#vg: aa3

[mekatrio]

phoenix wright pondering ho hum ho hum ho hum

ok im awake still sleepy but awake but yes after thinking it over, what makes phoenix particularly interesting to me are 2 things: hes a spriteless VN character + me and him arent on the same page when it comes to plot info.

so firstly visual novels arent a genre i engage with often, really my only other frame of reference is a sdr2 walkthrough i watched like 9 years ago (and ddlc but ddlc is a blank slate protag so im not counting that) but yeah VN player characters is smth thats very unfamiliar to me, its very interesting to not have a sprite of my character that will give me extra information abt their emotional state, instead the only thing i really have to go off of is the text the game provides me. its also interesting how VNs challenges the notion of what a video game is, bc the gap between player and character in a VN's player character feels very stark as my protag is very much their own character outside of my influence, and although my control over them is minimal compared to other vg genres, this is still undoubtedly a video game. ive taken to thinking of me and wright as me being remy ratatouille and wright being a piece of shit chef who keeps trying to do his own thing. so yeah interesting stuff, but yet i still feel like theres a pretty big difference between sdr2's hinata and aa's wright, in regards to their characterization. and i think this difference is borne from the fact that unlike hinata and most other video games ive played, im not actually on the same page as wright when it comes to plot info.

what that means is that like, usually in video games, developers will want the player and their player characters to have the same amount of knowledge, which is why foreign/amnesic protags are so common. this way world-building exposition can be more natural, as there'll be a reason now for characters to divulge in the history of their world (to let our clueless little protag to know whats up), and players will feel more in sync with the character theyre playing as, overall everything will feel more immersive.

but ace attorney doesnt do this.. also omg im way too sleepy to word this properly so its bullet point time

- in aa1 phoenix knew abt his history with edgeworth (duh) yet despite playing as phoenix we the player are kept in the dark about it until the fourth case

- (which honestly makes case 2 pretty fucking crazy like 1st time meeting maya + mia's death + phoenix's reunion with edgeworth but players wont understand the significance of any of this until way later)

- likewise in aa2 phoenix knows the context of edgeworth's disappearance (that damn note) but we the players are kept in the dark abt it until the third case and we're only given small hints towards his fate + phoenix's abysmal grieving process

- interestingly enough, the players are represented by maya in both instances. meaning maya is like us, in that we both arent aware of phoenix's backstory + that damn note, and when we do learn abt these two pieces of info, its bc phoenix is telling this to maya. and so in a way we are learning all this thru her. very very interesting considering we do not control maya

- and i mentioned this in my big post gushing abt 2-4 but not only is this an interesting writing method, but it also helps to illustrate how phoenix is a character who deeply represses various emotions. he is fucked!

- but yeah its super interesting. and also like ill need to finish aa3 to properly look at this trilogy but i really wonder how like the "overarching narratives" of these games are designed and what phoenix's function in each of them are like this is my first time i think ever experiencing this style of writing in a video game, where a protagonist knows more than i do.

- cuz like yes ive played games where protags have a backstory thats only shown much later but like.. say with like portal, chell's backstory is there to just basically explain her motives. basically theres a difference between "a protag's backstory serves to recontextualize their behavior" vs "uncovering a protag's backstory Is the plot", and phoenix falls under the latter. all while me the player am not on the same page as him the character like ITS ALL VERY INTERESTINGGGGGG.... after i finish aa3 or maybe even more aa games id like to compare aa's style of writing to ghost trick

[postsofbabel]

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[hermercifulness]

Sapphic Pride Icons featuring Mia Fey

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