs are good, but at some point you will get sick of them, particularly Heaven and the track that plays in rise's dungeon lmao. that being said, to this day i am not sick of your affection, heartbeat heartbeat and signs of love, as well as backside of the tv, so who knows... shoji meguro really popped off with the osts for this one

mitsuru casting marin karin will haunt my nightmares. tartarus is just. incredibly long. i know that yeah its a jrpg but . my god. the tedium. and well . you can't control anyone but yourself...

the story was also... i don't know. i didn't connect with it at all. am i a fake gay person /j

i quite liked some of the characters, but since male ones did not get social links and you Had to date the girls, i didn't feel like i got a good feel of the cast. i liked yukari and fuuka and... that was it really

OST goes hard, shadow is my standout. the sung tracks are also quite good, i still bump when moon's reaching out stars often

i have not played act V still, i want to replay the whole game to refresh my memory, but i just keep procrastinating it... but god it's so good. i feel like part of why i am not getting to it is that i don't want it to be over. each new act brought something new in terms of gameplay. the art direction is so simplistic yet beautiful. even just driving in the overworld map is so full of atmosphere. a lot of very memorable, strong scenes - junebug's performance of too late to love you is one of the most beautiful videogame moments like ever. the writing is good, and the way your choices impact the past and present is so fascinating... only other game i remember doing the multiple-choice past thing successfully is pillars of eternity 1. i hope i get back to it soon and finally see the long awaited final act...