Oh my God that game was so good! Like, maybe actually the best? I'd heard good things but I was still super pleasantly surprised.
Takumi once again proves he's the best at making Ace Attorney. He knows how to write a mystery where it isn't immediately obvious who the culprit is. After Spirit of Justice really suffered from the "2 witnesses, the one who did it and the one who didn't" formula, the fact that this game successfully uses red herrings, dialogue, and character design to mislead you is super refreshing. Honestly, it breaks from series tradition so often that you never know what to expect, it's amazing. On the second case I thought, "no way Nikomina did it, we still haven't made it to court", and BLAM it has no court section. An Ace Attorney case without a court section! And they made it work! And it just keeps going, from the centerpiece that is case 3 that quickly takes a turn for the sinister when you start realizing that something's off, to case 4 being a full-fledged case instead of the shortest one (and oh yeah, also nobody dies and it was an accident), and it all culminates in case 5 which is appropriately epic while not trying to crib other games' finales or making it too predictable. And it still feels like an adventure, where you're traveling to a new locale, and learning stuff and meeting people and the whole story has a clear arc while never letting the individual cases falter in service of it. You don't become an attorney until the fourth case for crying out loud!
I really, really dig the characters. Susato follows the series' tradition of incredible sidekicks, and she stands out from the cast by how understated she is, which is a clever twist on how the assistants usually are. Not gonna lie, when you find out she knows a lot more than she's letting on, it hurt. I was wary of the Sherlock Holmes characters and especially Iris, as I was afraid that they wouldn't fit, but they really made their own versions of the characters that fit in the universe while being true to the text (and in Iris' case, making her Watson's daughter was a very good call). van Zieks at first I thought was kinda bland, but the whole mystery of whether he's a serial killer kinda intrigued me and he's too much of a sore loser to be considered an Edgeworth clone. And I'm curious about where they're going to go with him given the ending. Asougi's just awesome and he has the coolest theme song. If I had to pick my favorite character it would be between Holmes and Hosonaga (I'll never forget how that maniac saved my ass on case 1). Shout outs to Gregson and Asougi though. Witness (and jury) design is top notch, and my favorites were probably the O'Malleys. Though I think the game might have relied a bit too much on "duo" characters like the O'Malleys, the Garridebs, and the Tinpillars, plus, like, Ladyfirst and Fairplay and those two guys from the first case.
Gameplay-wise, I'm reeeeally digging the new additions. I think the multi-witness testimonies could use a bit of inspiration from Apollo Justice because as it stands it's too obvious when you have to listen to another character. Or maybe make it so that sometimes branching off will lead to a useless line of questioning and get you penalized. But the Deductions were super stylish (anything that takes inspiration from Ghost Trick is fine in my book) and I enjoyed playing them - they're really a more complex version of the Logic Train, and that's one of my favorite things from AA5 and 6 so I'm all for it. And the closing argument clicks perfectly, not only does it change the way you play, but it also makes the cases ebb and flow drastically and it really makes the stakes super high as you don't know which turn in the case will plummet your standing with the jury.
I can't not mention the music. It's all bangers. Asougi's theme is super inspiring, Holmes' theme just adds to his wacky awesomeness, Gregson's like jazzy, and there's one other theme (which I suspect is Susato's?) that Ali gives me all the feels. I read somewhere that the soundtrack for this game won some awards and, yeah, deservedly so.
Anyway, I think that's about that. I probably missed a lot of things I wanted to say but it's a long post as is. Loved this game, and I can't wait to play the sequel.
