1. Desperados III [ PC ] - 9
2. Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path ( Replay ) [ DS*] - 10
3. Resident Evil Deadly Silence [ DS*] - 8.5
4. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney ( Replay ) [ 3DS ] - 8.5
5. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box [ DS ] - 7
6. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future [ DS ] - 7
*Bayonetta 3 - Got at the very least platinum on standard difficulty, given how the game structures and saves its scores is probably the only action game I'll ever do this for.
7. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies ( Replay ) [ 3DS ] - 9
I have to replay every Ace Attorney at least once, still have to do one for SoJ and the GAA games at some point, now DD is off that list.
I still really like this game, it manages to give each attorney its time in the spotlight and succeeds to balance it out for the most part, is also a game with a very incremental quality, it starts good and every case just gets better and better, culminating in a finale worth of the Ace Attorney name, there is some stuff that I remember better now after this replay, forgot how good Blackquill is both as a prosecutor seeking the truth while at the same time being a good time taunting the defense, and how much better Apollo is in this game as a character, well to begin with he gets an actual character unlike the game with his name on it, I adore Apollo in Spirit of Justice, but I got a good reminder of the effort DD does to make him stand out better as his own character. Stuff as clear as ever is how much I like Athena, that Phoenix is back to being Phoenix, the great transition to 3D in the effort to maintain the style of animations the sprites had, and another banger soundtrack, that has a mix of tunes of the traditional AA style and some of that AA4 more subdued electronic music, also how fucking good case 3 and on are.
Gameplay wise, the investigations parts took a hit in quality, only allowing to examine at very specific points, limiting the evidence gathering aspect as well as the flavor text from the other games, thankfully this was fixed in both GAA and SoJ. The spotlight of mechanics don't fare as well as the spotlight of the attorneys themselves in the game, the magatama from Wright and bracelet from Apollo get less use than the Mood Matrix from Athena, but I'm happy they get that continuity in universe even if they don't have as many sections as their individual games (which makes sense), plus their context in the story in the last case is fantastic enough to make up for it
Athena's black psyche locks breaking, and Apollo using an eyepatch to try to not suspect Athena from her tells with the bracelet are peak shit, also thankfully the Matrix is really good, and the courtroom segments are really good as well.
Difficulty is a tough balancing act in Ace Attorney, sometimes I think of the argument about how Bayonetta 2 is easier than 1, where I feel the correct term would be that is more polished, 1 has a lot of bs and weird design that I wouldn't call a fair difficulty. Likewise Ace Attorney in the older games has some parts where the game can be a bit too obtuse with which evidence you must present in a given cross examination, how to trigger some stuff in the investigation segments where you aren't really following a logical end, it doesn't happen super often where it would become a giant issue, but it does happen. All that being said, the "easier" difficulty in the later games is more the result of polishing those parts to make the structure and unfolding of the mystery is better, and I think in games like DD, the Investigations games, and SoJ, there are still parts meant to use your brain while not being obtuse in parts of its design, mechanics like the mood matrix and divination seanse work as those more open challenges for the player, and the hints from the playable lawyer and their assistants, and general hand holding never get as bad as the Great Ace Attorney games.
Story wise it can be disappointing if someone likes AA4, I don't like that game much so can't say I care about some shifts in narrative, I'm happy Wright is himself again, that Apollo is an actual character, and that the game isn't just theme driven and still has the character driven aspects that made these games great. In retrospective after 4, one thing that isn't dropped is that theme driven narrative, themes in the original trilogy were more present in specific parts of the climax or specific cases while instead putting a major focus on the character drama, and games after 4 balance those themes with the characters, they make their statements about law and all that, but also keep that drama and development of the cast as part of that narrative, the Investigations games achieve that, so does DD and SoJ, as well as the Great Ace Attorney games. The cases themselves in DD are really good, case 2 while not as heavy of an overall plot relevance has some very fun twists, case 3 is pretty kino, and so is the overall finale, this game and Investigations 2 have to honor of getting the best final villain reveal in the entire series, the realization of it all and how it all unfolds is pure brlliance.
So yea, game still good, where is AA7 Capcom.