#Hey SoJ is so confused at the start

[characteroulette]

A study on prosecutors -- (previous) (next)

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. Hoo boy.

You want a hard sell? THIS guy is a hard sell. A pretty boy who continuously forces his own views onto us for a pretty unfunny bit. Someone whom we don't even really see the true face of until the very end of the game. And yet I found myself liking him anyway.

Again, sorry if I get any of the events of Spirit of Justice wrong here. I played it through once and am waiting to do so again, so some of the details are less clear to me than the other games in this series.

That being said, I do remember we get a pretty standard buildup to Nahyuta's presence. Ema mentions him being actually reasonable, that she's gonna do her best to try and talk him out of the worst for Trucy. (Also Trucy is on trial here. This is definitely not gonna haunt Nahyuta later for spoiler reasons.) Apollo has an odd hitch, too, but he's back to refusing to say anything about himself so we're left to wonder until the end of that first investigation day.

...is what I WOULD say, if there wasn't a one-time opening cutscene introducing Nahyuta to us in a really confusing way. See, Spirit of Justice is unlike any other Ace Attorney game because it has a special cutscene it plays when you boot up the game for the first time. This cutscene is kept in the extras content, so you can view it later, but it literally only naturally plays when you boot the game for the first time. Wild decision. In this cutscene we get a nice little view on where Phoenix and his lawyer kids are now, including a mention of Maya being off in some other country. She calls Phoenix up and then the restaurant she's in gets attacked and who else saves her but one Nahyuta Sahdmadhi?

This cutscene is bonkers for several reasons. For one, I was thrown off completely when the first case begins proper and Phoenix is so chill. Like, didn't we just see you rush off because Maya was in danger? Is that no longer an issue?? For two, I legit thought there would be some building romance between Maya and Nahyuta because of that cutscene. He saves her and her expression is pretty anime language of being hit by the shoujo sparkles is all I'm saying. But nope! I was wrong on all accounts!! This is probably from some of the early promo material for the game, if I had to guess. I don't know why it's here or implemented into the game as it is, it's very confusing tonal whiplash for everything that follows.

But anyway. Back to the actual narrative of the game. The first proper look we get of Nahyuta is him sitting beneath a tree and surrounded by animals like a real Disney princess as Ema approaches to talk to him about the situation. He seems to recognise Apollo's name, just as Apollo recognises him. He also calls a butterfly a restless wandering spirit which is a good setup to his whole thing, at least, but it did make me think he had more to do with butterflies than he really did. Just like another well-known Ace Attorney villain. (I was wrong but uh maybe be careful there what sort of image you want to build with symbols all ready in play.) (Unrelated side note, shoutout to Apollo sticking his hand into a dude's back pocket in this case. Apollo the only attorney who gets to grab ass and he's arguably the least interested in it, I love it what an insane detail to just throw in there.)

Then the trial begins and what a disaster that is.

Nahyuta's running gag, as we learn, is assigning us increasingly ridiculous levels of hell. He also throws around his prayer beads to restrict our big gestures, but I take less umbridge with that one. His soft-spoken, calm and collected front is interesting, but he falls apart pretty quickly as the trial goes on. I'd say he falls apart as fast as Franziska does, and this owing to Spirit of Justice's strange structure of one day trials only. We have to get his intro in and his breakdown as we prove him wrong all in a single trial day. A tall feat, but not one wholly unfamiliar to this series.

I appreciate though that he does seem to genuinely hold a deep respect for Ema and what she does, going so far as to even request she accompany him back to his home. That's really sweet, a small insight into his less cold nature.

Unfortunately, I can't say much for any intrigue they wanted to build between Nahyuta and Apollo, as they have Apollo act in his pretty standard way during this trial. They could have built up more to the strange connection Apollo and Nahyuta share instead of just dropping it on us at the end of the trial! But I have issues with the implementation of every idea in this trial in general so I can't really hold that against Nahyuta in particular. He certainly does his job of making us want to defeat him right out the gate! They did that real well, so points there.

Ah, right. That ending of the trial scene. We win the case and Trucy's innocence, and then Nahyuta comes to spirit Ema away. Apollo's language towards him, specifically his "you've really changed", was a bad choice. I'll say it. It calls to mind the same way Phoenix and Edgeworth reacted to one another all the way back in the first Ace Attorney game, which is *most definitely* **NOT** the vibe they wanted to go for. Because it had me (and my sister) both asking ourselves, wait. Is this guy Apollo's ex-boyfriend or something?? Like, I get they wanted to show that he and Apollo have some kind of history together. And it's even a fun little nod towards what happened with Phoenix! But these are the absolutely wrong vibes to set up hi yes I hate this. To be fair, this could just be me reading too far into things. I am, after all, too invested in these silly little lawyer games. But I stand by my literary analysis brain getting thrown for a loop because hey why did you use the Narumitsu language for Apollo and Nahyuta brothers?? It's weird, please tell me it's very weird.

Either way, we head on into case 3 and start really rolling into Nahyuta's long week of no sleep.

First off, it's great to see Maya again, even if we have to defend her once more. Nahyuta being her prosecutor makes sense, since he's our main one of the game, and it only furthers our dislike of him for threatening to convict yet another of our best girls. First Trucy, now Maya?? They really did a good job on the front of making us want to defeat him right out the gate. And they have the gall to allow him to basically win on that first day, too! If not for Maya being accused of a second murder, she would have been sent to jail after that first trial day. We lost. Nahyuta beat us into a corner we couldn't fight our way out of. Strike three, you're out.

But we do manage to defeat him the second time around. We prove Maya's innocence on both accounts and it's not even satisfying to rub it into his face. Granted, the end of THIS trial is uh. Distracted, what with Dhurke showing up out of the blue, but you get what I mean. We don't really get a moment of relief, a moment to consider hey what the hell is up with this guy?

He doesn't really get a chance to relax, either, as he heads straight back across the sea in order to start case 4.

Now, however, we get to the good stuff. Nahyuta is dead tired by this point, he hasn't slept in like two days, and it's immediately apparent. He's so goofy in this trial! He's goofy and cranky and he pushes Athena into a near panic attack (boo on him, what a bastard move) and he's actually starting to be kinda a fun opponent. At least, I thought so. He's still his mostly calm and collected self, but his being so refreshingly goofy adds a great layer to his character, even if it's borne from how exhausted he has to be.

This case isn't really about him, though. It's about Athena and Blackquill being fun siblings. That they made him a mostly fun addition though is great, it went a long way towards endearing me to this otherwise infuriating priest.

When we roll into the final case, another shocker: Nahyuta isn't our opponent for the first trial. It's Phoenix. Nahyuta doesn't even appear until we have to book it back to Khura'in, and that's when his character really starts breaking through.

I will never forget this moment he and Apollo have against one another where Apollo accuses him of lying, knows he's hiding something, and Nahyuta throws all of his anxiety on at full force. This guy just weaponises his anxiety against us to shut down this line of questioning! Iconic, really. His avoidance of telling the truth is both really sad and really good.

He's not even our opponent in this last trial, either. It's Ga'ran. Nahyuta gets to act her supporter for a bit until she tells him to confess for all the crimes she's committed. The wide swing his role has taken works really well, I think, because even if I wasn't 100% sold on him yet, I didn't want him to continue suffering, either. His relationship with both Apollo and Dhurke ended up so complicated and got me invested, damn it! I couldn't just let Ga'ran get away with taking his chance to reconnect with his brother away from him!

(Spirit of Justice's finale is excellent, I cannot stress this enough. It has so much going for it and Apollo is squarely at its core and I really love it a lot.)

Once we convince Nahyuta to fight back, once we reveal the whole truth, seeing him stand up is excellent. The way he throws his glove off to reveal his dragon brand, his dragon heart, it's so good. I was finally sold on him right here as he made the same declaration as the rest of the dragons. His reveal as Rayfa's older brother certainly sweetened the deal, though the two have a long ways to go before they reach a comfortable understanding with one another.

Anyway Nahyuta took a while to get to me but gosh darn it he sure did. I hope you can understand my perspective on what made him such a hard sell at first.

#Momo writes stuff #Ace Attorney #Nahyuta Sahdmadhi #Spoilers #soj spoilers #Character analysis be like #Hey SoJ is so confused at the start #Went a bit less essay this time and more freeform rambles #Essay time for Momo #I like Nahyuta but woof #There is so much surrounding him that's hard to ignore

[4ragon]

Fixing Dual Destinies

an-android-child

I'm thinking about learning how to code and just taking matters into my own hands. As someone that has similar opinions to me, what changes would you think would be necessary? I want to keep the outline of the cases similar.... Maybe change a few if necessary. Where would you start if you could? How the plot would be changed? You don't have to answer this btw

Ha.

You don’t have to answer, they say. You fool. You have activated my trap card.

And by that I mean someone asked me about Fixing Dual Destinies in response to This Post and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for 24 hours.

I was actually thinking about this just the other day! I’d already started writing up a post, but that was more about fixing both 3D games, and involved putting SoJ earlier into the timeline and requires a WHOLE lot of restructuring, and since that’s not what you’re asking, I’m going to shelve that for now. This is about Dual Destinies. For the purposes of this thought exercise, we are going to keep a direct shot from AA:AJ to AA:DD. I can ramble about fixing SoJ another day.

So. Let’s get started.

(Editors note: buckle up kiddos this is a long one)

PART 1: What was wrong with Dual Destinies?

Once upon a time, in the mystical year of 2015, I wrote a short story for a creative writing class. And it was...fine. Nothing special. A lot of atmospheric stuff, about a young girl going on a small adventure in a post apocalyptic world, blah blah blah. No real impact. But it was serviceable, so I turned in my first draft. And after I turned it in, my professor asked me a question that has stuck with me to this day.

“Hey, JJ. What is this story about?”

And I’d been stumped. I mean, he read the thing, right? It wasn’t like it was a confusing story. It was about a girl walking through a flooded world. But that wasn’t what the story was about, not really. And as I’m sitting there trying to explain to him what the story was about, I realized: It wasn’t about a girl just walking around. It was about hope, and childhood innocence, and being able to see a future when surrounded by destruction. So I rewrote the thing.

And hey, it’s not like it was something Nobel prize worthy after I revised it. But suddenly, the story meant something. And I think that’s a good way to come at stories. There’s a surface plot, sure, but what does it Actually Mean. And once you know what you want the story to be about, you can write the real story.

So.

What is Dual Destinies about?

I think if there is ONE thing that would need to be changed in a DD rewrite, it would be to take a look at our three main characters, take a step back, and decide what we want their story to really be about. Once we have that part squared away, I think everything else will start falling into place.

That’s right, we’re talking Thematic Cohesion baby!!!! Let’s go!!!!!!!!!!!

For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to start by looking at Athena Cykes. I say simplicity because, at the heart of it, I think Athena’s arc was the closest to a coherent story in the real Dual Destinies. Because at it’s heart, it is a story we have seen many times by now in the Ace Attorney franchise: A story of a young lawyer coming into her own.

This is an archetype that they’ve done twice now. First in AA:PW, and then in AA:AJ. It’s a simple idea. A young, fresh-faced lawyer arrives on the scene, with a dream and a mentor and a whole lot of determination. They’re still a rookie, unsure of what they’re doing and where they’re going, if they can really accomplish the things they’ve set out to do, but by golly they’re going to keep moving forward anyway. 

I guess you could call it a coming of age story? Maybe? I dunno, but at the very least, this is the setup for Athena Cykes in the original text. There’s also a whole thing about her revolutionary ideas about bringing psychology into the courtroom, but we’ll get back to that in a bit. Put a pin there.

SO. What works and what doesn’t about Athena Cykes? She’s set up to be the very traditional AA protagonist. She’s very Phoenix Wright Game One. No one believes in her, especially not the person she wants to save, but she’s desperate to try.

I think Athena’s story really trips in two spots: the starting line and the finish line. She starts off strong in the tutorial, and then

in bursts Phoenix Fucking Wright, star of three previous games, in to wrestle the controls out of Athena’s hands like my older brother when he found me trying to play his copy of Ocarina Of Time that one time as a child. 

And again, at the end of the game, both Athena and Simon’s names have been cleared (from killing Metis), Simon’s cuffs have been removed, the final confrontation has been set up beautifully. And yet. And yet!!!! Athena has once again been relegated back to co-counsel. Co-counsel! My beautiful girl! My little courtroom revolutionaire! This was supposed to be her big day! Her time to shine! But no, we have to end with a Phoenix PoV, so off Athena goes, shoved into her little corner to turn on her little gimmick necklace while Phoenix does the heavy lifting.

Fuck you Capcom.

So how do we fix this? Why, we put Athena back in the drivers seat for these pivotal moments, and make Phoenix co-counsel!

This doesn’t necessarily fix every problem. I’m not crazy about Phoenix having to swoop in and save her during the tutorial, but at the same time, if we’ve establishing Phoenix as a key player, we probably have to introduce him as early as we reasonably can. Having Phoenix jump in as co-counsel seems like a decent compromise in that respect.

So that’s one character down. Again, simple, easy fix. All the pieces are there for a great Athena story, we just have to give them some time to breathe.

NEXT UP we have Phoenix Middlename Wright. My main man Mr. Wright. My buddy Nick. So first we ask ourselves: what is Phoenix’s story about?

A story doesn’t end after the rookie becomes a pro. Phoenix’s journey and growth didn’t end by Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations. He grew. He changed. He had to learn what being an attorney really meant to him. He had to learn what truth and justice and trust meant to him. These are all meaningful journeys to go on. And I think there’s a meaningful story to go on in Dual Destinies, if they could just lean in on what makes Dual Destinies Phoenix interesting.

Dual Destinies exists in a post AJ world. Phoenix got his badge back in the DLC case, and can finally go back to practicing law. Dual Destinies is about him becoming a lawyer again. But in Dual Destinies, all that amounts to is one DLC case about an orca, busting into the tutorial like Goku killing Golden Frieza, and then revealing he’d been working with Miles in the final case.

So what if....and hear me out.....what if we fixed The Dark Age of the Law.

We wouldn’t call it that, of course. As I’ve said so many fucking times, The Dark Age of the Law is a stupid contrived garbage nonsense mess. It’s unusable as-is. But there was an intention behind the Dark Age of the Law, there was a reason they tried to make Fetch work. People didn’t trust courts, or justice, or yadda yadda yadda.

But what if they didn’t trust Phoenix.

Like I said, Simon Blackquill is not a good candidate for Dark Age of the Law nonsense. His story has nothing to do with corruption. But Phoenix’s DOES. Phoenix built his career and reputation on defending the undefendable, and doing it in the name of truth and justice. And then he got caught forging evidence!!! Seven years of a tarnished reputation can’t just disappear overnight.

Plus, this Phoenix has gone through seven years of disbarment. This Phoenix already lost everything. He spent seven years with Kristoph, being maligned unfairly by the world around him.

So what about this for a Phoenix story:

Phoenix Wright has regained his badge. He took the bar, and he all clear to go. And yet, he can’t bring himself to actually lead a defense. Some of it is people not fully trusting him yet. Some of it is his own fears and frustrations. He’s happy to co-counsel, but after being left behind for seven years, and seeing the worst sides of the justice system, he’s not sure he’d be able to go back to how things were.

Eh? Ehh? Now there’s an interesting story right there. THAT’S your fucking Dark Age of the Law, Dual Destinies.

And last but not least, Apollo.

...

...

So for real. What the fuck was Apollo’s Dual Destinies plotline?

Listen. I have been in love with Apollo Justice from the first time I saw his art. He is beautiful and I care for him dearly. I want to hold him in my arms and tell him everything will be okay.

And at that end stretch of Dual Destinies I was ready to fucking murder him. 

What the fuck was the point of all that? It was deeply frustrating and unsatisfying. I know I’m all for angst, but that just felt, I don’t know, gimmicky? Oh, Apollo is angwy and going through his emo phase, showing up out of nowhere to be the most pointless obstacle in the world (WHILE TRUCY WAS KIDNAPPED). It came out of nowhere and was unsatisfying to watch resolve.

What was Apollo’s story? There was none! At least, nothing set up in the previous cases. Nothing meaningful, nothing that made me feel like he was growing progressing and changing as a person.

Out of all of the stories set up in DD, his needs to be tweaked the most. There was nothing set up here. So what pieces do we have, and how can we make something usable out of it?

First, to start with, I am not against Apollo getting so many backstories. Clay Terran, conceptually, is not a huge deal. I mean, is ‘Apollo has a best friend’ really any worse than ‘Phoenix was framed for murder by his college girlfriend?’ At the end of the day, no. These are both new backstory elements thrown in for the heck of it. But Dahlia Hawthorne is an interesting, fleshed out antagonist, and Clay, while good for providing fic writers with some Apollo angst, isn’t a presence in his own story. Clay’s death, while interesting, did not help BUILD on anything we know about Apollo. (Not that I’m crazy about Feenie but at least Dahlia was relevant to post-Feenie Phoenix’s growth)

So. We want to take this Apollo angst and find a way to make it meaningful. There’s some scaffolding there, but how to we build this bitch into a house?

This one is a little more nebulous. Up to interpretation if you will. What can we do with this character? But let’s think. If you take a step back, his story arc seems to be about trust. Who to trust. How to trust. Feeling like his trust has been betrayed. 

Even throughout his first game, betrayal of trust has been a pretty consistent theme. Kristoph, and then Phoenix, and even Trucy in a lot of regards. Wocky and Alita he didn’t trust. Lamiroir and Machi constantly lied to him. He is being betrayed and pushed around all the time. Dual Destinies drops that aspect of Phoenix and Apollo’s dynamic, but then that issue of trust and betrayal comes back in full swing by the end with Apollo and Athena in case 4 and 5.

But it just...doesn’t feel earned? It feels manufactured. It’s angst for the sake of being edgy, not for the sake of growth.

I feel like if we just honed in on that feeling, on that little thread, we could make something interesting with it. How? I think this one is up to interpretation. Maybe he isn’t very trustful of Athena at first. Maybe he’s frustrated by the Wrights’ treatment of him, not just in a ‘oh darn, babysitting again’ kind of way, like actually examining his feelings so that he can grow from them. Especially with the comparison to how Phoenix treats Athena throughout DD.

Also, maybe introduce Clay earlier? I know they kept dropping like “oh my friends and I did this, my one friend would love that,” but again, that’s not really very tangible. Give us a bit of personality. Have them talk. Establish that Apollo trusts Clay. Maybe have him talk to Clay about the rest of the WAA. Show that they have a rapport. Stuff like that.

PART 1.5: I Should Probably Mention The Antagonist

Why did I decide to structure this post like this?

So let’s talk about the main baddie.

I’ve talked about this before. I’ve mentioned it many times. The big reveal caught me off guard. I’ve accurately predicted the Real Culprit in maybe 90% of the cases I’ve played. I like mystery stories, it’s fun to guess what would make the story the most interesting.

It also might indicate that there wasn’t a lot of foreshadowing going on there.

I’ve seen plenty of posts discussing how he could’ve been done better. More hints earlier in the game. Maybe he could’ve disguised himself as someone else, like Miles or Clay or Starbuck. Maybe he didn’t have to be a fucking Scooby Doo villain by the end of it.

But I think the problems here go deeper than that.

What does this villain do to serve the narrative? What greater purpose, I mean? Who is he challenging, not just as a villain, but emotionally?

Let’s look at the other villains of the series. 

Manfred von Karma is everything we hate about Miles turned up to eleven, and represents a worldview that Phoenix Wright is anathema to. He’s not exactly a deep, complex character like Miles is. He’s corruption and vanity and pride and ego. He’s selfishness and cruelty, and in the end, those are the traits that damned him. His win record drives him to murder, and trying to frame Miles for the murder is what digs his grave. And all the while, Phoenix does the right thing and wins.

Matt Engarde is all of the things Manfred is, but he’s also a choice. He forces Phoenix to evaluate everything he holds dear. Truth and justice, or your loved ones? Sacrifice your ideals, or sacrifice Maya? And yet, Matt Engarde’s selfishness also forces Phoenix to trust Miles, his best friend who left him, who betrayed him and walked out of his life. You know what undoes Matt Engarde? His mistrust of others. His need to be one step ahead of someone asking for his trust. Recording an assassin on camera. Phoenix trusts Miles, and that’s how they win.

You can look at any of these characters, understand their worldviews, and think about how these worldviews challenge the protagonists. Dahlia, Kristoph, [aai2 spoiler], I’d even include Godot on here. It’s not just a person framing someone for murder or throwing coffee, it’s about what these characters believe in, or what they represent.

So what does the Phantom believe in? What is the Phantom challenging? How does the Phantom factor into any of the established character arcs? I guess he betrays the characters, because he was a decently-established main cast member from case 2, but like. I dunno, that feels too surface level.

What are our themes going on so far? Trust? Corruption? Emotions, sort of? The only story that the Phantom directly ties into is Simon Blackquill’s, and I feel like they absolutely could’ve done so much more to cement this man as a standout antagonist.

Who is the Phantom? He’s basically [aai spoiler] without any sort of depth. He’s a blank slate. An emotionless killer. A spy. But. Why? Why did he have to kill for a moon rock in the first place? It’s the same issue I have with the antagonist of Investigations 1 but worse somehow. They give us a big, macro problem, but don’t give us any real context or weight as to why it matters. Who stands to benefit from sabotaging Gyaxia and why should we care? I get that it’s become ‘personal’ to him, but even that doesn’t feel fleshed out enough.

So what I propose is this: Find a way to tie this character in with the main characters’ story arcs.

They sort of tried this by having him not have emotions, but like. Come on. Even that was kind of silly by the end. The whole “oh he doesn’t remember how to emote properly” ended up really sanding down any edges this guy might’ve had. I would’ve much preferred if he were intimidating. 

Past that...I think THIS is the place to really drill down on that emotions and psychology thread that Athena has. Her whole schtick is this stuff about hearing people’s hearts, feeling what they’re feeling, and wanting desperately to help them. That’s what makes her interesting as a character, it’s a fascinating character choice and I love it to death.

So play that up! Make the Phantom less silly and more...I don’t know, dismissive? Emotionless? Cruel? And establish that as an actual worldview. Athena cares so much about Simon because she could feel his pain when he confessed to a murder he didn’t do. The Phantom saw that pain and used it to drive Simon deeper into his untimely grave. Athena believes in emotions so hard, and the Phantom truly believes he’s better for lacking them. It’s an interesting character beat! Use it!

And what about Apollo’s character beats about trust? This man is a master manipulator, enough to manipulate Simon pretty effectively. So play that up! The Phantom had a Phoenix mask, for goodness sake, why not have that as a story beat? Apollo’s trust gets whittled down by a man pretending to be his boss. Or, hey. What about if at some point pre 5-4, the Phantom was Clay or Starbuck? Can you imagine how trust-shattering that could be?

And as for Phoenix, think about it this way: Apollo refuses to take on Athena’s case. Athena is in prison and can’t exactly gather evidence. This is the setup to force him back into a spotlight he’s not sure he’s ready for. Wham boom bam, interesting story arc. You could even work in the hostage situation, on the condition that you write it better than in the main story.

But we’ll get to that.

PART 2: How Do We Rework the Cases?

So you’ve read this far. Congratulations. Also. Why? We’re at 3000 words.

ANYWAY

Spirit of Justice and Dual Destinies have a lot of similar problems. However, unlike Spirit of Justice, which I genuinely think is so foundationally flawed that it would need to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up in order to work, Dual Destinies has a pretty solid skeleton of an Ace Attorney game. The writing is a little slipshod in places, but the overarching story is there and ready to go.

If we are planning to keep the general structure in place, which I believe you requested, then we have to take a look at both the story as a whole and each individual piece. We want to end at the same place, namely, the confrontation with the Phantom and, more importantly, the emotional payoff of Simon and Athena’s backstory (and solving Clay’s murder I guess).

I think the strongest part of the story we have now is Athena and Simon’s overarching story, the thing that drives the narrative. It’s compelling, it’s interesting, and I think it’s paced well. Again, similar in structure to AA:PW, dropping little backstory hints through the first several cases until the reveal in the final case-and-a-half.

So, for overall story changes, we only have two squeaky wheels on this tricycle we call hell. Phoenix and Apollo. We already have the basis for the changes we want to make, so the question is, how do we pace these new stories? Where do we add, where do we cut? How do we make Apollo’s story feel believable, instead of shoving it all in at the end? How do we weave in this new Phoenix Wright? 

Plus, how do we add just a HINT of foreshadowing about the Phantom without it being too terribly obvious? That I think could just sort of happen in moments throughout, I don’t think good old Bobert was used too effectively over the course of four cases. Just weird moments where he seems Wrong, or where you see the Phantom in disguise.

Of course, there’s also just individual character writing that could stand to be tweaked, but for now, we’re just looking at structure. Let’s go over the cases.

Note: This is mostly me throwing spaghetti at the wall. You can do whatever you want with character beats.

CASE 1: Countdown to the Turnabout or whatever

It’s...not my favorite tutorial case. Serviceable! Long. Is this the only two-day tutorial in the series?

This case can stay relatively in tact. I’m not crazy about No-Explanation Mummypollo, it really feels like a shock-value thing, but we’re keeping the overarching story, so in it goes. Juniper is cute, Athena’s introduction works very well.

But this is where we start working with New Phoenix. Yes he bursts in, gussied up in the suit his husband/sugar daddy Miles bought for him, and everyone comments on his return to form, but he stays as co-counsel, second in command. This is where we start his narrative. Why is Phoenix back? Why doesn’t he want to take the lead, insisting Athena should take charge? Tune in next week to find out.

CASE 2: The Turnabout Monster

Again. Serviceable. Not my favorite case. Specifically, this is when it became apparent to me that this game LOVES weird shock value plot twists that lead nowhere. Oh No, Mayor Tenma Is Possessed By A Yokai. No he isn’t. Shut up.

Anyway.

An Apollo PoV case, and also Athena’s introduction. That can stay as-is. However, this I think is where we start working on Apollo’s story beats.

Apollo clearly doesn’t Get Athena, but I feel like they get chummy pretty quick. It was the same with Phoenix and Maya. There were a lot of early moments in AA:PW where Phoenix was like “What is UP with this girl??” and Apollo is much the same way with Athena. She’s quirky, and he’s a little thrown off by it.

But this is where you can start to write with intention. Apollo doubtful or her motivation. Apollo unsure if she’s someone he can actually trust. Maybe this is where we introduce Clay, to give someone Apollo can voice his doubts to, maybe someone who can encourage him to trust her.

(Note: it’s important to be able to write this attitude without Apollo coming off as an asshole. That’d be easy to do I feel. He’s a sweet guy at the heart of it all.)

Anyway, past that, I think the case can stay largely the same. This section is less about the case and more about the characters getting to know each other, and that’s fine.

But please. Please. I hate the possession stuff. Oh Damian is possessed or no he isn’t. Oh Jinxie is possessed or no she also isn’t. That shit is annoying. We’re in a world where spirit channeling is real, why half-ass this stuff? Why yank us around? Before DD, the world at least felt believable. The crazy stuff that happened felt grounded in reality. I don’t know. That rubbed me the wrong way.

CASE 3: Turnabout Murder Classroom

Oh boy.

This case. Needs work.

First! Fix the transphobia! That is the only possible dealbreaker. I tend to interpret Robin as a trans girl who wants to come out of the closet, but no matter how you interpret her, just!! do!! anything else with that ‘reveal’ good lord.

I have some other small tweaks to the case itself. Maybe make it a college and not a high school. Maybe do something other than a love triangle. Maybe do something less weird for Hugh O’Conner. I don’t have any real suggestions for what to replace these with, and if you just went with the normal story, then. You know. W/e. But I don’t think they worked.

Also, this case is long! Long and insubstantial! The most important part was Athena’s panic attack at the end! I think you could stand to trim it.

Also Means’s second form was much less intimidating! That normal face of his is horrifying on its own! The chalkboard writing didn’t add much!

Also why can’t I make Apollo kiss Klavier where is my kiss button??

That being said, I think the general plot of this case has the makings of some interesting character beats, if you can make it work. You know! Corruption! Mistrusting the law! And the fact that they invited Phoenix and Klavier!

Maybe we could touch on AA4? Or Phoenix’s feelings on his standing in the world of law? Did the corrupt teacher invite Phoenix thinking they were cut from the same cloth? Phoenix investigates with Athena for a while, maybe that can come up. Maybe Klavier can have more relevance to the story. That could give this ‘corruption’ story a bit more weight, instead of what we had now.

ALSO

If we’re going for a story about Apollo learning to trust Athena before that trust gets mercilessly strangled to death in case 4, the part at the end where he encourages her would make for an excellent character beat!

CASE 4: Cosmonaut Turnabout

Man, I barely remember what happens in this section, it’s mostly a transition case, right? I don’t think you’d have to change too much. I think Phoenix is in charge when Apollo leaves, but hey, I’ll leave that up to your discretion if this is where Phoenix starts taking charge over Athena.

HOWEVER

This is also when they start establishing the Phantom, so hopefully by this point we’ve added some little Phantom-y details throughout. Just as a note. Like oh I saw this person earlier but they don’t remember seeing me! Stuff like that.

CASE 5: That One Song From Annie

And here we are at the final stretch.

Again, Athena’s role stays largely the same, and Phoenix’s role stays largely the same. Now we just have to tweak Apollo.

And also Trucy.

Okay wait actually yeah I’ve never gone on this tangent on tumblr before but the whole hostage situation makes me so angry, specifically the way Apollo is just So Fucking Willing to keep the trial going to make a fucking point. 

Like I don’t CARE how upset you are at Phoenix and Athena, I just cannot believe that Apollo would be perfectly willing to leave Trucy in danger. Maybe he had reason to believe she wasn’t in danger? Maybe he trusted that Aura was all talk and no action? Maybe! I don’t know! We don’t get a lot of fucking INSIGHT into what he’s doing, do we!!!

Plus, at times it feels like Trucy’s life being threatened is barely a blip on Phoenix’s fucking radar. That could be handled a little better.

Couple of options. We could remove the hostage situation, but at the same time, I don’t know if it makes sense to have Trucy behind the bench with us. And yet I want her in the story anyway, she’s wonderful and I love her. Maybe we could get some Apollo Investigation Perspective? See more of Trucy that way, see her keeping her cool in a hostage situation and helping Apollo out? Apollo finds something out and shows up to the trial with a clutch piece of evidence, a la that one scene in PLvsPW, except Apollo thinks it proves Athena’s guilt and we show it doesn’t. I dunno. It just needs fixing. That’s just a bad character writing choice and I hate it.

ALSO ALSO ALSO I hate the ‘robot apocalypse’ fakeout too. It’s so stupid. Immersion breaking I’d say. I almost threw my 3DS. Stop putting these fakeout moments in. The only one that can stay is Simon being a death row convict prosecuting and that’s due to necessity.

Past that....I think we’ve already kind of covered everything else? This is the culmination of all the other changes. Phoenix and Athena and Apollo’s stories all come to a head, we challenge the Big Bad we’ve been building up since the beginning.  Badda bing, badda boom, we have a workable story.

And it only took......4590 words.....god why did I write this?

Anyway. As it turns out, if you say Dual Destinies in front of a mirror three times, I will crawl out from the pipes and gnaw through your furniture like some sort of angry rodent. Happy trails and happy trials.

The End

#ace attorney #dual destinies #holy shit why did i write 4500 words #phoenix wright #apollo justice #athena cykes #meta #j #ace attorney spoilers

[lesbianmarth]

it’s been a while since i posted about aa but i just finished soj in its entirety tonight. here’s my new list so far

i still have to give thoughts on cases 4 5 and dlc so that’ll be under a cut. spoilers!

6-4: this was such a filler case, almost shamefully so. i don’t know why they thought they could manage to do this in the 4th case when every game with 5 cases has been pretty consistent about making the 4th case plot relevant, sometimes literally just a preamble to case 5. so yeah i think this one was kinda ass

the two things it had going for it: one, athena. in 6-2 i actually got confused about why i ever liked her, because in that case she felt like she was just acting the part of the Peppy Teen Girl With a Rowdy Streak that makes up almost every assistant character. But then as SOON as she started bantering with Simon in 6-4 i was like “oh, THAT’S why i liked her!” was nice to take control of her again.

two, uendo toneido. while i don’t think you can say the DID was portrayed with quite the necessary respect or kindness, it was handled better than i’ve seen other media handle it-- at least it’s not completely demonized. other people have written more on that in better detail so i’m not really the judge, but the basic point is that this witness was mad fun to read, and even the dumb jokes like the changing number of floor cushions were entertaining. thus why this case is in the “hard carried by one side character” tier.

especially since there was like nothing else going on. no connection to the main plot, only two other characters besides uendo, and for some reason the clown tits girl was here instead of the magic show case (and to be honest, she wasn’t enjoyable for me even BEFORE she did the standard aa female villain thing and changed her speech pattern as soon as she fell under suspicion). just a weird, nothing case stuck right around the point aa games usually enter endgame. And especially weird because...

6-5 part 1: inexplicably there are two separate cases in the final chapter and each gets one day of investigation and trial. such a weird setup, and it really shouldn’t work... but i think it kinda barely does. barely. it would still have been better to split it into case 4 and case 5 though.

i have a hard time articulating much on the first case bc it sort of blends together for me. the main thing is that the concept of it being a civil case where apollo and phoenix face off is really good. it was a good change of pace, even though you knew it was gonna be a murder somehow anyway. sarge was reasonably nice, i guess, paul atishon had some good animations and quirks (my favorite being when he tries to just walk away from the stand to avoid answering a question), and the logic of the actual murder was good enough.

but i especially got those strong “oh this is a FINAL case!” vibes during the segment in the cave, and that added so much to it even if not much of it was relevant in the first half of the case. the adventure feel reminded me of some of the (out of context bc i still havent played it) scenes i know from 3-5, which is a good association to invoke imo. and it did a lot to give apollo and dhurke time to bond.

speaking of which, dhurke, holy shit. what a KING. i don’t think i’ve ever liked a dad character in ace attorney this much. he’s so genuine and like down to earth that it’s impossible not to start liking him and believe how much he cares for his sons. the bit where he rescued apollo from the cave flood... i felt it in my heart

6-5 part 2: let me just get this out of the way: ga’ran sucks. her design after she goes full evil is so bad, she’s so malicious that it’s immediately obvious she’s going to be the culprit, her breakdown is ridiculous and just embarrassing to watch, and inga had already established way more charisma as a villain when he did the “those were orders of execution actually” bit in 6-3. with that said,

i actually liked it for the most part. the spirit channeling stuff was excellent imo-- they probably use it to similar or greater effect in 3-5 but as someone who again has not played that, i was surprised and almost impressed by how well it was applied. maya was relevant for something! it feels like it’s been ages!

rayfa was a little underutilized, i think-- her moment of determination where she stops letting ga’ran have control over her was alright but it fell flat bc it didn’t have any weight during the moment. i kept hoping she would like, wordlessly take of her shawl and do the little verbal preamble to the divination seance while ga’ran kept yelling at her to stop, but no, the script can’t be good like that, i guess. and since she didn’t get to be the investigation assistant for long, none of her charm in that role carried through.

but DHURKE!! oh my god! in a game almost devoid of emotional impact, his involvement in this case really hit. the way they painstakingly animated his death, the scene where he makes a promise with maya, and then the weight of knowing in hindsight that everything he did in the first part of the case was after he’d already died and just wanted to see his son again before passing on for real....... it hurt. i felt something during that section. this case would also be hard carried by him if not for the fact that i really liked the murder bits.

amara was good too--liked how they made her suspiciously serene and accentuated it with the lightning strikes to make her look like a hidden murderer character about to reveal herself, only to walk it back and confirm she was being forced to act that way. i thought it worked. nahyuta was boring though, i’m sorry-- i get the motivation with having to be a bastard bc his sister and mom were basically held hostage, but the only time i found him compelling in that mess was the bit where he removed his one fingerless glove and revealed he still has the dragon tattoo. that was it. athena was also completely unused the whole case (not even a single mood matrix? really?) and trucy one again went without any role of importance.

the ending also... yknow, a friend said they had to end it this way bc they never figured out what they were going to do with apollo (since following up on what they started in aa4 clearly wasn’t an option???) and just threw him on a bus to get rid of him. i agree with that-- he really feels thrown to the side, and with that i think trucy’s officially stranded with no hope of any character advancement. and the way they ended the game with phoenix and lamiroir deciding “yeah, maybe NOW we should finally tell those two they’re related” honestly felt insulting lol

but maybe the dlc case will let things go out on a high note...?!

6-6: it was okay.

it would’ve worked pretty well as a filler case in an older aa-- honestly i think it’d be one of the better filler cases, certainly worth replacing the shitty ones like 2-3 or 3-3 or, hey, 6-4. but whether i’d say it was worth paying for... eh.

the time travel conceit was done well enough, i think. the way they tied it back to sorin and pierce’s backstories was nice, and the twist about having two receptions was good, although they needed to treat that as a real twist with much more gravity. when the truth comes out it just feels like “oh of course that’s what happened” rather than a big surprise worthy of the Confessing the Truth theme. it’s sort of important because the case becomes a lot less interesting when you take out the time travel element.

far as characters are concerned, i think they needed more side characters to sell the whole thing-- another sprocket family member or another servant of the household. it felt a little limited-- sorin and pierce are pretty good witnesses and i like their quirks and their secrets, but the only alive woman (ellen) has very few traits and no connection to the deeper story of the case, so she falls really flat. the old aa characters didn’t add much- maya and edgeworth were just there for fanservice, ema didn’t get to do much other than acknowledge for the first time in years that she’s a big edgeworth fan, and larry is annoying as hell like he always is.

and oh my god i actually forgot while i was writing that, how they put in athena and trucy but only used them for brief slapstick where trucy would try to set athena on fire and shit. again-- no mood matrix? couldn’t even try once to fit those two characters into something?

i did like pierce’s transformation into his surgeon form though-- that was really cool. loved him doing surgery on a robot, taking xrays of the lawyers, and his breakdown was fantastic-- he would make a really good culprit if they didn’t whiff the last bit of pathos at the end. i don’t think he should’ve been aiming for revenge on sorin; it would have hurt much more if he was still loyal to the guy and never intended for him to be in danger, but the final “why’d you do it?” talk in the trial just felt flat and one-note, much like the one in 6-4.

... so that’s spirit of justice! not a super positive experience but i’m happy to say it’s done. as much as i want to go and replay dgs, i think when i do go back to ace attorney i’ll be replaying the trilogy for the first time since high school

#ace attorney #aa playthrough

[snezfics-n-shit]

Whumptober Day 26: Faint

Fandom: Ace Attorney 

Characters: Godot, Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, Franziska von Karma

Notes: Post-SoJ, Godot has recently been released from prison. Phoenix and Maya take him out for burgers and ketchup catching up. Human socialization? For Godot? He’ll take it. Too bad there’s someone who wants to ruin his fun.

“Don’t you think your first restaurant visit after prison should be something, I don’t know, nicer?” Phoenix stared at the Burger Barn menu. Was this really Godot’s idea? The coffee served there wasn’t even that good. “Miles offered us a reservation at a five star place downtown.” At least at somewhere more high end, the brand new suit Phoenix bought specifically for this event would have been appropriate. He still wore it, but it was definitely out of place.

“Are you saying this place isn’t nice, Nick?” Maya gaped in feigned hurt. “How could you!?”

“Yeah, how could you, Nick?” Hearing Godot call him ‘Nick’ made Phoenix uneasy. Maybe ‘Trite’ had a nice ring to it after all. “This isn’t for me, anyway. It’s for the Master.” Godot shot an affectionate smile at Maya. “Mia’s so proud of you. I promised we’d take you here once they released me.” 

“Yeah, she didn’t want to ruin the surprise, but I got her to tell me!” Maya laughed. “Sorry Pearly couldn’t make it, by the way. She and Trucy are comparing admissions essays tonight.”

“Who?” Godot stared at the two. “I know Pearl, but who’s the other one?”

“Oh, Trucy? My daughter.” Phoenix presented Trucy’s senior photo he kept in his wallet. “She’s around Pearl’s age, actually.”

“What the hell!?” Godot raising his voice caught the attention of the other patrons in line. “Then why didn’t you drag her around and put her in harm’s way at Hazakura Temple?”

“She’s adopted.” Maya corrected him. “I made the same mistake, honestly.”

Did Phoenix even look old enough to have a biological daughter Trucy’s age? Who would be Trucy’s mother if she was his? He certainly wasn’t surrounded by women during the year Trucy was born. 

“I think I’m going to pick out a place for us to sit.” Phoenix excused himself. “I don’t want anything, so you two can order without me.” Now that he had essentially been spoiled with home cooking, Phoenix had little interest in fast food. That, and he wanted Maya to understand how it felt to deal with a notorious fry thief.

He found a clean table next to the booths. There were four chairs, so he could use the extra one to hold coats unless someone from another table asked to use it. He couldn’t help but notice a familiar shade of blue in the corner of his eye and tried to pretend he wasn’t there.

“I know you can see me.” A woman in the booth next to him spoke. “How foolish to think you can call ducking your head ‘hiding.’”

“Oh, uh,” Phoenix laughed nervously, fully acknowledging the woman, “hi, Franziska.”

“You look frightened.” Franziska observed, not at all realizing that maybe, just maybe, it could be the whip sitting beside her. “You shouldn’t be,” she glared at Godot standing in line, “but he should.”

“Who? Godot?”

“He shouldn’t be here.” She stuck up her nose. 

“Is he not actually released from prison?” Phoenix blinked a few times. “Did we accidentally help him escape?”

“No, he’s been released. He should be at home.”

“So, he’s on house arrest now?”

“No, he-” Franziska stopped herself and looked away as soon as Godot and Maya approached the table with their food; to put it more accurately, Maya’s food and Godot’s coffee cup. 

Wait, was that some kind of string dangling around from the cup?

“Hi, Franziska!” Maya greeted her, completely blowing any attempt of cover. “Since when did you eat at Burger Barn?” She wasted no time after setting down the tray to start digging in.

“I don’t.” Franziska answered flatly. The bacon cheeseburger with the works, apple pie, and strawberry shake on her tray said otherwise. “I, um,” her ears looked red, “was told to order something if I wanted to sit here.”

“How’s Adrian doing?” Maya tilted her head before grabbing a handful of fries. “And why are you here ‘just to sit here?’”

“She is well, thank you.” Franziska took a sip of her shake. “She’s overseeing some renovations to our home right now. As for why I’m here, I have been tasked with monitoring Godot’s wellbeing until we’ve found someone suitable for helping him adjust to life out of prison.”

“You missed me that much, Princess?” Godot smirked. “After your chat with that author, you just had to see me again.” He took a brief sip from his cup, his hand obstructing Phoenix’s view of whatever was attached to the string.

“You really went through with that book deal?” Maya hummed. “Is that why you moved back here from Europe?”

“I did go through with it, yes. I left Godot’s apartment to discuss some things with that fool in the beret, but I told him I would only be out for a few hours.” Franziska took another, bigger sip of her shake. “I was on my way back to his apartment when I was informed he left home without my knowledge.” Franziska frowned at Godot, who was already confused why Phoenix was staring at him for so long. “Don’t even try to change the subject again, either. You know very well why you shouldn’t be here.”

“Doesn’t mean I care.” Godot shrugged and then directed his attention to Phoenix. “And what’s with you? I know you’ve seen a tea bag before.” His body swayed slightly in a way that didn’t look at all voluntary.

A tea bag? Wait. 

“You should care.” Franziska stood up, preparing for what she saw coming a mile away. “You were explicitly instructed to stay home and monitor your temperature on an hourly basis.”

“We both know that’s overdoing it.” Godot leaned on the chair next to him.

“You were also told that if your fever went up, you would need to go to the hospital.”

“Are you sick, Godot?” Maya gently tapped Godot’s shoulder, causing him to lose some balance. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal.” As if only to prove him wrong, a sensation crept up in Godot’s chest, prompting a barking cough that he had worked so hard to suppress; he had done such a good job doing so, too. “I was going to go home right after this.”

“Don’t listen to him.” Franziska commanded. She took a quick bite of her burger before she grabbed hold of Godot from under his arms. “He pulled this with Adrian when she checked in on him earlier. I refuse to allow a fool like him manipulate anyone with such lies, especially not my wife. I also will not stand for whatever foolish escape tactics he roped you two into employing.”

Phoenix reached for Maya’s fries while everyone was so caught up in the distraction, only to find she had managed to wolf down both her burger and all her fries while he wasn’t paying attention. With an inaudible sigh, he put on his coat, considering the group was likely going home soon.

“Actually, um,” Maya fidgeted with one of her hair beads, “we just picked him up like normal. We never would have guessed he wasn’t supposed to leave home.”

“Figures.” Franziska pursed her lips. “I’m going to hazard a guess that he’s been regularly dismissing himself to ‘watch videos of seals’ as well?”

“Hey! How did you know?” Maya looked surprised as if by the third time Godot was ‘sent a funny seal video,’ it wasn’t at all weird. “He said it was a habit he developed in prison.”

“So he was going to the bathroom just to cough?” Phoenix asked. “That’s actually better than what I was thinking.”

“You are disgusting! How foolish do you need to be to-” She suddenly felt Godot become much heavier in her arms. As she expected, his fever caused him to collapse. “Wright,” She hoisted an unconscious Godot over Phoenix’s shoulder, “you are to carry him to the limousine.”

“Why me?” Phoenix grunted as he carried Godot; just staying in place like this was doing a number on his back. Not only was Godot heavy, but there was no doubt his fever was high. Phoenix felt sweaty on every part of him that Godot touched.

“Because I said so, that’s why.” Franziska gave such a strong argument, no wonder she was considered a prodigy prosecutor early in her career. She must have attended the same law school as Phoenix’s mother. She huffed as she hurriedly put away the rest of her meal in the to-go bag, grumbling something when she heard Phoenix and Maya share a chuckle over her ‘required purchase�� story being a flat out lie. She pulled out her phone and tapped on a few touchscreen buttons. “Our ride will arrive shortly. We’re taking him to the hospital, so don’t expect a ride home so soon.”

“Wow, we’re going to the hospital in a limo!” Maya said as if this were some kind of amusement park attraction. “That’s so cool!”

“Maybe we, uh,” Phoenix adjusted Godot’s position over his shoulder, “should refrain from calling a trip to the hospital ‘cool.’”

“For one thing, at least, I agree with your foolish boss.” Franziska collected her things as she led the two conscious parties to the exit, paying no mind to the crowd of patrons who stared in fascination with the spectacle. “You do still assist him, yes?”

“Well, not really since I became the Master of Kurain, but it would be really fun to assist him again.”

“I see.” Franziska hailed the limousine that approached the parking lot. “If you should ever consider assisting me on an international case, Adrian and I would be more than happy to bring you along.”

Phoenix wasn’t allowed to open the door, as demonstrated by the driver stopping him before he could even try. When the driver at last allowed the group in the vehicle, Phoenix and Maya found themselves amazed by the spacious interior. It would be an understatement to say the back was just the right size for Godot to lie back in.

“I’ll consider your offer, but something’s been bothering me” Maya held her hand to her face.

“What? Besides Godot’s cough?” Phoenix didn’t bother pushing Godot off his shoulder as he felt the edge of Godot’s visor pressing against him. “Or how sweaty I’m going to be if he keeps radiating this much heat?”

“I just think Godot could have used a good whipping!” Maya declared, surprising Phoenix and making Franziska laugh until she snorted. “I mean it! That would have told him he should go home!”

“He could have, yes.” Franziska patted the feverish ex-convict on the back. “The whip is retired, though. I just take it around as a habit.”

“No way!” Maya’s volume was toeing the line of potentially waking Godot. “Maybe you’re sick, too.” She jokingly felt Franziska’s forehead. “You feel fine, but something’s up.”

“It just does not fit in where I want my life to be right now.” Franziska spoke matter-of-factly. “Am I not allowed to improve myself?”

“I never thought of it that way.” Something about what Franziska said felt familiar to Maya, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Didn’t stop you from threatening me with it whenever I got out of bed.” Just as the conversation reached its softest point, it was too late to prevent Godot from regaining consciousness. “For a more pressing matter, why aren’t we at Burger Barn?”

“You collapsed!” Franziska raised her voice. If Godot was awake, why bother toning herself down? “We’re taking you to the hospital. You’ll likely need another breathing treatment and you are not making any excuses this time.”

“Do you think I can use the whip if he tries anything?” Maya grinned. “Why let it gather dust?”

“I’d like to see you try.” Godot laughed, but soon enough there was that cough again. “This cough makes me miss being unconscious.” 

“I don’t blame you.” Phoenix looked out the window, watching the scenery move along and keeping an eye out for landmarks that could tell him how close they were to the hospital. “That cough is pretty bad. Never heard one quite like it.”

“You know what?” Godot leaned back into the position he was in before he came to. “I’m going to wait and see if I can pass out again.”

“Then Nick can carry you again!” Maya clapped her hands together.

Phoenix had one thing to say to that.

“Objection!”

#whumptober #whumptober 2020 #sickfic whumptober alt #snez attorney