The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review

Our Verdict

Packed with colorful characters and quirky storytelling, The Cracking Ace Attorney Chronicles should feel comfortably familiar to longtime franchise fans. Newcomers, however, might exist put off by the dialogue-heavy experience.

For

Gorgeous, anime-inspired presentation
Engaging courtroom and investigation gameplay
Entertaining cast of curious characters

Against

Too much exposition-heavy text
Some cases drag on too long
Often a passive experience

Tom'southward Guide Verdict

Packed with colorful characters and quirky storytelling, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles should feel comfortably familiar to longtime franchise fans. Newcomers, however, might be put off by the dialogue-heavy feel.

Pros

+
Gorgeous, anime-inspired presentation
+
Engaging court and investigation gameplay
+
Entertaining cast of curious characters

Cons

-
Also much exposition-heavy text
-
Some cases drag on as well long
-
Often a passive experience

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the latest installment in Capcom'south Ace Attorney series, which launched near xx years ago in Nihon. The franchise has gone on to spawn multiple sequels and spin-offs, gaining a passionate post-obit along the style. The franchise has ever been a fleck niche – combining visual novel and adventure game elements with over-the-acme courtroom drama – but that hasn't stopped its fervent fan-base from enthusiastically consuming each entry.

A compilation championship, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles bundles two titles – The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Bang-up Ace Attorney: Resolve – which were previously exclusive to Japan. Longtime fans are obviously thrilled to encounter the games brand it stateside, simply the pair of entries also serve as a proficient jumping-on point for the uninitiated.

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The Bully Ace Attorney Chronicles is a prequel, trading recurring protagonist Phoenix Wright for Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a educatee learning the legal ropes in Victorian-era Britain. As such, the games require no previous knowledge of Wright's finger-pointing exploits. They also offering intuitive tutorials, ensuring yous needn't be a legal eagle to concur your own in the courtroom.

Of course, this isn't to say The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will be anybody's cup of tea. Information technology's yet a adequately niche experience, aimed at a very specific audition. It features some engaging gameplay, complemented by a colorful cast of characters and beautiful, anime-inspired visuals. Merely slow pacing and a text-heavy presentation often brand it experience more than similar a passive experience than an actual game.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review: Specs

Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS4, Nintendo Switch

Cost: $60

Release Date: July 27, 2021

Genre: Chance

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review: Gameplay

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles quickly pulls you in with an absorbing story hook. Law student Ryunosuke is on trial for murder and forced to defend himself. His inexperience is wonderfully woven into the tutorial. Players learn the basics, fifty-fifty as the defendant gets up to speed on his new profession.

Interrogating witnesses, examining and presenting evidence, and discovering inconsistencies in testimonies is bully fun, especially when it all leads to proving the protagonist'due south innocence. Equally you accept on more than complex cases, these elements evolve, adding welcome layers and nuance to the core formula. Before yous know it, you're facing six jurors, simultaneously, while attempting to overturn a guilty verdict by finding contradictions in their stories.

Utilizing all these tools in the courtroom can pb to some thrilling moments, making you lot feel similar a heroic, crusading attorney from a telly legal drama. Seeing your skills grow correct alongside Ryunosuke's conviction is equally rewarding.

For all the gripping moments, however, there are about every bit many that experience like a slog. Cases generally drag on far likewise long, leaving y'all push button-pressing through exposition-heavy text boxes just to keep things moving. While this is somewhat inherent to the genre, I still found the pacing here to exist unevenly balanced in favor of watching instead of playing.

Some relief comes in the form of investigations, which unfold outside of the courtroom at crime scenes. These sections switch up the gameplay, focusing more on looking for clues, collecting bear witness and questioning witnesses. There's likewise an amusing mini-game that has yous debunking the wrong, if well-intentioned, conclusions of a pseudo-Sherlock Holmes detective named "Herlock Sholmes."

The investigations are more interactive and dependent on you actually doing things. Merely they, as well, contain too many characters who don't know when to shut up. The gameplay present in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is arresting, intuitive and occasionally capable of convincing you that you should take followed a police force career. In that location's but not near enough of it.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review: Story

The story in the Not bad Ace Attorney Chronicles is far better than the sum of its parts. While individual courtroom battles and investigations can drag, the larger narrative arc should keep you hooked from first to finish. The two included games, originally released several years apart in Japan, tell i consummate story. Don't exist surprised if you're compelled to immediately bound into the second half of Ryunosuke's journey after completing the first. That said, you're also looking at a hefty time investment, as the bundle'south x full chapters easily clock in at over 50 hours.

Each case spins a self-contained murder mystery, but in that location are plenty of connected elements among the growing bandage of characters. Completing an individual investigation or courtroom battle is satisfying, but the real rewards come from watching the overarching narrative unfold, peculiarly when an unexpected twist or turn ties back to a much earlier encounter. The game is guilty of pulling this play a joke on too often, though, introducing "shocking" plot points tardily in cases, even when they don't make much sense. The story would benefit from a bit more restraint in this regard; it would make the best surprises that much more impactful.

Of course, it's the large cast of quirky, colorful characters that brings the story to life. This Ace Chaser serial is partly defined past its bizarre personalities, melodramatic performances and over-the-pinnacle courtroom exchanges, and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles doesn't disappoint on that front. Ryunosuke makes for an interesting, likable protagonist y'all'll root for from the outset. His perpetually charming banana, Susato, is equally appealing — nigh to the bespeak where you might find yourself wishing she was the lead.

The excellent supporting cast, as well equally the revolving door of eccentrics that pop up, also do their part. From a cherry wine-swilling prosecutor who could moonlight as a Castlevania antagonist, to the aforementioned detective Sholmes, there's no shortage of compelling, well-written characters. You won't fall in love with every personality you see, but stick around long enough, and y'all'll find a few favorites. If the difficult-nosed military man with an infant strapped to his back doesn't make yous laugh, maybe the Scotland Thou detective testifying while clutching a newspaper full of fish-and-chips volition do the flim-flam.

The Groovy Ace Attorney Chronicles review: Visuals and audio

The third chapter of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles kicks off with Ryunosuke and Susato arriving in London, where snow-covered cobblestones host horse-fatigued carriages, busy street vendors, and enough of distinguished chaps in top hats. Like a Dickens novel come up to life, it's a lovely scene that also serves as a story-driven transition betwixt an investigation and courtroom boxing. All of the game's animated interludes are equally easy on the eyes, offering a welcome respite – and advantage – from the talking heads that make up much of the game.

The more gameplay-driven sections don't pack the graphical dial of these cutscenes, but still pop with vibrant detail, anime-inspired personality, and lively character animations. The use of the latter is especially entertaining, ensuring lengthy exchanges between ii characters don't devolve into deadening dorsum-and-forths between a pair of static portraits.

The cinematic scenes are also accompanied by tiptop-notch vocalisation acting, but yous'll rarely hear characters speak in the courtroom or during crime scene investigations. These sections aren't entirely silent, every bit sound effects, ambient sound cues and the occasional spoken exclamations complement the tone of the proceedings. That said, the virtually prevalent audio is that of text ticking across the screen while you click through dialog boxes.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review: Verdict

Supported by an endlessly entertaining cast, pretty presentation, and clever gameplay, The Corking Ace Attorney Chronicles' delivers a fun, story-driven romp. All this should be more than enough for series stalwarts to enthusiastically embrace the experience, warts and all.

Consummate newcomers, all the same, could find it more than difficult to overlook the game's uneven pacing, exposition-heavy exchanges and text-driven dialogue, combined with the fact you lot play passive spectator as much as agile participant. Those craving a peppier, more interactive experience will quickly find this one in contempt.