During the Mid-Autumn Festival, I didn’t want to work overtime and finished the last two cases of The Great Ace Attorney 2 in one go. The script is not inferior to the Phoenix Wright trilogy, and the second-to-last case, “Future Science and the Return of Souls,” left a deeper impression on me…
This case involves two researchers. One of them, during his student days, stole corpses to sell to the university’s medical school for survival and research funding… The other researcher firmly believed in his theory but lacked funding to verify it, and was exploited by a businessman with ulterior motives to defraud government research grants.
What impressed me were two points:
- Students stealing corpses for medical research, even being instructed by teachers to do so, is indeed something that occurred in the history of medicine. The production team researched this and incorporated it into the story, which was quite thoughtful.
- The experiences of the two researchers were completely different, but they both reflected a problem: young researchers need not only talent but also resources or large amounts of money for scientific research. This contradiction still exists today… I wonder where the production team got their inspiration to write such a story with some social commentary.
Although I personally think that The Great Ace Attorney’s script is as brilliant as the Phoenix Wright trilogy, when considering its deeper meaning… The Great Ace Attorney seems more profound and darker. The Phoenix Wright trilogy contains many unrealistic elements, such as trials involving parrots and telephones, along with various exaggerated characters, making it fun to play without any issues.
The Great Ace Attorney is very different. While I think the last case’s plot was somewhat disconnected… the rest of the cases felt more like solving real mysteries: the diplomatic dilemma in the case related to the British Assassin, the challenges faced by international students like Natsume Soseki, the difficulties faced by young researchers, and the emphasis on evidence, especially physical evidence, in court. All these elements make The Great Ace Attorney feel more like solving real cases rather than a carefully designed courtroom debate game.
I hope there will be a sequel!
