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Great Ace Attorney Chronicles adds a mechanic that sounds like a Sherlock Holmes fanfic

Won't you join me in my Dance Of Deduction

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Ryunosuke Naruhodo and Herlock Sholmes stand next to one another in a court room.
Image credit: Capcom

During Capcom's E3 stream last night, they showed new footage of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which is coming to PC next month. Some of it will be fairly familiar to those of you who've dabbled in Ace Attorney, though they did reveal a couple of new gameplay mechanics: Dance Of Deduction and Summation Examination. I can't get over how that first one sounds like Herlock Sholmes has been spending a bit too much time on AO3.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is set a century before Phoenix Wright's story, following his crime-solving ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who heads to Europe to learn about a new style of courtroom debating. He'll also meet Herlock Sholmes, because of course he will.

Watch on YouTube

Dances Of Deduction revolve around Mr. Sholmes and his strange assumptions, which Ryunosuke has to further examine to find the actual truth. The example in the new footage shows Sholmes thinking some old Russian guy is holding a pair of shears to cut his gigantic beard. Turns out, it's actually a Russian ballerina posing as an old man, and she needed the shears to cut off her luscious golden locks. Man, Ace Attorney is a real trip.

Summation Examinations take place in the courtroom, when jurors are starting to reach a verdict. Ryunosuke can face-off against each of them to identify conflicting statements, and effectively use them against each other to change their minds, and tip the literal scales of justice.

The trailer above is a new overview of the game, introducing you to Ryunosuke, as well as his assistant Susato Mikotoba and the infamous Herlock Sholmes himself. It also introduces you to "Britain's mighty capital, LAANDUN".

In our Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy review, Katharine calls it a "tense, finger-wagging courtroom drama". So far, Chronicles seems like it won't disappoint in that aspect too.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will be available on Steam on July 27th, priced at £32/€40/$40.


E3 2021 may be over but our memories live on - see everything on our E3 hub. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, leading up to Gamescom, so see our summer games stream schedule to stay up to date.

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