love to see Great Ace get some much-deserved love. the barrier of entry is unreasonably high (long games, super text heavy if unfamiliar with visual novels, and a painfully slow start), but it was far and away my favorite game from last year. it just brought me so much joy, i couldn't wait to get back to it.
i have a lot of thoughts on the game(s) overall, but i think they kinda miss some opportunities with the new gameplay systems, especially the jury and multiple witness system (which i know were mostly inherited from the professor layton crossover game). the jury thing is fun but it never gets any deeper than the 1st or second time you experience it. they often have to cheat their way around this limiting system by making you present stuff or asking you things during the jury examination, which ultimately just makes it feel like you have a sort of reserve stand of witnesses, instead of a "jury". and the multiple witness thing was almost a gameplay system, but there's no depth cause you just have to keep an eye out for the !. there's ONE instance where i think they don't telegraph it (case 5, game 1), but then they still telegraph it if you don't notice by yourself. i like the system overall, it brings nice variety to the game, but they use it a few times too many, while also not evolving it.
my biggest gripe(s) with the game are the fact that you can feel it was meant to be a trilogy (probably) since there are a lot of threads that go nowhere in the 2nd game. they talk about the weird jury selection a LOT, like it's a future plot point, but it never gets mentioned in the 2nd game (you can infer it was part of the conspiracy, i guess), or stuff like Villem Borshevick, which i was SURE was gonna come back in 2nd game (felt weird to have him randomly on the jury JUST as a joke). and the ending felt very deus ex machina as well (i would've been OK with it if they created a character model for you know who, instead of just mentioning that person).
despite all of this and more (cases are always feel like there's an hour you could cut out), i could make an even LONGER list of things i loved about the game, especially the characters, writing (+best in class localization) and music. even Herlock Sholmes, whom i despised in the first encounter, grew to be my favorite by the end. the perfect dumbass, agent of chaos, mr satan type goofball (but not?). i think i'll save all of that for another time/video.
lovely list, looking forward to finishing famicom detecive club one of these days.
i think there's ZERO chance of this, but personally, i'd love a followup to Great Ace Attorney. Bring Iris and Sholmes to Japan, boom, everyone has a great time.
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