While both The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve were well-received additions to the Ace Attorney franchise in Japan, western audiences might have never heard of them before Capcom announced they were finally visiting the Nintendo Switch. The worldwide discharge of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which combines both Adventures and Resolve, is the first time most possess the opportunity to solve these excellent cases.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles serves as a prequel to the main games in the Ace Attorney series. Chronicles is really a single-player visual novel, just like the other games within the series. However, unlike the main games, Chronicles happens in the 19th century rather than the modern-day. The game also takes place both in Japan in addition to Victorian England. Players will follow the story of Ryunosuke Naruhodo as he defends his various clients in the court. The game contains 10 different cases that all include a wacky and zany cast. My personal favorite may be the existence of a personality named Herlock Sholmes. The outrageously non-subtle reference helped me laugh, and I am not ashamed to be honest.
Chronicles is very clearly an Ace Attorney game, and by that, I mean you’ll spend most of your time attempting to solve cases and hoping you found the right clues or answers. If you’re at all like me, it will cost a large amount of time resetting and guessing again because you missed something blatantly obvious. I wouldn’t say the game is necessarily hard, however it does require some thinking. The game does incorporate a “story mode” option, though, which takes the guesswork out of the game and just gives you the wild and wacky stories. I think it is a superb addition for anybody who wants to enjoy the story and world and not concentrate on the actual gameplay. It’s not my personal preference, but if it gets more and more people to check out the game, then I’m completely aboard!
The only real knock from the game is that the gameplay itself doesn’t stand out from any previous entries towards the series. For fans of the series much like me, that’s encouraging to hear, but I can see the way the average player could easily get bored by doing exactly the same thing repeatedly. Thankfully I discovered myself really drawn into all the characters and treated both cases like I had been actually fighting for the innocent. The characters can be quite funny, there are some really excellent moments throughout that help keep the game interesting despite the repetitive gameplay. Despite being a game about court cases, Chronicles never takes itself too seriously.
Beyond just fun characters and interesting cases, the game looks beautiful. Personally, I’ve found that most visual novels tend to perform a great job at the, well, visual facet of things, and Chronicles is no different. The characters and settings have very distinct looks which i really enjoyed and appreciated. You won’t see any mind-blowing graphics or anything, but I don’t think anyone plays a visible novel looking to see something ultra-realistic. The hyper-stylized look is completely perfect in Chronicles like it is incorporated in the rest of the series.
As always, if you’ve kept up with any one of these reviews, you will be aware the key to any game in my experience may be the music. Chronicles does more than just avoid disappointment in this department. The music absolutely brings the planet alive, making the tense scenes feel even tenser while bringing even more levity up to the more humorous moments. If your physical version of the soundtrack is ever released, you are able to bet which i will be among the first to pre-order it.
I understand visual novels aren’t for everyone, but it’s hard to find grounds not to suggest The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles to even the most ardent visual novel skeptics. With an excellent story, fun characters, as well as an amazing soundtrack, it truly is an excellent game well worth the time spent playing. It does feel a bit derivative of the other games within the series, and whether that is good or not depends upon how much one enjoys the other games. Still, if you haven't were built with a opportunity to enjoy the world of Ace Attorney before, I highly recommend picking up The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for that Nintendo Switch and giving this legal gem a try.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles releases for Nintendo Turn on July 27th.
