#finished the first three ace attorney games last year and yeah. loved them

[luminsia]

past and present

[lil-melody-moon]

Year Summary #3

We're going with games today so without further ado!

The ones I've started and finished: 1. Pokemon Moon - Second/third time that I played it. I had started a save a long time ago, but I borrowed my 2DS to a dear friend of mine, so I just started everything from beginning. I enjoyed it as much as the first time actually, getting different Pokemon this time - or kind of? This is also where I discovered that tiny Pancham looks like Paul McCartney. Don't ask me from where I took it, but yeah. I named my Pancham Paul XD

2. Final Fantasy IX - I figured out that there has to be at least one Final Fantasy game during the year and this time it happened to be this one. Again, a replay, third fucking save. I had a new pc at that time, had to install Moguri again but you know. The worst was the fact that the old saves were gone, along with the one where I almost did everything in the time before the final boss. My first, almost complete save was gone, I was sad about that. That didn't discourage me tho, I played the game again, only to regret that I didn't use other names than default - it would be so fun, I have to do it next time. Anyway, I still love this game, I will gladly come back to it at any day really - crying at the end again, God, the credits song ;A;

3. Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc - I think this platformer will come back to the list of "play at least once a year". I love this games to bits, first platformer, my entire childhood and beginning of being a nerd is stored there - and again, Polish dub in this game is *chef's kiss*

4. Rayman Legends - replay after a few years and as much as I love the musical levels, the game itself is fun to certain point, I think halfway through, it gets kind of repetitive - or it might be me who played this game way too much in the past. Either way, I'm not coming back to it anytime soon. Had fun nevertheless tho <3

5. Murder by Numbers - got Epic Games Store, got my hands on free games and there I went, choosing this one as the first one. It has repetitive mechanic over finding clues - it's a detective kind of game, similar to Ace Attorney, but much more tame - but like, if you're bored you can cheat through them just to get on with the plot. I did that at the very end and really, I enjoyed the plot, characters, music. The tiny computer who helped the main heroine was adorable <3

6. Earthbound - you thought I will forget to play it? HAH, jokes on you! The end of year is nearing and my mind is already set on to play it again! I will never grow bored of this game and this time the team consisted of Ringo, me, John and Paul, Beatles themed team and truth be told, I WAS SO FUCKING UNLUCKY ON THIS SAVE. Like, I even did simplest mistakes, forgetting about the freaking shields which got me an instant kill. Had to repeat the last cave three fucking times, I never had such a bad playthrough in my life! Ringo borrowed his luck this time it seems

7. Spyro the Dragon - what did I do when I got a new PC? Downloaded PSX emulator and played Spyro. I'm a whole mood as my friend described me and honestly I don't regret this decision, even if I had to take this game in parts. The camera made me sick to my stomach - oh God I hope it'll be better in later parts and in the remaster - but like taking one level per day was a good idea to solve the problem. Plus the soundtrack - Copeland my beloved! - is just so good. One of those games which soundtracks I'll be listening to when I have time. ...Which reminds me that I have to make cleaning on yt with the games' music. MAJOR CLEANING *looking at my young self* You did fucked it up

8. Deponia - Oh yes, I came back to his fuckery and now I'm having a break before tackling the second game which I don't like very much, but about this one! The beginning is kinda long, but once out of town the game shows what it is capable of with puzzle solving, plot, humor, characters. I still love it and will probably nerd the third part like I usually do, because it's my favorite, but this time I did one major change. I've played with English dub, not like always with German and fuck, it is better somehow so I'm sticking to that <3

Now to the ones I've dropped: 1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Being younger I loved this game, but this time I just couldn't get into it anymore. Might be because my smart ass thought about erasing the save I didn't finish years ago and starting a new one, but who might know. I do regret I didn't finish the game for some weird reason those years ago, but maybe it was for the better? Either way, I sold it with a few other Nintendo Wii games, leaving only two Kirby games for myself so yeah

2. Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time - now I really had high expectations for this one. I always heard good opinions about it and so I started it, curious, only to discover that I'm bored of it in the long run. There's not much variety in the battle mechanics. You either do that or this and push buttons. There's no excitement like it is in Final Fantasy for example, it's simpler, much much simpler and the same goes too...

3. Super Mario RPG - while having an amazing soundtrack, this game suffers the same thing as the previous. Repetitive battle mechanics and like this is probably the worst thing you can do to rpg. I know a lot of people love it and I can see why. The plot is great, dialogues, characters and world building is amazing, but for me if the battle mechanics ain't anything good, then I'm gonna drop the game and move on

4. Kirby Mass Attack - I always wanted to play this game. It was actually the first ROM I've downloaded on Nintendo DS emulator right after getting new PC and I had fun in the first world. I love the mechanics with the touch screen, the fact that there's 10 tiny Kirbys running around, but what threw me off guard is the fact that even if you have 10 Kirbys, you're gonna end with one at the beginning of the next world. I felt like all the progress was lost and I had to start from the very beginning. It somehow didn't feel fair you know. This was a big let down

And the ones I'm playing now: 1. Cave Story - first time after hearing what a good game it is, and I finally agree with an opinion! It's smooth, like the older games, the graphics are cute, music is amazing, plot simple, but engaging somehow. And true, some part for a new player are difficult - I'm playing on easy, I don't think of myself as of a great gamer and I still find it difficult. One boss was really unreadable for me, the one who was driving, I don't know the name of it, but like I had to have a few tries to figure out what to do and that is the only complaint I have about this game. Second would be no checkpoints between bosses at the very end, but like there was a chance for me to get a life refill, but like I didn't know about it, so I screwed myself on my own wish. Plus, I'm having a break from it because I'm stuck at final bosses. In the meantime I jumped to this one:

2. Yooka Laylee - which I bought on sale on steam and honestly, I don't remember when I had such a great time with a 3D platformer since Rayman 3. I know a lot of people are saying that it's not the same as Banjo-Kazooie - which I didn't play YET - but like, is it really worthy to compare instead of having fun with a game? I mean, the plot is simple, characters are fun, mechanics are great, the moveset is good, it's not limiting the player at all, the freaking soundtrack is a whole orchestra really, always giving the vibe of the world in a great way. There are a few bugs here and there, but they are not game breaking or anything. I was only throw off my guard when I learned that I need 100 pagies to get to the end. Guess what I am doing as of lately XD

And that would sum up this year. Thank you for reading all of this and i wish all of you a Happy New Year <3

[fioras-resolve]

it is kind of amazing, a lot of the most passionate ace attorney fans i see these days have gotten into it fairly recently, like after the series basically finished. the modern ace attorney fandom is largely a better one than what i saw back when the 3DS was the hot new thing.

maybe it's a different experience getting into the series now because the games are all out. i got into this series a decade ago when the original trilogy came out on the WII, so while i did have the entire DS era to appreciate, i had to experience dual destinies, spirit of justice, and the layton crossover as they came out, and they kind of had to stand as their own experiences. while the layton crossover came out in japan in 2012, we in the states had to wait another two years, after dual destinies came out.

and to me both of these games were like? fine? you know i had a fun time with them, and they're not bad mysteries, but they also didn't make me feel the way the original trilogy did. i played apollo justice back in 2012, then waited a year to find out its themes would get undermined in the next game. it took another three years for spirit of justice to come out and reveal that the series really is in a strange relationship with itself now. it gives us a new set of characters each game, a new game mechanic to enhance the trials and blur the mechanical focus the series once had, a new backstory for apollo justice instead of bothering to develop the plot threads that were established at this point 15 years ago.

(ugh) i don't mean to mean to be negative about the modern trilogy. it does have a lot of charm to it, and i'm actually more willing to defend spirit of justice than you might expect, but like. when you wait years for "pretty good, yeah" it starts to make you a bit jaded about the future of the series. i've chosen to believe that, since the last new game the series has gotten was in 2017, that there simply isn't a future. the series is done now, and i can make of that what i will.

but if you got into this series recently, you basically have the entire series to binge, and can do so as a full package. you get to see phoenix wright's growth over six games, his relationship with edgeworth, maya, the law as a whole, and you get to appreciate all the characters for what they are rather than anticipating what they could be. if you don't like the games, you can just play another one. or, hell, watch a longplay of it. it's probably a better experience because the trial design of JFA and T&T are fucked.

i'm excited for the future of the AA fandom, but i wonder what place i really have in it. i mean, i'm a game designer now, part of why i made those graphs was just to understand the mechanical design of the trials, what makes these things work or not work. but ace attorney is enjoyed as a story first and a video game second, and i can't bring myself to get passionate about the story anymore. these days i'm more often impressed by games than i am excited about them, and in general my mechanical analysis mind doesn't work well with the kind of fandom that is primarily about characters and relationships. i envy the modern ace attorney fandom.

at this point i've... i don't wanna "moved on," but it's more like "branched out." i've tried a lot of other mystery games! a few mobile ones, aviary attorney, ghost trick, her story, layton, socrates jones (which is fucking excellent by the way), and umineko, which is textually a game but not practically. i might try famicom detective club sometime? i dunno, i just like trying new things, because i love discovering ways that games can surprise me. maybe ace attorney 7 comes out and makes me reconsider all this. but, in the meantime, i'm glad to be here for what the ace attorney community has become

[chemicalbrew]

Simon Blackquill >:)

oh god this got so long so fast. under the cut it goes

First impression

Why are they letting a prisoner serve in the court. Bro, wait, he's kinda hot. Those bags under his eyes, holy shit...

And then he goes like

……………Hmph. ……Enough jabbering. Get on with it, already. ……Must we continue to fritter away time like this? An opening statement… would be pointless.

Look at those sweet, sweet ellipses. Truly, he is the edgelord of Ace Attorney 🖤 I think what I remember the most was just being really excited to hear his speech bubbles. And then WOAH, he has a completely unique one of his own in addition to the objection!! Damn...

Not to mention, he calls the judge His Baldness and it's still funny to me. King shit 👑

Bravo, Your Baldness. Your years of experience shine bright like your head.

Impression now

Is he the best prosecutor in the series? No. It's factually impossible to top Edgeworth, who literally has two spinoffs to himself that I consider to be better than most mainline games (aside from aa3, because that game is a banger). And of course, Miles has some of the most remarkable character development in the main games, too. You can't not at least appreciate the guy, and Simon just can't top that.

The change in writing teams (and the stupid no-spoiler policy that supposedly exists when it really should not) was pretty damn harmful to aa5-6 as a whole, and is obviously part of the reason for my answer as well (even if it in part led to Simon's existence, since he is almost completely disconnected from og trilogy events)... not only did it make the whole air of the games feel off, it also led to huge disconnects between 5 and 6 on their own.

As a very recent (to me) example, a common criticism against my latest favorite case (6-4, that I just finished a few days ago and then my friend did a celebratory art spam for me, heheeh) is that it ends up ignoring the obvious development Athena went through (both on her own and in relation to Simon) in aa5. And, like. Even though I did just say I love the case (enough to consider it ~top 2-3 cases in the series), and Simon+Athena (more on them later, I guess) are my favorite parts of it... I have nothing to really say against this criticism.

I understand that Athena's newfound power and confidence from the end of aa5 needed to be sacrificed in some way to show the delicious mentor \ student+found family dynamics (after all, what is there to teach someone who's already found her footing?), but I also can't deny that the erasure of the character's past accomplishments and developments was quite extreme. The funny thing is, I think reverting Athena's knowledge\confidence levels could serve as a great way to show the kind of threat the new prosecutor (Nahyuta. The ourple one.) presents, but... by now he's been around for three whole cases (counting 6-4) already, and even then, Yuty's writing, imo, is much weaker than Simon's ever was in the 5th game (because they didn't overtly rely on catchphrases while writing Simon, smhhh).

As for the point of this whole ramble... Simon physically can't be the best prosecutor, because, unfortunately, neither games he stars in had writers that could get their shit 100% together. There we go.

But... is he my favorite prosecutor in the series? yes, unless whoever stars in Great Ace Attorney manages to impress me even more. I know a lot of it is recency bias (I'm pretty sure I beat the original trilogy sometime in 2019-20, then I beat aa4 last year, but I only just met Simon in aa5-6 this year), but I'm going to be honest. You can't not appreciate Edgeworth, as I said, but for me, I think, most of the time appreciation is as far as it went with him. Now that I think about it, it might be part of how I prefer latching onto characters with clear gaps and flaws (flashes neon arrow signs at Simon and Nahyuta) more than well-written obvious fan favorites?? But yeah, either way, Edgeworth is cool and all, but not even while playing his games did I feel anything blorbo-esque towards him.

Meanwhile Simon, the motherfucker that he is, wormed his way into my blorbo storage room entirely too fast. There's something about his design, based entirely around black and white while still having just enough intricate details, that just stuck with me (it even serves Taka well, cause his brown feathers stand out even more in such an arrangement!). And then there's his theme (that bass, dude...) and voice (still mad we apparently don't know who did the work. Whoever it was, they did so well...) Not to mention, the way he words things... simultaneously somewhat flowery and most of the time efficient and straightforward... yeah, maybe there's a reason he had me that quickly, ngl.

Favorite moment

Ohhh, time to break into my phone's screenshot folder!!

^ just general one-off noteworthy stuff I managed to dig up. I dunno, his particular flavor of Jerkish Prosecution is so enjoyable to me, like I said🖤 Especially combined with the voice impression his speech bubbles give off... 'I relish the chance to cut down a great man' like, SIR???

^ actual three favorite moments. The first is important foreshadowing (knowing it's himself he talks about is so 🥺... Of course, he's not going to make it easy, because he convinced himself the suffering was deserved...).

The second is simultaneously ridiculously funny and a memorable power move (he really said 'Just walk out! You can leave! Even if you're convicted!'), while also being very much justified, since what he's responding to is almost useless testimony from an arrogant kid who thinks he's a genius because he gets straight As. You really can't fault Simon for having had it with all that shit 🖤

And the third... well, it's honestly nothing much, but it's memorable to me anyway, because a) HE HAS A POINT and b) it reminds me of Robin... one of blorbos ever... also every chance I can take to see a forward-facing sprite of him is A+

And these are just my favorite shots of him from the games themselves. It was always funny to me seeing the bright confetti from the not guilty verdicts over his plain ass grumpy face, and that last shot from 6-4 had no right to make him look so good, smh.

Idea for a story

I think basically everything pertaining to him could make for a nice story in the right hands.

Were all these stories he was telling about his fellow inmates real? How much more ridiculous could you make them, given this is AA we are talking about? Did he get to meet characters that were given guilty verdicts and imprisoned in previous games?

Literally everything with him and Athena. I don't know, just plop them into a room together and study them like bugs! Mentor+student? Parental figure+a young girl finding her place in the world? Exploring a feedback loop from her mom trying to help her with psychology and science and Simon being inspired to pick it all up for similar reasons? Stubborn emotionally scarred man who operates by tough love+equally determined ball of sunshine? Boomer+zoomer? Flowery persuasiveness+honest and straight-to-the-point assistance? Yeah, they got all that going for them and more. It's fucking wonderful. Let me into the alternative universe that lets them have their own game PLEASE...

What\who exactly convinced him to adopt the ridiculous samurai\swordplay aesthetic? I mean, it works, but... what if he is secretly also a Steel Samurai fan or something? :p

In general, how did being told by Miles fucking Edgeworth that you're allowed and basically have to get back to work again to have a chance at basically anything in life feel? Must have been quite a day, huh?

And then, of course, how did he end up adjusting to having freedom again, having all but convinced himself that cold prison cells were his lot in life? At least his job didn't actually change, so... maybe he would plunge himself into work?

What kind of shenanigans did he let Taka get up to, and what misadventures did they have together when they first bonded? What about him having an interest in birds in general? Would he be... jealous of ornithologists?

Food - be it soba or something else. Is he a fancy connoisseur at heart or would he just take whatever he's given? How would he react to having to try something new - like, say, a burger from Nahyuta? lol

This is the obligatory 'ugh I love blackmadhi' bullet point, except I don't actually have anything coherent to say, I just think they work well when you rotate them in your mind together. Two souls from opposing cultures being equally fucked by law and yet working hard in their own ways for the sake for returning to the ideals of pursuing the truth, in the exact same position, but with wildly different and not fully compatible methods... YEAH...

What could be said about his relationship with Aura? And what exactly did he think of his sister's connection to Metis, with her being a mentor and just a presence in his life in general? At first glance, they're just siblings with their bond taken to the extreme and tested by unfortunate circumstances, but exploring that tragedy and what they had before then is what makes this dynamic interesting to me. I just like sad shit, I guess... And then there's this off-handed quip from Phoenix about them that's just way too funny:

(Robot abuse, hawk attacks... Blackquill family life must sure be interesting.)

Unpopular opinion

Unfortunately, since this is not Nahyuta we are talking about, I can't just 'haha, the unpopular opinion is that I actually like him' out of this one... I probably could, given that Simon's still getting called an edgelord (derogatory) straight out of deviantart in 2022, but that's cheap anyway...

Um... I guess I'll just restate what I was saying about 6-4 earlier: him having to be there to support Athena by itself is not a bad thing, it was just handled poorly in part because of the weaker writing and in part because of the baffling decision to try and focus this game on like five characters at the same time... they spread themselves too thin :(

The whole point of having characters go through games-long journeys in the series is that they never truly stop learning, not even when they're actually considered accomplished. This case was a great opportunity to show this again, but it wasn't used to its fullest potential.

Favorite relationship

As per the 'idea for a story' bullet: him and Athena as found family and naturally opposing personalities still being tightly united across time and space :D You just can't go wrong with what's basically chomp lite with a huge deal of devotion and perseverance (that cannot help but show itself through the rough words and treatment) on the side

^ literally the essence of what I love so much about their writing together. Just seeing 'yup!' and 'ye gods' next to each other is taking me out 🖤🧡

And him and Nahyuta just like. In general. Do you think two prosecutors can on purpose kiss... maybe...

Favorite headcanon

He was going to cut his hair again after being released, and the only reason he didn't was because Athena has too much fun playing with it\burying herself in his hair. She would also counter his propositions with 'but Siiimon it's so fluffy... 😭' every single time, and it was too powerful for him to handle. So, long hair it is.

[swansstuff]

So uh, I've been thinking about a hypothetical Trucy Wright: Act Attorney and here is the very poorly written outline for it because yeah. No spoilers except the Apollo Trucy thing. Tw death, murder, blood and grieving so yeah.

Trucy's first case is literally her first ever case. This is a flashback case. We follow her as she wakes up, slightly stressed about today, Phoenix gives her cereal and a pep talk and a cryptic message. Trucy asks where Papa is, it is Miles, they are married. Phoenix is cryptic about that too. He stays behind as he "has to buy groceries" so Trucy heads into the office. Apollo greets her, it's clear they know they're siblings, and he hands her a case. Miles is prosecuting. She is fucking terrified. She goes to the crime scene, Gumshoe is the detective and he's educating his teenage sons, constant confusion of who's who, because they are twins and they look very like Gumshoe, it'll be kinda funny. Its a simple investigation. During the investigation, the player can check Trucy's profile and the profile system shows character's middle names now. We get some gems such as Klavier Hyacintha Gavin later on, the reasoning behind this is coz Trucy is nosy. The important one here is Trucy Mia Wright. She says something about how she chose her own middle name when Phoenix adopted her and she chose Mia after learning about her. Yada yada. Trucy wins the case. Edgeworth is very proud, Phoenix is in the gallery and there's a flash of him crying proud tears, Apollo hugs her afterwards, Athena congrats her.

Next case, flash forward three years later, we do not see Phoenix and nobody really mentions him. Thats because he's fucking dead but we don't know that yet. This case is a Fey case, we meet Maya who is married to Franziska and they're technically on honeymoon in Kurain and Pearl becomes the Maya to Trucy's Phoenix. Its another fey murder case. There are a few mentions of Trucy's admiration of Mia, mainly just a mirror of a few lines she's said and a conversation where her and Maya talk about her, Trucy says she would have loved to meet her and Maya explains how her spirit has been dormant for ages now and how she assumes she's moved on.

"If you want I can try and channel-"

"No no no no NO. Its ok!"

This is our first hint that Phoenix is no longer with us, but we don't know until later thats what she means. Sebastian is the prosecutor, the player finds out that Miles is taking a break from prosecuting work, Trucy already knew of course, and Sebastian is dubbed Chief until he comes back, Fran says

"It would've been me were I not on my literal honeymoon right now." We are not told why yet, but it is because of Phoenix. Kay Faraday is the detective, somebody murders someone and frames Maya, no-one is shocked by this. We also get an update on Iris, she's thriving. She wins yada yada.

Next case, a couple of months later, Trucy gets a call from a friend that the player can't identify at first. Its Katrielle Layton. She needs Trucy's legal knowledge because someone is sueing her detective agency because have you seen how they practice. This, of course, turns to murder and we get another surprise when we meet the prosecutor. Who probably has a licence to practise law in England? Simon Blackquill, he is British ok. Yeah, Trucy wins with Kat's help, we meet Ernest and Sherl and Alfendi and Flora if we have time. I miss them. Trucy and Kat have a conversation that cryptically addresses their fathers and their "whereabouts" and living up to their legacy. We see Trucy cry, but only a similar flash to AJ:AA and we do not know why. Yet.

Next case, flashback case. Trucy is the assistant on this case but we still play as her, even in the court sections since Phoenix is prepping her for the bar and getting her to give him the answers. The bar exam is only in three days. Klavier is prosecuting. The case somehow relates to Kristoph and there's the whole mirror dynamic thing of when Phoenix lost his badge. Kristoph is dead by now, but the whole thing is there was a plot inside prison to make Phoenix pay for putting a bunch of them in, Kristoph was the assumed ring leader until he died and the cops now dont know who's running it. Somebody (Godot? That would hurt big time) was their inside man, sent to figure that out, so when whoever it was turned up dead, the whole thing got exposed. We get a bit of a Mia moment in the trial where Trucy tells Phoenix to flip over the receipt (thats evidence for some reason). Phoenix says "I feel like that shouldn't be the second time someone has said that to me". The killer is found, by Phoenix, and put into isolation, as have most of the other participants. We then see Trucy get her badge. They have a conversation and Trucy says Phoenix basically forgot about it for a couple of months. The case closes with a foreboding "and I forgot about it too, until..."

Next case. Phoenix is fucking murdered. Trucy gets a phone call late at night, she hears laboured breathing on the other end and a "don't forget I love you" from Phoenix. Trucy pulls a simba and goes "dad? Dad?!!" And the line goes dead. The player is presented with a choice of who to call. They have two phone calls. Who they choose first makes no difference, but the second time they are forced to choose Ema who will trace Phoenix's phone call. They could call Apollo and he would comfort her, Miles would panic, Maya would say he was just messing around, Athena would sense her distress and say she's coming over etc. You could attempt to call Phoenix back but he would not answer and you would be allowed to call someone else. Ema then traces the phone call and we follow Trucy to the crime scene. We get a truly haunting cutscene where everything kinda goes blurry except Phoenix's face and the blood. Trucy doesn't cry. She stands there in shock. The WAA is there in various states of shock and upset. Return of grieving Apollo I guess. Miles turns up and the look on his face is haunting. Trucy and him make eye contact and they share the thought of something has to be done. And then. "The bar association took me off the case and Papa too, they said we were too close to it. As a result, we never found out who did it... Until now." And we see a determined Trucy face. We jump forward to where we last saw Trucy, she and Pearl are coming back from England and its a bit more cheery. Trucy sends Pearl on a train back to Kurain and heads on home. She enters the house and we see Miles pouring over Phoenix's case. He jumps up and runs towards her.

"Trucy! I think I have a lead, I-"

"Papa, you're tired, go to bed." (Or better dialogue along those lines)

Its clear he's been doing this sort of thing a lot.

"But I do! At least...I think I do..."

He trails off and rests his head in his hands.

"Do I? Or am I just a mess?"

Trucy gives him a sad smile.

"C'mon let's go to bed."

Miles returns the sad smile and fades out like all ace attorney characters do. The player is given the option to look around. There's probably some emotional dialogue and bits that give clues to how she and Miles have been fairing the past 3 years. Answer is, not very well. Examine the pile of papers on the table. Trucy will take a look and then realise her papa may have actually been onto something. Its a diagram of which prisoners knew each other, with an arrow from each leading to a defense attorney we have never met. Trucy is confused, but she calls for Miles anyway. He comes back downstairs and Trucy asks him about this lead he found.

"Well I realised all those prisoners would know this defense attorney (insert name?)"

"Why? And why would they be suspicious?'

"They (pronouns?) Were always the defense attorney who would take on the cases of those Wright had already accused. They gained a reputation of being the doomed defense attorney."

"So... They knew all the prisoners in the plot and they had a grudge against daddy... Papa I think you're onto something!"

And the case continues, since we already know who's been accused, it plays out more like an investigations game, Trucy has to prove it, with Miles' help of course, literally every other character we know and love plays a part in making sure this guy gets a guilty verdict. There is still a courtroom bit and a moment when all is looking dark, Trucy literally has a full on breakdown as the Judge threatens to remove her from the case again. Miles is by her side, they're both technically prosecution here i guess. Miles, however, is too deep in his own mental breakdown to help. Everyone else is in the gallery besides Pearl. Pearl channels Phoenix as a last hope sort of thing. Phoenix comforts her and tells her to keep fighting, he touches her badge and probably says some sort of bullshit about it. The Judge is about to bang the gavel when Trucy and Phoenix object at the same time. Miles looks up and realises whats going on and he objects too, a little later. The battle goes on until it finishes and the other attorney has a breakdown that steals little bits from every other murderer Phoenix has put behind bars.This is the one time seeing the word guilty on your screen feels good. There's a whole heartwarming celebration at the end, Phoenix sticks around for a little bit and everyone gets a bit of closure. Its assumed he's gone since Pearl passes out and Trucy dips out for a sec. She's away from the festivities, staring at the badge in her hand and we see someone coming up behind her. Maya is channelling Phoenix now. He gives Trucy a hug and utters the words "the only time a lawyer can cry is when its all over and, Trucy darling, my light, its over." Echoing both Diego and Mia.

And the screen fades to black with a final hug between father and daughter.

:)

[deebormzone]

Smashbros: The Roster That Won’t Stop Ever

I’ve actually been playing more Smash Bros. lately. I love the game so much that I can play online with no rule preference and still have a good time. Items? Fine. Teams? Okay. Final Smash Meter? Sure. Final Destination? I’m down. All of the above? Cool. As long as it’s Smash, it’s good.

Actually, once I fought a Little Mac on Final Destination who would run and grab all the items. That was pretty lame.

The only thing better than playing the game is seeing new characters get revealed!

Actually, once they developed a DLC fighter in total secrecy and it turned out to be yet another Fire Emblem character. That was pretty lame.

But almost every other time, new Smash characters are great, and that last reveal included some interesting news: they would be developing another six fighters! (It also included Cuphead, which was great too.)

I thought for sure, when they announced “more DLC fighters in production”, it would be two or three more, and Sakurai said as much during his presentation (”I thought it would be a couple more fighters”). But no, the madmen are going in hard. I guess that Smash DLC earns them a ton of money, or at least views on Youtube.

Fighters Pass 2 “will be released by Dec. 2021″, meaning we’ll get about one character every four months. That’s a bit of a wait, so to amuse myself until then, I’ll be playing the prediction game.

This time around, I’m guessing all the DLC characters, including the order of their release. This way, even if I don’t get characters I especially like, at least I can still win at guessing.

#1: Dante

I predicted Dante would be the last Fighters Pass 1 character, and now I’m doubling down. They’re going to reveal a bombshell for the first addition to Fighters Pass 2 to trick people into pre-ordering, and I think Dante has the star power they need. Also, they just put Devil May Cry on Switch. C’mon.

My preference: yeah cool

#2: Doom Slayer

This is a bit dicey because I don’t think Doom is big in Japan, but he’s an extremely historic videogames man, and he’s about to release on Switch. Sadly they will not call him Doomguy.

If they don’t add him because of all the guns and non-Japaneseness, I’d predict Dragonborn instead, but Doom Eternal on Switch means my official prediction is Doom Slayer.

My preference: pretty great if they can do him right 

#3: Crash Bandicoot

This guess is a bit dishonest, since nowadays the most prominent leakers are saying Crash is up next. It would be a bit weird, having one of Sony’s few characters in Smash, but the games are on Switch and Crash would fit into the world of Smash pretty easily (only one letter difference!?). Plus, he could be the token non-swordsman.

My preference: he’s okay I guess

#4: Toxtricity

Sakurai once said they always save a slot for a new Pokemon, and now that we know they’ll add an eighth character from a series with too many characters already and then charge extra for them, it seems very likely they’ll do so again.

I think this is the Pokemon that’s getting pushed the hardest lately. I suppose they could do a lot worse than electric/poison. Apparently it plays a guitar? Stupid name, though.

My preference: nah, don’t need it

#5: Lloyd Irving

Namco made the new smash and put their biggest character in it (Pac-Man, who is great). It feels like a representative from their long-running, extremely Japanese RPG series (Tales) would make sense here.

They have a few options, but I think they’d go with Lloyd. I get the feeling his game was one of the most popular, and it was a Gamecube exclusive at first. Plus, despite being an anime swordsman, he has two swords instead of one, so his attacks could be unique multi-hit moves. If so, I hope he makes fun of the other guys for not having enough sword.

Also, he was a Mii Fighter costume in Smash 4, now strangely absent.

My preference: great- if they get his original English VA

#6: Sephiroth

As we’ve seen, Nintendo sometimes has problems making a big finish, so they might not be powerful enough to do this. They’ve also had problems getting Square to play ball with Cloud “Two Tracks, No Spirits” Strife.

However, they got Square to add Hero, and a decent amount of Hero-related content. Plus, Square’s new game, “Final Fantasy 7”, is the biggest thing they’ve got, and it will stay that way as they release all three to four parts of it over the next six years. They’re going to want to milk it as hard as possible, and Smash Bros. is a powerful tug of the udder.

Sephiroth would make waves. He’s practically the main character of FF7. It might be tricky getting him to work in Smash, but Sakurai can do it for sure. Also I want to see him do Supernova a few more times.

My preference: lots of fun, I’ll take it

Those are my six character predictions. Now, in a couple of years, I can see how well I did in this extremely long, pointless guessing game.

And here’s a bonus round: Just for fun, I came up with “Fighters Pass 2 If I Got To Personally Pick Everyone In It.” It would look like this:

Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney)

Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)

The Knight (Hollow Knight)

Doopliss (Paper Mario)

The Prince (Katamari Damacy)

Chrono (Chrono Trigger)

Honestly, whoever gets added, I still trust the Smash Bros. crew to release a good Fighters Pass 2. The first one was very good, with four good characters out of five, and the second one has one extra character and a significantly smaller chance of Fire Emblem, so it should be a straight upgrade.

Just remember not to pre-order until we know at least the first character.

[pens-swords-stuff]

Undine what video games do you play?

Oh a chance to scream my love for my favorite video games? This might get a bit long!

I’m a massive fan of single-player games! I really hate playing online multiplayer games a lot, you will never find me playing a MOBA or an MMO — it stresses me out a lot! However, the single-player games I do love… I often own multiple copies of in two languages because of a desperate need to play them both in Japanese and English.

Putting it all under a cut because I’m rambling and don’t know how to be concise and it’s rather long...

TL;DR The games I mention in this post are: The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Final Fantsy IX, Tales games, Octopath Traveler, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Detroit: Become Human, Life is Strange, Ace Attorney, Dragon Age, Animal Crossing, Katamari Damacy, Danganronpa, Skyrim, Monster Prom, Stardew Valley — and those are just the ones I was able to list off the top of my head!

I am a die-hard Zelda fan. The original Zelda game has a really special significance to my parents, and I’ve inherited that love even after they’ve lost interest in video games. I have owned and played every single Zelda game that is not on a Gameboy. It’s the entire reason that I play video games at all, and looking back, it was a seriously formative experience for me because it’s been there all my life.

I also really love Dragon Quest. I’ve played all of them except for I - III and X. My favorites are DQV and DQVIII, and DQXI is an amazing new installment in a legendary series. I’ve beaten the main game, and I’m currently playing through the endgame which already seems insane! When DQXI-S comes out on the Switch, I will not be double-dipping, I will be triple-dipping since I already own the English version on PS4, and the Japanese 3DS version. I’m dying to buy DQXI-S in Japanese — it has so much extra content!!!!!

Now I can’t talk about JRPGs without talking about Final Fantasy… I’ve only played 2 FF games, but FF is fantastic. FFIX is my absolute favorite. It’s so charming, the story is so in-depth, the characters are amazing, and despite its humorous tone it doesn’t abandon the angst and mystery of older FF games. I would love love love a proper remake instead of just a remaster.

Tales games are also amazing. I own a few games that I haven’t had a chance to finish, (Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Zesteria, Tales of Berseria, Tales of Hearts, Tales of Innocence, Tales of Radiant Mythology) but my number one will always be Tales of the Abyss. I bought it on a whim after my dad brought it to me at GameStop saying that it looked like something I like — which he only did because he felt guilty that he was buying a video game of his own, and just brought the first JRPG-looking game to me — and it was amazing. The worldbuilding is SO good, I’m desperate to write a fanfiction using it or make a similar world, and the characters are all so lovely. And you THINK the plot and the game ends but that’s just the halfway point!

Because I’m such a huge fan of JRPGs, Octopath Traveler was a must-buy for me when it came out a year or so ago and I loved it! Yeah it has its flaws, but it was one of the first games my boyfriend and I played through together and it was so good! I love the graphics, the music, the characters, the story, and how they all came together!

My current obsession is Fire Emblem Three Houses. It’s the first FE game me and my boyfriend have ever played, and it has been AMAZING!!! All the characters are so good! The combat is so good! The music is so good! The character interaction is so good! I’m dying, I want to play it right now but my boyfriend is away and I told him I wouldn’t play without him… We’ve chosen the Black Eagle house so far and the plot is picking up!! I don’t know who to romance I love all of them!!!

I love those kind of butterfly effect story-heavy games too like Detroit: Become Human and Life is Strange. Similarly, I love visual novels, though I haven’t had the opportunity to play most of them. On yet another similar vein.. The Ace Attorney series were some of my favorite DS games.

Recently — by which I mean the last three or so years — my writing partner convinced me to try the Dragon Age games and oh my god they’re amazing. I absolutely loved playing them, and am currently in the process of writing a DA fanfiction! My partner is really pushing me to play Mass Effect as well, and I’ve bought the trilogy on sale. I’m still in the very beginning of the first game so we’ll see how I like it.

Other random games I like are Animal Crossing, Katamari Damacy, Dangan Ronpa, Skyrim, Monster Prom, Stardew Valley...

And I’m sure plenty others that have slipped my mind!

[medea10]

My Review of Happy Sugar Life

[bittenappletv]

Capcom Live Concert Review; 9/29/18 Gramercy Theater NYC

Mega Man 2 on the NES was that video game for me. The one that made me realize video games can be art. The music! The graphics! The music! Doctor Wily's Castle! The music! The ending! Oh and did I mention, the music! Because... THE MUSIC!  I've been a lifelong fan of Capcom ever since. Mega Man used to be my favorite Capcom franchise. Eventually it became Street Fighter and later in life it became Devil May Cry. So it's almost like I've grown up with Capcom throughout the years. As I've matured so have my interests. So of course I’m going to attend a concert that features music from Capcom video games because… Just in case I haven’t mentioned this before… THE MUSIC!

The Capcom Live Band spun out of Video Games Orchestra. Video Games Orchestra has their own show called Video Games Live where they play music from lots of different video games. I've seen them perform twice and I definitely recommend checking them out if they come to your neck of the woods!

The members of the Capcom Live Band originate from Boston. They made the Chrono Trigger song that was performed at Video Games Live and is available on one of the Video Games Live CDs. Well they have broken off into their own thing just to perform Capcom music but they will still get down with Video Games Live when the occasion arises.

On to the performance! I also saw Capcom Live perform at Anime Next in 2017 so I will be comparing both performances.  Spotlighting what was different between both shows when I can.

So first up at the New York show was an arrangement featuring a lot of classic Capcom video games while they displayed video footage of said games. The first one was Commando, the first Capcom game I ever played in an arcade a long time ago! Followed by Trojan, Sonson, 1942, Strider, the NES version of Bionic Commando and wrapping up with Ghosts 'n Goblins!

On to Street Fighter! They played the intro song from Street Fighter II. You may be more familiar with it as Ryu's theme in the first Marvel vs. Capcom game or the intro song to the American Street Fighter cartoon. "Ba Da Da Da Daaaa Da Daaaa!" You know that song! While the track played we got to see Ryu face off against a lot of the Street Fighter II characters finishing up with his confrontation against Master Bison! The next track was a medley they also do at Video Games Live. Ryu, Guile and Ken's themes mashed together as a rock song. When they did this at Anime Next they showed images from the HD version of Street Fighter II, essentially the new imagery from Studio Udon that you can currently see in Ultra Street Fighter II The Final Challengers on the Nintendo Switch. For the New York show they stuck with imagery from the original version of Street Fighter II. While I fig both versions and Udon did an amazing job, I liked seeing the older version at a show like this. Events like these are even better when they evoke nostalgia.

Now for something new! They played the music you hear in Street Fighter V when you are in the mode select screen or waiting for an online match. Now if you've upgraded to Street Fighter V Arcade Edition it is no longer the first song that plays,  but if you stay on mode select long enough you'll hear it. It's the song that starts off with a Spanish guitar. You know, I never even gave too much thought to the Spanish guitar that comes on during the track until I heard it live. I'm Latino so naturally my heritage woke up WORD! What was cool is that a performer who looked kind of like Reuben Langon (AKA Dante's voice and motion capture actor in the Devil May Cry series) just with longer blonde hair and a smaller frame sang English lyrics to that Street Fighter V song! The singer's name is David Vives by the way.

So yeah we got a Dante look alike IN THE HIZOOOOOOUSE so OF COURSE he's going to sing something from Devil May Cry! When the beginning of Devil May Cry 4's "We Shall Never Surrender" (AKA my current smartphone ring tone heh heh heh) started playing David Vives yelled for everyone to get up! I was sitting down and normally don't get up and dance,  pretty much ever unless I am drunk out of my skull. But I love Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition. I played that game until I finished Bloody Palace Mode with Dante and Vergil, and I still fire it up now and again. So if you tell me to get up and dance during a Devil May Cry 4 song MAAAAANG I'm gonna be on my feet dancing all night and that's how I spent the remainder of the concert! So David sang the lyrics to the song and the New York venue had two levels. When he got to the middle part of the song that sounds like a prayer sermon he got up on the balcony level and looked down at those of us on the lower level. For the third part we all sang "Come With Me. We'll Fight Until Eternity..." We all raised our arms and waved them left arms right. So much fun. Felt like I was part of the game for a bit. I didn't get Lady's phone number though. D'OH!

"Go Tell Aunt Rhody!" You guessed it! David Vives sang the main song from Resident Evil VII. He did this at Anime Next too and when I went to the bathroom at that event someone in the stall near me asked me if David was the original singer of that song in the game. Um nah it's a cover the song is sung by a female in the game, Jordan Reyne. That just goes to show how talented David is!

Monster Hunter time! At Anime Next the band was surprised that there were a lot of Monster Hunter fans in the audience since the franchise is a lot bigger in Japan. Well it wasn't a shock that there were even more Monster Hunter fans in New York since this year we saw the release of Monster Hunter World, which has become the highest selling video game Capcom has ever made! We got to hear three Monster Hunter instrumental tracks while seeing images of warriors, Felynes and Monsters on the screen!

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney time! I didn't hear any OBJECTION to that! First they played the famous arrangement from the first game followed by some music from the latest game. The music from part 6 was accompanied by footage and anime cut scenes from the game!

Video Games Live has this great set that includes the Mega Man 2 intro song, the Mega Man 3 intro song and the famous music from Doctor Wily's castle from Mega Man 2. I wish we did hear that track at Capcom Live, but I've been to two of their shows now and that hasn't happened yet. The tracks they do play are really cool though. First up is a rock version of Cut Man's theme from Mega Man 1. I'm still dancing at this point so I can cut a rug to Cut Man's theme word! After that there's a Spark Mandrel theme from Mega Man X!

SENGOKU BASARA OH MY GOD! I knew that it was part of their show in Japan since it's way more popular there but I never expected to hear any of it in the US. It wasn't at Anime Next but New York definitely had my fam Date Masamune, Sanada Yukimura, Kasuga and more up on the screen while they played the main track of the last game we did get in the US, Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes. Myself I'm a huge fan of the series but it's not always at the top of my mind when I think of Capcom because I always have to import the games to play them. Playstation 3 and 4 are region free systems and there are lots of online guides to help you play the games so this isn't extremely difficult to do at least. As an aside, the current Gakuen Basara anime airing on HiDive is hilarious and makes me laugh every week! Check it out if you can,  the Sengoku Basara franchise needs all the love it can get in the West!

That's not all for Sengoku Basara! Following that track they had a special song for Ii Naotora! Wait a second hang on, she debuts in part 4 and has never been on an American console. So this must be a track just for their Japanese show right? Wrong! They played her main theme while David sang lyrics to the tune, AND THE LYRICS WERE IN ENGLISH! THE SONG WAS JUST FOR US! WE WENT NUTS AAAAAH!!!!! I guess this is how young women felt in the 60s when the Beatles performed! The footage on the screen was a lot of Sengoku Basara part 4 with a bit of 3 mixed in. Anyway,  go ahead and import some games. The universe said it's okay!

Two Okami tracks! One instrumental and another with English lyrics. For the one with lyrics we were asked to hold up our smart phones and wave them from side to side. So a few days prior to the show my Samsung S4 got water damaged and I upgraded to a Samsung S9. The flashlight button on my S9 is much easier to locate and a lot brighter than my S4, so it was way better for this candlelight... or smartphone light vigil! Big up to the Okami God Amaterasu for messing up my S4 to make me get an S9 so I could be concert ready word!

Since this was the first time the Capcom Live Band played in New York City they wanted to play something special for us. At Anime Next, since it's an anime convention we got to hear the One Piece "We Are" song in English and The Attack on Titan original intro song in it's original language. Well us New Yorkers got something a little different. David Vives noticed that some of us went nuts and jumped up and down during the Sengoku Basara songs. That was me of course! So they played the Van Halen song "JUMP" for us! I guess it didn't have much to do with Capcom, but  if you hear it you can think of Bionic Commando 2 Rearmed where they added the jump feature. Only maybe pretend Rad jumped into a barbershop and got rid of that stupid mustache! Not a fan of that mustache! The Shinkiro design from Grin's first Bionic Commando Rearmed game is my favorite.

The show closed out with a Resident Evil 6 song with English lyrics! 6 is not my personal favorite Resident Evil game, but it's a good song to close things out with! Also 7 is such a departure from all of the previous games so it was nice to see a few familiar faces up on the screen.

ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE! We all chanted for an encore and we got it! David Vives sang the first Attack on Titans intro song in Japanese and German, "Feuerroter Pfeil und Boge" for us just as he did in Anime Next! And hey this one is kind of Capcom related since Capcom almost made an Attack on Titan Japanese arcade game! Something fell through the cracks and it didn't happen. However it's probably for the best since Arthur from Ghost 'n Goblins would sneak into the arcade machine and defeat all of the Titans in two seconds. Oh hey I saw a documentary called "Wreck-It Ralph." Stuff like that is possible I tell you!

Suffice it to say I had an amazing time both times I attended the concert,  but I had more fun at the New York show. Mainly because the energy was different and there were a lot more of us dancing and having a good time. There's things I'm leaving out like how each member gets introduced to us and they get to shred on their instruments. The was also stage diving and fun stuff like that but those are the parts you are better off experiencing yourself.

Final grade: I give the concert 5 Felicias from Darkstalkers performing in front of a live audience out of 5! If you're a fan of Capcom music and games or if you just want to hear some cool music accompanied by nice imagery and have a good time I definitely recommend checking out Capcom Live! - Anthony

http://www.capcomlive.com/

[cyberramblings]

3DS: Time for Playtime

It's been fun getting a Wii U lately, but I wanted to look back on all the use I've gotten out of my 3DS in the last year by running down my most played games.

Super Smash Bros. - 154 Hours

This is still my most played game after recently getting back into the 3DS, despite playing zero Smash in that time. I played a lot of this game when it came out and then leading up to the release of Ultimate. This game was a godsend for someone like me who didn't own a Wii U but wanted to stay involved with the series.

Pokemon X - 56 Hours

Again, this is from when I first got my 3DS. I played this one over a whole summer vacation off and on! I still can't decide how I feel about XP Share.

Pokemon Ultra Moon - 51 Hours

Okay, this one is this high because after beating the game, my girlfriend tried to catch all the Pokemon and collect all the totem stickers. I really enjoyed this one, but the Ultra Necrozma fight kicked my butt.

Link Between Worlds - 49 Hours

I actually own the special edition Triforce 3DS which came bundled with this game! As my first game on the system, it is no surprise to see it so high, even though I got stuck on the final boss. I consider this to be one of the best Zelda games.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - 41 Hours

This one makes a lot of sense. When I played all that Smash Bros before the release of Ultimate, this was the one other game I played during that time, to the point of actually beating it and a good chunk of the daily puzzles! I even missed a college lecture because I was so wrapped up in the climax.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - 27 Hours

Finally, a game I played recently with no shenanigans or excuses. This was an interesting "book ends" with Omega Ruby, as OR was the first Pokemon game I played in my recent endeavor to play them all, while AS was towards the end. Backwards of their names, huh?

Pokemon Omega Ruby - 26 Hours

Fitting that this game should be so close to Alpha Sapphire. I would think that one of these two games would've been left running overnight or somehow had the playtimes differ more, but it somehow makes me hapy to see them side by side. I appreciated Wally's Theme much more the second time through.

Pokemon Y - 23 Hours

Considerably less than the time I spent in X all those years ago. This was one of the last Pokemon games I played in my recent playing of all the games, since I had already technically beaten X. It was a lot of fun to revisit though, and I love Sylveon!

Ocarina of Time 3D - 21 Hours

This one also makes sense, since I owned it during my original teenage years of owning the 3DS. I can't believe I paid 40 bucks for this just to get stuck on the Forest Temple for years! OoT doesn't resonate with me the same way as everyone else seemingly.

Pokemon Red - 19 Hours

Again, this makes sense. I think this was the third game of my recent Pokemon marathon, right after Alpha Sapphire and Ultra Moon. It was a short run thanks to an overlevelled Venasaur and the three legendary birds. I enjoyed crushing this game.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - 16 Hours

This is the game I just finished. I love the series and it was nice to finish it out. I think the ending was silly but the presentation value was nice to see.

Pushmo - 14 Hours

This was my go-to breakfast game for weeks, but phone-scrolling has replaced it as my morning activity while eating.

Shovel Knight - 14 Hours

This used to be the premiere downloadable title on 3DS. I think this game still holds up, but it has lost the sheer novelty of being a Kickstarter retro success over time.

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 13 Hours

I liked Persona 4 so I thought I would like this. It was too difficult for me back then, but now I don't have the patience. This was one of the games I actually paid 15 bucks to download back in highschool.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 13 Hours

The first of my several attempts to get into Monster Hunter. I bought, played, quit, and sold this game all back in high school. I would later go on to buy, try, and sell Monster Hunter World as well. It just isn't for me.

Metroid: Samus Returns - 12 Hours

I tried and hated this game on PC emulator, but it has a lot more charm on the actual system. I still generally dislike the melee mechanic but I generally enjoyed this game. It helps that I even beat the original first! Hopefully Dread fixes the few things wrong with this game.

Kid Icarus: Uprising - 12 Hours

I don't know if I ever fell in love with the "unique" control scheme of this game, but I definitely fell in love with all of the characters! This was a great one to play with my girlfriend watching. It's also great to have more of a context for Pit, Palutena, and Dark Pit in Smash now!

Pokemon Sun - 11 Hours

I haven't beaten it yet, whoops.

Rhyhm Heaven Megamix - 11 Hours

One of the last purchases I made before the Switch came out and killed my 3DS playing nearly permanently. I paid 30 bucks! As much as I love this game, I don't know if it was worth that.

Super Mario 3D Land - 10 Hours

A rare game that I played before AND after the rift of me playing 3DS. It's...fine. Definitely Mario.

Picross 3D: Round 2 - 9 Hours

I have always loved Picross and this is no exception. I really should dive back in sometime!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 8 Hours

I just can't get into it, I've tried but I can't.

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - 8 Hours

This was actually a birthday gift! I was very excited for the concept but hugely turned off by the time travel and setting. I need to give it another shake, perhaps after replaying some of the Ace Attorney games.

Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D - 7 Hours

One of my few highschool digital purchases. I played a lot of Mercenaries in 6 and 5 (which this is based on, seemingly). It's...fine. But I should have just replayed Revelations on 3DS instead.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - 6 Hours

It was 7 bucks at GameStop used, so I guess I almost got a 1:1 ratio of hours to dollars. I would've enjoyed this game more now, after playing FF7 Remake.

Pokemon Picross - 6 Hours

Free AND Picross? Yes, but also grindy and scummy. I wish you could just buy a physical copy of this game with everything unlocked.

Paper Mario Sticker Star - 5 Hours

Ten dollars on clearance was too much for this game. Maybe I will try it again sometime knowing ahead of time that it is a joke of a video game. I spit on this game's grave.

Mario Tennis Open - 5 Hours

A lot of the games I acquired within the last year have much lower playtimes, so I was not expecting to see this game this high. I guess I played a few tournaments. I feel like I quit because Waluigi cheated, then played just the tutorial of Mario Golf before quitting that too.

Elite Beat Agents - 4.5 Hours

This game rules.

Tetris Axis - 4.5 Hours

This game drools.

Kirby Planet Robobot - 4.5 Hours

Cute game, but I only play it with my girlfriend.

New Super Mario Brothers 2 - 4.5 Hours

I am surprised it is this low considering I got stuck on the final boss in single player and beat around 2 worlds in coop.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - 4 Hours

I need to play more!

Super Smash Brothers Demo - 4 Hours

Hell yeah this was such an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan! Trying to get ahold of this demo was like getting a Willy Wonk golden ticket. I was so excited to play as Mega Man, Villager, Mario, Link, and Pikachu even if just on Battlefield.

Kingdom Hearts 3D - 3.5 Hours

A surprisingly competent action RPG. This game kind of reeks as part of the PS4 collection, but it really shines on the original version.

Layton's Mystery Journey - 3 Hours

I like the idea of playing as Layton's daughter, but I don't like having a talking dog and an insufferable simp as sidekicks. I hope the next game just returns to the original crew.

Mario Kart 7 - 3 Hours

It's...Mario Kart. Not a ton more to say.

Mario Party Island Tour - 3 Hours

I have trouble keeping the different 3DS Mario Party games separate in my mind, but anything that's not Top 100 is fun with friends. Top 100 only has one, miserable board! Why???

Ultimate NES Remix - 3 Hours

A great game for pick up and play, but not for long sessions.

Art of Balance Touch - 3 Hours

Recently got into this. Tons of fun until the difficulty gets a little too high!

Warioware Gold - 2.5 Hours

I completely beat this game and it is still this low. Fun, but hard to recommend at any price but free.

Luigi's Mansion 2 - 2.5 Hours

Cute game....but feels hard to play for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Dead or Alive Dimensions - 2.5 Hours

Again, all I did was beat the game and then quit. Surprsingly competent for a 3DS fighting game, but too barebones with content compared to Smash.

Boxboy - 2.5 Hours

I feel like I played this game way more. It's cute and fun, but now I have a hard time picking up the puzzles where I left them.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Demo - 2.5 Hours

This tricked me into buying the game! Dangit

Mario Party Star Rush - 2.5 Hours

Oh god, I can't keep this one and Island Tour straight.

Pokemon Shuffle - 2 Hours

I feel like I played this one way more, but that is probably because the phone version also exists.

VVVVVV - 2 Hours

Beat the whole game! Not a bad way to spend time, but this makes it worth only 2 dollars according to my 1:1 ratio of dollars to hours.

Final Fantasy Explorers - 2 Hours

I like some things about this game but I just cannot play anything related to Monster Hunter.

Tri Force Heroes - 2 Hours

This suffers from "Overcooked syndrome" where you have to rely on your teammates so much that it becomes a total chore.

Theatrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call - 1.5 Hours

I played that much just to unlocked multiplayer.

Super Street Fighter IV - 1.5 Hours

I think I paid for this game full price back in high school and then barely played it. I've always tried to delude myself into thinking that I can play real fighting games that are not Smash.

Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX - 1.5 Hours

Again, I feel like I played this game for days and days. I suppose rhythm games feel like time slows down when you play them. Thumbs up for including Puyo Puyo! I am surprised this game released in the West at all.

Rune Factory 4 - 1.5 Hours

I got this far as a favor to a friend. I just can't play any game where there is an optimal way to act that sounds exhausting but possible to me. I know I could easily talk to all the NPC's every day... but I do not want to.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 1.5 Hours

This was exclusively played with friends. Not a fan.

Pokemon Rumble World - 1.5 Hours

Free games. Novelty as a kid. No time for them as an adult. Nothing about this game is appealing beyond the price point.

Attack of the Friday Monster - 1.5 Hours

My biggest memory of this game is playing it on the schoolbus when a little kid asked if he could play/watch and I told him I was playing a boring game that he wouldn't like. As cute as this game is, yes, it is boring and not very fun.

Sonic Generations - 1.5 Hours

I somewhat enjoyed this game until the Shadow boss fight. Can't figure it out. Not fun.

Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn - 1.5 Hours

Cute, played it with girlfriend.

Super Mario Land 2 - 1 Hour

I think I got this with Club Nintendo points?

Rage of the Gladiator - 1 Hour

Medieval offbrand Punch-Out.

Mario Party: The Top 100 - 1 Hour

ONE BOARD?!? At least it has the storybook minifame from gamecube Mario Party.

Trace Memory - 1 Hour

Bought used from GameStop. I was told it was a hidden gem, but I didn't have the patience.

Mario and Sonic Rio 2016 - 1 Hour

Cute game to play with friends but some of the minigames suck. Thumbs up for less common Sonic characters.

Azure Striker Gunvolt - 1 Hour

Not bad, just helped me realize that I don't really like Mega Man style games all that much. The genre of "Mega Man" just feels like a Metroid with no exploration or meaningful progression.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - 1 Hour

I tried to get into this franchise but it is so booooorring and slow and unappealing to me.

I've been rounding to the half hour, so the next game is Zelda Oracle of Season at 44 minutes, which would round down to half an hour. I will take that as my cue to finish here.

In conclusion: games I owned longer tended to be played longer. Shocker. This was all just an excuse to ramble about Nintendo games anyways.

[virtualbrownie]

Get to know me tag

This blog is not dead...I promise....but go check out my ace attorney-centric sideblog!! @court-ships​ #shamelessselfpromo

Anyways I was tagged by @xxprincessjewelsxx​ fifty fucking years ago (just kidding it was in march...which does feel like ages) to do this tag and well!! im catching up on all my shit so!!

Rules: Answer the 20 questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better. 

NICKNAME: my name is four letters long and everything except the first letter is a fucKING VOWEL soooooo????? but @hamzzikwon​ likes to call me ‘jojo.’ ugh

GENDER: female

STAR SIGN: scorpio

HEIGHT: i’m like. really fucking short. like REALLY fucking short. like five feet and maybe an inch. who even knows.

TIME RIGHT NOW: 11:45 AM, a few hours before my piano lesson and i still haven’t fixed my music essay :’)) and im doing this instead

LAST THING I GOOGLED: “trucy wright” because bITCH THIS GIRL IS FUCKING PRECIOUS LIKE wHaT a fUckiNG bbaBe uGh go!!! my magician!!

(what’s weird is that i’m so attached to new generation ace attorney characters even though i haven’t played the games with them yet?? like i have apollo justice and i played the first case but i haven’t gotten back to it yet and even so i just ??? really??? love??? klavier and apollo and trucy ??????? idek why)

FAVORITE BANDS: seventeen stan <33

FAVORITE SOLO ARTISTS: ailee, halsey (been playing hopeless fountain kingdom on repeat ever since it came out)

SONG STUCK IN YOUR HEAD: “talking to the moon” by bruno mars because last night i was crying in joyful agony over @kilometresrufflefuck​‘s old fanfiction by the same title (check it out on ao3!!! i really love and rec)

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED: harry potter and the deathly hallows pt. 1 (i think) with @hamzzikwon​ and @t-asuna2000​ on independence day

LAST TV SHOW I WATCHED: crIMINAL MINDS (i’m a sucker for this show and law and order kms)

WHEN DID YOU CREATE YOUR BLOG: (had to check my archive for this whoops) may 2015...and since then i’ve gone through like three different fandoms whoops

WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU POST: shitposts i just reblog shit and occasionally answer asks but gO ON MY AA SIDEBLOG FOR ACTUAL WRITING!! (why the fuck do i keep promoting myself i need to stop) (*whispers* my aa sideblog is solely ace attorney...even though i do slip up and reblog some other shit)

WHEN DID YOUR BLOG REACH ITS PEAK: hmmm well since i’m not like an actual active user that posts and has a legit following idk...i don’t really think i’ve actually reached a peak lmao

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BLOGS: hAHA MORE SELF-PROMO (sorry i sound so fucking ostentatious please let me live) 

@court-ships​, my ace attorney sideblog! visit for just ace attorney related reblogging stuff and my occasional fic posting (since i can’t ever seem to remember how to make a masterlist on tumblr)

but i did write something on ao3 that i haven’t finished posting on tumblr so go check it out!! under the same username :)) 

DO YOU GET ASKS REGULARLY: uhh kinda?? well i wouldn’t consider them regular but i do get asks a lot for some reason....and they all build up so it looks like a crap ton whoops bUT as you can see i’m trying to clean through this blog rn and answer stuff and tags and yeah :))

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR URL: i had this ongoing joke with an old friend about brownies and since i decided to use it for my social media i just added virtual to it lol

FOLLOWING: 358 but there are probably porn blogs that i forgot to block lmfao

POSTS: 16,396 (damn)

HOGWARTS HOUSE: gryffindor

POKEMON TEAM: sorry idk

FAVORITE COLORS: yes black is a shade but i love it

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: well now it’s summer so 9-10 hours

LUCKY NUMBERS: 4, 8, 24

FAVORITE CHARACTERS: from which fandoms

ace attorney: apollo justice, trucy wright, klavier gavin (i just love this trio so fucking much) and also pearl fey. my favorite villain from ace is probably dahlia and i fucking HATE her as a character but from a writer and consumer’s perspective she’s fucking brilliant and great like hooly shit!!!! harry potter: hands down luna lovegood and also i love ron like i relate to him on a spiritual level yuri!!! on ice: makkachin probably otabek...but i love all the characters. what a precious lot.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW: soft maroon tee and shorts

HOW MANY BLANKETS DO YOU SLEEP WITH: one, it’s pink and it has pigs on it and it’s great. i love it so much

DREAM JOB: this is such a conflicting question for me bc sometimes its really hard for me to discern dream in the way everyone else does. people always say dream job as in like what you want to do, mostly without financial concern but in a dream, to me, i am AT LEAST financially stable, which is like a first priority for me (this probably isn’t good but that’s what kind of mindset i have, courtesy of my parents) and like...enjoyment and happiness second kinda???

i do kinda want to be a lawyer but i guess my true dream job is being an author. but just saying it is really like unreal because i don’t have that much confidence in writing and my passions wax and wane really easily and im just a mess as you can probably see

DREAM TRIP: i’d love to visit everywhere tbh but top destinations are japan, germany, and the netherlands (though i do dream of living in the netherlands rather than just visiting)

and i’m done!! except for the tags.

tagging: @yuikishirohana​ @xxsycoticsadiexx​ @nohmasked​ @team-dynamike @jaqueen152 @fluffynarwhal7 @cupcakesoryu @senchoubutter @katachana @randomseventeen @sinnam0n-roll @ninja-shinigami @shadowdui @mrsericajackson @seemesmiling007 @the-fallen-otome-angel @nasica @socialist-samurai @p-rince-zer0 @living-out-a-nightmare

to the people i tagged: you don’t have to do it :)) i do hope to get in touch with all of you since most of you are long-time mutuals <33

[the-apocryphal-one]

I don’t know if the last one ever submitted since I got an error message so just to be safe, I’ll send it again.  You can delete this if you got it anyway.

For the “Leon thing being written upside-down”, it was the same in the Japanese version?  That definitely works more there, but couldn’t the localizers have changed it or something?  Make it so part of the blood was wiped away, or smeared, and it would be harder to tell?  That might have been able to fix up the problem easily enough.  Ah, well.  There are definitely some people who hadn’t picked up on it.  Not because they’re dumb or anything of course, but because they think differently.

I’m going to kind of skim through the second, third, and fourth case because they’re not very interesting to talk about.  It was mostly the mid-game stuff so it would probably be the most boring part of the game if I ever decided to replay DR for whatever reason that might be.  I'm not saying it was bad–in fact, I was very invested in what happened to Chihiro, and the double-murders was a really fun aspect to everything.  

Sakura’s death had the most emotional investment–especially since I had been talking to her a little more on my free time periods, and I like how the ideas for the culprits were flying all over the place, complete with three different confessions.  I thought what happened was kind of obvious but it was still pretty neat, and I liked it.  Hina wanting to kill everyone as punishment for “killing” her best friend was an interesting take too.  I could definitely see where she was coming from.  When Hina confessed, my first thought was that Sakura had gotten Hina to poison her protein drink so Hina’d have “murdered” her, Sakura would write a suicide note, everyone would think it was a suicide, vote Sakura, and Hina would be able to escape the school.  Hina confessed because she wouldn’t be able to handle herself with the knowledge that she’d helped Sakura to kill herself, then killed everyone else in the school in the process.  It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as that, but that would have flown, right?

The gameplay for the trials was as fun, as always.  I like being able to use other people’s statements as truth bullets.  That always manages to spice up the gameplay.  The rhythm mini-game is probably the most fun.  Whenever I’m firing the truth bullets, I usually end up applying Ace Attorney logic to things and that sometimes screws me up.  The Hangman’s Gambit is kind of lame.  I still haven’t forgiven it for calling DID “schizo”.  I get why they couldn’t make the player spell out the entire thing, or DID, but why did they use Hangman’s Gambit for it at all?  I’m going to just say this is something that was really hard to localize/translate and it worked at least a little better in the Japanese version of the game.

I just don’t have much else to say about this portion of the game, except Celeste’s execution was so suiting to her character; it was very elegant, but just as brutal as I expected from this game.  The creators have done such a great job on putting together these creative executions which is…worrying, but I’ll just not think about it and just enjoy them for what they are.

Anyway, I’ve gotten to the first free time period after the fourth trial and I’m pretty sure this is where the game’s story starts to pick up.  Things are moving a lot faster, and there’s a lot more stuff being introduced.  Like the sixteenth student, Sakura hinting that the Mastermind probably did something to us, sneaking into locked areas with Kyoko, etc..  

The sixteenth student was pretty easy to guess (an extra stand in the courtroom “just for decoration”?  Yeah, okay, game) but it’s a neat idea and I really want to know were the game’s going with it.  I don’t have any idea what they might do, but I’m thinking the sixteenth student was the same person who attacked Makoto in the secret room?  On the other hand I’m not sure, because they apparently get killed in chapter five.  I don’t think they’d kill off a character that quickly, would they?  Sayaka and Leon were kind of necessary, and Junko was to demonstrate that anyone could die so don’t mess around with us.  Unless, of course, chapter six is actually the final chapter and “chapter seven” is just an epilogue or something.

Something that was introduced in in between the second and third trials was “The Tragedy”, I think it was?  Talked about something horrible that happened a year ago, and the school had to shut down about it.  It was dropped until we were able to find that nightmare fuel bloody classroom, complete with body outlines.  Interestingly, the blood is red and not pink.  I’ve thought up until now that the artists did the pink blood for artsy reasons, but now that I’ve seen actual red blood, I’m starting to think that’s not the case.  Byakuya brought up how the blood changed color but since it’s been hinting at that the Mastermind might have done something to the students’ memories/bodies, that could just be one of the things he/she did.  Is the students’ blood somehow different than normal blood?  Are these characters already dead or something and stuck in purgatory?  Cyborgs?  Is that why their blood doesn’t look red like blood’s supposed to?  Questions, questions.  If they are in fact altered in some way, the body outlines might be the characters that we’ve seen thus far.  Someone cracked, then went on a rampage, killing what could possibly be some of the characters in the game.  Most specifically, Kyoko, Makoto, and possibly the mystery sixteenth student.  Whatever her name was.  That is, of course, if Kyoko isn’t the sixteenth student herself and is acting in as one of the students that didn’t miraculously survive the slaughter.

That’s all I can remember what I wanted to speculate about, so I’ll talk about the characters next.

I like Makoto a fudge more.  I don’t dislike him, but I don’t really like him, either.  He’s not as dense as he was in the first trial so that’s probably the main reason.  I remember he said that neither of the killers in trial three were entirely innocent, which is a good change of pace from last time.  I can’t really tell if it’s inconsistent writing, or him growing as a character because he hasn’t really changed all that much.  He’s still a little personality-less, but like I said before, I don’t dislike him at all.  The player’s mostly here to experience the ride with him and that’s fine.  The other characters are zany enough to keep me interested so everything won’t get stale.

Kyoko’s interesting, and probably my favorite of the students so far.  She seems to be the female lead next to Makoto.  I don’t have much to say about her.  I’m glad she’s not giving me the answers to everything anymore but still helpful.  I have a star next to her name in my character profile thing so I guess that means I’ve talked to her to the maximum amount?

Genocide Jill’s…fun, I guess?  Seeing her murder victims and how brutal she was to them really makes her a little too psychotic to entirely enjoy the brand of humor she’s supposed to be bringing to the table.  She can still be pretty funny sometimes though.  Her random spouting of a website during a “testimony” was really funny.  Still, though, she’s still pretty entertaining a lot of the time.

Byakuya’s a Grade A Asshole although I’d rather him not die soon because we’re running low on students.  The potential murderer will always have him to kill and not me.

I like Hina.  She has a fun personality.

Hiro’s dumb.  There’s nothing I have to say on him.  He’s just so useless and pointless to the plot.  …But he’s also another person that someone can kill that isn’t me.  I take back what I said about him being pointless.  He still has his uses.

And Monokuma is still the most entertaining character in the game.  I liked the advertisement he shoved in my face during the theater thing.  His emoticons, fourth wall leaning, and sometimes outright fourth wall breaking make him that much more entertaining.  Yeah, I just said it was hard for me to swallow Genocide Jill’s brand of humor because of how psychotic she was, but her brand of psycho is very different than Monokuma’s.  Also, he pulled the Censored for Comedy trope.  How can I not love him forever?

This is as long as I want to go.  I probably made a bunch of typos and run-on sentences so I apologize.  In my defense, it’s late and I want to be able to write all this down before I forget.  Yeesh,  I can only imagine how much I’ll want to talk about everything once I finish the game. XD

Meanwhile… must…resist…from…going…to…TV…Tropes…

----

It was the exact same. I’m not sure why they didn’t change it, maybe censorship laws or something...but then again it is the first case, so it’s probably not all too bad to have it easy for the audience. The real mystery comes from figuring out Sayaka’s role in it, in my opinion.

Personally I found case 2 the hardest, and cases 3 and 4 easy to guess the culprit--though Aoi claiming to have killed Sakura did throw me off, and I started wondering whether she had or why. I like the idea you came up with, though, my best was “maybe she was way more gutted over her being the mole than anyone else? and killed her for ‘betraying’ her?” Either way it was still very emotional. Chihiro’s trial still sticks as my favorite though, the little guy was so fascinating and important and had some real depth.

Hangman’s Gambit is a bane on all players, haha. Like I guess they did “schizo” for convenience (since DID would be really easy), but from what I hear it was more accurate in the original Japanese version.

I liked Celeste’s execution a lot, too. Monokuma setting it up to be the grand death she’d love, only to switch out by having her die a common death she’d hate, is very trollish and clever of him. Not to mention the visuals are probably my favorite.

Yep, this is the part of the story where everything really starts rolling towards the climax!

Chapter six is the last chapter. As for the sixteenth student and the masked attacker...that’s one of the grand mysteries of the school!

No, the blood being pink is just a stylistic choice--I think the blood there is red there to signify that it’s dried. They were going to go with all red blood originally, but had to change it to avoid a higher rating. That said...there is something wrong with the students, that Monokuma has done. You’ll find out what eventually :)

Makoto is kind of vanilla, but I like him because genuinely nice, male characters are kind of rare. He is a bit static, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a problem since it lets him be a “normal” point for the audience.

Yep, that’s what it means. And yes, Kyoko’s one of my favs too. I really liked her argument with Makoto in Chapter 4, it was petty and hypocritical and really humanized her. Her mentor/friend relationship with him works really well, and they play off each other’s weakness.

Toko and Jill are also favorites of mine, for reasons I can’t say. But they are a set of the most interesting characters in the game.

Byakuya’s still a giant dick, but I was actually kinda warming up to him at the end, if only because Toko/Jill’s stalking brought some needed levity.

I never took that much of a liking to Aoi, for some reason. She’s sweet, but just didn’t interest me as much as everyone else around her, I guess.

LOL, you’re not alone in your thoughts on Hiro. I was sick to death of him by the time Chapter 5 rolled around, like “YOU’RE alive but Kiyotaka and Chihiro aren’t?!” At least Byakuya contributes to trials.

Monokuma will always be one of the best characters in the franchise. Always.

Again, it’s no problem, and I still love hearing people’s thoughts on it! Seeing everyone’s speculations and guesses is a lot of fun, and it makes me happy to know you’re enjoying this great game so much :)

Resist! It’s worth it! (Especially since TvTropes doesn’t hide spoilers for any of the DR entries except the newest one)