The RPS Advent Calendar 2022, December 18th

The RPS Advent Calendar 2021, December 18th

No objections here

A section from the illustration of this year's advent calendar, showing Horace the endless bear coiled up in a heap of presents while an Alabaster Titan hammers a new present into shape on an anvil

The court engagement for the eighteenth door of the RPS Advent Calendar 2021 has arrived. Now listen, I know it'southward normal to get nervous before a big trial - it'south only our sense of sense of taste on the line, later on all - but trust me, I've got the best and almost experienced defence force team lined up for this one and - wait, what'due south that? They've simply been in grooming for three months? And they're not even properly qualified? Oh no, what have we done...

Information technology's The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles!

Rebecca: With apologies to my real-life loved ones, no one person has made me every bit consistently and uncomplicatedly happy this yr equally Ryunosuke Naruhodo, protagonist of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. In a yr of ups and downs, it was somehow comforting to start up this game and see Ryunosuke's sweet, nervous face, and know that he was having a really rough go of information technology too. The lad'due south a walking disaster area, and I love him for it.

I knew from the starting time that I was going to really enjoy The Cracking Ace Chaser Chronicles — after all, it's got Sherlock Holmes in it (lamentable, Herlock Sholmes), and that's all I need from life. But I wasn't expecting this to become quite possibly my favourite Ace Chaser game yet. Prequels are funny things, and it can sometimes exist hard to care about the protagonists when the catastrophe is ready in stone.

Every bit you take no doubt already gathered from my adoring preamble, this is absolutely not the case here. The Bully Ace Chaser Chronicles takes the art of prequel-ing to an extreme by pulling the action 120-ish years into the past - hence the presence of Sherlock Holmes. This is skilful for a couple of reasons: there'south no barrier to entry for players who are brand new to Capcom's courtroom lawyer 'em upward; while returning fans can enjoy adventures that are tangentially continued to the main serial, without there beingness a lot of established lore that needs cramming in.

Ryunosuke pointing his finger at a witness in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

This setting justifies its connection to the other Ace Attorney games by making Ryunosuke an ancestor of undefined remove from primary series protagonist Phoenix Wright (who'southward known equally Ryuichi Naruhodo in the original Japanese). I will confess that I didn't come into The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles with many expectations of Ryunosuke one style or the other. This was considering - incoming heresy alert - I don't generally notice Phoenix to be the nearly interesting function of the Ace Chaser games, and Ryunosuke was initially portrayed more or less every bit Phoenix'southward identical relative, albeit with moderately amend pilus.

But, to my surprise, I found Ryunosuke a really easy grapheme to get invested in. Information technology started with how worried he looked during his first court appearance: a charmingly animated mess of trembling hands and nervously darting eyes. Granted, he was the defendant rather than the lawyer — a circumstance that was evidently as surprising to him as the protagonist as information technology was to me as the player. Ace Attorney leads inevitably end upwards on trial for a crime they didn't commit sooner or later on, simply they usually go at least a couple of chapters' worth of warm-upwards first.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Ryunosuke Naruhodo and Herlock Sholmes stand next to one another in a court room.

But no, poor Ryunosuke gets thrown in at the deep end, and spends the rest of his 60-hour hero's journey (spread beyond two games, I might add) more or less running to stand still, as perhaps the only character in Ace Attorney history to exist properly attuned to how niggling sense his world makes. The setting may exist 1897 but that's the about 2021 mood I've seen captured in video game form, which alone qualifies information technology for GOTY status if y'all ask me.

Don't exist fooled, though: unexpectedly relevant themes of existential bewilderment aside, this game is quite ludicrously cheerful. It's got that Agatha Christie vibe of "yes, there'south been a murder, but we're here to take fun later on all". The writing'south hilarious, the whole production is gorgeous, and there are at least 200% more than adorable kittens than the plot really calls for. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles sets out to make y'all grinning, and no matter what else I had on my heed, I can't think of a single time it didn't succeed.

Katharine: Information technology still feels incredible to me that out of all the games Capcom'southward made over the years and the series that have come and gone never to be seen again (RIP Ghost Trick), information technology'southward their legal drama virtually a defence lawyer that's even so going potent after xx years. 20 years! That's a long time in video games land, but as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles amply proves, there's withal plenty of life left in the wider finger-pointing Wright dynasty, and I fully endorse Rebecca'southward assertion above that this is easily the 1 of the best Ace Attorney games withal.

Shamspeare cries Get Thee to a nunnery in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles — Shamspeare is intensely daft, but allow me tell you, he is excellent value for coin.

Despite being set over 100 years in the past, this is the near modern-feeling Ace Chaser I've ever played. Its animations are gorgeous, the mysteries are absolute bangers, and Capcom's localisation team accept absolutely 0utdone themselves on translating series creator Shu Takumi'southward script as well. The pun work (both written and visual) is exceptional, and I'm not going to lie, that wordplay is 95% of why I play Ace Attorney games in the first place.

It's also incredible to me that Capcom are withal bundling this and the Ace Attorney Trilogy (which is a PC port of the HD versions of the first 3 AA games) together for just £40. That's incredible value for money for five of the best visual novels you'll always play on PC, and just some other £eight on superlative of what you'd pay for Chronicles anyhow. It would be a criminal offence not to get both if you're new to the series, and trust me, you don't want to exist on the wrong cease of this judge's hammer, no sir.

I rest my case.