I'm personally torn on how case 4 should've worked. I think it's a great case, but it does feel very out of place, and I think that they should've used 4th case slot to expand the fifth case more and move case 4 to DLC.

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I think they mostly just included Case 4 as a way to throw some spotlight on Athena and Simon while still connecting it to the overarching theme that I feel like the game tries to portray (i.e moving on and learning how to handle yourself). At least... that's how I see it anyway.

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I'm pretty sure that's it.

They've been including overarching themes since AAI2 and those themes apply to any case whether they're filler or not.
For example, AAI2's is Family bonds and the ability to choose a path separate from your parents while AA5's is trust.

EDIT: Except the first cases now that I think about it.

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I know that it connects to the main theme and all that, but part of me thinks that case 5 just should've been 2 cases.

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I'm hopeful and pretty sure that like you guys say, there is still an overarching theme between the lines that even DD had but was quite overlooked because of how all attention went to the "Dark Age of Law" problematic.

The only game in the series where I'm not quite sure on what the overarching theme is is AAI. That's probably why I dislike that a lot. It just felt like a straight-up mystery, but I'm replaying it right now and I hope I realize there was more to it.

Case 5 having to be 2 cases: Isn't this the same as Apollo Justice's case 4 though? That felt very, very segregated for one case as well but it wasn't something most people criticized anyway.

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Oh, really? Good to know. I happen to be writing a mystery/lawyer fiction scenario with a friend and well, you never know where it might lead. =D

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Pacing was just kind of a mess in this game.

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I really can't resist the urge to press onwards despite not really understanding japanese. I'm still on case 2 and do far I think the pacing is okay, but I'm sure sooner or later, especially during court, that the issues mentioned will show. So far though I think case 2 is good vibes, a great mystery and not too crazy premise, Ema's reintroduction is good, sense of player agency is much better than in DD and Lol, Torusaman or whats-his-name is awesome!

Only big gripe so far is a recurring issue DD had: The writers can't help themselves but to explain or theorize on things that should be saved for the trial segments. There's a stage, it has 2 levels and 3 layers, there are 2 cranes and one pulled a doll, but oh, something is amiss, oh, and the box that held the victim has fingerprints in a contradictory angle etc.

The characters tend to reiterate the facts too much in detail and solve contradictions before we're even prompted to prove stuff and these things would've been great to figure out ourselves during court instead. Too much dialogue is wasted on characters talking about stuff ahead of time before they really should address those parts of the mystery, and it creates a sense of lacking dicipline in the writing.

This is where I feel the AAI team never fully adjusted to the traditional Ace Attorney formula, because this pacing worked in the AAI games where you're always on the move to find the truth via deductions and investigation, but in the mainline series the investigation was always more about finding the evidence; finding the facts and taking witness accounts in private to create an advantage for later. Instead they tend to write things too soon both in DD and so far case 2 of this game.

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Replaying the game reminded me how some of the characters have waaaaaay too long animations. The team has done amazing teams animation-wise, but they did go a bit overboard at times with the standard animations even. It's especially apparent in the DLC case, but the main game too has some characters who have long animations, which kinda messes up the flow of the conversations (as you'll be hitting a speedbump every couple of lines).

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