When Capcom announced that "Ace Attorney" would be available on Steam on the first day of its international release, the gush of joy felt by PC players was like hearing the word "not guilty" after a long and intense trial. The original "Ace Attorney" trilogy The first "Ace Attorney" trilogy, released in the early 2000s, came to Steam in 2019, so we're used to waiting a long time. But not this time. It's the international version of "Ace Attorney: Dai Ace Attorney 2 - Narihodo Ryunosuke no Fukuhaku-" and "Dai Ace Attorney 2 - Narihodo Ryunosuke no Fukuhaku-" are neatly bundled into this two-pack.

Dai Ace Attorney follows the melodrama and flamboyance of the series so far. Betrayal, tragedy, lawyers slamming their hands on their desks, aggressively pointing fingers and shouting ...... It's all here. However, after playing through all ten cases spanning both films, I did not feel that the story reached the same dramatic heights as its predecessor. While there is some telenovela-like drama in "Ace Attorney," the series is rooted in mystery, and in that respect both of the bundled titles fall short.

The two prequel stories follow Ryunosuke Narihodo, a young Japanese lawyer who travels from Meiji-era Japan to Victorian-era England to study the English legal system, one of the best in the world. Along with his assistant, Susato Mikoto, Narihodo defends those in need of legal assistance in dramatic courtroom battles.

Although Seihodo is a 19th-century ancestor of Phoenix Wright, there is no connection to his previous work, and London as a setting is a refreshing change for new players and veteran fans alike. The choice of London as a setting was a wise one, and not simply because it is an easy choice for a caricature of England. Victorian-era London is a city with many thematic threads, and an important part of the story is Seibo's struggle with the seemingly perfect London justice system and the violent crime that lurks behind the scenes in the city.

While previous games have featured characters who seem to put truth and justice above all else, but who do not actually believe so, this is the first time that this duality is explored on a social level. This is an underlying tension that develops across both films, with each case revealing more about London's superficially innocent handling of the law.

Along with this new setting comes a wealth of flamboyant characters. Among them is Susuat, a lawyer's assistant who is well versed in the English legal system and who has stopped the protagonist's lawyer from faltering on the defense side more times than I can count. Although soft-spoken, he has a secret fighting technique called "Susato Toss," which allows him to flip Naruhodo over onto his back from his feet when he gets pissed off. There is also a ferocious prosecutor known as the "Reaper of the Old Bailey," Baroque van Zeeks. He drinks wine throughout the courtroom, smashes the golden chalice with his fist in a dramatic display, and sometimes slams his boot into the prosecution's table when he gets angry.

I love how Capcom has pushed the London stereotype to the point of complete farce with some of the characters. The man who helps with the investigation could be Tobias Gregson of Scotland Yard, who is always snacking on fish and chips wrapped in newspaper (even when he is summoned to court), or a lovable street urchin named Gina. The case is filled with plenty of Victorian-era London archetypes: cab drivers, policemen, street vendors, gentlemen in top hats, and ladies in corsets, to name a fair few. And who can forget the appearance of the famous detective Harlock Scholmes?

Long gone are the days when Sherlock Holmes was a stodgy, uptight detective, and if Frogware's younger, "cooler" take on the famous character isn't to your liking, Capcom's "Herlock Sholmes" will knock your teacups right off. In "Ace Attorney," Sholmes is the star of the show. In "Ace Attorney," Sholmes leans heavily on the eccentric side of his "eccentric genius" and helps Naruhodo with the investigative part of the case in between trials. Not only will you be collecting witness testimony and evidence, but you'll also be helping him with his not-so-sharp deductions in a new mini-game that Shoomes excitedly calls "a spectacle of logic and deduction. The game puts the detective back on the right track by taking a look around the crime scene and finding clues to correct Harlock's dramatic deductions into something that makes sense.

This deduction mini-game brings the investigation part to life, and since you can move the camera in 3D space instead of just clicking on a flat image to look for clues, you feel like you are properly snooping around the area. However, it is a long way from gathering evidence for a trial. In terms of the story, these scenes are somehow related to the upcoming trial, such as introducing the characters who will be on the stand, but they take more of your concentration away from the actual evidence collection.

Capcom's desire to shake up the investigative part with more practical deductions is understandable, and if a Sherlock Holmes look-alike is on hand to lend a hand, that makes sense. There is no sense in which one would appear in court with a bag full of evidence and consider the place of each piece of evidence in the overall case. While Harlock's "Spectacular of Logic and Reasoning" is enjoyable, there is little of this feeling and no sense of the excitement of the trial.

Thanks to the new setting, the courtroom system has also been revamped. Trials now have more dimensions than just the testimony of witnesses and the presentation of evidence. Instead of trying to convince the judge, you must prove your client's innocence to a jury of six people. Each juror has his or her own ideas and opinions, which must be cross-examined. This is a system inherited from the "Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney" spin-off, which breaks up the monotony of the middle part of the trial and prevents the trial from moving in the same way as other "Ace Attorney" cases.

If the courtroom is not busy enough with six new jurors, it must deal with multiple witnesses taking the stand at the same time. The focus on one witness is now split between three or four different people, and you have to keep switching between characters, and if one person acts strangely in response to another witness' testimony, you have to poke them to find out why.

Examining evidence for clues, dealing with prosecutorial shenanigans, pressing witnesses for details, and much more is required to win a trial. This system is much more dynamic than in previous entries in the "Ace Attorney" games in a way that I didn't think was possible. For example, the jury firing fireballs at a giant judicial scale to render a verdict is indeed Ace Attorney.

For the first time in the series, the series ventures into a historical setting, exploring the relationship between Japan and England during the Meiji and Victorian eras. The British Empire is portrayed as imperialistic and arrogant, and this view is inflated by the characters' accounts of the British Empire's technological advances and primitive justice system. As a result, there is much offensive racism against Naruhodo and other Japanese characters.

It is a completely fair portrayal of 19th century Victorian England. The fact that the game is being made by Japanese developers who are willing to comment on the social, racial, and class discrimination of this era is a refreshing change of tone for a series that has had its share of incidents involving magical polka-dot bloomers. However, the way the British main cast treats the Japanese characters is beyond offensive and creates a jarring tonal shift in the scene. The British characters sometimes describe the Japanese characters as "sneaky" and "fishy," and there is a distrust of anyone who doesn't have a strong London accent or shove fish and chips into their mouths. Even when chatting with witnesses or supposedly likeable protagonists, it can be incredibly awkward.

Both games tend to fall into the typical mystery trap. Surprising conclusions and outlandish explanations stand out in a handful of cases, robbing the story of much of the fun and dramatic detective work. In several trials, I was baffled until the very end and frustrated by the way key information was bombarded into the courtroom for dramatic effect. I often feel that the game favors outrageous twists over solid, clever plotting.

I like the melodramatic direction of the Ace Attorney series, and the choice to focus on the conflict between London's ordered reputation and the harsh reality of this city full of secrets and crime is a welcome addition to the series.

But I really play this game for the mystery. In previous games, there have been cases where I felt completely involved, painstakingly analyzing every clue and putting all the pieces together to finally reveal a satisfying fact. In "Ace Attorney," such revelations were not available. I think the new system and the scandalous storyline lost that important sense of involvement. There is a lot to do, and the game's presentation is gorgeous, but the core mystery of getting to the "bottom of the case" gets a little lost in the dramatic development.