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Aviary Attorney is one part Phoenix Wright, one part menagerie

Aviary Attorney

Sometimes you don’t know how much you need something in your life until you see it. Today, the specific something is Aviary Attorney, a visual novel that’s immediately evocative of Phoenix Wright, though with a significant twist: it’s set in 19th Century Paris and, as the name suggests, you’re a bird lawyer.

No, not a lawyer who specialises in bird law, but a lawyer who also happens to be a bird. It’s not that strange: everyone in Sketchy Logic’s recreation of Paris is a talking animal. And some of them need to be hit with the hammer of justice.

The promise of solving 19th Century mysteries and laying down the law in French courts as Monsieur Jayjay Falcon, attorney at caw, is more than enough to pique my interest, but it’s the art that’s sold me.

Aviary Attorney is an interesting case of the art coming before the game. Sketchy Logic was inspired when they discovered the art of 19th Century caricaturist, J. J. Grandville. Among other things, Grandeville created illustrations for a book titled ‘The Public and Private Life of Animals’ which featured the critters that would end up featured in Aviary Attorney, over a century later.

The game was due out on the 19th, but was then postponed until today. Unfortunately, it seems to have been pushed back one more day, as the release date on Steam has changed to the 22nd.