Justice for All is one half a bad continuous slog, a quarter decent legitimately ok story writing, and a last quarter that's just entirely amazing. It's a mixed sequel to the first game to say the least, it keeps most of the charm of the first game although a considerably weaker soundtrack at the same time. It keeps up character writing and introduces a couple mainstay characters that are fine and then one really irritating and excruciatingly underwritten character that takes up way too much screentime.
The casewriting is pretty much the same, with two cases that are bad with trash characters and a complete waste of time both in a writing sense and a structural sense, but also contains easily the best case I've read so far from this series by a very very significant margin that not only characterizes the personalities of the people involved but also has such an excellent motive, logical reasoning for how the case happened, and fantastic thematic storytelling. Had it not been for the rest of the game, I honestly would have called AA2 really good. Unfortunately the poor sides of the game manage to be lower than the first game and it's hard to look at this game as a cohesive whole.
That being said, it did manage to keep my attention and interest a little bit more than the first game, and I think the highs equalize with the lows to where I can say AA2 is still alright and worth reading alongside the first, maybe even a pinch more. It's a sidestep forward instead of a genuinely competent sequel, but I had my fun where I could. (6.5/10)
The casewriting is pretty much the same, with two cases that are bad with trash characters and a complete waste of time both in a writing sense and a structural sense, but also contains easily the best case I've read so far from this series by a very very significant margin that not only characterizes the personalities of the people involved but also has such an excellent motive, logical reasoning for how the case happened, and fantastic thematic storytelling. Had it not been for the rest of the game, I honestly would have called AA2 really good. Unfortunately the poor sides of the game manage to be lower than the first game and it's hard to look at this game as a cohesive whole.
That being said, it did manage to keep my attention and interest a little bit more than the first game, and I think the highs equalize with the lows to where I can say AA2 is still alright and worth reading alongside the first, maybe even a pinch more. It's a sidestep forward instead of a genuinely competent sequel, but I had my fun where I could. (6.5/10)