Game Review: The Great Ace Attorney - Adventures

It fills me with great joy that I get to finally write a review regarding one of my all-time favourite video game franchises.  The Ace Attorney franchise has been a series that has caught mine and many a video gamer’s attentions for up to 23 years at this present time.  I still remember my very first introduction to the series, having on a whim picked up the then latest entry in the series for 2008; Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on the Nintendo DS. I still remember being completely hooked on the premise of a court room drama with larger-than-life characters in a narrative adventure series you could pick up and take with you everywhere you went.  It was only natural after experiencing the highs and lows of Apollo Justice that I went back and played through the original Ace Attorney trilogy revolving around Phoenix Wright which only further cemented my appreciation for this iconic series. Ever since those early days, I have prided myself in picking up every entry in the series I could get my hands on right up to this very day. One particular entry in the series which I and many English fans yearned for years for was The Great Ace Attorney series.  

Known as Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōke in Japan, The Great Ace Attorney was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2015 in Japan and wasn’t localized for English audiences until 2021 in which it was released on all major-line consoles as part of a duology package with the first and second entry in the prequel series.  For the longest time I resided myself to believing I’d never play these entries just on the basis of how much time had passed (I’m still waiting for my Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization Capcom!) so you can imagine the joy I felt when I learned Capcom finally localized both entries in this prequel series in 2021.  So after all the years waiting, it’s time to answer whether the wait was worth it and whether the first entry in this prequel series; The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures, is a worthy installment to be included alongside all the other prestigious entries in this wonderful franchise. 

The story of The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures follows the escapades of Japanese university student Ryunosuke Naruhodo as he seeks to defend his clients in the court of law across both Japan and Great Britain.  Taking place at the end of the 19th century, Ryunosuke finds himself in the unfortunate position as a defendant in a mysterious murder which forces him to defend himself in the Japanese court of law.  This defense will set Ryunosuke on a path that will take him and his best friend Kazuma Asogi across the vast oceans in a journey to study the court of law in the land of Great Britain. While on his travels, Ryunosuke will develop close friendships with Kazuma’s judicial assistant Susato Mikotoba and a notable British detective by the name of Herlock Sholmes. As their time in Great Britain progresses, Ryunosuke and company will find themselves embroiled in a number of unusual court cases which while seemingly unrelated soon show to have a sinister link setting the Ace Attorney on a collision course with a greater conspiracy at the heart of Great Britain’s political system.

What I love about Ace Attorney is its approach to delivering a layered and comprehensive plot throughout the course of its numerous cases.  The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures is no different in this regard as I found myself thoroughly enjoying the narrative structure of this title. The modern Ace Attorney games all have the benefit of an already existing narrative landscape established from all the prior entries to pull from, so it’s notable how this game has to start fresh and it doesn’t stumble too much in setting up a lot of intriguing plot threads throughout the course of the story.  The overall plot that takes Ryunosuke Naruhodo from his homeland of Japan to the ever-advancing country of Great Britain is packed to the brim with twists and turns that you really won’t see coming.  The really nice thing too is the game establishes some plot threads that won’t see any conclusive payoff until the 2nd entry.  Most Ace Attorney games are pretty well-rounded in tying up their narrative cues by the end of the final case, so it’s refreshing to see this entry be a bit more confident in setting up a story that goes past the final case. The only criticism you will draw from me on the narrative structure is the initial two cases slow the pace of the overall story down somewhat, the game picks up most of its momentum from case 3 onwards though.

I find what accompanies the game’s well-structured plotline is it’s writing quality.  Apart from some notable aspects from case 2, I found the writing and structure behind each case and its associated mystery remarkably compelling.  There’s a lot of thought put into how the case plays out with the sequence of events you find yourself in and the quality of the dialogue behind each interesting character you meet.  This is a narrative-driven game, so having the writing and structure of the game so brilliantly realized helps make this game so easy to engage with. The writing allows you to experience a flurry of emotions, ranging from comical to utterly tense all within quick succession. It almost never feels derivative either, it’s all smartly established and helps the game leave a long-lasting impression when you finally wrap the case up.

The gameplay behind this game has you predominately serving as a defense attorney in multiple court settings across the games 5-case setup.  While in court, you will have the opportunity to cross-examine witness testimony in order to press for further information or present evidence to catch them out in their lies.  This is all typical Ace Attorney flair but the newest element to The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures approach is the jury system.  As this game takes place primarily within Great Britain, the trials are governed by a jury of peers which you will have to convince of your client’s innocence.  Often at times the jury’s may come to a pre-emptive verdict which you are then required to appeal and convince the jurors to consider alternatives or show them the flaw in their determinations. This is a really cool feature because each juror will have their own pre-conceptions and you have to try pit them against one another to show them the contradictions.  Another cool feature comes from the investigation portion of the gameplay. Like prior Ace Attorney games, you will spend a decent portion of time outside the court room too, travelling to different locations and trying to interview persons of interest and gather more evidence.  An added feature that makes this portion of the game more fun is the Course Correction sections.  Herlock Sholmes will endeavour to assist you during your investigations by making his own deductions pertaining to certain events or people. Your duty is to assist the so-called Great Detective by correcting him on his slightly flawed conclusions and coming to a more accurate determination on the preceding events.  It’s a really fun portion of the game, mainly due to the dialogue and the interactive elements.

What helps tie the compelling narrative and engaging gameplay together is the games overall sense of presentation.  Visually, you wouldn’t be able to tell this is a remastered 3DS title if you never knew.  The artistic design behind the environments is littered with so much detail that it makes it all the more interesting to focus and pick out key details. The big representation of the art and design of the game though comes in the form of its characters and animations. A lot of the prior Ace Attorney games utilized 2-D sprites for a lot of its backdrop and sequences, it was only with the 3DS entries that the series entered a more 3-Dimensional world but it’s worth acknowledging how much The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures pushes the boundaries in this regard.  Characters are rendered in pristine detail and their reactions and gestures are animated wonderfully.  Another cool detail I noticed is more than one character can share the screen in this entry.  The older Ace Attorney games were restricted to only being able to render one character sprite on the backdrop at one time, in this games case, characters are able to share the backdrop together and they are rendered in more positions than front-facing. I know that seems like a really basic feature to be praising, but honestly from an Ace Attorney fan perspective this is a really appreciated improvement that helps establish the scene much better. Yasumasa Kitagawa and Hiromitsu Maeba do a splendid job with the musical side of the game too.  There’s a great layer of charm embedded in the very period accurate tracks behind this game. It emulates the time period so well but also knows when to kick into high gear when the stakes get serious and you are about to deliver the final blow to a potential suspects flawed testimony.  Joint Reasoning/Dance of Deduction, Great Cross Examination, Mikotoba Susato – Serenade and Pursuit – The Great Turnabout are some of my personal favourite tracks from the soundtrack, but to be fair the majority of the soundtrack rocks!

Despite having to wait so many years to experience The Great Ace Attorney games, my concluding feelings towards the first entry are anything but negative.  The style and approach behind this variation in the Ace Attorney series is a huge standout and I honestly can’t give enough credit for Capcom and the development team for taking a leap and trying something completely new with the series.  The Great Ace Attorney – Adventures is an incredibly solid experience from start to finish and while not without some minor flaws, it’s positives far outweigh the negatives. If this is only the first entry in this grand tale of Ryunosuke Naruhodo and his friends, I cannot wait to how the 2nd entry decides to follow it!