Game: Aviary Attorney: Definitive Edition
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developers|Publishers: Sketchy Logic Games | Vertical Reach
Price: US $19.99| AU $25.99|CA $ 26.24 |£14.99| €16.49
Age Rating:EU 12 | AU M| US T
Release Date: 30th January 2020
Review code used, with many thanks to Vertical Reach
JayJay Falcon is a defense attorney in Paris (around 1847). His assistant Sparrowson eggs him into taking a case for the bourgeois kitty Dame Caterline, who is accused of murder. With mere days before trial you must begin your investigation.
The Clocks of Paris
The gameplay takes part in investigations and trials. During investigation periods you travel around Paris to find or take information and evidence, visiting these areas takes up one day each. Thus time management is an important aspect as you may not find vital evidence before a trial. Occasionally when investigating you may be prompted to look around, which will give you a cursor to find objects of intrigue.
Due to the game’s art style such items in the background do not stand out well so a border will appear around them. This is often how you’ll gain items for evidence, though sometimes you may need to part with your hard earned Francs to get other pieces. Dialogue choices are often important in order to garner the information you require, which will give you access to more locations and such.
In the trial you will cross examine witnesses to find holes in particular statements of theirs. While warned to not waste time I found it not to be a trouble until the branching point in the story. When selecting the right weak point you may present the relevant evidence. Having done so correctly enough times, you will win the trial with a Not Guilty verdict. Though you may quickly learn that being a defense attorney isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Apparently it is possible to progress the game having lost some cases.
There is also the option to engage in some blackja- I mean Jacques-Noir. If you wish to lose money for some reason. Though it can be played outside of the main game, for some reason.
Caricatures of Justice
The game has a gorgeous art style, with many assets actually taken from public domain. The visuals in particular are from J. J. Grandville’s caricatures. They have been animated so there is blinking, talking and some other movements. This leads to quite a unique style for a game, consisting of detailed sketches in black and brown lines.
This game has plenty of sensible humor, and some less so from your assistant Sparrowson, making the game an enjoyable experience. The narrative while heading in a different direction towards the end, is focused on the concept of justice. There was one instance of spelling error when “irony” was spelled as “iony”.
There is no voice acting and talking is represented by simple noises. Though it seems characters have different “voices”. The music itself is lovely, with varying themes for occasion that all befits. With this definitive edition you can listen to all the tracks on the jukebox.
Overall
The only issue I particularly had with this game was a save file corruption, though there has since been an update and I haven’t dealt with the issue again. The game autosaves at the end of each day and you can save and quit at most times, but that will only save to the day and not when exactly you saved. Which is only a problem on event heavy days. You can go back to restart particular days although it seems to be based on your first save which is more troublesome when you’re going for a couple other endings.
The game has three main endings, with some other possibilities that can be noted with medals you earn in game. Such as “The Real Bad Ending” which I earned by stating I wanted to be a contract lawyer. Even so the game is rather short taking me perhaps over four hours to get the main endings. The length and slight save hiccups being the only problems I find the game has.
Aviary Attorney is a delightful adventure game with beautiful presentation and some silly moments. Perhaps a bit short for the price but the multiple endings and other options give it a bit more depth.
Final Verdict: I like it a lot! 
Do you feel this game is heavily inspired by Ace Attorney, or is it fine enough on its own?
Both, at first it seems fairly similar but halfway through the plot goes in a different direction than court cases.