Sometimes the prequel feels superfluous-but in the best case, they feel it is a main line. The great chronicle of reversal referees is the latter.
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As a fan of the core reversal referee series, I always dislike “The Great Reversal Referee”. A pair of spinoffs that were previously only launched in Japan, I found myself not essentially interested in the concept of a game that was disconnected from the main actors and the narrative that I fell in love with on DS. Because of this, I didn’t even shout out when these versions were never localized. Now that they are already, and I have played with them, I can raise my hands to emphasize a fault: I was completely wrong.
Chronicles of the Great Reversal Referee It’s interesting because it’s different from the rest of the series, because it’s similar—and in many ways, it’s these differences that make it truly exciting.
In essence, these are still brave adventure games, one foot is imitating, the other is rough but heart-telling stories-and these are games about the time they are in.
The idea is that Ryunosuke Naruhodo seems to be the ancestor of today’s lawyer Phoenix Wright-which tells his story-also in the legal industry-in the era when Japan first began to open up to the world. As part of this upheaval, Naruhodo found himself in Victorian England, where Sherlock Holmes who was legally completely different and Herlock Holmes who was similar to Sherlock Holmes (yes, really) helped him complete his adventure.
Basically, the tone and attitude here have changed, which makes a lot of sense for the setting and time period. The core reversal referee game is based on a copy of the real world. This historical background of the game provides authors with an opportunity to give them an opportunity to make an order on the relationship between Japan and the emerging empire, as well as the country’s then and current world roles. Surprising introspection. There is also an opportunity to examine and criticize British culture in a fun and slightly silly way, which can only be obtained when it is the British passing through Japan-which is usually cute.
Also interesting is the appearance of familiar characters. Some are spellings of real historical characters, while others are versions of literary characters of that era, including several characters from other Sherlock Holmes stories. Some of them are better than others, but it is still fascinating to see the charm (including localization) of patent reversal referees applied to characters we know from other places.
At the same time, developers can also use this setting for their own benefit. The legal system established in modern games has been replaced by a British system. Although the trial process has not changed much, it is a refreshing adjustment that helps these games stand out.
Likewise, Herlock Sholmes uses all his well-known deductive abilities in a new system that is similar to some supernatural elements used to solve crimes in other games. It works, and once again has its own energy and attitude, which fits this package.
In particular, the fact that Shormes is not actually a good consulting detective feels like a blow to genius: the way to solve the mystery is to listen to his usually very incorrect assumptions, and then gradually correct him. Similarly, the energy is slightly different from past games, which is noble for returning players, but also stronger than predecessors who may attract newcomers: you will often feel busier and more engaged in the mid-term, even if The plot is usually not as powerful as the original trilogy.
As a derivative product, the series can to some extent be freed from some of the localization weaknesses established in the earliest works of the series. As we all know, in the West, these games cannot be completely determined whether they are played in the United States or Japan. The first game was localized as if it were in the United States, and later games had elements that made this illusion unsustainable. Here, the game is shamelessly Japanese, characters from Japan have proper names and so on. In this sense, a clean rest is also useful.
However, my favorite game character so far is Mingbaotang himself. His character is well-formed, the best of its kind in the already outstanding localization-and it’s hard not to support him and fall in love with him as you did for Wright. It’s easy to play the role of this “ancestor” cheaply and make him Wright in period costume-but he is not. He is his own character and a character I really like to spend time with.
Indeed, so far, I have always enjoyed my time at The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. At the time of writing, I haven’t finished it yet — I have about one and a half games in two games — but it has quietly entered my list of favorite games of 2021. Going back to this game is more like getting a lovely, warm hug. It is completely different from the regular reversal referee game. It feels like a new thing, but it is close enough that it ignites a similar ambiguity in me-I like it a lot.
