There's a lot I really loved about this game, but I think it fails in the most important way in that it's a collectathon without a satisfying reward. Sure, the world is fun to explore (for the first few hours before it gets REALLY tedious), but I want the reward for doing so to be fruitful. The trial is hyped up to be a huge moment in the game to cap off your efforts, but it feels so lacklustre. No Phoenix Wright-esque music to get you pumped about breaking the suspects, you have to individually go through each piece of evidence instead of having it all automatically presented after picking the appropriate suspect with all of the evidence already laid out, and the lack of animation/varied character sprites makes the particularly annoying characters' downfalls really unsatisfying. I spent so long rummaging around the world and finding every fact just for the ending to feel lacklustre.

I respect that they wanted this to be an aesthetically pleasing collection first and foremost, but I think the mystery/visual novel aspect of this game is severely lacking, which leads to an overall lacklustre experience. Having to run back and forth exhausting dialogue options with every character every time a new piece of evidence is revealed is so uninteresting. Let me engage with these characters and make the deductions/break them down myself instead of the process being fully automatic. It feels like the game is holding your hand, and it's not a great feeling.

The exploration and world carry this game a lot, as that was the only thing keeping me playing. I was definitely getting tired of exploring by the end, but I think it was a good enough game in that sense. It just sucks that that aspect didn't transition into the game's other personality as well as it should have.

I'd still give it a shot, but be prepared to be let down by the end