I smurfing love Phoenix Wright. Easily one of my top video game series. You should definitely carry on playing the series Tori as it only get better from the second one.

In regards to the cases, I'd agree with your assessment. If you do play on more Tori, you'll notice patterns developing in the third and final cases respectively. The final case is always the massive climax case (and how in No.3!) and is usually very difficult. But the third cases are always very... goofy. Not goofy, but definitely much more humorous. I like how the pattern is set. It just gives you something to look forward to building up to the third case.

I find Maya equally fabulous as you do but Gumshoe is one of my favorite characters. You also mentioned the music you two: I actually like how the music changes each game. It gives each game a distinctive feeling; each game has their own objection theme, their own cross-examination theme, and it gets my blood pumping when I start to hear the allegro version of the cross-examination music.

Great reviews, both of you. You should definitely carry on with the series Tori. If you can play the Professor Layton series as well, that'd be awesome so you can play the crossover between the two.