#Like even if we assume he somehow would've been able to handle the revolver!!! Would he have been able to aim???

[queergodot]

Honestly the fact that I feel like I'm 7 steps ahead of the characters in this game at all times makes it rlly difficult for me to pay attention to what's going on. Like even if I turn out to be dead wrong, I don't think my thought process is at all unusual.

Look I've played a decent number of visual novels, most of them mystery bc I'm romance repulsed. And the thing with visual novels is that it's a story you can control. AA is not a 'pure' visual novel, as the gameplay is a draw and a component, but it functions similarly. The kick of mystery visual novels is feeling like you're figuring out the mystery at your own power and controlling the story that way. So it needs to walk this tightrope of giving you the illusion of control. It needs to let you pursue your thought processes. If it can't do that, the illusion of control breaks and the only appeal of the game falls away.

AA is in a difficult position bc it's by nature extremely railroad-y. It gives you much less choices than most visual novels (a big part of the reason why I don't even entirely agree with that classification) and your main influence on the story comes from moving the character, examining scenes and collecting evidence, and objecting in court. For this to stay entertaining, it means that your player character needs to be moving their brain at roughly the same pace and in the same direction as yours. Otherwise, rather than feeling like you're a cool detective (or lawyer, in this case), it very quickly starts to feel like you're trying to guide a stubborn mule around.

This means that even if your thought process is wrong, the game needs to figure out the ways in which you can get it wrong and account for that. It needs to satisy all or at least most of your 'what if's and 'but's almost as soon as you think of them. If it failt to do that, the illusion of control breaks, and playing becomes tedious and frustrating experience.

All that's to say I'm so disconnected from the game right now that I took the time to write all this instead of questioning Ema, because I simply don't feel any tension. There's no 'how are we gonna get out of this one and prove Machie innocent' when the answer is obvious to me, but nobody is willing to rub 2 of their braincells together. 'Lamiroir is our only chance of proving Machie innocent! All evidence points to him! We have no other avenues to pursue' really? I got one for you:

How on Earth would a blind 14-year-old shoot a man with a revolver that's infamous for having a kickback heavy enough to dislodge a grown man's arm?