Pretty neat Phoenix Wright clone! Seems to have a lot of goofiness to it which I enjoyed, and it cut to the chase quickly to get you in gameplay which was nice for an impatient person for me (though I would've loved if there was more flavor text in things I could examine within the environment). The characters were nice and goofy, though I'd argue maybe it's a bit too similar at times to Phoenix Wright instead of doing its own thing. It was a little clunky for me at the start: I felt like the reveal about Halloween would've been great if I actually came to that conclusion somehow, either by selecting an option or using evidence, but instead the game did everything for me. I guess I can chalk that up to it being a tutorial, since it got a bit better in the next witness testimony where I had to use the appropriate evidence. I haven't gotten very far but I am having fun. I'm hoping to kind of embraces its own thing about exploring a world of anime genres as right now it just feels very much like a clone, which while good, can't last me too long.
Reviews for "Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle"
Very interesting choice to make a court drama visual novel in RPGMaker. The latter element nearly turned me off of the game until I realized that it the VN aspect was the dominating element. Why do I have a problem with RPGMaker? Because it lowers the barrier to entry to the point where anyone can make an "RPG", including (and this is very often the case) people with zero game design experience, who don't know what they're doing. Game design is a skill that has to be learned, and no matter how many unity store assets you throw at it, no matter how many engines you provide that make the game creation process as easy as possible, bad game design is always evident. There are no shortcuts.
In any case, I don't see any obvious flaws with the game, I can't really dock points for legal inaccuracy since court drama was never intended to be accurate, the only things that really irked me were small UI/QoL issues like the lack of a 'load game' option alongside the 'save game' option and the fact that I wasn't allowed much room for creativity, for example, why can't I make an objection about the fire mage costume on the basis of relevance rather than try to justify why she'd wear it? Saying that someone must have started a fire because they're wearing a fire mage costume is obviously grasping at straws and would never hold up in court, it's completely ridiculous. I am deducting a half-star for the story, because I found a lot of it to be unrealistic or limiting in player choice, and it came off as a cheesy court drama that you'd see in the form of a parody in a completely different show, e.g. that TV show that Lrrr wanted finished in Futurama. I'd rather not go too much more into the story. thezipper100 already tore into that. My focus here is on the game's design, which is competent. I care a great deal more about how it *feels* to play a game than the graphics, sound design and story. Here, the story does sort of affect the game feel, thus, considering this, the minor UI issues, and my experience with the game as a whole, I think 4/5 is more than fair.
Overall, a solid demo and one of the best entries I've seen in this month's panel so far. Right up there with high stakes.
Mechanically, this is a very nice demo of how to do an AA style game in RPGmaker, so for that, I can excited for more.
That being said, I have a couple major Criticisms:
-The story is... Bad. Between a decently competent judge, an up and coming prosecutor, and a literal police detective, plus the entire audience, it's just completely ridiculous how NONE of them realized it was Halloween, and that was apparently a shocking revelation, and that that's why she was dressed as a mage. That whole plot-point sours the rest of story in its sheer stupidity.
Also, it's not an inconsistency when the attorney brings up the fact that the defendant was allowed to be carrying fire-starting tools, it's just getting a fuller picture. (Little thing, I know, but these add up, and make or break games like this) (Also, maybe get some more specific names in there next time, at least in evidence text, calling them "Fire-starting tools" as their name is awkward)
-The judge seems to call for order way too much, and basically none of the times she calls for it is the court at all chaotic, or even loud. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing, could be written into her character as bit of a control freak, but none of the other characters imply that that's what's happening, hence me noting it as districting)
-I was left disappointed at the lack of flavor text in the walking parts. I was hoping to get yelled at for going to hawkes desk, or to hear some random conversations in the nameless crowd, or just something. Small flavor text like that is littered across the AA games, and for good reason; they give the world and story both character and context, and even if non-essential, it's still important to be able to get invested in the world and case. (The devil's in the details, and those details are what makes games like this sink or sail. I noted some good ones I liked enough to note below to show that)
-Pressing is just not done well. In the main games, Portrait shots are reserved for only the most serious/Penultimate pushes, otherwise, it's some screen-shake and a large graphic with "HOLD IT" taking up the whole screen, before cutting to the attorney/prosecutor. Here, between the constant zooming in and out, the shifting of the camera, the full-art pictures, the literal white flash, and the fact the "HOLD IT" is in a tiny text box not even centered on the screen, Pushing just feels bad in this game, and when that's the main thing your supposed to do, that's a problem. While I'm all for making yourself stand out and whatnot, on this part I don't think anyone would mind you taking direct inspiration from AA here. At least make use of cutting to keep the constant motion blur away.
Ending on a positive note though, couple things I liked;
-I like how Hawke is quite calm and professional, and even agrees and backs you up against an erroneous tangent by the judge, and stops any protests when reminded of the rules. It's a pleasant surprise for a game like this, Especially the ending bit with him making a statement about how they're off to prosecute Jackie next, that was a nice detail.
-The banter is also nice. Both between the Detective and judge's personal catching up, and the casual banter surrounding Travis and the quick nips at the games between the lawyers themselves. It shows up, stays for as long as it's needed, and then leaves without disrupting court of the pacing. Shows some good character writing.
-The self-made bits of evidence looks really nice, and the lighter got a chuckle out of me. Hope for more like this in the future installments.
-The ending bit was a pretty good hook, and I am definitely interested in this assassin with both some self-made rules//morals and some smarts.
Overall, a nice little demo tech wise, but I'd improve the writing as much as you can, maybe get some outside help?
Ether way, I'm hopeful for the next entry, this seems like it's going somewhere good, with all the things it has going for it, even with the major flaws thus far.
(Also, if this seems at all awkward in wording, I apologize, I got a glitch and had to refresh, accidently deleting my original review I was wiring as I played.)
Thanks for your review!
I normally don't reply to reviews/comment on them because I don't really feel it's appropriate. That being said, I wanted to quickly say:
-I was left disappointed at the lack of flavor text in the walking parts.
The follow-up chapters actually have a lot of this, and it serves the exact purpose you suggest; to bolster the storytelling by giving the locations more life & context. I consciously stripped the locations in C1 because I was trying to keep the chapter as focused on the tutorial as possible, however, I may have been over-zealous, so I might go back and restore some of them in the future.
Pretty cool.
Went to the options screen, and could not get out. Maybe an idea to somehow indicate that you have to press 'esc' to go back...? :/
EDIT: Really quick response +1 :)
Thanks! We'll make a note of this for when we do a UI refresh.