I finished the main story and really enjoyed my time with it, but I need to give a few caveats.

First, if you choose to play this game in English you should do so with an open understanding that the text has not been properly localized. There are a lot of typos and grammatical errors, and in cases 4 and 5 I observed multiple instances where there was untranslated Chinese text. The latter is a non-issue for certain story beats, but it also happened for "important" story information (i.e. dialogue with red highlighted text) and during emotional narrative moments, which is a shame because it's quite a distraction from the intriguing mystery. It's going to be difficult to pitch this game in it's current state to western Ace Attorney/murder mystery fans as a result.

I had a friend who helped me translate the text in these instances, but it is a lot of effort most players wouldn't bother with when expecting certain standards for a text-based mystery puzzle game. I highly encourage the dev team to focus on at least machine translating all remaining lines from case 5 since it is the final case, if that's the method they are using, until they have the resources to translate and localize the game with a paid human editor.

Second, unlike Murders on the Yangzte River or Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane which were inspired by Ace Attorney but put their own spin on the genre, Trials of Innocence heavily leans in to the Ace Attorney homage. It's clearly a labor of love by fans of the Ace Attorney series, and I personally think of the indie games I have played this is the closest likeness to the AA-franchise. Underneath all the translation issues there is clearly the same humor, witty dialogue, and likeable cast members. The art has also had an insane amount of work put into it just seeing the number of assets coming out case after case.

In terms of the writing the mystery was larger and more complex than I was expecting. There are a quite a few parties involved by the end of the game, and there's a sequel hook on top of that. Puzzles aren't too difficult and the few occasions where I was stumped were due in part to wording or linguistic error. I know some people would mark that as a negative, but personally I don't think gameplay is an especially important category for visual novels which are this text heavy. The most important thing is always the story, and this one is very good. I just really wish the English translation was improved so that I could recommend it whole-heartedly to my friends who I know would otherwise enjoy it.

I hope the game sells well so that the studio can acquire more resources to improve it as many of the reviews have asked for, and I was greatly saddened to learn that the lead writer for this game also passed away. I would love to play a sequel if this team is able to make one (hopefully to finish Charlie's story, seriously what is the deal with his dad!?), especially since if they can produce an initial game of this quality they can probably improve other entries in the future.

I recommend this game based on what it is attempting to do, and not entirely by the current quality of the English translation.

Any Ace Attorney player is familiar with the frustrating situation when you know what you -want- to say, but you need to follow the games logic on -how- to say it... The situation is an extremely delicate dance of language, interpretation, semantics, and logic. When English is not your first language and you are attempting to lead the player down a very specific order of events, it is extremely important to pay extra attention to the previously listed details. After playing the first case, which is pretty ridiculous (in a fun way) and twisty for an opening act, I find myself at an impasse. I want to play more, but I also don't want to deal with the language issues I ran into during the first act for another 15+ hours.

I think what this game needs is someone to comb over all the lines of dialogue, while paying extra attention to green text, and add more specificity to what it is asking of you in those moments. The bad thing about English is the large vocabulary full of words that mean ALMOST the same thing... but on the flip side, you're given an extremely vast array of colors to paint your characters with to add that exact touch of personality envisioned for characters in your story. If the developer could find someone they trust to fine-tune the English language with respect to preserving the personalities of their characters, it would benefit the game immensely.

All in all, I still recommend this game, but I think it could use a few more revisions in the translations. If you are an Ace Attorney fan, or a general visual novel enthusiast, I think you may enjoy your time here, and luckily there is a demo.

The game is plagued with typos left and right and some confusing translations. That's the unfortunate reality if you have to accept if you decide to play the game now.
Despite all of that, the amount of charm and love the game has is simply incredible. The story may be the best I've ever seen in an ace attorney-derived game. Case 4 may be my favourite case of all time. It feels like the world you're in is a part of mainline ace attorney series, it's just that good. Case 1 isn't my favorite, but the rest are just bangers back to back.