The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures

I was a little worried when starting The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures. I expected to enjoy it, but I had grown so attached to the characters in the mainline series that I was worried about starting with a brand new batch. Thankfully, the game quickly squashed my concerns. The entire cast in this game is excellent and the story blew me away. The third games in each mainline Ace Attorney trilogy have some of my favorites narratives in the whole medium, thanks in no small part to the foundations established by their preceding entries. This is only the first game in a spinoff series, yet I frequently found myself thinking it could rival those incredible titles.

Playing as Phoenix Wright's ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo, you'll investigate crimes and defend your clients in court, just like you'd expect from the Ace Attorney series. Taking place close to the turn of the 20th century in both Japan and England, there are some notable differences to both major phases of gameplay compared to the modern mainline games. You won't be getting a DNA analysis or video recordings, but that just serves to increase the tug-of-war in court. However, that's not the only difference you'll find in The Great Ace Attorney. 

I was surprised to find that the established Ace Attorney formula of a court case in every episode did not apply here. Even the traditionally structured chapters still felt somewhat different. The expected tutorial-style case at the start of the game takes place in Japan and plays just like those in the mainline series, save for the ability to cross examine multiple witnesses at once. However, after that, it felt like anything could happen.

Introduced alongside Herlock Sholmes, my favorite new character, is a brand new style of investigation. Every so often, the great detective will call all attention to himself so he can demonstrate his uncanny skills of observation. Unfortunately, he's rather a poor show when it comes to drawing actual conclusions from his discoveries, so it falls to you to gently correct all of his faulty deductions. This new feature adds a much welcome degree of puzzle-solving to a phase in the game that used to be dedicated exclusively to consuming information.
 
The investigation phase wasn't alone in receiving refreshing updates, though. The late 19th century English court system, while similar in many ways to what we've experienced in previous Ace Attorney games, has a major, defining difference. Instead of just trying to convince a judge of the innocence of your client, you must also convince a panel of six jurors. "Randomly" selected from the British public, these fickle individuals can bounce back and forth between judgements of innocence and guilt at the drop of a hat, and it's your job to make sure they lean all the way towards innocence. If and when the panel succumbs to the prosecution and votes for your client's guilt, you still have a chance to convince them otherwise before the judge makes his ruling. This creates another little puzzle for you to solve during your trials, improving an already excellent formula.

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures originally released before Spirit of Justice and, purely in terms of features, feels like an even better evolution of the main series mechanics. Channeling was novel, but investigating alongside Herlock and matching wits with a full jury feels more fitting for the series' structure. Thanks both to that and the exciting story, I could hardly put the game down. Even though it is a spinoff, I would love to see the next mainline Ace Attorney game take notes from The Great Ace Attorney. For now, I think this has become my new recommended starting point for franchise newcomers. It offers much of what makes the rest of the series so remarkable without the need to commit to a full trilogy at a time. It may just be recency bias talking, but depending on how the sequel pans out, I might even prefer this duology to either mainline trilogy!
The game is available for Steam here (as of 1/9/25): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158850/The_Great_Ace_Attorney_Chronicles/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 1/9/25): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-switch/
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 1/9/25): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0102-CUSA18254_00-GAAT12FULLGAME00

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