Hallo, alle miteinander, and welcome back to Wright Wednesday. This weekly series has us recap, analyze, and review the cases in the Ace Attorney series. Last week we finished the second case of the first game, and today we're starting Turnabout Samurai. I'm Roy, and joining me is...
Sam, The Game Professor! Tackling this game's most... well you'll see. This case is an interesting one. It starts with a segment of a show called the Steel Samurai. Maya, it turns out, loves this cheesy kid’s series, though Phoenix has no idea what it is or why everyone likes it so much. It’s been over a month since the last case, and it doesn’t seem that the Wright and Co. Law Offices have been getting any business in that time.
Whether or not Wright and Co has cases between the ones we play is a debate for another day, but I do love how much the series makes you feel like life goes on in the months between stories.
In the middle of the night, Maya calls Phoenix to tell him that the actor who plays the Steel Samurai was arrested for killing Jack Hammer, the man who plays the Evil Magistrate in the show. Hammer was found in his Magistrate costume, impaled with the Steel Samurai’s iconic spear. And just as Maya is watching a news report of the murder in the morning, the office gets a call from Will Powers, the Steel Samurai himself, asking them to defend him in court! Maya, of course, immediately takes the case without consulting Phoenix, who takes it surprisingly well.
Well, he does need to pay the rent.
True, he's not really in a position to refuse right now. So when they get to the detention center we’re introduced to Will Powers, who looks scary enough that Maya’s enthusiasm for meeting her hero immediately turns into conviction that he definitely murdered someone. But it turns out he’s just an adorable teddy bear crying about how the kids must feel now that the Steel Samurai is believed to be a murderer.
Will Powers is the first defendant in the series that Phoenix has never met before, and luckily for him and the player it's pretty clear this lovely man would never commit murder.
When asked about the murder, Will explains that the cast had a run-through from 10am to noon, and a rehearsal scheduled for 5pm. Will was tired, and napped until after 5, at which point he rushed to the rehearsal. But when everyone got there, Hammer was found dead near the set and Powers was arrested immediately. Phoenix decides to check out the scene of the crime, Global Studios.
Maya is excited to be at the studio where Steel Samurai is filmed, but that enthusiasm is abruptly cut short with the arrival of Wendy Oldbag, the studio’s cantankerous elderly security guard. She’s basically a walking “Millenials are destroying this thing” article, occasionally going on rants where the text autoscrolls through her complaints about kids these days.
Oldbag is, depending on the fan, either a beloved favorite or a cancerous rot. Or both at the same time.
Whatever she may be, she’s also a huge fan of Jack Hammer, and is rather convinced that Powers is guilty. Mainly because he was the only person she saw pass into the studio during the time between the 10am and 5pm rehearsals. But she won’t let Phoenix and Maya through without a letter requesting it, which Powers is happy to sign back at the detention center. He also reasserts that he was sleeping and has no idea how Oldbag saw him.
I love how Oldbag shifts between sweet old lady, cantankerous crone, and demonic security guard on a dime.
They’re let in, though Oldbag says their access will be restricted because a detective told her so. As soon as we enter, we realize who that detective is: it’s Gumshoe! And he’s really upset about how Wright humiliated Edgeworth, but when Maya blames him for the loss Gumshoe just gets all quiet and sad and blames himself for failing Edgeworth. Seriously, Gumshoe is adorable.
You can also show him your badge, which causes him to scoff and make it clear a detective badge is much cooler.
Gumshoe gives Phoenix the autopsy report and explains that Powers was seen entering Studio One at 1pm, when no one else was there but Hammer. Time of death was 2:30pm. Gumshoe also calls Oldbag a “sweet old charmer,” and says she gave him the decisive evidence; the photo from security footage of Powers heading toward Studio One. Powers had said Oldbag sucked up to authority, and it seems to be true.
We all have had a coworker just like Oldbag. Or maybe Kmart just attracts the mad.
Both? Let's say both.
Gumshoe also gives Nick and Maya access to the whole studio. Sadly, Studio One, the crime scene, is locked by a key card. Luckily, a quick trip to the Employer Area and Power's Dressing Room leads to Maya riffling through Will Power's stuff and nabbing his personal key card.
We're definitely seeing a new side of Maya in this case, which includes a general lack of concern for people's personal belongings.
Roy, that's not a stepladder.
What is it then?
It's just a ladder. You're adding words to it.
But...I thought...
Nope. Ladder.
A-anyway, a new character appears: Penny Nichols. She's an assistant at Global Studios, the only one who attended practice the day of the murder. She likes Mr. Powers and doesn't think he could have done it, and says that on the day of the murder she felt like someone from outside the studio was there.
I actually completely forgot this character even existed, so I look forward to what else I forgot about this case.
When Maya brings up the possibility of an outside force to Oldbag, she goes from tranquil fury to raging firestorm in seconds, and leaves her post to harass poor Penny.
I definitely feel sorry for Penny, but at least this makes an opportunity for us.
It does indeed: without Oldbag, Phoenix can use the guard station computer and print out a copy of the photo Oldbag gave to Gumshoe. Doing this requires the player either remember or write down the camera's number, which you find out from examining it. Well, that or trial and error. Either way, the picture is #2, which is suspicious, and depicts someone in the Steel Samurai costume, not necessarily Will Powers. With this evidence in hand, Phoenix thinks he's ready for trial the next morning.
The picture certainly is suspicious, considering the costume conceals the person's actual identity and it's also labeled #2 despite there being no other photos from that day, so it's far from decisive evidence. But that's an issue for the courtroom.
Now that we're done with the recap, let's move into analysis. Professor, take it away!
Well there's not much depth here for analysis, as this section is basically just introducing a bunch of scenarios and characters. But it is a really nice to see more of Maya's personality, since we've really only gotten to see her in mourning so far, and more of Gumshoe being a self-conscious teddy bear is much-needed setup for later events.
She definitely had some great establishing moments, such as if you examine food in the Employee Area and the dressing room, where she'll talk about how she has separate stomachs for different kinds of food.
What about the Steel Samurai? Considering how referenced it becomes in the series, it's interesting to see how it was first presented.
In fact, later on it's shown that a whole foreign country has become enamored with it! Of course in the original Japanese it's a parody of Sentai series, which transitioned pretty well with the localization, allowing it to play on our understanding of series like Power Rangers.
For sure; the big costumes, elaborate (yet arguably cheesy) fight scenes, the way the Steel Samurai always wins but never actually defeats the villain, all that stuff. Also the theme song is one of the best tracks in this game's soundtrack, and in this soundtrack that's saying something.
I'm not quite as in love with the theme as you are, but there's something deliciously cheesy about the character and the larger mythos that gets built over time. TvTropes often has silly pages devoted to detailing the tropes of series that don't exist, and I consider it the highest crime that the Steel Samurai franchise doesn't have a page yet.
It doesn't? That legitimately does surprise me.
Since it's been a month in universe, I think it's time to go over the usual examinables in Wright and Co. Out the window, Phoenix remarks on how much more popular the Gatewater has been lately, and that he can see the Bellboy in the room across the street.
Embellishing the truth about what happened a month ago in that very room, no doubt.
Charley the potted plant has been overwatered by Maya, who wonders if she's trying to make it grow faster or practice Chinese Water Torture.
I don't think either of those are how plants work...
The poster of the movie that once made Mia cry leads to Phoenix realizing he really needs to see the movie, but sadly the poster doesn't have the title on it. I hate trying to find a film based on minimal information.
Always annoying. Google helps, but isn't always perfect about it, and Phoenix doesn't know how to computer anyway. But he could probably just ask Maya.
I mean...he can computer better than Maya.
I mean...Maya would probably know what movie made her sister cry.
Last but not least, looking at Mia's law books causes Phoenix to feel fear at the thought that he might have to actually read them all. Our Ace Attorney, everybody.
Phoenix's dedication to his job lies in the action of dealing justice, not so much in actually understanding how law works.
Well, that about wraps it up for this week of Wright Wednesday. If it seemed a bit short...well, welcome to Turnabout Samurai everybody. Next week we'll be covering the first day of trial, which I'm sure will go smoothly and without incident of any kind.
Absolutely. No crazy emergency situations in this series! See you all then!
Auf wiedersehen!
No comments:
Post a Comment