+I love the premise here, it's especially shocking at the beginning when you don't know very much about the world and the setting. the juxtaposition of brutality and levity is sharp
+the game makes many attempts to tackle weaknesses with the Ace Attorney series, and some of them are definitely successful. I appreciate how interactable objects in the environments are shown, how it won't let you leave areas without getting all the information neeed, the limited number of evidence supplied for each argument sequence, and many other things I can't remember at the moment
+the music is godlike... takada really outdid himself here
+the way the secrets are spooled out over the course of the game is well-done imo; overall the pacing is top-notch. it helps that later chapters have short investigations and long trials, and each trial usually has some oddity that reveals more about the universe of the game
+I also enjoyed the ending quite a bit. they absolutely stick the landing, and the way the mystery clears up in the final chapter is rewarding
+playing on windows has one big advantage: the mouse makes aiming during the trials a breezy process. I really would not have enjoyed playing this with a controller I think
-I really don't like being constantly led around and fed info by byakuya and kyoko... it feels like makoto not only lacks any agency but is also a complete dullard. it doesn't make me feel like I'm solving the case when the two of them are doing so much of it for me, and being incredibly condescending to boot. it's even more annoying when they (specifically byakuya) make obvious mistakes...
-specific annoyance: why are there argument sections where another character says the contradiction, and I have to turn their argument into a bullet and use it on whatever they were responding to in the first place. the reasoning wasn't my own! how would this not be better just as dialogue, or with actual evidence I can use for my own contradiction
-the rhythm minigame is broken on the pc port, as far as I'm aware. whatever the case, the beat to click along with is not properly in sync with the music. I really should not have played this game on Mean difficulty...
-the cases in the middle dip in quality... I think there's frequently a slump in these kinds of games so it's not really a surprise to me here
-a lot of the characters are pretty one note. esp as more people get picked off, I feel like the main survivors are not that great of a group
dr1 throws a lot of ideas at the wall, and the core design is novel and rock-solid. it's enough to carry this game beyond the deficiencies in characterization and the overabundance of needless gameplay additions/minigames, and it makes me very excited to dive into the later entries as I know they are considered improvements on this initial formula. first games can always struggle a bit to make all the concepts gel, and at the very least this one manages to pull through with a lot of heart and a really fascinating premise.
+the game makes many attempts to tackle weaknesses with the Ace Attorney series, and some of them are definitely successful. I appreciate how interactable objects in the environments are shown, how it won't let you leave areas without getting all the information neeed, the limited number of evidence supplied for each argument sequence, and many other things I can't remember at the moment
+the music is godlike... takada really outdid himself here
+the way the secrets are spooled out over the course of the game is well-done imo; overall the pacing is top-notch. it helps that later chapters have short investigations and long trials, and each trial usually has some oddity that reveals more about the universe of the game
+I also enjoyed the ending quite a bit. they absolutely stick the landing, and the way the mystery clears up in the final chapter is rewarding
+playing on windows has one big advantage: the mouse makes aiming during the trials a breezy process. I really would not have enjoyed playing this with a controller I think
-I really don't like being constantly led around and fed info by byakuya and kyoko... it feels like makoto not only lacks any agency but is also a complete dullard. it doesn't make me feel like I'm solving the case when the two of them are doing so much of it for me, and being incredibly condescending to boot. it's even more annoying when they (specifically byakuya) make obvious mistakes...
-specific annoyance: why are there argument sections where another character says the contradiction, and I have to turn their argument into a bullet and use it on whatever they were responding to in the first place. the reasoning wasn't my own! how would this not be better just as dialogue, or with actual evidence I can use for my own contradiction
-the rhythm minigame is broken on the pc port, as far as I'm aware. whatever the case, the beat to click along with is not properly in sync with the music. I really should not have played this game on Mean difficulty...
-the cases in the middle dip in quality... I think there's frequently a slump in these kinds of games so it's not really a surprise to me here
-a lot of the characters are pretty one note. esp as more people get picked off, I feel like the main survivors are not that great of a group
dr1 throws a lot of ideas at the wall, and the core design is novel and rock-solid. it's enough to carry this game beyond the deficiencies in characterization and the overabundance of needless gameplay additions/minigames, and it makes me very excited to dive into the later entries as I know they are considered improvements on this initial formula. first games can always struggle a bit to make all the concepts gel, and at the very least this one manages to pull through with a lot of heart and a really fascinating premise.