Victorian-era Ace Attorney? No objections here!
With all the fun and drama of the Ace Attorney series set against the backdrop of Victorian-era Britain and Japan, there’s sure to be no “Objection!” to the adventures of Ryunosuke Naruhodo as he turns the courtroom upside down. Featuring an intriguing overarching mystery spanning across two games, it promises to be the most engrossing story in the series yet.
I’ve been a fan of the Ace Attorney games for years and loved that the series finally moved to consoles a while ago with a remaster of the original Phoenix Wright Trilogy. Clearly this did well as now the previously unreleased to the West, Victorian-era Ace Attorney games have now been localised and brought to PS4. I honestly never thought these games would see the light of day in English, so it’s pretty amazing to see it become a reality.
While obviously featuring a whole new bunch of characters, you will still seem the odd resemblance to others from the series and despite having a few new gameplay mechanics, the core Ace Attorney gameplay is still intact, as is the writing. The tone may be a bit more serious, and the cases aren’t as ridiculous as in the past games, but there is still some superb storytelling here and still plenty of humorous moments to be found.
Solving the mysteries of the cases has always been the most rewarding to me, but if you don’t want to do that and just want it to play out like a visual novel, there’s even an option for that. The game also allows you to save at any point, making it easier to drop in and out of cases without fear of having to redo sections of dialogue or puzzle solving.
The visual upgrades from the original 3DS versions are superbly done, with well detailed cel-shaded anime characters and the game runs at a solid framerate throughout. It honestly makes me hope that Capcom go and remaster other Ace Attorney games like the Miles Edgeworth spin-offs, Apollo Justice or even the last game featuring Phoenix Wright himself. I’d also like a brand-new game in the series, but give us the remakes first please…
The Verdict
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a great remastered collection of two Ace Attorney games that never got released outside Japan. Its script with razor sharp wit is more than enough to recommend picking the game up, everything else like the amazing visuals and the classic Ace Attorney gameplay are all bonuses.