Don't hold it!

Considering it's a fan-game that's clearly ... inspired by Ace Attorney, Regeria Hope brings a couple of surprisingly-fresh ideas to the table.

The first is testimony selection: You, as the defense attorney, can help script your client's testimony. He may plan on some statement that could, uh, damage the case, which you can rephrase or remove entirely. It's an interesting twist on Phoenix Wright's prescribed dialog - imagine if you could actually tell Larry Butz to be less of a goddamned idiot! - albeit limited to a pretty small portion of the trial.

The other is that you can intentionally throw the case. Which is, ehh, not great in terms of a defense attorney's story. But I suppose that part of the game author's grand plan is a Telltale-style branching story? Maybe it would be more significant in a multi-chapter career mode, ... but this feature is hard to appraise in only a single episode.

And aside from those new ideas, this first episode of Regeria Hope is mostly what you'd expect of Phoenix Wright fan-fiction. The plot is pretty-well telegraphed, the dialog has its fair share of typos, the Unity-default GUI is just-a-bit shameful, and the narrative isn't as much "branching" as it is a branch of what the author thought seemed interesting.

If Regeria Hope's author can iterate on this strategy, then I might really look forward to a Phoenix Wright rival. But in the meantime, Hope seems pretty-well sequestered to "fanfic" - and if you're looking for a prosecutor-versus-defendant adventure with credentials, Aviary Attorney is a better bet than this imitator.

Better than: Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney, an officially-sanctioned fan-game disaster.
Not as good as: Aviary Attorney, a fan game with its own intriguing characters and plot.
Really, author: You can do better, if you recognize that the strength of Ace Attorney isn't suits and ties, but the interaction of uniquely interesting characters. Larry was a great foil for Phoenix because their childhood friendship conflicted with the Steel Samurai case. How can you make me care about Brock 'En Hart? What's my motivation?