For the past few months, I've been absolutely dedicated to playing through all the Ace Attorney games, and after playing Trials and Tribulations, I really thought it couldn't get any better.

But it did. And now tap dancing will never be the same to me again.

Personally, this game is absolutely perfect for me. The constant Sherlock Holmes references and the spins and interpretations of such feel like they were made for me. I read through every single Conan Doyle story several times when I was younger, and tried to do every book project from middle school to high school on one of the short stories or novels from the series. Seeing these various interpretations and the absolutely hilarious Herlock Sholmes gives me a deep appreciation for the Great Ace Attorney duology, even if some things are totally different, like Enoch Drebber being entirely different than the very dead, original Conan Doyle depiction from A Study In Scarlet. Honestly, Herlock might be my favorite interpretation of the great detective with his goofy self, or at the very least tied with my love for the original Sherlock Holmes.

Aside from my massive Sherlock loving bias towards this game, I really do think this is the most consistently well written Ace Attorney game by far, with the only possible miss being the not-so eventful first case, but even then that case had so much charm that I still loved it. Everything that's been said and done through these cases and the first game come up into this incredible, interesting, and dramatic final arc, and it is absolutely glorious. Each dance of deduction with Herlock continue to get better with every passing deduction, and every "Objection!" that Ryunosuke yells out gets more and more impactful.

In my personal opinion, what really exemplifies the greatness of this game is the simple addition of a single song, "Prelude to Pursuit." Having this build up before each massive revelation creates this sense of glory and hype that I haven't felt in any other Ace Attorney game, and it brings out the best in the player and Ryunosuke. Hearing this song instantly gets you hyped, and once you let out that "Objection!" and hear the Pursuit theme might be one of the best feelings I've ever felt in a game before, let alone a visual novel.

I have some issues with the game that get into spoiler territory, so I won't talk about them here, but the charm and what is a genuine love letter for Ace Attorney as a franchise and series makes up more than enough for what I dislike about the game.
I know for some it won't be enough to overshadow the flaws, but if you're anything like me, I highly recommend this awesome, wonderful, and emotional duology.

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"As I writhed in agony on the floor and spilt the contents of my stomach...yes, I believe it did. The experience taught me a valuable lesson: soap is quite poisonous. It has an unpleasant taste and leads to great discomfort." - Herlock Sholmes, The Great Detective

this quote has nothing to do with the review i just love that herlock canonically eats soap

Honestly - where do I even start with this game. Everything about it was phenomenal- I’d go to say even better than the first game of the TGAA duo. This one hit every mark that the first one either missed or fell short of perfectly (spoiler- that wasn’t much).

All of the game seemed really well thought up, and you can just tell how much love and care was put into the world. The devs in charge of this game so clearly loved this franchise, the characters involved, and the universe they all live in. At its heart, the game seemed to ask the question “ how far are you willing to go to fight the darkness/evils of humanity ? How far are you willing to go in order to find the truth?” Throughout the game characters- especially our beloved protagonist Ryunosuke, seem to ask themselves these questions, and it really leaves you thinking. Another central message of this game is found family, and you see this displayed through nearly all of the characters and their relationships to each other.

This game feels so very real, but it dosent allow itself to get dragged down by being grounded in “ reality”, in true Ace Attorney fashion, the game still allows itself it’s fair share of whimsy and even veering into the grounds of unreality at times, but never straying too far to the point where you lose the realism and feeling the devs were clearly trying to instill within this game.

One thing I feel like both Resolve and Adventures do well is they deal with serious stories and issues, but they don’t allow themselves to become too heavy or too serious where it feels unpleasant for the player, they still manage to mix in moments of fun, whimsy, and laughter. However, on the flip side, they also don’t let the games become “ too goofy” or “ too silly” to the point where it interferes with the more serious plot lines/storylines/cases in the games. This is something that really the whole Ace Attorney franchise does, but I feel The Great Ace Attorney trilogy does the best job at balancing the emotions.



I honestly feel like I have so much more respect for the first game, after having completed Resolve. My love and appreciation for these two games have grown so much during the playing of Resolve, and I think they’re truly my favorite games of the franchise - or almost my favorites so far.

I’m really truly glad I got to experience these games, and I will surely be playing these games again soon.