I absolutely adored this game! I'm a big fan of detective type games, especially the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Series. I played the demo version of this game on my Nintendo Switch back when I had no money and recently played through the demo again and decided to get the full version on my laptop! I was a bit overwhelmed by the action points system and switching between characters, but I quickly got used to it and it's a very cool game mechanic that I've never seen before. I definitely recommend making a lot of separate save files so you can redo your days and get all the dialogue for fun :) This game is also very different than the Ace Attorney Series but that definitely doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it just as much. I would say this game is a lot less "heavy" than the Ace Attorney games whether that be because of the warm cozy atmosphere of the art style or having less death and courtroom proceedings lol. Feels like the type of game you could cuddle up in a blanket with some soup and hot cocoa to play. I will definitely say that this game is a lot more about experiencing the characters and the environment, than it is about the detective portion. The characters are my absolute favorite part. I could tell that they had so much love put into them. They seemed more real than the ones from other games. I loved that you could get to know them and see their personalities, and get fun dialogue from each of them that had nothing to do with the detective part, they just felt so diverse to me. For example there's a kid that likes playing pranks and if you talk to the other characters, they will tell you a story of how she pranked them with fun art to go along with it, or there's a guy that likes animals and if you talk to him about the other characters, he will compare them to animals with cute art of the animals themed after those characters, it's just all very fun and cute and very customized and you can tell each of the characters is loved very much by the developers. My favorite character was definitely Yan, I was always wanting to ignore the case and go talk to her and see what she was up to and had to say about everything, because she's really fun and funny to interact with. I remember telling someone that she was so well written as a kid, she felt a lot less like an adult writing a child and more like she was based off a real kid, and based on the end credits of the game, it sounds like they might've actually asked a kid to help them write her dialogue, which is awesome! I've never seen such a well written kid before, it made me wish I was like her when I was a kid! There's also some character experiences with trauma, abandonment, abuse, foster care, as well as at least one character that's LGBTQIA+, even though this game takes place in the 1950s I believe, and I thought that was so cool as I can relate to all of those experiences too! I have tons more I could go on and on about but I will end this by saying the ending of my first playthrough was very confusing to me, I didn't understand it at all, but I played it through a second time and understood a bit more but it also deeply affected me and I still have yet to recover (you're welcome I guess lol) But all in all, it was a great game, tons of content even for a higher price but for sure for under $20, it may take a bit to get used to the action point system but just make sure to save a lot and try not to stress about it too much and you will have an entire wonderful world awaiting you!
