3/10
I really like Locum Student Mr. Naruhodo Esquire's mental crisis coming off of the McGilded case, and Herlock helping him through it and becoming a more layered character in the process. Natsume is neat, too, and I always enjoy some jury shenanigans.
There's funny bits here and there, but I don't care for the meat of this case. Funny Domestic Violence never lands well with me, and it's bizarrely kept as a running gag across multiple characters throughout the entire case, despite being the cause of the crime itself. Joan Garrideb is an awful character, I don't care for her husband or the Beates either, and Gregson and Iris don't become interesting until the next case. When playing, I thought the game was making a commentary on what kinds of people are and aren't treated with empathy by society, but uh... I think we are genuinely supposed to care about Roly Beate here, and I just don't. van Zieks letting him keep his job is framed as a humanising moment, but it ironically only further shows the corruption and benefits granted to the local policeman over the foreign students.
There's also a lot of wasted trial time, with the pointless discussions of Natsume's route home and every twist being obvious to the player half an hour before you get a chance to present it. Not a good case.