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4ragon · 2 years

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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

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