I've always had a hard time trying to decide what i think about this game, sometimes i remember it as having the best turn based gameplay ever made, and sometimes i remember it as having an god awful cast, probably the worst i've ever seen on a JRPG, but man, i can't at all think this game is bad or even mediocre, they fixed everything wrong with SMTIV's combat (which weren't many things), mainly the smirk system which was unbalanced as fuck, now it actually makes the combat more fun and is a very welcome addition, skill affinities were also a very good idea that i'm glad got carried on to the SMTV, and towards the ending this becomes a super epic and satisfying power fantasy, you literally take down hordes of god-level angels, Satan and YHVH one after the other, and YHVH just so happens to be my favorite fight in any turn-based game, it's beautiful, satisfying, challenging and extremely fun, but when you're not fighting or doing the last dungeon... yeah, the game is pretty meh, you have to read through dialogues of awful characters such as Toki, Asahi and Gaston, and go around Tokyo doing some pretty forgettable things, i genuinely don't remember what i did for the entirety of this game outside of the final dungeon, there was a giant snake or something but that's as far as i can recall, but yeah, it did some pretty good things to the franchise and is very fun, so the balance is still positive.

This game is the main reason i created interest in Ace Attorney, upon seeing it's score, i knew i had to see with my own eyes if it was worthy of it, i downloaded the Trilogy from a friend's account and started my journey, the first game blew me away, the second one was good too, but this game... it truly is something special, it's that type of game you don't see many come close in terms of quality in decades, it deserves to be held in as high of a regard as beloved classics like Resident Evil 4, Ocarina of Time or Shadow of the Colossus, it's a masterclass in storytelling, writing, investigative gameplay and character development, it manages to tie up all of the loose ends from the previous games in one, single, perfect experience, it's genuinely brilliant how they managed to close every single story and character arc that had been introduced in the previous games in just a few cases, and refine the Ace Attorney gameplay formula to perfection while at that, often before the investigation segments felt bloated and overly complicated, but here, i didn't feel that in a single case, every investigation was extremely fun, something that surely helps that A LOT is the reducion of annoying, unilateral, unfunny characters that the series tried to write several times and failed every single time, most of the worst characters of the series came from that, Oldbag, the whole Turnabout Big Top cast, Sal Manella and many others, and while this games has it's share of it, it's much less aggravating, the only case that suffers from that is Recipe for Turnabout, which features a very cringe, homophobic and annoying character unfortunately, but even with it they still made that case really good, that's the T&T magic right there, there's not a single bad case in the entire game, even the filler ones are really interesting and well thought out, really, it may seem like i'm being overly positive, but it's genuinely hard to find a single flaw in this game, it's perfect, in the purest sense of the word, i'm glad i played this trilogy, it graced me with some of the best experiences i had in my entire life with media, and, of course, it obviously is worthy of it's score, in fact, it's still a bit low. 10/10.

I went in expecting mid, and... the first case met my expectations, it's dumb, boring and the excuse for the game to teach you how to play again is awful, not to mention the culprit is fucking dumb and annoying, but then, the second case came, and it was surprisingly pretty good.

Not only we have a solid story, a fun to solve conspiracy, more background on Maya's culture, good characters and good music, but we are also introduced to 2 cool new mechanics, i'm talking about being able to present profiles as evidence and psyche locks, the first one is pretty simple, but adds some funny dialogues depending on who you show to who and some extra flavor when objecting, the second system however, makes a pretty big difference at the investigation sections, it makes them much more fun and engaging than just roaming around reading dialogue and collecting evidence, and while most of them are pretty easy to break, some actually require some thought and exploration first, by this point, i was actually considering this game might be good, if only i knew what was about to come...

Everybody who played already knows what i'm getting at, Case 3: Turnabout Big Top. It's awful, one of the worst sections i've ever played in my life, awful and non-sensical plot, ridiculous, dumb and annoying characters, DOGSHIT SOUNDTRACK, boring investigations, a fucking pedophiliac love triangle that's never adressed and the guy you have to defend is part of it, and on top of all, it's complete filler and nothing that happens here has any fucking relevance to the rest of the game, the only thing that prevented me from dropping the game at this point was that i had heard the fourth case was peak, and to everyone who told me that, you were right.

Farewell, my Turnabout is a masterpiece, my favorite case in the series so far, everything is perfect, the new characters are very interesting and well written, the investigations are fun, the plot is brilliant and extremely fun to solve, and of course, there's that thing happening, which i won't go into detail here because i don't want to write a spoilery review, but adds a lot more pressure and anxiety to solving the case as quickly as possible, and that scene with Franziska at the end was pretty good, awesome ending, saved the game

Some of the lowest lows and highest highs i've ever seen in a single game, it was not a perfect experience by a long shot, but it definitely wasn't bad either, in fact, it's good, a solid 7.5/10.