Adventure Corner ~ Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Diamondhenge Entertainment’s fantasy courtroom adventure Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane on PC.

Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane

If its title didn’t make it obvious enough, it’s apparent from the outset of the game that Diamondhenge Entertainment’s Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is exactly what one would except for a “fantasy Ace Attorney“. While its cases might not quite have the same level of twists and zaniness as its obvious inspiration, Tyrion Cuthbert still offers an enjoyable romp through its five cases across a little over a dozen hours.

The game is set in a fantasy world in the kingdom of Wyverngarde. The kingdom is largely run by its ruling noble class and the domain of magic is primarily in their hands, however, there are various commoners who gain the ability to use it. To that end, misuse of magic is heavily feared and any magical crimes are swiftly dealt with by the inquisition, citing the fact that evidence of magical use disappear after two days. While nobles have the luxury of being able to use their power to hush up such incidents, any commoners suspected of its misuse are hurriedly scapegoated and dealt with.

Old bearded judge? Check. (Not currently known whether he has a Canadian brother.)

Players control the eponymous Tyrion Cuthbert, the protégé and ward of experienced defence attorney Ruby Tymora. His first case sees him investigating the magical murder of Flinhart McCoy, and attempting to acquit Flinhart’s adoptive daughter Celeste, after Flinhart is killed while Tyrion and Ruby visit the inn he runs. While from the outside magical crimes appear like they’d be very hard to pin down, the game’s version of magic is quite strictly regimented in each spell’s effects, and picking apart contradictions from these effect plays a key role in the game. This version of magic also allows for plenty of usefully anachronistic tools in investigation, such as being able to detect the use of magic and to what school it belongs, plus other elements like being able to record and recall evidence via runestones, and readily reveal all spells a magic user knows.

Tyrion himself has an apparently inherited ability called the Eye of Horus, which is separate from the regimented magic of Wyverngarde. This conveniently gives him insights into the minds of those he is talking to and helps him to suss out when a character might be lying or telling the truth, although in order to reveal that fact he will need to point to appropriate evidence. There are also sections in the game during the investigations outside of the courtroom where he will need to build up a psychological profile of a witness in order to emerge from an argument under questioning and obtain vital clues. The game otherwise plays like one would expect an Ace Attorney title to; outside of the courtroom is all about moving from place to place to obtain information and clues, while inside the courtroom is all about pressing and pointing out contradictions in witness testimonies, while drawing a few conclusions from them.

Arguments are the only time anything resembling a health bar appears.

On the whole, Diamondhenge Entertainment does a good job of emulating what made Ace Attorney so popular. Attorney of the Arcane doesn’t quite have the same level of larger-than-life characters, nor are the opposing attorneys particularly fearsome, but the main cast is very likable and easy to root for. Its cases certainly don’t drag on too long, and once players have been pointed to the likely actual culprit, there are very few times when a further curveball is thrown in, at least outside of the last case, which does come with quite a few of them. The game is also a bit mixed with how subtly it gives hints at future twists. Some of its mythological elements and character ticks pay off superbly towards the end, but other elements are blatantly given away and reduce the impact when their twists fully play out, and some fallout of its ending is all a little too conveniently swept aside.

The game’s visuals are pretty clean and by large pleasing to behold without striking very far from its fantasy and courtroom templates, with a few reused assets that the game uses for a bit of fourth-wall breaking. The game doesn’t have very much to clutter up the UI experience, although mouse/touchscreen controls make diving into and re-examining all of the relevant evidence and spells a bit clunkier on Steam Deck than it needed to be. Although there are a limited number of music tracks, they are by and large very pleasing and catchy to listen to, with the one exception being a sped-up version that plays during some crucial courtroom moments that can be a bit distracting and grating when players want to think.

Although very derivative of its inspiration, Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is definitely worth checking out for players who are interested in solving some more murder mysteries. An engaging cast and writing is ably supported by smart use of its own rules of magic within its cases. Its cases may not approach the full depth and creativeness of Ace Attorney, but it is still an engaging and enjoyable title.