Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane

Phenomenal game! I went into it with few expectations and genuinely think this rivals the best of the [certain Capcom franchise this is clearly inspired by] series. REALLY looking forward to the sequel!

I'll admit... looking back, it does feel a bit derivative, but I think they've done enough to differentiate themselves from those that came before.

Attorney of the Arcane is structured similarly to the Phoenix Wright games. You are a defense attorney who searches for contradictions in testimony and shows the correct piece of evidence to back up your claim. There are occasional argument segments where you try to pick the best response, and some questions that require you to form who sentences from lists of possible phrases. If you like this style of game, you'll like Attorney of the Arcane. The unique setting and characters makes for some interesting storytelling as you're now in a world of mages and dragons. Though there's still rules to all magic systems, and you'll have to figure them out to piece your arguments together. While the story reaches a satisfying end, there is still so much unknown about the world that we may even have a sequel to look forward to in the future.

Dude I fricken loved this game. You'll quickly find you keep a lot of evidence, some of it is basically reminder text though I feel like I would have had a harder time with the game overall without it there, it just made sifting through things a little harder. The art feels like it could be a little inconsistent at times... some characters felt off model almost at some points? I think several, but not all, of Tyrion's sprites need the most improvement in a sequel for sure. Minor gripes considering how much I enjoyed playing this game though.

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A visual novel heavily inspired by Ace Attorney while still having its own charm and own quirks and gimmicks. For me it does enough different compared to Ace Attorney to feel like its own game and world despite the inspiration. I liked the overall narrative, most of the characters and the world building. It has some minor flaws (minor bugs, some weirdly phrased sentences, a weird solution to a puzzle) but really nothing heavy. I can easily recommend the game to any fan of the genre.

If you like Ace Attorney, play this one. Also, if you played the classic version, the remake is significantly better. Here are a few things that changed for the better: 1. Inner thoughts are no longer 2nd person. This was my primary critique of the original because it was often written as if it were designed to be 1st person. It also felt much weirder and stilted. 2. The overall writing was improved. There were some spelling issues still, but it was much less common. 3. Chapter 3 was rewritten from the ground up. The mystery makes much more sense, and was changed to have a far more interesting ending than the original (which had to bend backwards in later chapters to justify future events) 4. More consistent UI and QoL updates 5. OBJECTION! Is way cooler now. It also updates [spoiler] Rathillion's screech to a much more menacing "ENOUGH" and adds Eris Illmater's "FOOLISHNESS" which is a very nice touch to add at the end.[/spoiler] 6. Additional scenes that added more context to relationships and a case's overall mystery. Spoilers Ahead FWIW: I say all of this, but here are still my remaining critiques. 1. There are an awful lot of scenes where Tyrion is not present which give critical information that feel like they could've been revealed in less overt manners. For the first case, this is kind of fine since it is following the tradition of "In the first case, you know who did it. Now you gotta nail 'em", which allows you to more easily teach the mechanics and lore of the game. However, this is sometimes used FAR too often to confirm what should be mysteries. It's a trade-off where you remove the mystery in lieu of providing more character time (for example justifying why Von Sanctus would've ever cast a spell to save anyone but himself). The exception to this, for me anyway, is anything that happens at the end of a case. The best change the remake did was introduce virtually every Noble at the very beginning. It meant that you now had faces to names and a general idea who they were. 2. Not that I wish torture for the talented artists who worked on this game, but a few key moments could've stood to have a dedicated "Full-Frame" (so to speak). Some moments I can think off are: - When the Academy Principle has attempts to erase the last commands and Aria casts Hold Creature on him. - Cuthbert beating Von Sanctus in the Chess match in the beginning of Case 3 (You could really sell the anger from Von Sanctus here, with a bit of a smug smile from Tyrion) - Aria falling over in Case 4 (or maybe a proper animation for this?) - Lucio Steelwind killing Aster (Arguably the most important one in my opinion, since it's closure and also frankly he deserves it) Again, I realize that costs quite a bit of time and effort, but I really think it'd pull together some iconic moments nicely. 3. I realize that this is likely due to both technical and artistic reasons, but I actually wanted to be in the right side bench when you take over for Aria in Case 4. For one, it's technically where Tyrion is supposed to be as an acting prosecutor and to me isn't worth the gag provided to fix it to the other way around. Secondly, it entirely fits theming-wise as Tyrion is forced into going against Ruby, where his entirely worldview has been shaken and flipped. Tyrion on the right-side bench feels weird and wrong, just like how he feels at that moment. I think that's it for now. Frankly, I am excited to play the sequel planned for this series! It's looking much more polished so far (from what I can see) and is shaping up to be really cool. Looking forward to it! Cheers!

Es un buen juego pero vive demasiado en la sombra de Ace Attorney. Intenta demasiado ser como él y puede parecer peor de lo que es al no tener una identidad propia e invitar a la comparación.

Tyrion Cuthbert was a wonderful detective/attorney game! I was delighted by the characters and got invested in the world. The writing has a strong enough sense of voice to carry this kind of game, which I was impressed by, and everything was interesting and tied together in clever ways. Although it's a little on the shorter side, I enjoyed all my time with this game and didn't feel it was lacking at all. An easy recommend for anyone who liked the Ace Attorney games, but also anyone who loves fun characters and murder mystery.

A really strong Ace Attorney-inspired indie game that consists of intricately designed cases and beautifully written characters, where (almost) every character has their shining moments. Strong recommend!