Re: Kiir's Gaming Topic (Reply #136 on: September 24, 2016, 03:45:00 am)

I was initially on the fence about picking this up so soon after release since I'm saving my money for... other games... (cough colour splash is $85 total in canada, curse you nintendo) but I did eventually cave and end up buying Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (AKA: AA6). I have some mixed feelings about the game as a whole, but I'm very satisfied with my experience in the end.

The first three cases were where most of my problems lied. The cases themselves were fine, but the writing ended up bothering me. The game felt chattier than previous installments, wasting your time with pointless conversations and needless flashbacks. This was super prevalent in trials, where 90% of the time, pressing statements in cross-examinations would get Wright or Apollo (yes I'm calling them out SPECIFICALLY) to ask something like "are you sure this is how it happened?" and absolutely nothing would come with it. It was never amusing or anything either, just time-wasting. Sometimes I did have genuine questions about the statements, but alas, these DUMMY LAWYERS could not keep up with me. At this point in the game, I was honestly ready to rank it among the lower ranked titles in the series (AA2, AA4, AAI). The cases kind of felt like stuff out of those games.

But then case 4 happened! This was Athena's only starring case in the game, and it was surprisingly really good for something that was 100% filler and had absolutely no effect on the game or the characters. Athena asked good questions and didn't waste time, ironic because the whole case was kind of about everyone treating her like a kid (for some reason) but man... she was a lot better than Wright/Apollo in the first three cases.

Case 5 was spectacular IMO though. I probably got way too hyped when there was a civil trial for the first time in the series (even if it did transition to a murder lol) but I'd honestly like to see that crop up again in the future. I was surprised it wasn't a three day affair like most final cases (and honestly in any other game it likely would have been split into two one day cases), but it wrapped up well enough that it doesn't really matter. No point prolonging it. It had a good length I think. Honestly my biggest issue with it was that by the end, the facts of the case felt kind of muddled together because said facts kept changing and I think it could have benefited from one last big summary of the case.

More general thoughts/opinions about the game:

• The music didn't feel as strong/good as in previous games, a lot of it didn't really have a defining melody to make it memorable
• The new characters were all really good, and even better was that most of them kept reappearing so they weren't just shoved aside once their case was over
• Actually, the new prosecutor was probably one of the weakest characters of the whole new set - I'm hoping he shows up in a future game to be better
• The old characters that reappeared were also good for the most part, and I hope they continue gradually bringing back more and more of them
• There were prevalent themes throughout the whole game to make all the cases feel more linked together, which I really enjoyed and never really experienced with past AA games, except when cases were linked due to their events (ex. one of AA6's biggest themes has to do with family - namely fathers, and it manages itself really well)
• I think from the get-go, the game was overall more difficult than recent AA games - in early cases, this felt like it was because it was super unclear when and where certain evidence should have been presented, but in the later cases, I almost feel I wouldn't have been able to win without a walkthrough (which I eventually used because I just wanted to finish the game); I also didn't manage to accurately guess the twists/culprits from the start of each case, like I was able to with most AA games (addendum: i do believe there is some sort of help system in this game though, but i never used it because i had a guide lol)
• It felt like there were some really unbelievable occurrences in some of the cases (HELLO 6-3) and there might have been some plotholes
• Turn on the option to skip through text - you'll thank me when you hit ALL THE NEEDLESS FLASHBACKS and also general boring dialogue that goes nowhere
• Apollo gets revenge for Wright stealing his spotlight in AA4, I'm soooo happy
• apollo justice 2 for aa7 please

OVERALL!! I'd rank AA6 probably in the better half of the series, or at least above the lower ones. I think in some aspects it was better than AA5, but I'm not sure which I'd say is the better game. There are probably some things I would have liked to see happen, but maybe in the next game.

(Also while I was going through the game, Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 was announced for Japan... what the heck, bring the first game over here... please... let me lawyer alongside sherlock holmes please....)