The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is an adventure visual novel game created by Capcom, which consists of the two previous installments in the franchise: The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve. Western players can now enjoy the two games they missed on with brand new English translation and VA. As a massive Ace Attorney fan, finally being able to play this game on the PlayStation 4 was an extraordinary experience due to its unique setting, in-depth story elements, and new gameplay elements.
Taking place in the early beginnings of the 20th century, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles follows the story of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, the rookie attorney ancestor of our spikey-headed hero Phoenix Wright and an English student at the Imperial Yumei University in Japan. Along with him is his best friend and law student Kazuma Asogi, an ambitious attorney who hopes to reshape the legal system by studying abroad in the Victorian steampunk land of Great Britain. Ryunosuke is aided by Susato Mikotoba, a young judicial assistant who helps him in his journey in the foreign land. During his time in Great Britain, Ryunosuke the great detective Herlock Sholmes and his assistant/adoptive daughter Iris Wilson, a ten-year-old prodigy and inventor. While facing many trials and tribulations, Ryunosuke will meet a large cast of other quirky characters along the way. Eventually, his pursuit of uncovering the truth will land him in the middle of several conspiracies involving Japan and Great Britain, which will forever shape him into the lawyer that he will become.
Much like other Ace Attorney games in the past, the story has its usual mixture of humor and tragedy, but The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles had a perfect balance with the two different tones. As I kept getting further into the story, it also felt like there was an endless number of mysteries to discover revolving the world and characters that made me determined to know more. In other games, it seemed that you could always make an educated guess on where the plot was heading, but this game always kept me wondering for most of my playthrough. I also enjoyed that every case you had to solve had an impact on the overall story and there was needless filler. Without revealing any key plot points, I’m positive that this game’s story will leave a large impact on you by the end.
If there’s one thing that I can say with 100% certainty is that you’ll fall in love main cast of characters in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. As the protagonist, Ryunosuke is endearing for his intellect and tenacity in the courtroom while also being a lovable simpleton at the same time, much like his descendant Phoenix Wright. While he starts out in court with twitchy eyes and a pathetic desk slam, he eventually grows over time into a full-fledged ace attorney as he confronts various obstacles in his journey.
And of course, every ace attorney needs an ace assistant and Susato fills that role perfectly. Unlike Maya who uses spirit medium powers to help Phoenix in a jam, Susato is armed with a sharp knowledge of the law and a personalized journal filled with endless notes on just about everything. Susato has become one of my favorite assistants in the franchise due to her ability to hold her own in a time period where many would underestimate her. The relationship she develops with Ryunosuke also feels genuine and caring as they both make each other stronger while faced with constant adversity.
Finally, there’s the great detective Herlock Sholmes and his trusty assistant Iris Wilson. Putting aside the name changes for localization, Sholmes‘ portrayal in the game is more or less authentic to Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous character. His vast intellect for deductions and crime-solving is matched with his quirky and awkward nature. He also serves as Ryunosuke’s “mentor” in a way, with Sholmes always ready to help his foreign friend. Iris’ inclusion is also a welcome addition since she helps keep Holmes grounded whenever he spirals into madness. What’s also nice is that even though she’s a genius inventor with a degree in medicine, she’s still portrayed as a sweet 10-year-old girl. All four of these characters work so well together and you’ll immediately be invested in their stories by how well-written they are.
Like previous installments, the gameplay is divided into two sections: investigation and court. During the court segments, it’s your job as a defense lawyer to fight for your client’s innocence while facing off against the prosecution. One of the main gameplay elements during these sections is cross-examinations. The prosecution will call up witnesses to the stand to testify on the horrifying events that transpired. After they give their testimony, you review what they’ve said and can either Press them for more information, which can usually result in more testimony, or point out a contradiction by Presenting with evidence in the Court Record. It’s important to look over their words carefully when getting ready to object because doing so incorrectly results in a penalty. Once you get five penalties, the game is over. Another thing to get used to is examining all your evidence in the Court Record because you can reveal new details about it by looking at it from different angles.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles added a couple of new features to these courtroom sections as well. For starters, the prosecution can now call multiple witnesses to the stand who can have a shared testimony. Because of that, there are some instances where pressing one witness will get a reaction from the other, which you can take advantage of by probing the other witness to get more information. There’s also the inclusion of a jury, who can decide the outcome of the trial based on their thoughts on the case. If all six of them side with Guilty, you will have to appeal to them through a summation examination. This is a little different from a cross-examination as instead of pointing out inconstancies you’ll have to pit two jurors against each other to prove why the trial needs to continue.
The courtroom gameplay is still fairly straightforward and many of the contradictions are easy to figure out. Even the more challenging puzzles to solve in court are not so intimidating if you constantly reload your save, so getting a game over isn’t much of an issue. The inclusion of the jury system was a nice touch, but honestly doesn’t add much but be an awkward speed bump during the trial because in the end, it all comes down to the judge’s final decision. There are instances where the summation examinations add more detail to the overall cases, but some of it feels a little forced and farfetched at times. The one thing I will say about the jury is that you can tell that it’s an excuse for the creators to include even more eccentric characters in the mix, which I can respect.
Then there’s the second gameplay section: investigation. Again, this is pretty simplistic as you basically have to roam around London trying to uncover more clues about the case. This can either be through investigating crime scenes for evidence, interviewing key characters for important information, or by a new feature called dance of deduction. During a dance of deduction, Sholmes will make logical inferences based on his observations. The only thing is that many of his deductions are bizarrely incorrect. It will then be up to Ryunosuke to step in and make sense of Sholems’ reasoning and steer him in the right direction towards the truth by using his own logic skills. These parts are a humorous and fun way of utilizing both character’s different qualities while getting closer to the truth, with Sholmes appearing cocky as he spouts nonsense and Ryunosuke being forced to clean up his friend’s mess. They also take advantage of 3D models and environments by having you examine everything in greater detail to piece things together. While most of the investigation segments are just going from place to place, it’s also a welcome change of pace being able to do these dances of deduction.
Through the main menu, you can check out several bonus features as well. These include different outfits for Ryunosuke, Susato, and Sholmes, alternative music tracks, various artworks, and much more. Seeing how this game probably has the best score in the entire series, it’s definitely worth a listen. It’s also nice to see all these incredible characters in their early stages in their design as well.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is an amazing addition to the franchise and certainly worth everyone’s time, not just diehard fans. I’ve been waiting to play these games for a long time, and I can say wholeheartedly that it was worth the wait. Not only did the story and characters surpass my expectations, but other aspects like the beautiful music and 3D environments also took me by surprise. I do have to note that like the previous games, it will require some suspension of disbelief because some moments are a little too unrealistic. But other than that, this is the perfect game to introduce yourself to the chaotic and wholesome series of Ace Attorney.
9.5/10
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I've loved playing video games ever since I first played Battletoads on the NES when I was a kid. Since then, I've played a wide variety of games on different systems, including Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and have mostly gravitated towards open-world RPGs and action-adventure games with amazing storylines and character arcs. I'm passionate when comes to writing and interested in working as a narrative designer.
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