Please don't open the spoiler tags if you haven't experienced the entirety of DGS2 for yourself. Also even if you've played/seen e.g. the first case, don't open the related spoiler tags, as I might bring up spoilers from later cases due to how inter-connected this game is.
H-O-L-Y-C-R-A-P THAT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!! SO SO SO GOOD!!!!! HOW IS THIS GAME SO GOOD?!?!?!??!?! KINO GOD-TIER MASTERPIECE OF PERFECTION I LOVE TAKUMI EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY THIS GAME AHHHHHHHHHHHHHFEOIJEWIWFEJOIEIOFEGIOEFJOIWFJEWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...ahem, excuse me for that abomination. But seriously, I haven't been this blown away by a story in a long time! While I did enjoy DGS1 for how creative Takumi got with the formula (especially with how formulaic the main series has been lately), found the new cast + setting + game mechanics all super refreshing, and loved how character-focused it was, overall it felt like a rather drawn-out prologue with nothing that really blew me away (aside from how genius case 3 was). I did find it quite appealing how they seemed to be going for the 'build up game' and 'payoff game' structure though, so I was expecting DGS2 to be a more enjoyable experience, since they can leap straight into the plot + answer the mysteries and all. What I definitely didn't expect was an insanely intricate story on the level of Investigations 2, plot twists a plot rollercoaster that constantly threw my expectations out the window and laughed at me for underestimating it (right until the very end!), fantastic emotional payoffs that mercilessly sliced those onions, and the absolute peak of Takumi's writing, surpassing both the Trilogy and Ghost Trick. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this game actually knocked off T&T from my favourite AA game spot, something I thought would never happen. Takumi really outdid himself with this game and without a doubt proved himself as the greatest Ace Attorney writer - I'm honestly a bit worried about how AA7 will hold up for me.
Now, first let me get the major issue of the game out of the way - it's painfully clear this is 2 games worth of story squished into 1. From what I've gathered through some brief research, it seems DGS was initially intended to be a single game, but Takumi accidentally wrote a trilogy's worth of content, leading to them not being able to fit everything in DGS1. Unfortunately they had to wrap everything up in DGS2, creating some jarring story transitions which lead to me feeling like this at the start of case 3, and meant the game had to abandon a lot of the character-focus DGS1 had in order to tackle the enormous amount of mysteries that needed to be answered. There were also quite a few new characters that were introduced and then quickly removed from the story (despite clearly having more to them), which makes me suspect there were supposed to be more cases to flesh them out. The most blatant example of this is case 3's killer - a very important character introduced in the 2nd day with few lines of dialogue, before getting suddenly dragged into court and banished from the story immediately after her breakdown. I thought she was a fascinating character, so this was pretty disappointing for me :(. Some emotional moments also didn't hit as hard as they should have, due to not having the necessary build up. Anyway, that's pretty much the only problem I have with the game (albeit a big one) - it's honestly impressive how incredible the game is in spite of this. I also greatly respect Takumi for adhering to his original vision despite the 'wait-did-I-skip-a-case' issues this leads to. Plus on the good side, 2 games -> 1 game means 2 final cases -> 1 game, feels almost like I just played 3-5 straight after 2-4 lol.
I don't feel like being original, so I'm just going to cover my thoughts on each case individually for convenience:
Case 1: Fairly typical tutorial case, I quite enjoyed it though. Susato being playable for this case was a welcome surprise, and Jezail's death was a huge shock to me as I thought I was spoiled on her being the final culprit of DGS2. Mamemomi was quite a good culprit imo, the way he first appears as a random photographer is quite clever, and I like how he has a very simple motive that isn't connected to the grand conspiracies surrounding Jezail. Also it's hilarious in retrospect that he managed to kill a professional assassin, a very fitting ending for her. Not to mention both breakdowns were absolutely hilarious (that Auchi one fooled me good). Jigoku being an actual character and throwing Mamemomi was great, I've always wanted a judge with more characterization. I'm assuming Haori was supposed to appear again in another case along with Ryuutarou. Nothing that blew me away, but fairly entertaining as far as tutorial cases go.
Case 2: Now this one was excellent, it flawlessly combines DGS1's experimental formula with the main series' tried and true formula, creating a case that has something for everyone. The mysteries were very clever, and forced me to constantly be on my toes throughout the case. I already was a fan of DGS1-4's utter bizareness, so this was a fantastic payoff for that. William Petenshy was a character that immediately caught my interest when he briefly appeared in 1-4, and he went above and beyond my expectations here. Him being the victim was of course surprising, but... that scene. THAT SCENE!!! I'm watching a youtuber called NicoB play DGS1 atm, and boy I can't wait to see his reaction to this once DGS2 is translated (he's in the middle of DGS1-4's trial atm and suspects William as the killer lmao). I swear, it almost feels like Takumi's trying to steal any opportunity for the main series to be original by breaking the formula in every possible way in these games (well I suppose we still need 'my cute bubbly assistant was the killer' and 'the real killer was inside me all along'). The direction they took Viridian in was a lot darker than I expected, and lead to two very interesting "the victim was actually the killer" twists. I loved the final cross examinations with both killers, they have such an interesting dynamic together. Ending also gets points for getting more than a few tears out if me. Easily the best filler case in the series, or well I suppose calling it a filler case might be a bit debatable considering it's a sequel to another case, and the collar at the end.
Case 3: And here we have a god-tier case. While it unfortunately suffers the most from this game's mad rush to fit 2 games -> 1 (pretty clearly intended to be the final case of the 2nd part of a trilogy), it does so much I love that I feel it would be a disservice to focus on the negatives. The joint reasoning sessions start to really outdo themselves here, and the range of settings with their own unique atmospheres in this case is impressive to say the least. There's also some very clever mysteries in this case, I remember multiple times where I went "holy crap, that's genius". It truly does feel like a final case with the amount of pieces at play + how insanely long it is. Just realised how spoilery the title of this case is lol, I mean seriously, "The Return of the Great Departed Soul" hmmm what could that mean (ah well I guess it's hard to work out without context). I love how Barok starts to get fleshed out a lot here, it's good to finally hear how he feels about the Reaper and have him humanized more through Benjamin. Gina becoming Gregson's apprentice is an interesting route to take her character in (I believe the actual character was something like this?), and of course is very good setup for the final case. The wax museum might be one of my favourite areas in the series, especially the room in the back, and Rozaic is an absolutely fantastic witness that stays a mystery right to the credits (she knew so much more than she let on, her dedication to her craft is terrifying). I thought Benjamin had a very nice arc for a defendant, accepting he had been fooled by 2 people he greatly trusted, and his invention was a complete failure. The way this links to the Professor case is quite clever, it does a fantastic job at building suspense for the next case with the amount of unanswered questions, plus I love how they didn't wimp out on the Professor actually rising from his grave.
Despite being introduced late in the case, Drebber ends up being an immensely entertaining character, and a fantastic red herring that fooled me right until the end. The joint reasoning where you find him in the safe is amazing, and when Joint Reasoning Type C starts playing at the end my hype metres went off the charts. Actually speaking of which, it took me a while to find that song, weird that it's in DGS1's soundtrack despite not playing in that game. Sithe being the true killer was a shocking twist for me - I mean she obviously looks evil, but so much pointed towards Drebber being the killer that I was sure she wasn't anything more than an accomplice. When Overture to Pursuit started playing my hype metres went off the charts again (this game might not have many new songs, but holy crap are the ones it adds amazing), and that contradiction! That was so clever! I only picked the blood spot out of process of deduction - I didn't even think about the blood trail. I absolutely love how you're given this piece of evidence early in the case, talk about hiding in plain sight + you even have to present it in the first trial for a minor contradiction (I love how you can't ignore evidence you've already used in the DGS games). I've made my disappointments about Sithe clear, but Drebber's confession is really good, Takumi is excellent at writing very human and morally gray characters. I also really like how the victim was an irredeemably awful person that ruined both Sithe and Drebber lives.
And then we have the masked man... oh my god. So quick story time - I first played DGS1 back when the first case got fan translated, and I quickly got attached to Asougi. They had a short preview for the next case, which showed who the victim was, and I was devastated :(. I couldn't bring myself to play case 2 even when it was translated. So 2 years later, the fan translation finally finished, and I decided I should probably get back to the game. Obviously I really liked it, since I went out of my way to play DGS2 in japanese straight afterwards (playing a logic game in a language you're still learning is uh, not easy, this game took me twice as long as DGS1). When I saw the masked man on the cover of the game I didn't think much of it, and when he appeared in game I started to suspect he'd be the culprit behind the reaper's curse and the case (since the victim escaped Barok's clutches and all). Then Naruhodou made a comment on how he looks like Asougi, and that's when I started to get suspicious. I didn't want to get my hopes up of course, but when Susato yelled his name out to him... that's when I realised it had to be Asougi ;_;. Then that moment at the end of the trial, just WOW, that was so good!!!! I was literally Susato in that scene lol, such a beautiful reunion. Asougi having 2 swords is fittingly badass, and his new outfit is um, very formfitting (plus damn is he built). As for the identity of the Professor, whew, that definitely wasn't what I expected + I didn't think they'd open that mask before the final case. And I wasn't expecting Asougi to go full anti-hero there! In retrospect I'm wondering why he sliced that wax figure - perhaps because he hated seeing his father being presented as the Professor? Anyway 10/10 revival, tears were shed, and I can't believe I wasn't spoiled on this.
Case 4/5: This is truly a masterpiece, definitely my favourite case in the series. As with Dual Destinies splitting this case in half felt unnecessary, but I understand they don't want to get "only 4 cases? i've been ripped off!" complaints now that they've set the 5 case precedent post-AJ. Anyway, where do I start, this felt like the ideal final case that all other final cases should strive to be - almost every mystery and plot thread is wrapped up in a satisfying way, huge payoffs for the 8 cases that came before it, some absolutely shocking twists that were subtly foreshadowed, the plot unravels in ways I definitely didn't expect while still feeling like the natural progression of events (even AAI2 didn't put me at this much of a loss), some fantastic character development, absolutely crazy events and hype moments while still being reasonably down to earth (something I feel the Yamazaki games can struggle with), incredibly tight writing that makes it impossible to deny Takumi planned everything right from DGS1-1, and of course an amazing final villain confrontation (unpopular opinion but they're also my favourite villain in the series). I also love how many characters play a role in this case, it truly does feel like the ultimate sendoff for the DGS cast, while managing to not feel bloated (a problem I had with later parts of AAI2-5). Oh and I can't forget those god-tier joint reasoning sections, puts every single gameplay gimmick in the series to shame. Plus I have to say, I was completely shocked by how dark and depressing this case became at points, I've never felt such... profound emotions towards an AA game before. There's so much gray morality at play I almost expected my screen to turn grayscale.
The victim being Gregson was absolutely shocking, I legitimately did not believe it until we saw a picture of his corpse. A character dying outside of the game they're introduced in has never happened before! How many 'firsts-in-Ace-Attorney-history's can you have?! Oh wait, Sasha, I guess it's the 2nd then. Speaking of which, Sasha and Gregson were the ones who put the Reaper's plans into action?! Sasha I could believe (I wish we found out more about her though, maybe that was meant to happen in a cut case), but GREGSON??? I didn't buy that for a second, and spent the entire case waiting for them to go "oh actually Gregson was looking for the Reaper, you have it the wrong way around". So when I got to the credits and he basically admits it there, holy crap that hit me like a truck. He wasn't even bribed either - Gregson flat out worked to assassinate people, and was even going to do it directly to Jigoku. And he truly believed that it was for the greater good... what an absolutely fantastic morally gray character! I feel really bad for Gina for having to learn that though, at least Gregson genuinely wanted the best for her (explains how she avoided the curse too... wait I wonder if Sasha was planning on taking out Souseki? That explains why she invited them to the beach! Fuck I love this game)
The witnesses in this case were all really good. I expected to dislike the red haired guys as I usually find those types of witnesses obnoxious (e.g. Mario & Luigi in DGS1-5), but surprisingly I ended up loving their antics. Maria was quite a fun character and I enjoyed the brief development she got, but I'm guessing she was meant to show up in other cases since we never found out why her surname is different to her mother's. The whole sealed memories thing with Everyday was very creepy, and he ended up being quite a unique and fleshed out witness. I absolutely adored both joint reasoning sessions in this case, the first one sent me into hysterics with how utterly bizarre the situation was (Sherlock getting thrown onto Yuujin lmao), and they had me with that fake ending. Yuujin being the real 'Watson' was INSANE, that blew my mind! It didn't help that I'd pegged him as a major villain since DGS1-1 (he seemed suspicious!), I'm sorry for distrusting you Yuujin :(. The one who I really should've distrusted was of course Jigoku, like damn I did not see that betrayal coming. I probably should've been suspicious when they said he studied under Vortex, but wow, the first judge culprit (albeit as a witness). The joint reasoning with Holmes and 'Watson' was fejioewjfoeioiewjfioew SO PERFECT!!! From the tap dancing, to the different gameplay style, and well just seeing the original duo in general, ahhhh it was great. Jigoku's breakdown was also fantastic, and I really like that we were introduced to the final killer in the first case of DGS1.
Now I have to talk about the stars of this case here - I didn't expect a character to surpass Edgeworth as my favourite AA character, let alone two! While it's unfortunate that many characters in this game have their arcs cut or shortened due to time constraints, that certainly doesn't apply to Asougi and Barok. I really like how they both have to accept that their father/brother were killers on their own free will (Vortex was only able to blackmail Klimt because he'd already committed his first Professor murder), the narrative sure didn't let them off easy. Barok being the defendant of the final case was predictable of course, but as with a certain other AA prosecutor, it was a fantastic way to develop him. I loved seeing him finally move past his racism and accept Naruhodou is a great attorney, overall his arc was handled very realistically due to the gradual development he's been getting since his introduction (take notes Spirit of Justice). Klimt being the real Professor (a twist I DID NOT expect!) also nails this in further, and I really like how Van Zieks had actually considered that possibility (but of course thought it to be impossible, as he assumed the Professor killed every victim in his own free will).
As for Asougi, HOLY SHIT THAT WAS SO GOOD!!! Now usually reviving characters is a dangerous game to play, however I knew Takumi wouldn't do so without a good reason, so I was interested in seeing what he was setting up. And boy was it good, Asougi ended up being more integral to the core of DGS's story than I ever could have imagined. We're lead to believe that he's an ideal attorney that exists as a goal for Naruhodou to strive for, similar to you-know-who, but DGS2 laughs at us for believing this, and deconstructs him before our eyes. You think Asougi's stubbornness and iron-clad will are a good thing? Let's apply that to petty revenge! You think Asougi's innate talent in law is something to be admired? Let's apply that to a ruthless prosecutor that only cares about said revenge! You think Asougi's independence shows how strong he is? Let's show him driven into a corner for not relying on his friends! It's so fucking good!!! I never expected to see something this fantastic in an Ace Attorney game, and his prosecutor theme just nails that in further (I love how they twisted motifs from his theme in DGS1). I also love how it doesn't completely reverse his character either - Asougi still wants to find the truth even if his eyes are heavily clouded by revenge, Asougi still wants Naruhodou and Susato to stand against him in court even though he won't reveal anything to them, and while they were partially misplaced, Asougi's convictions heavily contributed to Vortex being brought to justice. I can't praise this level of intricate writing enough. I also really love how Asougi admits he isn't able to forgive Van Zieks for prosecuting his father despite realizing how flawed that is, it feels very human. Oh and the student ASSASSIN exchange?! Even if Asougi wasn't planning on going through with this, that was still far darker than I expected. Like seriously, Asougi wasn't sent to London to learn about their political system, he was sent there to assassinate Gregson and take advantage of extraterritorial rights? That paints the first 3 cases of DGS in a completely different light, and ahhhhhh it's such a good explanation for Sherlock's actions in case 2. Finally I love how Asougi admits he was genuinely intending to kill Gregson in that instant, DGS certainly doesn't like to have its characters fully absolved from guilt.
The final trial itself is an amazing set piece, and while I've already gone over many reasons for this, there's still a lot I have to say. Firstly, I greatly appreciated that they saved so many new songs for this - we have an intense remix of the lobby theme, we have the best trial theme in the series, we have a remix of the victory theme, and we even have a grand pursuit theme saved for taking down Vortex. They all do an incredible job at setting the tone. Then there's the people involved - Naruhodou and Susato are of course the defense team, but are also assisted by Yuujin, Sherlock and Iris through their actions outside of the court room, the prosecutor is Asougi, the victim is Gregson, the defendant is Barok, and the judge is of course Vortex. It's easily the craziest court setup we've seen in the series - every position is filled by characters we've known for a long time, and they're all used excellently. I'm also really happy Vortex didn't usurp Asougi's position as the prosecutor - I was dreading that when they said he was a former prosecutor, but that turned out to be a clever red herring that plays on the expectations of long-time AA players. The only criticism I have is the lack of a jury - this was the perfect opportunity to create a jury of people in high positions (such as the British Judge), but instead we're limited to the nameless people in the gallery. It would have been much more effective to see Vortex influencing important named figures.
Now, there is of course the matter of Hart Vortex, the mastermind of the DGS games. He's easily my favourite villain in the Ace Attorney series, and I have a looooooot to say about him. To start, I'll get the obvious out of the way - he is, well, obvious. I don't think I'm alone when I say I pegged him as the mastermind right from his introduction (partially due to striking similarities to you-know-who), and it only became more and more obvious as time went on. "Hello! I definitely don't look evil! I'm completely obsessed with time and efficiency, and constantly make villainous poses. Let me remind you for the 50th time that I would do anything to take down criminals, and I mean anything. Oh and isn't it interesting how both the Professor and the Grim Reaper helped lower the crime rate? Nothing to do with me though! Here's my evil looking right hand woman, I trust her so much - oh look she abused her position to cover up her crime, wow how terrible. I totally would never endorse such a thing! Oh and don't mind me usurping the judge position for this trial that I'm definitely not related to, it's not like I'd do anything underhanded!" It's almost comical how blatantly obvious he is. Now as I got further into the game, I was really hoping he would just be the greatest red herring in AA history, since I wanted the mastermind to be a big twist like in AAI2. When it was revealed he was as obvious as he seemed, I was expecting to be disappointed... but I actually feel making him so obvious worked to his benefit. It allowed the narrative to establish him very clearly, made him a highly satisfying adversary to overcome, and helped avoid the potential inconsistencies that can come from a character hiding their true self and motives for 90% of the game.
Speaking of his motives, I love how he truly believes what he's doing is for the best. AA final villains usually guise themselves in good motives to hide their true self-interested intentions, but Vortex is far from self-interested. He's a completely control freak that believes he's the only one that can eliminate crime, and that everyone in positions above him are incompetent and only serve to propagate crime in spite of his efforts. I really like how we aren't given information on what caused him to have such strong beliefs, and the narrative makes no attempt to humanize him - it serves to further highlight the anti-crime machine he turned himself into. Now there's no way I can avoid making direct comparisons to 1-5 here, so spoilers for that in the next tag (I mean I doubt anyone reading this hasn't played it, but better to be safe than sorry) What separates Vortex from Damon Gant for me is that Damon Gant was actually humanized. We find out the Joe Darke incident lead to his corruption, and in the end he places his trust in Phoenix and Edgeworth. Vortex on the other hand shows absolutely no remorse for his actions, and believes Naruhodou and Asougi hold naive ideals that will only serve to let crime propagate. They both of course criticize him for his actions, but are they truly in the right? We're presented time and time again throughout the story with how Vortex's actions have lowered London's crime rate, and even Gregson followed his ideals without being blackmailed. He's also the reason Naruhodou was able to become an attorney (twice actually, in spite of his assassin exchange being ruined) and Asougi was able to prosecute the case, and I find it interesting how he never seems to regret doing that - unlike Jigoku who can't stop talking about how he should've given Naruhodou and guilty verdict. I'd be lying if I said the narrative doesn't take sides, but I really like how it doesn't completely force its ideals on the reader, and leaves room for interpretation. He also gets much more build up than Gant and is heavily integrated into a 2 game story (as opposed to a really long case), which leads me to prefer him. It definitely feels like Takumi wanted to take his ideas for Damon Gant and bring it to a much greater scale.
I also love how well executed he is as AA's first true judge culprit - I've been waiting for them to make the presiding judge of a trial the culprit, and DGS2-5 without a doubt did this idea justice. I really like how they're never able to drag him to the witness stand due to being the highest judge in the empire, that would have been such a cop out. I also love how he has clear limits on what he can do, due to both the gallery being filled with influential people, and his pride as a judge (again, take notes Spirit of Justice). The methods Naruhodou and co. use to establish his guilt are extremely clever, it's amazing how well Takumi threads a solution through the limits he created. Plus one of my favourite things about Vortex is that he's the only mastermind in AA history to never directly kill anyone - you can't actually convict him for murder. He instead takes advantage of other's weaknesses, convinces them to follow his ideals, or blackmails them. His breakdown is easily the best in the series too, not only is it an amazing spectacle that's insanely satisfying to watch after desperately going through last resort after last resort to take him down, but it works so well metaphorically - his weapon of power is broken, he falls onto where the witness stand was to be judged, and then he's burned by the flames of the 'guilty' end of the scale. Having the British Judge (aka the only non-villain judge) deal the final verdict was very fitting. On another note, while I'm sure there's some historical significance I'm missing here, I find it hilarious that Vortex uses a unicorn gavel lol. Anyway, 3 paragraphs about Vortex is more than enough, so let's move on.
I'd heard about this game having a rather divisive deus ex machina, and I immediately knew what it was when hologram Sherlock appeared on screen. As for what I think about it... I absolutely love it! Sherlock is very much an anomaly in the story that doesn't really play by the rules, and along with Iris, has been constantly bringing in bizarre pieces of technology to help out. The hologram technology is so bizarre, it's so out of place... and it's just so Holmes! Plus not only does this highlight the strong relationships our cast have built together, but it also shows the final stage in Naruhodou's character arc - not trying to do everything on his own, and relying on others. Personally I've been getting really tired of the main character magically working out a solution on their own in every single game's finale, so this was a very pleasant surprise for me. I feel it's much more fitting for the Great Detective to come up with a crazy solution to solve the case, especially considering how the DGS games are basically Takumi's love letter to the Sherlock Holmes books. Not to mention broadcasting the trial to Queen Victoria herself! Not only is that absolutely ludicrous, but when Holmes highlighted how every British trial has begun with "in the name of the Queen", I couldn't stop laughing. That's some of the silliest yet ingenious foreshadowing I've ever seen. Of course 'Great Pursuit' only adds to this, it's one of the best pursuit themes in the series (if not the best), and I love how it's saved for this one scene. All in all, this was easily the most memorable scene in the series for me, I can't rave enough about how much I adore it!
Iris' parents... holy crap I've never felt this mindfucked by an AA game before. Now at first I of course assumed it was Watson, but during DGS2 I started to think... maybe that's too obvious? Since they were hinting at case 1 being strongly connected to a conspiracy, I began to suspect 'Watson' was an imposter (which was wrong of course), and the real Watson was Gregson. I thought he wasn't able to reveal his identity as Watson because he was going undercover for plot reasons, and this was the real reason he treated Iris so well. I also thought he was looking after Gina so well because he saw her as a replacement for the daughter he couldn't be a father to. I became really confident in my theory in this case, when it was revealed Gregson was giving Everyday jobs to support his family - I was so sure he was empathizing with him due to being in a similar position (of having to go undercover unknown to his family). Come the joint reasoning against Iris, and I thought "wait, Susato and Iris are sisters?!", but that of course wasn't the case - and Takumi knew I'd think that, with Iris calling Susato and Naruhodou her new siblings lol. But even if he wasn't Watson, I still believed Gregson was Iris' father... that is, until after the trial. When Yuujin started talking about Genshin's request to him, I had a dumb moment and went "wait, Asougi and Iris are siblings?!", but then he brings up Klimt's second request... and wtf that was crazy! I didn't even consider that possibility! To think Iris was Barok's niece the whole time... what a mindfuck. No wonder Sherlock kept it a secret - it would be horrible if Iris had to deal with the stigma of being the Professor's daughter. Overall I was really shocked at how tragic Iris' situation ended up being :(. I completely understand why they won't tell her, Iris loves the concept of her unknown 'father' so much that this would break her. They also accept that she will find out on her own someday, which I think is a very realistic approach and good way to end this (take notes Apollo Justice). Plus it's super sweet how she considers Holmes her father now.
The ending itself is reasonably happy, but it also feels appropriately somber and not 100% clean - we never see Barok smile, Iris never learns about her real father or uncle, Asougi realizes he needs to grow not just as a prosecutor but also a person, and Naruhodou + Susato must inevitably return to Japan. I loved the final moment between Naruhodou and Asougi, with Asougi lending him Karma, crossing swords in the rising sun, and promising to battle in court again. There's also a lot of implications about Susato and Naruhodou getting together after this (Phoenix needs to come from somewhere), so uh sorry Asougi, looks like you're at the losing end of the love triangle lol. The credits were quite nice - I really liked hearing Gregson's last words, the Sithe and Maria bonding moment was cute (I think Sithe is the first time we've seen a killer in the credits), the Japanese court shenanigans were hilarious (though it's a shame we never got to see Hosonaga's reaction to Asougi being alive), and the narration transitioning from the generic narrator to Iris was really nice. The final picture was super cute too! Kinda wish they had actual art instead of 3d models, but ah well that's budget for you. Overall, a fantastic way to end the DGS series, Takumi always knows how to end a story.
So yeah, in case it wasn't obvious based on the length of this post, and 99% of it being me raving about how good it is, I absolutely adored this game! Writing this post actually made me appreciate the game even more, and there were quite a few mysteries I worked out just from thinking about earlier parts of the games in the context of late game reveals - Takumi planned these games out very well. I've actually ordered the artbook since I heard there's some extra tidbits in there, and that's a first for me. I would like to play the dlc for both games, but it's been a bit annoying trying to obtain them, so I might have to resort to watching a playthrough. It's truly a shame that this is both the worst selling AA game, and neither game was localized - these games deserve so much more than that. Since Takumi clearly put all of his love into these games, and doesn't seem to be a fan of the direction the main series has gone in, I'm worried this might be the last Takumi AA game we'll get :(. I look forward to the day Scarlet Study finish translating the game, so more people can play this masterpiece - I'd honestly be tempted to try and join the group if I had more confidence in my Japanese ability.
Anyway, for those that experienced this game in any way, what did you think of it? I'd love to hear! (with spoiler tags ofc)
Submitted June 16, 2019 at 01:34PM by Acromanic http://bit.ly/2WL1rJ5
No comments:
Post a Comment