Paper Perjury
Paper Perjury is interesting in that it never dwells much on its establishment. It takes its cues from Phoenix Wright and its inspirations, but those titles typically spend a lot of time establishing their overarching hook before it gets going on their mystery. Phoenix Wright needed to nail how important Mia Fey is, Danganronpa had to establish its cast and death game, Aviary Attorney had to weave in its setting, etc. Here the establishment barely matters; the only thing that matters is the baseline characterization for the main characters. The narrative doesn't seem to care much about giving any hook to Justina herself; it just expects you to be immediately invested in the case that she gets dragged into. The game is weirdly non-confrontational about anything established about Justina. She doesn't seem to care that she's being dragged into a possible murder mystery despite being told she wants to avoid that and her boss is weirdly okay with her just ignoring her responsibilities to play detective. Why does everyone trust her so much to do this work? Why does Justina justify engaging herself in this? How is someone with zero credentials even allowed to do any of this shit? It comes off like the game is more interested in having the mystery than caring about the actors investigating it. To me, this sort of dissonance takes away a lot of the weight on its core narrative and makes the game hinge entirely on whether or not the main mystery is good.
Is it good? Sort of. From a thematic standpoint, it leans heavily on the upper-class and lower-class divide and the anxieties/culture surrounding that. It's why so much of the narrative is focused around an embezzlement scandal as opposed to a murder because it's running on the intent of accentuating how money corrupts and harms people. It's extremely on the nose about this, but I do think there's some merit to it. There's a strong point that the Eubanks, born into wealth, have a sense of idealism that comes off as condescending and tone deaf to people poorer than them. They're not actively malicious, but they have a clouded view of justice, denying the possibility their own estate could be tied to anything devious due to their pretentious idealism of social mobility. I'd also argue there's merit in the idea of exploring how crime can be damaging to people that isn't as overtly criminal as murder or assault. A lot of the narrative builds up some sort of arc or revelation for Ferris specifically but then… that goes nowhere? The game implies an overarching conspiracy across every case but they’re all so self-contained to each other that it comes off as more of a coincidence all of this happened in relation to the Eubanks than there being an actual connection between them. The overlap is simply having connections to the company rather than any specific event tied to it. It also sucks Ferris is never truly challenged on her ideals, she gets stressed and there’s hints of a grander arc but the culprit in case 5 ultimately cleans the hands of the Eubanks in the lamest way possible and if anything validates their world view. It feels so cowardly they would lean away from giving the Eubanks any accountability for the bad things that happen and it makes Ferris’ conflict feel kinda pointless on the narrative front given that you could honestly have swapped her with any random bourgeois.
I think the game is also way too charitable to everyone. Case 3 was so hard for me to take seriously because of how hard it tries to make everyone involved have a justifiable reason for underhanded corruption that made its logic impossible to buy into. Unironically, it'd be more digestible if they had claimed the actors in this case were acting with malicious and greedy intent rather than going through an awkward exercise to try and make everyone seem morally redeemable. I think you can make a character sympathetic by showing how money can corrupt people, but this is not the angle they wanted to take. They wanted to paint every action as morally justifiable, when often times it’s far more impactful when a character does something irredeemable out of their own social conditions which this game wants to be about.
If I were to describe the characterization in this, it's quirky without being eccentric. What I mean is every character looks stylized and their animations have them doing goofy stuff, but their personalities are far more grounded compared to contemporaries in this genre. You won't find any outlandish personalities like Sal Manella or Luke Atmey. Any character that appears to be overly eccentric is typically self-aware and there’s a grounded personality beneath that facade. You could possibly look at this as a meta commentary about capitalism encouraging us to wear masks of either what we idolize in ourselves or what is most socially convenient, but it’s hard to take this seriously when the way this is expressed is that everyone acts as hyperbolically as possible for no real social gain. But honestly, I think the main cast is likable and I think it hits a similar vibe to PW without losing its own identity. I just wish the cast had more to invest in with relation to the main plot.
The stylistic quirks are very Phoenix Wright. I won't dwell on describing that because you can see the similarities just by looking at screenshots, but it adopts even the small, subtle stuff like the screen shake or the big "smack" sound effect that plays when characters say certain dialogue. Even Justina's writing has a tendency to include snide comments ala Nick in response to the character of various things in any case. It's wearing the inspiration on its sleeve. But I think it's also a neutered form of PW's style. The sprite work itself is good but it doesn't seem to know how to use sprite work within a scene beyond "I slipped up" and "I am angry/sad in this scene." PW knew when to make sacrifices to make its presentations land; for example, there'll be scenes where you can't control the dialog to match up with the music or animation that plays out, and it gives it so much personality. Nothing in this game matches the outburst that Damon has at the end of PW's 1-5 trial. I think how minimalistic it is isn't that big of a deal, but I do think it definitely makes it feel lesser compared to PW in terms of presentation. That and the music is mostly bland.
One thing I would praise this for is how it structures investigations. Since progression is tied to being able to detect a contradiction in what npc's say and it's possible to talk to one without all the evidence, it encourages you to muse over your evidence and hop between NPC's during a case. It’s also novel to have things take place in an interrogation room rather than a conventional trial. In function I don’t think it changes much about how you rationalize the game’s logic or how its gameplay functions, but it does change how character’s interact since you're appealing to a lawyer who has their own agenda than a judge who has a pretense of neutrality. only thing I would say that’s a bit annoying about it; which other games are admittedly guilty of too, is that sometimes you can get the contradiction but it isn’t always clear where and what evidence you’re supposed to present. But given that there’s never more than six sentences to dispute, this is almost never tedious.
One thing that's funny to me about this game is that it's keen on referencing real world legal terminology to give itself legitimacy. I work in law so it can be patronizing how the game acts like I’m too stupid to get its legal jargon, but I can accept that it may be necessary for the game’s broad audience. But within that context, it’s so glaring to me how much of the game’s laws are made up for its specific setting. One big thing the game harps on in the late game is two party consent which in reality doesn’t actually exist in most countries, so it’s kinda funny how this is used to paint a potential inadequacy of law enforcement which virtually none in the world actually have to deal with. I think it's kinda funny that the game is basically making its own legal system and playing into that since a lot of this isn't at all realistic in any real legal system.
As disappointing as the main game is, I thought case 6 was generally solid. I thought the characterization between the brothers was good and I like the way it plays with generational trauma. Made me think this game would be so much better if it self-contained itself rather than try for an overarching thing and not landing with it. Feels like this is an awkward first step for the devs, but I hope they get a groove that makes them more consistent in future endeavours. I think they got a good angle here; they just gotta hit the right notes!
Is it good? Sort of. From a thematic standpoint, it leans heavily on the upper-class and lower-class divide and the anxieties/culture surrounding that. It's why so much of the narrative is focused around an embezzlement scandal as opposed to a murder because it's running on the intent of accentuating how money corrupts and harms people. It's extremely on the nose about this, but I do think there's some merit to it. There's a strong point that the Eubanks, born into wealth, have a sense of idealism that comes off as condescending and tone deaf to people poorer than them. They're not actively malicious, but they have a clouded view of justice, denying the possibility their own estate could be tied to anything devious due to their pretentious idealism of social mobility. I'd also argue there's merit in the idea of exploring how crime can be damaging to people that isn't as overtly criminal as murder or assault. A lot of the narrative builds up some sort of arc or revelation for Ferris specifically but then… that goes nowhere? The game implies an overarching conspiracy across every case but they’re all so self-contained to each other that it comes off as more of a coincidence all of this happened in relation to the Eubanks than there being an actual connection between them. The overlap is simply having connections to the company rather than any specific event tied to it. It also sucks Ferris is never truly challenged on her ideals, she gets stressed and there’s hints of a grander arc but the culprit in case 5 ultimately cleans the hands of the Eubanks in the lamest way possible and if anything validates their world view. It feels so cowardly they would lean away from giving the Eubanks any accountability for the bad things that happen and it makes Ferris’ conflict feel kinda pointless on the narrative front given that you could honestly have swapped her with any random bourgeois.
I think the game is also way too charitable to everyone. Case 3 was so hard for me to take seriously because of how hard it tries to make everyone involved have a justifiable reason for underhanded corruption that made its logic impossible to buy into. Unironically, it'd be more digestible if they had claimed the actors in this case were acting with malicious and greedy intent rather than going through an awkward exercise to try and make everyone seem morally redeemable. I think you can make a character sympathetic by showing how money can corrupt people, but this is not the angle they wanted to take. They wanted to paint every action as morally justifiable, when often times it’s far more impactful when a character does something irredeemable out of their own social conditions which this game wants to be about.
If I were to describe the characterization in this, it's quirky without being eccentric. What I mean is every character looks stylized and their animations have them doing goofy stuff, but their personalities are far more grounded compared to contemporaries in this genre. You won't find any outlandish personalities like Sal Manella or Luke Atmey. Any character that appears to be overly eccentric is typically self-aware and there’s a grounded personality beneath that facade. You could possibly look at this as a meta commentary about capitalism encouraging us to wear masks of either what we idolize in ourselves or what is most socially convenient, but it’s hard to take this seriously when the way this is expressed is that everyone acts as hyperbolically as possible for no real social gain. But honestly, I think the main cast is likable and I think it hits a similar vibe to PW without losing its own identity. I just wish the cast had more to invest in with relation to the main plot.
The stylistic quirks are very Phoenix Wright. I won't dwell on describing that because you can see the similarities just by looking at screenshots, but it adopts even the small, subtle stuff like the screen shake or the big "smack" sound effect that plays when characters say certain dialogue. Even Justina's writing has a tendency to include snide comments ala Nick in response to the character of various things in any case. It's wearing the inspiration on its sleeve. But I think it's also a neutered form of PW's style. The sprite work itself is good but it doesn't seem to know how to use sprite work within a scene beyond "I slipped up" and "I am angry/sad in this scene." PW knew when to make sacrifices to make its presentations land; for example, there'll be scenes where you can't control the dialog to match up with the music or animation that plays out, and it gives it so much personality. Nothing in this game matches the outburst that Damon has at the end of PW's 1-5 trial. I think how minimalistic it is isn't that big of a deal, but I do think it definitely makes it feel lesser compared to PW in terms of presentation. That and the music is mostly bland.
One thing I would praise this for is how it structures investigations. Since progression is tied to being able to detect a contradiction in what npc's say and it's possible to talk to one without all the evidence, it encourages you to muse over your evidence and hop between NPC's during a case. It’s also novel to have things take place in an interrogation room rather than a conventional trial. In function I don’t think it changes much about how you rationalize the game’s logic or how its gameplay functions, but it does change how character’s interact since you're appealing to a lawyer who has their own agenda than a judge who has a pretense of neutrality. only thing I would say that’s a bit annoying about it; which other games are admittedly guilty of too, is that sometimes you can get the contradiction but it isn’t always clear where and what evidence you’re supposed to present. But given that there’s never more than six sentences to dispute, this is almost never tedious.
One thing that's funny to me about this game is that it's keen on referencing real world legal terminology to give itself legitimacy. I work in law so it can be patronizing how the game acts like I’m too stupid to get its legal jargon, but I can accept that it may be necessary for the game’s broad audience. But within that context, it’s so glaring to me how much of the game’s laws are made up for its specific setting. One big thing the game harps on in the late game is two party consent which in reality doesn’t actually exist in most countries, so it’s kinda funny how this is used to paint a potential inadequacy of law enforcement which virtually none in the world actually have to deal with. I think it's kinda funny that the game is basically making its own legal system and playing into that since a lot of this isn't at all realistic in any real legal system.
As disappointing as the main game is, I thought case 6 was generally solid. I thought the characterization between the brothers was good and I like the way it plays with generational trauma. Made me think this game would be so much better if it self-contained itself rather than try for an overarching thing and not landing with it. Feels like this is an awkward first step for the devs, but I hope they get a groove that makes them more consistent in future endeavours. I think they got a good angle here; they just gotta hit the right notes!
Mini Review: Paper Perjury is interesting in that it never dwells much on its establishment. It takes its cues from Phoenix Wright and its inspirations, but those titles typically spend a lot of time establishing their overarching hook before it gets going on their mystery. Phoenix Wright needed to nail how important Mia Fey is, Danganronpa had to establish its cast and death game, Aviary Attorney had to weave in its setting, etc. Here the establishment barely matters; the only thing that matters is the base
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