7/10
Yeah, it's alright, innit? It doesn't really feel like a finale case - the whole thing still feels like it's all intended to be prologue for the second game, asking more questions than it answers. This is probably a hot take, but in my opinion, it might actually be the most forgettable case in either game - there's a lot of order of events and things revealed in this case that I can't remember very clearly. But in spite of a dull villain and a lot of a really meaningful overarching plot to get behind, this case is still fun, because at least it feels like GAA has finally hit its full gear, and as usual the main cast is great and all the animations and presentation are top notch.
For me, ranking the games goes like this - 4 is by far the worst AA game by any metric. After that, there's the 'mediocre' trio of AAI1, Layton, and this game, and it's hard for me to pick which one I like the least. GAA1 is better than the sum of its parts due to its excellent cast, animations, and being a good prologue to the next game, but it also has the lowest highs - I like even the finale of AAI1 more than this game. I gave this game's cases 6 5 7 1 7, which is... pretty mediocre. I can see why this game didn't do great - I think I would hate this case a lot more if I had to wait two years for the sequel.