Best Adventure & Visual Novel Games of 2021
Honorable Mention: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan: It might have taken literal years for the Great Ace Attorney games to get localized, but the wait was definitely worth it. Originally released on the 3DS in Japan, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a duology that’s been remastered and touched up for the Nintendo Switch in English-speaking territories, and it’s easily the best looking pair of games we’ve seen in the series thus far.
The over-the-top animations from the wonderful Herlock Sholmes and protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo breathe life and excitement into the various cases you investigate, and let me tell ya, these cases are also some of the best in the series.
For a long time, Trials and Tribulations was regarded as the pinnacle of the Ace Attorney franchise and no other entry even came close to it, but The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is definitely a serious contender for the throne. Set in Meiji-era Japan, these games deal with various themes that the series usually shies away from, including xenophobia and very overt racism, as well as the cultural clashes between eastern and western sentimentalities.
These are big themes that serve as the throughline for all of the cases in both games, resulting in an overall narrative arc that feels stronger than any we’ve seen in the rest of the series. Thanks to the games’ commitment to exploring these themes as much as possible, none of the cases feel like filler content – an issue that has been prevalent in the series for years. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles marks a new high for the series, and we’re definitely excited to see where it goes from here.
