I’ve now finished The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, the second half of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and it seems safe to say my GOTY is now set in stone.
When I finished The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures back in August, I suggested Chronicles should be instead viewed as one big Ace Attorney game.
I still feel that way, but what I didn’t expect was how much better Resolve would be.
Not only does it follow up on the numerous loose ends left by the first game, but it had me constantly re-evaluating hints and coming up with new theories.
The pacing and stakes are excellent; if Adventures felt like it had three tutorials, Resolve balances that by making every case important and memorable.
And while it’s a small thing, I greatly missed having multiple investigation days in the first game, so I was thrilled to see multi-day investigations return. I still would have liked more, but that’s only because I wanted this already-long game to last even longer.
I liked the cast when I played the first game, but the second left me wanting to stay in this era with these characters to the point where I dragged out my playthrough solely because I didn’t want to finish.
It has so many incredible moments, and more plot twists than I ever expected. It hit me with so many revelations that shook up what I expected, even once I thought I had everything figured out.
It’s not perfect, of course, but most of my quibbles are minor things. Is it just me, or do these games always have exactly 5 points in each testimony/cross-examination, when the number used to vary more? And one critical moment stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit… but look, I’ll take it in exchange for everything else this game gave me.
There is so much to love, from the characters to the music to the plot twists and the way it brings everything together. I am seriously considering the possibility that it might have dethroned Trials & Tribulations as my favorite Ace Attorney game.
I want another Great Ace Attorney game, be it a Great Ace Attorney 3, a Great Ace Attorney Investigations, or some other spin-off.
In a year filled with incredible games, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will most likely end up being my favorite game of the year. While the first game set up a good story, The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve went above and beyond and ended up being one of the best – if not the best – games in the series.