This review contains spoilers
I was thinking of more ways to clown on this game which then got me thinking: if the characters in your Visual Novel are bad then you have basically failed at what is essentially the most important part of the game.
Makoto - Boring, bland and shallow for a protagonist. Just because he is an average kid doesn't mean he has to have as much depth as a kiddy pool.
Junko - Despite her sort of shitposty appearance as a villain, constant repetitive reuse in later installments made her one of the worst villains I have ever seen in my life. Just no.
Sayaka - Please say I'm psychic again, it was really funnie the 50th time you said it!
Byakuya - Had his moments but otherwise, annoying and boring.
Kyoko - I don't like nor dislike? Idk I guess she has a cool design? I honestly couldn't care less.
Yasuhiro - One of the most pointless characters ever made.
Toko - Hey guys isn't it really cool how she switches between normal girl and murderer???
Leon - I couldn't care less.
Chihiro - Product of 2010 Japan.
Mondo - Meme design, decent character I guess?
Kiyotaka - I legit can't remember a single thing about this guy lol.
Celeste - Kinda cool design but otherwise I don't care.
Aoi - I used to like her but now I don't really care too much outside of her friendship with Sakura.
Sakura - Outside of her mediocre design, Sakura is the only character I actually was invested in because she wasn't annoying and actually had something going on. I still don't care though.
Hifumi - Best character in the entire series.
When I was typing this it made me excited to summarise what I don't like about each character but like, I now realise how little of an impression they left on me. Ace Attorney still gets me thinking about the characters long after I played the game whereas here I could not give a single shit about any of them even with the ones I kinda like (Sakura). The only fond memories of this game I still go back to is the soundtrack by the No More Heroes composer. If you like these characters then more power to you; looking on the bright side there is only a small handful of characters here that I hate which is why the score isn't lower, can't say the same for the later games though.
Makoto - Boring, bland and shallow for a protagonist. Just because he is an average kid doesn't mean he has to have as much depth as a kiddy pool.
Junko - Despite her sort of shitposty appearance as a villain, constant repetitive reuse in later installments made her one of the worst villains I have ever seen in my life. Just no.
Sayaka - Please say I'm psychic again, it was really funnie the 50th time you said it!
Byakuya - Had his moments but otherwise, annoying and boring.
Kyoko - I don't like nor dislike? Idk I guess she has a cool design? I honestly couldn't care less.
Yasuhiro - One of the most pointless characters ever made.
Toko - Hey guys isn't it really cool how she switches between normal girl and murderer???
Leon - I couldn't care less.
Chihiro - Product of 2010 Japan.
Mondo - Meme design, decent character I guess?
Kiyotaka - I legit can't remember a single thing about this guy lol.
Celeste - Kinda cool design but otherwise I don't care.
Aoi - I used to like her but now I don't really care too much outside of her friendship with Sakura.
Sakura - Outside of her mediocre design, Sakura is the only character I actually was invested in because she wasn't annoying and actually had something going on. I still don't care though.
Hifumi - Best character in the entire series.
When I was typing this it made me excited to summarise what I don't like about each character but like, I now realise how little of an impression they left on me. Ace Attorney still gets me thinking about the characters long after I played the game whereas here I could not give a single shit about any of them even with the ones I kinda like (Sakura). The only fond memories of this game I still go back to is the soundtrack by the No More Heroes composer. If you like these characters then more power to you; looking on the bright side there is only a small handful of characters here that I hate which is why the score isn't lower, can't say the same for the later games though.