Yes! I was so stoked to see Capcom finally releasing English versions of The Great Ace Attorney games. The Ace Attorney series is one of my absolute favourites, and I know English-speaking fans have been desperate for a new entry to the series ever since we were left with Android and iOS releases of Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice way back in 2017. With the release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, coming July 27 to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC, we’ll now have a chance to experience the new vision Capcom had for its popular finger-pointing, murder-solving, courtroom drama series.
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The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles bundles together the two games in the prequel series — The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve. In them, you play as Ryunosuke Naruhodo — the ancestor of our spiky-haired fave Phoenix Wright (née: Ryuichi Naruhodo). Ryunosuke is a law student in Meiji Era Japan who, with help from his friends, must
find evidence, root out inconsistencies, and earn a “not guilty” verdict for his clients.
The Great Ace Attorney is more of what I generally love about the Ace Attorney games while also introducing some pretty unique twists on gameplay. Like in previous Ace Attorneys, you’ll still scour crime scenes looking for that critical piece of evidence and closely examine witness statements listening for the one phrase that just doesn’t make sense. But introduced in The Great Ace Attorney are summation examinations that let you poke holes in juror logic, and witness testimonies that let you cross-examine multiple witnesses at the same time.
I’ve always loved the unique characters in the Ace Attorney series. Whether they’re your companions, defendants, or witnesses, the characters have always been punny (Wendy Oldbag anyone?) and colourful and had this liveliness that I enjoyed experiencing. More than solving logic puzzles or gawping at the hot prosector, I really liked watching witnesses fall apart on the stand, acting out in a hilarious over-the-top explosion of frustration whenever I exposed a lie or secret.
With panel cross examinations and juries, the number of characters I get to interact with has increased dramatically, giving me more of what I love about this series.
There’s also the introduction of the hilariously-named-so-Capcom-doesn’t-get-sued, Herlock Sholmes. A play on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective, Herlock Sholmes pops up to stymie Ryunosuke’s progress with incorrect conclusions that require the fledgling lawyer’s superior deduction skills to untangle. Sholmes is fun and easy on the eyes. I like that he’s Ryunosuke’s foil instead of the rival prosecutor as is typical for Ace Attorney games.
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Some of the cases can drag on for too long, stuffed with unnecessarily tangled leaps in logic that require a significant amount of time to set straight before progressing. There’s also too much dialogue before pertinent bits of presenting evidence or examining a crime scene. I would often hit autoplay, a feature that scrolls through game text automatically but stop whenever the player is prompted with a choice. I’d take the time to look away from my Switch for an eye or water break and come back long before the game could even ask me to do anything.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is more of a good thing for Phoenix Wright fans. Hopefully, it’s successful so Capcom can grant me my final Ace Attorney wish — an Ace Attorney Investigations 2 Western release.
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