Let's Play AA6: Case 5, Part II - TURNABOUT LET GO OF ME, TAKE MY REVOLUTION

[type_wild]

... because it wasn't over. That should teach me to not look up things good enough when the episode ends. Heeeey there, Edgeworth, being your boring adult self as usual. Come to think off, he's kinda taken over the Mia part as the Big Good who conveniently can help Phoenix and co. out of sticky spots. The music introduces him like he's a messenger from God above, go figure.

I dunno about the rest of the world, but when our friendly kidnapper is talking about the unthinkable evils he can threaten Maya and Bitchface with, I'm thinking sodomy.

Apollo: Trucy is necessary.
Trucy: This is your chance. Sell the goddamn piano. Sell the entire agency, start a strip club just to teach them.

You'd think these games would know better than to use the graphemes *huff* *puff* on screen.

RAYFA MY DARLING

Must be bothersome being a regent married to your own executive branch.

Welcome to the club, Rayfa! Now we'll only see Revolutiondad sacrifice himself for the cause, and then Bitchface is in it too! And with that said, I see the most awkward family reunion ever coming to a courthouse near us all very soon. And he's just... comandeered Ema from US authorities? Is she acting as a free agent? Whatever, she's here, I'm satisfied.

Okay okay, I normally don't shipsquee about nonexistent pairings but Apollo/Athena bantering omg yus

Awkward family reunion @ detention centre. Well thank you, Bitchface, for giving us a sprite that is something else than smarmy asshole and deskbanging! Maybe you'll finally be interesting. And ah, Ema, back to the oldskool bitching about the prosecutor, thank you~

Someone get me that Ema/Athena/Apollo graverobber AU pronto

Well, they finally called out the Grape Juice, thank god. And once again, Athena and Apollo are on about tying each other up, dear hearts ♥

Well well well, here we are finally getting to have real, click-on-question conversations with Bitchface! Current prediction: He'll be the one blessed with the holy mother's whatchamakcallit, seeing that he's already commanding other stuff and it's probably in his blood. Could explain why he's so exceptionally girly - hey, we've already had a surprise!woman in the game, what's one more (with an extremely manly voice) But he's still pretty boring.






I'd boo about being back with Phoenix, but we're apparently going new and inventive ways and investigating from two angles, yay! And Edgeworth is along and has apparently been irreplacable in Phoenix's life because they're "best friends", maybe they'll investigate togheter too

Well, at least we know that Gumshoe's still alive and working.

Rayfa's mum is predictably shady, and Bitchface has soooooome family issues going on here, huh. Nice change of pace to be investigating with Edgeworth, too. And well goddamn that Phoenix, sparing Trucy a thought!

...after suspecting Athena of breaking stuff. Newayz, investigatin' with Rayfa and Edgeworth time! (where's Ahlbi)

Ah, there he is and bless you, Capcom, for giving us the fines moment this franchise has seen. Shah'do, truly the hero of this game.




Aaaaand it's Apollo time again. Wow, this game sure sees a lot of action. Regrouping with Surprise!Witness, always a pleasure. Can we all please take a moment to appreciate that Miles Edgeworth climbed down the manhole.

Oooh I see where this is going and I'm not liking it yet, Capcom. More effort kthnx.

whoa whoa whoa Phoenix Wright, are you listening in on this conversation about the good Acoustic Michale Jackson? Do you not think sometime soon would be relevant to talk about HIS WIFE? WHO YOU KNOW LIVES AND WHO KNOWS ABOUT HOW ALL THIS TURNED OUT. WHOSE NAME HAS EVEN BEEN MENTIONED IN THIS VERY FUCKING GAME.

Fuck it. I don't care how this ends, I will continue playing these games until that plot thread is brought to light and resolved.

Yet more expositioning about all the pain poor Bitchface is keeping inside. Fail, game, fail. Showing, telling, ur doin it wrong. Case of point: Revolutiondad being five times easier to like because we actually get to see him being likable, instead of other people telling us that he is.

I'll be surprised for real if my darling Surprise!Witness doesn't turn out to be a backstabber.

And woooow this plot got soapy and weird and I honestly don't think I'm following all of it any longer. I can see armed revolt happening for a number of reasons, but "fair trials of suspected criminals" is not one of them unless the regime has been locking up half the population. Also? We can joke about Phoenix getting into stupid trouble all the time, but the kind of heartbreak these games keep lobbing at Apollo Justice is just... fine, all the more reason to love him, since he continues being the hero of his stories in ways Phoenix never got to.

I know what the difficult truth will be, Apollo: Your boss never told you that he's got your mother's phone number and that you have a sister. AND YOU KNOW THEM BOTH ALREADY.

Is that... is that an animated cutscene mid-game?!

Seems like they HAVE been locking up half the population. Bitchface is still boring. Rayfa, on the other hand, is absolutely delivering on the character development front.

Edgeworth isn't even trying any longer, is he. Let's please have him, Maya and Rayfa debate the Plumed Punisher v. Steel Samurai be canon. Been nice seeing you, Athena - of course you don't get to be in the trial when they've been toting on and on about Phoenix and Apollo being "joint protagonists". At least you were in on the investigation today, that's something.




Trial day! Let's see how this turns out.

Hooo boy Narnia!Judge is more perceptive than Udgey. Not that that takes much, I guess.

Plot twist! Poor Bitchface, I understand you're unhappy if you knew you'd be standing on the bench next to a supervillain. And yeeeeah, rule of law seems to be going out the window here. Narnia!Judge, do something!

...well that descended into tyranny quickly. And at this point, why have a trial at all? If we've discarded even the pretense of a fair judgment by the law, what... oh fuck it, this is ridiulous. Sorry, my good game, you had a good run but THIS FINAL BOSS is just too bloody dumb. Seriuosly, it'd be 200% better if you'd just skipped the costume change there and NOT given us a fucking cartoon villain.

Please tell me I did not just witness a mother mocking her pubertal daughter for the size of her breasts. All that aside, things are well above decent, quality wise. It just occured to be that Bitchface's telekinesis would explain the ridiculous scarf float, and if Rayfamum's hair is any indication here, I sense spiritual powers going on.

...is there ANYONE HERE who didn't figure out the runaway maid's true identity like three days ago.

Oh, Rayfa. Oh, Rayfa, like Franziska but even better. The writers might have failed big time with Juniper last game, but they got all of it right with Rayfa in this one. Oh my beautiful girl, go on, do your own thing, you are 120% making up for the snoozefest that is Bitchface.

Ahlbi and Shah'do, never forgotten. Surprise!Witness, keep on being yourself. I like the spirit pool seanse this time!

A lot of reviewers complained about too many flashbacks in the game. I think the amount of flashbacks are perfectly fine and well time, except for the five hundred flashbacks to Maya teaching Rayfa to be a Good Ruler during this trial.



You know, Narnia!Judge, I'd walk out of that court the moment they started revising the laws on the fly.

Oh thank the games for letting us witness Apollo and Maya's first meeting. And of course her first assumption upon being called to court is that she's the one accused.

There we go, then! And that... is a transformation sequence straight out of Cardcaptor Sakura, and wow that got if possible even more ridiculous than this already was. This really isn't Bitchface's day, huh. Lady Lazarus here has got the creepiest animation this franchise has ever seen D:

Well, we're back to him now, at any rate. Jeez, this game has the worst prosecutors this franchise has yet seen. The trial against Phoenix was beautiful, but that aside? Bitchface is boring, Rayfamum is ridiculous.

Cute tiger though

You know, I can't decide whether I like the spirit channeling hijinks, or if I don't. Because at this level, I'm pretty sure this trial is up there with the showdown in Trials and Tribulations in terms of TEH FEELS and EPIC CONSPIRACIES, and yet the technicalities of it is... utter bullshit. I mean, props to the writers for making me forget time and space while all this is going on - it works, sure - but at the same time there's part of me that keeps remember how horribly stupid this all is.

Well, new sprites for new angst, I guess. Welcome to the club, Apollo, since you knew this one and all. And they're finally using the 3D for something worthwhile! That only took them two full games, but hey, welcome after.

Uh, Narnia!Judge, the accused died like a week before the crime was committed and he was killed by the victim for which he was tried oh god why are we even having this trial any longer

... for more ridiculous drama ofc and since Acoustic Michael Jackson couldn't just be dead by horrible accident but was knocked out by the culprit twenty years ago, we've got to clear that one up too after we've finished with the spirit channeling game of chairs here.




How many saves has there been during this case? I swear it must've taken up half the game by now, and seriously - the line between epic and ridiculous is delicate here, and I'm slowly growing bored with the royal conspiracies.

Swanky boots! And again with taking ridiculous turn in this universe that are just dumb and not funny, FFS. I was making the same face IRL as Phoenix and Apollo were in the game. Dear Bitchface, please please please stop being boring.

But nah, let's just drag Rayfa into the BS instead, shall we. I liked this trial a lot better when Lady Lazarus was being evil instead of a blackmailed Disney Princess. I know she won't die but Revolutiondad taught me not to extinguish the hope in my heart for good things happening. By which I mean that yes, I hope she dies to spare us all the bittersweet family reunions bound to happen when she doesn't. Ace Attorney hasn't shied away from having sympathetic characters with big shady sides before (o hai thar Chief Prosecutor Both Of You), so this sudden split into Good Victims and Evil Perpetrators (DD did the same thing) is a letdow. Bitchface is still boring.

HEY I KNOW, forget about the spirit pool, let's have Maya channel him instead for maximum awkward family reunions! But jokes aside, at least this means this trial won't go on for another five days. Unless they're going to go into channeling the Sacred Spirit Mother with the magic snowball while they're at it, since it's still in the court record and all.

("In all those stories, I could fly!")

(sorry)

Oh boys, did you forget that you're in an absolutist theocracy or something and that the good lady is rewriting the laws as she sees fit? I mean, I wonder how much of the populace worships at her feet and will believe anything she says by her position as the religious head of this country where people spend 60% of their time away praying. Bitchface. is. still. boring.

Here's an idea: Elect Maya as the new regent, and she'll spirit channel to everyone's content! Oh my god I'd play the hell out of all the games that'd come from that.

Could we please give Mia Fey the credit for her courtroom philosophy and not just the plant

Aaaaaah oh goddamn fugly 3D art aaaaah

Of course it's jealousy. Of course. Whatever. I'm so done with this marathon now that I'll take anything to see it ending.

Uh, hi, Trucy? Unexpectedly showing up for the happy finale because of course you have to because of that spoilery stuff.

Please explain to me why Lady Lazarus doesn't just rule herself. Seriously. Better yet, someone tell me why they don't just introduce a democracy with an elected government while we're at it - it's pretty shitty stuff for a supposed revolutionary to just appoint himself regent like that. Hell, it's a pretty shitty revolution if they're just going to accept the continued theocracy, ripe for all sorts of abuses, just like that. Particularly for a revolution that is run by law professionals. You disappoint me, Surprise!Witness! Is this what Revolutiondad would have wanted?! Get your right to vote! Or Maya. Can't go wrong with that one.

Seriously, Bitchface, I'd ask Edgeworth instead. He's got international experience and, uh, experience, and apparently everyone in Narnia speaks perfect English anyway, and he IS right there!

Okay, Apollo, here it is: You'll get Surprise!Witness and Rayfa and Ahlbi and Shah'do and maybe Ema too. But on the other hand, Bitchface and Lady Lazarus, ouch.

PHOENIX WRIGHT, DID I MENTION THE REST OF APOLLO'S FAMILY BEFORE

BECAUSE I THINK I DID

AND I THINK NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME IN HIS LIFE FOR HIM TO KNOW ABOUT THAT AND MAYBE LET HIM MAKE A SLIGHTLY MORE INFORMED CHOICE

god I love how the WAA crew are all "well he's not showing up for the bus, that must mean he's decided to stay here without saying goodbye or anything". Anyway, it's good to see his face from the front again. Which, thinking off, I think is actually the first time in this game, the hell

More pressingly, is Apollo some kind of monk who owns nothing but the clothes he wears? The answer is "no" because we know he's got a place where he lives and also a cat and a bike, and I somehow don't think he packed all that when Edgeworth shanghaied a plane

...well, post-credit cutscene, that was only all too little and all too late, but well hey - I'm taking that this means you'll finally be talking about this in the next game if such ever comes around, which means that Apollo is going to be back by then. Even if he's finally there with Ahlbi and Surprise!Witness and probably Ema and a sign with his name on it above the office door. Which, given how much I love the guy, feels surprisingly good to see.

Back when AA5 was announced, I initially predicted that Apollo was going to be "studying abroad". Then, when official art of him decked up all super badass surfaced, I speculated that he'd either be the prosecutor, or existing solely on the fringes of the game but with some heavy plot weight around. I clearly didn't have much faith in the writers keeping him around, and certainly not in them giving him a storyline that was something else than strictly the purpose of carrying plot.

And so, the huge spoilers: Yes, those three words I saw were "Apollo leaves the Agency". So did I like it? Surprisingly, yes. Not as much as I had hoped to, because, you know... that near-death scene. Where Apollo talks about wanting to go "home", which suggests that he's still pining for the Narnia and all the people he would've left behind there, and that to him, the US never truly was "home". I'm also going to assume that just being dumped in a strange land like that would've left him with some hefty abandonment issues - talking from a very distantly related personal experience here, a parent leaving their child like that is really not something that you ever forget. But then that just never appears again, and it's all about carrying on Revolutiondad's legacy. And the promised family reunion with Bitchface also doesn't happen, since Bitchface never stopped being boring AF and has got his own Soap Opera to deal with. It actually really annoys me that the wonderful Rayfa is now surrounded by my two least favourite characters in the game, except maybe Rayfamum. But all in all - the epilogue cutscene did make me think this was the right way to go. Good work, son, now go do your duty towards building a functional judiciary branch in a system that is... still... a... theocracy... but one with good intentions! Even if it's got the self-appointed regent prosecuting criminals and

oh fuck it. The only Narnia character Apollo really has any connection to with Revolutiondad gone is Bitchface, and no matter how much fun this game eventually turned out to be, I still think that Bitchface is a snorefest. And for all that I appreciate the way this game questioned something as acutely important as the rule of law, it kind of falls apart when this is happening in a country that still relies on the benevolence of its ruler to protect it, instead of, oh I don't know, robust democratic institutions. And while I really don't mind the Narnia setting in itself, I also really do mind it a lot for the place it now has in the universe. That is to say... I don't mind the Narnia plotline, and I don't really mind Apollo's past as here revealed, but I do mind that Apollo is now so firmly tied to some anachronistic backwater halfway across the globe. Each on their own worked fine... okay, the Royal Narnia Soap Opera was a bloody mess but it worked. Apollo's childhood made no fucking sense, but you know, it did what Dual Destinies tried to do and it did a better job at it to boot: It gave him a personal incentive in the places where Phoenix is only ever acting on threats against his friends. It's a ridiculous story, for sure, but it really was sad when Revolutiondad's corpse turned up - and that, that is a sign they did something right. Even though I'd still really fucking like to know what kind of prophetic powers Spark Brushel posessed to know that Some Kid Whose Mother Is Unknown is the child that Thalassa Gramarye believed to have died and never told anyone about a decade earlier. Hoooooow.

In the end - no, I don't mind Apollo leaving the WAA with a promise to be back. I don't mind him striking out on his own for a noble purpose and with people he loves. What I mind is that the only person we ever really saw him love was Revolutiondad, and how effed up the judicial system in Narnia is doomed to be all the time they're relying on their unelected ruler's personal qualifications. Ultimately, I think my problem is that Bitchface was badly written. He's Edgeworth and Lana Skye, but both Edgeworth and Lana showed themselves sympathetic long before their true stories came to light. Bitchface was just a dick whose sprites kept stalling the gameplay for unacceptable amounts of time (that fucking butterfly). Edgeworth was funny because he had Gumshoe and Oldbag and Larry around to make him so; Bitchface never got that. Edgeworth was pitiful, once he was the one needing to be saved; Bitchface we barely even talked to outside of the court, and we never got to know anything about how HE sees his past with Apollo, or for fuck's sake - we never got to know what he thinks about RAYFA, his motivation for doing everything he did. Naught, nothing, never. If we got to see how Apollo and Bitchface love each other, that'd go a long way in both making Bitchface suck less, and in making Apollo's decision feel... well, more settled, for a lack of better word. He's leaving behind his friends and co-workers for this, and while I can understand that he'd stay for Revolutiondad, we're only ever told why he'd stay for Bitchface - we don't get to see it for ourselves. It is too little for me to give upon Apollo Justice for, if this was their way of putting him on a bus to clear up space for Phoenix again.

ALSO THERE WAS NO CLAY TERRAN HERE FUCK THIS GAME.