ACE ATTORNEY SUCKS... or does it???

more interactive is better honestly for what im looking for. i keep getting recommended things that are ‘good’ but its just me watching a character i barely understand fall in love with someone else via a series of events that feel out of my control. like i have a psycho brain or something because the way im supposed to relate to people in romance games is completely alien to me. i just wanna choose my own adventure with gimmicks. like how jrpgs have unique battle mechanics, i want conversation and exploration gimmicks. i could just replay phoenix wright

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Here’s another one that just came to mind

edgeworth investigations 1 + 2 are worth playing, if you haven’t, imo, but

  • they are less VN than the mainline games, but more trivially than it might initially seem
  • they def. drag but what ace attorney doesn’t
  • plenty of gimmicks
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oh yeah i played those with my alive best friend who ADORES edgeworth i wonder what theyd be like without my friend cooing and whispering 'his sleeves…" every so often. thanks for reminding me

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Jake Hunter

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me too, i also can’t deal with romance in film for the same reason, unless it’s so deeply understated as to be missable basically. i liked the “romance” in Drive because it was one-sided and bizarre, for example.

games writing is generally so much worse than movie writing though so i can’t think of a single exception in games

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rudie answer: steins;gate

steins gate is good punishment for people who play vns for the reasons i dont. i watched a playthrough of it this month

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Yeah, watching a playthrough of it is the perfect way to enjoy the game.

I had a fine time with the first Edgeworth game, but Dual Destinies for 3DS just broke me. Seems like all the elements were there, and I liked Athena’s pluckiness and everything (she really does the best job of replacing Phoenix as protagonist), but it in total it felt like all drag and no hook!

I wonder if this was just the cumulative effect of the series for me, or if at that point they lost their ability to create narrative tension the same way? Like, I remember in the 2nd and 3rd games, for all of their annoying and longwinded parts, that I loved to hate certain witnesses in the courtroom, and cared about the arcs of the morally grey characters. Also, they always did a good job of setting the stage for the final case in subtle ways, and made it feel like an impossible reach when you did succeed. All of that stuff I just described felt like echoes in Dual Destinies.

They did do a great job of making the 3D compete with the original game’s pixel art, though.

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like bowie, dylan, and pokemon every person inevitably reaches their ace attorney breaking point

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The Athena ones are especially stupid. Reading this post you say you are sad but aren’t you really…angry???

Let me tell you, the game was an excellent sleep aid for a while.

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It’s not out yet, but Mask of the Rose is being specifically designed to accommodate ace/aro playstyles, it seems, so you can decide up-front what kind of relationships to explore. One day left on the kickstarter, but it’s already fully funded.

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nononoono thats the opposite of what i want. i want to explore and converse i dont want to have a ‘relationship’ with any fictional character

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You might be lookin for some adventure games then. Maybe Sunless Sea/Skies would appeal? Sea can be kind of tricky with the economy stuff, but you could just edit the txt file to give you a bunch o monies. But I loved it as a game where I could set off and see stuff and talk to characters.

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i like that game yeah

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I wonder if those World of Darkness visual novels are any fun? That world is very conducive to cool character talks, but idk how much those suck. But I would love a good game like that.

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I find it hard to have a favorite with original three Phoenix Wright because aspects of the writing and characterization get a lot sharper as the series progresses (e.g. Mia Fey and Godot have personal-life arcs interleaving with the cases they’re litigating, and the mysteries simply get more clever), but they become so longwinded at the same time. I can’t enjoy the first one because it’s too basic and the second two are too long to bother.

All the later games struck me at a distance as retreads with probably different writers independently learning the ropes so I never tried any of them, but I’d be curious to know if one of them is actually the perfect Phoenix Wright short-and-sweet synthesis that could exist in theory (is the first Edgeworth game people are mentioning ITT really that good?)

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Edgeworth Investigations 2 is better than 1. Apollo Justice is better than both. The mainline 3DS games are even-to-worse with those, Spirit of Justice a little better than Dual Destinies. All of them are long. Never played Great Ace Attorney and if I am not mistaken the Great Ace 2 translation remains unfinished.

Tier Late-Period Gyakuten Entry
S n/a
A Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
B

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Path

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

C

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

:steam_locomotive: :man_judge: :question:

The Great Ace Attorney: The Adventure of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō

The Great Ace Attorney 2

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