That's just the average Phoenix Wright case though

That works if you're doing serialized stuff ala Doyle, but there the stakes are clearly defined for the secondary characters, if not for the main. Here it feels like characters from a whole different book were thrust into this story. Anyway, rant over, im reading the Kaiju Protection Society next.

Most of the secondary cast lacks depth too, they're pretty much what you expect them to be the instant you meet them, which is a shame considering the twist. Which isn't bad, btw, but I just had a hard time caring for it. It seems like a mystery disconnected from its protagonists.

It does have a lot of very cool stuff in it, from the believable sci-fi setting to the accurate depiction of PTSD. I feel it is hampered by a lack of stakes though : hard to care for a situation when you're told pretty clearly it will solve itself at the end of the book

Well we have to keep the guillotines in use somewhere