#fun fact. this started out as a shamspeare piece.

[morphogenetic]

finished investigation of case 2-2! am about to spam some screenshots so bear with me

1.

fambly....... 2.

see i thought ryuu was smarter than his descendant but it seems like he truly is the 'the doctors said i had internal bleeding. that's where all the blood is supposed to be' in some ways....

3.

no comment.

actual theory-related screenshots (and just raw theories) below the cut. includes some dgs1 stuff for sure and implied dgs2 later game things based on a specific spoiler i know

firstly. i guessed that there was something weird with the gas and that's why natsume was feeling really bad all the time. and the case very much does seem to be going the 'THERES A GAS LEAK' direction so. feeling vindicated about that.

second, as i was typing this, it just hit me that there's a very specific hat in shamspeare's room that seemed familiar. like it was made by that one hatter guy. that definitely seems related - if not in a 'that hatter guy made that hat' way, in a 'this must be related to someone else who wears a hat.'

i do remember a guy with a knife who was a juror in an earlier case. would definitely be weird but not impossible that it's That Guy. i do remember seeing him take the stand at some point in someone else's screenshot (unspoilered.....fun!), though idk if it's this case or not so. you know.

thirdly, more overall-game relevant:

this stuff is reaaally making me feel like asougi was planning on 'dying' from the beginning for some reason. like there's a specific plan that he + watson + gregson + whoever shin is where planning from the beginning. hard for me to tell WHY at this point but "there's something I needed to do" makes it kind of. hmmm. hrmmmmmmmm. not sure i like it.

i really want to know who A. Shin is still, since that would maybe help me put a few of the pieces together, but i get the feeling he's possibly tied up in barok's being a xenophobic asshole so maybe i won't learn that for a solid while. guess I'll find out....

also the fact that they keep bringing up karuma's history feels....odd. i don't know why they would keep talking about this random sword if it wasn't relevant some how but i don't feel like i have enough info on this. oh. additionally. all the 'asougi clan' stuff is making me a bit suspect. i did see someone with the same last name in the art files [sorry. i know i shouldn't have looked] but i a) thankfully did not catch their first name b) did not actually LOOK at the art so i have no idea how they're related. still, though, even without that hint this would probably be the point of the game where i would be starting to go 'is asougi's dad terrible.......' because. i don't have another idea.

i mean i don't KNOW it's his dad lmfao but still. i guess said asougi could also be one of the reasons (the reason?) van zieks is xenophobic. but we will see. We Will See.

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

CHARACTER ASK THING!!!

Olberic, Cyrus, Ori and Agnea!!!!!

PEACE AND LOVE ON PLANET EARTH!!!

Olberic:

Favourite Thing: in love with this man's theme. we love brass instruments in this household

Least Favourite Thing: not a huge fan of monarchies but the guy's allowed to serve whoever he wants to serve

Favourite Line: i'm not super deep into his story so i'm gonna have to go with "I wreak havoc upon thee!" from when he uses Brand's Thunder

brOTP: brOTP isn't the right word for it but i love his dynamic with Phillip. certified little guy and his insanely powerful knight mentor

OTP: Erhardt i guess? i think there's some worthwhile stuff there but i'm not sure if i'd prefer it romantically

nOTP: Cyrus, on the grounds that i am a firm believer in aroace/romance averse Cyrus

Random Headcanon: he has tried thrice to ride a horse. thrice he has failed.

Unpopular Opinion: gonna have to hold off on this one because i don't really know enough about him to formulate something of that variety

Song: military marches in general, which bears with it three distinct possible options: good, good, and deeply unfortunate (in order. anyone with any knowledge of the last one will be able to tell you why it's so unfortunate).

Favourite Picture: i think his depiction in the Break, Boost, and Beyond album art is beyond fun because just:

all of the modernized outfits are fun but Olberic gets an octopus jacket, sick shades, AND a bass. cool levels are off the damn charts

Cyrus:

Favourite Thing: gonna sound like a damn nerd but the themes he represents. Professor Cyrus Albright is a representation of the progression of humanity as it marches ever forward (his story culminates in refuting Lucia's ivory-tower offer), and i've been carrying his final monologue with me ever since i first heard it

Least Favourite Thing: the "too pretty for his own good" bit is kinda lame. its not bad and it can be funny, but its very middling

Favourite Line: "I teach my students with the expectation that one day, they will surpass me.", because again, i LOVE the themes of Cyrus's story and that line summarizes them perfectly

brOTP: odette. just a couple of odd birds that can't stand each other but are also besties.

OTP:

nOTP: everyone. next question.

Random Headcanon: i think that he has a background both in theatre and in orchestra, and took them both as minors when he got his degree in history

Unpopular Opinion: his lack of an arc is not only not detrimental to his character, but i'm GLAD that they didn't give him one. giving him an arc was unnecessary for his story and would have detracted from what made it great (the themes. them's some tasty themes)

Song: again just waltzes in general, but also Queen from Deltarune and William Shamspeare ~ Back-Alley Bard from The Great Ace Attorney

Favourite Picture: this piece of fanart by @/meansary

Ori:

Favourite Thing: I FUCKING LOVE ORI. CAN'T SAY A DAMN THING ABOUT HER FROM AN ANALYTICAL ANGLE BUT OOOUUUGH. anyways i love the fact that she lives!!!! she's just scarcely able to turn her eyes away from the void!!! she realises that she wants to live before its too late!!!

Least Favourite Thing: no official art and we are thus limited to her sprite for design cues. alas.

Favourite Line: "So taking a step back, what Partitio did is impossible. Unimaginable. Inconceivable.", from her journal. its just. oh my god. its the moment you can see the the Moonshade Order is starting to lose its grip on her. she's in denial about it, but its these sentences that began the process of her saving her life. "I wish i had a lifetime to report on your shenanigans" and the moment Partitio convinces her to flee from Roque in his chapter 4 are both also very tasty and good

brOTP: Partitio is the cop-out answer to this one, but im also fascinated by what her dynamic with Ochette might be cuz like. symbolic representation of all the themes of hope that has seen humanity do terrible things but keeps on truckin' + person that is only beginning to accept that maybe life isn't such a curse after all is a very cool combination

OTP: Partitio by proxy. dont ship it, dont intend to ship it (partitio has some aro energy to me but hey thats just me), but i do not deny that it is certainly a thing

nOTP: no standouts in this category.

Random Headcanon: Ori hasn't had good food in years as a result of the whole "if i'm gonna die anyways, there's no point in enjoying this" mentality that was clearly trapping her in the Moonshade Order, and the first time she had a good bowl of soup was positively life-changing for her. she started trying to cook for herself shortly thereafter

Unpopular Opinion: not unpopular by any stretch of the imagination but it does run counter to one (1) person i've seen, but i think she deserves to, and can, make a full recovery. no shade on the person who wrote that super cool fic in which she was tormented by hallucinations of her brother and said in the fic description that they didnt think she'd recover, but that ain't for me

Song: she's so No Children by The Mountain Goats coded. there's always one guy

Favourite Picture: this delightful number by @/nicandragon, specifically the one in the bottom right corner

it's a very... vivid and evocative depiction of the final moments before she nearly dies, and there's a kind of beauty in that.

Agnea:

Favourite Thing: the Song of Hope! it was a fun detail to make the choices you made throughout the journey show up in her chapter five, and it's like. such a fun thing to incorporate into her story. i love it when characters create art (also the track itself is a banger)

Least Favourite Thing: the pitch of her voice has lost me a little as time has gone by, nothing major but it's not as charming as it used to be (this is NOT a statement about the accent thing. that bit is fun)

Favourite Line: "Dreams aren't good for nothing" was just a fun line, but "The stars... they're all gone" was delivered EXTREMELY well, so i'm giving it to the latter

brOTP: she and Throné have a very fun dynamic. not much to say on it, it's just fun

OTP: hikari? i guess? dude there's ships that i sorta accept into my headcanon of the story but dont touch and there's ships that my mind obsesses over for decades, and this is neither of those. it's a choice i selected from a drop-down menu.

nOTP: also no stand-outs

Random Headcanon: she does take Throné to her village for the next raspberry festival, as mentioned in their Agnea 5 travel banter

Unpopular Opinion: is a great vehicle to get across the themes of the story, but doesn't do it with nearly as much finesse as Cyrus, but still doesn't have a clear arc, and her character suffers a bit as a result

Song: on vibes and vibes alone, Voice Like A Bell by Gregory and the Hawk

Favourite Picture: strangely enough, it's actually this modern au design for her by @/hanpaopaoo, simply because it does such a good job of maintaining her key design features, silhouette, and colour scheme while also being undeniably modernized

[kyndaris]

Pray Forgive this Discourtesy of an Impression

Many of my friends - and by extension, I also include you dear readers of this blog - know, I have been a fan of the Ace Attorney series for a very long time. It began in the days of my youth, when I discovered Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS. As someone that was interested in legal proceedings but was unsure of actually taking the step of becoming an actual barrister in court, it helped feed my very unique itch of shouting OBJECTION! and pointing at the counsel opposite me.

That and the fact that the lawyers of the franchise were also amateur sleuths, piecing together the truth of whatever crime had actually been perpetrated and denouncing the witnesses brought in to testify as the actual masterminds.

Honestly, I wish court cases in real life were this exciting.

Even back then, the idea of acting the sleuth and figuring out the intricacies behind a complex plot of murder had me salivating. It did not help that I had read Arthur Conan Doyle’s collection of stories about a world-renowned detective and hoped to emulate his ability to make rapid deductions based on simple observation.

So, when The Great Ace Attorney was first announced, I was justifiable excited. To play as the ancestor of the great Phoenx Wright? Interact with Sherlock Holmes in 19th century London? WHERE DO I SELL MY SOUL TO?

To my great dismay, however, there were no immediate plans to release the games in the West. In fact, I even pondered on whether or not I should indulge in obtaining a fan translated copy (or watch a playthrough).

As the years passed, I lost hope that there would ever be a release of The Great Ace Attorney games in the West. And so, life went on.

UNTIL OF COURSE, THEY ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD BE RELEASED! IN JULY 2021! AND THOUGH MY SPIRIT WAS A LITTLE CRUSHED TO HEAR THAT THERE WOULD BE NO PHYSICAL RELEASE IN AUSTRALIA, I QUICKLY PUT THE GAME ON MY NINTENDO ESTORE WISHLIST, READY FOR PURCHASE!

When release day came, I was pumped to dive into the world of finger-pointing and strange reversals where the defence attorney had to prove their client innocent beyond all reasonable doubt. The game itself begins with Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a student of Yumei University being accused of murdering a visiting professor: John H. Wilson. At his side is his best friend: Kazuma Asogi, a practicing law student.

Wishing not to dash his friend’s dreams of travelling to Britain (should the trial not be won), Ryunosuke steps up to represent himself. Valiantly, he battles against Prosecutor Auchi. And just like his descendant, fumbles his way through to the inevitable truth. That he was setup and that the actual culprit was a person hidden under plain view: an English gentlewoman by the name of Jezaille Brett. She had murdered the esteemed professor through the use of a special poison that could not be identified by the technology at the time before shooting the victim to pin the blame on our hapless student.

It was a tale as old as time for those that have played the Ace Attorney series. What I liked, however, was the fact that this time round, there were multiple witnesses in the stand and how they would play off each other. Their reactions to what someone else said were great ways to enliven up the gameplay and helped move the story along when I seemed stuck on where to present my piece of crucial evidence to highlight an inconsistency.

By the end of the first trial, however, the game sees our protagonists on the way to the United Kingdom. Having stowed away in his friend’s trunk, Ryunosuke is accused once again of murder. This time, of his friend. And by the great Herlock Sholmes, no less! Unfortunately, due to copyright infringements, the translation team was forced to change the name of the character. Still, this adaption of one of the best literary detectives served to be a breath of fresh air. He was an enjoyable and lively companion. 

I also very much liked how they inserted so many references to the actual stories that were penned by Arthur Conan Doyle: the Red-Headed League, Speckled Band, Hound of the Baskervilles, the Man with the Twisted Lip...

The reinterpretations of so many beloved characters also helped to put a spin on what I would have expected. Truth be told, I never thought I would become so protective of diver-turned-inspector-apprentice Gina Lestrade. She is a precious cinnamon roll! How dare anyone think she would actually murder anyone when it’s clear that she’s a misunderstood tsundere with a heart of gold!

After finishing the first game: The Great Ace Attorney Adventures I could not help but feel that the story was incomplete. In many ways, just like with Trails of Sky, it served as a prelude to things that would come. There were plenty of hints of what Ryunosuke, with plenty of dangling and tantalising mysteries. A few characters that were introduced, such as William Shamspeare, never got to see the limelight until the second entry: The Great Ace Attorney Resolve. 

Why have such a uniquely dressed character walk by in passing without putting them into a case? It made no sense. It was as if Chekhov’s gun, placed in clear view, remained unused.

As such, when the credits rolled, I immediately dived into the sequel. The cases that I played through in the second entry seemed much more connected and provided a more cohesive overarching plot. In fact, while I thought the first game was a good addition in its own right - what with its stereoscopic images (which was very difficult to try and make 3D on a huge television), I thought Resolve was much better at tying up all the loose ends that players were left with. 

That and we also got to enjoy the return of multi-day trials, with a mixture of investigation and court appearance, rather than ones that seemed concentrated on a single day (and were quite tiring to endure). I will say that the final episode being a continuation of the fourth was a little suspect, but didn’t mind it because of how much was revealed and discussed in those last few moments.

In saying that, the games are not without their flaws. As always, sometimes it takes a while to make the connection on what evidence needs to be presented to which statement. There were times in the first case of the second game where the hints provided to the the player once they had gone through the testimony, made me focus on a completely different area than I should have. 

I also floundered a little because the clues relied more on memory of what Ryunosuke and Susato had been discussing when they were examining the evidence, but which was not updated in the actual information. As such, it took quite a while to figure out the SS Grouse inconsistency during the fourth case in the second game.

Then, of course, there were the the inconsistencies or unexplained plot points in the games themselves. In the first case of the first game, one of the key evidences that was used to highlight who the real murderer in the John H. Wilson case was blood on a serving of beef steak. The blood was on the left of the platter. The victim however, had a bullet hole on the right hand side of the chest. Given that he had been facing the table at the time he was shot, why would the the blood be on the left side of the serving platter?

Also, how did the reporter Menimemo even get a knife to stab Jezaille Brett in the first case of the second game? Did he already have it on his person? Also, since it had been first established that the victim had been stabbed, why go through all the rigmarole of having to also prove that the reporter had both poisoned and stabbed the victim? Talk about overkill.

And someone please explain how anyone could serve as a prosecutor in a case when they have a CLEAR CONFLICT OF INTEREST! A court of law is not a place where someone can slake their thirst for vengeance. And it was clear from the start that Kazuma Asogi should have been removed because of his misguided vendetta against Barok van Zieks.

The same could also be extended to the jurors. I don’t think anyone who knows the accused or the victim personally is allowed to serve as a jury member because of implicit bias. Then again, this is a game and I should probably just enjoy the game for what it is.

Despite these little quibbles with the narrative and the fact that there seem to be a very limited number of prosecutors and defence attorneys in Britain and Japan (along with jurors), I had a fun time playing through both games. After all, never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would be released out in the West. Even the summation examinations and pitting the jury members against each other was something fresh and different. While the Mood Matrix and Apollo’s ability to perceive have given new ways to solve cases, there’s still little that’s been done to shake up the formula of cross-examining a witness.

The Dance of Deduction between Herlock and Ryunosuke was also a brilliant piece of change that made some of the investigations more fun. While I’ll miss the psyche-locks, perhaps it’s a good thing that The Great Ace Attorney has moved away from mysticism and spirit channelling to focus more on Herlock’s wacky hijinks.

And before I forget, I need to throw out a special mention to Iris Wilson, the ten-year-old child genius that puts us all to shame. Growing up in an Asian household, I’m sure my mother wishes I could have got a doctorate in medicine by that time. 

On a side note, it was fun voicing a few of the characters as I played. I’m sure my family were quite confused as to why these terrible accents were petering down to the kitchen. 

Do I have any regrets?

Some.

But it’s always fun giving voice to these wacky characters and bringing them all to life with a few flamboyant performances.