Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane Reviews

If you're starving for Ace Attorney content and can get this game on sale, it might be an interesting enough time. But I'm going to have to give this game a not recommend overall because in its entirety, the game is just kind of a mess. There are 5 cases, and the only one I kind of liked unironically was 2. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect, and it definitely could have used a bit more time in the oven, but I can say I enjoyed it. The mystery was well written enough, and it was fun to prove and figure out how the crime was committed. Character wise, the game mostly falls flat. There's a ton of characters, way more than you'd see in any Ace Attorney game except for maybe the Chronicles. And despite that, the majority of them are pretty bland and forgettable. Even ones that are or should be more important to the story have this issue. The main prosecutor doesn't do anything to stand out from other prosecutors in AA. There's also her father, the judge in the final case, most of the killers, the list goes on. Basically, they all just felt very underdeveloped regardless of how important they are to the narrative. The final two cases had to be the worst part of the whole experience. Case 4 really highlights how broken the main character's main power is. He basically figures out who did it and even a part of how they did it despite their power never have been this overpowered at any point before or since that point. It makes that one wrongful accusation he made later on really make him look like an idiot. And maybe that was the point to show he wasn't perfect, but there had to be a way to do it that didn't make the first hour of the second trial of the case feel like a waste a time and force him to ignore his main power he's been using the entire game. The solution of how the killer did it also feels like it came out of nowhere and they just introduce an entirely new concept and rules of how it works in the last hour of the case. Case 5 is better than 4, if only because it was... entertaining to watch. And I mean that in a "this is a car accident and I can't look away from it" kind of way. Plot points and things that feels like the writer thought would be interesting feel like they're just thrown in one after another to see what sticks, and pretty much none of it did. Really, I could keep going on about all the things wrong with the writing here, but I think I made my point. And I can get that this is an indie game, so I'm not expecting the writing to be perfect. But even just ignoring any mystery game I've ever played, this game's writing just doesn't hold up very well in its own write. I can't really recommend it when there's only one case I can say I enjoyed pretty thoroughly despite a few issues. I don't regret playing this game, it was an interesting experience at the very least. But it really feels like it falls flat where it matters the most.

I recently saw this game when looking for Ace attorney like games. I'm so glad I got it! I loved it so much, you guys created a great world with great characters, and quite the great use of fantasy setting! This game is to me yet another evidence to prove that Indie games can do as great as big companies in creating high quality games, in this case, an amazing court drama visual novel. I look forward to whatever game you guys make next, whether its a sequel to Tyrion Cuthbert or something different.

I often think that comparison can feel unfair as a way of evaluating games, too reductive, but Tyrion Cuthbert does not just invite comparison to Ace Attorney, it begs it, so I will relent. Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is a mixture of Ace Attorney, Fantasy Manga, and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. It takes the Ace Attorney format of a lawyer-detective visual novel split into investigation and trial segments, and expands it by placing it in a fantasy realm of mages. Difficulty wise, it's a much easier than Ace Attorney, with basically none of the notorious logical leaps required. Part of this is because of Tyrion- he's smart, sometimes too smart for his own good, filling in observations that it should fall on the player to observe. This could feel somewhat patronizing at times, but at other times cut out those hair pulling moments where the characters of its inspiration seemed physically incapable of adding two and two. Another method of smoothing out the logical leap issue is the statement construction system, which allows you to put together component pieces of information to construct a statement to advance the plot, which I found typically balanced "figure it out" and "giving guidance" quite well. Another change, one that reduces difficulty but in a way that just enhances the experience, is the far more limited occasions where a "healthbar" is used, allowing for more experimentation and less incentive to savescum. Cuthbert also adds a new tab to the Evidence/Profiles record- spells. Many of them are quite familiar to someone who has played DnD 5e, operating with near identical limitations, conditons, and even ranges of effect. This was a fascinating system that I'd hoped to see used more, with the unique quirks of particular spells coming into play, but I liked what was done with it here. Music and Art wise, I definitely enjoyed overall, but found it to be somewhat inconsistent. Character models. even between your two main characters, appear to adhere to different artstyles, and that was indicative of some inconsistency throughout. None of it was bad, persay, I can only think of one instance where an art asset looked low quality, but they did not cohere as they should. The music had a very high bar to match, and while it didn't clear it, that doesn't mean the soundtrack wasn't well populated with groovy tracks. Mystery Wise, I was satisfied, but not amazed. There were quite a few instances of revelations that felt appropriate to the world and mystery, but were so rooted in the fantasy elements that they denied the adrenaline of a "THAT'S how they did it?" because the answer was always magic. Sometimes creative uses of magic, which entertained for certain, but I think in a sequel, I'd hope to see mysteries that give you more of the information that will ultimately be needed to put together the full picture earlier on. Characters however, I think is where this game shines the most. I'm a huge fan of Tyrion, Celeste, Ruby, Aria, Aster and the lot. Many of them have relationships I find far more compelling than their Ace Attorney counterparts, even if I wish more was done with them on the execution, things I hope to see deepen in games to come. The perspectives of Ruby and Aster are both ones I hope to see explored further, as well as Ruby and Tyrion's relationship from their rich history. Truly, a very impressive showing overall from a talented and passionate dev team. Excited to see what comes next.

An Ace Attorney style game. Remind me somewhat the Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton with the setting (mainly the fantasy style). I like the characters in the story, interesting reoccurring characters as well. The music kept me engage throughout the game, and it hypes you up whenever you get things in your way. One thing that got me in the game were two youtuber's that made the music Insaneintherainmusic and Shady Cicada. Without them I would have never known this game. Wished I joined the campaign when it was still up. Some good parts I might add in here, There is no point(if any) that you get a game over and go back to the title screen, you can keep trying until you send the proper evidence. UI is okay, it may take a bit to get used to.

I'm a bit torn on this game. I think it's a more than worthy murder mystery, but with quite a few problems. The vast majority of these problems are all related to a single (but very broad) issue, that being the first 3 cases - or more specifically, case 2 and 3, but I'll be saying "first 3 cases" when I mean case 2 and 3. They just aren't the most interesting, and they're really simple to boot. But worse than that, they're dreadfully short, to the point of feeling rushed. The problem is that this has major knock-on effects for the rest of the game. Specifically, it causes the game-long narrative to fall a bit flat. Things like an emotional showdown with your mentor, the takedown of the big bad, or even the whole romance... none of it hits as hard as it should, because you're not yet invested enough into the characters or the story. It's a shame because, at the end of the game, in the little credit epilogue scenes, I was actually starting to care about what was happening to the characters, but at that point, it was kind of too late. You just don't get to spend enough time with all of the characters. There's too little fluff in the writing. Which does have the benefit of making sure no case - and especially no investigation - drags on too long. But considering the cost at which it came, it doesn't really feel worth it to me. The interesting thing about this is that this really is just a writing thing. Like, there are multiple characters who have sprites, even multiple distinct sprites, who have maybe 5 minutes of screentime, if even that. If they had had 6 times that amount, maybe I would have cared about them. But Street Thug 1 and Street Thug 2 - both of which have interesting and cool designs - are just there to provide one single piece of testimony basically. While they had the potential to be interesting gimmick characters. Meanwhile the gimmick characters that this game does have do their gimmick maybe once or twice, because they simply don't have enough screentime for more. Hell, even the 'major' characters for this game lack in screentime. Take the 'detective' for this game - your Dick Gumshoe - I'm pretty sure he gets like 8 minutes of screentime in every chapter at most. Which doesn't leave much opportunity for you to like him, despite the fact that I think he could have been a perfectly fine character if we just got to see more of him. Same with your mentor figure, you technically see her around a bunch, but you don't really get to learn what she'll all about that well. And I'm not talking about emotionally scarring backstories or whatever, in that regard, I think the game does [i]alright[/i] (but by no means amazing). I'm talking about the small things. The little injokes they might have, their thoughts on their surroundings, the way their personality works. Characters don't really react enough to what happens, they're mostly just there to advance the plot, with some exceptions. Seriously, that's by [b]far[/b] my biggest problem with the game, a lacking [i]amount[/i] of writing. The quality of the writing was fine, though not spectacular. It was enjoyable. I would say that this problem only really gets resolved halfway through the fourth (and penultimate) case. It's the first time that the game felt like it wasn't just going through the motions at a breakneck speed, and actually introduced some elements I didn't expect which allowed for the world and the characters to feel more alive. I do think the fourth case is the best the game gets, because it's the one that makes me actually really appreciate the spin they put on the Ace Attorney formula - that being the existence of magic. It's the one standard case (since the last case is tying together the entire story) that feels like it actually uses that premise to its full extent, doing things that wouldn't be possible in a non-magical murder mystery. Case 1, 2, and 3 all felt like, while they made sense in the world, they also could have happened in another game, with just a few simple changes. The fifth case meanwhile does put a nice bow on things, and feels like it's appropriately bringing together all the elements from previous cases in a mostly satisfying way. Unlike case 4, it didn't really veer off into an unexpected direction, I did generally see most of the twists coming, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It was simply the logical conclusion of the narrative. I found case 5 to be a fitting end to the game, mostly brought down by the problems I've described before leading to the whole conclusion being less impactful since I just don't care as much about the characters or the world as I should. I think Case 4 and 5 do enough for me to say that this game has successfully justified its existence - to put it overly bluntly. That's something that I wasn't quite sure on before I got to the good part. I was kind of just going through the motions at that point, playing it because I'm obsessed with murder mysteries, not because I felt like the game itself was pulling me in. Now, other aspects of the game real quick: The visuals are good, though perhaps not entirely my cup of tea. A bit too smooth for my liking, but I can't deny the quality. The soundtrack has one banger that feels like it could come straight out of Ace Attorney, along with a bunch of very mediocre songs, and even some that I would say didn't fit the game all that well. Generally, I felt like the soundtrack struggled a bit with what to do during the quieter moments. But that's just my opinion. Finally to end it off, let me reiterate: Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is a worthwhile experience, but it does struggle in some areas. While I never got the lows of Ace Attorney's worst cases, even those ones did advance characters' likeability, whereas here, I felt like you could summarise the first 3 cases in a paragraph each, without really losing much. Still, if you're like me, and you're just a fiend for murder mysteries, I would recommend you give this game a try. If, however, you're new to the genre, I would recommend starting off with Ace Attorney (or perhaps Danganronpa if that seems more of your style, though both of those series have their own kinds of special problems).

The rush I felt when I connected the dots was exhilarating. Amazing game, would strongly recommend

I was curious about this game and thought it would be an average Phoenix Wright knock off, but when I finally picked it up I was surprised about how good the writing could be and interesting the new ideas are. It can feel cheap in places and has some weakness in the writing but in general I am very happy with this game.

"dsfhkjsadlkfsjfdlksghdlkjsahfjsa" Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane does play very much like an Ace Attorney game, and I mean that in the best way. I found the story, writing, characters, and art all enjoyable. It also adds some nice quality-of-life features such as instant text speed, and you don't have a health bar for the majority of trial segments so we don't have to reload every time you present something and the music doesn't stop... The game also often gives you a hint whenever you've gotten everything in an area, which should lessen backtracking; such things could be seen as making the game seem easier, but I'd say they just reduce some frustrating segments without diluting the parts you're actually here for.

It was a really cool game! I loved how humorous it was at times but it still managed to be deeply emotional when the story needed to be. I loved the combination of Detective Grimoire's sentence making mechanics with The Ace Attorney's format, and I loved the unique spin on it with the argument battles! The magic system seemed really fleshed out and well thought out! I'm excited for whatever the next part of this story will be!

[h1]For lovers of the Ace Attorney series[/h1] The game clearly takes inspiration from the Ace Attorney series and seems to heavily borrow elements from those games, while being in a fantasy world setting similar to what you'd see in JRPGs. This game is recommended to anyone who likes those stuff. [h2] The Good[/h2] [b]・Characters:[/b] Has several characters that are likeable and interesting. [b]・Music[/b] [b]・Visuals[/b] [h2]What Could Use Some Work[/h2] [b]・The UI:[/b] It's probably because of the colors used, but I sometimes don't know what I'm currently selecting. I also experience a bug where I seem to be selecting multiple items at the same time, even if you're only allowed one selection. [b]・Lacks several features you'd normally see on a VN:[/b] I would have liked to see features like autoplay, text skip, CG viewer.