Paper Perjury

Paper Perjury is a surprisingly competent Ace Attorney clone that does a lot of things right (in that all of the mechanics are almost identical to the original Ace Attorney games) but has some really odd plot framing and writing that's a bit weak. The game uses what is quite possibly one of the strangest plot frames I've ever seen: you're playing as a secretary at a police station who finds a contradiction in a witness testimony and is almost immediately given a de facto promotion to homicide investigator. I get that the detective in the Ace Attorney games is an underqualified idiot, but it's a little odd that they didn't just make the character a homicide investigator from the get-go. If Ace Attorney is a rollercoaster, Paper Perjury is a merry-go-round. It doesn't reach the dramatic highs that Ace Attorney does (there's only one obvious villain and they don't quite meet the level of a Kenji Karuma or that one guy with diplomatic immunity so strong the game cannot end) but also doesn't quite plumb the depths that Ace Attorney has in that it doesn't expect you to interrogate a clown with limited ability to press statements. This game has a press button, but as far as I know it doesn't do much of anything. There's a kind of undertone of the writer being afraid to write a real villain, and I don't know if that's because they were going for "cozy" (read: boring) or not. If you're looking for something that plays like Ace Attorney (knowing that Capcom will likely never release another one) and isn't terrible, this is what you want.

I did not encounter any bugs, so that is already a plus. This is another game that scratches that Ace Attorney itch. A well written story with interesting twists and turns, memorable characters, very punny names and great music. Paper Perjury does happen in an alternate world that appears to be similar to ours, but other than that the story is very grounded and realistic. A special shout out here to the track "Between the Lines ~ Presto" which easily stands on par with the "OBJECTION!" themes for Phoenix Wright and the first one for Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney: Investigations, as well as "Last Stand" from Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane

A reviewer's duty is to simultaneously assist the artist (any media is art, so are games) on the one hand by pointing aspects of their work that could improve (those that can only be fully noticed when the product massively available) and any potentials consumers by informing them before they spend their money what they will get with the purchase . Yet, above all, in this digital era, I believe a review must be sincere, with warmth, and thus should not be afraid to express subjectivities. With that out of the way, I want to start by telling that I first noticed this game in 2024-September, via Youtube algorithm to the trailer. I honestly didn't think much of the product . The comments already pointed out the similarities with Ace Attorney (from now on AA), with the breakdowns and the main gameplay mechanic of reading to find contradictions. But the design style was definitely different, with a 2D that's typical from a western production in the late 2010s and while the trailer did show breakdowns, they were compared to AA much more contained. And the key difference was the background song used in the trailer: "Reveal the Truth". It striked an unheard balance from me, on the one hand it was supposed to be intense (more so if you intentionally remind the functions these melodies have in AA) but on the other hand, the 'piano' was the main instrument and it didn't outro itself with a bang, but in the trailer it led itself naturally to the title theme, which might be the most soothing song of the soundtrack. And yet, in spite of that (or maybe, because of it) it was an exciting and hopeful melody. You do have to admit that promoting yourself as a mystery story, which usually thrive on tension, with a lack of 'bang' is rather a daring proposal. I've kept it in the back of my mind and when I started hearing from some YouTube reviewers that this is 'Cozy AA', my reaction was 'yeah, that may sound about right'. Believing that this melody was proof that at least someone in the project cared, liking its sprite artwork and prioritizing indie's alternatives when choosing to play certain titles, I decided to wishlist it. Funny how in these next paragraphs I will try to use the most humanly possible of my reasoning/logical/verbal capabilities to describe what led me to this work in the first place, yet I already recognized that what led me to this game in the first place was something visceral. I was finally gifted a copy on discount it and decided to play it since I've thought I needed at that moment, if not a chill experience, at least a passive gaming experience that consisted of mostly reading, being asked by the gifter to give my opinion was also an incentive and might as well write it out ;x. So yeah, enough about me, we can now fully talk about the game. Let's start by re-instating the obvious: if you've been searching for any kinda game and can't stand reading in most of your play experience and concentrating in order to do text interpretation, then I don't even know why you are here. Go find another more action-oriented game. It's fair to say that this is 'barely a game' and.... well yeah! Visual novels don't hide that and actually the main bulk of grading this product lies in the story. Yet, there are things that should be acknowledged of the gameplay. Firstly, I will keep taking as a standard of reference the Ace Attorney (AA) games. I don't believe this should be controversial. The game borrows all of its mechanics from this series. That's not itself wrong: one should ask how it distinguishes itself. Even taking exactly the same mechanics and making a worthwhile story justifies its existence. Luckily, the game does take advantage of coming after the 1st Ace Attorney to implement some anti frustration features , best explained in TV Tropes but I will repeat them here for sake of completeness. Not every mistaken choice will give you a standard 'wrong error' message. In some cases, the script of the game will try to te…