Tl;Dr: The first game is good, albeit a bit uneven. The second game is amazing but needs a playthrough of the first to make it that much more complete.

1: A huge breath of fresh air after experiencing the sub par efforts of AA5 and AA6. Admittingly, some of the parts of this game's story tend to drag on, however, the payoff in the end felt very rewarding. It serves as a great setup for the next game.

2: You'd be very dumb to skip out on this game along with the first one if you are even remotely an Ace Attorney fan. It has some of the best written characters in the franchise and it isn't as gimmick plagued compared to the later games in the mainline Ace Attorney series. Episodes 4 and 5 in this game rank among the best episodes I've ever played in the entire franchise, although it has a deus ex machina in the end that kind of soiled my appreciation for this game. Despite that, dare I say I've enjoyed this game more than the first Ace Attorney game overall, which is my favorite game mostly thanks to Case 4 and Rise From The Ashes.

That's all I have to say about this duology. Go play it.