I recognize this may be my least favourite Ace Attorney game so far. But it's still Ace Attorney, so I still think it's a good game despite the clear hints that Shu Takumi was absolutely not involved in this. The new characters, both main and exclusive to each case, are amazing and I love them. Athena is super charming and the more you know about her backstory, the more you want to keep listening about it. Blackquill seems cold at first, but is still memorable and, as Athena, has his reasons. Other characters such as Juniper, Jinxie, Robin/Hugh or Aura, to name a few, have also found a place in my heart. However, the effort put into these brand new characters, which I appreciate a lot, kinda overshadows the purpose of the returning characters, especially Trucy... and other characters who show up later and don't end up doing much other than... being there for the fanservice? I mean, I just remembered you do one or two Psyche-Lock or Perceiving sequences, but Athena's Mood Matrix is present in every case, more than once sometimes.

The story was also super nicely put. As with the other games, there are filler cases that tell very simple, almost subtle key points of the story, like how Athena got to join the Agency, or her first case while figuring out what this "dark age of the law" is. While the overall plot is really good, I feel like the storytelling wants to make it sound more mysterious and gripping than what it actually is. Without spoiling much, the "dark age of the law" thing kept looking more and more irrelevant as the game progressed and, by the end, I felt like the plot would've been the same without that concept involved. Because of concepts like this and how they're handled, I feel like the writers tried to overhype their own story. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but with so many mysteries and questions, sometimes the answers are so simple they end up being underwhelming.

With that being said, I really enjoyed this game as I already said. Despite Shu Takumi's non-involvement, it captures the essence, humor and overall vibe of the Ace Attorney franchise perfectly, and all while adding a few QoL features when compared to the previous trilogy. The focus on emotions also gives trials a new, interesting twists, and I cannot wait to see what's in store for the Agency in the sixth game. For people considering to play this game: please do if you've enjoyed what you've played of Ace Attorney so far. Trust me, it's a game with its flaws, but in no way bad.

I've always found GBA games to be super charming, and this very far from being an exception. How do you make the small, super-size-headed sprites from this era even better? The answer Capcom and Nintendo found was to make YOU even smaller. At first, seeing how I walked from the very south to the very north of the map in the first 15 minutes kinda confused me, as I thought this would be a short, easy game... but BOY was I wrong at how complex this was going to get.

Incredible dungeon design, super original bosses and enemies, Ezlo is an amazing sidekick and Vaati is an amazing villain. Too bad the final boss sucks due to the artificial difficulty during and before you get to Vaati. But although I didn't have the best of times with Vaati, and the game was often not clear on what it wanted me to do... it was mostly fun to figure things out, and now that Echoes of Wisdom has been announced, playing through this game in around two weeks made my hype for it even greater. Amazing game.