Paper Perjury

They just dropped new content for free. The game isn't listed as being in early access, nor was it when I bought and played it. And the five chapters were a full Ace Attorney narrative, with a connected beginning, middle, and end. This chapter 6 they've released the first half of is basically a free expansion. Positive review for that alone.

A more down to earth Phoenix Wright-style game that does most things right. It's more grounded, the characters are a lot less out there and the cases are more straight forward and "normal". Arguably a bit too normal. Not boring, but I kind of missed the more colorful characters many similar games have. You are not a lawyer in this one, but rather a police clerk who get to help out the two detectives with the cases, but the gameplay is practically identical with investigations and then interogations (instead of court cases). If you like the genre, there are much here for you to enjoy. Not the best Phoenix Wright like i played, but it's solid enough. There are some missable achievements, 3 require you to say specific obviously wrong awnsers and two should trigger if you just investigate everything, but just knowing the name of them should give you a big hint on where they are in the story. The rest are for compleating each case.

Paper Perjury is interesting in that it never dwells much on its establishment. It takes its cues from Phoenix Wright and its inspirations, but those titles typically spend a lot of time establishing their overarching hook before it gets going on their mystery. Phoenix Wright needed to nail how important Mia Fey is, Danganronpa had to establish its cast and death game, Aviary Attorney had to weave in its setting, etc. Here the establishment barely matters; the only thing that matters is the baseline characterization for the main characters. The narrative doesn't seem to care much about giving any hook to Justina herself; it just expects you to be immediately invested in the case that she gets dragged into. The game is weirdly non-confrontational about anything established about Justina. She doesn't seem to care that she's being dragged into a possible murder mystery despite being told she wants to avoid that and her boss is weirdly okay with her just ignoring her responsibilities to play detective. Why does everyone trust her so much to do this work? Why does Justina justify engaging herself in this? How is someone with zero credentials even allowed to do any of this ♥♥♥♥? It comes off like the game is more interested in having the mystery than caring about the actors investigating it. To me, this sort of dissonance takes away a lot of the weight on its core narrative and makes the game hinge entirely on whether or not the main mystery is good. Is it good? Sort of. From a thematic standpoint, it leans heavily on the upper-class and lower-class divide and the anxieties/culture surrounding that. It's why so much of the narrative is focused around an embezzlement scandal as opposed to a murder because it's running on the intent of accentuating how money corrupts and harms people. It's extremely on the nose about this, but I do think there's some merit to it. There's a strong point that the Eubanks, born into wealth, have a sense of idealism that comes off as condescending and tone deaf to people poorer than them. They're not actively malicious, but they have a clouded view of justice, denying the possibility their own estate could be tied to anything devious due to their pretentious idealism of social mobility. I'd also argue there's merit in the idea of exploring how crime can be damaging to people that isn't as overtly criminal as murder or assault. A lot of the narrative builds up some sort of arc or revelation for Ferris specifically but then… that goes nowhere? The game implies an overarching conspiracy across every case but they’re all so self-contained to each other that it comes off as more of a coincidence all of this happened in relation to the Eubanks than there being an actual connection between them. The overlap is simply having connections to the company rather than any specific event tied to it. It also sucks Ferris is never truly challenged on her ideals, she gets stressed and there’s hints of a grander arc but the culprit in case 5 ultimately cleans the hands of the Eubanks in the lamest way possible and if anything validates their world view. It feels so cowardly they would lean away from giving the Eubanks any accountability for the bad things that happen and it makes Ferris’ conflict feel kinda pointless on the narrative front given that you could honestly have swapped her with any random bourgeois. I think the game is also way too charitable to everyone. Case 3 was so hard for me to take seriously because of how hard it tries to make everyone involved have a justifiable reason for underhanded corruption that made its logic impossible to buy into. Unironically, it'd be more digestible if they had claimed the actors in this case were acting with malicious and greedy intent rather than going through an awkward exercise to try and make everyone seem morally redeemable. I think you can make a character sympathetic by showing how money can corrupt people, but this is not the angle they wanted to take. They wanted to paint every action as morally justifiable, when often times it’s far more impactful when a character does something irredeemable out of their own social conditions which this game wants to be about. If I were to describe the characterization in this, it's quirky without being eccentric. What I mean is every character looks stylized and their animations have them doing goofy stuff, but their personalities are far more grounded compared to contemporaries in this genre. You won't find any outlandish personalities like Sal Manella or Luke Atmey. Any character that appears to be overly eccentric is typically self-aware and there’s a grounded personality beneath that facade. You could possibly look at this as a meta commentary about capitalism encouraging us to wear masks of either what we idolize in ourselves or what is most socially convenient, but it’s hard to take this seriously when the way this is expressed is that everyone acts as hyperbolically as possible for no real social gain. But honestly, I think the main cast is likable and I think it hits a similar vibe to PW without losing its own identity. I just wish the cast had more to invest in with relation to the main plot. The stylistic quirks are very Phoenix Wright. I won't dwell on describing that because you can see the similarities just by looking at screenshots, but it adopts even the small, subtle stuff like the screen shake or the big "smack" sound effect that plays when characters say certain dialogue. Even Justina's writing has a tendency to include snide comments ala Nick in response to the character of various things in any case. It's wearing the inspiration on its sleeve. But I think it's also a neutered form of PW's style. The sprite work itself is good but it doesn't seem to know how to use sprite work within a scene beyond "I slipped up" and "I am angry/sad in this scene." PW knew when to make sacrifices to make its presentations land; for example, there'll be scenes where you can't control the dialog to match up with the music or animation that plays out, and it gives it so much personality. Nothing in this game matches the outburst that Damon has at the end of PW's 1-5 trial. I think how minimalistic it is isn't that big of a deal, but I do think it definitely makes it feel lesser compared to PW in terms of presentation. That and the music is mostly bland. One thing I would praise this for is how it structures investigations. Since progression is tied to being able to detect a contradiction in what npc's say and it's possible to talk to one without all the evidence, it encourages you to muse over your evidence and hop between NPC's during a case. It’s also novel to have things take place in an interrogation room rather than a conventional trial. In function I don’t think it changes much about how you rationalize the game’s logic or how its gameplay functions, but it does change how character’s interact since you're appealing to a lawyer who has their own agenda than a judge who has a pretense of neutrality. only thing I would say that’s a bit annoying about it; which other games are admittedly guilty of too, is that sometimes you can get the contradiction but it isn’t always clear where and what evidence you’re supposed to present. But given that there’s never more than six sentences to dispute, this is almost never tedious. As disappointing as the main game is, I thought case 6 was generally solid. I thought the characterization between the brothers was good and I like the way it plays with generational trauma. Made me think this game would be so much better if it self-contained itself rather than try for an overarching thing and not landing with it. Feels like this is an awkward first step for the devs, but I hope they get a groove that makes them more consistent in future endeavours. I think they got a good angle here; they just gotta hit the right notes!

God i'm so desperate for ace attorney clones

Paper Perjury is a strong recommend with an asterisk that this is an Ace Attorney-like, foibles that make you roll your eyes and frustrations that make you want to flip a table included. First, the artwork and characters are standouts in a crowd of uninspired AA-likes. It's incredibly well-done art, and I can't think of any AA-like where basically every character isn't white or white-skinned. I was genuinely impressed that all the POC characters weren't named Ms. Iam Blackman too. The developer didn't stop with just having POC characters that aren't caricatures, a brown, not-heterosexual woman is the main character! There is trans and Deaf representation, but the representation is of a whole person with relationships and history and dreams and goals and a future! Second, every AA-like operates in a fictional legal world that you kind of have to just move past to enjoy the game: no juries, witnesses lying on the stand and not being immediately impeached, cases actually going to trial, meeting the prosecutor for the first time in court, sworn law enforcement, the list goes on. Perjury also stands out here. It's not a law enforcement simulator and doesn't claim to be, but it's the closest I've seen an AA-like get to reflecting legal reality. Competent defense attorneys that aren't just cops-lite, no one is happy to talk to you, there are always ancillary crimes, cases rarely go to trial, police dept clerks always wear green suits and tuck their ties into their shirt, etc. Even little things like taser confetti! Just amazing! Third, this developer has a real talent for writing and putting together fraud/theft cases (read: paper cases haha get it PAPER), which is frankly what I expected all of Paper Perjury to be, but more on that later. Case 3 and the bonus case were 100% paper cases and both were a joy to get through. The bonus case, which is a teaser for a sequel, has to be the most real and most well-put-together case in the game, and unfortunately I will be a mummified skeleton in a British museum when the sequel comes out in ten thousand years. This is the point where I have to say that Perjury has earned enough goodwill from me that I should stop writing, because it could've shot acid out of my Steam Deck into my eyes and it would still be a recommend. I never let my opinion get in the way of my opinion though, so here we go. Clue timing needed a lot of work, specifically in that there was basically no work put in. Perjury gives you substantially all the evidence and statements in a case right at the start. Obtuse sub-mysteries that exist only to be solved and don't advance the case or give you more information made this even more frustrating, because you have everything you need to conclude a case and now the game is creating red herring problems that you don't need or want to solve. And for situations where the clue is appropriately timed for a not-obtuse mystery, there are too many overlapping or similar statements and overlapping or similar clues. Hypothetical example: you have a knife with a suspect's fingerprints on it, a fingerprint card with the suspect's fingerprints, and the suspect's fingerless gloves. The suspect makes three statements: "I've never seen that knife in my life," "My fingerprints can't be on that knife, I was wearing gloves," and "My fingerprints are on this umbrella." Like, OK, all these are related to everything, and this has gone well past disputing false statements because they're guilty as hell, but the "correct" answer is the knife with the fingerprints and the fingerprints on the umbrella statement. I think this all comes down to a core problem: the developer kept escalating to homicides, and I just don't think they brought the same level of ?confidence? to the table for the homicide cases that they brought to the two paper cases. Case 1: Robbery. Essentially an extended tutorial. Case 2: Assault. Continuation of Case 1’s story with a different crime. One of the sub-mysteries is roll-your-eyes dumb, but the case is tight and it's solvable. Case 3: Paper case. No notes, I got bamboozled all the way through and it was fantastic. Case 4: Homicide. Some of the most egregiously obtuse sub-mysteries combined with the most egregiously poorly timed evidence. Case 5: Homicide. This is a continuation of Case 4’s homicide investigation which hasn’t been resolved yet. Not addressing the sus choice to call it a whole new case number when it’s the same crime. Add whatever you call it when someone blows up their previous plot lines with late mystery "reveals" that should've been there the whole time to the list of sins. Case 6: Homicide. This one had better timing and fewer obtuse sub-mysteries, but much worse mismatch between clues and statement disputes that made this insanely frustrating. Bonus Case: Paper case. Absolute perfection. Anyway, this would be worth buying just as an AA-like with actual representation, but it's also a great game by a new developer, and I need you to buy this so the sequel is finished before we colonize Mars. Awarding Perjury my highest rating of 17/10.

Ace Attorney clone. I was enjoying it until one of the characters you met was a trans kid. Nope nope nope.

Este juego consigue la esencia de qué hace a Ace Attorney tan entretenido. Con personajes memorables, buena música y con la mítica mecánica de detectar contradicciones. Y al mismo tiempo, consigue tener una identidad propia, se nota que no necesita copiarlo y sabe qué es lo que funciona. Se nota que es un estudio indie. Pero han hecho un trabajo genial y tengo ganas de ver qué mas nos dan.

A very charming little project that will hopefully keep me alive until Ace Attorney 7

Really good game, I'd probably rate it somewhere below the AA:PW trilogy and TGAAC but above the AJ trilogy. Around on par with the Investigations games Good things: - The cases, writing and characters - The general setup of how you're thrown into the cases As a player who doesn't know what do to and figuring these things out for the first time, the whole office worker turned detective assistant thing makes a lot more sense than being a lawyer in your first case Also the way you're first [spoiler] under the wing of an experienced detective and then gradually working more and more with beginner detective sophie, being closer to her level of experience, and "figuring things out together" so to speak, was very cool. [/spoiler] - The music. Some songs sound a lot like they're from TGAAC, others (like Between the Lines ~ Presto) have their own identity and stand out as some great music - Getting more free updates after release Bad things: - Some minor polish issues. [strike] My biggest gripe by far in this regard is that scrolling through the list of evidence doesn't quite work with a controller. You can go through the visible elements with your left stick, but it wont scroll down as you keep pushing the left stick down. You have to move the right stick down to manually scroll [/strike] (fixed) But also things like the pixel art being inconsistent in pixel sizing. - [spoiler] That connection from the cowboy dude to the prison escape through the newspaper. That was just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. [/spoiler] - [strike] Case 6 not being out yet. I know that free content is cool and all, but I really am worried that I'll forget playing it if it takes much longer to release [/strike] Fixed, the case is out now :)