Definitely one of those games that has you exhaling back at the title screen post-credits saying to yourself "Hoooly ♥♥♥♥."

There's a LOT to appreciate here, from superb character designs, inventive worldbuilding, well-thought mysteries, intense drama, and some real heartstring-tugging moments between the game's cast. The game features five cases, and while a number of people agree the third is a little bit weaker (it reuses a certain concept, and admittedly has to pull double-duty of offering quite a lot of tangential character building) they're all really satisfying. Just like in a certain other series, the fifth and final case is a lengthy world-bender that pulls out all the stops to push "beyond the impossible" moments again and again (even the fourth case maintains an impressive number of well-foreshadowed twists). I clocked 16 hours to finish the game once, and I would say none of that felt like excess padding - at certain points I almost wished for them to "waste" more time touching on certain subjects, but it was likely smart for them not to.

Gameplay revolving around evidence presentation is influenced by several large effects. For one, you get a LOT of evidence during each case. More on this later, but many of them will end up being simple points of record or complete red herrings that never get presented. I don't categorize this as a flaw necessarily, since it means you're putting more consideration on direct relevance, and it feels more satisfying to pick the correct item. The second system that's put to frequent use is a sliding system of rearranging words to form a thought in Tyrion's mind. Thankfully, there's never a penalty for getting these wrong, though some tripped me up at times for simple phrasing issues.

The soundtrack, as often in character-driven games, absolutely nails the pivotal moments of the game, setting up penetrative leitmotifs that are used perfectly for the drama, and occasional heartfelt appeal, of each moment. Pressing the advantage of a contradiction that corners someone is always satisfying. The writing balances investigative humor and fun character quirks that get you closely invested in them when things really hit the fan; and I'd even say it avoids some of the "excess" humor that a certain other Attorney series fell into; instead maintaining a relatively fast pace around its core serious/dramatic moments.

To acknowledge some weakness of the game: Discussion posts in the forum show there's a fair number of potential bugs - I am thankful I did not hit any, but something to be wary of. The UI bears some very slight traces of "jank" - it's generally low on smooth transitions or detailed character animations (with the strong exceptions of Tyrion's special abilities, and the neat character introduction frame). The game in general has a relatively limited budget for artwork, which means that for much of the cases, you're working off of witness testimonies instead of physical evidence/pictures from which one would 'see' a contradiction. That said, they likely chose well to focus what artwork they did have on some of the very brief, most pressing moments of character development/payoff in the story. With mentions of a sequel, there are hopes that the game's success could justify a higher budget on the next go.

As we talk about character payoff, and as you may already see from some of the implicative Steam artwork, there is definitely a very forward theme of romance in the story - it is not a sidelined subject at all, and I thought I'd call it out knowing there's a sector of players missing that subject in gaming fiction.

Yes, this is very obviously a game inspired by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. But I think it's done quite a lot to stand on its own feet.