...to The Court's Corkboard, a blog dedicated to discussion about Ace Attorney cases and other adjacent AA media!
Envisioned as a spiritual sister blog to Columbophile, this blog is dedicated to encouraging open-ended discussion about Ace Attorney media: primarily existing cases, fancases, and licensed media! As a lifelong fan of Ace Attorney, discussion of the many characters and cases of this series is something that's near and dear to my heart and something I want to encourage on the internet as a whole.
Every so often, I'll replay an Ace Attorney case and/or interact with a piece of Ace Attorney media: some for the first time! Those will be relegated to their discussion hub (which you can reach via the navigate tab or my main profile), where I'll give a brief recap, my thoughts, and rank them on an updating and linear list. Once we finish a game, every case will be put into a broader, multi-game tier list!
Comments will be left open to encourage discussion about the case or media we'll be reviewing.
Enjoy your stay, and don't break nothing!
[THIS BLOG IS NOT SPOILER FRIENDLY]
(Psst! Check out my lorecentric Elder Scrolls blog Dovahnology!)
A series of panty raids, a robbed noodle stand, and a nasty car accident all evolve into the conspiracy around the death of a shady doctor. Welcome to Turnabout Corner!
Don't call it a comeback! Welcome to 4-2, our first full-fledged case of the Apollo Justice Trilogy! This case is one of the cornerstones (get it?) of the trilogy, building up our core cast and introducing plenty of characters that are gonna be vital to the series coming up. 4-2 was one of the first cases I ever played, so I've got quite a few thoughts on it. Let's see if 4-2 lives up to 4-1's standards or if it fails at the last lap!
Also, I hope y'all like the new title format. I think it makes everything stand out a bit more! I'm gonna go back to all the cases I've already reviewed and add the new format to those ones, as well, so take a look if you wanna!
THE CORE CAST:
Apollo Justice: Fresh out of a job and shit outta luck, Apollo decides to swallow his pride and take up Phoenix on his offer... for better or for worse!
Phoenix Wright: Phoenix returns as both a victim and our boss in this case: not a murder victim, thankfully!
Trucy Wright: Trucy Wright is Phoenix's mysterious daughter from the last case: a magician by trade and... well, definitely a little old to be Phoenix's biological daughter, right?
Klavier Gavin: Klavier Gavin, the brother of Kristoph Gavin, serves as the prosecutor in this case. Does he know about our role in his brother's arrest?
Ema Skye: ema ema ema ema ema ema ema ema ema
THE MAIN CAST:
Wocky Kitaki: Wocky Kitaki is our defendant and the heir of the infamous Kitaki crime family. He's a bit of a hothead... and a lot of an idiot.
Alita Tiala: Alita Tiala is Wocky's fiancee. Despite deciding to marry the son of a yakuza boss of all people, she seems to be rather timid.
Wesley Stickler: Wesley Stickler is an Ivy U (sound familiar?) student entranced by magic tricks and their logical impossibilities. He looks like somebody, but... y'know, I never could put my finger on it.
Guy Eldoon: Although he never takes the stand in 4-2, Guy Eldoon is a pivotal cast member: after all, if he wasn't here then the case wouldn't have proceeded like it did!
THE SECONDARY CAST:
"Little" Plum Kitaki: Little Plum Kitaki is the wife of Winfred Kitaki, the oyabun of the Kitaki family. Despite her jovial demeanor, she's quick to deal with threats to her or her family.
Winfred "Big Wins" Kitaki: Winfred "Big Wins" Kitaki is the oyabun, or boss, of the Kitaki crime family. Recently, however, he seems to be turning a new leaf: behind those massive eyebrows are far sadder, far friendlier eyes.
Pal Meraktis: Pal Meraktis is our victim. He was a greedy, gaudy, paranoid quack, and the lifelong rival of one Guy Eldoon.
A BRIEF RECAP
Our mysterious narrator gives a monologue as various scenes flash forth. A man is hit by a car, a girl chases after somebody, and a man blows a harmonica in the middle of the night. All the while, a man drags a large cart behind him before meeting somebody in the middle of a park.
A gunshot rings out... and somebody dies.
Ooh, 3D!
Investigation, Day One
It's been two months since 4-1. Apollo told himself he'd never come "here", but he's got no choice: he's out of a job and out of options. Walking in, we're welcome to the...
Wright & Co.... Law... Offices? Well, it's certainly gone through a few renovations. There's junk all around, a new couch, a tea set, a piano—well, that one makes sense at least—even a guillotine to put your hand through. What happened to this place?
Suddenly, a girl appears and asks us if we're here for the interview. This is Phoenix's daughter from 4-1! She asks us if we have any special talents, and after an awkward conversation where she tries us to be her attorney right then and there, she realizes the mix-up. This isn't the Wright & Co. Law Offices. This is the Wright Talent Agency! After telling us we've come to the Wright place, she introduces herself: meet Trucy Wright, CEO of the Wright Talent Agency and practicing magician!
Okay, now she's too old to be Maya's.
Talking with Trucy, we learn that she's only 15—impressive to be a CEO and a professional magician at such a young age!—and that some sort of "incident" made Phoenix lose his badge. Here we are again! What exactly happened seven years ago? Apollo says he doesn't know the details, but in any case we were called here by Phoenix himself. Trucy tells us that he's not here. He's in the hospital! Trucy tells us he's staying in the Hickfield Clinic and we decide to visit him. Trucy decides tags along!
Mr. Wright's hospital room is decorated with a swaying, swaying pillar of Steel Samurai DVDs and one small toy piano. Wonder who sent him those, hint hint nudge nudge. Before we can examine them, though, we see a familiar face: a creepy old doctor! It's Hotti! Hotti, who now claims his name is "Hickfield", creeps on Trucy before Phoenix kindly refrains from rightfully beating the shit out of him and gets to talking with us. He tells us what happened: he was hit by a car! Thankfully, he didn't sustain any major damage, only spraining his ankle once he was stopped by a sturdy light pole. We also get to talking about Trucy. Phoenix dodges the question, telling us that Trucy isn't just a stage magician—she's a genius. She glows at the compliment and he tells us that we'll soon appreciate her talent. Whatever that means. Maybe she's a Fey after all...
Apollo asks why Phoenix called him anyways. Phoenix made up a story about the Wright and Co.-, er sorry, Wright Talent Agency, being in big trouble. He says that he didn't make anything up: he was hit by a car, after all. It's big trouble in little LA. After a little joint father-daughter guilt tripping, he manages to get us to look for whoever hit him.
Tokyo drift!
Apollo goes to leave and Phoenix apologizes: he was just joking around. He tells us that we do have a real client waiting for us at the Wright Talent Agency! After asking us to look into his accident as a favor, we leave the Clinic and go back to the Wright Talent Agency. Getting to the WTA, we meet our client: an old salty man with ramen hair and discolored eyebrows. This is Guy Eldoon, owner of Eldoon's Noodles! He tells us to not let him down, but when we get to asking about his trial, he doesn't know what we're talking about. He's not our client for a court case: he's our client in the Mystery of the Missing Noodle Stand! Guy explains that he's from a long line of noodle makers, and that back during Phoenix's days as an attorney he and Maya would drop by Guy's father's own stand all the time. He tells us the story: last night, he closed up his stand after a day of work. When he woke up, it was gone! Vanished into thin air! He gives us a good luck wish before sending us off to find the missing stand! That's not all, though. Trucy has her own request: last night, she was the victim of a theft herself! A victim...
...of a panty snatcher! Dun-dun-dun! That's three mysteries to solve, baby! Trucy marks the scene of the crime, which is conveniently the WTA itself, and tells us to get cracking on the car accident, the missing cart, and the stolen panties! With no other choice and with the vague hope of getting paid, we set off to the streets of Los Angeles! We decide to head over to the scene of Phoenix's accident first. There's paint splashed everywhere, and there's a lady sweeping it up: we go to ask her some questions while keeping nearby People Park in mind and Apollo goes to leave. This isn't just any lady. This is none other than "Little" Plum Kitaki!
Talking with Little Plum, we learn she was a witness to Phoenix's accident. When the car hit him, it also splattered buckets of paint all over the Kitaki Mansion's front door! Hinting that she got rid of some garbage, we check out the trash can in front of People Park and find a broken-off side mirror alongside a discarded pair of slippers: but not before crossing paths with a strange young woman wistfully at the park. The lady disappears and we take the mirror with us in our search for the mysterious hit-and-runner! When we try to take a closer look at the park, though, a certain "Detective Skye" interrupts an argument we're having with the police officer posted out front.
...Wait, Detective Skye?!
the SMILE on my face dude
It's none other than our good old friend Ema Skye, all grown up! She was so pretty she crashed my game. Before we can talk to her, she kicks us out of the crime scene. We ask Little Plum and she tells us that it was "Chicago Lightning": gunshots! Somebody was killed last night. Furthermore, there was one more crime last night... a panty raid on the Kitakis! Our serial panty snatcher didn't just steal from Trucy: he stole from hardened criminals! Trucy forces us into looking for her bloomers, and hey, maybe having a mob matriarch owe us a favor isn't such a bad idea. The mysterious lady returns and greets Plum as "mother". Turns out that she's also a Kitaki! Trucy gives her a flyer for the Wright Talent Agency—rechristened the Wright Anything Agency—and we're done here for now. Time to go over to Guy's place!
Guy's house is situated next to the very ostentatious Meraktis Clinic. The clinic just so happens to have a police car parked outside and Trucy wants to investigate and tells us that's where the panty snatcher ran off to, but we need to talk to Guy! He interrupts us and we get to talking about his stand. It was stolen sometime between 10 PM and early this morning, and everything that he needs for his business was inside: his stock, his bowls, and his pots. Trucy brings up that her thief ran into the garage of the clinic and Guy gets mad: it seems like he hates the owner. Checking out Meraktis Clinic, we note the presence of a police car outside and the fact that it's closed down. The officer brushes us off and we ask Guy about it. He tells us that the owner, presumably one Dr. Meraktis, works for the "wrong crowd" and "got what was coming to him". There's a lot of bad blood here. Given the police presence, the closed clinic, and the fact that Meraktis worked for the "wrong crowd", could he be involved with our murder in the park?
Sneaking into the garage, we've already solved one job: the mystery of the hit-and-runner! The side mirror in Trucy's pocket lines up perfectly to the side mirror on the car. Our mysterious driver was Dr. Meraktis! Checking out the car a bit more, we notice something stuffed in the tailpipe (sound familiar?). Pulling it out, Trucy goes wild—it's her panties! Showing off a magic trick for us, she explains that they're not underwear: they're a prop for one of her most popular tricks!
Seriously, don't mention it.
Well, at the very least, that's two mysteries solved. Now all we need to do is find Guy's noodle stand. Trucy wants us to track down the panty-nabber, but we don't know where to start! Continuing to check out the garage, we find a pink cell phone under one of the tires. That's everything for the garage, so let's head back to the Hickfield Clinic and tell Phoenix we've found his car. Well, not his car, but–y'know what I mean. Talking to Phoenix, he tells us that he's heard of the Meraktis Clinic. Like Guy, he has nothing good to say. He tells us what Guy only tapdanced around. The Meraktis Clinic has ties to organized crime! The Kitaki Family, to be precise. Meraktis helps them deal with the injuries they can't take to public hospitals: gunshot wounds, stuff like that. Phoenix gives us his thanks and sends us off to find the noodle stand.
We're interrupted when we stop by the WAA by the lady we saw meeting Little Plum: introducing herself as Alita Tiala, she asks us for defense. In court! We've got an actual case on our hands! We're not defending her, though. She's come on behalf of her fiancée: one Wocky Kitaki, son of Little Plum and heir to the Kitaki Family. She tells us that he's been charged with murder—the murder that happened at the park, no less! The victim was shot with a pistol, and apparently the circumstances are "unusual", but we don't get anything else about the murder from her. She gives us a letter of request and head down to People Park. We try getting in, but we're stopped by the officer and interrupted by...
...Mr. Gavin?
This mysterious new Gavin lets us into the crime scene personally. Guess we've found Eldoon's stand: it looks like it was being pushed by either a Weeping Angel cosplaying as a police officer or the victim! That's all three mysteries wrapped up. Gavin takes his leave and Ema takes his place, asking us how we get in. We tell her about Gavin and her mood immediately sours: she angrily calls him a "glimmerous fop" and pouts about him getting in her way. Guess she's also got some bad blood. We give her Alita's letter of request and she reluctantly lets us look around. Ema tells us that the mannequin is taking the place of the victim's body: the victim was dragging the noodle stand! Ema formally introduces herself as Detective Ema Skye, in charge of the crime scene and visibly upset about it. What happened to make Ema so bitter since 1-5?
When we try to talk to her about the case...
...she cuts us off with a snack break, complaining about "not getting the position she requested" after nine years of being out of the country. All we can really do is look around, then. When we try to look at the crime scene, Ema cuts us off, saying that investigations should be done by professionals: done scientifically. Guess she still has that forensics special interest. We have nothing else to do here, so we go back to Guy's house to tell him that we've found his stand. He's not home! Guess we'll need to take Phoenix up on his offer of giving us help when we're stuck. Going back to talk to him, we tell him about the murder. He reveals (shockingly!) that he knows Ema from years ago. Trucy brings up the mysterious new Gavin and Phoenix tells us his name: Klavier Gavin, the younger brother of Kristoph Gavin and "rock'n'roll god incarnate". He tells us to give Ema a bottle of white powder hidden under a top hat in the WAA. We retrieve it and give it to Ema. It's a bottle of fingerprinting powder!
Cocaina. No, flour. Somebody just asked me why I hate the military...
We show it to Ema and her mood quickly changes. When Trucy asks her how she knows Phoenix, she's shocked: she didn't know that he had a daughter! Our relationship with Phoenix turns her mood around 180. She's happy to cooperate in any way she can! Ema tells us to use the powder on any evidence that might have fingerprints on it. Digging around the crime scene, we find a small knife. Using the powder on it, we figure out who was holding it it: our client, Wocky Kitaki. At the very least, we know that this isn't the murder weapon: the victim was killed via gunshot. As someone who took a forensics class in high school for a semester, yes, this is as fun as it sounds. Fingerprints rock.
There's a piece of cloth sticking out of a nearby trashcan. We go over to investigate and find... a pair of bloomers. These must be Little Plum's. There's little else here. Talking with Ema, we learn that the victim was killed by a bullet wound to the temple. Furthermore, we learn the name of our victim. It's none other than Pal Meraktis, the driver who hit Phoenix! Ema gives us a copy of the autopsy report and we tell Ema about Guy Eldoon, saving her the trouble of finding him. The real question is why Pal stole the stand in the first place. We don't have the answer to that question and decide to ask Ema about her story. She was studying in Europe to become a forensic scientist, but when she came back to the States she was forced into detective work! No wonder she's so bitter. Talking about the defendant, she tells us that Wocky is causing quite the stir in the Detention Center. We ask her why he was arrested and she tells us that they've got an eyewitness.
Greeeeeeeeeeeat.
Heading down to the Detention Center, we're late to the party: Wocky's busy talking with his father, Winfred "Big Wins" Kitaki, and we get to overhear the conversation. It's, er, more of a screaming match than a father-son talk. Wocky yells at his father to die and that he's on his way out: Big Wins exits the room and meets us. He tells us that Wocky is innocent, and if he's found guilty then it won't end well.
Wocky interrupts us, saying that he did kill Pal. Big Wins tells us that he didn't, tells us to not let him down tomorrow, and the first day of investigation comes to a close with an invitation from Trucy to watch her at the Wonder Bar!
Trial, Day Two
We have a small talk with Trucy before trial begins. Phoenix isn't here, claiming that his "old foot injury" is acting up again, and after we show off our Chords of Steel to Trucy, Wocky comes in. He asks that we get him a guilty verdict and Big Wins comes in to tell him off. Before we can talk with Wocky at all, trial starts!
It looks like Mr. Klavier Gavin isn't just a rockstar—he's a prosecutor! Hope he doesn't have any hard feelings about what happened with Kristoph. He says that he's here to see the "true strength" of the "little boy who bested [his] brother"... yikes. Maybe there is some bad blood there. In any case, Klavier livens up the atmosphere with some music and we get rolling!
Ooh, an FPS counter!
Apollo is thoroughly unamused with Klavier's antics. Getting right down to business, he explains the facts of the case as we already know them: our victim is Pal Meraktis, shot dead while pulling a noodle stand in People Park. Klavier is quick into jumping into the motive. We object, saying that he's not obligated to testify, and he counters with a clean comeback. Wocky himself wants to testify about his motive! We've been blindsided twice in maybe 5 minutes: talk about a Blitzkrieg Bop...
We're on to our first bit of testimony. Wocky testifies that Meraktis was a quack, telling the court about a botched operation that happened about half a year ago. Pressing him for more information, we learn quite what this operation was about: he was on Rivales family turf and got shot in an ambush. Klavier explains that he was shot in the heart, no less.
fuuuuuuuuuuuck dude that rivales guy is cold as shiiiiiiiit
Wocky testifies that he was passing through People Park to get to Meraktis Clinic to get the drop on Pal: so they just happened to meet in People Park on accident? After pressing through every statement, His Honor cuts off the cross-examination. He's curious as to why it took Wocky so long to figure out what had happened. Klavier explains that the bullet was only found during a recent health checkup, and after Wocky says it's better to die young than to fade away he reveals an uncomfortable truth. The bullet in Wocky's heart? It will kill him. He provides Wocky's check-up report to the court to prove as much.
Wocky is taken off the stand and our first witness is called up—a student at Ivy U (hey, that's Phoenix's alma mater!) named Wesley Stickler. Jeez, this guy's tangents. Anyways, he's more than willing to give us his first testimony. Wesley testifies that he was passing through People Park on his way home. He saw Wocky and Pal, with Wocky holding a pistol and pointing it at Pal before pulling the trigger. There's one issue with his testimony—Wesley says that Pal was shot in the forehead when we know that he was shot in the temple. Before cross, though, Klavier produces said pistol.
Pretty heavy weaponry. ...Even if it's pretty clearly just supposed to be a USP.
Trucy says that she feels like she's seen Wesley before. In any case, we present the autopsy report to his claim of seeing Wocky shoot Pal in the forehead. After bumbling for a bit, Apollo points out the problem: Pal was shot in the right temple, not the forehead! It's a solid contradiction... until Klavier pipes up. Klavier gives us a simple explanation. If you're walking through the park and see a man about to murder another man, you'd shout "stop". That's what Wesley did, Pal turned his head, and then Wocky shot him. Plain and simple.
Wesley gives his second testimony, this time about the fact that Pal turned his head. He cried out to the two of them, Pal turned his head, and then a gunshot rang out. Wocky threw the pistol down to the ground and ran away. The contradiction in this testimony is also pretty clear. After all, we didn't find a pistol at the scene... but we did find a knife with Wocky's fingerprints, thrown down onto the ground where he would've been standing! Furthermore, there aren't any fingerprints on the gun itself: if Wocky had both, why would there be fingerprints on the knife but not the gun? The gun had to have remnants of fingerprints, given that we know they were wiped away. But Wocky didn't have time to wipe the gun! Wocky threw down the knife. This proves that he didn't throw away a gun and that he wasn't wearing gloves!
Klavier counters that we've just proven that the "killer" Wesley saw was indeed Wocky and that he came to the park with the intention of killing Pal. His Honor asks for one more testimony, this time without any assumptions.
It does make an ass out of you and me.
Sticker is asked to testify about what happened after the shot was fired. Wesley says that he used his cell phone to call the police and didn't leave the scene. Pressing Wesley for more information, we don't get much to go off of: although Trucy looks like she has something to say. In fact, his testimony seems airtight! Klavier even manages to explain away the knife. Maybe it fell out of Wocky's pocket when he threw the gun away. It's a perfectly plausible explanation. With no room to go, His Honor is ready to call an end to today's proceedings... and pronounce a verdict!
Before he can do so, though... a scream racks the courtroom!
A dashin' assassin!
Trucy's being held at knifepoint! The hostage-taker says that unless the courtroom wants to see her die here and now the court must adjourn for a recess. With no other option, and with Klavier asking him to do so, His Honor acquiesces. Trucy calls for us to come to the defendant's lobby, and we rush there.
Returning to the defendant's lobby in a panic, we run into Trucy. She's, thankfully, safe and sound: and after calming us down reveals that there was no kidnapper. It was her trusty sidekick, the fantastic Mr. Hat! Trucy explains that what she was doing was buying time. Remember how we revealed Shadi hit Olga last case? It turns out that she's got the same ability—and she saw Wesley's tell! That's what was bothering her during his testimony. Calling back to the other times Wesley was unsure about his testimony, she points out that when he was unsure about his testimony he fiddled with the page of his book, and each time he was unsure there was a blatant contradiction! Once is a coincidence, but twice is a pattern. Trucy even tells us that this is the same way Phoenix went undefeated in poker for seven long years. She tells us that to get Wesley to crack we have to "perceive the truth". Before we can talk more, though, court reconvenes and we're forced back into the courtroom.
Apollo covers for Trucy, and even though His Honor buys it Klavier is totally on to her. We ask to cross-examine Wesley again, explaining that we forgot to ask a question. His Honor lets us get back to it with a strict warning against stalling. Wesley testifies the same exact testimony and we feel it: the bracelet on Apollo's arm clenches around his wrist. Questioning Wesley about his cell phone, the one part of his testimony where he's flipping through his book, we feel it again. Trucy tells us that this is it! We touch our bracelet...
...and suddenly we can see everything so much clearer.
Behold, my favorite mechanic in any Ace Attorney game!
After a brief pep talk with Trucy, we listen carefully to Wesley's testimony. We focus on his fingers, and sure enough right as he talks about his cellphone... he rubs his fingers together.
Gotcha.
We've got him now. Focusing on his cell phone in particular, we ask one question: what's his phone number? Klavier is obviously amused by wherever we're going with this and His Honor asks Wesley to tell the court his number. We ask Trucy to call it... and the other phone in her pocket starts ringing. It's Klavier's own music, no less. Flattering. Anyways, this was the phone we found in the Meraktis Clinic, remember? Right under Pal's car, no less! Everything's starting to make sense! Wesley lied about calling the police on his phone and admits that he used a payphone to call the police: a phone quite a distance away from the park, no less. Now we just have to figure out why he lied. The why is pretty simple: he didn't want the court to know about his location. Why? Because he broke into the garage! Wesley counters. We can't prove that he lost it that night!
Except that we can. Trucy herself did so the moment we found it: remember that it was Pal's car that hit Phoenix. If Wesley lost his phone earlier, it would've been crushed under his tire!
God, I love how this connects back to the investigation.
His Honor asks Wesley to testify one more time. This time, nothing but the truth! Trucy is still staring intently at him, though. Wesley testifies that he must've dropped his phone walking home from the supermarket. He still insists that he saw both Pal and Wocky in the park: his testimony, at its core, hasn't changed. Going into cross, we ask Wesley if he could show us the path he took coming home the night of the crime. He explains that he was walking home from the supermarket and passed by the Meraktis Clinic on his walk home, and that must've been when he dropped the phone. He walked into People Park from the northeast, straight from the Meraktis Clinic, and that's when he saw the crime.
I really, really like this map for some reason.
Asking more about his route to the park, we ask if he noticed anything suspicious. He firmly says that he didn't, so that's a dead lead for right now. We decide to ask him about the very moment of the crime: specifically about the noodle stand itself. After a moment, he says that he could even read the sign—it said "NOODLE" in big, bold letters.
Here's the thing. Mr. Eldoon's stand only says "NOODLE" on its right side... which was the side that was facing Wesley. He's even adamant that it said "NOODLE". Trucy takes over for us! She shows off her Wright heritage by explaining her own theory. If he's not lying, then that can only mean one thing. He was coming in to the park from the northeast, and was facing the crime scene from the north, not the South! Ergo, when he called out to Wocky and Pal the latter would've turned his head to the right, not the left. In other words, if Wocky shot him, the entry wound should be in his right temple, not his left temple! Wocky couldn't have seen his left temple, but since Wesley was standing from the north, he had a clear line of sight while Pal was still facing forward. Ergo! The only person that could've shot Pal in his left temple was Wesley himself!
Klavier objects, asking us to clarify if we're really accusing Wesley of murder. Trucy definitely wants to, but we take a second to think a bit more about it. Something still doesn't add up. Wesley is lacking a motive: Klavier himself said that there was no connection between he and Pal. Did we find anything near the Meraktis Clinic that he... could've...
...Ah, jeez.
Wesley might not be our killer, but he's definitely of a crime: theft. He's our panty snatcher! Trucy chased down Wesley and he hid in Meraktis Clinic, where he dropped his phone. In a panic, he stuffed Trucy's underwear in the muffler of Pal Meraktis's car! He desperately tries to defend himself, crying that it's not what it looks like before collapsing onto the witness stand.
A broken panty raider.
Wesley finally explains himself. Thankfully, he's not a pervert or a member of OVO: he'd seen Trucy perform her Magic Panties trick at the Wonder Bar and was desperate to see how it worked. As a scientist. Wesley admits that he was behind not just stealing Trucy's panties but a whole rash of panty thefts, all in an effort to try and understand how exactly the trick worked. His Honor wonders: why did Wesley lie about the direction he witnessed the crime from? This is easy to answer. Remember what we found in the trash can on the north side of the park? Another pair of panties. He was just disposing of Little Plum's bloomers in the trash.
Wesley admits to everything. He avoided the Wright Talent- well, now Anything Agency, but saw Plum's bloomers drying on a clothesline. As he was leaving to go home he witnessed the murder and disposed of the panties out of fear of being searched.
His Honor decides to end proceedings here. Klavier points out all the evidence pointing towards Wocky's guilt, and His Honor brings up the discrepancy with the entry wound: Wesley was viewing the crime from the north, meaning that Wocky couldn't have shot Pal in the right temple from where he was standing. With that question still being unanswered, His Honor sees fit to permit another day of investigation... and court comes to a close for the day!
Investigation, Day Two
Right after the trial concludes, we head back to the Wright Anything Agency. Trucy's taking the whole thing in stride, thinking about the publicity for her magic acts, while Apollo's clearly exhausted. While we're talking, who else shows up but Alita Tiala! She compliments us for our showing at the trial today and asks if Wocky will turn out okay: revealing that they're due to be wed just next month. Although we're curious about her decision to marry into the mafia, Alita explains that she truly loves Wocky and that they met at her old job. She's mum on what the old job actually was, though. She explains that Big Wins is trying to get out of the mob business, transferring all of his assets to a legal company out of the blue. Wonder what's going on?
The next Big Boss, you say?
Alita says that Big Wins focuses a lot on profit. Guess that explains the switch to a legitimate business operation. Wocky's the other way around: he doesn't care about profit, he cares about gangster tradition. We ask about Wocky's operation and his relationship with Pal. Alita doesn't explain much, but she disagrees with Klavier's claim that his life is in danger. We're curious about the operation itself, though. Alita takes her leave and we plan to head down to the Meraktis Clinic. Before we do that, though, we stop by the Detention Center. Maybe Wocky's ready to chat about his operation. When we get there, though, he's nowhere to be found: the guard informs us that the "other suspect" is free for an interview, though! Wesley Stickler sees us and freaks out, but he quickly calms down.
The first thing we ask about is the panty-snatching. He reiterates that he stole them out of curiosity, not for any other reason, and once he sees Trucy he outright grovels for the chance to learn magic from her: we tease Trucy, and she decides to back off. We ask him once more about what he saw during the murder. Wesley says that his testimony isn't changing—he saw both Wocky and Pal, shouted at them to stop, and a gunshot rang out.
Either way, this confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that Wocky was at the scene of the crime. After we present the infamous Magic Panties, Trucy explains that they're actually just... normal underwear. It's all slight of hand, then? Heading back to Meraktis Clinic, we run into Little Plum in front of the Kitaki Mansion. She congratulates us on finding her bloomers and we talk about Wocky. Plum says that Wocky's simply not the type of person to shoot somebody: his bluster and bravado is just that, bluster and bravado. Like Wocky, Big Wins puts on his own gangster image, but deep down he cares deeply about his boy. She reiterates what Alita said about the family trying to move on to legitimate business operations, and after Trucy asks Plum explains that the old gangster life just isn't making enough money. Enough clean money. She even confirms that the pistol used in the murder was one of their own: one of their pistols has gone missing! None of the rank and file have access to weaponry, so it must've been one of the higher-ups. A higher-up like Wocky...
Talking about Alita, Plum makes it very clear that she's not a big fan of her and Wocky's relationship. Apparently their engagement was super sudden. She's about to say something but cuts herself off, blaming it on paranoia from being a gangster for too long. "Stay in the business too long," she says, "and you start to only see darkness in people." That's all she has to say. Hey, remember the trash can from yesterday? Trucy said there were two pieces of garbage inside. Taking a look, we find a pair of slippers from the Meraktis Clinic. There's even paint on the soles! They must've been thrown in here after Phoenix's accident. Some park keeper needs to be reprimanded for not taking out the trash...
That's all she wrote for the Kitaki Mansion, at least for right now. We continue our walk to the Meraktis Clinic and run into Guy Eldoon outside of his house. Guy thanks us for finding his stand, although he's rather salty about not being able to get it back. He says that Pal spites him "even in death": was there some sort of connection between the two? Guy spills his beans. Er, broth. Noodles? Whatever. He explains that he initially didn't want to be a noodle salesman like his forefathers, but Pal moving in next door forced his hand. Lamenting about his "stolen dreams"... maybe we've got a good idea of what he was before all of this happened. Guy explains that he hated Pal, exposing that he worked for the mafia: a fact which we already knew, but apparently he was also swimming in dough. He'd give illegal offers to the Kitakis and they'd come to him in return... with blood money in tow.
We ask and Guy tells the truth. He was a doctor before he became a noodle salesman. He was a surgeon until around two years ago, when Pal moved in and took over. Guy was left destitute and forced into the family noodle business. The two were lifelong rivals: everything Guy did, Pal just had to do better. What a loser. He apologizes for venting to us and gives us an offer—if we ever need a doctor, or any information about doctors, just stop by Eldoon's house. Heading over to the clinic, we're about to make our way in, but the police officer from the park stops us. No dice in investigating Meraktis Clinic... for now.
With nowhere else to really go, we head back to the Detention Center. We finally have a chance to talk with Wocky, and he briefly confuses us with Alita before finally talking to us. Now that we can finally talk with our client, we ask him the most important question: he's being married next month, right?
...I'm not Californian enough to understand this guy.
Trucy asks Wocky how the two met, but when he hears that Alita wouldn't tell us he stays quiet. Guess that's a dead end. She asks him about his relationship with Pal and we finally get somewhere. Wocky tells us the story: he walked into Rivales territory with a knife and got shot for violating their turf. He nearly died, but Kitaki made men helped him get out. Wocky swears that Pal didn't remove the bullet on purpose, certain that the Rivales family paid him off so that he would eventually die and the Kitaki family would be left heirless. Moving on to the Kitakis themselves, Wocky complains about Big Wins's turn towards legitimate operations. He's angry about the shift away from gangster tradition, that's for sure. The turn towards making money instead of keeping the gangster business running is a betrayal in his eyes. Wocky's clearly waiting for Big Wins to die so that he can taken over the Kitaki family... if he doesn't die first, that is.
We move on to talking about the weapons found at the crime scene: the pistol and the knife. Wocky confirms one last time that they're Family property and he even admits that he snuck them out. The "killer" that Wesley saw was, in fact, Wocky. Trucy butts in and asks him about the night of the crime—finally, we're getting somewhere! When we ask him if he shot Pal, though, he hits us with a very flat "I dunno". Well, that's better than "yes". Not by much, though... Wocky explains that he planned to kill Pal but he ran into him in the park. What actually happened is a little fuzzy. He doesn't remember exactly what happened but is pretty sure he had to have done it since there was nobody else there.
We've got nothing left to talk about with Wocky, so I guess there's nowhere else to go but People Park. I hate it when conversations just kind of abruptly end like this. Probably my biggest pet peeve in all of AA. Anyways, when we get there there's a huge throng of people outside of the park. They're not here for the murder scene, though... they're here to meet a rockstar!
Good to see you too, Prosecutor Spray Tan.
Klavier explains that his new album just dropped. He's got to wave to the fans, ja? He was on his way back home when his motorcycle stopped working: a clogged exhaust pipe. Hey, wait a minute. That rings a few bells! I wonder... Klavier explains that cars and motorcycles—anything with an exhaust pipe, really—won't run if it's clogged. Fun fact: that's actually true. Ignition engines like the ones cars and motorcycles use need to expel gas to work. That's why planes have those big-ass turbines on the side, so they can constantly take in new air. Anyways, Klavier takes his leave: but not before warning us that Ema is not in a good mood. Grumpy detectives and glimmerous prosecutors...
Ema is... Ema. She's upset about her new forensics kit not working, upset about us talking about her behind her back, and upset at Klavier for existing. I totally get two of those things, but... upset at people talking about you? I jest, I jest. She spits vitriol at the so-called "glimmerous fop" before we finally get to talk to her a bit. Ema's, understandably, rather private about SL-9. Can't blame her. She explains that she went to Europe right after to become a forensic investigator, but was forced into detective work after failing the test. A defiant Skye is a Skye nonetheless, however: she decided to do forensic work anyway, bringing along a new kit to play with.
And to think I didn't clock her as autistic on my first couple playthroughs...
Trucy asks what it is and Ema tells us that it's a footprint analysis kit. Y'know, you can't leave the house without it. Phone, keys, wallet, footprint analysis kit. She explains that it was raining on the night of the murder, meaning that there were footprints left in the mud from the incident. That must be why those tarps were there earlier! With the kit, we can tell exactly where somebody was standing. She offers it to us to try out, putting allegiances aside in the name of love- friendship. Friendship. Friendship. Sorry, Apollo, not yet.
Ema explains how the footprint analysis kit works. There are three sets of footprints at the park: a pair near the south road, Wesley's near the trash can, and a mysterious third print at the back of the noodle stand. Wonder how that got there? Anyways, Ema points out the prints near the road: those must be Wocky's. Since we know whose those are, they're a good control. After pouring in a cup of plaster, drying it, and rolling some ink over the bottom to make out the soleprint, we take out the mold and compare the print to his shoes. Sure enough, those prints are Wocky's! Looks like he stepped in some gum, too. Oof.
Doing some more footprint analysis, we confirm that the ones near the trash can are indeed Wesley's. As for the mysterious lone print near the noodle stand, we take it and... don't have a match. Huh. It doesn't even look much like a shoeprint. More like somebody got a leaf stuck to the bottom of their socks. Shudder. I wonder... taking a look at the slippers that we picked up from the trash can, sure enough they have a leaf imprint on the bottom. These are what left our mystery print. Why exactly is the print here in the first place, though? What were slippers from the Meraktis Clinic doing in the noodle stand? We ask Ema if she can get us access to the Merkatis Clinic. There's bound to be clues inside! Ema tells us that she should be able to do something for us and gives us a letter to show to the cop outside. Finally! We can explore the Meraktis Clinic! Er, investigate. Yes.
Before we leave, we ask about her animosity with Klavier. She explains that she's not really a fan of his style: she doesn't like the glimmer and flash, preferring prosecutors who are more "simmerous" than "glimmerous". Cool of wit, furrowed of brow. Sounds like somebody still has a crush... Ema also explains that she's pissed at him for "what happened seven years ago".
Is this what Kristoph meant by "revenge for the events that took away your attorney's badge seven years ago"?
Apollo is shocked by this and explains that he never really heard the details about what happened. Ema coolly tells us to investigate on our own. Touchy subject, I get it. Trucy certainly doesn't want to talk about it. Heading back to the Clinic, we show the officer Ema's letter and he reluctantly lets us in. Inside the Meraktis clinic, two things immediately stand out: a pile of bowls from Eldoon's Noodles and a pair of blue high heels on the ground near the slippers. It's starting to come together! Pal Meraktis stole Guy's noodle stand. Remember what Klavier said? What if it was because his car's engine was clogged? We take note of the bowls and the sandals near the slippers. In the back of the room is a door leading to the doctor's office. Trucy's just about to start bragging about her lockpicking skills when we hear a thump from inside the office! We rush inside but we're a bit too late to catch whoever was inside. The office itself is a mess. The window is busted open, there's a lamp on the floor, papers are flown everywhere... somebody broke into the Meraktis Clinic! But why? Who? When? Where? How? Three of those questions don't matter!
There's a cup of juice on the counter, but weirdly enough it's dried up. Either this person was searching around the clinic for way too long or it was spilled a while ago. Did something happen in this office beforehand? The lamp on the floor has a broken bulb. Weirdly enough, though, it's standing upright, like it was set down carefully. On the cord, there's a red splotch: a bit too bright to be blood, though. The last thing we look at is a safe on the shelf. Two numbers have been entered: this must be what our burglar was trying to get into!
We know that the first two numbers are 7 and 9. That only leaves 100 possible combinations! Time to get cracking. Apollo has a better idea, though, and whips out the jar of fingerprint powder. Sure enough, we get that 100 down to 2—it's either 7952 or 7925. 7 and 9 have glove marks, meaning our burglar was wearing gloves. No luck identifying them through the powder, then. Entering 7952 opens the safe, and inside we find two things of interest: a folder laying inside and a bullet embedded into the back of the safe! The folder contains a medical chart with an x-ray inside. The patient is "Wocky Kitaki", the doctor is "Pal Meraktis", and the nurse is... "Alita Tiala"? Looks like Plum's instincts were well-founded. We fish out the bullet and put it into the court record.
We rush back to Guy to learn what the chart's talking about. He's not home, though, so instead we run down to the Hickfield Clinic. Phoenix is happy to see us. We put the chart aside and finally ask him the big question: what happened seven years ago? Phoenix explains that seven years ago he was serving as the defense attorney for a client in a murder trial. He was up against Klavier, still in high school, and Phoenix says that he was ashamed that he was defeated by a 17 year old prodigy and left law forever. Apollo interjects.
Suddenly SL-9 feels so, so recent...
Phoenix doesn't respond to the accusation. Not directly, at least: he just asks Apollo how it feels to stand before Phoenix Wright, Forgin' Attorney. After all, he did forge evidence to get Kristoph convicted. "Maybe I did forge evidence, maybe I didn't," he says with a smirk. "It doesn't really matter now, does it?" Well, leave it to Phoenix to be edgy and secretive about his personal life. It's kind of a thing with him. We head back to People Park while we wait for Guy to come back home. Maybe Ema will be able to science something up for us! Sure enough, she notices a toe mark on the inside of the sandals. Toeprints leave behind oils like fingerprints do, but the LAPD doesn't keep a record of toe prints. We might not be able to know who the sandals belong to, but we can check if they belonged to whoever wore the slippers! Sure enough, the toe prints on both match up perfectly. Whoever owns these sandals wore the slippers that left the footprint near the noodle stand! Apollo seems like he knows who they belong to: I think we've got our suspect.
Guy's still not home. That means there's one person we can talk to about the medical chart: Wocky himself. We head down to the detention center and meet with him. Showing him the chart, Wocky says that he doesn't smoke (good for him!), so he should be fine, right? That's not the issue. We point out Alita's name. He finally spills his beans and admits that he met Alita when she was working at the Meraktis Clinic right after the operation to "remove" the bullet from his chest. Apparently, right after the operation, Alita wanted to leave the clinic and marry Wocky. Sounds to me like she was waiting for him to drop dead. Asking him about the sandals, he confirms that they're Alita's. It's all coming full circle. That's all she wrote for Wocky. We head back to Guy's house and finally get a chance to talk to him, and he's apparently overjoyed to be able to talk doctor stuff for once. When we show him Wocky's medical chart, though... Dr. Eldoon's demeanor very quickly changes.
"There's no 'I' in team. There is a 'me', though, if you jumble it up."
Dr. Eldoon lays it out straight for us. Wocky should be dead. Klavier was right: the bullet is still in his chest, specifically right next to his aorta. If his heart keeps pumping, eventually it's going to dislodge, either get stuck in or cut his aorta, and he'll be dead in a few minutes. If that. Two millimeters to either side and he'd be bleeding like a stuck pig. Guy's prognosis? Half a year at most. That's the thing—Wocky got shot half a year ago. He should be in an operating room, not jail! Trucy asks why Pal didn't do anything. Guy says that he couldn't. Once he opened up Wocky's chest and saw the bullet, despair probably washed over him like a tidal wave. Pal was too proud to admit that he couldn't, though, and lied about the operation to the Kitakis. Once Wocky finally kicked the bucket, he could lie to the Kitakis. Everything would be swept under the rug. Trucy desperately asks Eldoon if he could operate on Wocky, but he shuts her down. There's probably nobody in the country that could help him. Maybe nobody in the entire world. He's going to die.
And Alita Tiala was complicit in the cover-up.
Trial, Day Three
Before trial begins, Phoenix pops in to tell us that Alita is showing up as a witness for today. Trucy wonders why she'd want to testify against her own fiancée, but before we can have a good discussion about it trial begins. Klavier explains why he's called Alita to the stand—to look at the crime from an outsider's perspective. How everything led up to the crime in the first place! Alita is called to the stand and explains that she couldn't hide the truth any longer.
Alita says that Wocky confessed his plan to kill Pal to her. He was incensed at the fraud and took one of the Kitaki family's pistols, planning to confront and kill Pal. Klavier confirms that the Kitakis are under investigation for owning illegal firearms and that the gun that took Pal's life was one of the Kitakis' through the bullet's rifling marks. Going into cross, we ask Alita how she's sure that only Wocky could've killed him. Klavier confirms that Wocky took the pistol from his home and asks us how anybody else could've done it. This is simple. There's somebody else who could've stolen the pistol and shot Pal: Alita Tiala herself!
Don't play dumb, Alilita Tiala.
Alita knew what Wocky was planning: she knew what pistol he would use! Both His Honor and Klavier are rather skeptical of the idea of Alita murdering Pal on Wocky's behalf. We counter—what if Alita had a motive of her own? She helped cover up Wocky's surgery, after all! Alita's demeanor suddenly changes: she drops her naïve and innocent façade, revealing a far more cold-blooded demeanor. Alita shoots back, saying that she has no connection to Pal anymore, but we prove that she does given that her sandals were found in the clinic. She tries to say anybody could own those sandals but it's Klavier that shoots that idea down: he could just subpoena her toe prints and match them with the sandals. Alita is forced to testify about why she went to the Meraktis Clinic the day of the murder, and she says that she went to warn Pal about Wocky's plan. She says that she just went there as a friend to warn her old boss about what was happening, that's all! She didn't have any dark secrets. Klavier asks why she left the sandals in the lobby, but gives her a way out, suggesting that she might've simply mixed her sandals up with somebody else's on the way out.
We present this chart again. This is a pretty dark secret, wouldn't you say? Here's the thing: why would the chart be in a safe of all things? What if it was because Alita knew about the failed operation? This isn't enough to convince His Honor, although he does ask her for more testimony: but right as she taunts us our bracelet reacts. We tell Trucy and she's a bit skeptical. She can't see anything. Is our power stronger than hers? Regardless, we take a good look at Ms. Tiala, and sure enough she's fiddling with the ring on her finger. Right as she mentions having to go "now", she tenses up! Something about the chart was threatening.
Why did it become a threat now? Because of the check-up. Wocky knew about the bullet: and if he broke into the safe, he would've discovered that she helped cover it up! Her position as his fiancée would be jeopardized!
We've got her now!
Alita was lying about not having a connection to the Meraktis Clinic. With nowhere else to turn, she admits that we got it right. Alita still maintains that she went home right after telling Pal about the checkup. We know this isn't true. Remember the bullet we found? Klavier is visibly perturbed: the police didn't check inside the safe! All we need to do is compare the rifling marks on it with the bullet to see if it was fired from the same gun that took Pal's life. The marks are analyzed and it's confirmed—the bullet was fired from the same gun on the day of the murder! This is why she went to the clinic. Alita was threatening Pal to open the safe in order to destroy the chart! Her plan was to wait until Wocky dropped dead to get her hands on the money the Kitaki Family was raking in from its new legitimate business operations. Speak of the devil, he launches up from the defendant's chair and tries desperately to defend her. Alita breaks out in laughter and confirms that all she really wanted was the money. She asks us what crime, exactly, we're accusing her of. After all, we haven't proven that she had the pistol! Klavier butts in, asking why exactly she didn't take the chart. His Honor asks her to testify why exactly she went to the clinic.
Alita reiterates that she went to grab the chart, but Pal refused to give it to her. She left and tried to go back to grab it, but cops were swarming the building. It was her that broke in when we started investigating! She's admitting to a smaller crime to avoid being punished for murder. Clever. Pressing Alita, she mentioned that it doesn't matter whether the doctor was shot in the temple, getting ahead of our argument. Remember: Pal was shot in his right temple, and when he turned his head to face Wesley after he called out his left temple would've been facing Wocky. Klavier asks us from where, exactly, another person could've shot Pal.
...What if the killer was inside the noodle stand? That's the only place that the killer could've been while still shooting him in the right temple! Klavier asks us if we're seriously considering that Meraktis was carrying his own killer. We ask why he was carrying the noodle stand in the first place! He asks us to prove it and we provide the slippers. Remember? We found that print right next to the back of the noodle stand!
Here we go! Time to take down our second killer of the AJT!
Klavier asks us how, exactly, we're sure it was a footprint. How can we prove that a single slipper didn't just fall out? Apollo calls that argument "just dumb" and asks how how Alita would've fit in there anyways with all the noodlemaking equipment and the like. Remember the bowls we found in the Meraktis Clinic? The noodle stand was hollowed out! His Honor concedes that we have proven motive and opportunity. The last questions we need to ask are why exactly Meraktis was pulling the cart and what in the world Alita was doing inside. Alita gives her final testimony, saying that Pal misunderstood her and thought the Kitakis sent her. She ran home afterwards. She doesn't explain how or why she got in the stand, leaving everything intentionally vague. Our bracelet is reacting: now's our time to take a good hard look at Alita.
When she says that was all she did, she starts pulling at the scarf around her neck. Remember the lamp we found? What if the splotch is lipstick: and she's pulling at her neck because it's her lipstick? When we present the lamp, she starts pulling at her scarf. Bingo. We ask Alita to remove her scarf, and after a brief verbal tussle His Honor asks her to take off her scarf.
It all comes together.
A very dark bruise has blemished her neck. We've come to the truth: when Alita threatened Pal, he lunged and tried to strangle her with the lamp cord. Alita grabs her head and screams, breaking down on the witness stand. Klavier asks us what happened next: we present our theory. Meraktis stuffed her in the noodle stand and was dragging her to the park to dump her body—and the gun—in the river when he ran across Wocky. Why did he do that? Because his car wouldn't run. Why wouldn't his car run? Because Wesley clogged the exhaust pipe when he stuffed Trucy's panties inside!
Alita knows she's defeated and confesses. What we just said is true: she woke up in the noodle stand right as Wocky ran across Pal in the park. Pal began to tell Wocky about what happened, and Alita knew that she couldn't let him tell the truth: when Wesley called out to stop them, she found the pistol and shot Pal in the head before running off. She accepts defeat and confesses to everything. Wocky Kitaki is found not guilty!
After the trial, we tell Wocky why the Family is moving away from the criminal life: for his sake. Big Wins explains that he found a doctor who has the ability to take the bullet out from his heart, but they need a lot of clean money to get it out. Wocky breaks down in tears and Big Wins gives us a heartfelt thanks before taking off, ending Turnabout Corner.
What Really Happened?
The Kitakis were once one of the largest crime families in Los Angeles: one of the few true-blooded yakuza clans left. Despite their influence, they were always in hot competition with other crime families, namely the Rivales—the gangs had been involved in a hot-blooded turf war for years by the time the heir to the Kitaki family, Wocky, was old enough to understand the gang's history. Wocky, always a hot-blooded kid angered by his father's desires to move the family away from its criminal origins, did something very stupid. In the middle of the gang war, he foolishly violated Rivales territory: and was shot in the chest as a result.
Wocky nearly died and was taken to a corrupt doctor named Pal Meraktis for surgery. Pal realized that the bullet he couldn't remove the bullet from Wocky's chest without killing him, and if Wocky died on his operating table then he'd be bringing the full force of the Kitaki crime family down on his own head. He did the unthinkable: he sewed Wocky back up and lied to the Kitakis, saying that he'd removed the bullet from Wocky's heart, leaving Wocky to die. Once he died Pal could cover everything up. He kept the record of what had actually happened in his safe, though, just in case. The sheet told the truth about Wocky's condition and it was signed by two people: Doctor Pal Meraktis and nurse Alita Tiala. The bullet remained in Wocky's chest... two millimeters away from his aorta, a vein connected to the heart. There was a serious risk that the bullet could be dislodged and pierce his aorta, killing him—he had maybe half a year to live at most.
Alita came up with an idea. The Kitakis, due to their mob connections, were filthy rich. Wocky was the only son of mob boss Winfred "Big Wins" Kitaki and his wife Plum "Little Plum" Kitaki, and when he died then whoever he was married to would effectively be left in charge of the organization: as well the heir to their vast fortune. Alita pretended to fall in love with Wocky, even going as far to become engaged. There was one issue—the chart. The Kitaki family had a checkup done, Wocky found out about the bullet in his chest, and he planned to kill Pal over what he had done. Alita needed to get the chart so Wocky couldn't find out about her involvement in the cover-up. On that night, as Pal was driving home, he accidentally hit Phoenix Wright while he was walking to a piano gig at Alden Tae's: the accident broke off his rear-view mirror. Pal parked his car in his garage, and eventually somebody else was chased into the garage: Wesley Stickler, fresh off of stealing Trucy Wright's prop underwear to find out how her "Magical Panties" trick was performed. In a panic, he stuffed them inside of the car's exhaust pipe and went off to steal another pair of underwear, this time from Plum Kitaki, to see if he could find out what made Trucy's prop so special.
Soon after Wesley left the garage, Alita walked into the receptionist's office at the Meraktis Clinic. Slipping out of her sandals and putting on a pair of the hospital's slippers out of habit, she confronted Pal in his office about the chart with a gun she'd stolen from the Kitakis. Holding Pal at gunpoint, she told him about Wocky's plan to kill him and demanded that he open the safe. When he did, though, he lunged at her! Alita tried to shoot Pal but missed, instead denting the safe. He grabbed a nearby lamp and wrapped the cord around her neck, strangling her to unconsciousness.
Fearing that he had murdered Alita, Pal came up with an idea. He had to hide the body and the gun: and People Park was right next to a river. He dragged Alita to his car and stuffed her in the trunk, but his car wouldn't start! Wesley had stuffed Trucy's underwear inside the muffler, preventing it from starting. Pal panicked before coming up with another idea. Stealing his preschool rival, Guy Eldoon's, noodle stand, he emptied out the bowls in the back, put Alita and the gun inside, and planned to dispose of both in People Park. When he got to People Park, though, two people were waiting for him. The first was Wocky Kitaki, brandishing a knife; the other was Wesley, fresh off of stealing Plum's bloomers and discarding them in the trash. Wesley called out for the men to stop fighting. They both turned to look at him, and the call woke up Alita. Alita picked up the gun and shot Pal in the head and got out of the cart when Wocky and Wesley ran away, accidentally stepping in the paint that was spilled when Pal hit Phoenix with his car. Throwing the sandals away, Alita returned home, planning to hire rookie lawyer Apollo Justice as a terrible attorney to get Wocky convicted. She also tried to steal the chart from Pal's office but was interrupted by Apollo and Trucy, ultimately sealing her fate.
THOUGHTS
4-2 is not a great case. It's got some bad pacing issues, some weird pathing, and Wesley Stickler. The second day of investigation drags on a bit too long and the first day of trial is incredibly handholdy. That all being said... I really like it!
4-2 is probably my second second case after 3-2, just barely eeking out 2-2 for second place. It's one of the quintessential Ace Attorney cases for me: if somebody was just getting introduced to the series then 4-2 would be one of the cases I'd want to see them play. It matches or even exceeds cases from the PWT, giving both 3-3 and 2-2 very solid runs for their money. It does an absolutely wonderful job of mixing a more light-hearted tone and a pretty funny cast with incredibly dark subject matter, something AJ as a whole does perfectly. Wocky's impending death looms over the second trial day like the sword of Damocles and such a massive tonal shift has the potential to really mess with the narrative and pacing.
That's what makes 4-2 so special to me: it doesn't. The shift from a mystery about three interconnected murders to an incredibly tense situation where the defendant is on the verge of death is carried out nearly flawlessly, although Klavier lampshading the idea in the first day of trial does make the impact hit just a little softer. 4-2 setpieces and art direction are also all beautiful: I especially love the Kitaki Mansion and Guy's house, and thinking back to when I first played it on the DS and heard Alita rummaging around in the office brings me back. 4-2 was one of the first cases that really enamored me with Ace Attorney, and I'll always love it for that. 4-2 also does a great job with its clues: the logic flows very naturally and everything adds up very well. I particularly like having to present the river to prove where Meraktis was planning to dispose of Alita and the gun in the park—Apollo does a lot of the heavy lifting in this case and Trucy shows off her prowess as an investigator, a magician, and even an attorney. It's a really cool way of introducing their dynamic that sells their partnership magnificently.
I think the biggest criticism I can give 4-2 is that it's just way too handholdy. 4-1 had this problem as well, although that made sense for the context of the case. Maybe it's just because I've played AJ so many times that I can almost definitely speedrun it, but 4-2 has a lot of obvious clues that are spelled out to the player. The biggest example of this is the last part of Wesley's testimony in the first day of trial: there's an extra 10-15 lines of dialogue just explaining how Wesley viewing the crime from the north changes which temple Pal would've been shot in even though it's incredibly obvious. We get a super cool 3D graphic to make up for it and Trucy gets to show off her own detective skills, but still. It's completely unnecessary. Apollo Justice Flashback Syndrome also rears its ugly head in 4-2, especially during the first trial day, and as a result of both of these problems 4-2's pacing is kind of all over the place. It's not as bad as, say, 1-3, but it's still jarring and definitely detracts from the case's quality overall. The other obvious issue is... well, everything surrounding Wesley Stickler. There's no real good way to frame a 20 something year old man stealing a 15 year old's underwear, but honestly? At least he's not a total weirdo. We do not need a repeat of 2-3. Alita also isn't a super interesting killer, although I do like how she's exposed and her motive for killing Pal. She's just kind of bland and easily the weakest killer in AJ.
4-2 is a supremely charming and, more importantly, fun case. Is it executed perfectly? No. Does it have its moments? Oh, absolutely. But it's a super fun and surprisingly light-hearted case, especially for AJ:AA, and does the legwork in giving Apollo agency, making Trucy distinct from both Maya and Ema, and connecting all three of its smaller mysteries into a larger set of coincidences and conspiracies. It's a great setup, even if it wasn't executed perfectly: but it was executed well, and honestly that's all I need to consider a case solid at the end of the day.
Next time we'll be taking a trip down to Sunshine Coliseum for a well-deserved concert break. I wonder if Klavier's gonna shoot people with a t-shirt cannon? See you then!
(on an unrelated note jfc playing a game and reviewing it at the same time is so much harder than using actual footage. that was a huge reason this was delayed so long, alongside going back to college and some health issues at home. apologies for the delay! xoxo)
Overall Rating: 7/10
FAVORITE LINES
"I'm a lawyer. I live for needless procedures." - Apollo Justice, trying to convince Trucy to let him talk to Little Plum
"Hey, Herr Forehead."
"...!" (F... "Forehead"?!) - Klavier Gavin and Apollo Justice, after Wesley's first contradiction is exposed
"And the forecast for the park today... Gloomy Skyes." - Apollo Justice, after Klavier leaves People Park
"Alita Tialita is Wocky's fiancée!"
"That's one 'ita' too many, Apololo!" - Apollo Justice and Trucy Wright, after finding Wocky's chart in the safe
"He's got the kid's chest open on his table. Then he finds that bullet... that's despair right there, Trucy-doll. Cold despair." - Guy Eldoon, explaining why Pal didn't help Wocky
"Objection! That's… That's just dumb!" - Apollo Justice, objecting to Klavier's line of reasoning about the slipper print
Turnabout Trump (4-1) Review: Balatro If It Was Awesome
Seven years after the events of Bridge to the Turnabout, the legal system of LA is turned on its head once more. Welcome to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney!
Welcome to a new trilogy! 4-1 is the beginning of the Apollo Justice Trilogy, set seven years after Trials and Tribulations and featuring an entirely new cast of characters. This is also the first case I'll be playing and sharing screenshots from my own playthrough from: so expect my review to be more in-depth than others! Without further ado, let's see if 4-1 really takes the pot... or is a total flop!
THE CORE CAST:
Apollo Justice: Apollo Justice is fresh out of law school and taking on his first case—which turns out to be a murder in a shady Russian restaurant doubling as a poker club!
Kristoph Gavin: Kristoph Gavin is Apollo's mentor and boss, as well as a close friend of the defendant. He's got a knack for poetry and theatrics. Silly little drama queen.
Phoenix Wright: Phoenix returns in a mysterious new getup and as a mysterious new man. He's apparently been banned from practicing law!
Phoenix's Daughter: Phoenix's unnamed daughter serves a vital role in this case, although we never learn her name... or her motivations.
Winston Payne: This is the last case that Winston plays a major role in. Let's win this one for the Gipper!
THE MAIN CAST:
Olga Orly: Olga Orly is a waitress doubling as a shady poker dealer. Her Russian accent might be impeccable, but her manners...
THE SECONDARY CAST:
Shadi Smith: Shadi Smith is our victim. A mysterious traveler with an even more mysterious history... sounds right up our alley!
A BRIEF RECAP
Our case opens with a man hard at work on a painting sketch. We pass by various other paintings before the camera focuses on the man's signature. It looks like he was drawing a poker game between people: a game that suddenly becomes reality as one of the players loses, flying into a frenzy and grabbing a bottle!
Our scene suddenly changes from the painting to real life. The surviving player is on the phone, talking to somebody... putting their life in their mysterious friend's hands "should it come to that".
Talk about a dead man's hand.
Trial, Day One
Our palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. Nevertheless, we're here: and we've got our boss, Kristoph Gavin, to back us up. After giving us some friendly advice, he introduces us to our client: a mysterious man with mysteriously defined cheekbones!
Our mystery client never introduces himself, simply saying that he's comfortable with our defense, and before long trial is in session. Winston Payne returns, bearing the best hairdo in any video game ever, and His Honor greets our client...
Wait, what? (note: I can't find an option to get rid of the hotkeys, so get used to them!)
Phoenix introduces himself: not as a defense attorney, but as a piano player! After a brief roast competition between Winston and Phoenix, we're introduced to the case: Phoenix has been accused of murdering a customer at the Russian restaurant he works in, a joint called the Borscht Bowl Club. Catchy name. Our victim was killed by a single blow to the head from a bottle of grape juice. Looks like Phoenix has a taste for the good stuff: if you read the Russian on the bottle, it's actually vaguely implied to be sparkling grape juice. Fancy.
We're then introduced to our victim: one Shadi Smith, mysterious traveler and vagabond. His connection to Phoenix is unknown, and his passport suggests he'd been out of the country for a number of years. Quite the intriguing setup. Payne gives us a motive anyways: Phoenix and Shadi were engaged in a thrilling game of poker. Although Phoenix is initially suspected of illegal gambling, it's soon explained that the game was all for points instead of actual money.
Murder and poker in a mysterious Russian joint...
Anyways, His Honor asks Phoenix to testify about the poker game and he happily obliges. Phoenix testifies that while he's officially a pianist, his real job is to take on challengers at the poker table. Each game is played using two sets of cards, and although no money is exchanged the customers are happy for the challenge. It's time for our first cross-examination! After a brief intermission where Kristoph, kind soul that he is, gives us a pep-talk, it's time for us to get pressing!
We press Phoenix about his job as a poker player. He makes an incredible boast: he's played poker in the Borscht Bowl Club for the past seven years and hasn't lost once. Ever. Does that mean he's been out of the courtroom for seven years...? The main driving force of the restaurant is to defeat this undefeated poker player. There's also a small window in the room he plays in: to keep watch, back when the Bowl Club was a black market hotspot. Finally, Phoenix explains the decks. Two decks of cards with two differently-colored backs were used to prevent cheating—after all, you couldn't swap in cards if there were two decks, and even if somebody swapped in a card from the other deck then they'd be made instantly.
After our pressing routine, His Honor stops us: the court understands the game well enough now. His Honor is not willing to write it off as a simple game, though, and Kristoph asks Phoenix about his role in the murder specifically. We get a new statement and our first contradiction: Phoenix claims he never touched the murder weapon, yet his fingerprints were found on the bottle!
Saucy.
Payne quickly buts in, saying that we've made a mistake: Phoenix's fingerprints were found all over the bottle. We counter, asking what's suspicious about fingerprints on a bottle in a restaurant, but Payne tells us something suspicious: the fingerprints on the bottle were upside-down, the way you'd grab a bottle to brain somebody! This seems like a broadside, but Kristoph isn't flustered. Phoenix is asked about the fingerprints and he stays silent. Kristoph asks who reported the murder, and Winston confirms that it was Phoenix: he had to walk upstairs to get reception to call the police. His cell phone is admitted into evidence, and Kristoph asks Winston to stop playing with the defendant: he's pieced together that Winston has a witness.
Winston calls his witness, a timid waitress at the restaurant named Olga Orly. After being promised Apollo's horns won't hurt her, she straightens up and takes a picture of His Honor. Apparently, that's her job! Speaking of pictures... she provides us with a picture of the crime scene before the murder!
Fancy suit, meet zaddy sweats.
Olga says that she was even in the room on the night of the murder: and if Phoenix isn't our killer, does that mean Olga is? She's ordered by His Honor to give her first testimony. Olga testifies that she was the dealer for their poker game. Right after the last hand, Phoenix leapt across the table and began strangling Shadi! The contradiction here is obvious: Shadi was bludgeoned to death, not strangled. Before we can point out that contradiction, though, Winston provides us with a photo of the table that night. More chips are definitely on Shadi's side of the table, supporting the idea that he won the game...
Anyways, it's now time for our cross-examination! When we point out the flaw in Olga's testimony, we go further: we call her even seeing the crime into question! Payne gives us a new photo of Shadi's head after he was hit, featuring a nasty bruise and a streak of blood going down his scalp. Olga says again that Phoenix went for Shadi's neck.
This contradiction isn't enough to break through Olga's testimony, though, so we have to try harder. Her testimony changes, saying that Shadi was hit with the bottle after Phoenix tried to strangle him. We can't break that statement, but we can break another: Olga also testified about Smith playing with a locket around his neck, but in the new photo there is no such locket! Phoenix wasn't strangling Shadi. He was going for the locket around his neck!
Look at this photograph!
His Honor notices something: Phoenix is wearing a locket right now. Phoenix explains that it's a locket with a photograph of his daughter. Well, that clears that up.
Wait.
His what?!
We consider this more than just a coincidence, but we can't push on anymore. His Honor is requesting new testimony about the outcome of the game, and even though Winston says it's not necessary His Honor asks for testimony anyways. Olga explains that the game began with 3,500 points in chips for each person, and that the victim was indeed winning. In the last hand, Phoenix went all-in and lost, grabbing the bottle and smacking Shadi with it. If Phoenix isn't lying, then this testimony has to be wrong!
It's time for our cross-examination. We drill Olga for information, confirming that all the chips in the photo were all of the chips used for the entire game. Olga hesitates to confirm this, though, and we press harder. Which chips were worth more points? She says that there were two types: 100 point chips and 1,000 point chips. We ask her to add that to her testimony and get our contradiction. If the small chips were worth 100 points and the big chips were worth 1,000 points, then the final calculation doesn't add up. The total should be 7,000 points, but in that case the total would be over 10,000 points! But if the small chips were worth 1,000 points and the big chips were worth 100 points, then the case suddenly gets turned on it head. Not only does that give us exactly 7,000 points, but it'd mean Phoenix was winning!
I adore this sprite. He's so goofy.
Before His Honor can finish questioning Olga's testimony, she interrupts the court. She has a revelation to make: in the last hand, there was a cheater! His Honor demands Olga testify about the cheat. Olga testifies that both Phoenix and Shadi had a full house (a pair and a three of a kind in one hand), and apparently Phoenix was the cheater: yet looking at these hands... they're not particularly off to us. Phoenix had a losing hand due to the king kickers, sure, but there's no evidence of cheating per se. Another curiosity: Phoenix still lost the final hand. If he did cheat, then how do you cheat and lose, especially if you've been cheating for seven years straight?
Regardless, it's time for cross-examination. We ask Olga exactly what's so "clear" about the cheat, and Olga claims that Phoenix had a fifth ace: but the picture blatantly proves otherwise. Olga's claim that Shadi's hand had three aces and Phoenix's had two is blown out of the water! There was no "fifth ace". Olga continues to swear that there was cheating: that she saw the fifth ace firsthand. Kristoph asks Winston to submit the hands themselves as evidence. We ask to investigate Shadi's hand. After all, it's the hand that was supposed to have our mysterious "fifth ace"... and when we investigate it, there's something suspicious alright. One of the cards has a blue back instead of red!
Talk about a back 'wreathed in blue flame'...
Olga slips up, saying she's sure she slipped that card into Wright's hand. Kristoph catches it: he suggests that our cheater was none other than Ms. Orly herself. If she meant to put a false card into Phoenix's hand, then it wasn't Phoenix who cheated. It was Shadi Smith! It's not hard to imagine a fight between Olga and Smith after the failed cheat, and Olga faints from shock after we accuse her of murder. His Honor asks Winston where Olga is, and Winston says she's still unconscious. His Honor tells us that he can't make a verdict at this time: not when there's an open question about Shadi's connection to Olga. Before he can pronounce an adjournment, however, somebody objects: none other than Phoenix himself.
He mysteriously proclaims that the trial can't end yet, and His Honor asks for more testimony about the game itself. Phoenix explains that there were two decks of cards: blue and red, to prevent cards from getting mixed between decks. They were using a red deck for the last game, even if His Honor has an inclination that they were using blue cards. Phoenix says that the card being slipped into the deck raises two serious questions. Phoenix asks us to answer the first question: the cards could've been swapped before, during, or after the murder.
"When was the card swapped into the deck?" There's only one real logical conclusion: it had to have been after the murder. After all, you'd be able to tell if somebody was cheating based on the backs of the cards if you were playing. Since the game lasted until showdown time in the final hand, then the card being swapped before the murder doesn't make much sense. The only explanation is that the card was swapped after the murder!
Phoenix asks us the second question: "who swapped in the blue card?" Although Kristoph tries to push the idea that it was Olga, that seems incredibly unlikely given her professional cheating habits and knowledge of the decks. What if it was somebody else entirely, somebody who didn't know what color the deck was? A fourth person? Phoenix has a good chuckle to himself.
A turnabout, if you will?
The person who swapped in the wrong card made two mistakes: swapping in a blue card and swapping in a king instead of an ace. The possibility of a fourth person is undeniable, and Phoenix makes a bold claim that there was a fourth person that night. His Honor calls for a brief recess and calls Kristoph to his chambers.
During the recess, Kristoph and Phoenix have a brief discussion before Kristoph goes off to His Honor's chambers. Phoenix tells us that we did well, and we ask him about the locket around his neck: he tells us that there is indeed a picture of his daughter in there, even showing her to us. When we ask Phoenix if he cheated during the poker game, he mysteriously asks us what we think. After all, we know "what he did" seven years ago.
...A little young to be Maya's, right?
Moving on, he tells us to keep an eye on people's body language. Court is like poker: if you can read what your opponent is thinking then you have a good chance of winning. Olga, for instance, touched the back of her neck during certain parts of her testimony: apparently, it's something that we'll be able to pick up on soon. Phoenix says he hasn't told the truth to anybody during this trial, but before we can ask him for clarification court is back in session.
Winston informs the court that Olga's regained consciousness, and she's soon called back to the stand to testify: she reveals her true colors, sporting a new outfit and personality. She's Olga "Quick-Fingers" Orly, a professional card dealer!
I love her design so much.
Olga makes a vague statement that "they" had a plan: she clarifies that she was in cahoots with Shadi Smith, planted at the bowl club days prior as a waitress. The plan was to plant a card on Phoenix and then deal five aces in the last hand of the game—framing him as a fraud and destroying the legend. His Honor asks her to testify about the trap, and Olga gladly does so.
Olga tells us that she planted the card on Phoenix, but sometime before Shadi searched him the card mysteriously disappeared. After the trap failed, Phoenix picked up the bottle and hit Shadi. We get to cross-examining. Pressing Olga for more information, she tells us that the card was nowhere: not in the Hydeout, the room the played in, nor on Phoenix's person. The card that Phoenix threw away, the Five of Hearts, remains unaccounted for. We press her again, and then-
Ba-dump.
Something odd happens. Our vision grows blurry. There's something... wrong. We accuse Olga of hiding something, and to try again we ask her one more time. She says she saw the moment Phoenix hit Shadi. Is this true? She says it is, and it happens again!
There's a joke here, but I don't know what it is yet.
Remember when Phoenix said that Olga would touch the back of her neck during parts of her testimony? Take a look at that sprite. When we think about it, our vision doesn't get blurry: it gets sharp, sharper than ever before. We take a look at Olga's hand and she's definitely rubbing the back of her neck. Apollo puts it together: she's remembering something, at least subconsciously. But what is it she's remembering? It happens when she remembers the moment of the crime. Maybe she needs to see something from the crime itself to remember what happened: what about the bottle? Olga definitely reacts to this. If she's the witness, then why does she react like she was the one hit?
...Unless she was! We ask Olga to testify about the exact moment of the crime. After a brief retreat into her Russian facade, she testifies as we ask: Olga says that she didn't let Phoenix out of her sight until the cops came, but we know that's impossible. After all, Phoenix left the Hydeout to call the cops!
Olga is finally bested. She says that it wasn't Phoenix who swung the bottle: it was Shadi, hitting her on the back of the neck after their plan failed. When Olga woke back up Shadi was dead. Kristoph is asked what he thinks about it: and he takes a step further than us, directly accusing Olga of lying about this version of events.
Hohkay, Mr. Sassy Pants.
He raises a good point: only three people were in that room and Olga had a motive. In the aftermath of the cheat being exposed, wouldn't it make sense for Olga to attack Shadi out of anger? Phoenix interrupts with one of my favorite lines in the series. Such a conclusion isn't like Kristoph, he explains: why not consider the other possibility that there was a fourth person in the Hydeout? Phoenix even tells us that a clue was dropped during the beginning of trial as to who our mysterious "fourth person" may be. He explains that there is one person in the courtroom who thought the cards were blue instead of red.
...their backs, wreathed in blue flame...
Kristoph! Phoenix congratulates us: Kristoph Gavin was indeed the fourth person that night. There's no way he could've known the color of the cards before the color pictures were presented, but he did anyways—and more importantly he got the colors wrong. Kristoph is understandably surprised to see he's being accused, and after a brief back-and-forth between Phoenix, Kristoph, and ourselves, we get to ask Phoenix to testify about what happened before. Phoenix explains that he and Kristoph had dinner together and everything basically went the same way as Olga described: trap sprung, trap failed, Olga hit. Phoenix left to call the cops because of how dangerous Shadi was. When Phoenix returned, Shadi was dead.
There is an inconsistency here. Phoenix says he saw the cut on Shadi's head: but how could he see that given that Shadi died with his hat on? Phoenix explains that he was the one to put the hat back on Shadi's head, although he doesn't tell us why.
Nervous, Apollo?
This isn't enough to completely break through Phoenix's testimony, though, and Kristoph urges us on. "Go for the KO!", he says! It really does feel like war between Wright and Gavin now. We go back to his testimony and ask about the trap. Phoenix says that he just managed to find the card in his pocket and stuffed it in one of his bottles of grape juice. An empty bottle of grape juice. Did he put it in the murder weapon? Phoenix says he did, but we check out the weapon and find no card in there. We present this contradiction to the court and Phoenix has no answer. Kristoph cuts the testimony short, accusing Phoenix of lying, but he shoots back and says that he hasn't told a single lie in his testimony. He even finally tells us the reason why he put the hat back on Shadi's head!
Phoenix plays his phone call with Kristoph. Kristoph remarked that somebody "cracked that flawless bone china pate": and if Shadi never took off his hat, then how could Kristoph have known he was bald? The stage is set for a showdown between Kristoph and Phoenix! A brief recess is called while Kristoph's testimony is prepared.
During the recess, we're approached by a girl in the defendant's lobby. She encourages us to pick a card, any card: we pick one, an Ace of Spades. She tells us that this is our "trump card" to get past the "last hand". We take a look at it... and the splotch of blood on it. This is the ace taken from the hand!
The hand is dealt...
Furthermore, the girl that gave us the card... she looked just like Phoenix's daughter. Nevertheless, court is back in session: and when Kristoph is called to the stand, Phoenix joins us as our co-counsel! When he objects the original PW:AA objection theme starts playing which is so fucking cool. We present our case to the court. Shadi never took off his hat except for when he was hit. The only time Kristoph could've seen his bald head is that very moment: in other words, he had to have been the real killer.
Kristoph laughs and says that he hasn't been honest with the court. It's time for testimony! Kristoph says that he returned to the club after passing by Shadi. He went down to the Hydeout and saw, through the window, Shadi's bald head: after Phoenix had hit him with the bottle.
You said it, sister.
Our cross-examination begins. It's time to grill Kristoph for information: everything he's saying makes sense, though. He looked through the window because he didn't want to walk in on the game. He senses we're adamant about a fourth person being the real killer, and he asks us what reason the killer would have to swap out a card from Shadi's hand. When we present the ace...
Kristoph goes ballistic. He shouts at us, demanding to know where we got the card from: Phoenix explains that it's his, having picked it up at the crime scene. Kristoph is more than ballistic, he's apoplectic, shouting that the card is a fraud and can't be permittable as evidence. Phoenix asks him how he's so sure. The only person who can be sure it's a fraud is the person who took it from the scene of the crime... the real killer! He presents his theory. What if the killer took the card because of the blood on it? Kristoph lambasts the idea as baseless conjecture.
me when i see a point i agree with
Phoenix encourages to think about this for a bit. If everything was set up just like it was when Shadi died, then how did the blood get onto the ace in his hand? Phoenix solves the contradiction for us, telling us that they were playing in swivel chairs. That would mean Shadi was turned around in his chair when he was killed but turned back around when he died. That's why the killer had to take the card. But then the killer's position doesn't make sense. There'd be a cabinet in the way! Winston calls us out but Phoenix has our back, saying that if the cupboard would be in the way then maybe it wasn't there during the crime. Phoenix asks His Honor to send a team to investigate the cupboard alongside another set of secret instructions. Regardless, If the cupboard was moved, then it'd cover the window... where Kristoph claims to have witnessed the murder! His testimony has been blown wide open!
Right as Phoenix is grilling Kristoph about this very question, the team sent to the Bowl Club returns. The cupboard is, indeed, movable: and there's a secret passage behind it that Phoenix tells us goes up to the first floor! It's all coming together. When Shadi hit Olga and Phoenix went upstairs to call the cops, that's when he emerged! Shadi turned around to see what the commotion was, was hit by the bottle, and Kristoph slunk back into the secret passage. If he looked down at the cards on the floor he would've noticed they were red: but he didn't!
Right as His Honor issues a warrant for Kristoph's arrest...
He's got one last card up his sleeve.
Kristoph objects. Phoenix hasn't proven anything: all he's done is used illegal evidence to frame an innocent man. Phoenix asks what's still suspicious about him, and Kristoph points out the bottle: it's still covered with his inverted fingerprints. There's a good reason for their existence, though. Imagine you're sitting down with a bottle next to to you. When you go down to drink from it... you grab by the neck, the same way you'd grab a bottle to brain somebody! Kristoph realized this, too, when he killed Smith. Phoenix was sitting down while playing poker and the bottle was on the table: those fingerprints wouldn't be inverted. But the bottles next to his piano bench? Kristoph asks for proof we switched the bottles, and Phoenix provides: remember his other instructions to the team investigating the Hydeout? He told them to look for bottles under the piano bench.
One was found, and inside is our missing Five of Hearts! Somebody, our real killer, did switch the bottles. The only person that could be is Kristoph Gavin. Kristoph has nowhere left to run—he slams his fist into the witness stand. Before he's arrested for Shadi's murder, he mysteriously asks Phoenix if this is "revenge for the events that took away his attorney's badge seven years ago": did Kristoph have something to do with that?
Nonetheless, Phoenix is found not guilty. He laments that this is a "dark time" for the legal system, one brought on by the Initial Trial System itself. In any case, court is adjourned!
Darth Kristoph displays his force mastery.
In the aftermath, we have a chat with Phoenix. He asks us if we noticed it: our "ability", a sensitivity that he lacks. The locket's also clarified: we tell him we met his daughter, and Phoenix says the locket was Shadi's. Phoenix can't tell us why Shadi had a locket with his daughter inside, but he brushes that away to ask us if we want to work for him at the Wright & Co. Law Offices. When we ask him if he ever wants to return to the courtroom, he tells us he's "not qualified": after all, there was a piece of forged evidence used in today's trial. The bloody ace.
Upon learning it was forged, we punch Phoenix in the face. After he tells us to shout "Take that!" next time, he gives us some well-wishes and goes off on his merry way.
And with that... Turnabout Trump comes to a close!
What Really Happened?
Seven years ago, Phoenix Wright was disbarred from his position as a defense attorney. To make ends meet, and to support his daughter, Phoenix took up a job as a poor piano player by day and a poker shark by night: and for seven long years he never lost a game. Eventually, a traveler named Shadi Smith discovered the undefeated poker legend and challenged him to a game. Ultimately, Smith attempted to cheat and frame Phoenix as a fraud, but Phoenix evaded Smith's trap: Smith planned to plant a card on Phoenix's person and accuse him of swapping his own cards, using a hired dealer to "find" the "swapped" card in his pocket. Phoenix found the planted card and stuffed it in a bottle of grape juice he was drinking. When Smith's trap failed, he went into a rage and attacked the dealer he colluded with, Olga Orly, smacking her on the back of the neck with a bottle so hard that she passed out. Phoenix, now scared for his own life, ran upstairs and called the police.
Kristoph Gavin had other plans. Using a secret tunnel in the Hydeout behind a movable bookshelf to sneak into the room while Phoenix was calling the police, he picked up a bottle of grape juice that Phoenix was drinking from. Shadi turned around to see what had moved the bookshelf and was cracked on the head, killing him instantly. Smith's blood dropped onto a stray Ace of Spades, which Kristoph pocketed to hide his crime. To cover up the fact that he had stolen a card, he swapped in a new one, although didn't know that the cards had differently-colored backs—he swapped in a card with a blue back instead of a red one. He also replaced the ace with a king, inadvertently destroying direct evidence that Shadi had cheated. Finally, he replaced the bottle that he had hit Shadi with, the bottle containing the crumpled up Five of Hearts, with a different bottle under the piano bench.
When Phoenix returned to the Hydeout, Shadi Smith was dead, sitting at the table with a nasty cut on his forehead. Discovering Shadi's body and knowing that he'd be arrested for murder, Phoenix called the only person he could think of. Kristoph misspoke on the phone, however, and Phoenix used his deduction skills to figure out what had actually happened. He used his daughter to forge a bloody Ace of Spades: which she subsequently gave to Apollo Justice, Phoenix's lawyer, who used it to force Kristoph to reveal his crime to the court. The only person who could say for a fact it was forged would be the killer himself, after all.
THOUGHTS
Turnabout Trump holds a very special place in my heart. It is the first Ace Attorney case I've ever played: yeah, I started with AJ alllllll the way back in, like, 2012. I was in Elementary School.
I love, love, love 4-1. It's my favorite opening case in the series and the perfect example of an opening case being simple enough to follow while remaining challenging and impactful enough to keep veterans excited. It is a complex opening case, but it manages to ride the line between having a mentor to guide you in the right direction and leaving the player to their own devices very well. There's a lot of internal logic that the player needs to pick up on, like why Phoenix's fingerprints are inverted on the bottles and the math for the chips, but Phoenix also guides you through the more complicated sections after Kristoph is accused in the case's climax. Speaking of Kristoph, I'll have more to say about him later but for right now I just want to say he's an awesome killer. Throughout this case he's subtly (and at times not-so-subtly) belittling and manipulating Apollo, saying that he "almost came up with [the math] on his own" while also showering Apollo with praise during the early parts of the case where you're taking down Olga. It makes replays of this case, especially after beating AJ:AA, feel a lot grimier when he's on screen: he's a manipulator and an abuser from the get-go, and I love how the localization team handled it.
Every character in this case is really, really well-done. I wish that Winston was used more, but Phoenix in particular is a masterclass in Ace Attorney character writing and the way the mystery unfolds is super cool even if it's not very interactive. A common criticism of this case is that most of it is just Phoenix doing the legwork and Apollo just being there next to him, and while this isn't entirely true as Apollo comes to many of his own conclusions from the get-go (I like how he actually demonstrates how Phoenix picked up his bottles to the Judge) it's an understandable criticism given how much the case focuses around Phoenix. Speaking of character writing, I love how Phoenix distances himself from Kristoph—going from "Kristoph" to "Mr. Kristoph Gavin" to just "Kristoph Gavin"—while Apollo basically begs Kristoph to answer all of Phoenix's questions for him during the first chunk of his time on the stand.
One criticism I have for 4-1 is that some of its logic doesn't flow particularly well: it's great for the majority of the case, but one that stands out to me is the leap from Olga rubbing her neck to her being hit by the bottle. It's a leap in logic that the player doesn't really do anything with. Apollo just kind of... makes the connection. That's really all I have to criticize it for. 4-1 is just a fantastic case and a brilliant opener. While its core mystery might be a little boring and some of its leaps may be a bit too leapy (if that makes any sense), it all combined into a well-planned, well-written, and well-executed case with super cool and consistent deductive reasoning.
Next time we'll be covering 4-2, Turnabout Corner. See you then!
Overall Rating: 9/10
FAVORITE LINES
"Long time no see, Mr. Wright." - His Honor, meeting Phoenix again
(B-But what about my Chords of Steel?) - Apollo Justice, after being admonished for shouting
"Well, this case certainly has taken a turn... for the interesting!" - Kristoph Gavin, after Olga reveals the cheat
"Mr. Payne, you of all people should know... Mr. Wright has a talent... for the ridiculous!" - His Honor, after Phoenix objects for the first time
"A seven-year legend, destroyed by one little card… That was the plan!" - Olga Orly, about her plan to cheat with Shadi Smith
"What tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive. So tangled, we catch ourselves in the process." - Phoenix Wright, suspecting Kristoph
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review - Court is in Session!
As we move on to a new story, it's time for us to look back at the three that started it all!
I'm not exactly sure how to format this, so I think I'm just gonna let it ride.
When it comes to overall consistent quality, I think the Trilogy is the best Ace Attorney has to offer. There's really no other collection in the series that comes close. The first three games are usually regarded as the best in the series for good reason: they're classics! There's a reason why the series became so popular so quickly, and it's because of these original three games and the stories they tell: not just the individual ones, but also the overarching story of the entire Trilogy. It's a story of tragedy, of a family warring against itself, and of justice falling into the hands of those who seek to manipulate it.
The Trilogy does work when it comes to character development. Not a single character, even our defendants, are left unchanged by our cases. The Trilogy does more than any other collection in the franchise to really focus on how these stories impact our cast: Phoenix matures into a veteran unafraid to risk his own life to save the people he loves, Edgeworth shifts his focus and becomes a true agent of justice against the criminal, Maya comes to peace with her heritage and takes her place as Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, Franziska pushes her father to the side and focuses on living for herself, and so on.
I think the Trilogy also has beautiful art direction. Visual novels have to be good to look at—looking at you, Danganronpa—given that there's only so much gameplay that can be put into them. The Trilogy manages to do this without sacrificing its own unique, hand-drawn artstyle, and actually shows massive improvement when compared to the original GBA and DS releases.
Case in point.
The Trilogy's music is also the most iconic in the franchise and for good reason. The original Pursuit theme is a classic, and I still hum Swimming, Anyone? and The Detective From the Wild West daily. Heck, Phoenix's ringtone is actually my ringtone! Speaking of JfA's music, even if its OST isn't the strongest its Pursuit theme is one of my favorite in the series solely for the bombastic percussion beats. I wish it went on for longer! The general quickness and audacity of JfA's music is countered by slower themes like Shelly de Killer's or its recollection themes, namely 2-4's. It's only fitting, then, that T&T comes in with the quintessential Phoenix themes: its Objection! and Pursuit themes. T&T also gives us Larry's, Godot's, and Dahlia's themes, more of my favorites! The Trilogy has incredible sound design all across the board but its music really takes the cake.
Finally, the Trilogy had the hardest job of any AA game: creating and perfecting the formula. And you know what? It does it! The Trilogy pushed through all the growing pains and laid down the foundations for Ace Attorney: creating one of the greatest mystery and visual novel franchises of all time. Everything about it from its characters and mysteries to its artstyle and music are iconic for very good reasons, and even the worst that Ace Attorney has to offer is still generally leagues above other visual novels that have tried to come after it. There's a reason why it's the face of legal video games, even if it's not a particularly accurate recreation of the legal system.
The Trilogy is one of my favorite game collections ever. Most of my criticisms of the Trilogy are aimed at its dated humor and general inconsistency, especially in regards to its later entries. All those aforementioned growing pains were really just that: growing pains. Weirdly-paced cases, strange writing choices, dated humor... all of these things are really secondary when it comes to the quality of the Trilogy as a whole. Could I keep pointing out my problems with 2-1, 2-3, 3-1, or 3-4 and use them as criticisms towards the Trilogy as a whole? Sure. But I don't think that's fair. They're exceptions that prove the rule: the Trilogy could have been poorly written, but these cases really make the best cases like 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-2 shine even brighter.
Before we finish, I'm going to take a page from my game reviews and list my top five characters from the entire Trilogy before we end this review!
Number Five: Damon Gant
I'm never going to the pool again.
Damon Gant is one of my favorite culprits in the entire franchise and one of my favorite villains in all of fiction. I already gushed about him to death in my PW:AA review, so I'll try to touch on a few other things here.
Gant is the logical conclusion of Edgeworth's worldview. He has sacrificed his own innocence to put a criminal he just couldn't quite catch to death. Much like a veteran video game player, he had something denied to him just one too many times: and decided to cheat to get the victory he felt he deserved. He had done everything in his power to get Darke convicted, and when that wasn't enough decided to bend the rules to get his victory even if he had to sacrifice a family to get his way. I think Gant's constant claim that he only looks out for himself is a bit of a lie: he's a narcissistic power-hungry manipulator, sure, but I think he also genuinely wanted to find justice for all the people that Darke had murdered.
Gant is unique when it comes to all other finale villains in the Trilogy in the sense that he doesn't have a plan. The murder that brought him down was spur of the moment, unpremeditated: in contrast to literally everything else around him. He's a masterful planner and brilliant strategist, but his fall is due to an unexpected variable and something he simply did not plan for. It's a fitting outcome. For all the control Gant held over Lana, the SL-9 investigation, the courtroom itself, and the police system, everything came crashing down when one thing slipped out of his grasp.
I love Damon Gant to bits. He's a brilliantly-written character with a lot of fun dialogue, and his shift from "funny cooky police guy" to "I'm going to beat you to death" flows so naturally. Shu and Janet did a wonderful job writing and localizing him, and to top it all off he's got one of the greatest breakdowns in the Trilogy. We love Damon Gant here.
Number Four: Maya Fey
Nothing says "absolutely normal" like dressing up as a yippie.
Maya has one of the strongest character introductions in the series. We're introduced to her crying over Mia's body, being abandoned by the one person she thought she could trust, and eventually rooting for us when we're taking the fall for her sister's murder. Even in 1-2, her core character traits really shine: she never gives up hope, even when she's at her lowest. Throughout PW:AA she slowly comes out of her shell, and by JfA she's become best friends with Phoenix and is willing to put herself in danger to see Matt Engarde thrown in prison.
Maya is a super complex character. There's nobody else in the Trilogy as perpetually optimistic as Maya: and this optimism isn't sacrificed even when Maya's mentally and emotionally exhausted. Even in 1-4, when she's questioning her self-worth, Maya still manages to put her insecurities aside to help Edgeworth and put together the final pieces we need to nail Manfred for Gregory's murder. She's a rare, enduring spirit, and an anchor for much of the Trilogy's most heartfelt moments.
She's also just funny! Maya manages to be consistently funny without ever falling into just being comic relief, always willing to crack a joke at Phoenix's expense or let her scatterbrain get the better of her. Maya's happiness and optimism never fades away, and that's incredibly important to both her and the people around her. She knows people very well and uses that to make them feel better—whether they be people she's known for years or clients she's just met. Maya's grown up into a fine young woman.
Number Three: Miles Edgeworth
Get your bangs cut. Jeez.
Miles is a very interesting character. If Phoenix is the embodiment of a defense attorney and Franziska is the embodiment of a prosecutor, then Miles is in a weird middle ground for much of the Trilogy. He's stuck between two fathers, one who he looked up to as a child and one he followed as an adolescent: all combining into a burning hatred for criminals and a desire to protect the innocent. This hatred and desire is warped under layers of trauma and Manfred's influence. His arc from PW:AA to JfA is very well-written, even if most of it happens off-screen, and 1-5 just really did everything in its power to make it more interesting.
He's an excellent foil to Phoenix, but he's also a lot more than that. He's representative of Ace Attorney's themes of a failing justice system: the police failed to catch his father's killer and the court system let the person they arrested go on a plea of insanity. Miles, through his mentor, has become desensitized to dirty tricks and tampering with witnesses to make sure the defendant—the criminal—is declared guilty by all means within his power. This is further compounded upon by Damon Gant praising Edgeworth as similar to him in many ways.
This makes his development all the more satisfying. By the end of JfA it's clear that Edgeworth is a changed man, having gone through a Zuko-esque metamorphosis that challenged his ideology and philosophy. Sure, he still badgers witnesses, but he also cooperates with the defense and tempers his conduct in pursuit of one thing over all else: the truth. His hatred for criminals has been refocused into finding true justice for the bereaved. Miles is a really excellent example of a character's core values not changing even if their role in the story and relationships with other characters do. He's one of the greats.
Number Two: Franziska von Karma
she's so pretty ahhhhhhh
It's really unfortunate that the Trilogy is Franziska's best showing. Her first two games are her best appearances, meaning that we can only go downhill from here: but let's focus on what she brings to the table. Franziska is a perfect adversary for somebody like Trilogy-era Phoenix. She is brash, she is confident, she is mean, she's willing to bend the rules to get what she wants, and she will manipulate witnesses and evidence alike to get her way.
As the games progress, though, we get to see a softer side of Franziska slowly emerge: and I think her change symbolically begins when she throws away her whip in 2-4. Franziska's whip is a symbol of independence and self-preservation—of control over her own life. Her throwing it away is a rejection of her father's ideals and control over her life, something I'll talk about once we get to the AAI games, and Edgeworth returning it to her is a really sweet moment that gives her back that control: now to be used for herself rather than her father's legacy. She then teaches Adrian how to use the whip, giving up her sense of protection and independence for a moment to give it to somebody she can empathize with. I love Franziska's story so much.
In 3-5, she's even on not-hostile terms with Phoenix, having moments of friendly banter during their investigation. Her development from JfA to T&T is probably my favorite arc in the Trilogy, and seeing her come to terms with herself is really nice. As someone with a lot of issues around being emotionally vulnerable and my fair share of anger issues, I relate to Franziska a lot. She's by far my favorite prosecutor in the Trilogy, and it felt wrong to place her any lower. I love her.
Honorable Mention: Ema Skye
This will be a slightly shorter section than the others, given that she's just an honorable mention, but I can't not talk about my favorite character in the series. Ema is wonderful. Her role as Phoenix's assistant in 1-5 fits perfectly, and in many ways she's Maya taken to extremes: she's more impulsive, scatterbrained, and zanier than Maya, but she's also more calculated, more in-line with her emotions, and more focused on the investigation at hand. Her relationships with Lana and to a lesser extent Gant define the emotional core of 1-5, and she manages to fit in without feeling like she's trying to take Maya's place. She brings a lot of her own jokes, personality traits, and mechanics to the game, and that's very welcome.
I just wanted to talk about her for a bit. I love Ema very dearly.
Number One: Phoenix Wright
Who else?
Phoenix is an icon and the Trilogy is why. No other character is given the care and focus that he is, which makes sense: he's our protagonist, after all. His development is all about maturity and independence, striking his own path through the legal system while also trying to uphold what Mia taught him. He cares deeply and honestly for the people around him, yet at the same time the developers weren't afraid to give him serious flaws: he's secretive, never quite sharing exactly what he knows or what he feels, and is unafraid to manipulate the people around him to get the information that he needs. His relationships with other people are complex and varied, but even under his straight man persona there's elements of zaniness and wackiness that get accentuated by his shared moments with Maya and Edgeworth.
Phoenix isn't a perfect guy. He holds secrets and grudges, perhaps unfairly at times. He doesn't tell his friends everything that they should know, and he's scared to be emotionally vulnerable and honest with other people. But all of those flaws just help him feel like a real person: especially with the context that T&T provides. He's not just distrustful and closed-off: his relationship with Dahlia was traumatizing. This trauma is slowly but surely broached in 3-5 and retroactively helps explain his secretive, protective, stubborn nature.
Even if I don't think he's at his best in the Trilogy, Phoenix is still one of the best-written and most important characters the Trilogy has to offer. Sure, he's not consistently the best, and his quality can vary from case-to-case, but at the end of the day Phoenix is the Trilogy. He's the only character that appears in (nearly) every single case and this is never a bad thing. He always feels like Phoenix.
I remember when I first played the Trilogy. I was around 9 or 10 years old, fresh off of completing AJ:AA (with a guide of course). I was hooked instantly, even if I didn't know what I was doing. I was stuck with the shitty iOS port from way back in the day, but that was still more than enough for me. Without the Trilogy, I wouldn't be here today gushing about my favorite video game franchise. The Trilogy is my favorite overall collection in the series, even if none of its games individually are my favorites.
I'm not sure what else to say here: I feel like I'd just be rehashing the same points over and over. I think I'm going to end the review here, starting a new tier list. Let's start ranking the games and getting ready for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. See you then!
Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations Review - A Bittersweet Conclusion
With Trials and Tribulations finally completed, we're taking time to reflect on the conclusion to the original trilogy.
Trials and Tribulations is a pretty good game. It's also a pretty eclectic one. It's a got a mix of strong, iconic cases and forgettable-to-mediocre ones, with little room inbetween. There's really no other game in the mainline series that constantly falls on both sides when it comes to "good" and "just kinda meh": in just the Trilogy itself, PW:AA is pretty consistently solid and JfA is either very, very good or very, very bad. T&T exists in a weird state of flux when it comes to its quality which... eh, it's both good and bad.
The highs of this game are incredible, but as a result the lows of this game are... well, actually not too low. But the lows certainly aren't good. It's clear that these inequalities come from a place of passion and love, however, so I can't hate them too much. PW:AA had to go through the growing pains of a new franchise and JfA had wildly varying levels of quality, but I think T&T is Ace Attorney as Shu originally envisioned it. Is it perfect? No. Is it the best the series has to offer? Hardly. But is it a great, solid, iconic piece of mystery fiction?
Absolutely.
PROS
Pro One: Vibes.
This is a weird pro, but T&T has some immaculate vibes. It exists alongside a later game as one of two games that just have a... feel, you know what I mean? If you show me something from T&T, I'll usually be immediately able to place it: even if it's just a scene from the Wright & Co. Law Offices. Do you know what I mean or am I making no sense?
T&T has an air around it. It's the conclusion of the trilogy and it carries that weight. Everything in T&T feels a lot more detailed and carefully planned out than the other trilogy games, and every detail feels a lot heavier no matter what it really is. It's a connected game.
It's also green.
Pro Two: Player Interaction.
Say it with me now! Ace Attorney is, at its core, a mystery series. Wit that in mind, T&T carries the mystery game in the original trilogy. 3-2, 3-3, and 3-5 are all incredibly engaging, and even 3-1 has moments where it shines in the mystery department. 3-2 is one of the best mysteries to come from the original trilogy: there's a ton of logical connections that have to be made, and it makes piecing them all together so, so satisfying. I love that the final contradiction in 3-2 relies so heavily on the player being confident: one wrong move and you lose, and the game trusts you to know the answer!
T&T trusts you, the player, more than any other game in the Trilogy. It places the agency of its main cast into your hands, and it's something that Ace Attorney as a whole just unfortunately falls flat on most of the time. It makes T&T really feel like your game, y'know what I mean?
I guess what I'm really trying to say here is that T&T makes Ace Attorney, a visual novel, feel like a video game. I know that visual novels are video games, but T&T is so much more interactive than PW:AA and JfA really ever are outside of the DL-6 trial and 1-5, both of which are from the former. It maintains that feeling of being in control throughout the entire story.
Pro Three: Stakes.
I don't think any game understands pure stakes as well as T&T. In 3-1 we're defending Phoenix himself; in 3-2 we're trying to find a missing Fey Clan relic; in 3-3 we're saving our reputation; in 3-4 we're trying to stop a person we know is a heartless murderer; and in 3-5... well, we're in 3-5. T&T is a game that keeps upping its own ante and getting away with it, leading to some incredibly tense moments all culminating in 3-5 featuring a burning bridge, Maya being all but dead, the potential end of the Fey Clan itself, and Phoenix's own life (temporarily) being on the line.
It is an intense game. There's very few dull moments when it comes to T&T, and that is incredibly high praise for a mystery game but also a visual novel in general. It always manages to make it feel like something very important is on the line: and most times something very important is on the line! Shu and Janet did a wonderful job in the writing and localization departments.
Pro Four: Music.
T&T's music is consistently regarded as the best from the Trilogy, and I'm inclined to agree. Even if it's not as memorable or as classic as PW:AA's, it's still an incredibly strong showing, to the point where "Phoenix's Themes" in my head are the Objection! and Pursuit themes from T&T. The Pursuit theme is especially memorable: it's an incredibly triumphant piece of music, and the percussive beats really sell that feeling of "gotcha now you stupid bitch" perfectly. The character themes in general just never fall flat! Dahlia's in particular is a highlight: it does a great job of selling her friendly and maybe even flirtatious façade while also expressing that she's a siren who lures in unfortunate victims to exploit them for her own gain. It's a beautiful and calming piece of music, but there's also something so... wrong about it. It feels artificial. Fake. Soulless. Just like Dahlia. It's a really nice counter to the more lively, soulful, but still despondent and artificial theme that Godot has. They fit their titles, "Distant Traces of Beauty" and "The Fragrance of Dark Coffee", to a T.
Let's focus on some more jovial music. Luke Atmey's theme is so much fun. If his design didn't tell me he was based on DC villains (namely The Penguin) then this song does! This is a song that would play in the Joker's carnival or a Riddler trap. And how can we forget about the single best song from this game...
Swingin' Tiger is one of my favorite songs in the entire series. It is so over-the-top, in your face, aggressively coming out of nowhere to sucker punch you in the gut confident in itself. It is a perfect song for somebody like Furio Tigre: somebody who's over-the-top, in your face, and aggressively coming out of nowhere to sucker punch you in the gut. It is a masterclass in both connecting a character's personality to their music and in video game music itself. I hum this regularly.
If only I still played trombone...
CONS
Con One: Inconsistency.
Like JfA, T&T has the issue of having wildly inconsistent cases. 3-1 and 3-4 are both rather subpar, while 3-2 and 3-5 are both very good: 3-3 is in the middle, but even it's better than average. Moreso than any other game in really the whole mainline series, T&T is a game of high highs and low lows, suffering from a lack of consistent pacing and quality. Even 3-2, the best case the game has to offer, has weird choices and 3-5's second half is a little all over the place at times.
T&T very easily could've maintained 3-2's level of quality. They captured it so well and so early! 3-3 is a bit of a dip, but then 3-4 comes along and brings down T&T's quality to a state it never really recovers from. 3-5 isn't as satisfying as it could be, and T&T's inconsistent quality is a big reason why.
See, even Terry's tired.
Con Two: (Original) Characterization.
T&T has the issue of a rather underbaked core cast. Although it has strong showings from its returning characters, many of its new inclusions—such as Godot, Jean Armstrong, Misty Fey, and even Mia to an extent—fall rather flat. Edgeworth in particular just feels kind of... weird? He's not written poorly or anything, and I think the juxtaposition from young Edgeworth still tainted by his worldview to old Edgeworth now mature and self-confident is really cool, but Edgeworth in 3-5 is just... strange. It feels like he's in-between arcs when his arc was already finished.
This line especially makes me upset. Edgeworth is many things, but he isn't a misogynist: I don't think even Manfred would mold him to be that way.
But enough about Edgeworth. T&T's original characters just kind of suffer from not really... doing enough. Dahlia is the exception that proves the rule. She is a major part of three entire cases and still manages to not make up too much screentime: by contrast even a few returning characters (namely Adrian) feel undercooked. I like Adrian's changes, but they don't do enough with her, really. I get that there's only so much room for her in 3-2, but she's just... kind of there, which sucks for a character as previously important of her.
Given that I mentioned young Edgeworth I'll just mention young Phoenix here. That's not Phoenix. That's not even remotely close to Phoenix. That is a different character entirely. That's not even in the same ballpark as 1-1 Phoenix: Phoenix at his least confident, least experienced, and least secure still feels so distant from Feenie. Why does Maya have the only consistent characterization out of the Trilogy's big three?
Con Three: Godot.
It was only fair that I included a character as a con after I included Franziska as a pro for JfA. Godot is by far the weakest prosecutor in the mainline series, or at least the trilogy: his arc feels incomplete, his actions are unsympathetic, and his relationship with Phoenix is rather uninteresting. Godot is a massive missed opportunity: he could've easily been sympathetic and even empathetic, but his arrogance and just general "god-i-want-to-punch-this-guy-in-the-face" feeling feel like they're fighting for a different Godot. There's conflicting ideas there and they heavily dilute his potential as an interesting character, and by extension a good antagonist.
Remember what I said about T&T's characterization and how a lot of its main cast really doesn't feel like they're doing anything? Godot is a prime example of this. They're afraid to take similar risks as Dahlia with Godot, the game's main antagonist! Why isn't Godot more interesting? Why don't his philosophical waxings actually make any sense? Why is he so fuckin' boring?
Case in point. Why does that matter? Why should I care about what Godot thinks about Phoenix? It's been made abundantly clear that he hates him, and it's not something that has to keep being repeated. Give him something else to say! We know he's Diego by this point: why not say something like "You'll never be like her"? Something vague enough to keep Phoenix in the dark but dramatically ironic enough to keep the viewer in the loop? Instead, their second real face-to-face conversation ends like this.
I guess that's my real criticism with Godot. He's not sympathetic, but he's not evil enough to hate. He's understandable, but that's drowned out by his misogyny and arrogance. He's... boring.
I'd personally prefer him just being straight-up irredeemable. They did this with Gant very well, and he's in my top 5 PWT characters—he's simultaneously an irredeemable, batshit crazy power freak who framed a child to gain control over the legal system and a suprisingly sympathetic man (he literally sees the world through rose-tinted glasses) who felt forced into betraying the law to convict a serial killer who had recanted his confession. Instead of doubling down on Godot being kind of crazy, they tried to frame him in a really weird light where he's simultaneously got an empathetic reason for doing what he did and justification for his hatred towards Phoenix… it's just that that empathy and justification are stooped in his sexist worldview, which is framed as a moral failure and an unsavory portion of his personality instead of a genuine held belief. Instead of thinking about how he framed himself as a chivalric defender of women like I think he was supposed to come across as I remember him shouting at Franziska to shut up, "know her role", and let the men do the talking.
I just think it's really sloppy and makes his character fall very flat very quickly.
Now, as promised, we'll get into my top five characters before finishing off with my overall thoughts!
Number Five: Furio Tigre
God, this Teppen art is awesome.
Furio Tigre is one of the funniest culprits in any Ace Attorney game, which only adds to his pure villainy. Under his bluster and hilarious quotes, he's a manipulator who exploits the poor and needy in society, whether they be desperate for a loan or the family of the Don. Like Gant, he is affably evil: you can't help but laugh at him, but when Viola breaks down at the end of 3-3 meeting him again on a playthrough feels even slimier than before. He's a conniving, cowardly, lying manipulator who is willing to set up elaborate schemes to cover his own ass when he fucks up.
And you know what? He still manages to feel like a fucking idiot and that's hilarious. Getting him with the ear medicine will always be one of my favorite takedowns: it's not out of character at all given how Furio presents himself. He's a wonderful villain.
Furio rules. I'm starting to think 6/10 was too low for 3-3.
Number Four: Luke Atmey
Zvarri! An Ace Clown!
Luke Atmey is in the holy trinity of one-off villains: the great Affably Evil trio of Damon Gant, Furio Tigre, and Luke himself. He's incredibly fun and incredibly charming, but he's also a huge fucking cunt prick asshole and taking him down is so, so, so satisfying. He really feels like a comic book villain—which makes sense, as he's obviously based on them. Hell, his original concept art has him twirling his evil mustache.
Ace Attorney characters have a tendency to feel unrealistic. Luke does, and in his case that's for the better. He is so stupidly flamboyant and puts on a face of stupidity: there's no way anyone like him would be subtle or cunning, but then we learn he's a murderer, blackmailer, and moonlights (get it) as a thief.
Luke really steals the show in 3-2, a case with a bunch of great characters. If that alone doesn't tell you how much I love him, then I don't know what will.
Number Three: Mia Fey
More Teppen art? OBJECTION!
Mia is great. She doesn't show up for very long in the cases that aren't 3-1 or 3-4, but when she does it's a treat. She's especially great in 3-5! Mia is characterized fantastically here and using T&T as a way to expand on what we know about her character—by showing a younger, less mature Mia in contrast to the older, now-veteran Phoenix—is really, really cool. One of my favorite decisions is how her attire is slightly different: her skirt is cropped shorter, she's not showing her... er... undershirt, and she's got less fancy shoes. Everything is just a bit less confident of itself.
Her dynamic with Dahlia is incredible. I might be veering off-topic, but I've been re-reading my favorite elementary school series recently: Warriors. You know the relationship between Tigerstar and Firestar? Yeah, that's Dahlia and Mia. It's such a cool dynamic that actually gets explored! Imagine that! Mia's whole place in T&T is a really good example of exploring a character's development after their arc is already over. Mia in 3-1 and 3-4 is more aggressive, less confident, less willing to bite her tongue and far more emotional—and the game contrasts this by showing how Mia acts as a seasoned veteran of the courtroom through her cool takedown of Dahlia in 3-5. She's given a lot of very necessary development in T&T. In a game all about the Feys, Mia needed to be treated well... and they knocked her out of the park.
Mia is one of the best parts of T&T. We love her here.
Number Two: Dahlia Hawthorne
More Teppen art!
Dahlia Hawthorne is by far the evilest person to grace Ace Attorney thus far, and she absolutely relishes it. She is an unrepentant psycho, somebody who is fully aware of how cruel she is and refusing to care about it even a bit. It's a refreshing counter to people like Gant, Manfred, and Godot who try to justify their behavior. No, like Matt, Dahlia is just a mean bitch.
Dahlia is the anti-Godot. Godot consumed poison; she poisoned two people. Godot died for his love; Dahlia died for herself. Godot loved Mia; Dahlia despised her. Hell, her main colors are red and white—Godot's recurring color motifs are his green suit and black coffee. At that same time, though, there are similarities. After all, they both killed for themselves.
Dahlia is a manipulator in a series full of manipulators, but she manages to stand out among others. She is a proud servant of Hell itself: no wonder she needed to be exorcized. And that's not even mentioning her overall design—she looks like a ghost, like she's not actually there. Which, to be fair, she really isn't. Dahlia Hawthorne is a fake identity.
Who's under the mask, then?
I don't think even she knew.
Number One: Maya Fey
Fine, one last piece of Teppen art. I like how her Magatama is glowing in this one.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is Miles Edgeworth's game. Justice for All is Phoenix Wright's game. It is only fitting, then, that Trials and Tribulations is Maya's game. Maya, more than any other character in this game, goes through the wringer. 3-5 is an incredibly brutal and personal case for her. What does she finally do when it's all over?
...Jokes about it, of course! Because that's Maya for you. She's always smiling, even when the going gets tough. Maybe she's using it to cover her trauma, but she's also still just... Maya. She's a venerable, enduring person, and I love that for her. She doesn't have a huge amount of character development in T&T, and even if I think the development she does have in the end of 3-5 is a bit rushed she's still just a fantastically-written character. She's always just Maya, but better. Her banter is fun. Her jokes are hilarious. Her story is real; it's personal, impersonal, bitter, happy, traumatizing, empowering.
She puts her own life and freedom on the line to save Pearl and Phoenix. She tries to protect the man who saved her life. She nearly wins an argument with Phoenix in court. Maybe it's through Phoenix. Maybe it's through the grave. But Mia's influence clearly lives on through Maya. In T&T, she is more mature than she's ever been: but she's still Maya, joking about food and giving Nick a hard time. Godot doesn't need to protect her at all. Maya is an underrated part of T&T's storytelling and writing, and I really wish her role in T&T was talked about more. She's the source of many of 3-5's emotional beats, and without Maya the entire game never happens. Phoenix would never go to Hazakura Temple, the Urn would never be sent to Lordly Tailor, and Phoenix might've even lost 3-3.
We love Maya Fey here.
Overall Thoughts
Is T&T the best the series has to offer? No. Is it still great? Absolutely. It has more good than bad, and although its lows are pretty low its highs tower over the rest. If it was consistently on the same level as 3-2 then I think it'd be unequivocally the best game in the entire franchise. I do think, all things considered, it's a perfect conclusion to the Trilogy. Everything that the previous games established is wrapped up perfectly—there are no loose ends, and I love how everything in 3-5 connects back to 1-4. In general all of the callbacks and mentions and shoutouts and cameos don't feel unearned or ham-fisted in! They all fit incredibly well, and really helps connect it all as a true finale.
Is it without its flaws? No. Its pacing is weird and inconsistent, its returning characters (for the most part) feel undercooked and maybe a bit tired, and its quality is inconsistent between cases. It struggles with having two villains of different levels of quality, with Dahlia being incredible and unapologetically hateable while Godot is just kind of boring and uninteresting outside of a few admittedly pretty funny moments. His gag of throwing coffee at Phoenix over and over again always makes me chuckle.
As with the other two games, I'd also like to point out some standout ships. This is the holy land for all Phoenix/Maya shippers, with Phoenix and Maya's relationship getting a ton of screen time and many chances to bloom, particularly throughout 3-3 and 3-5. Godot also has his fair share of ships, from the canon Godot/Mia to more fun and fantastical ships like Godot/Ron DeLite or Godot/Phoenix. 3-5 in particular also provides a lot of fodder for Phoenix/Edgeworth, Phoenix/Franziska, and Maya/Franziska, and 3-2 showing us how Adrian's doing gives a bit of insight into how her relationship with other people would evolve. That's for all my fellow Franziska/Adrian shippers, whaddup gang?
I said this about 3-5, but I think it applies to T&T as a whole. It's not perfect. It's not as good as other games. Heck, it's not in my top 3. But it's a great ending to the Trilogy.
It is, if nothing else, satisfying.
To wrap it all up, we'll give this one an overall rating and place its cases on our case tier list. See you for a retrospective on the Trilogy... and then we're off to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney!
Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5) Review, Part Two: California Dreamin'
I went for a walk on a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm if I was in LA
California dreamin', on such a winter's day
Part One can be found here!
Investigation, Day Two
Before our investigation begins, we're finally put back in Phoenix's shoes. In fact, he's reading up on 3-4!
That tiny-ass laptop returns.
He's still incredibly sick, but he's coming back to Hazakura for Maya and Iris's sakes. He's got a temperature of "only" 102 degrees, after all! We're talking about the case with Edgeworth, and he's brought us up to speed: the missing sword, the sketch, all that jazz. Gumshoe's gonna get hard to work rigging something up to cross the bridge with, and we're off to investigate!
Heading over to the Main Gate, we meet up with Larry: and Franziska, who promptly chases him away after refusing to model for his own picture book. There's not much to talk about with her, though, so after a tense conversation we're off to the Main Hall where we meet up with Bikini. Bikini's rather depressed about her testimony today. She's even doubting her own memory: she also tells us that Eagle Mountain is prone to earthquakes, and that another could very well level the Training Hall! The last thing we talk about with Bikini is Elise Deauxnim herself. What was she doing up here? Why is Bikini calling her "Mystic Elise"? Bikini says that you have to respect your elders, but when we ask how Bikini knows that she's younger than Elise...
Psyche-Locks galore!
Moving on, we start talking about Pearl. Thankfully, we know exactly where she is: the other mountain where the Training Hall is located. We go to check out the courtyard but don't find anythiing there. Going back to the Main Hall, we run into Gumshoe: the bridge is back up! Franziska interrupts him telling Bikini she has to stay away, and for some reason guides us through the investigation. I personally don't mind a few minutes with Franziska.
When we get across the bridge, though, our time is cut short: it's Pearl, barreling into our arms! Pearl tells us she was all alone, and after a (rather justified) crash-out in Franziska's general direction she runs off again, claiming that everything that's happened was her fault, leaving us with Franziska. There's something different about the Inner Temple Gate: the incinerator is snowless, meaning somebody had to have used it. There's no other clues here, so there's only one place to go: the Training Hall itself.
...It's empty.
Not another psycholock...
Maya's nowhere to be found: a large, Psyche-Lock shaped padlock is covering up the door, and the scroll depicting Misty has been covered in some sort of sauce: taking a sniff, we determine that it's gravy! ...Now I want something with gravy. Biscuits and gravy... chicken-fried steak... anyways, once we're done poking around, who else shows his head but Prosecutor Godot? After a sexist rant in Franziska's general direction, she bites her tongue and we're left to talk to Godot. We actually get to strike up a conversation for once. Godot explains that he's died before: the mask he wears isn't a fashion statement, it's a medical device. Godot is leading a search for Maya, and he tells us some horrible news: she's nowhere to be found on this side of the mountain! What? How is that even possible? The only place she can be inside of is the cavern that's locked up, but the temperatures in there are below freezing: if she's locked in there, then there's a high chance she's already died. Godot goes further. He claims that this is the second woman we've killed—he shouts that we killed Mia!
Godot gets into a shouting match with Phoenix, angrily accusing him of ducking responsibility and getting Mia killed. Franziska breaks it up by suggesting breaking open the lock, but Godot shuts that down: any excessive force and the Sacred Cavern could come tumbling down. The only person that can unlock the lock is the person who set it—the person who was supervising Maya during her training, Iris herself. Godot is sure that Maya is in the cavern, and Godot insults us one last time before leaving.
Dick.
We have no choice but to leave the Training Hall, and we run across Gumshoe outside. He's trying to wash something off, and he tells us that he snuck into the area that says "no entry": it's a small garden. Franziska suggests that we go inside the garden, and given that we have nothing else to do we might as well. The garden is rather serene, if not odd. A huge amount of snow has been shoveled away from a large lantern with some strange writing on it. Writing that, when we turn upside-down... reads "Maya". Chilling. There's also a small talisman on the ground that apparenEtly belonged to Elise.
We get to talking with Gumshoe. Forensics found nothing in the Training Hall, meaning it's probably not our missing murder scene. Edgeworth is also escorting Iris here so she can unlock the trick lock. The bloody "Maya" on the lantern was written in Elise's blood: it's starting to look like this garden is our murder scene. Franziska points out that it's likely that Elise wrote this herself, in her own blood! What exactly did Bikini see, then? Given that the bridge was burned down, the crime scene couldn't have been tampered with, either: did... did Maya murder Elise? But why would she do that? How could she have done that?
Getting back to the main gate, we run into Iris and Edgeworth. Edgeworth doesn't allow us to take part of the investigation into the Sacred Cavern: the public cannot interfere. The entire Inner Temple is now suddenly off-limits to us! Oh, well. We have enough information to do one thing, at least: break Bikini's Psyche-Locks. The first thing we have to do is prove her identity. The charm that was dropped at the crime scene is rather interesting: Bikini slips that it's a "talisman", and we confront her with the fact that it shares the same seal that's on the scroll depicting Misty Fey. After we tell her that Maya is the new Master, Misty Fey's daughter, all five locks break: and Bikini tells us the truth.
Elise Deauxnim was, in actuality, Misty Fey.
And Maya never knew...
Franziska nearly gets Bikini to tell us why Elise decided to come back when an earthquake suddenly hits! It was a big one: the Inner Temple could've collapsed! We have no choice but to run over at once. When we get there, we meet with Edgeworth: his phobia of earthquakes is as strong as ever, and he passed out due to shock, giving Iris the opportunity to slip away! We manage to talk Edgeworth out of a manhunt. Iris likely went to the Inner Temple to try and find Maya! When we get there, though, there's four more trick locks: and Iris waiting for us.
We take the opportunity to talk with Iris. She ran away to check on the Sacred Cavern, but when she got here the locks were already covering the door. Iris agrees to help unlock all of the locks, but it could take a full day! There's one last thing we need to ask: her actual whereabouts during the murder. We're only met with three Psyche-Locks in return. Dammit! We're back to getting nowhere fast.
Going back outside, we manage to chase Edgeworth down. He was looking into Iris's background. What did he find? He found that he had, indeed, seen Iris's face before: that same face belonged to the daughter of a jeweler on a case he worked six years ago. The case we were reading about. Melissa Foster... Dahlia Hawthorne. But Edgeworth says that that case has nothing to do with this one.
Ah, dramatic irony.
We work our way back to Heavenly Hall where we meet with Pearl and Larry. After a brief discussion where Pearl and Larry bonding over being losers, baby, we talk about the sketch: Larry is still adamant that it's exactly what he saw, so there's little room for doubt that this is, indeed, accurate. We ask Pearl where she was the night of the murder, and we're met by even more Psyche-Locks: everybody's keeping secrets! She tells us that she's being punished—that her spiritual powers have disappeared. We deduce that she tried to channel somebody but couldn't. We can't break her Psyche-Locks, though, so it's up to us to keep sleuthing.
Going back to the Main Hall, we tell Bikini about the four new trick locks. Going back to the conversation we left behind, Bikini tells us that Misty returned because somebody was trying to destroy the main Fey family line. A branch family has begun plotting to destroy the main family line once again: just after spirit channeling has returned to a semi-respectable state in the aftermath of DL-6. Speaking of branch families, there's one we know well: Morgan's. Bikini tells us what she thinks we already know. Iris is Morgan's daughter.
Wait, what?
Could this have all been a new frontline in the family war?
Bikini tells us that she thought she knew Iris was Morgan's daughter: but when we tell her we only knew Pearl was Morgan's daughter, she's as shocked to learn Pearl was Morgan's as we are to have learned Iris was Morgan's! Morgan had three daughters: Pearl, Iris, and Iris's twin sister. It's starting to make sense! Morgan married a jeweler, although he left her and took custody of Iris and her sister in the divorce. As it's all but spelled out by Phoenix, I'll just drop it here: this twin sister of hers is none other than Dahlia Hawthorne.
We go back to the Courtyard and run into Gumshoe, who's singing a little reggae tune. He's investigating in an attempt to find the real murder weapon, and although he didn't find it he did find scraps of a letter or something. The letter's all about spirit mediums and masters: and in his search for the real murder weapon, Gumshoe brought out one of the department's famous secret weapons. The metal detector! Looking around for old time's sake, we find something odd: Misty's wooden cane seems to have been made out of... metal? Taking a good look, we end up fighting for it with Gumshoe: the top breaks off, and out comes... a sword. It's a sword cane! Did you know those are legal in my home state of Virginia?
This must be the murder weapon: but what's it doing over here, not in the garden? We tell Gumshoe to hold off and he voices Phoenix's concerns for him: given that this has blossomed into a war between branch families, there's a not-insignificant chance that Maya has been murdered alongside her mother. Gumshoe agrees to hold off on analyzing it and to keep the secret. After giving us a bit of comfort, offering to take us to a nice pasta shop when we find Maya, and we take our leave.
Sure you did, pal.
We're back down to Heavenly Hall, just in time to break Pearl's Psyche-Locks. Pearl ran away from Misty because she was worried about Maya. Pearl knew what time it was, too: just after 10. She was listening hard for the bell. Putting two-and-two together, we realize why she was so keen on listening to the bell: the burnt letter had instructions to listen to it. Pearl was supposed to be channeling somebody's spirit: and the only person it realistically could be is Dahlia Hawthorne, executed for Doug Swallow's murder and now a pawn in her mother's war against the main family! Morgan Fey wrote this letter. Pearl made a mistake, though. Morgan's letter says "gravely roast", which Pearl asked Misty to read for her: but she misread it as "gravy roast", throwing the pot of gravy over the hanging scroll.
Pearl admits that we're right. She threw the pot of gravy over the hanging scroll, but fell asleep praying for Maya's safety. When she woke up, the bridge had burned down! Pearl tried to channel Dahlia's spirit, but couldn't: either her spiritual powers are gone or somebody was already channeling Dahlia. Furthermore, when she found the letter Morgan had hidden for her, it was already opened by somebody!
Godot suddenly appears. He's blaming Maya's death on us, even though there's no proof that she's dead! He tells us that Maya isn't coming back. Before this day of investigation ends, we get a small snippet with none other than Morgan Fey. She's gloating: her plan for Pearl to take over the Fey Clan is finally coming to fruition...
Sister fights against sister in this most uncivil of wars.
Trial, Day Two
It's time for the final trial of the Trilogy. Tighten your seatbelts, folks.
Before the trial begins, we get to talk with Pearl a bit: Iris isn't here with us. Edgeworth appears and tells us that she's in the prosecutor's lobby with Godot, preparing her testimony. She's going to be a witness for this case! Franziska is hard at work back at Hazakura Temple, working on the trick locks and trying to get Maya free. That means our prosecutor for today is none other than Godot.
Trial begins. His Honor is here: it seems that Phoenix passed on his cold to Colin, who turns out to be His Honor's younger brother. After a cryptic opening statement, Godot calls Iris to the stand. She intends to confess her role as an accomplice to the murder! Iris's testimony was a lie, then: we can't use it anymore.
That's what we all want to know!
Godot asks Iris who exactly she was covering for. Iris says that her mission as a nun is to protect the branch family: she was covering for Maya! No. No, no, no: is she really telling the truth? Was she an accomplice to... a murder Maya committed? Did Maya kill her own mother?!
Iris testifies that she saw what happened. Misty had attacked Maya, and before she could kill her Maya grabbed the weapon and killed her in self-defense. We know this isn't true: after all, Elise was Misty Fey! When we bring this to the court's attention, Godot argues that domestic violence is, unfortunately, not terribly uncommon. His Honor is inclined to agree. The fact that Elise was Misty alone is not enough to poke a hole in this testimony. We press Iris for more details, and Iris tells us that the weapon Maya grabbed was a small dagger that Misty had pulled out. This is our break! Why would she need to pull out a dagger if there was already a sword in her cane? This, combined with the fact that Misty was Maya's mother, leads His Honor to have doubts about this version of events.
Godot still has some ammunition, though. He pulls out the dagger in question: it was stuck in the trunk of a pine tree with blood on the blade. The blood hasn't been tested yet, so the dagger is accepted into evidence pending a blood test. His Honor asks Iris to testify again about the fight between Misty and Maya. Iris testifies that Maya grabbed Misty's weapon and cornered her against the stone lantern, when she was stabbed. This is another break: after all, Misty was stabbed through the back! Godot objects. After waxing philosophical one more time, he tells us that the stone lantern wasn't lit that night. Iris couldn't see anything clearly!
Smug bastard!
The lantern is submitted as evidence. His Honor notices "Maya" written in blood, although Godot fails to notice it: just like the ketchup stain in 3-3! He's visibly shaken by the news. In any case, His Honor has agreed with his version of events. He asks Iris to testify about her manipulation of the crime scene. Iris tells us that she moved the body, dragging it across Dusky Bridge, and then stabbed it with Shichishito to make it seem like it was the murder weapon. After pressing Iris a bit more, we get her to admit that she used the snowmobile to move the body. This doesn't make a lick of sense! Iris is basically saying that the snow had stopped when the murder occurred, given that there was only one set of tracks. This doesn't line up with what had actually happened: after all, it was still snowing when Dusky Bridge was set on fire! Iris was lying about dragging Misty's body across the bridge!
Godot asks us to explain what was happening, then. When we can't, His Honor asks for one more testimony from Iris to clear up this inconsistency. Iris testifies that she doesn't really remember whether it was snowing or not, but in either case there really isn't any other way to cross the bridge besides walking. Godot even gives us a photo of the bridge after it burned down.
Looks pretty unwalkable to me.
Except... hold on. Looking back at Larry's picture... our contradiction! Our precious contradiction! Maybe Larry's not clinically insane after all. In his drawing, the suspension wires are beneath the bridge, while in the photo they're above the bridge. When Larry looked out at Dusky Bridge, he was viewing it upside-down! The figure in the drawing isn't flying through the air. She's swinging from one side to the other!
My favorite turnabout in this case.
This is such a cool fucking logic trick. The killer used the snapped rope from Dusky Bridge to swing Misty's body over the gorge, and it dropped on the other side. After all, her body was covered in bruises and the sphere dropped from her cane exactly where her body would've been! There's only one person who could've been waiting to catch it: Iris. After all, she stabbed it with Shichishito, and she couldn't have crossed a broken bridge! Iris is completely clueless, and when Godot mentions that it'd be like she was in two places at once... well, it all starts to come together.
What if this isn't Iris at all? Why is she trying to pin the murder on Maya? Why is she acting so different? Why does she not know things she should know? There's only one answer. This isn't Iris. This is her twin sister... Dahlia Hawthorne. Dahlia Hawthorne was executed, but this is a case revolving around spirit mediums! Somebody is channeling Dahlia's spirit in their own body. Godot laughs at the idea of this coincidence, but we know it's not a coincidence: we have the instructions from Morgan to prove it! Godot counters, telling us that this has to be the real Iris: Iris has been under police supervision ever since she was arrested. There was one chance for her to swap places with her sister, though. When she was unlocking the trick locks! Remember the earthquake that struck? Edgeworth himself told us that he passed out due to shock!
There's nowhere for her to run.
The curtain drops.
Meet Dahlia Hawthorne, permanently retired. After a brief intermission, His Honor asks her for her testimony, and Dahlia details the plan: the plan was written by Morgan to get Pearl installed as the new Master by killing Maya, the last living daughter of Morgan Fey. We grill Dahlia for more details, and Dahlia admits that she wasn't following through for a mother she couldn't care less about. We know why she was following through: to get revenge on Mia Fey, the woman who exposed her as Doug Swallow's killer. Dahlia tells us that this is so. You can't kill somebody who's already dead, but you can do the next best thing: kill the person who matters most to them. Dahlia reveals that she was channeled by Elise Deauxnim that night, and went to stab Maya... but she was stabbed herself. Dahlia tells us that she has no memory of killing Maya but that she did write her name on the lantern behind her. When she woke up, she was in the Sacred Cavern.
By the time she woke up, Pearl walked in to throw gravy on the scroll. She hid and managed to remove the lock by the time the police arrived. Iris arrived after the earthquake and Dahlia took the opportunity to switch places with her: and even though she hadn't killed Maya, she had done the second best-thing. Maya had committed the crime of matricide!
"i know what you are"
Dahlia tells us that there's evidence to back up this idea. Maya can't be in the Inner Temple or the Sacred Cavern: there's only one place she could be. She posits that after killing her own mother, Maya jumped off of the mountain in despair. Right after she says this, Godot gets a phone call: Sister Iris has been found in the Sacred Cavern... alongside nobody else.
This case seems to have come to its tragic conclusion. Suddenly, Godot speaks up: he's telling us that what Dahlia posits may not be the truth after all! Godot tells us that it's impossible to jump into Eagle River from the Inner Temple. Remember 3-4? On the other side of Eagle River is a huge rock shelf! Dahlia just made the same exact mistake she did during Terry's trial. Maya isn't in the Inner Temple, she isn't in the Sacred Cavern, and she's not lying dead on a rock face: the only place she could be is this very courtroom...
channeling the spirit of Dahlia Hawthorne!
Dahlia has been acting under the impression that she was being channeled by Pearl Fey this entire time. Remember what Pearl told us? If a spirit is already being channeled by somebody, they can't be channeled by another person: Maya channeled Dahlia's spirit in the Sacred Cavern! After all, if Maya channeled the spirit of somebody trying to kill her... well, she couldn't exactly die, could she? Mia walks into the courtroom and tells Dahlia exactly what happened.
The final showdown.
Maya lost consciousness at the same time as Dahlia, when she was being channeled by Misty. She ran into the Sacred Cavern and channeled Mia's spirit, explaining what was happening in a memo: Mia told her to put the lock on the door and channel Dahlia's spirit. Phoenix and Mia tell Dahlia that all of her plans have ended in total failure! She was exposed as Valerie's killer. She failed to kill Phoenix. She was exposed as Doug's killer. Now, she failed to kill Maya. Every one of her plans has ended in total, abject failure!
Dahlia is apoplectic. She rages against Mia, and Mia coolly tells her that she'll never beat her: as long as Mia exists, Dahlia will continue to fail over and over again. After a verbal beatdown from Mia, Phoenix demands Dahlia come out of Maya's body: and she unwillingly does so, vanishing in a burst of blue flames shaped like a Magatama.
Get behind me, Satan.
Maya falls to the ground, exhausted.
Iris returns to the courtroom: the real Iris, thankfully. His Honor gives a small speech about accepting the idea of spirit channeling, and indeed with adaptations to the courtroom as a whole. He's ready to proclaim Iris Not Guilty, but Godot stops him: Mia rebounds, telling us to remember Dahlia's testimony. Dahlia was stabbed and killed before she could kill Maya, remember? So who stabbed Dahlia in Misty's body: who killed Misty Fey?
Godot prepares to call one last witness: Maya Fey.
A recess is called to wait for Maya to get a doctor's permission to testify. During the recess, Iris explains that she felt sorry for Dahlia: and Dahlia exploited her kindness. She poisoned Diego Armando—that is, Godot—and gave the vial to Phoenix. Iris tells us that she did, indeed, stab Misty's body: she was an accomplice to the murder. She can't bring herself to tell us the name of the real killer, though.
When she leaves, we get to talk with Mia for a bit. She went to the medical office and told Maya everything: including who "Elise Deauxnim" really was. Mia tells us that this is our battle to fight. The killer was somebody who wasn't in Hazakura Temple the following day...
A narrow list of suspects.
The trial resumes. A full blood test couldn't be performed on the dagger due to time constraints, but the blood did not belong to the victim. Maya is ready to give her testimony: our final witness. Maya says that she wants nothing to do with the Fey Clan anymore, and after a quick pep-talk by Godot she's ready to give her first testimony.
Maya testifies that she was on her way to a small prep room when she was attacked. She thinks she screamed for help and backed up against the lantern: something warm splashed over her and she lost consciousness due to shock and injury. We get to pressing her, and she eventually says that it was "her last hope": she was screaming "help me" to somebody. She says that there was a man behind her attacker that she could see through the light of the lantern. We know this can't be true: the lantern couldn't have been lit that night, as Godot told us.
...Why would Maya lie about this?
Phoenix is certain that this man was the real killer. After all, only he could've stabbed Misty in the back. Maya lied about this for one reason: she knows exactly who our killer is and is covering it up for some reason.
A desperate attempt.
Godot counters. Maya's in a lot of emotional and mental turmoil right now: she could've just made a mistake. The thing is, Maya very clearly described the other person as a man: how would she have been able to tell if there was no light? Maya saw him despite not seeing her own attacker. Godot asks us to explain: we tell him that there's some things that can only be seen in the dark.
Like the lights from his mask, for example.
God, this case's artwork is so fucking good.
We ask Maya if what she saw were three glowing red lights. Maya says that she thought the other person was a man for a completely different reason: she's still trying to cover for Godot, our real killer! She testifies again, making a rather desperate and flimsy claim that because of the work that was done to the garden after the fact she just assumed the person who saved her was a man. (Are you assuming somebody's gender, Maya?!) After pressing her for more details, she eventually says that she thought the killer cleaned up the crime scene for her sake.
This isn't true. After all, her name was still on the stone lantern! Remember what happened earlier? The ketchup stain on Maggey's apron in 3-3? Godot cannot see the color red against the color white. This is it! Godot has to be our killer. Furthermore, the entire area around the lantern has been shoveled away. Why wouldn't the killer just shovel away the bloody snow, unless he couldn't see where the blood was spilled?
Maya tries to testify one more time. Godot stops her, saying that there's no way she could've known about anything that happened after the murder: after all, she was hiding in the Cavern and then channeled Dahlia Hawthorne. Phoenix presses His Honor for testimony anyways and he agrees. Maya testifies that Pearl was also there on the Inner Temple side and met with Godot after the bridge had been repaired: when he arrived for the first time.
At least she's self-aware.
His Honor moves to dismiss the testimony after she says Pearl told her about this, but Godot moves to accept it. We press Maya for more information: specifically, about Godot's investigation. We ask Godot himself about his investigation and Godot tells us that the only odd thing he found was the scroll depicting Misty Fey. This is his weak spot! We call him out on this with the scroll itself. How could he have seen Misty Fey if Pearl was there, since she specifically went there to cover it in gravy?
Maya counters: the seal shows who it is. This isn't enough. Godot specifically gave us a description of Misty, clad in "traditional Japanese garb". He couldn't have known what she looked like in this painting! Godot counters, saying that our entire theory hinges on the idea that he knew a crime was going to be committed. We bring up an idea: that he was the one who had found the letter first. After all, it was already opened when Pearl found it, remember? Morgan told Pearl where to find the instructions: and Godot eavesdropped on them!
Godot asks one last thing. Why? Why would he go through all of this effort to protect Maya, a girl he didn't know? The fact that it was Maya in particular didn't matter nearly as much to him as the fact she was the sister of Mia Fey: his former girlfriend. After all, his real name isn't Godot at all.
It all comes full circle.
Diego had been in a coma for 5 long years. Godot explains that ever since he woke up his life has been a living hell: both Mia and Dahlia are dead, and he can't see the woman he loved again nor watch the woman he hated hang. He tells us he had two reasons left to live: the first was Phoenix. Godot arrogantly claims that if he wasn't poisoned then Mia would still be alive—this is why he hates us so much. The second reason was Maya: he needed to protect her, the last living relative of Mia, from Morgan's schemes. This is why he became a prosecutor: to see what kind of man Phoenix was and to protect Maya through the legal system (as well as keep an eye on her given that she's our partner in law). Through his position as a prosecutor, he was even able to contact Misty Fey: politicians have been keeping eye on her ever since her disappearance, and she even cooperated with Godot to save Maya. Godot tells Maya that no matter what, Misty always held her in her heart. She kept the sword cane to protect Maya, even at the cost of her own life.
Godot and Misty's plan was to prevent Pearl from channeling Dahlia at all costs. Misty initially tried to keep Pearl occupied by reading her children's books, but when that failed... she channeled Dahlia's spirit herself. Godot hid at the Inner Temple: his role was to protect Maya himself against anybody who wanted to hurt her. Godot tells us that we're a great attorney, but the rest of this case hasn't been solved. His Honor makes it clear. One question remains: who killed Misty Fey? There are only two suspects left—Maya Fey and Diego "Godot" Armando.
Maya initially refuses to testify, but we plead her to. We need to hear the truth, and Godot needs to face justice: His Honor asks her to testify about exactly what she saw before her mother died. Maya testifies that she saw three red lights behind her attacker, and that she felt her blood cover her body afterwards: but Dahlia was still alive, swirled around to attack whoever stabbed her, and then the lights went out. There are no lies in this testimony. It's time to pick it apart.
This is our last cross-examination of the Trilogy. Let's make it count.
We press every single statement. Maya tells us that she can't be exactly sure if they were from Godot's mask, and she can't tell us exactly why they went out, either. Somebody screamed right as the lights went out: a man. It's so obvious what happened, but we just can't put it together yet! Maya suggests that Dahlia took the sword cane and attacked her attacker. Finally. Finally, a contradiction! The sword was firmly in Dahlia's back at this time. She couldn't have attacked anybody with it. She used another weapon—the small dagger found in the pine tree. Godot counters: couldn't the blood be from the victim? We counter: the blood has been tested and confirmed to not be Misty's! We propose that the blood is Godot's and he laughs in our face. There's no way he would be that stupid. If he was the killer, he could've easily just used somebody else's blood!
Maya points out a contradiction in our own idea. She says that Godot's clothes should be ripped or bloody if he was attacked: but we propose that he might've just brought a change of clothes. Maya shoots back. They were trapped there. Why would anybody plan on being trapped and bring an extra set of clothes?! Godot taunts us. "If Mia Fey were here," he says, "she would have closed the book on this case already." Can we do it? Can we finish off this case?
I think we can.
There's one place that Godot could have hidden his wound. One place that would be invisible to the naked eye. One place that would explain the lights turning off. When we present our evidence, Godot taunts us: but then he sees something.
In Phoenix's shadow... or maybe just over his shoulder... he sees Mia Fey point with us as we reveal the truth.
"It's beneath your mask!"
Godot takes the opportunity to reflect. He realizes that he's been lying to himself: he saw Mia living through Phoenix, and admits that he didn't do anything to "save Maya". He did it to get his own selfish revenge on Dahlia Hawthorne. Godot admits that if he really wanted to save Maya he should've gone to Phoenix. But no. He failed to accept his own guilt and shortcomings, and it cost an innocent woman her life. Godot tells us that it could've even been Pearl: he wouldn't have cared. He just wanted revenge.
Godot tearfully leaves the courtroom behind and our trial comes to an end.
The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over.
Before we leave, Iris takes the time to apologize to us. She lied to us five years ago: and she reveals that she really was there, and she really did fall in love with Phoenix. After sharing a cuppa with Diego, who finally respects us enough to call us "Wright"... Iris is found Not Guilty for the crime of murder, although His Honor tells her that she will still be tried as an accomplice to murder.
Everybody comes in to congratulate us, even Mia. She tells us that we saved Diego in the only way possible, and everybody comes in for a group hug (even Franziska)! Maya keeps trucking on for Pearl. We run back to Hazakura to pick her up before we meet everybody at the restaurant Gumshoe got reservations for: she and Maya tearfully reunite. Phoenix gives Maya the Master's talisman, and shows her what it actually is: a small container with a photograph inside.
Like cousin, like cousin.
Maya drops that she got some reservations for Phoenix to undergo medium training himself. And after one last big "Objection!"...
The Trilogy comes to a close.
What Really Happened?
The story of 3-5 is the story of the Trilogy as a whole.
29 years ago, a spirit medium named Misty Fey gave birth to her daughter: a girl named Mia. Misty was a member of the Fey Clan, an enigmatic group of spirit mediums, and by giving birth to a daughter she had secured her lineage's continued rule over the matriarchal clan. This enraged her sister, Morgan: as the elder sister, she was supposed to take over the clan after their mother died, but because her spiritual power was weak she was passed over in favor of her stronger sister. Ten years later, Morgan would give birth to a second daughter, Maya. After Misty gave birth to Mia, Morgan would give birth to her own daughters: a pair of identical twins named Dahlia and Iris Hawthorne. Morgan would later give birth to another daughter that would stay in Kurain Village and become a spirit medium of her own, a girl named Pearl Fey. After Pearl's incredible psychic power was revealed, Morgan abandoned her husband, Dahlia, and Iris for Pearl: or, more specifically, Pearl's potential to become the new Master. All she had to do was get rid of the main family!
17 years ago, on Christmas Day of 2001, a man named Gregory Edgeworth was working as a defense attorney. He was defending a man against the legendary prosecutor Manfred von Karma, with his son Miles in attendance. While the man he was defending was declared guilty, Gregory discovered Manfred's shady tricks and disgraced him with a penalty. For a man like Manfred von Karma, who considered himself perfect in every regard, the penalty was an unfathomable blemish on his fragile ego. Manfred began to wander the courthouse aimlessly. After the trial, an earthquake struck the courthouse. Gregory, Miles, and a bailiff named Yanni Yogi were in an elevator when the earthquake hit: the resultant blackout trapped them inside. Gregory and Yanni began fighting, and Yanni's pistol dropped from its holster. In a desperate attempt to get them to stop, Miles threw the pistol: it hit the ground and discharged, striking Manfred in the shoulder as he attempted to use the elevator. The power returned and the elevator doors opened after this, with all three inside falling unconscious due to oxygen deprivation. Manfred picked up the pistol, aimed, and shot Gregory Edgeworth in the heart. After the murder, which became known as the DL-6 Incident, Manfred would adopt Miles as his own son.
The police were stumped for leads. In a fit of desperation, they contacted a spirit medium: Misty Fey. Misty summoned Gregory's spirit, and out of a desire to protect his son who he believed was responsible for his murder, blamed Yanni. Yanni was arrested and charged with Gregory's murder, but was found not guilty due to insanity. Marvin Grossberg, the boss of Robert Hammond (the defense attorney that defended Yanni Yogi), leaked this to a media mogul and blackmailer named Redd White for a very juicy payout. Misty was labeled a fraud and disappeared, leaving behind her daughters Mia and Maya. Mia decided to become a lawyer to protect the innocent and uncover the truth behind her mother's disappearance while Maya stayed behind in Kurain Village to become a full-fledged spirit medium. Mia began working under none other than Grossberg himself: whether out of suspicion of his connections to DL-6 or out of coincidence, it's very hard to say. The case would remain unsolved for another 15 years.
Roughly 7 years after the DL-6 Incident, Terry Fawles was arrested, charged, and convicted with the kidnapping and murder of Dahlia Hawthorne. Unbeknownst to everybody, Dahlia actually faked her own death, making off with a very valuable diamond that Dahlia, Terry, and Dahlia's sister Valerie planned to sell. He escaped 5 years later after the prison transport carrying him crashed. Dahlia murdered Valerie, disguised herself as her sister, and helped get Terry arrested and charged for Valerie's murder. Dahlia was nearly exposed as the true killer by Mia, but before she could be arrested Terry killed himself with a small vial of poison that Dahlia convinced him to drink if she ever broke his trust. After this, she enrolled at Ivy U and came up with a plan to dispose of Diego Armando, Mia's boyfriend and legal partner following up on Terry's suicide. She stole poison from Ivy U's pharmacology department and used a small heart-shaped bottle necklace to poison Diego when he met with her, sending him into a years-long coma. She then gave the necklace to an art student at Ivy U that she pretend to fall in love with: Phoenix Wright. Dahlia was searched and no poison was found, so she was let go.
After this, Dahlia used her twin sister Iris to try and get the bottle back. This ultimately failed because Iris genuinely fell in love with Phoenix. Dahlia went to extreme measures: she stole more poison from the pharmacology department and attempted to murder Phoenix by poisoning his cold medicine. This failed when a fellow student named Doug Swallow told Phoenix of the theft and took his cold medicine. Dahlia murdered Doug and tried to frame Phoenix for the crime, but she was ultimately exposed yet again by Mia and convicted for Doug's murder. During his trial, Phoenix ate the bottle that Dahlia gave him, ultimately destroying the evidence.
Three years later, Phoenix became Mia's understudy, dedicating himself to becoming a lawyer in order to follow in Mia's footsteps and to "save Edgeworth" after learning he became a feared prosecutor. Mia began her own investigation into Redd White: after Mia took Phoenix under her wing, White discovered this through a wiretap that he had placed on her office phone and murdered her. White was exposed as Mia's killer through a joint effort between Phoenix, Maya, and Mia, and Phoenix began to evolve as a defense attorney in his own right. A few months after the White case, Miles was arrested for Robert Hammond's murder. Phoenix managed to expose Yanni Yogi as Hammond's killer and Manfred as Gregory's killer, bringing an end to the DL-6 tragedy 15 years after it had started.
Two years after Mia's murder, Diego woke up. After learning of Mia's death and Phoenix's position as her understudy, he adopted the name Godot and dedicated himself to totally destroying Phoenix, who he blamed as responsible for Mia's death. Eventually, he learned of a plan hatched by Morgan Fey, Misty's sister: she was going to kill Maya after Misty was declared legally dead, ensuring that her own daughter Pearl Fey would become the new Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Morgan left a letter for Pearl to find detailing the plan. Godot found the letter before her, however.
Morgan's plan was for Pearl to summon the spirit of Dahlia Hawthorne, who was executed a month earlier after being convicted for Doug's murder, and for Dahlia to murder Maya so that Pearl could ascend to the position of Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Godot learned about this plan and contacted Bikini, a mystic who lived in Hazakura Temple, and Misty Fey, who had taken on the persona of a children's book author named Elise Deauxnim. They hatched their own plan to keep Pearl busy so she couldn't channel Dahlia's spirit while they were at Hazakura Temple. This ultimately failed when Pearl got away from Misty, however, so Misty took measures into her own hands and channeled Dahlia's spirit as a last-ditch effort to save her daughter's life. Thankfully, however, Pearl misunderstood the plan: mistaking the word "gravely" for "gravy" and taking the word "roast" a bit too literally, she took the gravy that was used for the night's pot roast dinner and threw it on a depiction of Misty in the Inner Temple.
Dahlia, in Misty's body but believing she was in Pearl's, picked up a knife and found Maya in the temple's gardens. She tried to kill Maya, but Godot was at the garden first: he picked up Elise's cane, which was secretly a sword, and in a fit of rage stabbed Dahlia in the back. When this happened, Dahlia turned around and slashed Godot across the face with her knife, knocking off his mask and leaving a gaping wound underneath it. In any case, the stabbing exorcized Dahlia's spirit but also killed Misty. Maya fainted, and Godot went about covering up the murder. He used Iris as an accomplice and created a fake murder scene through an elaborate plot of using a loose wire from Dusky Bridge, which caught on fire and began to fall apart after being struck by lightning, to swing Misty's body across the gorge and impale her on Shichishito, a valuable heirloom of the Fey Clan. Larry witnessed this and made a quick drawing, although because he was upside-down he drew it from his erroneous perspective. Phoenix knew Maya was trapped on the other side and tried to cross the bridge but fell into the gorge below. Bikini, who had returned to the Main Hall to take a bath to relieve her aching back, witnessed Iris impaling Misty's body with Shichishito, believing that Iris had murdered her with the sword.
After killing Misty, Godot attempted to cover up the crime scene. He lit the lantern and used a shovel to get rid of all of the snow around it: he can't see the color red on the color white because of his visor, and as a result missed the word "Maya" written in blood by Dahlia on the lantern as Misty died. Maya later woke up in the Inner Temple: realizing that she was trapped, she wrote a letter to Mia and summoned her spirit. Mia told her to summon Dahlia's spirit to protect herself from Dahlia. Maya locked herself in the temple with a trick lock and summoned Dahlia's spirit to protect both herself and Pearl. After Iris's arrest and Phoenix's fall into the gorge, Edgeworth arrived on the scene and called Iris to undo the trick lock in the Inner Temple: when Iris unlocked it, an earthquake struck Eagle Mountain. Edgeworth fainted out of shock, reliving his memories of DL-6. Dahlia switched places with Iris and locked her in the temple using five more trick locks, using Maya's body to testify as "Iris" in her stead.
THOUGHTS
As the ultimate conclusion to the Trilogy, I think 3-5 does a great job.
It's an incredibly solid ending. The case as a whole has a fantastic mystery with a ton of twists and turns: I absolutely love that Iris isn't actually innocent in everything, something that will come into play even more later down the line. She's an awesome defendant, and 3-5 has the honor of being one of those few cases without a single bad character weighing it down. Even Larry puts in a stellar showing, and its strong witness list makes the trial days engaging and fun. I love every little turnabout in 3-5, from the pendulum body to the trick that Dahlia is in Maya's body. 3-5 does a fantastic job of integrating spirit channeling into its mystery, a unique strength that Ace Attorney doesn't really lean into very often, unfortunately. 2-2 does this as well, but 3-5 does it in a much stronger way with better execution and as more than just a simple trick in logic—it's engrained to the case's identity as a whole.
Playing as Edgeworth is so fucking cool. Seeing him actually follow in his father's footsteps and become a defense attorney, even if it's just for two days, is really, really cool. It's an incredible sendoff for him, having his arc finally come full circle. It's honestly my favorite part of the case: I love being able to see how Gumshoe and Edgeworth work together in an investigation. Working with Gumshoe alone is really cool: this case does a lot to dispel the idea that he's a bumbling idiot, as he takes his work very seriously and even comes to quite a few deductions on his own. Let's actually talk about the wider characterization here. I really love the bits and pieces of Franziska and Phoenix working together during the second day of investigation! It makes me think that, in another timeline, maybe they could've been good friends. They even joke around with each other from time-to-time: it's really sweet, honestly. Heck, she even gets concerned when Phoenix goes quiet in the Training Hall!
I think the second day of trial fucking rules. Both days of trial are actually fantastic: Edgeworth proves to be an incredible defense attorney, and having Franziska back behind the prosecutor's bench is really nice. She even shows some significant signs of growth here, and working with her during the second day of investigation is probably my favorite part of the case: there's a bunch of super fun banter between her and Phoenix, and even some signs that they actually care for each other. I get Franziska/Phoenix now. I really hope she comes back in AA7 if/when we ever get it. The twist with Iris actually being Dahlia in Maya's body is fantastic. Shu and Janet did a brilliant job with making sure everything fit together to make the twist work. Speaking of twists, the trick with the drawing is executed flawlessly. It's one of my favorite turnabouts in the entire series: it blows the case wide open, explains the sphere, explains the bruises on Misty's body, explains the drawing—it explains so much in so little time! It's a brilliant piece of Ace Attorney writing. It leads perfectly into the reveal that "Iris" is actually Dahlia, which itself is probably my favorite use of spirit channeling in the entire franchise.
With that all being said, though, this case does have a few serious issues. The first that comes to mind is how long the second trial day is: it's the longest in the original Trilogy, lasting nearly 3 hours even when played optimally. This, combined with the case only being two days long, makes its pacing feel strange and rather disjointed overall. Until I started this review I remembered it having three! This case as a whole just has... weird progression. Its pathing is a little awkward, especially having to find Pearl in Heavenly Hall, and some of the logic connections during the trial days don't really flow well (namely with the snowmobile tracks during Iris's testimony). The second trial day feels both too fast and too short, and the first trial day just feels incredibly mediocre when compared to the bombastic conclusion of the second, but even then the second has some not-so-stellar moments. For example, how did Maya lock the door to the Sacred Cavern from inside? Mia does a lot of telling and monologuing, taking a lot of agency away from the player (although this moment is the culmination of her story with Dahlia, so I can't be too harsh on the way it was written). Heck, the first investigation day wears out its welcome. To top off a weirdly paced second trial day, we're met with a fantastic breakdown (Dahlia's) against a rather lackluster one (Godot's), although the final quarter of the second trial day is awesome work.
Speaking of lackluster, I think that gets us to the biggest issue with this case: its killer. Godot... well, I hesitate to say he sucks, but I do not like him. He's sexist, immature, and incredibly annoying, and although I'll have more to say about him later on during my T&T review I'd like to talk about him a bit here as well. The game tries to frame him as some sympathetic, misunderstood person when he... really isn't. He murdered an innocent woman and ruined the plan because he let his anger get the better of him, and while I get that this is intentional and it's supposed to be the culmination of all of his character flaws leading to one of the worst possible outcomes it still doesn't make him an interesting, compelling, or honestly particularly well-written character.
His motivations are complex, and he's certainly got some things going for him (I particularly like how shaken he is when he learns about Dahlia writing Maya's name on the lantern), but his negatives far outweigh his positives. I do not like him very much, and the way he's written just pales in comparison to our other main villains and even one-off culprits (namely Luke Atmey, Damon Gant, and even Mimi Miney). All of the best parts of 3-5 happen around him, not through or because of him. Maya has an amazing showing, Phoenix is at the top of his game, even His Honor is putting in the legwork, but Godot just... falls flat. That being said, I do have a few good things to say about Godot. Although his last few moments on screen are full of boring exposition and a half-assed bit to make him sympathetic, he's a very solid example of vengeance taking over a person's world. He's definitely an understandable villain: and he's a great example of a character being defined by their flaws instead of their virtues and staying a great piece of fiction. Even though I don't like him very much, he's still an excellent character: even if his execution wasn't great.
I mentioned Franziska/Phoenix before, and for my fellow AA shippers reading this blog: 3-5 does so much in helping bring a ton to the forefront. Phoenix/Edgeworth, Phoenix/Franziska, obviously Phoenix/Iris, and especially Phoenix/Maya are all held up by 3-5, and Phoenix's relationships with the rest of the main cast are incredibly important. 3-5 actually drops quite a bit of Narumitsu-bait. I'm surprised it's not talked about more outside of Edgeworth getting a jet!
3-5 isn't the best case in the series, not by a long shot. That being said, it's still an excellent story, with a gripping mystery, great character development, and I think does the absolute best job out of any Ace Attorney case in recontextualizing the rest of its game. It is an amazing, and most importantly satisfying, conclusion to the mystery and story that started all the way back in 1-2. I don't think any other case in the series really does the job of tying together everything that came before it in such a way: it's in a league of its own, even if its quality and execution leave it below other finales and even other plain mainline cases. It's the weakest of the Trilogy's final cases, at least on its own: but it still manages to hold its own in competition, which is really saying something given how excellent 1-5 and 2-4 are. It has more good moments than bad moments, and it definitely has an amazing conclusion.
It is, if nothing else, incredibly satisfying.
Next time, after we finish reviewing T&T and the trilogy as a whole we'll be moving on to the Apollo Justice Trilogy: beginning with AJ:AA and 4-1, Turnabout Trump! See you then!
Overall Rating: 8/10
FAVORITE LINES
"Hey! I don't have anything to do with spirit power. The only thing I can channel is a TV." - Phoenix Wright, after Maya and Pearl tell him he has to come to Hazakura Temple
"Ha ha ha ha ha! ♪Iris and Nick, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!♪" - Maya Fey, after she and Phoenix meet Iris
"Is this how it is for Wright? Is this what it's like to be a defense attorney?" - Miles Edgeworth, after learning Iris's fingerprints are on Shichishito
"Heh. Miles Edgeworth. If you want to hang yourself, you need only to ask. I'll gladly lend you my whip!" - Franziska von Karma, during Bikini's testimony
"Are..."
"You..."
"High!" - Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma, and Colin Mochrie, looking at Larry's painting
(What the hell is going on!?) - Phoenix Wright, after seeing the five trick locks
"For all of eternity, you'll have to remain as Dahlia Hawthorne. A miserable, pathetic, weak creature who can never win at anything… And for you, there is no escape from that. No hope of freedom. Since the day you were executed… the narrow bridge that once stretched out in front of you has burnt to a crisp!" - Mia Fey, to Dahlia Hawthorne
"I-I'm a spoon!? I'm no spoony bard, I'll have you know!" - His Honor, during Maya's first testimony
Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5) Review, Part One: All Good Things...
The end of a trilogy and a conclusion nearly 30 years in the making. Welcome to Bridge to the Turnabout.
Hooh. This was a hefty one!
And so it comes to a close. Welcome to 3-5, the final case of both Trials & Tribulations and the Trilogy as a whole. I know, I can't believe we're here either. 3-5 is a fan favorite, and its reputation definitely precedes it: but does it hold itself up or will it come crumbling down? Let's take a look.
THE CORE CAST:
Phoenix Wright: Would it be a finale if Phoenix wasn't our playable character? A mysterious connection drives him to Hazakura Temple and connects him to this case...
Godot: Godot returns as our final prosecutor. With his connection to the Fey Family now firmly established, one has to wonder: what's his connection to Hazakura?
Mia Fey: Mia makes a few brief cameos in 3-5, appearing as Phoenix's guide… in more ways than one.
Maya Fey: Maya is the lynchpin of this entire case. How, exactly? Well, we'll get to that...
Pearl Fey: Pearl is our final main sidekick in the series, taking a central role in this case: and the main piece in a game she can't even come close to playing.
Miles Edgeworth: Miles makes a brief appearance as a supporting character and the third non-Phoenix playable character: and plays a key part in keeping the case running.
Franziska von Karma: Franziska makes a few brief appearances as a supporting character. She's, well... Franziska.
Dick Gumshoe: Would it be the Trilogy if our resident Seamus wasn't on the case?
Larry Butz: Larry makes a brief appearance in this case as a vital side-character, mirroring his roles in both 1-4 and 3-3 respectively. Interestingly, this means he's one of the only characters to show up in PW:AA and T&T, but not JfA!
THE MAIN CAST:
Elise Deauxnim: Elise Deauxnim is a world-renowned child's book author: but what is somebody like her doing up in the mountains, especially Hazakura Temple?
Sister Iris: Sister Iris is one of two people living in and tending to Hazakura Temple, and a hell of a coincidence makes Phoenix become very interested in her...
Sister Bikini: Bikini is the other nun in charge of Hazakura Temple, serving as Iris's caretaker and effectively her boss. She's also in charge of maintaining the temple's... friendly atmosphere.
THE SECONDARY CAST:
Dahlia Hawthorne: Dahlia Hawthorne's shadow looms over this case as a whole, in more ways than one...
Morgan Fey: Morgan Fey has spent a year putting the last of her plan into action, and we're about to see it all come to a head.
A BRIEF RECAP
The case opens with an exposition on the sword from 3-3: Shichishito, a legendary heirloom of the Fey Clan. Its branches represent the toss and turns of life itself, all coming to a single point...
...the end of said life.
Investigation, Day One Former
As many Ace Attorney cases do, 3-5 starts in the Wright & Co. Law Offices. Maya and Pearl are doing a clearly rehearsed routine to get Phoenix to agree to take them to Hazakura Temple, an obscure spirit channeling temple, in order to help train Maya's spiritual powers. Although Phoenix initially shoots the idea down, thinking that it's all just a big scam and later not wanting to go because he hates the cold, the issue of Oh! Cult! that Maya thrusts in his face makes him suddenly reconsider.
It can't be...
Dahlia Hawthorne. Phoenix's ex and the murderer of Doug Swallow and Valerie Hawthorne is suddenly a nun at some faraway occult temple? Well, now he's got to go. Phoenix turns on a dime and agrees to take Maya and Pearl, although he doesn't tell either the reason why. Traveling to Hazakura Temple, we meet the head nun: a short, jovial woman named Bikini. She explains to us what a channeling temple actually is: it's a holy, spiritual place, filled with spiritually powerful items that channelers train around. The "Special Course" that Maya signed up for is apparently just this... while sitting on a block of ice. And repeating a spell 30,000 times. And being showered in freezing water. Fun.
When we get to presenting the photo from the magazine, Bikini takes a bit of time to praise herself. She does slay the eyelashes. It turns out that the girl in the photo is named "Iris": and we ask her where this "Iris" is now. Bikini makes a joke about Phoenix looking for a girlfriend (closer than you think, sister) and Pearl glowers at him. She tells us that Iris should be in the Inner Temple, but we're welcome to go to the Main Hall while we wait for her. When we go into the main hall, we meet a strange-looking lady, complete with a fancy staff and weird hair. She introduces herself as Elise Deauxnim, and Pearl recognizes her: she's apparently a very famous children's book author. Elise and Pearl immediately hit it off, and it turns out that in conjunction with being an author she's also a talented illustrator. Apparently she's even took on an apprentice: a man calling himself Laurice Deauxnim. I wonder if he's here, too? Before we leave, Elise explains that she's here gathering material for a new book she's writing: she's not a spirit channeler herself. Elise takes her leave because she has to help with dinner and we decide to check out the Inner Temple.
Dope hair.
To get to the Inner Temple, however, we have to cross a big ol' rickety bridge: scaring Phoenix out of his wits! Looks like he's scared of heights. Don't blame him. Carefully crossing the bridge, we somehow get to the other side without throwing up everywhere. The inside of the Inner Temple is somehow even colder than the outside, and after a brief discussion with Maya, we come face-to-face with Iris. We recognize her, and she seems to recognize us. Maya doesn't seem to notice anything too odd, but Iris quickly runs off. We take a quick look around the temple and Maya cries out: on the big scroll in the Inner Temple is a picture of Maya's mother, Misty Fey! She doesn't recognize her, but the seal of the Master is right above the person depicted on the scroll.
We leave the Inner Temple and make it back across Dusky Bridge, where we run into Laurice- hey, wait a second. It's the Butz! We get to talking with him, and Larry tells us that he wanted to run away from his old life as Larry Butz. He read Elise's book "The Magic Bottle" and rediscovered himself, beginning a new life as Laurice Deauxnim: he even gives us a picture of Elise. Maya teases Larry about falling in love with Elise, and Larry says it's about the "other girl": he's fallen for Iris! Before we can keep talking with Larry, Pearl runs to see us: dinner's ready! After eating, Maya goes off with Bikini to begin her training and Pearl goes with Elise to practice her reading skills. Phoenix retreats to his room to stay warm, but in the middle of the night has to get up and go use the restroom. We run into Elise, who can't find Pearl, and we then run into Iris.
We get to talking with Iris. She's lived in Hazakura Temple for most of her life, and we get to asking the important question: did she go to Ivy U? Iris says that she didn't, and since there's no Psyche-Locks we can tell that she's not lying. Iris even says that she doesn't like spirit channeling very much: which makes it kind of weird that she decided to stay in here. Iris tells us that she has to go ring the bell for light's out, but she give us a hood to protect us from evil spirits. There's one thing, though: she says "Mr. Wright", but we never gave her our name. How, then, did she know it? When we ask if we've ever met...
She's hiding something, for sure!
Iris does know us! But how does she know us?! That's the question we need to answer, but after Iris rings the lights out bell we don't have the chance. Somebody screams out in the night, and when we go to check out... we find Elise Deauxnim's body, impaled on a giant, multi-branched sword! Unfortunately, Phoenix forgot his cell phone, so we're gonna have to use the pay phone near Dusky Bridge: but when we get there...
See the bridge in flames!
When we get to Dusky Bridge, it's on fire! Larry runs into us: we tell him about the murder and our need to cross the temple, and he tells us not to be an idiot, but we have no other choice! Maya's still in the Inner Temple! With all other options firmly out of his mind, Phoenix crosses the bridge: but a plank breaks, and Phoenix falls down, down, down into Eagle River...
Investigation, Day One Latter
Edgeworth is woken up by a call in the middle of the night. After hearing that Phoenix's life might be in danger, he charters a private jet and flies over: and, by the time he gets there, knows more about what happened than Larry himself. Apart from some minor bruises and a nasty cold, Phoenix is gonna be alright. Before Edgeworth left his hospital room, though, Phoenix gave him two things: his Magatama and his... Attorney's Badge.
There's a defense attorney named Edgeworth back in town, baby! For the time being, anyways. We, as Edgeworth, get to talking with Iris. Edgeworth also gets the suspicion that he's met Iris before: remember back in 3-4? When we ask her if we've met, however, she tells us that we're misremembering and the reason she lives at the temple despite having no spiritual power is that she has some "sins to pay for". Given that there's no psyche-locks, she must be telling the truth: this isn't Dahlia? When it comes to why she didn't go back to the training hall, she tells us she was frightened of something: but when we ask...
Psycholocks!
She doesn't really have anything more to say, but out of curiosity we do ask her if she killed Elise Deauxnim: and she says, resolutely, no. Edgeworth doesn't know this, but because there's no psyche-locks around that, we know for a fact that Iris is innocent in that regard. But seven psyche-locks in total... she's keeping secret after secret. Before we leave, Iris tells us that five years ago she "deceived" Phoenix: is this all connected to Dahlia after all?
We leave Iris and head up to Hazakura: and who's waiting for us at Dusky Bridge? None other than Detective Dick Gumshoe! Time to do some sleuthing as a prosecutor for once. Gumshoe is ready to get cracking with us, but when he brings up Godot Edgeworth doesn't know what he's talking about. Apparently, Edgeworth's never heard of the guy! He just showed up one day at the Prosecutor's Office with no notice? What's up with this dude?
Going back to the Main Gate, we meet with Larry and get to talking with him. After talking about Iris, we ask him the question: what was he doing the night of the murder? Turns out he's got Psyche-Locks, too! We can't get anywhere with Larry, so we're back to the Main Hall, where Edgeworth meets Bikini. Gumshoe tells us that Bikini is the witness to the murder: she tells us that she left the Main Hall around 9:00 PM to start Maya's training but returned around 11:00 PM, when she witnessed the murder. When we asked her why she returned, however, she conveniently avoids the question.
Have I mentioned I love Bikini's design?
If she's not going to tell us why she came back, then she can at least tell us what she saw. Bikini isn't fond of the memory: she saw Iris stabbing Elise in the back with a sword! Bikini says that she passed out from shock after seeing what had happened, but says that it felt so unnatural: Iris had no reason to do something like that. We finally get around to asking Bikini why she left Maya: she has a bad back, and because of how cold it was her back had locked up! She had to go back to the Main Hall for a warm bath to loosen it and told Iris to watch over Maya in the Inner Temple. Of course, Iris never returned to the Inner Temple. So where did Iris go...?
Bikini tells us one more thing: Pearl's nowhere to be found! She was supposed to be with Elise all night, but she slipped away from her and has been missing ever since! This is bad. Looking around the Main Hall, we discover a note: addressed to Iris, no less, threatening to reveal a secret unless she met with its writer! At least one part of this case is starting to be put together.
Returning to Hazakura Temple's courtyard, we talk to Gumshoe for a bit: we're going to honor our obligation to Iris and represent her in court tomorrow for Phoenix's sake! We get to talking about the case itself with him. The victim was impaled with a giant sword, but her body was covered in bruises like she had fallen from a two story window, roughly the same height as the room she was staying in. Maybe she was pushed out of the window and then impaled with the sword? We talk a bit about the trial tomorrow. Apparently, Godot's not showing up for court: probably because Phoenix isn't the one doing the defending. Who's it going to be, then? Edgeworth says he's pulled some strings: maybe it'll be ol' Winston. The Inner Temple is on the other side of Dusky Bridge, which burned down last night, and there's no other way to access it. Gumshoe tells us that it's not a place that a person could survive in for a very long time...
Aww, he cares!
Taking a look around the crime scene itself, we stumble upon two pieces of evidence: Elise's staff and Shichishito itself, the sword that Elise was killed with. Unfortunately, Iris's fingerprints are on Shichishito! Great. We're done investigating here, so there's really only one thing we can do: go back to the Detention Center and talk with Iris. It's time to break her Psycholocks! The first question we need to answer is why she was so frightened: and we know for a fact that it was the note that Larry wrote for her. What was the secret about? Maybe it didn't have to do with the note itself, but there was a secret Iris was keeping: her relationship with Phoenix. The Psycholocks break and we get Iris to talk! The "Heavenly Hall" mentioned in the letter is a small shack near the base of Dusky Bridge, but she didn't go out of fear that there was a criminal or some other sort of scoundrel waiting for her. Iris testifies that she never left her room during the night of the murder, which we formally get in writing, and we leave after not being able to get her to admit she went to the Inner Temple.
Going down to Heavenly Hall, we have to hide for a moment when we hear somebody's voice. It's just Larry! Looks like he wrote the letter to Iris. Larry avoids all of our questions, and it looks like he's still head-over-heels for Iris: when we ask about the night of the crime, he's hiding behind three Psycholocks! Thankfully, these should prove easy to break, since we've got all the evidence we need. We get to asking, and Larry tells us that he saw the moment Dusky Bridge went up in flames: but that's not what he's hiding. When we ask Larry about where he was, he lies and says he was in his room, but that's impossible: the Main Hall is surrounded by tall trees, making a direct view to the bridge impossible from his room. He saw the bridge go up in flames from Heavenly Hall: and he was waiting there for Iris because he wrote the letter!
There's one thing left: Larry is still acting edgy, funnily enough, which means he had to have seen something else-
Psycho killer...
With that, Edgeworth gives up on breaking these locks and prepares to get the truth out of him... in court, bringing the first day of investigation to a close!
Yep. That was the shortest day in this case. It's gonna be a long one, folks!
Trial, Day One
Before the trial, we reassure Iris that we're going to fight for her. Apparently, Edgeworth's made some "necessary arrangements" to make sure his identity as a prosecutor isn't outed: and when we walk into the courtroom, we see just what those arrangements were!
OH MY GOD IT'S MRS. GENDER HERSELF
In addition to Franziska returning as our prosecutor, Colin Moch- er, the Judge from 3-4 returns! Franziska makes a pledge to crush Miles today—come on, you flew in just to help him out, you caaaaaare—and Franziska makes her opening statement. In addition to laying out the facts of the case, confirming that Elise was killed by the sword itself, she gives us a photograph of the crime scene. Franziska brings in her first witness, and after a few milk crates are brought in for her to stand on, Bikini takes the stand! Yeah, I'm surprised it isn't Gumshoe, too. This is the first non-intro case in a long time where our first witness isn't the detective!
Anyways, Bikini gives her testimony. Bikini's testimony is basically what she told us: she went to help out Maya in the Inner Temple, but her back pain flared up and she had to go back for a bath and left Iris to help Maya. When she was going back to the Inner Temple, that's when she saw Iris stabbing Elise. We present Iris's testimony to the claim that Bikini left her with Maya: Iris told us that she never went back to the Inner Temple! Bikini adds another statement to her testimony, saying that Iris was dressed the same as she was for dinner. Finally, a hole in her testimony! Iris was wearing the demon-warding hood at dinner and gave it to Phoenix afterwards. She couldn't have looked the exact same as she did at dinner: we've brought her memory into question!
Franziska tries to wiggle out of this by saying there was a surplus of hoods at the temple. Bikini says that each acolyte is only given one hood, and this fact alone is enough to get His Honor to demand another testimony. Bikini testifies about her return from the bath: she got out around 11, heard a noise from the courtyard, and saw Iris stabbing Elise. She figured that Elise must've been stabbed after she was pushed out of her window. Pressing Bikini, she finally tells us that Iris wasn't, in fact, wearing her hood! More importantly, though, what Bikini's telling us is impossible: Elise got all of those bruises after she died! She couldn't have been killed in the courtyard!
The plot thickens!
There were no blood stains nor signs of a struggle in Elise's room: ergo, she did not die in her room, either! Franziska counters. When people are stabbed, far more blood is spilled when the weapon is removed from their wound—the sword would've acted like a lid for the blood, more or less. His Honor accepts this as plausible and asks Bikini to give another testimony. Bikini testifies that she didn't see the exact moment Elise was stabbed, supporting Franziska's theory. Bikini also says that there was indeed blood in the courtyard, and when Iris was arrested her blood-stained clothes were folded neatly in her room. There's an issue between these two statements, and Bikini tells us that she saw Iris pulling Shichishito out of Elise's body: the sword was in her to the hilt.
Bingo! Bikini's claim that Shichishito was in Elise's body to the hilt is impossible. First of all, Shichishito is big and heavy. It'd be incredibly hard for Iris to stab somebody to the hilt with it! Second of all, if somebody was stabbed up to the hilt with the sword, it'd be impossible to pull out cleanly: look at all the branches on it! Finally, if Elise was stabbed up to the hilt, then why is there only blood on the tip of the sword? There's only one conclusion. Elise Deauxnim was not killed with Shichishito!
I just really like this shot.
After asking Franziska, we get confirmation that no other sword-like weapons were found at the crime scene. We've got a trial without a murder weapon! Bikini butts in: she might know where our missing murder weapon went! After going out to the Main Gate, she saw tracks indicating that Hazakura Temple's snowmobile had been used. There might be an answer to this: Iris used the snowmobile and threw the murder weapon into Eagle River below, making sure it was never found. There's just one slight issue. If the theory that Bikini is proposing is true, then why is there only one set of tracks? There should be two: one from when the snowmobile left and one from when it came back!
Franziska claims that snow covered the tracks from the first journey. This is impossible. Let's take a look at the crime scene. Was it snowing in the courtyard when she was killed? The answer is a resounding no. After all, there's no snow on Elise's body! An idea that we have, that Iris might've used the snowmobile to travel to the Inner Temple, is thrown out. Bikini didn't see it by Dusky Bridge, and if it was taken to the Inner Temple then she couldn't have seen it at the Main Gate. Bikini will be taking her leave, and we have an idea on who might be able to answer the Mystery of the Snow-Covered Mobile. Somebody who saw "something incredible" that night: Larry Butz, Elise's own student! We take a brief recess while Larry gets subpoena'd.
Larry! You lousy motherfucker. Get your dork ass into the Courtroom right now!
During the recess, we directly ask Iris about the Inner Temple: either she or Bikini is lying about if she went there not. Iris maintains that she remained in her own room. The second question is raised: only she had a key to the snowmobile. So she did use it! When we ask her why she went to Dusky Bridge, though, we're met with five Psycholocks. She says she can't tell us about that yet: not until Maya's safety is confirmed.
Court is reconvened and Larry is called to the stand. After a brief exchange with Franziska, Larry gives his first bit of testimony. Although he was at the lodge, he never saw anybody at Dusky Bridge nor a snowmobile. That last part's a blatant lie: he saw Phoenix there! We get a new testimony from Larry, and he tells us that he actually saw the moment Dusky Bridge caught on fire. There's a brief moment where Franziska is clearly worried for Phoenix after learning he crossed Dusky Bridge while it was on fire (awwww, she really does care i love her imdfguiosjgoifsajogisaf). We press Larry for more information, and eventually ask him why he didn't call anybody when he saw the bridge was on fire.
He testifies that Phoenix showed up a bit after he got to the bridge, and we have our contradiction! Larry said earlier that it takes less than 5 minutes to get from the shack to the bridge, but that he also initially ignored it: so he got to the bridge around 11:00 PM. 11 PM is when the murder occurred, meaning Phoenix was at the temple; Larry couldn't have seen Phoenix then. It took the bridge around 45 minutes to burn down, and when Phoenix got there the flames were starting to die out: he had to have gotten there around 11:15, so there's a 15 minute gap that Larry is entirely unaccounted for!
A bridge was burning down in front of Larry and he didn't call it in for 15 entire minutes! There must have been a reason. Larry drops the act: he's going to tell us why he didn't do anything for 15 minutes. Or, rather... show us! He tells us he saw Iris flying, 30 feet in the air: and he has the audacity to show us exactly what he saw!
I'M ON THAT GOOD KUSH AND ALCOHOL
We know for a fact this can't be Iris, as Larry testifies she had her hood on when we know she didn't. After we point this out, His Honor is ready to dismiss this drawing entirely, but Larry says he has proof that somebody did indeed fly that night. He found a large, bloody crystal sphere in the snow: one that looks... suspiciously like the one missing from Elise's staff.
No.
Elise's sphere was found near the bridge on the night of the murder. Could it be that she was the one flying in this picture? Franziska dismisses this claim: she thinks the sphere is a red herring, tossed there after the murder. We can prove it wasn't. We can prove it was dropped before the murder took place: the sphere was buried in snow, whereas there's no snow on the victim's body. If the sphere was actually placed there after the murder, then there wouldn't have been any snow on top of it! We've cracked... something, at least. What if the murder actually took place at the foot of Dusky Bridge? What Bikini saw was not the murder: she saw the murder weapon being removed from Elise's body. Iris wasn't the murderer. She was an accomplice!
The victim's body was carried to Hazakura Temple via the snowmobile, explaining the tracks. We've managed to do exactly what we were meant to do: buy time! We have proven that this case needs further investigation. Where did the true murder take place? Why was her body moved? What exactly did Larry draw?
Note: Unlike my case reviews, this will not be spoiler-free. Spoilers for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney in this writeup.
Heya, all! The 3-5 review is coming along, it's just a super long case. I'm working on it, I promise!
In the meantime, let's talk about Miles Edgeworth. Since this is a trilogy blog right now this is obviously going to be talking about his role and thoughts in the trilogy, specifically throughout PW:AA and JfA.
So.
What makes that autopsy report being outdated so special?
And so a million memes were born...
No, I'm serious. Why is this scene in particular so well-remembered and held in such high regard? This isn't a rhetorical question, take your time to answer.
I think it can really come down to two things here. First and foremost, this is the first time a prosecutor gets a leg up over us. It is the first moment in the entire series where the momentum suddenly shifts away from the defense, and while it's expected and maybe a little formulaic in later cases this one in particular hits the player like a broadside. Compare Edgeworth's performance when he says this to Payne's performance throughout 1-1. It's a massive step up in competency! The prosecution is not just the guy on the other side of the courtroom anymore: with this, Edgeworth becomes an active threat very early. It's also important that this is Mia's autopsy we're talking about: she was our mentor for the first case and now she's just another piece of evidence to be updated.
But it also serves a second reason. Until well into the franchise's lifespan, this was the first time we see Edgeworth performing his dirty tricks: and for a long time the autopsy report was meant to be forged. Hell, Phoenix outright says it in 1-4. The first time we see any of Edgeworth's tricks or skills in court is when he presents a phony piece of evidence to secure a phony conviction. It makes his sudden (although it's not so sudden, but we'll get into that later) turnaround in 1-3 when it comes to nailing Vasquez more impactful, and it makes our defense of him in 1-4 more meaningful: Edgeworth can forge evidence and gun for fake convictions, but he changes over the course of the game. Once he's put in the defendant's seat, he's forced to face phony evidence and phony witnesses himself while his father figure attempts to secure his own phony conviction.
And then 1-5 came along and decided to make this scene a million times better.
"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
Ace Attorney loves mirrors, both literally and metaphorically. In this case, I'm referring to the latter: a lot of characters mirror each other, especially antagonists and protagonists. One of the most obvious is Phoenix and Kristoph. Both are defense attorneys, both serve as mentor figures to Apollo, they even have the same color scheme: but Kristoph is a narcissistic sociopathic manchild, an attempted triple-murderer, and an active abuser and gaslighter. Phoenix, meanwhile, puts others before himself very often, puts his own life in danger for others, and only ever manipulates criminals into confessing (or witnesses into giving him more information, but hush hush we're not talking about that right now). They're both manipulators, defense attorneys, and mentors, but Kristoph's traits are inherently opposites of Phoenix's: Kristoph is abusive and Phoenix sacrifices his own well-being for others; Kristoph is a murderer and Phoenix brings them to justice; Kristoph places himself above the law and Phoenix knows that the law shapes who he is. They are fundamentally mirrors of each other. The same in many ways, but warped.
I think the same idea applies with Edgeworth and Gant. Gant is intentionally meant to be the logical conclusion of Edgeworth's philosophy by 1-5, that a conviction should be reached by any means necessary. Gant genuinely believes that criminals should be punished and that what he's doing is just for the world. In fact, by the end of 1-5 he's outright praising both Edgeworth and Phoenix. Gant is a believer in criminal justice, but not necessarily the criminal justice system. He takes matter into his own hands to ensure that Darke is convicted for the murders he committed, and he does so by faking another murder with forged evidence and a convenient martyr.
And Edgeworth is disgusted by this. When he learns that he convicted an innocent man (innocent of the murder of Neil Marshall, at least), he is distraught. It's here, in the middle of 1-5, that Edgeworth completely dissociates "Miles Edgeworth" with "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth", I think: and this dissociation can be summed up in just five words. "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death."
Is this Edgeworth being a dramatic bitch? Yes. But it also does something so much more: it makes a distinct disconnect from "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth" and simply "Miles Edgeworth".
Forging evidence was just a line that couldn't be crossed: prosecutors have to do everything within their power to get a guilty verdict. Deliberately creating false evidence to get a desired verdict is unethical because it's not within the purviews and powers of the prosecution, unlike, say, submitting evidence to the court or preparing witnesses. What, you thought witnesses didn't practice their testimony? Early Trilogy Edgeworth is a man of loopholes, not necessarily a man of lies. Franziska does the same thing in 2-2 when she shows the picture of Mia to the judge, but doesn't present it as evidence since it would be illegal (which Phoenix then repeats in 4-1 with making sure Kristoph sees the poker card). If Edgeworth did something explicitly illegal like forging evidence that would make him a criminal, which are the worst kind of people in his mind: especially after he's already mentally separated the demon prosecutor from the child who killed his own father.
Like Damon Gant, Edgeworth is a strict adherent to the law. Unlike Gant, however, Edgeworth doesn't let his ambition cloud his judgement: he does the best he can and seeks the truth in every circumstance, it's just that his idea of "truth" has changed over the years; from "every defendant is guilty" to "every victim deserves justice", I feel. It's the same energy, serving the same purpose, but channeled through different motivations. This is why his turnaround in 1-3 is so impactful: Miles Edgeworth has realized that his idea of the truth, that all defendants are criminals, has been broken not once, but twice now. This is not a fluke anymore. He's been forced to question his own philosophy, and not too long after this case he's in the defendant's seat himself. Would his philosophy and personality have evolved so dramatically without his acting on that initial kernel of doubt in 1-3, that the truth isn't as simple as he wants it to be? I don't know.
So, let's circle back to that original question. Why does the autopsy report being updated matter so much? Well, it's everything I said explained in just one scene. Edgeworth went to lengths to make sure his information was as accurate as possible: that there was no room for doubt when it came to the truth. He did not distort the truth or create his own to do so. Maybe he was a bit of a dick for not telling us about the updated autopsy report, sure, but the truth matters more than courtesy when it comes to the Demon Prosecutor: and, as 2-4 shows, Miles Edgeworth.
Turnabout Beginnings (3-4) Review: Here We Go Again
It's time for us to go back to where it all began in 3-4, Turnabout Beginnings: the earliest case in the trilogy.
Sorry for another wait: my hard drive shit itself and died.
Welcome to 3-4, the penultimate case of Trials and Tribulations. Yeah, we're almost to the end: I can't believe it, either! 3-4 is a watershed case for quite a few reasons, providing a lot of context for quite a few core cast members. Is 3-4 a strong start to the Trilogy? Let's take a look!
THE CORE CAST:
Mia Fey: Mia returns in her second and final playable case as the lead attorney. This is her first case ever, and it's not an easy one: and maybe we'll learn why she took a break before 3-1...
Diego Armando: Diego is Mia's co-counsel for this case. He looks rather familiar, all things considered, and is quick to both flirt with Mia and enjoy a cup of Joe.
Miles Edgeworth: Just like Mia, this is also Miles's first case. We get to see a little baby Edgeworth, with his fancy ruffles and all! ...Hey, isn't that the jacket from 1-5?!
THE MAIN CAST:
Terry Fawles: Terry Fawles is the defendant for this case and an inmate serving his time on death row before escaping from prison. He's been charged with the murder of Valerie Hawthorne, his second victim.
"Melissa Foster": Melissa Foster is, apparently, a girl who saw the crime happen on Dusky Bridge. She's our only eye witness, and a rather familiar one at that...
THE SECONDARY CAST:
Valerie Hawthorne: Valerie Hawthorne, the elder sister of one Dahlia Hawthorne, is the victim in this case as well as a police officer, fallen in the line of duty.
Phoenix Wright: Phoenix makes a very very brief cameo in the opening cutscene for this case.
A BRIEF RECAP
Despite our case being our last with Mia, it opens on Phoenix: he seems to be in a hospital bed of all things! He's reading up on the first case Mia ever took, a whole year before they even met. The defendant? Terry Fawles. The charge? Kidnapping and murder. The sentence?
Death.
Small ass laptop for his big ass hands.
Trial, Day One
This is Mia's first trial, so she's understandably very nervous. The first person we meet is Terry Fawles himself, who's swearing up and down that he didn't kill the victim and that he didn't kill somebody from 5 years ago, and the witness who testified against him was lying. He's swearing up and down that whoever the victim is was still alive when he left. Somebody interrupts the conversation, however...
Hey, I've seen this one before! It's a classic!
He enlightens us: this is Mia's first-ever case! This is the one that Grossberg alluded to in 3-1! This fellow, who also works at Grossberg Law Offices, is one Diego Armando: and he tells us that the prosecutor for this case is also brand new. This is a debut match! Whoever this debut prosecutor is, though, he's already known as "genius". I think we have a pretty solid idea of who it is...
...and sure enough, our prosecutor for this case is none other than Miles Edgeworth! He's in a spiffy little jacket and definitely looks a couple years younger. The Judge is different, too. Who's this blond-bearded motherfucker?
Colin Mochrie lookin' ass...
The case is explained in brief. The defendant, Terry Fawles, is on trial for a murder committed two days after he escaped from a police transport. Cool setup. Edgeworth explains that five years ago Terry was arrested, convicted, and charged for the kidnapping and murder of a 14 year old girl. Christ. The lead detective on the case, Valerie Hawthorne, had crucial testimony leading to his conviction. Valerie testified that Fawles threw the child off of Dusky Bridge, a bridge over the turbulent Eagle River that very few bodies are recovered from.
As it turns out, Valerie Hawthorne is the victim in this case. Edgeworth's case is as follows: the defendant broke free from prison and tracked down Valerie to murder her for locking him away. Our first witness is called to the stand; a young Dick Gumshoe!
Well now the expy's obvious!
Gumshoe takes a brief moment to swoon over Mia before getting to the meat of the case. Valerie was stabbed with a knife and carried back to a car Terry presumably stole and stuffed in the trunk: Terry was re-captured at a police checkpoint trying to get away. When asked about blood, Gumshoe says that none was found on the bridge, and His Honor admonishes Edgeworth about basing cases on conjecture. Edgeworth says that they've got testimony that'll confirm his case isn't conjecture, and Gumshoe gets to testifying!
Gumshoe testifies that Terry called Valerie and told her to meet him at Dusky Bridge. This is where Valerie was killed, and Terry was recaptured later at a police checkpoint. Time for our first cross-examination of this case! We press Gumshoe about the caller, and he tells us that it was for sure Terry. After all, she left a note about the phone call: Terry called her and told her to identify herself with a white scarf. There's another part of the note, though. "Talk to Dahlia"... maybe it's not a coincidence. In any case, we get to pressing Gumshoe's testimony more. When we get to Fawles's capture, he tells us that they got him in just an hour: Diego quickly wonders how they got him so soon in such a remote area. Valerie couldn't have mentioned the phone call, so how did they catch him? We press Gumshoe for information about the car. Terry carjacked it from a couple and Valerie's body was stuffed inside. There's something weird about this, though! Gumshoe adds a new statement to his testimony and we get our first objection.
Rather uncomfortable. Eh, I'm sure she doesn't mind.
Remember that Terry wanted her to identify herself with a white scarf. Well, where is it? Gumshoe says that they couldn't find it in the trunk: and indirectly confirms that they didn't look for it at all! Edgeworth quickly shuts this down by presenting the scarf. He got to Dusky Bridge first, conducted his own investigation, and found the scarf. Edgeworth moves for Gumshoe to give a new testimony: about hard evidence that proves Terry killed Valerie. Gumshoe drops the bomb. There's an eyewitness to the murder! He gives us a photo that shows Valerie wearing the white scarf, testifying that Fawles pushed Valerie and stabbed her in the back, which is when her scarf fell off. There's a glaring contradiction in this testimony, though. Edgeworth mentioned that it was raining on the day Valerie was killed. If she was pushed into the dirt, then why is the front of her coat not muddy?
This actually surprises Edgeworth! He makes a quick objection. There's no evidence that there was mud on the bridge: if Valerie fell on something wet but not dirty, then of course there'd be no mud on her jacket. We argue that we can prove the bridge was muddy that day. After all, there's mud on the scarf! Edgeworth decides to throw a quick slur in Mia's direction (yikes) before regaining composure. He agrees that there's a contradiction here; but now the question of "why is there a contradiction at all?" needs to be answered!
Misogynistic much, Mr. Miles?
Diego tells it to us plain in simple. Out of the three pieces of evidence we have—the picture of Valerie's body, the witness's testimony, and the picture of Valerie and Terry on the bridge—there is a lie. The question, though, is which piece of evidence is lying to us? It's rather simple. What Gumshoe told us is the witness's testimony: about Valerie being pushed and stabbed in the back. This is where the link is weakest! Diego points out that we're onto something. If this witness was actually decisive, then why didn't Edgeworth lead with them? His Honor allows Edgeworth to call his witness-
MOTHERFUCKER.
DAAAHHHHLIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dahlia introduces herself as "Melissa Foster". We question her once and she breaks down into tears: looks like Little Miss Umbrella is still a master manipulator. "Melissa" begins testifying about the incident: she says that she was taking pictures of wild flowers when she saw Terry and Valerie begin fighting. That's when she took the picture and then called the police. She brought the camera, and Edgeworth explains that she was in a small clearing near the bridge in a field of flowers. The first contradiction we see is about the photo itself: there's no fighting in it, just two people facing each other. Melissa explains that she ran out of film and simply misspoke. Edgeworth confirms that she really did run out of film. "Melissa" adds a statement to her testimony about Valerie turning around and trying to run away, and this time we've caught her in a lie!
"Melissa" testifies that Valerie managed to run about ten yards before getting stabbed. The thing is, if this was true, then she would've hit a dead end: after all, the bridge was out behind her! Edgeworth counters. The diagram, he explains, was made after the incident. Because there were no blueprints of the bridge, there's no proof that the bridge was out before they made the diagram. This is silly on its face, but His Honor buys it: our contradiction is gone! This smarmy little bastard. "Melissa" gives her second testimony, detailing how Terry disposed of Valerie's body.
She testifies that Terry stabbed Valerie in the back and carried her to the car, assuming that was the only way he could hide the body. When we point out that he could've just thrown Valerie off the bridge, Edgeworth counters by saying this is what "Melissa" saw and no matter what we do we can't change her testimony. "Melissa" testifies a bit more, saying that Terry broke into the trunk of the car and stuffed the body inside. Bingo. How could she witness this?
Rather convenient, all things considered.
There was a large rock outcropping hiding the car from the field our witness was supposedly standing in. When Edgeworth says the outcropping could've just been shorter, the photo proves that it was more than just an outcropping: it was a cliff! There was no way "Melissa" would be able to view Terry breaking into the trunk from the field. Why would he even need to break into the trunk, anyways? After all, he had the key! "Melissa" testifies that she did see Terry break into the trunk and knows he did it because of scratches around the lock. Now how did she know about these scratches?! After all, she couldn't see the car! There's only one answer. Our witness stuffed the body in there herself! The photo of Terry and Valerie wasn't taken by "Melissa". The camera has a timer function, and "Melissa" set it up to take a picture on a timer. It's not a picture of Terry and Valerie at all. It's a picture of Terry and another Hawthorne entirely! Terry had forgotten what Valerie looked like. That's why she had to wear a white scarf, remember? Melissa breaks down and court adjourns for a brief recess so she can collect herself.
In the Defendant's Lobby, we talk with Terry and get to learn this "truth" that Valerie wanted Dahlia to admit. Five years ago, Terry kidnapped his girlfriend, Dahlia Hawthorne. Ew. Terry tells us something even more interesting, though: the kidnapping five years ago was planned by Valerie, Dahlia, and Terry, and Valerie betrayed Terry by shooting him! Terry and Dahlia staged the kidnapping so they could ransom a 2 million dollar diamond away from Dahlia's father, a high-end jeweler. When Valerie shot Terry, Dahlia took the diamond and jumped in the river! So she's been a criminal her entire life, it seems...
In either case, court reconvenes. Just like Diego predicted, Edgeworth is questioning us for a motive. Why would "Melissa Foster" want to kill Valerie Hawthorne? "Melissa" wants to testify again about her lack of a motive, saying that she was out of the country and doesn't have a reason for hurting any police officer, let alone Valerie in particular.
Familiarity.
We begin to press our witness, asking about the country she lived in before coming back Stateside. While we don't learn what country she's from, we do learn that she never met Terry or Valerie. When we press her harder on a few other statements, she eventually slips up and says that it's lucky she wasn't wearing a white scarf that day. The issue? Valerie's scarf was baby blue, not white. Maybe if it was foggy then Terry would be able to mistake it as white, but how did "Melissa" know that it was supposed to be white? After all, we never mentioned its color while she was in the room! The only time in the trial we mentioned its color was during Gumshoe's testimony! She must've read the note. Edgeworth confirms that the note wasn't leaked to the public and he never told our witness about it. The only conclusion is that she had to have read the note! And who's the only other person who knew about the note? Dahlia Hawthorne.
Edgeworth immediately objects. Dahlia Hawthorne is dead! She was kidnapped and killed by Terry Fawles. Mia asks Edgeworth if he's sure Dahlia is dead. If she was alive, she would be 19 years old, the same age as "Melissa Foster". We finally get to the meat of this case: we accuse our witness of being Dahlia Hawthorne, much to the court's shock!
I'm shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.
Edgeworth finally admits the truth. The Prosecutor's Office conducts full background checks on their witnesses: and this girl is, indeed, Dahlia Hawthorne. Edgeworth immediately takes the angle of a poor girl losing the big sister she relied on: how could she have murdered her rock? Diego comes out of nowhere to have a little back-and-forth with Edgeworth, giving us time to think of a motive. Why would Dahlia kill Valerie? Well, it's not too hard to piece together. Remember the note? It said that the "truth" must come out. The truth, of course, being the fake kidnapping. Dahlia murdered her sister to prevent the truth from being revealed!
Dahlia testifies about the kidnapping. She says that she was kidnapped by Terry, Valerie shot him, and Terry tried to kill her by pushing her off of the bridge. Dahlia then assumed a fake identity to prevent anybody else from kidnapping her for her family's money. A lovely story, but it's just that: a story. If Dahlia was pushed off the river from behind, she'd hit the bedrock below! Edgeworth quickly counters by saying Terry could've pushed Dahlia off the side of the bridge. There are large guard nets on the bridge, however, as proven by Dahlia's own photo. Dahlia jumped into Eagle River: she wasn't pushed! Why did she jump, though? The diamond. She wanted to sell it and keep the $2 million for herself! Why did Valerie meet with Terry, then? Well, she was part of the plot. She wanted to make peace with her past and bring the truth to light.
And Dahlia's façade finally cracks.
"oh ew there's a bug on my hand"
Dahlia drops her do-nothing-wrong attitude and says that we don't have any proof. She's not wrong: but we do have testimony. We call none other than Terry Fawles to the stand! Before Terry testifies, Dahlia tells him that her life in his hands: and that he doesn't seem to trust her anymore. After being given coffee by Diego to calm his nerves, Terry gives his first testimony, saying that he was on the bridge. Nobody was there originally, so he waited. After a while he met with a woman, who he identifies as Valerie, and left. Nobody was killed. This is a blatant lie: we have a photo of Valerie at the end of the bridge after she had arrived first. Terry admits that he got there at 4 and nobody was there, so he went to a nearby temple and dug up a memento that had been left there by him and Dahlia 5 years ago: a trip that took a total of 30 minutes. He was gone from the bridge for 30 entire minutes, giving Dahlia ample time to kill Valerie, dump her body in the trunk, disguise herself, and meet Terry!
And then it all comes tumbling down.
Terry says that if their trust was ever broken, they were supposed to drink the contents of the bottle.
Inside of the bottle was poison.
Terry bleeds, thanks Diego for coffee, and dies.
It all returns to nothing.
Diego shatters his coffee cup, telling Mia that it's not over yet, and 3-4 comes to a close.
What Really Happened?
Five years ago, Dahlia Hawthorne and Terry Fawles made a promise to love each other forever. Burying a small vial under a tree, they both agreed to drink the poison inside if they ever stopped loving each other.
One day, Dahlia came up with a plan to steal a $2 million diamond from her father, a jeweler. Terry went through with the plan out of loyalty to Dahlia, agreeing to split the money three ways between themselves and Dahlia's sister, Valerie Hawthorne. Unbeknownst to Terry, however, Valerie and Dahlia came up with a plan to betray Terry and steal the diamond themselves. Choosing Dusky Bridge as the drop location, the three met. Valerie shot Terry in the arm but Dahlia made off with the diamond, jumping off Dusky Bridge into Eagle River below and making off with the diamond. Valerie somehow knew her sister survived, although lied in court and helped convict Terry for her "murder" by claiming she saw him throw Dahlia over the bridge.
Five years later, Terry escaped from prison after a transfer vehicle he was in crashed. Since he couldn't remember Valerie's face, he requested that she wear an identifying white scarf. To get to the bridge, he stole a car from a young couple waiting at a red light. Dahlia couldn't risk the truth of the fake kidnapping getting out, so she killed her own sister at Dusky Bridge and donned the scarf, which was white instead of blue, to disguise herself as Valerie. She stuffed Valerie's body in the trunk of a stolen car and met with Terry, who had dug up the vial of poison. After they met, Terry drove away with the car, which still had Valerie's body in the trunk. He was then stopped by the police, identified, and arrested for Valerie's murder.
During the trial, as it became more apparent that Dahlia (who was using an alias) was behind her own "death" and her sister's murder, Terry's love for Dahlia wavered. Recalling their promise, he took the bottle of poison and drank it, killing himself on the witness stand and letting Dahlia get away with her first murder.
THOUGHTS
3-4 tries too hard. It tries too hard to make Terry sympathetic, it tries too hard to make Diego likable, and it tries too hard to make everything make sense.
But let's start off with the good. I really like Mia here. In both 3-1 and 3-4 she's been the standout character, and I think she's actually much better in 3-4 than in 3-1 (and she's already really good in 3-1!). I love being able to see her as a novice, and I like all the subtle hints towards Diego being Godot that the player can pick up like how he loves coffee or just his overall design being the inverse of Godot's. I like the bratty side Edgeworth has a young lad: he's the student of Manfred von Karma, after all, and he really feels like he's learned to have his mentor's dismissal and disrespectful side even if it's overblown at times. I like Terry's design, and I think the overall logic of the case itself is rather sound. I really, really like the initial contradiction between Valerie's clean jacket and the muddy bridge: it's a clever one! Edgeworth is given a lot of room to genuinely act like a novice: one of my favorite little details is as you get closer to the contradiction around the scratch marks on the lock he becomes visibly more upset and emotional.
But this case has more bad than good. The obvious is quite literally staring us in the face throughout most of the case: Terry is not a good defendant. He doesn't make a lot of sense. Apparently he's a high school or even college-level tutor despite clearly being mentally challenged, and his sympathetic streak comes to an end once you realize he's in his thirties and Dahlia's a teenager. 2-3 had a problem and 3-4 seems to be continuing the tradition. Even if you want to make the argument that Terry was manipulated for falling for Dahlia, he still fell for a teenager! The spectacle of watching a character die in real-time is cool, and it's executed well, but everything around Terry's death is weird and gross and just makes his character entirely unsympathetic. 3-4 is also just paced weird: it drags itself out needlessly a few times, such as with Dahlia's first testimony having two contradictions. Thankfully, Terry only gets one testimony, so the ending comes quick.
One of my least favorite parts of the case overall, however, is Diego. He's incredibly unlikable: he's constantly belittling Mia, and although he gives her (and the player) some genuine advice that turns out to help quite a bit it's surrounded by sexist undertones and weirdly-phrased dialogue. He's not a fun person to have as your co-counsel, even if he does actually help more than others. Diego is a massive sour spot in this case: instead of actually doing something to make Diego and Godot feel like distinct personas of the same person, Diego is just Godot but... slightly less of a dick and slightly more of a misogynist. He's executed poorly and is just a walking bit of wasted potential.
Overall, though, would I call 3-4 "bad"? No. It's just not good. It's decidedly average, all things considered: maybe a bit below average. Its mystery is rather stock-standard, with its contradictions rather blatant and obvious, and this works in its favor just as much as it works against it. For every good character like Edgeworth and Mia you've got a Terry and Diego, with Dahlia and His Honor in particular just being rather forgettable in this case. It's just… meh. It's a great example of T&T's sloppy pacing and everything surrounding Terry's death just saps away any sympathy I have for him and leaves the case on a very unsatisfying note.
Nevertheless, we're done with 3-4. Next time, we're going to be finishing the trilogy! 3-5 is coming up, and I'm excited. See you then!
Overall Rating: 4/10
FAVORITE LINES
"Urrrnngh…! No… I can't be outwitted by this novice bimbo…!"
(Hey! Same to you, buddy!) - Miles Edgeworth and Mia Fey, after she points out that Valerie's scarf should be muddy
"You look as scrumptous [sic] as a double-double and a dozen doughnut holes… I feel like I want to hurry up and hand down a verdict just to have a bite…" - His Honor, meeting Dahlia
"F-F-Fourteen!?" (I guess you were robbing cradles before diamonds…) - Mia Fey, after learning how old Dahlia was when Terry "kidnapped" her
"I think we've heard enough empty threats from you, old man."
"Ha...! What makes you think they're empty, boy?" - Miles Edgeworth and Diego Armando, after Dahlia's identity is revealed
Recipe for Turnabout (3-3) Review: Quiet, Please. It's Lunchtime!
Prepare yourselves for a night out on the town: it's time to dig in to 3-3, Recipe for Turnabout!
Welcome to 3-3, the third case of Trials and Tribulations. An all-too familiar defendant has been charged... and convicted of murder! It's our job to get her off the hook for a murder she's already been convicted of. Will we savor 3-3 or will it leave a sour taste in our mouths? Let's find out!
THE CORE CAST:
Phoenix Wright: Impersonated and slandered, Phoenix returns not just to get his client off the hook but also clear his name!
Maya Fey: Maya returns as our assistant: it's been a while since we've had an old-fashioned filler case with her!
Godot: Godot returns as our prosecutor, this time coming fresh off of two losses against us. Wonder how pissed he is...
Dick Gumshoe: Gumshoe has a personal interest in this case: and he's going to do his best to help us out!
THE MAIN CAST:
Maggey Byrde: Maggey returns as our defendant: and a convict, of all things. Luckily, we're here to clear her name!
Victor Kudo: A rather perverted old man and a witness to the crime. Rather obsessed with pigeons.
Furio Tigre: A loan shark associated with the mafia who breaks a striking resemblance to you-know-who. Has the best theme song in the game.
Jean Armstrong: Part restauranteur, part drag queen (yeah, this is canon!), Jean Armstrong is the owner of Trés Bien.
THE SECONDARY CAST:
Glen Elg: The victim in our case. A programmer from Blue Screens, Inc., who has a aside job of reporting Saiyan's power levels.
Lisa Basil: An employee at Blue Screens, Inc. who knew Glen. Looks like a dollar store Hatsune Miku.
Viola Cadaverini: The beloved granddaughter of Bruno Cadaverini, the mafia boss of the Cadaverini clan. I'd make a joke here but I don't want my name on a hit list.
Winston Payne: Payne makes a very brief cameo as the prosecutor in Maggey's first trial.
A BRIEF RECAP
The case begins with His Honor calling for a verdict of a trial he's overseeing. The defendant swears it wasn't them, but His Honor sees no room for doubt: the victim was alone when he drank the poisoned coffee. The defendant swears that she saw somebody else there, and the scene widens to show a man sprinkling something into a cup of coffee: nonetheless, the defendant is declared guilty... and Phoenix Wright is left defeated?!
One of the game's strongest introductions!
Investigation, Day One
Gumshoe bursts into our office: he weasels his way out of a practical joke by Maya to demand an explanation for our shoddy defense of a person he seems to know, specifically a poisoning case last month! Things keep getting weirder: after all, we weren't involved in a poisoning case last December! Gumshoe hears us out and we come to one conclusion: there's a phony Nick going around town!
...Keep trying to come up with a name, Maya.
Heading down to the detention center, we meet with our client: Maggey Byrde from 2-1! And she's got a cute waitress outfit on. She's furious at us, demanding an explanation, but once we calm her down and explain the identity theft she's willing to hire us to help her out again. Maggey explains that she got fired after the incident last year and that even though she saw the killer nobody believed her, and even other witnesses testified that they saw nobody. They also found poison in her waitress outfit! Great. Before we leave, Maggey tells us about the killer and the victim—they were probably in the music industry, given that one had an earpiece and there was a CD on the table labeled "MC" something. Maya hilariously suggests "MC Screwdriver", with Byrde backing her up with "MC Hacksaw". We explain that there's grounds for a mistrial and subsequent retrial, given that there was no real defense attorney present, and agree to take her case. The game is afoot!
We head down to Trés Bien to take a look for ourselves. It's a quaint little place, and as we look around we discover quite a few interesting things. The first? A magazine from December 3rd: the day of the poisoning! The second? Something written on the magazine itself: "MC Bomber, $100,000"! We head back to Maggey and ask if this was the "MC" disc. She tells us that it was! The $100,000 must be a down payment for a record deal, with the magazine itself... belonging to our victim!
We head back to the crime scene and run into Trés Bien's owner: meet Jean Armstrong, restaraunteur by day and aromatherapist by also day. Apparently he's familiar with us: he was a witness in the trial yesterday, and our mysterious Xin Eohp flirted with him... in court, no less!
Petite is one way of putting it, sure.
We get to talking with Jean. He tells us that last month a man who came in for his coffee suddenly became violently ill because of the poison inside of it, with Maggey passing out after the victim died. Jean didn't see the exact moment of the murder, as he was in the kitchen: he serves as Trés Bien's chef and manager. Jean is sure there was nobody else at the table, and he tells us that an old man who presumably also served as a witness will say the same thing. When we ask him about any possible motive that Maggey could have, though, he clams up: hiding behind Psyche-Locks, no less! Great. We'll have to come back in the future, then. When we check our pockets, though... the Magatama's gone! We can't find it in the restaurant, so we'll just have to look around elsewhere. Before we do that, though, we're gonna go talk to the old man Jean told us about—and he's in Vitamin Park, just behind the restaurant.
The old man with a rather Rudolph-esque nose is Victor Kudo, and he wants nothing to do with us. He absolutely hates us and Trés Bien: but it sounds like he's a regular! ...And it's not hard to see why if you listen a bit closer to his dialogue. Pervert. On one of the fruit-themed benches in Vitamin Park there's a magazine for job listings: it seems to be Victor's, but we take it despite his protests. When we get back to Trés Bien and pull out the job listings, Jean notices them and hires Maya on the spot. Phoenix leaves her to her fate, too amused to do anything else.
Well, we've got no new leads and there's somebody we need to talk to. Heading down to the precinct, we meet with Gumshoe, who's putting off all his other cases to do his job on this one for some reason. Oh, and more good news! The retrial's been approved. Godot's showing up again, too. Talking with Gumshoe about Maggey, it's not hard to put two and two together: the reason he's working so hard on this case is because he's a bonafide love bird!
As a brief aside, Phoenix's relationship with Maya is on fire in this case. Er, in a good way! I love it.
Gumshoe fills us in with details on the case itself. The victim, Glen Elg, was a computer programmer. Maggey never even saw the guy before, and apparently it was his first time at Trés Bien. Despite that, Gumshoe says that a motive was established in the trial! What on Earth could Payne have thought up? Gumshoe reassures us that Maggey isn't a liar, but there were two big problems with her testimony: the fact that nobody else saw the second person at the table and the fact that nobody found the CD. Glen Elg didn't even have a CD player: he had a portable radio. We get to talking about Jean, and after a funny joke where Gumshoe says he can't stop thinking about Jean and then defends himself by saying he's not his type (so... Gumshoe likes twinks?), he explains that he feels like Jean has something to do with the case. What it is, though? He doesn't know and can't take the time to investigate. It's up to us! Before we leave, though, we hand Gumshoe the sports magazine. He might be able to do something with it!
We head back to Trés Bien, locking eyes with a customer—a rather mysterious one, at that—and are greeted by... Maya, in a rather spiffy waitress outfit! Phoenix sheepishly tells her that maybe she should stop being a spirit medium (awwwwwwwww), and it seems Maya's actually taken quite a liking to the job. We try to bring up the lunch itself and Maya goes out of her way to take our order and bring it to us: the food itself is nearly inedible, however, and when Maya tries it she surprisingly can't eat it either.
Not gonna lie: it suits her.
Maya lets us sneak into the kitchen to investigate. There's our Magatama! Now what was Jean doing with it? Taking a few more looks around, we find a collection of poems that Jean's written. Phoenix does his best French accent to read one out, but besides that there's nothing here. The poem itself though sounds suspiciously similar to our poisoning... weird, right? There's a collection of bottles on the floor and we take a look: they're all aromatherapy oils, save one. It's a green bottle, the shape almost reminiscent of some sort of nail polish. Maybe Jean got mixed up. When Maya opens it and takes a whiff, though, it doesn't smell like anything. Not nail polish, then. So what is it?
We head back to the precinct to tell Gumshoe what we learned. He tells us that the doodle on the magazine was definitely Glen's handwriting: as to what MC Bomber is, though? No clue yet, even if it's a little familiar. We tell Gumshoe what we found. He takes the bottle and tells us that he'll send it to the lab for analysis. Furthermore, he tells us that he knows what Jean's secret is: he's in debt. The restaurant is failing, and Gumshoe gives us a copy of his contract. He's $500,000 in debt! Armstrong was desperate for cash!
Now that we've got our Magatama, we can head back to Vitamin Park to talk to Victor again. When we do, a bright pink scooter catches our eye: and out comes a gangster, roaring at us and accusing us of messing with his "bike"! He threatens to sue us and when we tell him our name he's left laughing: after all, he's Phoenix Wright! We've found our Xin Eohp! He speeds away and Victor puts us down for folding so easily. What a basketcase. Anyways, now that we've got the Magatama, we can start cracking Victor's Psyche-Locks!
He looks more like a Rocky villain...
We get to pressing Victor. After breaking through his lie of eating at Trés Bien, Victor lies again by saying he's just rich enough to burn money there. This is another lie: he's looking for jobs! The real reason he goes to Trés Bien is simple. He's an old pervert, creeping on the waitresses! He didn't want to talk about going to Trés Bien before, but now that we know his secret we can finally get to asking him about the murder that he supposedly witnessed. Even though we've broken his Psyche-Locks though, the creep won't talk! Great. We're gonna have to talk to him later, then. Phoenix has an idea though: we go to fish Maya from the restaurant and bring her to Victor. He's not impressed... until Maya channels Mia. That gets him to open up. Phoenix is a little surprised at the lengths she's willing to go, but there's no denying that it works. He folds like a wet paper towel!
...Let me rephrase that. He folds like origami paper! There we go.
Anyways, when Mia gets to interrogating him, Victor admits that he witnessed the murder: and that he saw nobody else at the table. Victor also tells us some juicy info: that Jean Armstrong is an ex-con! More specifically, he's a kleptomaniac and a petty thief. Victor even writes us a little haiku on the time Jean got arrested! Mia is rather pissed at Maya for calling on her for this, but we can't deny its effectiveness. She departs on a sour note.
...What? What do you want me to say? You want a quip?
We head back to Trés Bien to talk with Jean. When we present the Magatama, Jean says something interesting (at least in my eyes): that some "horrible feeling" has come over him. That's fanfic potential, right there. Anyways, Jean confesses that Glen had a lottery ticket for half a million dollars! That's enough to cover Jean's debt. We accuse Jean of stealing the ticket and his first lock is broken. Jean says he's no thief, but we've got Victor's note to prove otherwise. He wants proof that he's stolen from his customers and our proof is right here: the Magatama itself! He stole it from us and put it in the kitchen. His last line of defense is asking why he would steal the ticket: and when we present his loan contract, it's over. Jean folds, although he continues to swear that he didn't steal the lottery ticket. Jean confesses that he did steal one of his tickets, but not the winning one. Before we can say anything else, though, Godot shows up. Apparently he's been sitting there the whole time, and he takes time out of his day to complain about Jean's coffee before explaining that Jean did indeed take the wrong ticket. Godot tells us he's got no idea what happened to the ticket, and with that our first day of investigation comes to a close!
Trial, Day Two
Before trial begins, Gumshoe encourages Maggey and us to do our bests. Nevertheless, he's Godot's first witness: while he wasn't the lead investigator for Maggey's first trial, he is for this one! That's good for us. He explains that Jean and Victor are our two witnesses and gives us the floor plans of the restaurant as evidence. His testimony is rather straightforward, telling us that Glen was listening to his radio, died almost immediately after drinking his coffee, and had traces of poison in his cup. When we ask Gumshoe about Maggey's motive, it's rather simple: she wanted to steal his winning lottery ticket. We press harder—the fact that the ticket was missing doesn't implicate Maggey—but Godot tells us that the ticket was found during a search of the defendant, presenting it as evidence. We keep grilling Gumshoe harder, and Godot presents both a photo of the crime and the cup itself as evidence.
There's definitely not another person there...
His Honor is ready to re-issue a guilty verdict until Godot presents more evidence: Maggey's apron, stained with coffee, and a small bottle of potassium cyanide that was found in her waist pocket. There's a large red stain on the apron that is initially assumed to be blood: weirdly enough, Godot doesn't seem to know about it. Furthermore, he doesn't even seem to see it, as he asks Gumshoe if there is one! It's only ketchup, though. Weird. His Honor asks Gumshoe to continue with his testimony.
Gumshoe tells us that the crime was reported around 2:25 PM by Victor Kudo. Glen Elg's identity was quickly established, and Maggey was both searched and arrested soon after: she woke up from her fainting spell around 10 minutes after the police arrived. As for the identity of the victim, even though he didn't have an ID he did have a bag of prescription medication on his person. The bag was empty, though. This is a lead that we have to follow up on, even though Godot makes fun of us for it! Gumshoe says that nothing else was missing from the crime scene but we pounce on the missing medicine. Phoenix argues that the victim's own medicine could've been the poison used to kill him! Godot asks us to read the bag and it's made rather clear what the medicine actually was. Ear drops. Glen Elg busted his eardrum in a fight the day before his death. He even applied some of it before his death!
There's a stark issue with this, though. If Glen applied his medicine right before he died, then where did it go? The possibility that the medicine could've contained potassium cyanide is there, even if it's improbable, and Godot is forced to call another witness: rather, Gumshoe is. Victor Kudo will come to the stand after recess!
Talk about a lovers-to-enemies arc...
During recess, Maggey lambasts Gumshoe while we prepare for Victor to come to the stand. We try to reassure her, but she's still furious at him: when court reconvenes, Victor testifies that he saw Maggey put something in Glen's coffee. We press Victor harder, asking if Maggey wasn't just putting sugar in Glen's coffee, but Godot presents the cyanide bottle that Victor identifies. Victor is sure that Maggey gave Glen his coffee, identifying her by the ribbon in her hair and the straps on her apron, although tellingly not by her face. They're all features that he would see from the back: he might've never seen Maggey from the front at all. After all, if he did, then wouldn't he notice the stains on her apron?! Godot counters with the fact that she was still the only waitress working the day of the murder.
Victor gives a second testimony, this time about the victim himself. What matters here is the fact that he said Glen was holding a newspaper in his right hand. This would mean he was drinking his coffee with his left hand, but that's impossible. His lip marks are on the part of the cup that would be facing you if you were drinking it with your right hand, with the handle on the right side of the cup. His memory is now being called into question, and he asks for one more chance to give testimony. Godot is on his 16th and final cup of coffee, and Victor testifies that Glen was wearing his lens on the same side as his radio. This would be his left ear: the one that got ruptured in his fight!
His Honor is ready to suspend proceedings until Victor demands time for one final testimony. Victor testifies that when Glen died he broke a vase on the table he was sitting at: the crime scene photo shows an intact vase, however. Victor tells us that his own vase must've been the one that broke.
With that final piece of useless testimony, he gives us an apology note—saying that he broke the vase at his seat—and court is suspended for the day.
Investigation, Day Two
After a brief discussion with Maya at the office, we head back out to do some snoopin'. Our first stop is the police station to talk to Gumshoe: but he's not there. Something else is going on! They're apparently shutting down the entire server. What's happening? It's too early to tell, and none of our business anyways, so we head out. Heading down to Trés Bien, we run into Gumshoe. He's obviously listening to the lottery show on the radio, but when we ask him about it? A single Psyche-Lock. Funny. We tell him about Maggey and the poor guy's heartbroken: and when we break his Psyche-Lock, he admits that he was listening to the same radio show as Glen Elg. They announce the drawings live every day at 1:30. We get to talking about Glen, and he tells us where he worked: a computing firm called Blue Screens, Inc..
Before we head over there, though, we go to snoop out the kitchen. Inside is Jean with a familiar-looking lady, although we can't quite place her yet. She's indirectly threatening to burn down Trés Bien... and speaking in language that implies she's talking to him about his loan. Trés Bien has unsurprisingly been having money problems given its lack of customers, and when it comes to the conversation he's not talking. We show him the loan contract, though, and he spills his beans: the woman was indeed from the loan office that gave him $500,000. They had him do something, his hands being figuratively tied and all, but as for what? He's not telling. He tells us that the loan office is called Tender Lender and wisely tells us not to borrow any money from them. When it comes to who runs it, Jean refers to him as "the Tiger": and he seems to be our phony Phoenix.
Honestly, I rather like Armstrong's character design.
Before we leave Trés Bien, Gumshoe stops us. He's heading back to the precinct. Before he leaves, though, he gives us a lunchbox of hot dogs and rice: it's an apology present for Maggey. How thoughtful! We run to Blue Screens and meet one of the company directors, Lisa Basil. She explains that Blue Screens is a data analysis and software development company, developing and producing their software on CDs. This could be where MC Bomber came from! She says that we're welcome to take a look at Glen's desk to look for any clues, but she can't tell us much because the crime itself had little to do with Blue Screens. Talking about Glen himself, Lisa lets it slip that he was in trouble: when we ask her for a bit more information, though, she hides behind three whole Psyche-Locks. Great.
Oh, well. We need to take a look at Glen's desk anyways. It's littered with tickets for horse races, and to top it off there's a horse-themed calendar on his desk. December 3rd is marked on the calendar: that's the day he died! It's also labeled with a reminder. "Meet with the Tiger". I think we know who our prime suspect is: the Tiger himself! We need to go down to Tender Lender to meet with him. He's not in, but the girl from earlier is. She offers us coffee and we explain that we're not there for a loan, but she disappears before we can talk to her. Oh, well. We can take a look around, at least. There's a CD player on the table. The girl comes back to subtly threaten us, but we steal (er, that is, take into evidence) the CD that the Tiger was listening to: and it's labeled "MC Bomber"! Taking a look at the Tiger's shelf, we find a repair bill for $15,000... for a car owned by one "Cadaverini", whoever that is. There are also a set of clothes hung up on the wall, including a copy of our suit: and a paper attorney's badge, of all things. Did they really fall for this?! Finally, there's an ashtray on the table. It's spilled everywhere, and next to it is a book of matches... belonging to Trés Bien!
Before we can look around even more, the Tiger himself walks in. He accuses us of knocking over his ashtray, but the girl from before explains that she knocked it over. He goes from a threatening presence to a whimpering kitten in just a few seconds! He admits that he's our phony, but before we can gather up the courage to talk to him he walks out.
I mean... there's the possibility of it being "both"...
The girl, whom the Tiger called "Violetta" remains, though, and we finally get a chance to talk to her. She works here at Tender Lender, and we get to talking about the incident. Both her and the Tiger were here at Tender Lender, and she finally gives us a name for the Tiger himself: Furio Tigre. She insists that we call him Don Tigre, however, and she tells us that he saved her life after nearly dying. When we ask her about the incident that nearly killed her, however, we're met with four entire Psyche-Locks. We can't get any more information right now, so we're forced to go check out somewhere else. When we leave Tender Lender and go to Vitamin Park, we come face-to-face with Victor Kudo.
After listening to him rant and rave for a bit, he lets it slip that he was asked to go on an "errand" while at Trés Bien soon after Glen's death. He was the one that called the police! It took him about five minutes, as instead of a cell phone he had to go and find an actual payphone. That means there's five minutes of time that are completely unaccounted for! We need to go back to Trés Bien. When we do, though, Jean's nowhere to be found: so we go back to see Maggey instead. She tells us that she remembers things completely differently from Victor: she's sure that it was the other person at Glen's seat, presumably Furio, who slipped something into his coffee. We tell her about Victor looking for a telephone and come to the same conclusion—that for whatever reason she was set up by Jean Armstrong. We get to talking about Victor himself and Maggey says something very interesting. While there was another customer in the restaurant, it wasn't an old man. It was a creepy young woman.
Right! Before we leave, we better give her the lunchbox Gumshoe made. She rejects it outright after she learns it was made by him, however, and lets us eat it with Maya. We have other evidence to talk to her about anyways: she confirms three big things. One is that Furio Tigre is indeed our phony, two is that she hasn't even seen potassium cyanide in her life, and three is that she'd never seen Glen Elg in her life except for when she served him coffee earlier.
This is seeming more and more like the unfortunate truth...
While we're waiting for Jean to show up, we head back to the precinct to check on Gumshoe. It's quite literally on fire: the main server's gone up in smoke! He tells us that a computer virus is sweeping through the station. We get to talking about the case, and he tells us an interesting bit of information about Tender Lender: Furio Tigre's been calling in every loan he's given out. In a funny bit of dialogue the usually Luddite Phoenix has to explain what a computer virus is to Maya and Gumshoe—remember, this game came out in 2008—and Gumshoe tells us the name of the computer virus. It's called MC Bomber. He tells us that a group of criminals threatened to release it on the police station unless the demands they made weren't met, and it seems they've gone through with their promise. Right now the police think it was put up for sale: and that the possible price tag is in the millions. When it comes to Tender Lender itself, we get a name for the mysterious "Violetta": Viola Cadaverini, the granddaughter of Bruno Cadaverini, head of the ruthless Cadaverini mafia family. They control all of the money on the black market, and Bruno apparently cares about Viola more than anything in the world.
Before we leave, Gumshoe gives us another lunchbox to give to Maggey as he kind of expected she wouldn't take his first one. Before we go back to Trés Bien to find Jean, we head back to Blue Screens to break Lisa's Psyche-Locks. It's a relatively simple affair, and by using the lottery ticket he died for we come to the conclusion that Glen had a serious gambling problem. He borrowed the money from Furio Tigre, racking up $100,000 in debt. Basil tells us that Glen would use his "talents" to repay the money: this means that he was the creator of MC Bomber!
Was it, now, Ms. Basil?
Lisa admits that Glen did indeed create MC Bomber, although she likely didn't want to divulge this information for legal reasons. Going back to Tender Lender, we break Viola's own Psyche-Locks: Viola Cadaverini was involved in a car accident with Furio Tigre, resulting in a serious head injury that required a $1,000,000 surgery. He paid the surgery after being pressured to by Bruno Cadaverini, of course, and Viola folds. She admits that what Furio did to get his money was "evil" and gives us her medical file from the accident. We can finally go back to Trés Bien to talk with Jean, but before we can, Furio busts in and beats us senseless to get the medical papers back! He and a pressured Jean go to burn the papers, but they can't before Gumshoe comes in to save the day! He takes down Tigre and gets the papers back.
With that, our second day of investigation comes to a close: tomorrow, we catch a Tigre by his toe!
Trial, Day Three
Before the trial, Gumshoe gives us the bottle we found in Trés Bien back. Trial begins and our first witness is Jean himself: after flirting with Godot—who at least swings both ways, nice—he testifies that Victor's testimony was conflicted because he was experimenting with new décor, namely a mirror between seats. There's still an issue with that: if this is the case, then Glen's HMD would suddenly be on the wrong side of his head! This contradiction isn't much, however, as Godot shuts it down by reminding the court that Victor's memory is shot. Jean gives his second testimony, this time about the way the restaurant is setup: the mirror divided the two halves of Trés Bien horizontally on the day of the crime, meaning that the only seat where Victor could've seen Glen is the seat directly opposite his. Here's a diagram to make that a bit simpler. The crime photo that was presented last trial, however, makes this impossible: Victor clearly testified that he broke the vase on his table, but the vase is intact in the crime photo! This makes one thing very clear. There was no mirror in the restaurant that day. Ergo, the victim was wearing the HMD on the wrong side of his head: ergo, the radio was also on the wrong side of his head: ergo, the victim wasn't the victim at all, as he would've been wearing the radio on his right ear instead of his left!
It's Turnabout time!
Somebody acted out the murder after it had already happened! There was only one reason to show Victor the murder at all: to frame Maggey! Jean tries to weasel his way out of testifying about this, but he is under oath. We make him testify about the phony theory, and he admits to committing perjury; but besides that, we do get testimony that there was no 'phony'. The only people in the restaurant were Glen Elg and Victor Kudo. We get to pressing, and he slips up! Jean says that Victor must've come in around 2:00 PM and Glen started celebrating his lottery win a bit after that, but this is impossible. After all, the lottery show airs its results at 1:30! Godot asks us where Glen's body was. It had to have been in the kitchen: this means that Jean Armstrong, our witness, hid his body! We have proof, too. Remember where we found the bottle of ear medicine: in Jean's aromatic oils, which he stored in the kitchen! In his final piece of testimony, Jean swears up and down that he was pressured into hiding the body by somebody. We know who this is: Furio Tigre. His Honor is prepared to suspend proceedings to summon Furio to the stand but Godot swears he can get him here in 30 minutes, and His Honor calls for a recess.
During the recess, Gumshoe approaches us and we ask him to analyze the fingerprints on the ear medicine bottle: after all, he gets all antsy when he doesn't have a job to do. Court reconvenes and both Maya and His Honor hide under their respective benches, but Godot manages to reign in the Tiger and force him to give testimony. Furio testifies that he knows nothing about the murder, and His Honor tells us that we will penalize any pressing that doesn't lead anywhere. Gulp. Okay. No pressure, then.
We get to pressing anyways, and Furio slips up by saying he was in the office on December 3rd. We know this is a lie, as he was meeting with Glen! Furio lies again by saying he never met with Glen, even going as far to say he's never even been to Trés Bien. We found the matches from Trés Bien in his office, though, proving that he has! (Funnily enough, if you press the first statement of his testimony, His Honor almost brings up when Phoenix ate the poison bottle Dahlia gave him in 3-1.)
Furio changes his testimony again, this time saying that when he walked into Trés Bien he stumbled onto the crime scene. This is another lie, as proven by the floor plans: between the entrance and the victim's seat was a tall partition, blocking his view! He saw Glen, alright. He must've met with him! So who was the phony victim? Simple. It was our phony Phoenix: the Tiger himself! Phoenix dodges under the desk out of fear of the Tiger's roar but comes out to accuse Viola Cadaverini of being the fake waitress. Furio testifies one last time, saying that he was only after $100,000 and had no reason to kill Glen given that he had just won the lottery. He wasn't after just $100,000, though: he was after MC Bomber. After all, selling it on the black market would cover the $1 million he owed to the Cadaverinis nicely! To finish his scheme, he posed as us to get Maggey arrested and convicted for the murder.
Godot asks for evidence, and although we don't have any, Gumshoe bursts in with the bottle we asked him to analyze earlier! Court takes a brief recess and we meet with Gumshoe.
Proving your damn worth, Gumshoe!
We tell both Gumshoe and Maya that the fingerprints don't really matter: we have everything we need to finally nail Furio Tigre. Gumshoe sheepishly apologizes to Maggey and before Maggey can run after him to apologize for her own outburst court reconvenes. Phoenix has cooked up a scheme. Furio Tigre's fingerprints are on this bottle. We pull a nasty trick and lie to Furio: we claim that the bottle is full of potassium cyanide. Furio laughs in our face! That's not the bottle. The bottle of cyanide was brown and made of glass!
...The court goes silent.
Furio has just admitted that he knows which bottle was used to kill Glen Elg, something he could only know if he saw it with his own two eyes: and he would only know what it look like if he poisoned Glen and put it in Maggey's pocket! After all... he didn't attend court at all before today, so he couldn't have possibly known what the cyanide bottle looked like! The Tiger goes down in defeat, roars so loud that he causes a blackout, and brings this case to a close.
...and with it, my favorite breakdown of the game.
Afterwards, we give Maggey Gumshoe's lunchbox. It turns out she actually loves weenies, and all's well that ends well! Recipe for Turnabout comes to a glorious close. Savor it well!
What Really Happened?
Everything began 4 months ago. Furio Tigre, a loan shark and owner of Tender Lender, collided with Viola Cadaverini's car while riding his moped. Viola was severely injured, and to repay his debt—and probably avoid getting killed—Tigre agreed to pay for Viola's $1 million brain surgery by the end of January. When Viola recovered, Furio looked after her both out of obligation and out of fear of Bruno Cadaverini, the vicious head of the Cadaverini crime family.
Furio lent $500,000 to Jean Armstrong, owner of the failing Trés Bien French restaurant, and $50,000 to Glen Elg, a programmer. Glen developed a computer virus called MC Bomber that Furio became interested in: if he could sell it on the black market, then he could pay off his debt to the Cadaverinis. He met with Glen at Trés Bien, where they were served coffee by Maggey Byrde: during their meeting, however, Glen won $500,000 in the lottery. Glen refused to give MC Bomber to Furio, as he now had more than enough to pay off his debt: in response, Furio slipped potassium cyanide into his coffee, killing Glen and stealing MC Bomber. Maggey witnessed the murder and fainted due to shock.
Due to the money that he owed Furio, Jean was forced into helping him cover up the murder. They hid Glen's body and Viola was used as a substitute waitress. Victor Kudo walked in to ogle Maggey, as usual, and while he was there Furio recreated Glen's death: taking Glen's appearance to make it seem like he was Glen. He made two critical mistakes, however, by wearing the earpiece on his right ear and drinking his coffee on the wrong side, which was seen by Victor Kudo: Jean interrupted the scene and yelled at Victor to call the police to create a few minutes to frame Maggey for the crime—he was forced into doing this by Furio because of the loan over his head. The Tiger hid the bottle of cyanide he used in Maggey's pocket and left the scene of the crime. The police came soon after and arrested Maggey, with Furio posing as Phoenix Wright to ensure she'd get a guilty verdict. After Maggey was declared guilty, Furio sold MC Bomber on the black market, keeping the original copy for himself. MC Bomber would later be used to attack the LAPD's offices while Phoenix and Maya investigated the crime and ultimately broke through Furio's deception and cleared Maggey's name.
THOUGHTS
3-3 is a rather average case all things considered. It definitely has the telltale feel of 'mediocre', which makes sense—it was made for JfA, after all. Jokes aside, I really like the premise of this case. I'm always a bit of a sucker for poisonings in particular, and I think the introduction to this case is one of the strongest in the entire game (which is saying something given that T&T has the best introductions in the trilogy).
Maya is hilarious in this case. This is one of her best showings, and Maya and Phoenix's banter is actually on point throughout this whole case: this is a very strong showing all around for them, comparable with 1-4 or 2-2. This case just has a pretty decent cast all around. Furio is incredibly fun and one of my favorite obvious killers, and I just really really really love Gumshoe's crush on Maggey: I ship them pretty hard, and this case is a big reason why. Maggey feeling so betrayed about Gumshoe leading the investigation against her for her first trial and Gumshoe doing his best to clear her name? That's a love story right there. Speaking of love stories, even though I don't ship them I absolutely love all the little nudges towards the Narumayo crowd in this case. One of my favorites is how Maya offers to give the iron fillings she picked out of sandboxes as a kid to Phoenix like a bird, and another one is when Phoenix sees Maya in the waitress outfit and very sheepishly goes "...maybe you should quit being a spirit medium...". They're very cute in this case! I love how he actually leans into her wackiness and plays along with some of her jokes. It's a really nice change of pace from their dynamic in 2-3, which is still fresh in mind, and probably one of my favorite cases for their relationship.
Another thing I can't fault 3-3 for is its art direction. It has some absolutely great setpieces and some wonderful character designs: Don Tigre himself stands out, but I also really like Jean Armstrong and Victor Kudo's designs. The Trés Bien apron is also a really neat getup and I think it fits Maggey and Maya well, although some of the set pieces like Vitamin Park and Blue Screens, Inc. are a little underwhelming.
Unfortunately, this case also has its fair share of missteps. Jean is this case's biggest problem. He's a rather stereotypically offensive caricature of a gay man, and while I appreciate Janet and Shu's work in retconning him to be less offensive and actually more inclusive—including adding that he moonlights as a drag queen, which is why he sometimes uses feminine pronouns and words to describe himself, which is actually an addition I really like—it's still rather crude. Victor is another mediocre addition, although he's not offensively sexual like everybody in 2-3: the only real standout character from this case aside from the core cast is Furio Tigre, but even he's a bit inconsistent in his execution even if he has one of the best character themes in the series. Speaking of the sexual tones of this case, I actually find it weirdly refreshing that they're not danced around: Godot outright says that Victor has a straps fetish, which is just a really funny line. They're a little overbearing, sure, but that's just because sex is a little out-of-tune with Ace Attorney as a whole. They're not case-destroying like 2-3, however, which is nice.
There are many questions I have about the case overall as well. Why can't Furio afford to pay for Viola's surgery if he's a loan shark who can lend out $550,000? Why fake the scene at all: wouldn't Furio just kill both Glen and Maggey or just rely on Jean as a witness instead of creating another one, ergo another point of failure? There are a lot of logical holes that just sink an otherwise pretty good case, unfortunately, despite a unique twist and cool set pieces. It's still a little above average, but it's definitely nothing special.
Next time we'll be taking a look at 3-4 and come close to finishing the original Trilogy! See you then!
Overall Rating: 6/10
FAVORITE LINES
"Well... I stand under the rushing waters of the shower head every day."
"...That's called 'taking a shower'." - Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, discussing her spiritual training
"Look, it's one of those magical boxes that spits out money." - Maya Fey, describing a cash register
"I dunno Jacques about French." - Phoenix Wright, trying to read Trés Bien's open sign
"So the particular feature you recognize about the waitress is... her outfit!? But anyone could wear just such an [sic] uniform! Even me!"
"Mr. Wright! You will spare the court any further mental anguish from that image." - Phoenix Wright and His Honor, during Victor Kudo's first testimony
"People have all kinds of fetishes, Trite. We don't need to embarrass the witness." - Godot, after Phoenix asks Victor why he was focused on Maggey's straps
We're about halfway through T&T now, and I have both the AJ trilogy and the new AAI duology on Steam: which means I'm going to start taking my own screenshots and playing through them myself, yay!
Once we finish the original trilogy, we're going to be delving into one of these two.
The Stolen Turnabout (3-2) Review: It's PAYDAY, Fellas!
Grand larceny, a grand detective, and a grand exhibition: oh, my! Welcome to The Stolen Turnabout!
Apologies for the wait! Welcome to 3-2, one of my- hey, wait, hold on. We'll get to that at the end! 3-2 is one of T&T's fan-favorites, and we'll see if it holds up to those expectations. Will this case run away with our heart or steal our good will away? Let's take a look!
THE CORE CAST:
Phoenix Wright: Phoenix is given his first-ever non murder case, only to realize it's not what it seems...
Maya Fey: Maya makes her 3-2 debut and returns as our main partner after two (2!) entire cases of absence!
Pearl Fey: Pearl returns as our secondary assistant for this case. It seems that Maya has become her more-or-less guardian after 2-2 and 2-4, and we're happy to have her!
Godot: Our new prosecutor for this game and an enigma in many respects. Nobody knows his face, his real name, or what he wants...
Dick Gumshoe: Gumshoe is now under Godot's wing, and all we can do is hope that he's more lenient of a boss than Edgeworth and Franziska.
THE MAIN CAST:
Ron DeLite: The defendant. A bottom boy with a bottomed-out voice accused of being a legendary thief.
Mask☆DeMasque: A legendary thief with everything from a secret hideout to a fan club. Rather lauded for his no-nonsense and no-violence acts of larceny!
Luke Atmey: He looks like the Penguin from Gotham. An all-nonsense and all-glamor self-described "Ace Detective" and the arch-rival of Mask☆DeMasque.
Larry Butz: When something smells, it's usually the Butz! Larry's got a new job as a security guard. This means that he's now officially appeared in every Trilogy game not named Justice For All!
Desirée DeLite: Ron's wife (I'm as surprised as you) and a bonafide maneater. Although she and Ron love each other very much, her shopping habits have been taking a toll on their finances…
THE SECONDARY CAST:
Kane Bullard: Our victim. A scrupulous businessman and the CEO of KB Security.
Adrian Andrews: While she's not a witness for our case, she's here and working at The Lordly Tailor. And she looks great!
A BRIEF RECAP
The case begins on a safe! A crew is getting to it, relieved that a jewel is still safe inside. They're not just security guards: they're policemen, with Dick Gumshoe himself leading the charge! He opens the safe, but there's no jewel. They were too late! The legendary Mask☆DeMasque strikes again!
Nananananananana...
Investigation, Day One
Maya shows up to the office, Pearl in tow! She starts bragging about how they've hit the "big time" and pulls out an article about some special museum exhibit: about Kurain Village, no less! Apparently she and Pearl have been given special VIP passes to go and see the exhibition early. We go over to the home of the exhibition—a department known as "Lordly Tailor" of all places—and meet with the person running the exhibition in the basement warehouse. It turns out it's none other than Adrian Andrews!
I personally preferred her with longer hair, but I'm digging the black top.
We get to talking with her and learn that the job Phoenix and Edgeworth did back during 2-4 really helped her out. That's good to hear! She's looking a lot more confident. She says that it's all very tightly protected as well—and that the stuff on exhibition could go in high-end museums—but the face she's making tells a different story. She invites us to dinner and we part ways on friendly terms.
Tomorrow, though? We learn of something awful: an heirloom has been stolen! Not just any heirloom—the urn supposedly containing Ami Fey's spirit, the one Pearl broke back in 2-2! We get to the exhibition hall and meet with Detective Gumshoe. Talking to him, we learn that the urn was stolen at about 1:30 in the morning and a security guard discovered its disappearance. He puts the blame on some "ace detective", who Gumshoe says just let the thief get away. Hm. We finish up our conversation with Gumshoe by learning about a calling card that the thief left: identifying him as the legendary master of disguise Mask☆DeMasque!
We go down to the warehouse to investigate and meet the one, the only Luke Atmey: Ace Detective! He quickly identifies Maya and Phoenix as a rookie spirit medium and a rookie lawyer, respectively, and begins to elucidate the crime for us. Atmey reveals that he is Mask☆DeMasque's arch-nemesis, even stealing a gem back from him and returning it to the museum that he stole it from. Atmey even says that he was in the store last night: he saw nobody, but the urn still disappeared!
Doesn't he look like the Penguin from Gotham?
After we finish our conversation, Atmey invites us to help with his investigation. Despite his eccentricities, he does seem to be a pretty swell guy. Aside from, you know, making us do his work for him. When we leave, we get a call from Gumshoe: apparently he's caught Mask☆DeMasque! Not only that, but Mask☆DeMasque wants to talk! To us! Going down to the detention center, we talk over Mask☆DeMasque until he shouts to announce his presence.
It turns out that Mask☆DeMasque is a man named Ron DeLite, a rather timid and frail person that doesn't seem to be thief material. He asks us to talk to "Dessie" at his apartment. He also says that he just "lost" the Sacred Urn: weird, right? Heading over to his apartment, we meet Desirée "Dessie" DeLite. Dessie wanted to meet us and explains that her husband can sometimes be a bit delusional. Wait. She wants us to defend him?! It's time for our first non-murder case: we're defending a thief this time!
A new turnabout begins!
We agree to defend Ron, and Pearl runs away crying that we've "sided with" somebody who hurt Maya. Maya is initially rather taken aback herself but quickly jumps to our side: Ace Attorney and Ace Spirit Medium In Training, on the case! First things first, though, we run back to the office to meet with Pearl. She's working fervently as an apology, and we take the opportunity to talk with Maya about her. Apparently Pearl's fascination with Maya and Phoenix's relationship has to do with Kurain Village itself. Only women can inherit the spiritual power that runs in the village, so the village is primarily populated by ladies: there are few, if any, men left in Kurain. Pearl's own father left the village when she was young. That's why she's so attached to the idea of Phoenix and Maya being a couple. Maya's own mother is still missing, but her sprit medium powers let her know that she definitely is still alive. Of course, we know what happened: remember DL-6?
Pearl apologizes for acting out. She runs out to find some evidence to help us and we head down to the exhibition hall to meet with Adrian: she's distraught and spiraling, even as we try to calm her down. Poor woman. After calming down, she explains that she hired Atmey about 10 days before she got the calling card: so Atmey started working 20 days ago. Adrian explains that she just had a hunch. The weird thing? The appraisal value of the urn is practically nothing. It's not valuable at all! So why did Mask☆DeMasque steal it? Examining the crime scene a bit more, we notice a few oddities: there's a weird missing space from a puddle of knocked-over paint and a statue of Ami Fey has moved. The urn's box is also open on the floor and a fancy-looking sword called Shichishito is bent. Questions to answer...
We head over to the Atmey Detective Agency to talk with Luke. Maya asks a good question: if Atmey was watching the hall all night then how did DeMasque steal the urn? In Phoenix's words: what is DeMasque's modus operandi? We ask Atmey about this, more specifically about how he didn't encounter DeMasque, and we get a Psyche-Lock!
What are you hiding, Mr. Look At Me?
Atmey says that he was standing guard and that nobody walked through the door. We have proof that somebody did, though: when checking out the crime scene, we looked at the computer and saw that an automatic camera went off. The camera was rigged to go off if somebody walked through the door: so somebody definitely did! Atmey tries to brush it off as a computer malfunction but he's anxious. There was a malfunction all right: on Atmey's part. Remember the bent Shichishito? He was hit by it and knocked unconscious! Atmey relents. He got in a fight with DeMasque and lost badly!
We think that this might be able to prove that it wasn't DeMasque at all, but Atmey tells us that he installed another camera: and gives us a photo of DeMasque himself, box in tow! Before we leave, Atmey tells us that DeMasque has a very good reason for committing crimes. He tells us that there should be a green envelope in his secret hideout.
Going back to Ron's apartment, we find this envelope. Inside is a blackmail letter! "If you don't want your true identity revealed to the world… come to KB Security at 1:00 AM on October 12th and bring $50,000": this is his motive! Somebody rings the doorbell and Dessie lets him in. It's our security guard... and something smells!
The Butz returns!
So, where was Larry for these last two years? In Tibet, of all places! He had another escapade with not one but two girlfriends. Larry's here to return a wallet he found at work last night: it's Ron's! He's quick to explain—and poorly hide the fact that he just came to check out Dessie. Ron works at the same security company as Larry... KB Security! There's a keycard in Ron's wallet that we take as evidence. Larry tells us that KB Security is about an hour away from Lordly Tailor. If that's true, then he couldn't have been DeMasque! After all, he was on the clock!
Pearl calls us and says that she's in Atmey's office. We rush over there to pick her up and find something odd: a big bag on Atmey's table. Maya eggs us to open it up and we do so, touching it with our bare hands. Whatever it is, it's smooth and hard. Atmey returns just in the Nick (heh) of time to see what we're doing. After a brief conversation where he accuses us of being DeMasque's co-conspirators and tells us the name of the prosecutor—"Godot"—he kicks us out.
With that, Day One of investigation comes to a close. It's time for trial!
Trial, Day Two
Before trial begins, Maya shows us a poster of Mask☆DeMasque she bought. Cool, I guess. Ron is trying to tell us that he's guilty, but Desirée tells us that we need to get him off the hook. We decide to trust her and enter the courtroom to defend our man.
Some spend their entire lives waiting for him...
Meet Godot, this game's prosecutor. At the beginning of this case we know little about him aside from his arrogance and penchant for Brazilian brew—maybe I shouldn't phrased it like that, that sounds like a drug... well, it's got caffeine, so—but we'll slowly learn more about him over the course of the game.
Anyways, it's time for this case to really begin. Godot's first witness is Gumshoe, who tells us all about DeMasque. DeMasque began his crime spree six months ago, sending his calling card before he commits heists: this happened at Lordly Tailor, and Gumshoe further says that the rest of the crime fit his MO. After the testimony, Godot begins his coffee binge and we move to cross-examine Gumshoe. Our job for this testimony is to prove that DeMasque didn't steal the urn. We have a pretty good idea who it might've been, too...
Gumshoe said in his testimony that DeMasque goes after precious art pieces: we present the urn to this statement. It's not exactly high art, and Godot confirms that the appraisers he brought it to could not put a price on it in the worst sense possible. Alright, we're getting somewhere. We're already knee-deep in saying DeMasque didn't steal the urn! Godot wants proof that the person who stole the urn really was this "Fake☆DeMasque". We present the security camera photo: the DeMasque in the image isn't wearing his brooch! Godot laughs and presents the brooch. It's been in his possession! It was hidden in the shadow of the statue of Ami Fey.
Jesus Christ, parasocial! You need to log off!
Furthermore, Ron DeLite's fingerprints are on the brooch. Great. Godot calls in his next witness, dismissing Gumshoe. Zvarri! It's our Lord and Savior Luke Atmey. He makes his judgements and Godot is rather impressed at his deductive skills. Atmey gives his first testimony, saying that he didn't notice DeMasque slip in, was attacked from behind, and knocked out. This is an obvious lie. After all, he had to have ripped DeMasque's brooch off if he was in a fight with him. Atmey is called out and makes a poor defense: that he got mixed up from all the work he's been doing. Atmey gives another testimony, saying that he wasn't ambushed but instead got in a fight with DeMasque. Pressing Atmey, we learn two things: he was attacked with Shichishito, the branching sword, and how he fought DeMasque—by putting his back to the wall. He was knocked out after being hit on the forehead. Now how did he forget where he was hit on the head?
Furthermore, Atmey hid the calling card from the police! Phoenix makes the connection: it was like Atmey was trying to do security by himself. Godot challenges where we're going with this and we put it together. Atmey is Mask☆DeMasque! He was 'hiding' at the crime scene? He managed to outperform the entire police force? He was actually gaining access to Lordly Tailor! Godot objects. We have no real evidence, he says. That's true: we don't. We're forced to abandon this line of questioning...
Deus ex Desirée!
Dessie interrupts the trial! Not only that: she's found the Sacred Urn! It was in Luke Atmey's office! We put it all together. That thing we touched in the bag? It was the Urn! All we have to do is look for fingerprints. Not Luke's, however. We're looking for our own! After all, we touched the Urn in his office. Atmey breaks down and reveals to the world that he is Mask☆DeMasque, bringing this trial to a close...
Until Ron of all people intervenes! He's adamant that he's the thief, even though we've just proven that he isn't. Godot tells him to formally testify about his crimes, and Ron does so. He says that we can't prove he's not DeMasque until we present his wallet. After all, he wasn't even at Lordly Tailor the night of the theft: he was at KB Security, blackmailed into going there! By who? By Kane Bullard, the CEO of KB Security. We've even got somebody that can testify he was there: Larry himself! Godot admits defeat, giving the court the keycard data. Ron DeLite is found Not Guilty!
After the trial, we're congratulated by Dessie. Before we can celebrate, though, Godot shows up... to arrest Ron DeLite for the murder of Kane Bullard!
Talk about 'one of those days'...
Investigation, Day... One?
Let's go with Day One. It's a new trial, after all. This is also one of the shortest investigation days in the game, so we're gonna be going through it quick!
Anyways, the investigation starts off heavily weighted against us: after all, in his larceny trial we proved that Ron was in the office with Kane Bullard at the time of the murder. Before we talk to Dessie, we head over to the Lordly Tailor to give Adrian the run-down. She's stressed out of her mind, but she's happy to hear that the urn is back in safe hands. We learn a few things from her: the most important being that Atmey sent his calling card to the Lordly Tailor after he had been hired. Maya notices something a little off about the Sacred Urn, and when we confront Adrian about it...
Locks on the heart! And you're to blame...
We have no evidence to break these locks, so we go over to Dessie and Ron's apartment to talk. We're roped into defending Ron for Kane Bullard's murder: Dessie tells us that there's no way Ron would be able to kill anyone, let alone his own boss. Dessie also tells us that she hates the idea of Ron being a thief—she despises cowardly men, Luke Atmey most of all. She also thinks that Ron still works at KB Security! She tells us where it is and we go to snoop it out.
Gumshoe is in Bullard's office and is happy to give us the lowdown. He's surprisingly sympathetic to our plight, and tells us about the murder: the victim was Kane Bullard, the CEO of KB Security. He died at around 1:00 AM on October 12, bludgeoned to death and discovered at 9:00 in the morning. So this was Godot's plan from the very beginning! Maya asks why it took so long to find his body and Gumshoe explains that it was stuffed in his own safe. The white string coming from the safe must be in the shape of his body, then. We ask him how Atmey is doing, and Gumshoe is quick to admit (or lie) that he's also been suspicious about Atmey for a while. The weird thing, though? In his first ever case, there was a witness.
Plus that guard looks awfully familiar...
We get to talking about Prosecutor Godot. Apparently he just showed up at the Prosecutor's Office one day! Nobody knows anything about him, and when Gumshoe asks around everybody either ignores him or has nothing of their own to add. Maybe the entire police force is put off by this guy. We finally get to talking about the victim: Kane Bullard was the CEO of KB Security, lending out security teams for companies. He was also a bit of a penny pincher, a millionaire with a shady past. So he was just like every millionaire! KB Security used to be in charge of handing DeMasque's cases, but ever since he kept getting away their reputation has gone down the terlet. This must be why KB was blackmailing Ron.
While checking out Kane's office, we stumble upon a pretty big binder. It's filled with info about DeMasque! His methods, his crime scenes, and a list of all the treasures he stole. The Tear of Emanon stands out as being worth... only $100,000? Huh. There's also a button in his office that Maya presses. It's an emergency alarm! There's somebody who might know a thing or two about that.
We meet up with Larry and ask him about the buzzer. He gives us (read: Maya) more info than we really wanted, though: Ron was fired, as we know, but he was fired last year! Furthermore, he was fired for no real reason at all! We ask Larry if he was here at his post last night and get some psyche-locks. Greeeeeeat. Oh, well. We can break them! Larry says that he was at his post, but since he found Ron's wallet at 1:00 AM—on the day of the murder, no less—he couldn't have been. Larry tries to defend himself by claiming the murderer might've snuck in before his shift started at 10:00 PM, but the keycard data proves that they snuck in by 1:00 AM. Larry folds and tells us the truth: he wasn't at his station. He was busy being assaulted by his new ex-girlfriend's boyfriend!
Yes, we get it, Larry.
Before we leave, Larry tells us about the buzzer. It's connected to the security guard's station, and furthermore that it went off around 1:00 AM on the night of the murder. This is weird, though. Gumshoe said earlier that no fingerprints were on the button! So did the murderer press the button? Why would they do that? We're left with these questions when we go to talk to Ron.
Ron is still adamant that he really is DeMasque. Weird, right? Ron tells us that he did go to Bullard's office, opened the door, and was attacked by somebody who was already inside: this must be our real murderer! It was Ron that stuffed Bullard's body in the safe. He did it in a panic and avoided the security cameras to get out without being spotted. He also admits to us why he became a thief—to pay for Dessie's spending habits. We get to talking a bit more about DeMasque and eventually talk about the newspaper article: the security guard in the photo? That's Ron! Woah. Furthermore, he started getting the blackmail letters after his first heist; after Luke Atmey found his costume! This was the first time he ever got told to go somewhere, but he'd been getting them ever since the Tear of Emanon heist. Inside of the letters were plans: and when he stole the jewels, he was paid for it! Weird. We get a written version of his testimony: Ron tells us that he wanted to be arrested for stealing the urn so he'd have an alibi for Bullard's murder. Tricky.
Right as we're about to leave, Pearl comes back! She's got the urn with her and tells us that she went to Kurain to get it examined. It's the real urn, alright, and those weird pink splotches? It's paint. Recent paint. Furthermore, the urn was broken again! Everything is starting to make sense! We go back to Adrian to break her psyche-locks, eventually uncovering that she dropped the urn and put it back together. The paint is from when she dropped it, as proven by a wooden box the urn was held in also being covered in paint. She tripped on a paint can and the urn ended up in the paint, which she covered up with the statue of Ami Fey. That's weird, though. When we first got here, we couldn't see the paint stains! The statue had been moved! We close out this day of investigation with a suspect on our minds; after all, the theft of the urn and the murder have to be related...
Trial, Day One
Before court begins, Maya tells us about a huge crowd that's gathered outside for the trial. We note that it's a race against the clock: Maya doesn't know what we're talking about, though.
The fifth amendment! The fifth amendment!!!
Godot calls Ron to the stand. His testimony is very short, just about his background at KB Security and the fact he was called to the stand. Pressing Ron for information, we learn that he was fired for selling company secrets: corporate espionage! He adds that Dessie doesn't know he was fired, and before we can point a contradiction between what he said yesterday and what he just said Godot puts the pieces in place for us. Bullard found out about the espionage and blackmailed Ron! This establishes both motive and opportunity. Ron's next testimony goes over the fact that he was attacked. Godot calls it a lie, and we press Ron for more information: eventually uncovering that he stuffed Bullard's body in the safe, taking around 10 minutes to do so. Both Phoenix and Maya think this is weird, and we present the buzzer logs.
If Ron really was the murderer, he would've run as soon as he heard the buzzer! Godot objects, saying that he might've thought there were no security people in the building: but Ron used to be the Chief of Security! There was no guard on duty, either. The only answer is that he didn't hear the buzzer because he was unconscious! Godot counters that Kane Bullard must've pressed the buzzer. This isn't possible: there were no fingerprints on it!
His Honor asks why the killer pressed the button in the first place. We have to think for a few moments, and we piece it together: they pressed the button to call the guard so they would discover both Ron and the dead body, making it seem like Ron killed Bullard! Who framed Ron for the murder?
There's only one person who would want to do this.
We're starting to catch on to his scheme!
"Theft and murder," Phoenix asks. "Which is the more serious crime?" If Luke is convicted of stealing the Urn, then he has an alibi for Bullard's murder! We ask to call in Luke as a witness at risk of Ron's case and His Honor agrees. We intrude on the trial, with Winston Payne making a cameo prosecuting, accusing Luke of being Bullard's murder.
During the recess, we confide in Maya that we heard Mia's voice: Maya wonders if Mia still lives on in our spirit. Dessie and Maya point out two big questions: wasn't Luke at Lordly Tailor? Furthermore, what would be his motive? We go back into court with these questions in our mind and Luke on the stand. He's still insisting that he's DeMasque and gives his first testimony, detailing his alibi: the photo that captured him leaving Lordly Tailor was taken at the same time as the murder. We get to pressing, eventually learning two things: Luke is adamant that he is in the photo, and that he couldn't have altered the timestamp on the photo. We know this photo has to be a fake, though! After all, the statue of Ami Fey should be covering up the paint stain in the photo...
...but it isn't!
Who moved the statue on the night of the crime? After all, it was way too heavy to be accidentally pushed into the corner. Luke moved it for one reason: to make it look like it was taken earlier! The timestamp cannot be altered. But what about the date? Atmey noticed the statue was moved the day of the "theft". Godot points out that we've only presented a possibility, however. Atmey testifies that he never saw the urn before he stole it. This is impossible. After all, his calling card says that he wants Lordly Tailor to take good care of the "speckled" urn. Now he could he know the urn was speckled? With the paint it was dropped in, no less! Simple: he saw it before he sent the calling card!
Godot is still standing strong. We have no motive! The only person with a motive here is Ron: after all, he was being blackmailed. Atmey testifies that he had no contact with Bullard at all: it was Bullard who blackmailed Ron, incorrectly identifying DeMasque. Godot points out that handwriting analysis indeed confirmed that it was Bullard's handwriting. This is getting sticky...
There's one major flaw with his reasoning. Remember the newspaper clipping? The Tear of Emanon is blue: but Bullard said he wanted the "red jewel that you stole the other day". Bullard wasn't blackmailing Ron at all! He was blackmailing Luke! Remember? He "recovered" something DeMasque stole and got the red jewel as a reward, which he fashioned into his ring! What was Bullard blackmailing Luke about? Well, the fact that Luke himself is a blackmailer: he's Ron's!
The cracks show!
Luke came up with all of Ron's plans and was demanding the money from his ransoms. Luke discovered the costume that Ron hid in the bucket, blackmailed him, and then was blackmailed by Bullard himself. Luke goes off the chain, screaming obscenities at both us and the gallery! Godot is quick to intervene. There is no proof that Luke was at KB Security. Furthermore, if he's found guilty of being DeMasque, then he'll be considered innocent of Bullard's murder: after all, it's his alibi! We're finished...
...until Mia intervenes, channeled by Maya! She demands that Luke gives one final testimony. If we can't find anything with one single press, Godot warns, then this trial will be over: and Luke will walk free, convicted for grand larceny. This is our last shot!
Luke's final testimony details where he was on the day of the murder. He was dealing with another job as an Ace Detective, and he deduced on his own time that Ron was behind Bullard's murder. He slips up, though. He reveals that he knew Ron was wearing his DeMasque outfit: a fact that he simply could not have known if he wasn't in the CEO's office on the night of the murder with him! Ergo, he was the one that hit Ron; he was the one that pressed the button; he was Kane Bullard's murderer!
With nowhere else to go... Luke confesses to his crimes.
It's finally over...
After the trial, we talk to Ron. He thinks his marriage is over now that Dessie knows he was DeMasque, but Dessie is actually very happy to hear it: she likes a brave man, after all, and what's braver than a man who goes against his own convictions to help the people around him? After a pretty funny interlude where Pearl slaps us for blushing at Dessie's complements, The Stolen Turnabout comes to a close!
What Really Happened?
A year ago, Ron DeLite was fired from his job as a security guard for KB Security by its CEO, Kane Bullard, for selling company secrets to fund his wife Dessie's spending habits. Out of desperation he became the legendary thief Mask☆DeMasque and began stealing high-end treasures—ransoming them back at exorbitant prices to cover Dessie. This caught the eye of Luke Atmey, a private investigator, who began to blackmail Ron into stealing treasures and giving him cuts of the money: essentially serving as the Bain to his Dallas, planning out his heists and telling him where to deliver the stolen goods. For his help in stopping DeMasque, Atmey was awarded a large ruby ring. Bullard learned about the ring's value and of the deal between Atmey and Ron, blackmailing Atmey into giving him the ring or paying $50,000.
At the same time, the Lordly Tailor was opening an exhibition with Kurain Village and showing off treasures from Fey Manor. One of these treasures was the urn Ami Fey's spirit was reportedly held in, as well as the urn Pearl broke in 2-2. Adrian Andrews dropped the urn, however, and put it back together but couldn't wipe off the paint she dropped it in. To cover up her mistake, she moved a large statue of Ami Fey to cover up the paint stains near the door.
Fearing something would happen to the Urn, Adrian hired Atmey. He came up with a plan to murder Kane and get away with it. Ten days before he was due to meet with Bullard, Atmey posed as DeMasque, sent a fake calling card, and pretended to steal the urn from Lordly Tailor after they began an exhibit on Kurain Village: making sure to catch himself on tape at 1 AM to give himself an alibi, as he could change the date of the photo but not the timestamp. Ten days later, on the deadline of Bullard's blackmail letter, he was forced to move the statue of Ami Fey to make his photo appear genuine, and actually stole the Urn. He then met with Bullard and murdered shortly before 1 AM: when Ron appeared in the office to meet with Bullard, Atmey knocked him out and sounded the alarm. The guard on duty, Larry Butz, was meeting with his girlfriend and didn't respond to the alarm.
When Ron woke up, he panicked and stuffed Bullard's body in the safe: at the same time, Atmey returned to the Lordly Tailor and bent the Shichishito sword to pretend he was attacked by DeMasque. Ron was arrested for the theft, but threw a wrench into Atmey's plans by confessing to being DeMasque: forcing Atmey to improvise, ultimately leading to the lies that unraveled and revealed his intricate plot. Godot foolishly charged Ron DeLite for all of DeMasque's crimes, letting him walk off scot-free for his thefts, and before Atmey could be convicted for the theft of the Sacred Urn Phoenix uncovered his murder of Bullard.
THOUGHTS
3-2 is very handily my favorite case from T&T. It has my favorite turnabout and my favorite cast: I really like Godot's first appearance, which is also by far his strongest, and I think his taking command falling apart once he's seriously challenged is a really cool way of demonstrating than expositing how much of a rookie he really is. He's kind of an inverse of Phoenix in this way!
Luke Atmey is an incredibly fun villain and Ron is one of my favorite defendants in the franchise. I also love the dual trial gimmick, and finally having another case where Maya is our main partner is a breath of fresh air. I love Pearl, of course, but Maya is the classic for the reason. She's on top of her game here, and having both Mia and Winston Payne making brief cameos is really cool! There's a lot of really cool little details in this case too, like the folding screen from 2-2 being there. Furthermore, Ace Attorney is very heavily inspired by Columbo, a rather famous detective show, and 3-2 wears this influence on its sleeve. When Phoenix says that his own fingerprints will be on the urn in the first day of trial, this is a thinly-veiled reference to the episode Suitable for Framing: Columbo proves who the killer is by touching paintings that he stole and searching for his own fingerprints on them!
Also, fun fact. Ron DeLite is explicitly based off of yaoi characters. Tatsuro Iwamoto, the lead artist for the Trilogy, learned that many AA fans are also fans of yaoi (gee, I wonder why) and took inspiration from the BL manga he read. Speaking of character designs, I really like Adrian's. Not only is the sleeveless top still kinda hot er, really cool, but she's got a different color. She's now trying to become independent: she's no longer covered in sky blue, or "Celeste", anymore. This isn't my own observation—credit to hellisthis on Pixel Partner's playthrough—but it's still really really cool. I love little character details like this, such as Damon Gant literally having rose-tinted glasses.
Anyways! This is an incredibly solid case with very few flaws. The misuse of "double jeopardy" is its biggest problem, and Larry isn't really great here—although he is funny, and I like the detail that he really tried to be gay for Phoenix but couldn't make it work, but he has some very creepy lines with both Maya and Pearl that remind me a bit too much of 2-3: he's certainly no 1-4 Larry—but overall? It's a fantastic case and the best T&T has to offer. Next time, we'll be covering Recipe for Turnabout. See you then!
Overall Rating: 9/10
FAVORITE LINES
"And if it's too long for you, you can just call him 'Dick'." - Maya Fey to Pearl, talking about Gumshoe's name
"Zvarri!" - Luke Atmey, multiple times
"He doesn't seem like your typical attention whore to me. Unlike, say... you, Nick." - Maya Fey, during Ron's testimony
"Phoenix Wright... Ace Attorney." - Phoenix Wright, introducing himself to Luke Atmey
"You did it, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"What?" - Godot, Ron DeLite, and Phoenix Wright, right before Ron's first testimony during the second trial
Would y'all be down for some more general posts between reviews about AA details/brief asides about characters we've covered? I want this blog to be more than just reviewing cases and material, and I feel like giving my thoughts and opinions on stuff would both encourage conversation and add to the overall "feel" of this blog.
For the first time, we're not playing as Phoenix: we're defending him on charges of murder in Turnabout Memories!
After a well-rested holiday break, we're back! 3-1 marked a cornerstone for the series going forward: multiple protagonists! This is the first case of the final game in the trilogy: are our memories of this case rose-tinted or is it better than we remember? Let's take a look!
THE CORE CAST:
Mia Fey: For the first time in the entire series, the main defense attorney for this case isn't Phoenix—it's the late Mia Fey, in her prime!
Phoenix Wright: Phoenix is an art student in college and the defendant for this case, charged with murder for the first—and as we know not the last—time in his life!
Winston Payne: We get a look at a young Winston Payne here, pompadour and all.
THE MAIN CAST:
Dahlia Hawthorne: Phoenix's girlfriend, a literature student at Ivy U, and a witness in this case, trying to get her own partner convicted for murder!
Doug Swallow: Yeah, he looks like he does. Jokes aside, he's our victim in this case and a fellow Ivy U student: specifically in pharmacology.
A BRIEF RECAP
Two men are arguing. One of them is telling the other to stay away from a girl, and the argument escalates with the one of them pushing the other to the ground: the camera pans up and we're met with the culprit... Phoenix?!
He looks like a Sim, doesn't he?
Trial, Day One
When we load into the case, we find that we're not playing as Phoenix: we're playing as Mia, of all people! That's right: this case takes place five short years ago, at the beginning of Mia's career.
Says the guy who sold out her mother...
Our co-counsel for this case is Marvin Grossberg: dressed in his Sunday best, I might add! When we finally get to meet Phoenix he's a stark contrast from his usual self—instead of sarcastic and a bit cynical, he's over-the-top and a little balls-to-the-wall like a certain Butz we know. He's got the mother of all head colds, it seems, but before we can really get into the conversation it's time for us to head into the courtroom.
Our prosecuting attorney for the day is Mr. Winston Payne himself: not looking too shabby, either, what with the pompadour and all. He's definitely a bit of a jerk in this trial, but he's more than willing to lay out the facts for us. Phoenix Wright allegedly killed another student named Doug Swallow, and students discovered Doug's body alongside Phoenix who allegedly bungled his getaway. Great.
The cause of death is rather strange, as well: Doug was electrocuted! Furthermore, there was quite a bit of bad blood between Doug and Phoenix due to Phoenix's girlfriend, Dahlia Hawthorne. Wait. Phoenix has a girlfriend?! ...Huh. Okay. Anyways, apparently Doug had warned Phoenix to stay away from her: and, according to the prosecution, died for it.
The first witness today is Phoenix himself.
He looks like one of those soggy cat pictures.
Phoenix testifies about his relationship with Doug. After saying that Doug was a quote-unquote "stuck-up British wannabe" (sounds familiar...) we get to press him for more information: Phoenix says that he knows Doug was a Teaboo because of the Union Jack on the back of his shirt. When we ask him how he knew this information, given that Doug was wearing a leather jacket... he starts crying! Mia rather hilariously tells Grossberg to let him cry as the "'P' on his chest doesn't stand for 'Phoenix' anyway!" Yeowch! Payne decides to dig Phoenix's grave a little deeper by asking him if he's taking medicine for the cold: Phoenix says that he's taking Coldkiller X, and a bottle of the stuff was found in Doug's hand: with Phoenix's fingerprints all over it! It's looking more and more open and shut by the minute.
Phoenix testifies once more: Doug called him to meet at the Pharmacology building at 2:45. Phoenix left at 3:00, with Doug still alive—and when he went back to see if Doug was still there, he found his body. As for the Coldkiller X, he lost his bottle around noon. We press Phoenix more and more and eventually learn that the Pharmacology department uses high-voltage wires for its machines. This must be our murder weapon: Payne praises our deductive skills but points out that there's more evidence in regards to Phoenix's guilt. After all, his palm print was found pushed rather roughly into Doug's leather jacket!
Phoenix admits that he pushed Doug, but that Doug didn't die when he pushed him. There was some sort of loud crack, but there's no way that this was the electrical wires: after all, when they had their fight there weren't any cables around.
ey b0ss can i habe acquittal plz
We press Phoenix for more information and learn that Doug fell on top of his umbrella. Now this is weird: there's no umbrella at the crime scene. But if he really did fall on an umbrella, then that leaves one conclusion. He had to have been pushed by Phoenix somewhere else! After he was pushed by Phoenix, he walked away! This blows a massive hole in Payne's case. He's not quick to give up, however, and says that the prosecution has another witness: Dahlia Hawthorne. Mia makes a mysterious remark that she's been waiting for this and His Honor calls a recess for Payne to prepare.
Phoenix tells us a bit more about Dahlia—they met eight months ago and she gave him a small heart-shaped bottle to hold onto. Every time she's seen him since then, though, all she's wanted is the bottle back. Weird, right? Mia suddenly asks if Phoenix met his Dollie on August 27. He says yes, and we drop a bombshell: that's the same day that a murder was committed in the courthouse! Grossberg goes down to the reading room to see if he can get some more info on this murder. Could Dahlia be the murderer in both of these cases...?
Regardless, court is re-convened and Dahlia is called to the stand.
This is the face of a person who will throw away every single limited edition copy of Berserk I own if I forget one thing about them.
Meet Dahlia Hawthorne, Phoenix's girlfriend. Yes, I was as surprised as you. After a few very awkward seconds of His Honor and Winston hitting on a 19 year old girl—and after that a very obviously rehearsed performance, including saying that Phoenix couldn't have killed Doug despite her coming out here as a witness against him—Dahlia begins to give her testimony about what she saw.
According to her own testimony, Dahlia says that Phoenix and Doug (or "Dougie" as she calls him, 'cuz all the bitches love me) were having an argument when Doug just sort of... collapsed. We press to proceed with cross-examination and Dahlia looks at us and gives us a very sinister "You haven't changed a bit... Mia Fey." It looks like we do have history together.
After pressing her for more information, Dahlia slips up: she says that she didn't hear or see anything unusual, which we know can't be true because of the umbrella that broke when Phoenix pushed Doug. Dahlia counters by saying she had headphones on and was listening to music. It was storming, you see, and she's afraid of thunder: and things start to fall into place. Remember that Doug died by a strong electric shock? Well, what if he was struck by lightning?! This is an incredibly spurious claim. But there's something backing it up: it was storming and we've already established that Phoenix could not have pushed Doug into the electrical wires at the chemistry department!
Payne quickly retorts, however. The prosecution investigated this possibility and determined that no lightning strikes were recorded at Ivy U on the day of the murder! Furthermore, the pharmacology building lost power at about 2:55 that day—the cables are definitely connected, then. But how did Doug get electrocuted if Phoenix didn't push him?
All in, baby.
We give an explanation for the power outage: it was caused by Phoenix shoving Doug. This did not kill him, though. The umbrella was found by an electrical pole, and Phoenix shoved Doug into the pole: causing the pole to shake and the cable to snap! This couldn't have electrocuted Doug, either, as the cable snapped too far away from the fight. We've now established that it was impossible for Phoenix to have electrocuted Doug!
Dahlia objects, stating that some of what we said is different from how she remembers it. Dahlia says that Phoenix pushed Doug twice: and the court's buying this nonsense! She says that it all occurred in less than a minute but we know that's not true. Doug was wearing a wristwatch that froze at 3:05 PM, when he was electrocuted. When did the pharmacology lab report its power outage? 2:55 PM—that's a difference of ten entire minutes! We grab the bull by the horns and posit that this is when the real murderer killed Doug Swallow. And who's the real murderer? There's only one person it could be: Dahlia Hawthorne.
Phoenix fights for his girlfriend's innocence but is grabbed by the bailiff. Mia rather hilariously asks him if he's "daft". Grossberg is back with the police report from the poisoning: Dahlia asks us why she would kill Doug and blame it on Phoenix. We ask for more testimony from Dahlia about the day she met Phoenix—the day of the murder in the courthouse!
I'm just sickened by you both in general...
Dahlia tells us that she met Phoenix in the courthouse and fell in love at first sight. Phoenix hilariously interjects himself into her testimony and His Honor has to threaten contempt of court. We press Dahlia about her new testimony, namely about why she came to the courthouse. She says that she was doing a research paper, but we know the true reason. She came here to poison somebody. After all, the formal suspect in the murder in the courthouse—which was indeed a poisoning, one as lethal as 2 teaspoons—was Dahlia Hawthorne! Even though Dahlia says that she had nothing to do with the poisoning, we've successfully linked the two cases together. Dahlia testifies about the poisoning case and says she wouldn't even know where to get a lethal poison.
This, of course, is a lie. After all, Doug was a pharmacology student! Dahlia had access to this special poison through him. The only person that could've poisoned the lawyer was the person sitting with him: Dahlia Hawthorne! There's one issue that Dahlia is eager to point out. 2 teaspoons is a small amount, sure, but you'd still need a container. Fortunately, we have such a container. The necklace that she gave Phoenix! This is why she wanted him to give it back! Dahlia's last line of defense is broken. Phoenix tries to stand up for her but it's no use. After learning the truth of the necklace, he runs out of the courtroom.
Huh. I just noticed her umbrella turns upside-down. Neat.
We later realize that Phoenix slammed into Mia and grabbed the necklace! The bailiff managed to catch him, however, and Phoenix is brought back to the courtroom where he tells us he...
...ate...
the necklace. The necklace with the poison in it. The poison for the lawyer, the poison specifically made for the lawyer, the lawyer's poison. That poison. Mia calls for the trial to immediately be stopped so Phoenix can be treated for poisoning: but Payne says that the poison would've already killed him by now, therefore the necklace couldn't have had any! Our case is donezo, isn't it?
Phoenix, however, stands up for us for once. He says that the argument he had with Doug was about Dahlia: about how she stole poison not once, but twice! Once eight months ago, and once last night. Dahlia was crouched down right next to Doug's body after Phoenix went to check on him, too! Dahlia stole the poison to kill somebody: Phoenix himself.
Dahlia drops her façade and belittles Phoenix. Tearing apart our case as baseless speculation (which, to be fair, it is), we're asked by Grossberg himself to stop to save our reputation as a lawyer. We manage to grasp at the thinnest of straws, though! If Dahlia really wanted to kill Phoenix, then where would she put the poison? He has a very nasty cold, so she'd of course put it in his cold medicine. Remember! Phoenix lost his bottle of Coldkiller X around noon. After poisoning the bottle she found Phoenix and Doug arguing, and killed Doug to silence him. Dahlia tries to call out our explanation as being conjecture and Mia coolly tells her to take a pill if she's that confident. Dahlia doesn't. What about Winston? Nope.
Dahlia is finally defeated, hoist by her own petard on the cold medicine.
Probably one of my favorite sprites in the game.
After Dahlia's arrest, Payne is still unable to accept our claims. We dare him to try some cold medicine and he's so shocked about his defeat that his hair flies off, glorious pompadour gone with the wind.
Bald! Bald! Bald! Bald! Bald! (MY EYES!)
After the trial, Phoenix thanks us for our help. He says that he's made up his mind: he's going to really shoot for being a lawyer. Mia's performance in court has made him double-down on this path, given that there's an anonymous friend he's determined to save. We wish him luck and part ways... for now.
In a brief epilogue, we get a monologue by Phoenix talking about this trial. Apparently something's happened that has caused these memories to resurface. In any case, this ends Turnabout Memories!
What Really Happened?
Everything started right before Dahlia met Phoenix. She had been behind the murder of another person in the courthouse, and met Phoenix there. Pretending to be smitten with him, she hoisted the bottle she used to poison this other person on him as a "gift". The two began dating, with Dahlia constantly requesting the bottle be given back. Phoenix kept it, however.
Determined to get the bottle back from him, Dahlia concocted a plan to kill Phoenix by poisoning his cold medicine. Doug Swallow caught wind of the plot, however, and warned Phoenix: Phoenix, in disbelief and anger, pushed Doug into an electrical pole. This snapped both the cable and Doug's own umbrella. Doug and Phoenix walked away, but Doug loitered around the area. This gave Dahlia a new opportunity. Doug knew what she had done and she knew that he was the type to tell, so she grabbed the electrical wires and murdered Doug with them.
Playing the part of a mourning friend, she planted the poisoned cold medicine in his hand to frame Phoenix who later stumbled upon Doug's body and was arrested for his murder.
THOUGHTS
I do not like Turnabout Memories very much. It's a case with a weak mystery, weak structure, and a weak ending surrounded by weak characters.
Speaking of: Phoenix. Or "Feenie", as the fandom lovingly refers to him as in this case. God, I can't stand him. He's so fucking annoying. In many ways this just straight up does not feel like Phoenix: and I get that's the point, to show how different he was before and after meeting Mia, but he's so fucking obnoxious that after only a few lines of dialogue into the case it's hard not to want to punch him. He's my least favorite defendant in the entire trilogy by an incredibly wide margin: every moment with him on screen is, and I hate to use this adjective, cringey. He feels very very very out of character, and while I'd understand this to an extent he just feels so far removed from who Phoenix is as a person that it's really hard to suspend my disbelief.
The actual case is remarkably... okay. I think the conclusion is very anti-climactic, even though it's a pretty cool gambit on Mia's part. A time gap of ten minutes is a little hard for me to believe, alongside electrical cables snapping that easily (seriously, how poorly-maintained is the pharmacology lab if somebody can break in twice to steal poison and electrical cables will snap if you shake a pole slightly?), but I like the setting. Doug is a cool victim and while Dahlia isn't really my cup of tea she's a perfectly fine first villain, especially for what this game does later. It's very cut-and-dry, and while I get it's a first case it just feels very lame. It has a cool introduction and a neat defendant twist, but in practice it falls flat in a lot of areas especially near the end.
Being able to play as Mia is really cool, and I like how done with everybody's shit she is. Winston is at his best here, and His Honor has a decent showing as well. Grossberg is probably the best character from this case, honestly. He's a very strong co-counsel and it's really interesting to see Mia actually working for him when we know that he's the reason her life was ruined: it's a really nice bit of dramatic irony that I wish we got a bit more of throughout the series.
What did y'all think about 3-1? I've seen a lot of conflicting opinions on it, myself. It's not nearly as polarizing as 1-5 or 4-4 (more on 4-4 later), but it's still got a fair share of both detractors and fans.
We'll be moving on to 3-2, The Stolen Turnabout, next time: a new case, a new prosecutor, and an old attorney! See you then!
Final Rating: 3/10
FAVORITE LINES
"Let him! That 'P' on his chest doesn't stand for 'Phoenix' anyways!" - Mia Fey, after pointing out the first contradiction
"Yeowch!! Wh-Why did you punch me in the jaw!?"
"Oh! I-I'm so sorry...! I just felt like hurting someone all of a sudden!" - Marvin Grossberg and Mia Fey, after Phoenix starts talking about Dahlia
"It feels like my hemorrhoids are doing the Harlem Shake!" - Marvin Grossberg, showing off his impressive knowledge of Filthy Frank lore
(Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...) - Mia Fey, about Dahlia
"What the...!? Are you daft!?" - Mia Fey, after Phoenix tries to defend Dahlia
Ace Attorney: Justice for All Review - An Exercise in Meaningful Mediocrity
We've finished Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and now it's time to take a look back on the middle child of the classic trilogy.
I think that JfA is undeniably the weakest of the trilogy games. This is by no means a diss towards what it tries to do: I think that in every series there's going to be a weak link. God of War has Ascension, Final Fantasy has FF2, Alien has Resurrection, and so on. JfA is the weak link of the trilogy games; and I think it's kind of aware of this.
JfA definitely feels like it was designed as the most mediocre game in the trilogy. Phoenix is seasoned as a lawyer, but he's not a veteran; Franziska is a good prosecutor, but she's not as intimidating as Edgeworth; it's got the shortest number of cases; and so on. It's the sophomore year of Phoenix's time as a lawyer, even with all the eventful stuff going on. Who remembers their sophomore year?
I do. My sophomore year was the year COVID hit. And the year I found out I wasn't straight.
Anyways: we're gonna do this the exact same way we reviewed PW:AA—with a lost of pros, cons, favorite characters, and an overall review. Without further ado!
PROS
Pro One: Art Direction.
JfA is easily my favorite-looking game in the trilogy. It has faults, of course, but these do not show up in its art direction: from characters to set-pieces, every single piece of art has been drastically improved. Some standouts are Franziska's design and spritework, Phoenix's breakdown pose, Maximillion Galactica's hand pose, and the set-pieces for the Berry Big Circus and the Gatewater Hotel.
This game has some beautiful hand-drawn art as well! Franziska barging into the courtroom and the above art of Phoenix before the trial in 2-1 always make me squee and giggle, respectively. The improved graphics in the HD remakes really make it all shine even more. It's an absolutely beautiful game and among my favorite-looking in the entire series alongside AJ:AA and the AAI games.
Pro Two: Case Length.
Although its cases are by no means perfect, one thing I can't really criticize them for is their pacing (at least compared to the other Trilogy games). I think that each case, while not paced perfectly, are generally better-paced than the PW:AA cases. It's a definite show of how Takumi, as the series's main writer, generally got better over time—even 2-3, for all its faults, is better paced than 1-3. There's no unnecessary third days in JfA, which I think is a trap that the series easily fell (and continues to fall) into.
The trial days in particular are excellently paced. I think 2-4's second trial in particular lasts for way too long, which is a great bit of pacing. That might sound like an oxymoron, but I think that the case lasting way too long does a great way of portraying how mentally and physically exhausting it is for everybody involved. I think 2-3 finds a perfect balance of length, for all of its flaws.
Pro Three: Characterization.
I think there's one element that JfA holds over the other trilogy games, and that's pure characterization. Say what you will about the characters, they're all memorable in one way or another: and I think, for the main cast at least, that this game's writing and understanding of its characters is consistently the best. Phoenix, Edgeworth, Franziska, Gumshoe, and Maya are all standouts, with some case-specific characters like Morgan, Adrian, and Matt also being noteworthy.
I think Franziska and Gumshoe are at their best in this game. In Franziska's case it's actually a tad unfortunate, since this is her debut game and all, but this being Gumshoe's strongest showing isn't really a detriment considering he'll only show up in three (technically four) more games.
Franziska is one of the first AA characters, I think, that is genuinely given a lot of focus and care onto feelings that aren't spelled out for the audience. Even Edgeworth's unnecessary feelings of unease and uncertainty aren't left ambiguous, but with Franziska's case there are cases to be made for so many interpretations of her character that I think she's the golden example of walking so later characters can run. I think 2-3 is generally the exception that proves the rule—in 2-1, 2-2, and 2-4, we're treated to excellent pieces of character writing and a visible understanding of the main cast.
Pro Four: Franziska von Karma.
I know I was just talking about characterization as a whole, but I'd like to focus on just one character in particular for a second (and yes, we'll be discussing her later down the line, but I wanted to take a brief aside to talk about her positive contributions to this game). I think Franziska von Karma is a downright brilliant character: in this game particularly.
For a series that places its focus on contradictions, Franziska is riddled with them: and this is given a focus, surprisingly! Although she's far more like her father than Edgeworth, it's made clear that Manfred held Edgeworth in higher regard than her; she is desperate to be perfect in every way, but has a mole on her face that makes it asymmetrical and "blemished"; she clearly cares about the people around her but cannot bring herself to accept that care; and so on.
She's a mess of mental contradictions and logical fallacies, and I think she had a lot of potential to be one of the most interesting characters in the entire franchise. I think she's a perfect rival for most of JfA and a great expansion on the honestly rather lackluster performance of her father in 1-4. I don't think this game would be the same without her: it'd be far worse off.
CONS
Con One: Mystery Quality.
I think JfA has the weakest mysteries in the original trilogy and it's not particularly close. 2-1 and 2-3 in particular don't feel like mysteries, per se, just stories: 2-3 is especially egregious for reasons I outlined in my review of it. 2-4, like 2-3 and characterization, is the exception that proves the rule—compared to PW:AA's mysteries, 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3 just simply are not nearly as good. 2-4 is a fantastic howcatchem and perhaps the best subversion of usual mystery tropes that we've reviewed thus far, but the rest of the game is simply not up to par with previous.
I'd even wager to say that JfA has the weakest mysteries in the entire mainline series, although we haven't gone back to re-cover some other contenders for this title yet. They're just simply not as captivating or, honestly, hard compared to others: when they are hard then that difficulty tends to feel artificial, at least to me.
Con Two: Inconsistency.
Although JfA has some masterful character writing, it's not particularly consistent about it. Characters that are written very well in one case can fall flat in the next—Phoenix from 2-2 to 2-3 is the prime example of this, as in 2-3 he's just straight-up a bully to Maya instead of a teasing friend. I feel like even in cases themselves this can switch, and while sometimes this is for the better—I far prefer Mimi Miney's dropped façade to her mockery of Ini—most of the time it isn't. One that comes to mind is, unfortunately, Pearl in 2-4. She's both presented as a cute child who is still wise beyond her years but... honestly, kind of portrayed as a bit of a dunce, as well.
This isn't particularly egregious, but it is an unfortunate inconsistency, and these things do add up. The quality of its cases also makes the game a little awkward to play, going from below-average to above-average cases almost like clockwork.
Con Three: Music.
JfA has the weakest musical ensemble of the trilogy. While I think there are some standouts, like both Edgeworth and Franziska's Great Revivals (which have some awesome musical parallels: Edgeworth's is deeper and slower, whereas Franziska's is at a higher key and a slightly quicker tempo), unfortunately the musical quality is generally not up to par. I find this game's Trick theme rather grating, and while I like the percussion beats in the Pursuit theme I think the overall melody leaves quite a bit to be desired: I do like the key changes, however.
Unfortunately, I just don't think JfA's music plays into its pivotal moments as well as PW:AA's does. The Detention Center theme has the god damn Lick! Why does it have the Lick?! This might just be my entirely irrational hatred for the Lick talking, honestly, but that moment just takes me out of the Detention Center. I do not like this theme.
Now, as promised, we'll get into my top five characters before finishing off with my overall thoughts!
Number Five: Matt Engarde
Matt Engarde. Where to begin with this guy? I guess we can go for the obvious: he's the darkest killer in the series thus far, even including the lows that Gant falls to in 1-5. He's a pathological abuser and a malignant narcissist who nearly drove two women to suicide: 2-4 is actually the first case in the entire series that earnestly discusses the topic of suicide and Matt makes it even more uncomfortable than it already was. He's a slimy bastard and taking him down is so satisfying.
I think he really takes the cake for breakdowns thus far, as well. He's not the best culprit in the series by any means but he's definitely a top-tier contender for breakdowns: he rips his own face open while screaming about his own guilt. It doesn't get much better than that. He's an awful person and the way we take him down is suitably awful. Phoenix can choose to still plead Not Guilty, and if the possibility of De Killer killing him is a perfectly acceptable one to Phoenix's mind, then what does that say about Matt?
Let's talk about colors. Matt has two main colors: red and brown. Brown is the color of his hair, gloves, the scar over his eye, and the drink in his hand after he's unmasked, while red is the color of his jacket and the scars he leaves on his face. Brown is generally a color of strength—for most of the case Matt's position is completely unassailable as he uses Maya as leverage. It's also seen as a color of sophistication, fitting his place as an A-list actor and the patron of an incredibly fancy hotel. Red, meanwhile, is best understood in Matt's case as a color of blood and anger. Blood is positively coating Engarde's hands, as he is the (indirect) murderer of both Celeste and Juan, but he also rips apart his own face when he's declared guilty, showing the blood underneath. While he rarely shows any sort of anger himself, people only address him with contempt as either a murderer and blackmailer or as an overrated hack.
Number Four: Dick Gumshoe
I think this is Gumshoe's best showing bar none. I think his best character traits really shine through here: his hard (but clumsy) work, his genius with electronics, his selective focus—he's really in full gear here, and I think this is the best example of who he really is at heart before his untimely flanderization and death.
I, unfortunately, forgot to screenshot any of Gumshoe's other appearances in JfA.
He's a good guy and takes his job seriously, even if he's not always the best at it. His empathy is in full display—I particularly love how clearly worried he is about Franziska's obviously declining mental state and how he drops everything once he learns Maya's been kidnapped—but he still has to, like, do his job, y'know? And he does his job well! He's not the best, but he does it well, and he's thankfully not the butt of many jokes. Although he'll never be quite to the level of the detective he's an homage of (I like to headcanon his family is Irish, in contrast to Columbo's family being Italian) he's clearly part of the same school of keeping his head down and doing his job as well as he can. His saving the case in 2-4 is my favorite Gumshoe moment in the entire series: a perfect culmination of his perfect appearance!
His main color is obviously a dark, mossy green. Green is associated with life and health, which is a bit ironic considering his dependency on instant noodles, but in psychology it's also a color of wellness and regeneration. Regeneration fits the best, I think: when he's fired by Franziska, he gets back into the fray to save Maya's life as a civilian member of the investigation team! This might be a bit of a stretch but green is also a color of infidelity in some Asian cultures. Does he perhaps "cheat" on his bosses by cooperating with us? Like I said, a stretch. But it's a reasonable stretch, I think!
Number Three: Shelly de Killer
There's something about professional assassins that always piques my interest. The Sniper, the Spy, Osamu Dazai, Agent 47, and, of course, Shelly de Killer. Whom I kept misspelling the name of throughout my 2-4 review. Anyways, Shelly is a force of nature throughout 2-4: he's unstoppable, unflappable, and unknowable, and he's undeniably the biggest presence. He's a standout in a case full of standouts, and while not my favorite accomplice still an easy top-ranker.
When he's finally pushed into a corner in his attempts to protect Matt, he continues being a massive threat and his cutting off communication to kill Maya is a stomach-dropping part of the final day of trial. The truth is revealed to him and it's suddenly incredibly comforting that he's a ruthless murderer—after all, his target is somebody who deserves it. We only see his face a few times, but his design is incredibly memorable and I think the moment where Phoenix comes face-to-face with him in Matt's mansion and has no clue is one of the best parts of the case.
His main color, obviously, is black. Black is a color of death and despair. It's also a color of power: when I think of the color black I think of characters and organizations like Darth Vader, Sephiroth, the Schutzstaffel, and the Secret Service. It's finally a color of grief and seriousness—his main alternate color is white, which is a color of fairness and sterility. In some Asian cultures it's also considered the main color of death: his two-faced nature, symbolized by his stitched face and propensity to disguises and radios, is literally mirrored by his two main colors. He's got a killer design.
Number Two: Phoenix Wright
For future reference, I'd generally like to make it a habit not to include the same character in two reviews in a row. There are, of course, exceptions, and this is one of them. I like to think that the original trilogy covers the main arcs of our three main protagonists. If PW:AA is Edgeworth's game, then JfA is Phoenix's. This is a game where he undergoes a massive amount of character growth and I'd wager that 2-4 is the most important case to his character development until 4-4. Yeah, that's how impactful I think JfA is.
With the exception of 2-3, he is consistently written at top quality. Even in 2-1, where he can barely remember his job, he's still given an air of professionalism and unwavering trust in Maggey. Even though he comes to the same conclusion that Edgeworth did—that the truth is more important than anything else—they come to it through decidedly different ways that fit their respective characters. In Phoenix's case, he can only come to this conclusion with the support of the people around him but also something that will unquestioningly destroy his bone-headed stubbornness. One of Phoenix's defining character traits—which also rears his head as one of his many flaws—is how God damn stubborn he is. 2-4 simply wouldn't work if he didn't hold to his previous worldview with an almost religious devotion. If he didn't have this flaw, then he both wouldn't be Phoenix Wright and 2-4 would've lost so much of its impact.
This is his best showing in the trilogy. God fuckin' bless you, Phoenix Wright.
Number One: Franziska von Karma
Franziska is my favorite prosecutor in the entire series and JfA is a massive reason why. While she doesn't consistently reach the peaks of her JfA characterization, in JfA she's the only character besides Phoenix I can easily call a 10/10. She is brilliantly written, and if her quality remained the same then I'd honestly call her the best-written character in the entire series. Hell, my Strange Professional Killstreak Disciplinary Action is named after her.
can you tell i like this picture
I mentioned it in the "pros" section, but I'd like to say it again: Franziska is a mess of contradictions, which I think is where the brilliance (dare I say "perfection") of her writing comes from. While she's obviously stuck in her father's shadow—and the clear preference he gave to Miles over his own biological child—she's trying to forge her own mold and prove her own worth... as a von Karma. No matter what she does she'll always be stuck in her father's shadow, and it's not until 2-4 that her worldview is utterly destroyed by Edgeworth not only doing her job for her but getting a guilty verdict against Phoenix that she genuinely begins to change. Even her design is deliberately imperfect! She has a mole on her face and her overall outfit is asymmetrical, with the golden lines going down the center of her jacket not quite matching each other and her hair leaning towards the left instead of being perfectly lined up like her father's or Edgeworth's. She's a mess of family issues, self-limiting obsessions, and some absolutely delicious room for mental health headcanons (which I happen to love thinking about) that just make her so fascinating as a character to me.
Let's talk about her main colors. Unlike Phoenix and Edgeworth, she can't really be boiled down to a single color: she's highlighted by whites, platinum blues, and blacks. Platinum is the biggest standout given her hair color and choice of outfit—it's a color of nobility and prestige, but also one of modernity and even futurism. "Everything is chrome in the future!" This ties back into her overall arc: while she's not completely able to separate herself from her father, she's slowly starting to internalize how wicked he truly was and how she should redefine the von Karma name. The colors that define her design are colors that are also associated with the cold: she's icy, and to really hammer that in, in supplementary material she wears puffy overcoats and scarves while in-game she wears sleek black gloves and a padded suit. Like ice, she's incredibly sharp and dangerous, but she's also fragile and will shatter if too much pressure is forced on her. Also like ice, she's very pretty. I want to be her.
Overall Thoughts
JfA is the awkward middle child of Ace Attorney. Like any awkward middle child, it has some pretty significant growing pains, but it also has some defining moments and great memories for both what came before and after it. It's not perfect—far from it—but it's definitely an understandable fan favorite.
As with PW:AA, I'd also like to point out some standout ships. While I don't ship it, Phoenix/Edgeworth comes to full maturity come this game. Maya/Franziska also comes from this game, and it's probably the most popular Franziska ship for good reason: while the two of them don't interact with each other very often in this game, there's some very clear similarities and parallels. Some ships I do ship that also find their roots in this game are Franziska/Adrian and angsty one-sided Adrian/Celeste. Franziska/Adrian is especially interesting to me because of how blatantly paralleled they are: they're both mentally fragile and dependent, living in the shadows of people who came before them but constantly overlooked and put down by others. They even share a primary color scheme with bright blue! I love them. Some non-romantic standouts are Gumshoe and Franziska, Edgeworth and Franziska, and of course Maya and Pearl.
Unlike PW:AA, however, I don't think it gets a lot of charm from its imperfections. Its imperfections are a lot more noticeable and instead of charming are grating: looking at you, 2-3. The title of this post labels JfA as "meaningfully mediocre" and that's honestly the best I can say about it—it knows that it's not going to be the best or the most eloquent so goes full-force on the wacky factor, and I think that's generally where its inconsistency and growing pains come from. Sometimes this works to its benefit, but the times where it doesn't stick out far more to me than the times they do.
To wrap it all up, we'll give this one an overall rating and place its cases on our case tier list. See you for 3-1 and the finale of the original trilogy: Trials & Tribulations!
