I have to say that I'm not totally impressed. Starting off with the shitty name "Ace Attorney Investagions". Godamnit he's a prosecutor, a bloody PROSECUTOR! It's totally different from an attorney!! Why can't they just kept the Perfect Prosecutor name anyway? It just feels like they want to tag on the series name so this can sell, which feels cheap, and annoying at the same time.I'm currently just starting on my 3rd case right now, and these are my impressions
What happened to the great looking CGs? I totally miss them, and I'm yet to see them in stories. Even if there had been one it's just feel that not memorable... And where's the chapter-summarising picture that appears in the arc selection menu? Where have they gone?
I am seriously not a fan of the 3/4 angle portrait by any means. What feels good in the previous titles is that you are playing as Phoenix Wright (or Apollo Justice), and you take the usual VN-isk first person view when exploring and during dialogue and stuff. I love it, it's making me feel immersed as the main character, and I was able to fee attached to his own emotions. In this one, all the characters are not facing you, instead staring at the empty space in the middle of the screen. instead of feel like you are Phoenix Wright, you feel like a bystander in this game. Even up to this point, I still don't feel I care about the characters one bit.
Which brings me to the writing. I don't know why, but other than Edgeworth making inside jokes referencing to the past series, I don't find things that funny. Maybe it's due to Edgeworth's character of being so Edgy and has everything under control, I just don't feel the same chaotic hilarity that's so loved in the previous titles. Edgeworth is still badass, but the supporting characters just feels bland. I feel the comedy had been lost in this one, same goes to the witty writing that has been the hallmark of the previous titles.
The new characters, they are so boring. Entirely not helped by the bad design of the first villian, the new characters somehow just lack personality in their design. In the PW series even though some characters can be said to be stereotypical, but they always has an unconventional side to make them feel interesting, in this one, it's just boring and feels cliche, as if the designer had run out of idea. Again, I'll go back to the 3/4 portraits, they are just not that memorable at this point, some even look quite ugly.
I do like the change of direction in term of gameplay though.
The investigation is quite a nice twist to the usual point and click. Instead of pixel-hunting that some people loath, it had been cut down dramatically and mostly replaced by just avatar running on the screen to various locations. It saves up quite a lot of time during gameplay, and allows the player to focus more on the mystery ahead instead of spending endless hours just trying to click on that tiny pixel.
The introduction of the Logic tab is also awesome. It also allow the player to think, even though most of the links so far had been easy. However, the sense of "omg, I think I got it!" when the last piece of the puzzle falls is just great.
I will still finish this game, as I am still hope that the final case would still present the same amount of epicness that's in the previous games. However I do fear that, since they went too serious and hyped up the overarching story too much early in the game, I won't care less when the final case actually comes. Not to mention at the moment the main story feels transparent and contrive.
I just hope it will still be a good overall experience and not get disappointed by it.
Edit:
So now I'd finished the game, I'm still disappointed by the overall presentation.
Like I said before, spotting cameo is fun, however, not when they just forcefully put in one without any continuation and meaningful story development whatsoever. They had committed this cardinal sin.
I know I said before that the characters are all so uninspiring, well, that changed in case4, but only one though.
The final chapter would be good if not for the endless "ooo, but no, there's still not *conclusive* evidence yet" *smirk.....The one before the final boss battle is great, if only they finish at that point or use that as the climax instead of that drag-a-thon we got in the game.
Overall, not as good as I'd hoped before the game came out. I like some of the changes, but there's too many dumb downs, changes in the wrong directions, uninspiring characters for me to like this game.
Ace Attorney is a great series, I don't think this one does the name justice
