#review2002

I had a total blast with League of Legends’ Netflix series, and all I knew about that game was it being a MOBA that exists.

You probably have read a lot of glowing reviews about the prequel League of Legends series. Six years in production, this series is visually a 10/10 spectacle that focuses on few of game’s playable characters (from like 150), particularly on sisters Vi and Powder, the latter being destined to become the crazy anarchist Jinx. Their conflict is set in Piltover, which is divided on upper and lower city. The second main plotline focuses on Jayce, a young inventor from the upper city, that wants to improve lives of people by discovering how to harness the power of magic through science.

Let’s say already this is hands down the best video game adaptation ever, maybe excluding some visual novel adaptations that I didn’t watch. But when it comes to adaptations of mainstream video games, Arcane is the undisputed king. Sure, it is a prequel, but LoL is the same type of game like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or Overwatch – basic premise first, character designs next, any serious thoughts about lore and story only after a commercial success. Who cares today that Raiden was going to destroy the Earth, upon his possible victory over Shang Tsung? Neither you should care about things that Arcane changes in LoL lore, actually good writers are in charge now. My past most favorite video game adaptation was the adaptation of Super Robot Taisen OG2, but even that was a title that was by fans for fans, not for general audience. Thanks to its stellar world-building, Arcane is new audience friendly and to enjoy it you don’t need to know anything about League of Legends (MOBAs are not my type of game, so initially I didn’t even know about Jinx).

But Arcane isn’t just a groundbreaking video game adaptation. It’s a groundbreaking western animation that has a chance to change the landscape of the industry, and introduce to the mainstream Seinen-like type of animation. It’s a full-fledged steampunk fantasy title that touches such motives as corruption and price of technological progress, and how it impacts society and human relationships. It’s the kind of series that they tried to make with Legend of Korra, but without hack writers. When mainstream producers on the west think you can’t sell to its audience serious and mature story, without making a live action version of it, which results in butchering anime and Disney, Arcane proves them wrong by demonstrating how animation is enhancing such stories.

Arcane hits a perfect mix of being idealistic, like Disney and Avatar the Last Aribender, and gritty, like good seasons of Game of Thrones. One of major characters is a three foot tall talking animal forefather figure, this is flat-out Kingdom Hearts stuff. The series is also filled with moments of idealism and actions sequences that you can find in any enjoyable, albeit cliché, series. Only this series isn’t cliché. It can for a moment play things straight, and do everything exactly what AtLA would have done in a given situation… but moment later everything suddenly goes shit, because the most brutally realistic thing happens – something that would have happened in a good season of GoT. Finale of the episode three is the perfect example of that. It is a classic scenario where the brave inexperienced youth has to prove its worth, by saving their older mentor from his personal arch-nemesis. And it plays out that way, beat by beat, until suddenly everything turns into something else.

This is why Arcane works so well. When the series is happy, it’s colorful. When the series is bright, it’s filled with wonder. When the series is being idealistic, it’s with utmost sincerity. And when you watch action sequences, they are awesome. Because it’s an animation, where things can be exaggerated in such a way, and it doesn’t look out of place. Because it’s an animation, you let yourself to be tricked, you lose yourself in the moment, you forget you are watching a series that has opened itself with little children seeing war crimes. And then the series reminds you what you’re watching. It reminds you that you are watching a tragedy where genuine good intentions can turn completely horribly. This series plays this trick over and over again, and it always works out. When Disney movies have dark moments, like death of Mufasa, they serve to set up the triumphal victory of its heroes. In Arcane, light set ups the impending darkness of its foregone conclusion. When Disney is an animated classic comedy, Arcane is an animated classic tragedy. That’s how it gets you. It’s not an innovative story, many of its themes and character ideas were already done elsewhere. But it’s an incredibly well told story, that takes full advantage of its medium and, nowadays, really does aim higher than others.

On technical level, I’ve already said the series is 10/10 visually. Characters are constantly moving, including their expressions. Cinematography is great, directing is on point and action scenes are kickass, oftentimes stylish. And everything looks good. If the series wasn’t so good written, you still would be able to watch it for the stellar spectacle alone. Music also is good, but can be sometimes weaker.

So, how do I rate it? When I give game or a story 9/10, I say it is great. It means that it has accomplishes something great (my past 9/10 accomplished a great finale to a just enjoyable silly series), and it’s generally flawless. But when do I give 10/10? When do I call something a masterpiece? When it not only fulfills all requirement for a 9/10 title, but is also groundbreaking. When they can change the medium. And I do believe that Arcane can change western animation. Its success can show executors that you don’t have to butcher stories that work better in animation, by turning them into less suited live action. And it also shows how mature stories can be told in animation. This is why I believe Arcane earns 10/10.

However. I’d give this series 9/10, if it was anime, not western animation. And it isn’t only because anime do have more examples of good Seinens. Arcane does have flaws, although most amount to nitpicks. Even the biggest flaw I see just makes me shake my head with slight disappointment. But it’s a flaw that is related to the main tragedy, and it takes time and opportunity away from touching its true core. It’s also an example of shoehorned representation taking away from otherwise great writing, while also being an example of a plain bad writing excused by its representation. More in the spoiler section.

Ralph Breaks The Internet is a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph that focuses on Ralph’s and Vanellope von Schweetz’s merry misadventures across the Internet. The movie, despite upholding visual quality and humor of the original, received rather mixed reception. A lot of fans of the original say that the movie betrays Ralph’s character development, the beginning is an idiot plot, Vanellope goes Turbo, she is treated by the movie with unfair forgiveness that Ralph doesn’t receive, and the moral of the story is contrary to the previous one.

Personally, while I enjoyed the movie, especially loving its commentary on the Internet and Disney itself, I recognize that the writers have opened themselves to all this criticism. I think that if the movie was more critical about Vanellope, while emphasizing on what made her different from Turbo and first-movie Ralph, rest of the issues would be more easily forgiven.

So, let’s do the review of Ralph Breaks The Internet, that doesn’t criticize the movie, but reviews how it could be improved.

Mutually Toxic Friendship

The movie’s main lesson is that you should trust your friends. This is what Ralph learns, realizing that his friendship with Vanellope was possessive and lacking trust of her being capable of simultaneously pursuing own happiness while remaining a true friend of Ralph. I wouldn’t say that Ralph having such issue is out-of-character. Until the first movie, Ralph had no real friend and was generally unliked. While his standing has improved, with Van becoming his BFF, that never translated into Ralph improving own social skills. Becoming a friend like Vanellope was the happiest thing that ever happened in his life, but was also a thing he never had been prepared to handle. Ralph, being a rather simple-minded bloke, never put much thought into such issues as “Vanellope may become unhappy with her own game” or “Vanellope may find happiness far away from Ralph’s home”. The opening scene does demonstrate Ralph simple-mindedness, where he doesn’t think much about Van’s questions about the nature of their existence.

It isn’t a problem that Ralph doesn’t think much about life. He, after years of unhappiness and lack of satisfaction, can finally be happy. Not to mention, the very lesson of his movie was to not demand too much from life. With Vanellope as his friend, he has everything that makes his life fulfilled, and he isn’t greedy for more. And Vanellope is a beloved star of her game, so, in Ralph’s view, she shouldn’t even consider wanting anything more. But while Ralph isn’t obsessed anymore with having more than he has, he is possessive about what he already has. Which is why he turns out to be insecure about his friendship with Van, and those insecurities are what he needs to overcome.

The problem that movie doesn’t notice is that Vanellope herself is in need of learning to trust Ralph. While Van is friendly and nice towards Ralph, she sees him as incapable of accepting any change to an already satisfying him status quo. And yes, Ralph does have clear difficulties with that. But Ralph having difficulties with accepting change is a far cry from Ralph being incapable of accepting any change. Ralph being simple-minded is a far cry from Ralph being incapable of considering needs of others. Ralph wanting to be with Vanellope is a far cry from Ralph not ever letting her go. But Vanellope constantly underestimates Ralph, avoiding discussing issues on the first sign of Ralph’s displeasure. It’s a toxic positivisms. No healthy relationship functions without any conflict, which is why Van avoiding any conflict with Ralph only fuels his worries and insecurities. Which is what happens when Van ditches Ralph and goes to GTA game, without telling him anything.  

When Ralph has issues with trusting Vanellope changing things, Vanellope has issues with trusting Ralph to accept any change. Their relationship is filled with mutual distrust, and this is the distrust they both have to overcome.

Thing is, while Ralph does learn his lesson, Vanellope is treated like she never had to learn any. Even though Van does learn to trust Ralph enough to trust Ralph-virus that he will never hurt her and will stop harming others if she just stays with him. That scene, with the following Ralph’s declaration of trust, could be a beautiful resolution of a mutual problem. But the problem isn’t shown to be mutual.

What the movie lacks is explicit criticism of Vanellope’s treatment of Ralph. One way for this, in the first act, was to have Van share a scene with Tamora. Tamora is now married with Felix. She could mention that occasionally they do have fights, but they always ends well anyway. That could provoke Vanellope to express her worry that a fight with Ralph could end up not so well, which would be criticized by Tamora as an unfair view towards Ralph. Shank’s gang could also be used to demonstrate this, with them constantly bickering among themselves, but remaining trusting friends anyway. And finally, Yesss could criticize Van for selfishly ditching Ralph for Shank after he had worked so hard for her sake. That would lead Van to realization that Ralph wouldn’t hurt her, not would Ralph-based virus, leading her to the idea of stopping the virus through self-sacrifice. And, of course, after the crisis with virus is resolved, there could be a mutual apology.

The justification of Vanellope’s not-that-Turbo desire

Van’s desire to become a character in GTA game is seen by some fans as her going Turbo, which is contrary to what Ralph had to learn in his movie. It’s true that her desire is similar enough to Turbo’s, and can be also called a selfish abandonment of responsibilities towards her own game. The writers should have recognized this issue, and explicitly explain why it does not apply.

There is a difference between what Turbo, or first-movie Ralph, wanted, and what Van wants in the sequel. Turbo couldn’t stand his game (and himself) losing popularity, so he hijacked another game to become its central character. His motivation was greed and envy. Ralph, while better excused, also envied Felix and was greedy about obtaining a better status for himself.

But Vanellope didn’t want popularity or status, it was the opposite. She already was the star of her own game. She already was the only picked character there. She was unmatchable there. And she was the ruler there. And that’s why she preferred GTA world, where she would be an enemy NPC working for somebody that was at least as good as her. She wanted to lower her status.

Of course, it’s undeniable that this was going against her responsibilities. The movie could fix that, by seriously demonstrating that Vanellope’s very existence was making things unfair for other characters in her game. Because Van was OP. She wasn’t just designed to be the best character there, she also was glitched into becoming completely busted. If her game was capable of hosting tournaments, she would be permanently banned from them. And this was bad for the game.

The movie could demonstrate this by showing low morale of other racers in that game. Nobody but Vanellope was winning. Nobody but Vanellope was being picked. She outclassed everyone, even beyond the intended programming. How about showing the players mocking aloud every other character, calling them unworthy to pick? And to put more pressure on Van, all characters forced themselves to accept this, because they all loved her unconditionally. Or maybe everyone was just programmed to love her unconditionally? This is what Vanellope could have referred to, when she was questioning her existence.

Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a sequel to Danganronpa that focuses on a new cast that, this time around, is trapped on a tropical island. The game is an improvement when it comes to writing, mechanics (mostly), characters, and executing own premise. It’s pretty much a perfect sequel that is a genuinely good game.

Like in the first game, we have a set of cases where one of participants of the killing game commits murder and tries to frame somebody else for their crime. This time around, our main character is Hajime Hinata, who doesn’t remember his own Ultimate Talent. Hajime is much better main character than Makoto, not just because of an intriguing mystery about him, but also because of being a better character with a better story. Sure, since Makoto was a painfully generic goodie-goodie, it isn’t saying much. And, Hajime isn’t really an outstanding character. But he is relatable, sympathetic, and funny, as the only sane man in the cast. He does a good job as a protagonist, while going through his own journey. He actually experiences far more hardship and Despair™ than Makoto did in his game. Which is why, at the end, you really want the guy to overcome it.

The gameplay also has improved, mostly. I like new blue statements in the Nonstop Debate. I like new trial minigames, though Rebuttal Showdown is more a neat idea than a good execution (you can’t really focus on what the characters are saying). I like that now, from the start, there is some logic element in the rhythm minigame. The so-called Improved Hangman’s Gambit is an overcomplex crap, though.

Outside of trials, the game also has improved acquiring new skills. Now you gather skill points from Free Time events, and you can spend them on buying available skills from a list. You can also unlock characters’ skills, by maxing out their Free Time events. It’s a much better system that gives you more control over gaining new skills. And you also have more control when it comes to getting presents, as you can buy few from a vendor machine, or spend coins on rolling random ones. Acquiring coins is also improved. Now you don’t need to examine same locations all over again, you just hunt hidden Monokumas. You can also get coins from taking care of Tamagotchi.

Music is pretty much the same, with just few new tracks. Island is much more interesting environment than the school. Direction is also more interesting during the trials. And also, we have better characters, but I will elaborate on that later on. There is still meme writing with hope and despair, but it is twisted into something far more interesting.

There are flaws, tho. I say that finale, while it had great last third, was exposition-heavy and also was relying on pretty heavy retcons. The world lore is expanded on, but is pretty unimpressive. But I still say - it’s a good game. A ridiculously animu edgy shonen that relies on selling underage waifus and a shock value, which can be not to your tastes, but a good one. The previous game was just fun, which means that you could enjoy it despite its flaws. The sequel fixes quite a lot of flaws, and also improves its strengths. And one of such strengths is its set up that allows to experience brutal treatment of likable kids. Yeah, the kids actually earn that they can be called likable, this time around.

It is an 8/10 game, even though I maybe should have given it a half point lower. I enjoyed it a lot more than the original, and also was more moved by it. I think that sequels that strive to improve the series deserve recognition.

But now, to expand on my review, I’m going to tell more why Danganronpa 2 gives us better cast than the first game, and why it is such a good sequel. In the spoiler section, I’ll be focusing on the new, much better, villain, and expand my thoughts on the game’s finale. So, let’s start with the characters…

Prepare them likable before the slaughter

In this game Danganronpa finds its strength as a series, which lies in its set up that allows building up likable characters, before brutally killing them off. While the new cast is still is mostly a bunch of two dimensional ridiculous stereotypes, they are more likable and useful to the player. Because they actually try to be.

The first cast wasn’t really good at giving us reasons to like or respect them, with two or three exceptions. Especially if you didn’t happen to make free time events with them. Most treated Makoto like a pushover (albeit deservingly), or plainly neutral at best. The motives, while understandable, were just realistically understandable, not sympathetic. Most of those that didn’t end up being killers still mostly focused on self-survival than improving anybody’s else situation. It wasn’t a group of people you’d be happy to live with, let alone be locked with. It wasn’t even much of a group. Even in the final case, after everything that survivors went through, Monokuma still could make them turn against one another with a rather unimpressive trick. While it’s realistic that kids in such situation would be self-centered, even if they didn’t end up becoming killers, such characters’ deaths rather can’t make you feel devastated. Not you can feel glad over their survival. Even if you happened to like their personalities, which is subjective anyway.

Hajime has better relationships with his cast. Only Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko (after her personality has shifted from killer of little animals into a foulmouthed shortie) ever treated him like crap, but they were like that towards everyone. And one of them had proper character development. Everyone else was neutral towards Hajime at worst, not best. One character has noticed Hajime’s reliability, and asked him for help with keeping security of others. Other character wanted to watch girls on the beach with him. I also don’t remember the first cast to mourn the deceased ones as much as the second cast does. Neither I remember them trying much to be supportive to those that were feeling down. The motives that are meant to be understandable are also more sympathetic, so even the killers are more likable.

And the usefulness? Let’s do a spoiler-free comparison of both first cases. In the first game, everyone, but one person, falls for the set up that framed Makoto. During the investigation, aside from the most reliable person in the cast, nobody really was much of any help, excluding one person witnessing something helpful. During the trial, Makoto had just one ally to count on, until he managed to clear himself from wrongful suspicion. But even afterwards, the trial was still carried by just two people. It doesn’t help the mystery wasn’t really complex.

The second game? The situation isn’t better just because nobody is wrongfully accusing Hajime. Excluding the two smartest characters in the cast, three Ultimates use their talents during the investigation, and each provides us with useful information. There are also two others that were screwing around, but still accidentally allowed us to learn something of use. During the trial, everyone tried to be involved, and just one character was briefly idiotic about it. Other than that, mistakes happened, but they were understandable due to the crime’s complexity.

The difference in the first impression is pretty self-evident, and that was just the start. Needless to say, 2nd game’s emotional peak is higher than the 1st game’s. Actually, more disturbing and sad things are happening in the 2nd game. And that’s where Danganronpa can shine. While this game can turn people off for being a ridiculous animu nonsense, when you get past that, you do get likable and pretty useful characters that experience terrible things. This is what this series has to offer, with the writers realizing that in their second game. Because, let’s face it, most of the first game’s cast were either caricatures, or had no proper chance to shine. 

But this game isn’t just what the first game should have been. It is also what its sequel should be.

How to sequel

There are three kinds of sequel: betrayals, cash-ins, and genuinely good ones. Danganronpa 2 is the last one. An example of a cash-in sequel is second Ace Attorney game, Ace Attorney: Justice For All, which is my least favorite game in the series.

JFA is pretty much everything you’d expect from an Ace Attorney sequel, and that’s simply not good enough. While it’s always nice to be able to follow the story further, long-runners are popular for a reason, good sequels are more than that. They are supposed to do more than just deliver another set of cases that are rather similar to the previous game. They are supposed to give us a better rival than just watered down amalgam of previous ones, but with boobs and a whip. Expansions are more of the same, sequels are meant to have a game-changing aspect to them. And it’s not supposed to be only used as the final case’s main gimmick. An example of good sequel is Virtue Last Reward, because it uses the concept introduced as a final twist of 999, as the core element of the game. Even Zero Time Dilemma, the disappointing finale of the trilogy, does add an interesting twist to said concept.

Danganronpa 2 is a good sequel because it improves a lot from the previous entry. The main character actually has an interesting story that isn’t just “an optimistic guy tries to remain optimistic, so he does”. A new setting allows for more different murder mystery set-ups. Ultimate Talents are frequently used during crimes and investigations. And, like I’ve said earlier, many game mechanics are improved. And there is also a game-changer.

Years before Among Us becoming popular, I was playing with my friends Battlestar Galactica board game, which is also about managing a space ship with a traitor, known as Cylon, among us (hah). In a way, Danganronpa series is similar to those games, with a killer being a hidden withing the group traitor, that will doom everyone, if remains undetected. Anyway, an expansion to Battlestar added new characters, new environment, and also a game-changer – Cylon Leader, a character that is a known Cylon, but at the same time may be not, due to own mysterious agenda. While regular Cylon players wins when Battlestar Galactica is destroyed, and human players win when they reach their destination, Cylon Leader player was a wild card. At the start of the game, Cylon Leader randomly draws its own secret victory condition. And it not only could go either way, but also had special requirements. A Cylon Leader could want Cylons to win, but only after specific game phase. A Cylon Leader could want humans to win, but only after specific losses of resources. Other players didn’t know Cylon Leader’s exact agenda, only that he could shift sides depending on situation.

That being said, Cylon Leader was a controversial addition to the game, and not every fan liked it. But regardless, it was a game-changer. Which is what Danganronpa 2 offer, by quickly introducing its own Cylon Leader. But that’s for the spoiler section.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is an adventure mystery game with some stealth elements. In this game you play as a Ronan O’Connor, a police detective that was murdered by a mysterious serial killer. Ronan, as a ghost, has to solve the mystery of his own death. Unfortunately, his game isn’t as good as sharing similar premise Ghost Trick.

Soul Suspect was created by Airtight Games, which has closed down month later after the release. And the game shows that it was released quickly before the shutdown, as a near minimum viable product. The GUI is lazy. The deduction mechanic is lazy and has no fail state. Optional side quests, excluding lazy gathering collectables, exist only in the hub and first area. There is just one type of enemy, and you gain just two additional tools against it. Outside of investigations, possessing anyone to read their mind is a time-waster. The escort-stealth section, where you assist a living NPC in bypassing guards, is completely scripted (just cause event that distracts the guards and the NPC will bypass them) and has no fail state as well. At least walking through walls is cool.

The story is a solid pulp mystery. The twist with the killer’s identity is decent, though the final confrontation is lackluster. Also, the villain’s motivations are hypocritical and hard to understand. I say the cast was okay, but there could be more to them. There is a lot of additional lore to be found from the collectibles, but none of that changes much about the story, and serves just to delay us.

You wish there was more out of the premise of being one of many ghosts that wander in our world, due to having unfinished business. Ghost Trick had limited amount of ghost and here we have potential for various interactions with already dead people. Ronan’s backstory, as an ex con turned police detective, was a massive wasted potential for such a game. Imagine Ronan encountering ghosts that knew his past, holding old grudges against him.  

There really isn’t much to write about it. In my book, 7/10 games are fun, 8/10 have something truly good in it, 5/10 is plain average and below are various states of awfulness. This game isn’t awful, but does it earn 6/10? I’d give it to a game that you can play as an above-average time waster, when you somehow have no better options.

I say this game has its moments. Going through the beginning, through the first world and the hub area with its initial side-quests, looks promising. But after that we only have main story, which isn’t bad, but it simply doesn’t match to Ghost Trick. GT is filled with memorable characters, great twists and has a more complex villain. Soul Suspect has a more open world, but after the first act it becomes an open world with not much interesting to do Again, the game wastes its potential, giving us just bare minimum of what it could be.

I say it is rather 5/10. It’s not a bad game, but it isn’t good either. The best aspects of the game, which is the main character, the big twist, and few emotional moments, can be experienced by watching a YT let’s play. Between those, the game has pretty much just pointless collectables, quickly boring same enemies, getting old deduction mechanic, and not a lot of occasions for creativity with your ghost powers. While visual novels also can be just watched on YT, at least good visual novels don’t have a repeatable padding in between of their good writing. This game has a story with good moments, but the gameplay delivers less than it could have, has some really lazy solutions, and is filled with stuff that you can just skip.

Danganronpa is a mystery VN, where 15 high schoolers are trapped in a murder school, and in order to get out one has to kill another and frame somebody else for it. Observed and manipulated by the headmaster of the school, a sadistic robot-bear called Monokuma, our main character, Makoto, has to survive and not lose his hope. Because there is a lot of despair. And hope. Despair. Hope. Despair. Light. Darkness. Kingdom Hearts.

But we’ll talk about that later.

Despite all the murder thingy, the game is just an edgy shonen and is very animu. It’s not a bad thing, because it’s entertaining, and that’s what matters the most. Characters are mostly simplistic, often stereotypical, but are distinguish and memorable (aside from meh protag). What is good about the cast is how the group dynamics changes with each case. Thanks to that, the characters seem more alive, and the surrounding drama seems more impactful. And sometimes the drama is really good, though it’s dragged down by the meme writing. But about that later.

The trials, where we try to figure out the killer’s identities, are good gameplay-wise. Aside from the rhythm minigame. I get the creators wanted to demonstrate losing arguments by lack of confidence, but, until half of the game, that minigame had nothing to do with logic or deduction. Every other minigame was good or ok, though.

Comparing to Ace Attorney, the trials were more dynamic, with constant new arguments and questions. It helps that the equivalent of AA’s testimonies is briefer (as it’s on a time limit). Not to mention, the filled with moving camera direction really made non-animated and non-moving characters feel alive. The music was ok – it serves its purpose, but it isn’t memorable.

The gameplay between trials was ok. Investigations didn’t drag too long. The free time did sometimes, but that’s because I was collecting more coins than it was necessary. The coins are spent for presents, which we can give to other characters, in return for learning more about them and gaining upgrades for the trials. But, to be frank, some upgrades were “turn off the setting we put to make the gameplay purposefully shittier”.  

It’s an entertaining game with some good ideas, which earns 7/10 in my book. But there are reasons why this game doesn’t earn any higher, which I’m going to elaborate on. The subject is Kingdom Hearts Meme Writing, Monokuma being a letdown villain, the big revelation being a lot of nothing, and how the writers could’ve made the Hope vs Despair nonsense actually work. The last two are impossible to write about without spoilers, but I can explain the first two without them.

Despair. Despair. Despair. Despair. Do you get it? I hope.

I know this is a shonen, regardless how edgy it is, and the writers were pretty self-aware of this. But the despair/hope meme drags down the writing. Monokuma goes on and on about how he will turn all the hope into despair, and this is just as ridiculous as a talking cartoon bear that kills a man by literally blasting him into space can be. It’s a meme writing. A ham-fisted, forced meme writing.

Other examples of meme writing is Kingdom Hearts, with its light and darkness, or Ace Attorney, with its truth. We all roll our eyes over that. Characters are bringing up some concept in a melodramatic way, repeatably, with a ridiculous zeal that doesn’t just seem alien, but straight out autistic. But it’s okay, all those titles, including Ronpa, are still shonens. Kingdom Hearts is a battle shonen where you fight against forces of evil alongside Donald Duck. You can turn your brain off and enjoy yourself, no biggie. But turning your brain off is a bit harder in, you know, a murder mystery.

Yeah, Ace Attorney is murder mystery as well, and yet I give it a pass. That’s because “truth” is just an ideal of idealistic characters. Phoenix, Edgeworth, and the rest, are melodramatically motivating themselves by simplistically expressing their ideal. And  melodrama is part of a wrestling, and logic wrestling is what Ace Attorney boils down to. So, why this isn’t the same in this logic wrestling game?

The problem with hope/despair is that those are not just some concepts or ideals, but those are emotions. Emotions that the writing does attempt to make you feel, sometimes pretty successfully. Case 4 is an example of a beautifully set up tragedy, it’s the game’s emotional peak. The reveal is shocking and sad, and the dramatic confession is filled with genuine emotion. And then the confession has the word “despair” in it, and my brain is immediately going back to Monokuma and his antics. Good thing that the official translation team has realized that they would have killed the mood sooner, if they had included that word in an earlier appearing evidence. Same thing happens whenever the word “hope” appears – it just makes us recall the memes.

In my AI: Somnium Files I’ve explained to you the need of being explicit about what is supposed to make the player feel emotions. But you can’t be ham-fisted about what the player is supposed to feel. Turning hope and despair into KH’s equivalent of light and darkness is turning them into a material for jokes. It is a repeatable telling us what to feel, and that simply can’t work. If the game didn’t do that, a lot of good moments wouldn’t be dragged down by being a reference to something we joke about.

Monokuma is just the biggest kid tier villain

There are spoiler reasons why Monokuma fails at being a villain, but I’ll mention them in spoiler section about improving the whole hope vs despair conflict. But the basic problem with Monokuma is spoiler-free, because it all boils down to the game’s initial setup.

Generally, Monokuma is a recurring type of villain that mixes nihilism, cartoonish silliness and cruel sadism into one, disturbing package. Other examples of such villains is the Joker, or Killer the Butcher from Zambot 3. When you look at Monokuma alone, he is (aside from spoiler reasons) a good example of such a villain. He is over the top, entertaining, scheming, memorable, gets all the attention in every scene he is in, and is constantly disturbing. All his bases are covered, so all is good, right? But only when you look at Monokuma alone.

Character in a story isn’t just some element you can look at alone, it’s an element you see among all the others. Great villain needs a great hero. Great hero needs a great villain. If one is unimpressive, the other can’t impress us with their triumphs.

The reason why the Joker is a great villain is because he is a challenge for the goddamn Batman, creating a clash of an unstoppable force against an unmovable object. Killer the Butcher’s enemies are kids piloting alien giant robot with superior firepower. What makes the Bucher a good villain is that, regardless of his lost battles, he still succeeds at causing significant collateral damage, which constantly contributes to his stated goal of slowly killing all humans. And Butcher doesn’t just rely on his show reaching logical conclusions about consequences of battles between giant robots, the entire arc before heroes directly attacking his HQ is about him using a weapon they can’t fight with a giant robot – kidnapped people turned into living human bombs. The amount of sacrifices, losses and traumas that kids from a 70s (!) super robot show have to go through is why Killer the Butcher is an impressive villain you love to hate.

But Monokuma isn’t an unstoppable force going against an unmovable object. Neither he is battling heroes that are capable of beating him in a direct confrontation, forcing him to rely on different forms of accomplishing his goals. He targets fifteen uninformed kids, with like three giving him a reason to worry, and puts them in a situation where they can’t initially defy him at all. It’s not a spoiler to say that the kids initially can’t find any clues that would’ve allowed them to free themselves from Monokuma. Their exploration of the school is limited, and next areas are unlocked only after class trials. Meaning, Monokuma limits kids’ ability to gather information required to beat him, until the next killing occurs. If the kids don’t kill anybody, they can only hope to (hah) apathetically accept their imprisonment by Monokuma.

To sum it up, all that Monokuma accomplishes is making some confused kids kill one another, when they are in a situation where it’s their only option to free themselves. Wow, what an impressive villain, doing whatever he wants with helpless children and driving them to murder.

It doesn’t help that the actual conclusion of the conflict with Monokuma is underwhelming, and all his actions only make us respect him less as a villain. But more about that later, in the spoiler section. But not immediately, because first we need to focus on the game’s disappointing big revelation.

Buried Stars is a survival mystery Visual Game, where you play as a Han Do-yoon, known for being a betrayal of own musical band, participant in a popularity show. Do-yoon, together with four other participating musicians, plus one show’s staff member, gets trapped under a collapsed stage. With the help being unable to arrive for at least six hours, no way to contact the outside world, but via toxic social media, and even a threat of murder becoming materialized, Do-yoon will have to struggle to survive and keep his sanity intact.

I say that there is a lot of good in this game. The art with the direction is great. Characters have sprites where we see them from their front, side, plus one where we see their back. This is utilized to position them on the screen in various places and poses, making you feel more like you are reading a comics/manga with good variety of different shots, than a visual novel. This also makes characters seem more alive, despite being less animated than characters in original GBA Ace Attorney games. Music is pretty solid. It does have some good tracks, and they do set up the mood well, though it isn’t an iconic OST.

The story is also good and told well. During your first playthrough, you are locked in the worst ending, where everything goes to hell. It’s a spectacular bad ending, where survivors of the stage collapse lose theirs minds, and keep on killing and/or getting themselves killed. In this way, the game very clearly establishes gravity of the situation – you have a dysfunctional and not properly mentally adjusted group of people in a crisis situation, and only your support can get them out of this alive. The story also touches pretty much every existing pathology in show business, excluding only substance abuse. And I do mean, they do touch really dark aspects of being a start. To spice things up, there is also not!twitter, that can destroy your own sanity. The game really does well at demonstrating how social media works.

And besides all that, we also have a mystery surrounding murder threats that reach the survivors. I say that this aspect is decent. Whodunit, despite presence of more than one good red herring, is the weakest part of the mystery, due to the game outright telegraphing it at certain points. Still, howdunit and whydunit are compelling on their own, with the final confrontation being satisfying and climactic.  

Still, despite all that praise, there is something that does drag the game down. The gameplay. The primary section you’ll spend most time on is Communication. Communication boils down to you picking one of characters standing in front of you, and picking a topic you want to talk with them, in a one-on-one conversation. The topic you pick, and occasional binary choice you make during such conversations, affect your sanity and/or your relationship with the character, positively or negatively. You also gain from such conversations additional information. Some of information has to be gained, before Communication section can be concluded. Some of information unlocks topic conversations. Other information expands approached character’s profile, which, alongside good relationship with them, is required to unlock their rapport events. Each character has five such events, and you need to see them all, if you want to get their best ending.

There are several problems with this. Keeping Do-yoon’s sanity high is akin to walking on a minefield. While binary choices are rather fair, outside of them you still get often punished without any way of seeing it coming. How can I tell that Do-yoon will start the conversation in an insensitive way? I can’t. While new game plus does show how the conversation can affect your relationship, and if you unlock required information out of it, the game won’t show you how your sanity will be affected, nor if you unlock new character profile. In case of certain two characters, this is pretty nasty, because you get one of their profiles from a topic that will negatively affect your relationship with them. I got tired of this, at some point, and just save-scummed my way to the best ending.

Besides being unfair, this is also a pretty bad example of communication based gameplay. Like I’ve said, you are having one-on-one conversations in this, despite many characters being around. So, you can freely talk shit about a character that stands nearby, after having improving your relationship with them. I understand that rapport events are about getting close to characters and making them open themselves to you. When it happens, due to you being forced to know what happens to those characters without you being reliable, it is satisfying. And the system works well during those few occasions, where Communication section involved only one other character. But outside of those occasions, Communication section artificially kills entire group dynamic, which is most ironic in a communication based gameplay.

In other communication based games, like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, or Your Turn to Die, discussions aren’t just one-on-one, they involve a group of people. That is why it is so exciting, due to everyone talking with everyone. But here, everyone talks only with you, and nobody registers anything that happens outside their conversations with you. This causes those sections to be boring, despite their difficulty that I’ve explained above, which makes them tiresome. And this also does drag down the cast. You do have good and interesting characters here, with well written backstories that you learn about, as you gain their trust. But I rarely see them interesting together, because Communication sections cut all communication between them, for crying out loud! Inha and Juyoung are supposed to be good friends, you do hear from them telling you things supporting that, but I don’t recall a single interaction between them that made it evident.

Fortunately, between Communication sections you have deduction gameplay, where you pick one or more clues that answer the question. Simple mechanic, but much more effective, due to presentation that involves all characters that are around you. This is why the final confrontation, and other important deductions, are so good, due to them involving everyone present.

After years of forsaken hope for official translation, and patiently waiting for complete fan-translation, Japanese-only Great Ace Attorney Duology has been translated into English. And it’s a good game, I loved it. It truly does have great moments. But I’m afraid I can’t objectively call it great, although I will perfectly understand it if you call it your most favorite Ace Attorney title.

GAA is a prequel to Ace Attorney games. It’s set in Victorian Era and follows the main series’ protagonist Phoenix Wright’s ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo. Unlike all other protagonists of Ace Attorney (possibly excluding Phoenix himself), Ryunsuke did not study law, and has become a lawyer by a chance. I must say, while he does have a nice development and fulfils all his obligations as a protagonist, he is the most forgettable Ace Attorney protagonist. His gimmick is nervousness, that fades out quickly (unless you make mistakes and get penalized), so he quickly becomes a regular XIX century Japanese guy. By all means, he is not a bad protagonist, but there isn’t just anything ridiculous about him. And that’s rather unheard of for an Ace Attorney protagonist.

That being said, GAA is the only alternative entry game than the first one. While familiarity with usual AA tropes adds to the story (with one exception, but that’s a spoiler), you are going to have a blast with this game regardless. Most of the charm comes from the main cast, which arguably can be called the best one in the series. I still say that Apollo Justice had the biggest potential (sadly unrealized) with its cast, but this is one of the most loveable bunches you can find in gaming. Ryunsuke, despite not standing out much on his own, perfectly fits as a straight man to all those charming crazies around him. Especially Herlock Sholmes, who is a localized Sherlock Holmes.

Both games focus on Ryu and his growth as a lawyer, with his resolve to become a one being the central focus. I say that the weakest part of his development is the transition between two first cases of the duology, where he agrees to travel to Great Britain due to being nothing more than an extreme doormat of his friend, whose ideas he follows despite not really comprehending them. But, aside from that part, Ryu does have a believable and well-motivated growth, filled with various obstacles that stand in his way. I especially like the idea behind the first game’s main villain, who worked out better than the second game’s one. But more about that in the spoiler section.

Mechanically and visually, this is the bast Ace Attorney game to date. We retain cross-examination of multiple witnesses from the crossover with Professor Layton, although it’s much more reduced in its obnoxiousness. Sadly, not everyone did appreciate the beauty of badness of questioning fifteen morons at once, so we are not dealing with that in this game. From new mechanics, during trials we’re occasionally dealing with Jurors, and during investigations we’re occasionally dealing with Harlock Sholmes. The starring him deduction minigame is single handily the best investigation mechanic in the series. And it isn’t just because Harlock owns every single scene he is in. He is perfectly written in such a way that you question whatever or not he is similarly brilliant as in the books, which allows people to see his genius to be true to the books without him stealing the spotlight from our protagonist. This way Takumi smartly evaded falling again into the Professor Layton trap of having around his protagonist somebody far more competent than him.

Another thing I say about visuals is that this game has the best use of 3D in the series. GAA is directed by the series’ creator, Shu Takumi, so he makes 3D Ace Attorney, while others makes Ace Attorney in 3D. The difference is that other 3D AA games focus on redoing what was done in games created originally for GBA. While Takumi doesn’t abandon what is familiar, he enhances the experience in a way that better technology allows. Simplest example – when we are speaking with our arrested clients in DD or SoJ, the model of our client, that is behind a glass, constantly disappears, so a model of our assistant, that is in front of the glass, could appear. Here, the client is standing behind the bars, while our assistant is standing beside us, turning their head to look at us or at our client. Because Takumi doesn’t slavishly repeat things he originally have implemented due to the limitations he had as a small studio Gameboy Advance developer.

Oh, and we have a top tier Ace Attorney soundtrack.

Takumi also adds a breath of fresh air to lately formulaic mysteries in the series. Late games focus on impossible crimes, which is fun on its own, but can gets ridiculous very fast. Here, there is a lot of cases with unique gimmicks, that either don’t appear in other games, or do appear vary rarely. From non-spoiler examples, there are two cases where nobody has been murdered. Even when we have an apparent impossible crime mystery with blatantly convoluted setup behind it, that wasn’t the main gimmick of the case.  

With all this praise, why do I say that I can’t objectively call this game great? Unfortunately, I have two issues I can’t overlook. First, there is a major inconsistency between two connected cases in the first game. Second, although for 98.5% of duology’s final case was great, the very last 1.5% was just the writers having no resolve for climatic resolution, so they’ve pulled the most blatant Deus ex Machina in the series. And yes, it was worse than spirit channeling. I will tell you why in the spoiler section.

Aside from that, I’m not a fan of first game’s solely one day trials. Ace Attorney is a lawyer game, and part of the lawyer experience is dealing with cases that require more than one appearance in the court. The tree days trials, that quickly became two days trials, were a handwaved simplification of the actual court proceedings. It allowed to simplify the real life procedures for the sake of having an enjoyable game, but it still allowed to have the aspect of leaving the courtroom with the case remaining unresolved. Admittedly, the series not always utilized it particularly well, but this allowed for case-only characters to have their own character growth that spanned across several days.

Not to mention, one day trials trivialized the cases and the main prosecutor. The whole idea behind main prosecutors is that their competence contrasts with Paynes’, who can be beaten in just one day (one of many reasons why Nahyuta from AA6 sucks so much). Edgeworth makes a huge impact in 1-2, because the first day against him is a struggle to not lose. Admittedly, GAA main prosecutor, Barok van Zieks, has one of the best introductions in the series. It’s hard to write about it without spoilers, but the way the case ends impacts how he is perceived by the player, in unique for the series way. Still, in the first game he is a non-entity outside of the courtroom. While he does have good moments that keep him interesting, this all is a setup towards his development in the second game.

From minor nitpicks, I was annoyed how Ryu and Susato were withholding name of the first victim, Doctor Watson/Wilson. I understand not bringing it up to Iris, but there was no point to withhold it from Holmes. It wasn’t until the second game, where the killer was retconned into staying in the Japan for months, when in the first game they were supposed to be deported quickly. The killer’s motives were unknown for Ryu for most of the duology, and for all he knew, they could target Iris and Holmes next.

So, what’s the verdict? I very would like to give the game 9/10, but I can’t. I perfectly understand if this is your favorite AA game, I loved a lot of it as well. But there are missteps I can’t overlook. They don’t take away enjoyment, I can even live with the disappointing conclusion of the final case, but those are clear flaws nonetheless. 8/10, it’s a really good game and one of the AA best entries. It just lacks a bit of polish here and there.

In the spoiler section I will expand on two main villains and the inconsistencies between case 3 and 5 of the first game. I’m also going to explain why final Deus ex Machina is worse than the one from 2nd case from the original trilogy. Yes, it was worse, because even Deus ex Machinas at least can be done properly. Note that I’m going to include spoilers from the first AA game.