This review is about my experiences with the game from case 1-3. I haven't played 4 and 5 yet. Any Ace Attorney fans would immediately notice the similarities between "Attorney of the Arcane" and "Ace Attorney." Despite the similarities in the game play, the characters, stories. and world is different enough so that the experience is familiar, but unique. Because of this, there are some areas that Attorney of the Arcane did better than Ace Attorney. [*] If you played Ace Attorney before, you might have been stuck on a few cases because of how "out there" the logic is. The leap in logic can sometimes be so extreme, that it makes the player frustrated. Arcane Attorney's cases actually makes sense, despite the magic being involved. I actually feel like the magic system gives the writers more freedom to write unique cases that would have otherwise been too eccentric [*] The lawyer's power is actually pretty fun. With each Ace Attorney case, you are usually introduced to a new "gimmick" that helps you solve the case. Tyrion's gimmick allows him to "see" what some people are thinking and feeling. This allows him to find contradictions and draw out new information. About halfway through each case, the gimmick takes it a step further and allows you to sort of project a piece of evidence into their mind to see what new thought and emotions come up. This gimmick is perhaps my favorite part about this game. It's very reminiscent to Athena Cyke's ability to 'read emotions,' but I feel like this game implements this mechanic better. [*] I like how even the magic system has rules. Before playing the game, one thing I was worried about was whether the magic system would cause the case to be unbalanced. I was pleased to find out that the magic system is fairly balanced and had its own rules to follow. So this works really well for a game that relies on logic. There are some things that are familiar, but different to Ace Attorney. So the list below is more of a neutral observation. [*] The cases are shorter. It's probably about half or 2/3s shorter than the bigger Ace Attorney cases. This can be good for people who hate the tediousness of longer Ace Attorney cases. For people who likes to uncover each layer, the short cases may be a bit disappointing. [*] Each character that was introduced are reminiscent of an old Ace Attorney character without it feeling like a copy-paste of it. You have the "Maya" of the game, the "Mia" mentor character, the "Attorney" of the game who was inspired to become a lawyer due to a tragic past, the by-the-book detective, and more! Yet, the writers were able to make each character stand on its own without being a carbon copy of our beloved Ace Attorney characters. I will say that the only memorable minor character that stood out to me happened to be the defendant in case 2 and the guy barely appeared. The most important character to the main character was shown to us, but she's never around. She sort of just appears out of nowhere at the end of each case. Heck, even Celeste was more of a mentor to Tyrion in the eyes of the player. Although Arcane Attorney is a great game on its own, there's also a few improvements I hope to see in sequels. [*] The characters are forgettable. So I enjoy the majority of the characters introduced so far. They have a great foundation written for them. However, I admit, they are forgettable. I already have a hard time remembering our main character's name compared to "Phoenix Wright," who is instantly recognizable. I completely forgot about who Celeste was until the third case, still don't remember the detective's name, and don't particularly care for the mentor. Each of our encounter with a new character is very brief, so once they're off the screen, I can't tell you what their name is or why they are important. [*] The magic system is good, but the history is complicated and is also easily forgettable. Since this takes place in a fantasy world that is not the same as ours, the world building becomes more complicated. So far, it's not GOT complicated, but I hope the writers understand that the players are sort of dropped into the middle of the world without much backstory. You get vague information about how the world functions and little information about the character's backstory. The whole story regarding the magic system, how royalty and commoners interact with each other, the backstories, etc are incredibly vague. I expect some of it to be cleared up in the fourth or fifth chapter, but the information about the world gets introduced in random off-handed comments or gets brought up out of nowhere. In Ace Attorney, I felt as though we were introduced to the world by experiencing it. New information about the world was introduced bit by bit to the player by immersing ourselves in it. Events that shaped the legal system impacted us. By doing this, the information gets cemented into our memory. But here, we don't actually experience it through our character (so far). It's just like...oh yeah here's a murder. The guy's pretty dead. By the way, have you heard about our lord and creator? Anyways, let's go solve a mystery! We just hear about it in completely random situations. [*] Some of the evidences felt disorganized. I felt like the way they written some of the evidences isn't categorized the best. I didn't have an issue with the red-herring evidences, but I don't understand why some extra information gets put into one category instead of having it be two separate evidences. At other times, I didn't understand why one evidence fit for one argument, but another similar evidence of the same category didn't. So there are times where I understood what the game wanted me to do, but didn't understand what item the game wanted me to present because of the confusion descriptions. Things I hope to see in the future From how things are going, it looks like the whole game is a build-up to something else. Every case that I played so far felt like it was meant to be a part of world-building for future sequels to expand upon. I expect a sequel will happen, so here's what I hope to see in future games... [*] More memorable characters (especially with the names) [*] More organized evidence system [*] Have the characters experience the world. I felt like an observer, not someone who was in the world. [*] Keep and hopefully improve on the gimmick. I don't think anything new needs to be added, but I do think the way it's implemented can be done more smoothly. The eye of horcus was the strongest thing in the game that made the whole thing more enjoyable. At the moment, I feel like I'm getting "The Eye of Horcus" - lite, not the full version. So don't add anything new in terms of this gimmick, but expand upon what you already have. I believe that this power can make for a more interactive system with more ways to explore the minds of people. [*] Save system that allows us to move from one case to another. It gets a bit annoying when I get forced into the title screen and have to "make a new game" for the next case. [*] That one evil character. The first time the game glitched, I wasn't sure what was wrong. Then, THAT happened and I was both terrified and excited. I was impressed at how you incorporated that into the pre-existing magic system. That was one heck of a way for us to be immersed. **EDIT AFTER 4th and 5th CASE Alright, that fourth and fifth case just propelled this game to a whole other level. Fourth case was probably my favorite in terms of story and balance of the game. Fifth case was a AMAZING in terms of a final case, but I admit it was a bit difficult for me to follow. Great job developers! I look forward to the sequel :) PS. This is my first time writing a detailed review. So sorry for any formatting mistakes.
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