Board 8 > Yes! A Great Ace Attorney Chronicles playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Note: Please don't talk about specific cases or characters or anything before I get to them. I want to go in to each experience as fresh as possible without any preconceptions so I'd appreciate everyone refraining from giving their case rankings etc in advance! Thank you!

*spoilers will follow as I proceed through the game*

My Ace Attorney experience: I played the first three games ages ago on DS, and Dual Destinies on 3DS (but not AJ). I really liked the trilogy back in the day, but was left pretty cold by DD and worried I had fallen out of love with the series or that it had lost several steps. I never got around to SoJ as Capcom stopped doing 3DS sales in my region right before I almost bought it.

I've had the itch to try AA again for a while, and a self-contained period drama with an entirely different cast appealed to me more than the AJ trilogy, so here we are with Great Ace Attorney! All I know in advance is that the first game is regarded as significantly worse than the second, Ryunosuke is Phoenix's ancestor, there's some jury system, we travel across both Japan and England, and one character is named Herlock Sholmes. Also there's some bangin' music (thanks VGMC!).

I'm only an hour in (at the first recess of the first trial), but that was enough for me to decide to do a playthrough topic. IDK how detailed it will be but I know B8 <3 AA and I think there'll be things to talk about.

The most striking thing from the start is how improved the presentation is from the portable games. Clean elaborate animations, a neat cohesive art style, and as expected, great music. I'm not holding out for much in the way of gameplay in the tutorial case, but everything else is impressing me so far. Ryunosuke is unbelievably clueless for a student of law, but I like him being unable to get his words out, and how much personality we can see in his animations- his eyes darting back and forth as he stands rigid, shooting his hand up to address the court, and hurting his hand on the table when banging it. Kazuma is Cool Mentor personified, and much like Mia before him I'm enjoying his presence. The Judge is more sensible than the other one, and I like how they're handling Auchi this time. He's a smug traditionalist (love the paper fan animations) but not a corrupt guy, it seems.

The political atmosphere, along with themes of corruption in the police/government/military being brought up so early, has me hyped for where things will go in the long run.

I liked the first Great Ace Attorney, with the understanding that you're supposed to play both games.

ya go my GAA

Tagging; I'm at the end of GAA1 myself.

Leg.

I mean tag.

*raises hand*

andylt posted...

The most striking thing from the start is how improved the presentation is from the portable games.

Great Ace Attorney was originally on the 3DS you know

GAA1 is older than SoJ...!

Well they must've put a lot of work into the remaster, because I think everything here looks significantly better than Dual Destinies did! Maybe it's down to the art design and the score, were they done by different folks from regular AA? Did their budget go up? It reminds me of how Fire Emblem Echoes looks so much more impressive and professional than Fates due to its presentation.

I went back on hoping to finish the intro case, but I'm still not done and had to stop as we're calling back the old guy. I kept thinking we were almost finished but on and on it went! Has to be the longest intro case I've played. Fun, though. We've seen Brett's archetype before, but the arrogant Englishness and the political background adds a layer here that we didn't get with some of the other 'beautiful girl dazzling the prosecutor/judge' characters. I lol'd at Ryunosuke having seen her and only thinking to describe her as 'a woman'.

Speaking of, I really like Ryunosuke growing his confidence and coming into his element. Losing the pain as he's slamming his hands down, coming up with vital clues when Kazuma is stumped (glad they're not making Kaz OP), he's a badass. And I cheered when they geared up with that prey line to his first ever Objection!, very very satisfying. Love the dynamic with him and Kazuma, too, and I guess Susato will eventually be the Maya. Glad she's already competent and they might be exploring the sexism of the courtroom with her. Hopefully Kazuma doesn't die.

Seriously why is the music here so much better than the rest of AA, no disrespect I enjoyed the themes of the OG but this is several levels above!

GAA OST is great

Wouldn't say it's leagues above the rest of the series though

Tag

tagggg

Fiop posted...

I liked the first Great Ace Attorney, with the understanding that you're supposed to play both games.

I hated the first Great Ace Attorney, with the understanding that you're supposed to play both games.

Tag!

agree early on that the period drama is fantastic - you'll see more of its greatness soon

and yes the soundtrack is amazing

cases themselves are a little iffier though!

It is a portable game, but I get what you're saying

edit: I see it's already been covered, carry on

I played the first 3 or 4 cases and didn't finish, not because it was bad, but just because I didn't commit. Maybe this will be encouragement to keep going.

See above, but with the second case. I should hop back in.

I think it just feels... slower than any other Ace Attorney game? Like the animations and dialogue and text speed just make it feel more sluggish maybe? My attention span faltered plenty during the first two cases.

Mega_Mana posted...

I think it just feels... slower than any other Ace Attorney game? Like the animations and dialogue and text speed just make it feel more sluggish maybe? My attention span faltered plenty during the first two cases.

The text speed definitely feels slower. I considered toggling on Skip Text but I don't want to accidentally miss a line or read the end of a line too soon if it's tied to an animation.

Couple Qs: with this game's existence, is modern Ace Attorney now canonically set in Japan? Or are they still pretending it's somehow the US.

Also there's a bunch of escapades available in this collection, is there a best time to play them or should I leave them all to the end?

andylt posted...

The text speed definitely feels slower. I considered toggling on Skip Text but I don't want to accidentally miss a line or read the end of a line too soon if it's tied to an animation.

Couple Qs: with this game's existence, is modern Ace Attorney now canonically set in Japan? Or are they still pretending it's somehow the US.

Also there's a bunch of escapades available in this collection, is there a best time to play them or should I leave them all to the end?

Modern Ace Attorney is still in the US, with their ancestors from Japan.

Their ancestors migrated from Japan. Never give up on Japanifornia because otherwise you lose the amazing name puns in localization.

I do think GAA takes its time in pacing moreso than other AA games.

Escapades are probably better for the end of each game's collection.

The Escapades were originally made for the first game, so it's fine to view them after finishing that one.

Will do, thanks!

I finished off the first case, there wasn't much left after all. I don't think it needed the extra wrinkle of Nosa's plate being swapped with Brett's, and I don't really like that one of the key moments was Ryunosuke simply remembering that he saw blood, but as far as first cases go it's cool. I like our main BFF duo, all the set-up for the political machinations to come, and Jezaille Brett is a good villain as our first glimpse of entitlement and empire. Her not receiving any comeuppance is also a more interesting result than the alternative, though we must get more info later on as we don't even have a motive for the murder. Hosonaga is decent (bio says he's 29 lol anime ages), but I didn't care for the other two witnesses. I'm unsure how having multiple witnesses on the stand at the same time will be important later on, the Pursue mechanic was obviously straightforward here but I wonder how they could actually make it interesting.

I assume Kazuma's favour will involve Ryunosuke traveling abroad with him, and I look forward to seeing what this game's depiction of Victorian Era Britain will be like. If Jezaille is any indication, I don't think it'll be so friendly to our Japanese boys! Actually I have no idea how much of these games will be in Japan, I assume we'll go back and forth but it may make more sense to be in Britain for the rest of this game at least. We'll find out, I guess!

I like that Auchi's topknot is cut down to reflect Payne's AJ appearance.

Auchi is actually Payne's Japanese name and it wonderfully works for English audiences too.

noo Kazuma! The mentor curse strikes again...

waste of some fucking awesome theme music

andylt posted...

Hopefully Kazuma doesn't die.

oops

Didn't get far into Case 2 before stopping. Herlock Sholmes is not what I expected! And two in a row now, I hope every case in this game has Ryunosuke on trial. Poor Kazuma :(

SeabassDebeste posted...

waste of some fucking awesome theme music

That's been my fav theme in the game so far, no wonder they laid it on thick in the first case. Wasn't sure if it was specifically his as it's played when Susato comes to the rescue in that case, too. At least it's the main menu theme for this collection!

Poor Kazuma

where's Maya when you need her

I shouldn't be surprised as Kazuma had all the warning signs of a dead man walking, being an already confident mentor and best friend of the protagonist, but still :( I liked him. And he was so big on the cover art! I'm not expecting any Fey channelling but hopefully he gets more material somehow.

And hopefully they don't go through the exact playbook of tropes from the first games >_>

Yeah, I didn't see what happened to Kazuma coming, but then I wasn't that surprised after it happened and felt like I should've seen it coming.

It's OK, Kazuma's theme is replaced by Herlock's theme, which is equally as good.

And later by the detective's theme. My hot take on the music here is that that track is the very best one in the whole game.

MrSmartGuy posted...

And later by the detective's theme. My hot take on the music here is that that track is the very best one in the whole game.

It's certainly one of my favourites.

RIP Kazuma. :(

I wish we could've seen more of him, I like his dynamic with Ryunosuke a bit better than Mia and Phoenix.

Mia is maybe my fav character in AA (is this a hot take?), so it's sad to see her equivalent here be dispatched so quickly once again. Though Kazuma functioned as a best friend as well, so there's a lot of potential there cut short. But maybe it'll work out for the best, leave them wanting more, and all that!

I've done the first investigation section of Case 2. The tone shifts pretty quickly to a lighthearted adventure, as if our best friend didn't die merely hours ago. It's jarring, but Herlock Sholmes takes over the stage so readily that it's hard to be annoyed. I cannot get a handle on this guy, is he a genius or a moron? Well, sort of both?? The way Susato puts it, he has a keen eye for cutting to the heart of the matter, but his logic is flawed and he doesn't really stop and think things through. I've never been a Sherlock Holmes guy, maybe I've only seen bad portrayals (I did not care for the BBC series) but I'm not typically a fan of sarcastic asshole genius characters who know everything at all times and everybody loves them anyway.

This is very different to what I'd expected, Herlock has an ego but everyone around him becomes very aware of this very quickly, and he's certainly very flawed. Most importantly, I'm enjoying his presence a great deal. I had a smile on my face throughout the whole dance with Ryunosuke, and there's something irresistibly charming about his demeanour. I don't know if I fully 'get' what they're doing here, but I'm enjoying the ride. Ryunosuke is enjoying the ride too, he gets quickly caught up in the joy of deduction and it's clear this arena is where he belongs. Friendship with Kazuma Asogi ended, Herlock Sholmes is now Ryunosuke's best friend.

No offense to my close friends, but if their death meant I got to meet and become best friends with Herlock Sholmes, I too would probably get over their deaths pretty quickly

I like Cumberbatch's portrayal of Holmes, but yeah, he's more of a jerk in that than he's normally portrayed as. GAA Holmes isn't too far off of the book version, although he's definitely more of a ditz here.

Case 2 beaten. Honestly, I was on board with Herlock's snake idea! The reality is more underwhelming, in both a good and bad way. I do kinda like Kazuma's death not being due to malice or conspiracy, instead being a result of a series of accidents, misunderstanding, and chance. His death was a waste, as Ryunosuke puts it, all his hopes and dreams snuffed out because of a runaway ballet dancer and her cat (and his own dislike of chicken). In that sense it's more realistic than most murder mysteries.

But the nuts and bolts of the case don't quite satisfy me, I don't find Pavlova very compelling and the whole thing is very small. Both of the one-off characters we meet here are involved in the crimes, and the case is set across a grand total of three rooms. Don't get me wrong, I don't like bloat, a small tight mystery can be terrific (not having a court sequence is strangely refreshing), but I don't think the mystery itself all comes together here. It's not bad, but nothing to write home about.

Sholmes' sequences on the other hand are all terrific and I'm really liking this bizarre, wonderful character. The tonal shifts are abrupt, things quickly turns serious again at the end but I think the game owed Kazuma that, so overall I think it's decent. So far I think the overarching story, worldbuilding, main characters, and atmosphere of the game are very strong, but the moment to moment casework leaves something to be desired.

And I'm glad they gave us one last rendition of Kazuma's theme to go out on :)

The snake idea comes directly from a Holmes story

G1-2 just isn't very good aside from introducing Holmes though

G1-2 is pretty bad yeah. It's like a tutorial case just for investigation, which is... why?

Hope you're doing this next case with Magnus McGilded.

g1-2 is pretty awful but yeah it's got some really nice moments and world building.

Onto Case 3! We arrive in jolly London, and I wonder how long the cheery facade will be maintained before our foreign duo are faced with the darker side of empire. Our first new friend is the Chief Justice guy whose name I forgot to write down (Strongarm? Strongheart?). He's very precise with time but also over an hour late to meet us so can't be that good at his gimmick. I'd be surprised if we don't wind up locking horns with this Gant-esque figure by the endgame, especially with how strangely he discusses and reacts to Ryunosuke carrying out Kazuma's mission.

After a nice moment for our heroes refusing to wager a man's life, we make our way into the case itself. Congrats to Ryunosuke on managing to not be the accused this time! With a new courtroom comes an introduction to the jury mechanic. This could be very interesting, though I'm not sure exactly how it works in practice. Susato's comments suggest that recklessly pressing witnesses could hurt us by pushing the jurors towards a guilty verdict, but I'm not sure if that's meant as a warning not to press every single statement (which I usually do), or if the juror opinions are scripted and we don't have any influence in the matter until it comes time to the summation. I'm playing things cautiously for now, just in case.

The summation itself is fun, I enjoy how quickly we get them to turn against each other (and Beppo) with violent threats. Maybe in a future case we'll have one of these jurors as the defendant and another as the victim! Having them declare their leanings by tossing fire onto the scales is surely very dangerous and impractical, but damn if it doesn't look cool. Less cool is our new prosecutor, whose gimmick is 'racist vampire'. I'm not feeling this guy! Stop saying Nipponese like that! Pour your wine faster! I don't know why he came back from a 5 year retirement for this particular case, and at this point I'm not all that interested.

The case itself is progressing fine. Easily the most intriguing moment so far is when we're asked whether the cubbyhole in the Phoenix Wright Omnibus was empty. It's not framed as a monumental 'what kind of lawyer are you' moment by any stretch, but I like the game challenging the player like this. I am a dutiful little lawyer and had of course investigated the hole, seeing that it was not empty earlier on but became empty at some point after Lestrade's smoke grenade. I chose to be honest, and it cost me a couple of jurors. I'm curious how the other options would play out there, and whether it'd make a difference to anything.

The characters du jour are... fine, so far. I'm enjoying the jurors more than any of them, really. For a while I wonder if we're heading to a 'our client is actually guilty' test, but the case is pulling away from that idea now. Our friendly Irish philanthropist is still a shady dude so the moral shadings remain, though. Gina's alright once I get past the barrage of stereotypical lines.

As things stand the jury and the public gallery have taken control of the courtroom and demanded Fairplay and Furst testify. Fairplay has a motive already but Furst is a non-entity so we'll see how things develop from here. It's looking like this'll be another pure court case, hm.

Magnus McGilded is the one who's named Cosney Megundal in Japan btw, since you asked about this on discord

I don't recall being any more penalized for pressing statements than any other AA game.

I kinda liked the jury system.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Magnus McGilded is the one who's named Cosney Megundal in Japan btw, since you asked about this on discord

A perfectly natural Englishman's name

andylt posted...

Less cool is our new prosecutor, whose gimmick is 'racist vampire'. I'm not feeling this guy! Stop saying Nipponese like that! Pour your wine faster!

Best prosecutor since Godot don't @ me.

He's the best prosecutor since Blackquill

Of course his competition is Nahyuta so that's not saying much

(Seriously though, I do like van Zieks)