The typical Ace Attorney charm is completely drowned out by the amount of tedium you need to wade through.

I've loved most the prior games, but none of them have required this degree of patience. Every new insight uses paragraphs and paragraphs of text to convey when it could have been a single sentence.

As an example, some version of this exchange happens a good dozen times throughout:

(the main characters bump into someone from earlier)

Ryunosuke: "That person seems familiar somehow."

Susato: "They do, don't they. I feel as though we've seen them before."

Ryunosuke: "Hmmm, yes and recently."

Susato: "Could it be..."

Ryunosuke: "Wait, that's right."

(flashback to 5 minutes ago, when they met that person)

Susato: "Oh!"

Rynunosuke: "That's right! It's [person]!"

Imagine dozens of hours of that glacial dialogue. Nothing is ever revealed without like 6 reactions from the room and 3 diversions. Add on that every major reveal is painfully obvious to you long before the main characters realize it and you have an incredibly frustrating experience. Like seriously, I knew who the big bad was before I even started the game because the promotional art kind of makes it obvious.

I would not recommend this for new players interested in Ace Attorney. I would still say just pick up the remastered original trilogy on Steam. The cases hold up, the pace is MUCH better, and the 5th case in the 1st game is just a better told version of these two games, just done in 50 fewer hours.

I'm not gonna act like I didn't have fun with this game. I'm glad it got localized, the music is great, the overarching storylines are good, the graphics are good. It's more Ace Attorney for the fans who have already played all the other Ace Attorney games, and that's really the only demographic I would recommend this game to. If you want to get into the series, play the Phoenix Wright trilogy. If you played the trilogy and want more, play Apollo Justice or Miles Edgeworth Investigations.

Because DEAR GOD this game is a slogfest. this game is stacks on stacks on stacks of overly explained yet entirely simple mysteries and extraneous dialogue that isn't funny enough to justify the absolute time sink of a single sentence at the slowest text scrolling speed known to man. Why bother writing two mysteries when you can write one that takes twice as long because all the characters stop at every opportunity to say "There's a mystery! "How did you not notice the mystery?" "What mystery?" "How could there be a mystery?" "Oh, we sure have to solve this mystery!"

Like, the core element of Ace Attorney is the cross examination of testimony, so you'd think with such a long game you'd have lots of opportunities to press witnesses and find contradictions, right? But if you actually count the number of individual testimonies, you get maybe like... eight in a case. A trilogy case would give you twice as much, meaning more puzzles to solve, more lies to uncover, and just more exciting moments. It's not quality over quantity here, either; you're really just supposed to press every statement until some evidence or a statement gets updated, and then you know that you have to use whatever got updated, taking away half the puzzle. It's even easier when they give you a big exclamation point because a different witness wants to say something. Questioning the jury about voting guilty is similarly easy and goes just as slow, but it's a good mechanic and fits right in.

The investigations... are very, very long. Investigation segments in any Ace Attorney game tend to be the less exciting half in exchange for the necessary buildup of mysteries and evidence, but the investigating in this game railroads you harder than ever. Go here, ask everything, look at something, repeat. You're not solving any puzzles besides the occasional "Dance of Deduction" (Great segment. Could go a little faster).

And it's not like I hate the characters, either. They're all expressive, funny, and interesting. But the best characters in the world don't mean anything when I'm just waiting for a plot that refuses to move forward at a reasonable pace. If the writers trimmed out some lines to make the game less repetitious and gave an option to double the text speed, especially on first playthroughs where you can't skip ANY new dialogue, I'd still have some issues, but I wouldn't be giving this thumbs down. Great Ace Attorney is a 70 hour game that should be a 45 hour game at maximum, and if this review seems needlessly elaboratory on that point then I've given you a good idea of what you're in for.

TL;DR - Seems more chore than fun when you are playing through it. Takes so much longer than it should to deliver its story.

The game takes much longer to get through than it should because there are no modern speed/advancement controls, making you follow the slow pacing set by the game. This gives the game a highly inflated overall completion time and this dragging out contributes to the game making you lose interest in what is going on. Also, getting through the different scenarios is fairly painful as you end up re-reading much of the same dialog over and over at the snail pace they set. In reality this game would probably take most average readers around 8-12 hours if they actually read through all the dialog and interacted with most of the items they came across.

Some of the advancement in the game is a bit janky and does not flow well, and events do not change depending on your own personal progress. I ended up doing some portions of some of the scenarios early only to have the characters behave as if the information I already had or the items I had found explanations for never existed later on. Even though the conclusions were already drawn by the main character/main duo earlier on.

If you are a fan of the series, you will most likely enjoy it, but the stories and characters seem to be weaker than other entries in the series. If you are new to the series, you may want to look at one of the other entries in this series as a starting point of getting your feet wet.

This is actually a very charming game but I have too much respect for my time to keep reading it. The writing is tedious. EVERY minor detail is painfully dragged out. The script needs a serious edit IMO.

So I love the Ace Attorney series but my goodness do I have some things to say about this particular game:


First off, I’m still on the first game. The pacing is INCREDIBLY SLOW. I purchased this game back in March of 2022, excited to try a new Ace Attorney game. And I still haven’t completed it. Before purchasing, I did read the reviews, which all mentioned in some way or the other how slow the game’s pacing was. BOY WAS I STUPID TO THINK THEY WERE EXAGGERATING. So, speaking of the pacing, like everyone has said on here, all of the characters including the main character himself, act clueless beyond belief. There are just so many obvious points when examining things and they for whatever reason act shocked beyond repair when uncovering something new. Not only this, but pretty much all sentences of dialogue are extended unnecessarily, even though there is clearly a way to shorten it so that players aren’t steadily losing interest as they read. I don’t think I need to provide examples because I’ve seen a few on the reviews here. I’m actually stunned by how much of the dialogue in this game opts to stretch out for seemingly as long as possible before getting to the point, it’s baffling and totally starts to bore me and clearly others on here too.

Another thing: the Dance of Deduction featuring Herlock Sholmes is a cute and charming little addition. Seeing Ryunosuke and Sholmes working together to make those correct deductions is really cool and satisfying. However! One thing that I’ve noticed with this feature is that it is childishly easy. All you really have to do is look closely at certain objects or people for clues, examine that newly found clue, and then present it. These clues are hidden but extremely easy to find which made me feel like a little kid playing this game. Whenever Ryunosuke and Susato are glossing over certain objects, there might be a new clue sitting on one of the objects, and they go on to comment whatever they need to comment on the object before vwalla! A long pause and one of them goes “hmm, wait! There’s something here!” “Oh my! Mr. Naruhodo you’re right!” Or something to that effect. It’s just not really worth the dramatic reactions these two give when new clues are discovered during this process. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a new and refreshing concept, but I wish it had been more challenging.


Yet another thing: when first playing through this game, you are not allowed to skip through dialogue with a right click of your mouse or however else you usually skip dialogue in Ace Attorney. The game, like many others have agreeably mentioned, forces you to follow its slow and prolonged pace. The only thing you can really do is turn on the auto-play option so that when characters are talking amongst themselves you don’t have to press a thing, but it’ll still play out slowly. Oh, and speaking of playing out slowly, the animations that play while dialogue is being displayed can be ridiculously slow. Like, it adds to the slowness of the game it’s actually frustrating. Ahem, take for example van Zieks. Boy were his animations during trials so prolonged and slow! You can’t skip animations either, so it truly adds to the snail pace of the game.

Oh look, another thing: The amount of times a scene has played out in which three or more characters take turns sharing the “……..” dialogue is insane. Like my goodness I know it’s a moment of silence or uncertainty but it just feels SO UNNECESSARY. And I know there’s more to come!

I want to also say that it hurts me to make a review like this on an Ace Attorney game, but this is something that has blown my mind with how slow and nearly uninteresting most of the first game has been so far. I’ve really been trying to be patient with this game, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not patient enough! Yes, I will finish this game for completion’s sake, and because I want to know what happens, but yikes will that take me a good 15-20 more hours!

The interaction between Ryunosuke and Susato is quite bland and uninteresting. This makes investigations even more punishing and boring for me. The way they comment on everything just isn’t as interesting, entertaining, or engaging like the way Phoenix and Maya or even Phoenix and Pearls interacted. Even Edgeworth and Kay were interesting together and made investigations much more fun. There’s almost no personality in these two when they talk to each other. I don’t know a better way to word it. It’s just not fun.

The soundtracks are nothing memorable, in my opinion. I don’t mean this in a rude way, but my gosh is the music so dull! It honestly blends in too much with the background while playing the game. I mean, take a look at the Ace Attorney Trilogy. I LOVE the fact that so many characters had their own music! Like for example, “Happy People” would play with cheery characters like Lotta Hart and Desirée DeLite. Or when the music would change depending on whatever was happening in the game, the mood, and even wherever you went! This game doesn’t do that, making the music very bland in comparison. And the overall audio for the game is so low it’s not even funny. I turn my gaming laptop all the way up to 100 and it sounds extremely weak. I even went to settings in game to turn up the music to max volume. Everything from sound effects to music sounds so soft and muffled. Not loud or crisp and clear. It honestly sounded like I was playing a game on my 3DS, but even quieter than that! Here’s to hoping the new Apollo Justice game isn’t going to be that quiet!

All in all, these are my frustrations and thoughts on the game. Was it worth the $40? Not for me it wasn’t. I’m not saying it was horrible, but it did disappoint me more than I’d like to say. The animation is great, most characters aren’t very memorable aside from Ryunosuke, Susato, and Sholmes. I’m really pushing myself to be patient with this game. I want to see it through to the end! But, it’s still painful to play through because of the pace, and honestly it feels like even Ryunosuke and Susato themselves don’t have much personality. But maybe I’m saying that too early. I just don’t feel that powerful duo spark I felt with Phoenix and Maya. All I can say is, I would not recommend this game to someone who is new to the AA series and wants to get into it. Go to the AA Trilogy for that. It’s such a gift. However! If you are someone who has played the trilogy and possibly all the other games, and you are looking for more, then maybe you won’t mind giving this a shot! I don’t know. I’ve played AA up until Dual Destinies and nothing past that. I was seeking something different and found this game. It didn’t really blow my mind the way the trilogy did. But, I am grateful for it regardless. Just wish I’d waited for a sale before buying :)

So far, playing this game has felt like more of a chore than playing a game.

There's a lot of filler dialogue. You can skip 30% of the dialogue without missing out clues for the trials.
I liked the original Phoenix Wright trilogy 15 years ago but I can no longer enjoy clicking through a million white flashes, slapping SEs, typewriter SEs, and a whole bunch of funny animations to get to the meat of the gameplay.
I appreciate there is a story mode where you can let the game play itself. Also the "press-to-skip" button. All VNs should have this button as opposed to the traditional toggle skip mode. This is the only reason why I could finish a 60+hr game in roughly 40 hrs.

Hello,

I am disappointed. I heard so much praise for this game and as I loved all the original ace attorney and apollo justice games I was sure this would be a slam dunk. Nope. After finishing the fourth case I cannot continue this game and the second one which is on top of the VNDB charts.

+Music kinda good
+Very clean 3D models and animation
+Lots of varied characters...

-...Which are not memorable
-Cases DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG. Maybe it's the ace attorney formula that has gotten stale but you can predict how the beats in case will go most of the time. Although this is espectially apparent in great ace attorney
-Main characters are way weaker compared to phoenix, apollo and edgeworth and their sidekicks
-Boring and contrived answers you get to each case. Especially what actually happened in the second and fourth cases murders just had me scratching my head and going ResidentSleeper
-The prosecutor is just kinda there? Its the same guy most of the time and he always does the same things -> calls you japanese weakling and fool for not knowing the english customs and then destroys his wine collection after he loses the case

Overall I would say check out a playthrough for the first one or two cases to see if you will like this game before buying it. Some people will absolutely love it because it is more ace attorney but I can't lie to myself and say it is a good game. Maybe I'll force myself to finish it and I wish you every success but I'm going to say I'M OUT.

I am struggling to continue this. Many reviews will concisely state the issues much better than I but essentially the amount of tedium in this game is appalling. Paragraphs of texts to convey what could be conveyed in a single sentence. Quantity over quality with words (unlike prior entries which had both). Seems they just wanted to pad game time. Pacing is abhorrent throughout. Meager highs and painful lows. I love the Ace Attorney franchise, but this one truly feels like a slogfest just to get through it. I'll probably finish it but holy hell this has to be the worst in the entire franchise.

EDIT 5/28/23:
I am currently on TGAAC2 Episode 3. Starting from TGAAC1 Episode 5 to where I'm at now TGAAC2 Episode 3 it is less painful, but still glacial pacing. Still do not recommend despite starting to enjoy the game more than TGAAC1 Episodes 1-4.

EDIT: 6/11/23:
I just cannot complete the game. The text is so slow and the game is a chore to complete.

Like: it's Ace Attorney. I enjoy the whole series and the flow of the game.

Dislike: There's a lot of pointless dialogue that I can't even argue to be worth it for plot depth. There will be points made to be very obvious and the game beats around the bush for an eternity before you can confront the issue or move along. Herlock Sholmes is like having to listen to Gumshoe talk for 10 times the amount of his usual screen time. I enjoy stupid characters, but they have their limits. Having to fix Sholmes's deductions is very redundant and could be summed up a lot quicker if they tried. I'm also guessing the case plots super easily before even hardly digging into them, which is disappointing.

I'm on case three of the first game and I'm still enjoying it a bit, but not nearly as much as the originals. Not sure that I'd recommend it as it is.

An interesting story wrapping up in a satisfying conclusion, but not worth the 60+ hour time commitment held up largely by unnecessary filler dialogue and stretched out plot progression, especially when the story is scarcely engaging until the second game.