SPOILERS unsorted Great Ace Attorney thoughts

Emotionally the two games are the peak of the series.

Gina smiling for the first time is still the best moment in both games imo.

Susato as lawyer was huge wasted potential. Next AA should have female lead without switching to some male. None of that AA5 type shit where Athena should have clearly been the main character. I get it was Ryunosuke's story buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I'm also me and I'm big gay.

2-1 as a mystery felt really easy.

2-2 felt way too much retreaded ground tho there were some good parts. Supposedly it was originally supposed to be a part of 1-4 and honestly it sorta shows.

2-5 the final trial had like one actual surprise for me, the identity of the professor. Otherwise, I predicted from the minute I saw Stronghart for the first time in 1-3 I knew he would be a villain. I feel the actual pacing of the mystery could have been done a little better and more should have been saved for the final trial segments. The actual reveals throughout were cool but I felt like they went off a little too early.

The major villains did have one huge factor in their favor, intimidation. Taking down the judge of the first cases of both games was satisfying, as was Stronghart's fucking explosion finish.

The last evidence presented in 2-5 suffers from original AA1-2 syndrome where ultimately somebody else kinda solves things for you. I don't hate it because it makes sense given Stronghart IS LITERALLY THE JUDGE but still a tad unfortunate.

Character interactions in both games felt a lot stronger than any other AA. Characters in general felt a lot better and more fleshed out as well. Tho I honestly feel first game does a little bit better of a job with this than the second when it comes to minor characters.

New mechanics are fucking incredible. The only thing sorta in that department I could care less for was being told to cross my eyes and look at a picture.

The soundtrack is fucking incredible tho, honestly will be hard going back to mainline AA and having to hear original styled suspense theme again, GAA suspense is just fucking incredible.

Kazuma best prosecutor, what Godot should have been. Barok van Zieks is also extremely good, resides in Simon Blackquill and Edgeworth tier.

McGilded being dropped off the face of the planet after GAA1 was extremely unfortunate.

Gina immediately looking up to Gregson in 2-3 was infuriating given how he essentially tried to get her convicted of murder in 1-5. In general I get "ok Gregson got off easy cause Stronghart" but I feel the protagonists were way too easily trusting of him after that AND THEN HE MANAGES TO BE A PART OF THE REAPER ANYWAY. This is supposed to be a sort of betrayal and shock except ya know... Gregson already showed he could be a pos in GAA1. That should have been handled better.

I liked how it really felt like you had to claw for every inch of ground in GAA1 but in GAA2, it felt things went in your favor a lot more easily. However, this could partly be explained as character development for both Ryunosuke and van Zieks.

I heard that originally it was meant to be one game, and honestly I feel it would have been a better package if it was one continuous story rather than 2 separate games that creates a feeling of disconnect.

I feel GAA1 has more heart in a lot of the little details. GAA2 has a much grander scale and some great character moments but I honestly feel I prefer GAA1. That being said, I feel both are superior to mainline AA and the AAI games due to superior characters and world building.

If mainline AA is to continue, I would like it to feel much closer to these games.

EDIT: Juror Number 3 in 1-5 did NOTHING WRONG.