REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

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REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

When Capcom revealed that The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles would be available on Steam on the first day of its overseas release, the excitement felt by PC players was akin to hearing the words “not guilty” after a long, arduous trial. The original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy was only released on Steam in 2019, so we’re used to having to wait longer. But not this time. The foreign versions of The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney Adventures 2: Resolve is now available, nicely packaged together in one double feature.

REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles retains much of the series’ melodrama and flair. If you’re looking for backstabbing, tragedy, and lawyers pounding their palms on desks, violently pointing and shouting, this is the place to be. However, despite playing through all 10 cases across both games, I never felt like the tale hit the emotional highs of its predecessors. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles has all of the drama of a telenovela, but the series’ heart is its mysteries, and both titles in the bundle fall short in that regard.

The two prequels follow Rynosuke Naruhod, a young Japanese lawyer who travels from Meiji period Japan to Victorian England to learn about Britain’s legal system, one of the best in the world. Naruhod, along with his legal assistant Susato Mikotoba, defends persons in need of legal aid in a series of spectacular judicial confrontations.

REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

Cor Blimey Guv’nor

This new environment brings with it a slew of colourful individuals. Susuato is one of them, the legal assistant whose fantastic grasp of the British legal system has prevented our senior lawyer from faltering on the defence bench more times than I can count. She may be soft-spoken, but she has a secret martial art manoeuvre called the Susato Toss in which she flips Naruhod off his feet and onto his back when she’s angry. There’s also Barok van Zieks, a furious prosecutor known as “The Grim Reaper of the Old Bailey” who is little more than a diva. He consumes wine in court, crushes his golden chalice in his fist with dramatic flair, and occasionally pounds his boot on the prosecution table when irritated.

I appreciate how far Capcom has pushed London stereotypes with some of the characters to the point of absurdity. For example, Tobias Gregson, a Scotland Yard officer who is continually snacking on fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, or Gina, a loveable street urchin whose London accent is so thick that I have to slow down my reading to attempt to grasp what she’s saying, will assist you in your investigation. The cases are loaded with Victorian London characters, including cabbies, coppers, street peddlers, top-hatted gentlemen, and corseted ladies.

REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

And who can forget the addition of Herlock Sholmes, the renowned detective?

The days of Sherlock Holmes being a pompous, uptight investigator are long gone. But, if Frogware’s younger, ‘cooler’ take on the famous character isn’t your thing, Capcom’s ‘Herlock Sholmes’ will have you smashing teacups.

Sholmes leans heavily into the quirky side of ‘eccentric brilliance’ in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, assisting Naruhod with the investigating aspects in-between trials. However, instead of only collecting witness testimonies and evidence in some regions of the game, you’ll now be assisting Sholmes with his less-than-astute deductions in a new mini-game dubbed “Logic and Reasoning Spectacular” by Sholmes. It entails examining around a situation for clues that may enable Herlock’s dramatic inferences to make sense, putting the investigator back on track.

Trials and Tribulations

This is the first time the series has ventured into a historical setting, delving at the relationship between Japan and Great Britain throughout the Meiji and Victorian eras. The British Empire is imperialistic and arrogant, a perspective bolstered by the character’s constant boasting about the country’s scientific advances and impeccable legal system. As a result, Naruhodo and other Japanese characters face a lot of uncomfortable racial discrimination.

It’s an entirely accurate portrayal of Victorian Britain in the nineteenth century. The fact that the games are created by Japanese creators who seek to remark on the era’s social, ethnic, and class discriminations is a welcome change of tone for a series that includes a whole case about a pair of magical polka-dotted bloomers. The way the British main cast handles the Japanese characters, on the other hand, is highly uncomfortable and generates jarring mood shifts in the scenes.

Japanese characters are sometimes described as sneaky and shady by British characters. There is a general suspicion of anyone who doesn’t have a heavy London accent or isn’t shovelling fish and chips into their mouths. It’s pretty awkward when you’re talking to witnesses or even the major characters you’re supposed to adore.

Both games also fall victim to a slew of standard mystery traps. Surprising conclusions and out-of-the-blue explanations are prominent in a few cases, which removes much of the story’s excitement and dramatic detective work. During some instances, I was perplexed until the very end, only to be disappointed when a crucial piece of information was thrown into the courtroom for dramatic effect. In addition, it frequently appears that the game prefers a wild twist to develop a good, creative plot.

REVIEW : The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (PC)

I enjoy the Ace Attorney series’ theatrical theatre. Focusing on the contrast between London’s tidy reputation and the harsh reality of this city, full of secrets and criminals beneath its floorboards, is a welcome addition to the franchise.

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review-the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-pcBut I enjoy these games for the suspense. I've felt entirely involved in previous games, ensuring that all the hints are meticulously analysed and fitting all the pieces together for a final, rewarding reveal. Unfortunately, those revelations did not occur to me in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. I believe it has lost that vital vibe with all of the new systems and scandalous tale twists and turns. There's plenty more to do, and the game aesthetic is stunning, but the underlying mystery of figuring out 'whodunnit' can get lost in the thick of all the drama.

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