Paper Perjury

An excellent mystery game with a lot of heart that really captured the spirit of an Ace Attorney game in a fun new setting! I have yet to delve into the final case but everything I've seen so far has been top notch and creative. All of the characters are lovingly crafted and the dialogue is very well written; I would say that is the game's greatest strength. The music is also brilliant and the visuals are charming so it's easy to get into and appreciate even if you're used to the Ace Attorney polish! All I really have in terms of critiques are minor nitpicks, like certain puzzles being a bit too confusing in the first few chapters and some lack of proper recap dialogue that would've helped visualize each crime more clearly. But the game definitely rectified some of those in Case 4 and it was still perfectly playable beforehand. It's hard to really nail down logical misunderstandings by the player (I would know lol) and the fact that they've opted to do away with the penalty system is a huge plus for this kind of game. There were also a few annoyances in the interface like right click not working in every menu, keyboard controls for certain actions that are not listed in the settings menu, and no way to navigate statements with just a keyboard. There's also seemingly no reason to have both a Case Files button and a Dispute button when they open the same menu, just with one allowing you to present evidence. I've also noticed an issue with the fullscreen mode in that taking screenshots with the Windows snipping tool overlay doesn't work. This kind of stuff hurts the accessibility a bit, but I know some of it is probably due to limitations in the VN engine and might be out of the devs' control. In terms of characters, it would have been neat to see [spoiler]different opponent attorneys in each case[/spoiler] or some more serious or impactful conflicts, though with the presentation of this kind of game, that can be difficult to pull off. Related to that, my last thought about Paper Perjury is that while its easy to get invested in the characters due to their unique quirks and dialogue, the story didn't aim to tackle deeper themes about the justice system or the darker motivations of antagonist characters (for the most part), at least not in the parts that I've played so far. I know the intent here is to create more of an uplifting episodic experience so I don't fault the game for taking this route, but to me the narrative is more of a series of fun, well-crafted cases and less of a poignant serialized story that has something specific and meaningful to say. Perhaps that's all it needs to be, but while there is plenty of connective tissue tying the cases together, it rarely feels like the world opens up in a way that creates a grander purpose to the investigations, which can be less exciting than, say, uncovering conspiracies in AAI2. That said, the feeling of picking apart mysteries with your detective buddies is excellent in its own right, and that was a very nebulous, high-level critique that stems from my own perspective, so it's not necessarily anything that needs to be paid attention to lol. And this is something that could very well be improved with the upcoming DLC which I'm excited for! Overall, I had a great time playing and I'd highly recommend this to anyone looking for fun character moments, clever mysteries, and an awesome soundtrack that perfectly captures the feeling of searching for the truth!

I went into this game knowing that this was not a million dollar Capcom project but a passion project by an Ace Attorney fan like me, and with that expectation, I think it's a solid hommage. If you're really here to scratch the AA itch and broaden your horizon on how these kinda games can play out, I think it'll be worth your while. And if you've never played Ace Attorney but you're here for a bit of mystery and stuff, I think you'll prolly have a good time here. As a huge fan of the AA franchise, there's a lotta feedback I'd like to give to the dev that I think they've also received from many of the other reviews, because while I did have a generally positive experience, I think there's a bit more that coulda been done here and there. The list below is mostly for the dev, but if you're interested in the game and you wanna get a bit more of a nuanced feeling on its positive and negatives, feel free to stick around: What I enjoyed: - Fun and well-written characters (even though for some reason detective Hunt really creeps me out and I can't pinpoint why) - Cool plot across the cases! - Some pretty good mysteries, especially in case 6, where I think the dev really found their feet. Also the character dynamics in case 6 felt a lot more authentic, I really liked this one. - I forget if the AA games do that as well nowadays, but I really liked when the game acknowledged it when I presented a piece of evidence that didn't _quite_ fit but was still relevant, and it did that quite a lot. What I woulda liked to see more of: - AA played a lot with having the player show a location on a map or on a photograph to resolve a puzzle (e.g. "Where on this floorplan was the victim really killed?"), and I always felt that this helped a LOT to visualize how the crime actually played out, and made it easier to find contradictions. I know that woulda probably been a lotta work to implement, but there were some situations where the precise location of the culprit/victim/whatever was crucial and I was not able to visualize it well. - The game mostly takes place "at the workplace," and while I'm a bit surprised at myself saying it, I think some more slice-of-life content would have helped flesh out the characters and relations more? Like, how many AA cases start with "Phoenix and the gang is at the amusement park :)" or "Phoenix and the gang in a hotel :)" or whatever. While I never actively appreciated that much, I realize now how much that did for the worldbuilding, and this coulda had that too. "Sophie and Justina at the ice cream parlor :)" - Especially before Case 6, I feel like questioning statements in cross-examinations felt pretty unrewarding. Like, I never learnt anything particularly new, and I got the impression the dev themselves got a bit tired of writing them, because a lot of them also felt pretty filler (with some fair exceptions!). Generally, cross-examinations might have been relied on a bit too much. Sometimes, a single present prompt of Justina going "This piece of evidence shows us that the oompa loompa couldn't have eaten the ice cream!" would have been fine, too.

Enjoyed my time with this game. No technical issues, enjoyable story. Looking forward to the full episode 6 release. The pixel art is a mix of competent and cute. Case 5 did have a couple moments where it wasn't clear what evidence to present, but overall cases were logical and made you feel clever for figuring them out.

Paper Perjury has an interesting story, some good albeit limited music tracks and was an enjoyable experience for the time and money spent. While not as polished as a game such as ace attorney being a small studio it was enjoyable

A great little deduction game heavily inspired by the Ace Attorney games. The cases are more grounded, but you can see the inspiration through the character names and their reaction animations. The pixel art has a lot of charm to it, too. Certainly worth checking out!

solid ace attorney-like

UI is a bit of a mess, always misclicking. The game started out pretty interesting, but the cases and the characters can be fairly annoying. And alot of really in your face political stuff that isn't really needed, or at least could have been done much better.

7/10 - It's good but not amazing. Worth playing if you've run out of real Ace Attorney games to play or you get it on a good sale. It's a copycat of Ace Attorney games with the main difference being you play as a detective's assistant/clerk instead of a lawyer. The writing isn't quite as good, the characters aren't as interesting, and the solutions are noticeably easier but it was still pretty enjoyable. The price also feels a bit high for the amount of content right now. However, the developers have already released the first half of a 6th case for free with the promise that the second half will be arriving as well so they are putting in some effort to remedy that, which I really appreciate seeing. Overall I'd recommend it if you're a fan of this style of game, though I would definitely pick up an actual Ace Attorney game before this one if there's a choice between the two.

Rating: A Paper Perjury, such a lovely little game! Meet Justina Smith, a new administration officer/typist at the cop shop who has been seconded to assistant detective. Together with Swift and Hunt, Justina works to solve the crimes linked together in the game leading up to a crime that Justina could never have expected! This game is your pretty standard Ace Attorney type game - collect evidence by talking to characters through dialogue choices, examine the crime scene by "investigating" and clicking on each ticket on the right side of the screen and then use the evidence to contradict the lies that you are told by the witnesses/criminals. There's no courtroom setting to do the debating in, it's just in the environments you meet the characters. As for controls, it's largely clicking and you can use the mouse wheel the scroll back through text or scroll back and forth through the statements that characters make. The characters you meet are kept in a ledger along with evidence you find and statements made, these can be selected during key moments and the game is very forgiving when it comes to making mistakes - you basically can't miss any evidence or get it wrong. I really enjoyed meeting all the colourful (literally and figuratively) characters and going through the dialogue - the gotcha moment animation is SO funny for each character - and I felt so attached to the Eubanks after the game finished. It was fun seeing how everyone interacted and the relationship between Justina and her coworkers grow as time passed. If there's one really minor thing I found weird about the game, it's that there are five "cases" but the game is really one long case and they act more like chapters. You need the context from the previous "case" to actually understand what's going on and why. Within each "case" there are also multiple chapter breaks, where Justina recounts what they did after the scene/what happened/the general mood and then the next part will occur. EG: Case 1 Part 1, Case 1 Part 2. I think it's worth the price, I bought it discounted and it still took me about 10 hours to finish. It's another detective game in a huge indie collection of investigation games, but it's one that should be played.

OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10 LOGIC AND PUZZLE DESIGN: 4/5 Fairness and Internal Consistency: 4 Complexity and Mechanic Evolution: 3 Satisfaction of the "Aha!" Moment: 4 Notes: There were a few situations where the logic of when to present evidence didn't make sense. Most of them were minor to figure out, but one required me to search online to find out what I was meant to do. Even in hindsight, I don't see how the player was supposed to know what to do. SYSTEMS AND INTERACTION: 4.5/5 Intuitive Controls and Ruleset: 5 Problem-solving Freedom (Linear vs. Open): 5 Level of Challenge and Difficulty Curve: 4 Notes: The progression is very linear, but that's expected in this style of game. PRESENTATION AND THEME: 4.5/5 Visual Clarity and Art Style: 5 Sound Design and Atmosphere: 4 Narrative or Thematic Integration: 5 Notes: Some of the music got repetitive since there is basically one music track for each mood. I really enjoyed the way the developers connected the cases together. QUALITY OF LIFE: 4/5 UI/UX and Navigation: 4 Pacing and Lack of Tedium: 4 Hint System or Accessibility Options: 3 Notes: The skip and auto options were appreciated, but I found navigating the text (when disproving statements) sometimes tedious. The hint system is almost non-existent. The character's internal monologue gives some clues, but if that's not enough, you have no way to get more hints. VALUE AND LENGTH: 4.5/5 Total Playtime: 5 Price vs. Content Ratio: 5 Replayability or Post-Game Content: 4 Notes: It took me 11 hrs to beat, and I caught it on sale for $10, so that's less than $1 per hour. There is DLC coming in 2026 (which I believe will be free), but no replayability in the main game. FINAL VERDICT Difficulty: Medium Play if you liked: Ace Attorney games Final Thoughts: While I didn't find it challenging to put the pieces together, I liked how I was left with questions when I didn't have all the evidence yet. The answer gradually formed as I found more evidence, and that's perfect in a game like this. As I mentioned, I ran into a few minor logic issues, and the hint system didn't help in those situations. I did skip some of the flavor text when "talking" to suspects and "investigating" the scene, but I enjoyed the story and kept coming back to the game to find out what happened. Overall, it was fun and worth my time.