4.5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

The title of this game does not lie, The Great Ace Attorney is indeed great. Serving as prequels to the main series, Great Ace Attorney could easily act as a starting point as well for ppl wanting to get into the series since it takes place over 100 years before the events of the first game. These games have their own spin on Sherlock Holmes encoded into their very DNA, so that should appeal to mystery fans as unraveling cases is the normal Ace Attorney gameplay loop. I played this on Steam, and it took me around 61 hours to finish both games & earn every achievement. I won’t discuss story spoilers, because being visual novels the story is really all you’re here for. Many quality of life improvements were made compared to the Phoenix Wright trilogy. You can toggle auto scrolling dialogue, access a dialogue history page which recaps the last few minutes of text, the game will give you hints of what areas still need doing during investigations so there’s less backtracking, & you can replay cases from any point instead of having to start from the beginning every time. There’s even a story mode for people who don’t want to interact with the gameplay at all, and just want to see the events unfold. The jump to 3D felt off at first, because I was so used to the Phoenix Wright sprites, but this allowed for far more elaborate environments and character animations. Especially the final villain’s defeat, because I did not expect the game to get that over the top. Several gameplay improvements were added as well compared to Phoenix Wright. Being able to examine multiple witnesses at the same time, the deduction minigame during investigations with Herlock Sholmes (they didn’t even try to hide that), & the new jury mechanic made court cases less formulaic. Great Ace Attorney 1 mainly focuses on building up Ryunosuke as a character & protagonist, while setting up the second games main story in the background. How he interacts with the main cast, and what kind of defense lawyer he wants to be are the big narratives here. Great Ace Attorney 2 is where the overarching story gets the stage. Several unexplained events from the first game come to light as you unravel the mystery behind a long dead serial killer, and the phantom known as “The Reaper.” And what a payoff as well, GAA2 is the stronger entry but it wouldn’t be that way without the buildup of GAA1. The rest of the main cast are all likable to fantastic. Susato as your ever helpful sidekick, Sholmes as the eccentric unguided genius, Iris as the adorable little helper, & Prosecutor Barok Van Zieks as the cunning and intimidating courtroom antagonist. Barok is easily the star of the show. A refined nobleman designed to mimic Dracula who thwarts your attempts in court with logical arguments instead of old Ace Attorney bs with changing evidence and bribing witnesses. Every time Barok would fill his wine glass only to throw it into an exploding fireball and then instantly spawn in another one had me dying (and there’s an in game explanation for why he was so many wine bottles and glasses). The soundtrack across both games is spectacular. The cross examination & jury themes make you feel like you’re about to bust the case wide open. Each character theme reflects their own personality although Gina’s about drove me insane because her sections could be long. A mystery character gets a great rearrangement theme in the second game, and once again Barok Van Zieks steals the spotlight with his excellent theme song. If there’s any major gripes to be had, it’s that these games are long winded compared to Phoenix Wright. Characters will just talk and talk and talk for what feels like an eternity. Sometimes you are punished for not paying as well, because offhand remarks could be the deciding evidence needed to progress the story. TLDR; Great Ace Attorney Chronicles was a fantastic experience. Great characters, great storytelling, great improvements to the gameplay, great soundtrack, and all of those adjectives were on purpose. I do prefer the snappiness of the Phoenix Wright trilogy, but the Great Ace Attorneys are the objectively better games as they improve upon every other facet. I do plan on tackling the Investigations remasters and the Apollo Justice trilogy in the near future, so stay tuned for the next long rambling Ace Attorney reviews.