Yeah, let's go with that. Now then, Sir Professor, could you give a brief recap for what happened last week?
The game's second case opened with the murder of Phoenix's mentor, Mia Fey, and the framing of her younger sister Maya. Phoenix agreed to defend her in court after the lawyer who trained Mia suspiciously refused to do so. In investigating, Phoenix met the bumbling but well-intentioned Detective Gumshoe, questioned the suspicious April May, who called the police from her hotel room opposite the site of the murder, and found out that the prosecutor assigned to this case was the legendary and intimidating Miles Edgeworth.
The trial starts immediately, no pre-trial talk. Prosecutor Edgeworth immediately makes himself clear as a charismatic man who easily pulls the court's favor towards him. His first witness is Detective Gumshoe, who presents the facts of the case to the court in his opening testimony.
I was actually surprised, upon replay, how nonchalant Edgeworth's introduction is. There are no theatrics, no intimidation, he just matter-of-factly states the facts of the case and brings Gumshoe to the stand.
There are no outright contradictions to find in Gumshoe's testimony, but as Phoenix freaks out Maya throws him a note explaining a tactic of her sister's: Pressing for details. Pressing Gumshoe's testimony leads to lots of funny dialogue, but when Pressed about the "decisive evidence" that lead to Maya's arrest, he remembers to bring up the note with Maya's name written in blood.
I do enjoy that we're taught one of the game's primary mechanics by Maya throwing a crumpled note at Phoenix's head.
That sure is a way to learn it. I would have preferred it in the actual tutorial, but still. Anyway, Phoenix uses the autopsy report, which states the death was immediate, to point out that it would be impossible to write a note in your own blood if the blow was instantly fatal. The tide seems to be turning...until Edgeworth shuts it down entirely.
How? Why, it seems the autopsy report Phoenix has...is outdated. Edgeworth ordered a second autopsy the day before, and received the results just before the trial: death may have been instantaneous, but it's also possible she lived for several minutes before death. This completely removes Phoenix's objection, much to his ire.
This is the point where Edgeworth gets to show off a little, and between the rumors that he'll do anything to get a verdict and the joy he seems to take in using this suspiciously new evidence to throw Phoenix off-balance, he starts to come across as a bit more dangerous at this point.
There's a great three-way choice here that I absolutely adore: "You're a sham, Edgeworth!" which leads to Phoenix confronting the prosecutor and claiming he forged the evidence, "The detective's a sham!" which leads to Gumshoe's salary being dropped as the whole court frowns at him, and "I'm a sham!" which has mostly the same effect but might be the funniest choice in the entire series.
Poor Gumshoe, I just want him to be secure and happy for once.
We're going to come back to that autopsy report later on in the analysis portion. Until then, Gumshoe's time in court is done, and April May is called to the stand. In seconds, she has the whole court wrapped around her finger. Except Edgeworth, who seems completely undistracted by the boobies.
Those boob bouncing animations. Yeesh.
Her testimony is pretty simple: she saw Maya attack Mia, she tried running away to the right, then the blow came and Mia died. Before cross-examination, Edgeworth calls out Phoenix for Mia's methods, making it clear what he thinks about "picking apart perfectly good testimonies until inconsistencies appear".
I do like that the game basically has the antagonist call out how amateur the process of the game's mechanics are, like we feel like we're solving such a great puzzle but so often we (and Phoenix) are just guessing and stalling until we get something right.
Pressing through the testimony reveals something odd: when questioned how she knows the attacker was Maya, April gets vague, talking about a girly figure. Phoenix points out how Maya dresses incredibly oddly, isn't that the first thing she'd notice? April says she thought details like that weren't needed, so the Judge orders her to give another testimony, this time without anything left out.
She gives a more detailed testimony this time, even intentionally referencing Maya’s clothing, but makes the mistake of calling the Thinker statue a clock when no one in the court had made mention of its true nature. Phoenix presses her on how she knew it was a clock, at which point she claims she heard it when she witnessed the murder; but Phoenix has heard the phone conversation between Mia and Maya, in which Mia says she took the clockwork out to hide some important papers. Edgeworth challenges this, pointing out that the clockwork could have been removed after the murder and haughtily boasting that it’s impossible to prove otherwise… but of course Phoenix does have proof, and says it so bluntly that Edgeworth about has a heart attack.
Really, that phone and the conversation on it is the only reason Maya wasn't found guilty. Edgeworth didn't know about it, and therefore couldn't plan for it.
April May tries to claim she knew it was a clock because she’d seen it in a store before, but of course Phoenix knows it’s one of only two that Larry Butz made himself, so she could not have. At this point, and after a couple teasing jabs from Phoenix, April May loses it and vehemently asserts Maya’s guilt with a barrage of intense and insulting language.
Her mode change is kind of uncanny valley.
I love her face when she's taken aback though: her eyes go wide and there's that little twitch and you just know you struck a nerve.
This is the first point in this case that really showcases one of this series’ most powerful elements; when you back a witness into enough of a corner that the music picks up and they lash out irrationally and you know you’ve finally broken through their lies. I honestly believe it’s one of the most exhilarating experiences in gaming, and while this is far from the best example in the game, it is one of the first.
In this new persona April has lost her cutesy sex appeal for a more...Hulk-inspired vibe? It's a good thing Phoenix is standing a few feet away, otherwise APRIL SMASH!
She recovers from this outburst fairly quickly, and the Judge tries to get her to explain how she knew it was a clock. She refuses to answer, but Phoenix postulates that she had heard about it ahead of time, and produces the wiretap he found in her apartment as evidence. She gets angry again, only to revert to crying and lamenting that everyone is ganging up on her, but the court has seen through her facade now.
This is when Edgeworth intervenes and really shows why he's truly a fearsome logical opponent.
The player can choose to accuse her of being the murderer or just ask her why she tapped the phone, but either way things are thrown off when she testifies that the bellboy was at her room for room service and can give her an alibi. And since the wiretapping doesn’t invalidate the testimony of seeing Maya kill Mia, there’s not much to work from. So Phoenix asks to question the bellboy, which Edgeworth agrees to on the condition that Phoenix accept a guilty verdict if no proof is found.
The moment when Edgeworth jumps in here is great, because he just completely throws April under the bus. Unlike Payne, who we'll see later is always willing to defend witnesses against the defense, Edgeworth takes the path that gets him the guilty verdict, regardless of who is hurt in the process.
Indeed, and this characterization not only further establishes his determination and skill as a lawyer, it gives the player further reason to wonder if Edgey would actually go so far as to doctor evidence.
The bellboy is called in, and testifies to the fact that April May had called for coffee to be brought to her at exactly 9pm. But the only problem Phoenix can find with the testimony is a suspicion that April May flirted with the bellboy to make sure he remembered her in case of this event. Edgeworth is ready to call the whole thing off, but the player can choose one more thing to ask him about; if asked about check-in, the bellboy laments that he’d have no chance with Miss May with her lover there, revealing that she had checked in with another man that had previously gone unmentioned.
Fun fact I found out just this playthrough: all the options lead to him admitting a second person in the room.
Oh really? I remembered this bit so I picked the question I knew would lead there, but I hadn't expected all would do that. Ace Attorney has a lot of false choices, but I figured this one would just let you pick again if the question yielded no results.
I thought the same thing! This playthrough I'm deliberately choosing every wrong choice, and the other options here are pretty funny. Especially the one about bed making, where he slips up on how he had to bring enough pillowcases for two people. Like...does the number of people affect that? It's a hotel room!
At this point the bellboy can no longer dodge the fact that Edgeworth had actually told him ahead of time not to mention this other person unless specifically asked. This both casts doubt on Edgeworth’s integrity and proves that Miss May could have had a conspirator, and thus could have been involved with the murder despite her very intentional alibi. This is enough to delay the verdict by another day, much to Edgeworth’s anger and dismay, during which time the prosecution and defense are both to investigate the matter more fully.
I know you usually start off the analysis, but I wanted to kick it off with talking about that Updated Autopsy Report. This event is often-referenced in the fandom, and for good reason. Later on in the series, without spoilers, Edgeworth makes it clear he never knowingly presented forged evidence in court, and certainly never forged any himself. Some fans feel this is retroactive continuity, and claim this Updated Autopsy Report is clearly a case of forged evidence.
I think that detail is kept intentionally unclear for the sake of contributing to the player's unease about Edgeworth and uncertainty about the quality of his character. And honestly, I'd guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle; perhaps he didn't straight-up make this up, but pressed the mortician to acknowledge any possibility that Mia may have lived so the autopsy would more believably correlate with the blood-written note. I could see him justifying that as simply moving the perception given by the evidence toward the obvious conclusion, rather than straight-up forging evidence.
Well, some people see it as definitely forged because Phoenix clearly believes it is, but I think the text supports Edgeworth here. After all, in the opening cinematic Mia says "Red...white...blue..." after being struck dead, so clearly death wasn't instantaneous, and that initial autopsy report was flawed. I think Edgeworth noticed the flaw in his case ahead of time and had it reinvestigated to clear it up. Is that unethical? Only in that he didn't immediately give Phoenix the updated report, I would say.
I would say it was a bit biased and arguably a little dishonest, but it's certainly not on the same level as forging evidence. It does speak to Edgeworth's overzealousness in ensuring criminals are put away, and how it can sometimes work against actually finding the truth, but we'll be getting back to that later on.
Honestly, this case sells Edgeworth on a level I don't think any prosecutor has ever been sold afterwards. (With possibly one exception?) You really get an idea of his ability and mindset here, and it's so fun to play, especially for his minor freakout after the cell phone's reveal.
For sure. Which really, aside from moving the story forward, is the main thing this court session needs to do. This is our introduction to the man who will be our antagonist for most of this game, and he gets a pretty solid introduction here.
What else would you say stuck out to you in this play session?
Well it's been a looooong time since I last played this game, so I did notice a few little logical nitpicks, like how I had to prove the Thinker was a clock when I had already presented it to prove the clockwork had been taken out to fit the evidence, and how April May claimed the clock sounded when she had theoretically heard the phone conversation because of the wiretap, but those are minor things that I honestly don't care about very much.
My favorite part was definitely when Edgeworth yells, "OBJECTION! I object! That was... objectionable."
That is a great line. The last thing I can think of to talk about is the Bellboy, who is a lovely character with no name who reappears sporadically throughout the series, and is generally just a nice guy who is really enthusiastic about his job.
Also that Edgeworth's "OBJECTION!" is auditory nirvana.
Yes, the bellboy is a fun character. Nice, enthusiastic, and kind of easily manipulated by beautiful women.
As much as I want to comment on Edgeworth's character arc, it really hasn't started yet. Unless you count seeing how ruthless he is in court as part of that arc, which I don't really. Any last thoughts?
Yeah, this is all character setup for his arc; no point getting ahead of ourselves.
Not any specific thoughts, really. It's harder to talk about much more without getting into its place in the larger context of the case and game. This is a fun court session and I enjoy it, but that comes as no surprise.
Alright then. Next week, we'll be continuing with the next investigation segment, and let me tell you: I am very excited. Auf wiedersehen!
Until next time!
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