ramblings
essays, ramblings, and other textposts that are too long for bluesky and tumblr (imo)
play great ace attorney: chronicles! NOW!!
3 mar 2025
great ace attorney is one hell of a game
i've played this game twice myself, and have watched and rewatched many a playthrough. of all the games i enjoy, great ace attorney is one i can replay and still feel the same as when i had first played it. i've said that i can talk about this game for hours, so here i go! spoilers for both games ofc, proceed with caution :D
shu takumi is a genius with foreshadowing. every rewatch i do of this game i notice something new from an earlier case that ends up coming to fruition somehow later. right now, i'm watching two streamers playthrough these games, one being ryunosuke's va himself, mark takeshi ota. it's been really fun to here some insider tidbits about the behind the scenes of the game, and also he's a fun watch. anyways...
there's a lot of little things that contribute to the build up. in the very first case we're clued into the fact that something nefarious is occuring, and that kazuma, yujin, the judge, and forces in britain are involved. and that feeling keeps building with each case. we meet sholmes in case 2, who is intimately involved with the case we solve in the second game. case 3 introduces mcgilded, and his dealings with the government. and how fitting is it that we find out in case 5 of the first game, that the goverment of great britain and japan are passing notes back and forth about a series of assassinations, involving kazuma and inspector gregson. then when we do get to case 5 and are solving mcgilded's case, we find out that the watchword mcguilded used in the pawnshop was 'professor'. PROFESSOR! there is always some line connecting to the overall story of the game, and it is fascinating to follow them and piece things together.
even in the sillier cases of soseki natsume, there are ties to the final case. the treasure found in soseki's room being the freaking collar from the baskervilles case. when that was revealed my jaw was on the floor. there are just so many things; susato knowing 'the hound of the baskevilles', the collar, ryunosuke's whole life changing because of the death of john h. wilson in the very beginning...
and then we get to game two where things just keep on escalating. dr. sithe, enoch drebber, various characters (characters in their eccentric nature ofc) who were involved in the professor case return and we learn more about just how dreadful it is. after case 2, where we solve the mystery of soseki's lodgings, there is only one thing left for us to uncover: the truth about the hound of the baskervilles. the game basically locks into this storyline, and it does so in such a fanstastic way. it is the only question left on your mind. the truth about what happened to kazuma's father, genshin; the truth about who really killed klint. and the fact that his takes up the last two chapters of the game, because really where else could you go if you wrapped up the professor case in chapter 4??
i really love how bittersweet all of the cases are. in my opinion, none of them have that same happy feeling as those in the phoenix wright trilogy, or what i've seen of apollo justice, at least not in the same way. the first case of the first game ends with the actual killer essentially getting away with the murder; kazuma dies in the second case, and the circumstances surrounding his death are just sad and unfortunate; our first case in great britain ends with ryu feeling deeply conflicted about his role in helping get mcgilded a verdict of 'not guilty' despite never understanding the truth. soseki's back to back cases which end with the uncovering of the collar; the reveal of both kazuma and his father in case 3 of the second game; the FINAL revelations in chapter 5. all of these moments, while there is satisfaction in solving the mystery, left me feeling a bit sad. which i think was intentional.
even at the end of both games, the characters have to go their separate ways. even after solving the cases and finding each other again, kazuma and ryunosuke don't get to continue as if nothing happened. and all the characters have grown so much in their short time that it would be impossible to do so. and it's only been a year!! and ryunosuke wasn't supposed to be there, but he managed to solve these mysterious that plagued the life of nearly everyone he interacted with.
the music for this game is also so. freaking. good. this game has some of my favorite pursuit and court themes in all the games i've played. each of the characters' themes fits so well, even for the background characters. also the summation examination music slaps so severly. this game uses motif really interestingly, especially in the second game. i feel that that could be a whole other blog post though, haha...
as much as i love these games and am itching for new content, i don't think this game needs a third to make a trilogy. this story is so self-contained and wraps up so nicely, that adding anything to it, in my opinion, would only destroy that feeling of bittersweetness that encapsulates this whole game.
i love these games so much.
i think i shall replay these games for the third time
