Samuel Prince: Attorney at Law is an episodic release that currently has 3 cases and plans to have 7 by the time it's over. Since the game isn't even halfway finished yet, it's a bit hard to give an idea of any sort of overarching plot. Nonetheless the set-up should be familiar to you: you play as a rookie defense attorney looking to defend people falsely accused of murder in a hugely unfair court system.
It is... Ace Attorney!
With an incredibly derivative premise and, yes, I'll admit it, art that isn't exactly the most refined ever, I hate to admit that my fried and I started to play the game's (free!) first case with the express intention of dunking on it for being another mediocre, low-grade Ace Attorney clone. But I still remember, half-way through the tutorial, hearing him say "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I think I might like this game". And even though I am prideful and didn't want to admit I was wrong about it, I honestly liked it too!
The game immediately showed an incredibly keen insight for what goes into making an Ace Attorney trial work. Everything that makes Ace Attorney thrive as a mystery game on the levels of mechanics and design have been replicated flawlessly into Samuel Prince: Attorney at Law. The insane burden of proof you’re placed under, the need to constantly disprove witnesses’ lies that cover up other lies that cover up other lies just so you can guess at a fraction of the truth, being forced to prove every granular aspect of the crime to a ridiculously fine point before you’re taken seriously… You can even find some of the Ace Attorney series’s less obvious but no less compelling tropes, like its ability to take the player on a long detour down a seemingly random, irrelevant tangent before wringing shockingly critical turnabouts out of it at the last minute!
That is all to say, Samuel Prince wasn't just a game wearing the outfit of the Ace Attorney series, or a game only interested in mimicking the superficial aesthetic of what Ace Attorney looks like; it's a game that clearly knows how Ace Attorney is written, inside and out. I don't consider it an exaggeration to say that Samuel Prince is the most perfect game in existence not called "Ace Attorney" in terms of replicating the structure, flow, design, and "feeling" of Ace Attorney trials.
Hell, it might even be better than some games that are called "Ace Attorney".
The game, especially in Episodes 2 and 3, also showcases some shockingly effective character writing and well-done tragedy. Even if the game occasionally slips a little too far into characters being silly gimmicks on legs, when it slows down and lets characters have their human moments it is capable of really pulling you into loving them.
Now, it isn't all perfect, all the time. The way some dialogue is written is often a bit awkward in how hard it tries at times. It sometimes feels to me like the work might have been written by a college student. This is further suggested to me by humor that is incredibly relatable to specifically college students, like a joke about finals being the worst thing that can happen to someone, and characters who openly reference anime tropes such as a refined, elegant prosecutor uncharacteristically calling someone a "tsundere". Suffice to it say that the dialogue isn't always elegant and the writer is clearly a little inexperienced, but if this is an early attempt from a younger writer then take it as a compliment that the worst I can say is "it is sometimes a little awkward". They are a damn good writer already. Not just "for their (assumed) age", but they are a clearly talented individual who is already doing great work, just that I can easily see them doing even better with time and practice.
Also, the game's mysteries aren't the most original, or the most shocking. Episode 2 in particular really fumbles towards the end of the case when it comes to explaining and resolving the mystery in an interesting way and exciting way, choosing perhaps the least interesting culprit to be responsible for the crime in the least interesting way they could've managed. But I think it should speak wonders to how genuinely perfectly the game understands the inner workings of Ace Attorney as a franchise that no matter how obvious or underwhelming the mystery on a plot level is, the journey getting there is extremely fun, all the time.
So suffice it to say that, aside from some minor polish issues, I adore Samuel Prince: Attorney at Law. I check back everyday to see if Episode 4 has finally released, and if that doesn't tell you how much I'm enjoying it, I don't know what will!
