Update One Hundred and Eight: 05 January 2018
Aviary Attorney
3.2 hours, No achievements
Did Not Finish/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Even the tsuperest of tsunderes can learn their lessons, and I certainly have learned mine - if I’m not feeling a game, I’m going to move on. I was waffling on dropping this game, but what decided it for me was getting halfway through a trial, saving and quitting… and then coming back to find myself at the beginning of the trial. Yeah, I’m not playing through that again.
Unfortunately, Aviary Attorney came off, to me, as all style and no substance. This VN+ hews so close to its inspiration - the Ace Attorney handheld games - that I can’t help but compare them, and Aviary Attorney comes out as lacking. The real standout in Ace Attorney games are the absolute incredible character design and animation - each character, even minor ones, have their own unique look and emotes. They’re all memorable and leap off the screen. Aviary Attorney, on the other hand, seems fettered by the very thing that makes it stand out.
So, as you can see, Aviary Attorney’s whole THING is that the art is made piecemeal out of work by 19th-century cartoonist J.J. Grandville (who also lends his name to the main character, JayJay Falcon). It’s gorgeous, and well-done, and the detail is impeccable and its certainly iconic… but the actual playing of it was rather drab. It’s not just the lack of color, its the lack of… life. Each character’s ‘thing’ is just… they’re a guy with a tiger for a head. Or a fox. Or a kingfisher. There’s no emotes (save for just lip flaps) and the writing doesn’t save it, either - this game is much MUCH shorter than a standard Ace Attorney game, so you don’t spend enough time with each character to get to know them. You get a few quips and then the rest is in service to the plot.
This game is a few years old by this point, and while I’d heard a LOT of things about it, and about its novelty, I always had my reservations about it. I’m sorry to say my gut was right. Well, I tried! Out of my backlog, into ‘will not play’!
Next up: I’m taking this one down with a partner!
… but I’m bad at that, so I’m keeping another VN around so I have something to read whenever I want.
… ANOTHER game I just bought? And another wlw one, too? All right, RNGesus, if you insist!
See you soon!
Look at you, learning to move on from games you’re not enjoying ;)
I am quite proud of myself, too! I was going to try to power through but I just couldn’t sit through things I’ve read already.
Pretty disappointing. I was once drawn to it because of the artstyle (but then I remembered I don’t particularly like VNs ;) Still, it’s a shame that it’s a case of all visuals, no substance. That’s how they get you ;)
Oh yeah, I’m definitely a sucker for games that have unique, striking art styles… but there needs to be something else to back it up. I didn’t feel like Aviary Attorney had that. I wouldn’t write it off completely tho because I feel like this was just a matter of taste for me. If you don’t like VN+s though it is probably a hard sell.
Well after that non-endorsement, I’m glad I didn’t spring for Aviary attorney during this sale, it was a toss up between this and hidden folks and a few others. Went for hidden folks and it was really charming.
I’m glad! It wasn’t BAD or anything, but I definitely can see more charm from something like Hidden Folks then I felt from this game.