Okay, I’ve had this game in my library for a while, and I can’t really explain why I didn’t play it until this past weekend. Maybe I wasn’t mentally prepared for another game to get invested in like Ace Attorney, maybe I subconsciously judged it as being a simple love letter to the franchise and was happy just supporting the devs without playing. Whatever the case is… man I was missing out.

It is honestly right up there with the Ace Attorney series for me. I was iffy on the setting at first, thinking it might get bogged down with the dev’s cramming lore and systems to get the player up to speed, but it wasn’t too bad and added its own weight to the story that I really liked. The characters were really fun, if not a bit tropey, and honestly the romance/drama subplots really hit it out of the park for me. It’s basically a more adult (not necessarily more mature) visual novel, mystery, courtroom game that has the good heart of a passionate team behind it. Not to mention the great jazzy soundtrack; Insaneintherain was who I originally heard about this game from, and I hope he’s involved in future games if the series continues!

Tacking on one more “negative” to just make it fair and honest, I felt like pacing was a little sporadic. Some parts or dialogue seemed to resolve a bit too quickly or abruptly, other times I felt I was thrust into a new scenario with no time to mentally prepare, and sometimes I could feel the natural pace of the situation run its course but it kept going. Adding a bit more flavor when it’s needed, but keeping things natural, would go far into making the story telling even better than it already is.

Its great, but...

That would be my overall impression of this game, without getting into spoilers.

Obviously there's great inspiration from Ace Attorney, something at least two gags in the game emphasize they're wearing like an Attorney's Badgestone. But while the framework is there, the substance does the heavy lifting to make this game function as an entertaining and compelling piece of media.

Visuals, story, logic puzzles, characters, world, magic system, all were enjoyable.

The sprites were expressive and had great variability. A bit less variability than I'd like, but I respect the budget limitations. Story was pretty good, established clear stakes and gave the cases additional depth. Logic puzzles didn't hold your hand while having a magic system to compound your thinking above normal physics. Characters were colorful in both appearance and personality, and even the more gimmicky ones had gimmicks that subtly communicated the type of world in this game, a world full of political factions, intrigue and natural drama which unfolded very well. The magic system was genius. Everyone capable of magic has a particular arcane art, and each magic spell has very precise rules


There were hickups here and there, a couple puzzles hindered by vague language (I cheated a few times, but its hard to say how much of that was due to my intelligence without a replay), concepts introduced through twists that existed without the expected follow throughs, and characters that didn't make use of there time to stand out beyond their design. None of these are alien to Ace Attorney as a whole. But while Ace Attorney can certainly drag its feet, this game doesn't slow down enough. More often than not, I wanted quiet moments to get a better feel for the characters I was engaging with, but they'd often fade into the background. (Emphasis on often, the slow quiet moments there are great.) And while I initially gave leeway to budget concerns, the game lacked a proper summary of events to conclude trials. making the character's reactions to the end results feel a bit slapdash. Fine, but left me wanting.

But a critique I'm mixed about that I've seen is the tropey-ness associated with various anime cliches. It's a hard point to argue as those tropes and some gimmicks are there, but I find this oversimplifies the argument while blurring it. A character relying on a gimmick isn't unique to anime, and tropes are neutral concepts, its about how they're used. And I never felt any major character was purely defined by tropes.

Give it a try, you'll have fun.

Also that piano melody during the ending confrontation is perfection.

Lo recomiendo si te gustan los juegos de abogados y juicios tipo Phoenix Wright. Me encanta la temática de magia y fantasía, pues, en general, es de mis favoritas. Pero, aquí también la veo bien integrada dentro de las mecánicas del juego.
La UI es bastante simple en comparación, pero es normal debido a los recursos con los que cuentan. Sin embargo, no afecta al juego y es más algo estético.