'tis is done! All of the Ace Attorney games have been finished. It took me a better part of the year to go through the list, replicated here for posterity:

  • 逆転裁判１２３ 成歩堂セレクション
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
  • 逆転裁判4 - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
  • 逆転検事 - Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
  • 逆転検事2 - Ace Attorney Investigations 2
  • レイトン教授VS逆転裁判 - Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
  • 逆転裁判5 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
  • 逆転裁判6 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice
  • 大逆転裁判 -成歩堂龍ノ介の冒險 - The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures
  • 大逆転裁判2 -成歩堂龍ノ介の覺悟 - The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

That's a whole lot of visual novels. Almost all of them have a 3DS version available or at least can be run on 3DS, which over the course of its lifetime has turned into a real homebrew powerhouse and the best retro handheld, hands-down.

But what about the final chapter of the series, The Great Ace Attorney, (mostly) the title of this post?
Well, it is simply wonderful.

Looking back at the first entries made for GBA it is hard to believe just how far the series has come. On the other hand, it is still, in its heart, a story. If you like the tone of it, anything else is but a pleasant bonus††Not sure I'd read a plain text book version, though. Games are cooler books with interactive illustrations..

But even the story has matured a lot, got bigger both in depth and breadth, and acquired a real weight. The Great Ace Attorney had to be split into 2 parts to carry it, and those are not small games by any means. I could have literally sailed to Japan on an antique steam ship in the time it took for me to experience both.

The amount of love poured into every detail, every corner of the elaborately constructed virtual space the story inhabits and that you can stick a stylus into is nothing short of saintly. The real world would have come apart at the seams if examined with the same level of scrutiny, but not this world.

In a way, I did go on a trip, and I'm sitting here now, home at last, exhausted, satisfied, slightly wistful. Honestly, this was a great thing to experience in the middle of the pandemic.

Other things of note:

  • motion capture tech is a great feat for visual novels, who'd have known
  • Natsume Souseki! His "the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" is going to haunt me
  • lots and lots of fascinating bits of trivia on life both in England and Japan at the beginning of the 20th century
  • the prosecutor is amazing, at least on par with Miles Edgeworth

All in all, The Great Ace Attorney is the best game in the series so far. Would I be disappointed if no other games appear? Definitely. Would I be satisfied with the series going out on such a strong note? Absolutely.

I have to admit that Ace Attorney Investigations, Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice††The character art & animation were taken to a jaw-dropping new level in Ace Attorney 5 & 6; they are worth playing for that alone. , on the other hand, read very differently and for me personally were less enjoyable. They are still good games, just don't expect familiar characters to sound, well, familiar.

Playing the whole series and retro-gaming in general has worked out well for me, so I will be doing more of that. Currently I am using a refurbished DSi XL††Despite 3DS being a powerhouse and all, upscaled DS games look better on DSi XL. Or maybe I got too much into collecting retro handhelds, hm. to play through ポケモン不思議のダンジョン - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - a pretty cool mix of roguelike and Pokemon formulas.