Hallo, alle miteinander, and welcome back to Wright Wednesday. This is the weekly blog series where we recap, anaylze, and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series. I'm Roy, a jack of all trades.
And I'm Sam, a jack of a few particular trades.
I'd say you're more a master of your fields of choice.
The trades I have chosen, yes!
We're currently nearing the end of the climactic case for the first game, Turnabout Goodbyes. Today we'll be covering the last segment of investigation, which begins with Phoenix and Maya mulling over the last things Edgeworth told them only hours before: that he's been haunted for years by a crime he committed. Before they can puzzle over that more, Larry arrives. At first he jokes around and how they should thank him more for saving the day (though really, they should, Butz saved Edgeworth's life), but then gets serious: Edgeworth's life is still on the line.
This series does make a habit of using the most unlikely characters and circumstances to deliver vital, life-saving developments.
Don't look a gift Butz in the mouth.
Certainly not! Quirky characters that also actually matter are my jam.
Larry also brings up that, from the courtroom audience, Edgeworth seemed shifty, like he still hadn't told the truth to the court, or at least not the whole truth. Phoenix doesn't disagree, but makes it clear he'll believe in Edgeworth and Larry to the bitter end. After all, they saved him in grade school, a story that Larry doesn't even recall, so Phoenix tells it.
We had heard the basics before, but it's nice to get the full story here.
Actually, all we've gotten so far are quick flashes of a crying child Phoenix and mentions of his past connections to Larry and Edgeworth.
Oh, guess I'm remembering wrong. In that case it's nice to finally get an explanation for those hints!
In fourth grade, Phoenix was accused of stealing a classmate's lunch money. The teacher turned the incident into a class trial, and everyone ganged up on Phoenix, with even the teacher making it clear they thought he was completely guilty.
Can I just say, that's a pretty horrible thing for the teacher to do? Basically just turning the class loose to accuse and harass Phoenix because he was accused of something even the victim didn't blame him for? Come on.
Speaking of the victim, young Edgeworth jumps to Phoenix's defense despite it being his money that was stolen. He points out that there's no evidence pointing to Phoenix and Larry shames the class for ganging up against him.
Canon: child Edgeworth is a better teacher than his actual teacher...no I am not over that, I am appalled at what this teacher allowed in their class. But yes, go Edgeworth.
After that day, the three children were close friends. But that ended when Edgeworth moved away, directly following his father's death. Larry barely remembers the ordeal, but that doesn't really matter to Phoenix. This is why he became an attorney. He tried again and again to contact Edgeworth over the years, but the next time he saw anything about him was in an article about the Demon Prosecutor. By becoming a defense attorney, Phoenix gave him no choice, forcing their reunion: in court.
This is quite a reveal for why Phoenix chose the career path that he did, and there will be plenty to discuss when we get to the analysis portion.
Heading to the park entrance shows that Gumshoe is on the hunt for the boat shop caretaker, and the area where Lotta was camping is now off limits. The area outside said caretakers shop has Phoenix and Maya run into Grossberg, who is on a stroll. He lets them know that if they find anything interesting, to come by his office and show him. His experience might help.
Do we ever find out what he was doing there? I get that we need him to show up so we know to stop by his place at some point, but I'm not sure I understand what he was doing at the residence of a suspect in this case.
He was just on a walk, he probably didn't even know it was where the old man lived. It is a park, after all.
That's fair.
Once inside the shack, Maya is excited to open the caretaker's safe, since the parrot freely tells anyone who asks the code. Inside is a letter...one that describes the murder plan in perfect detail, exactly how Phoenix said it happened in court.
Kind of impressive that Phoenix's flailing got it exactly right, as opposed to simply bringing up questions and theories that justified further examination.
That's the magic of bluffing in court, dear boy!
Phoenix shows the letter to Edgeworth, and they understandably conclude this must be related to the DL-6 incident. It’s at this point that Edgeworth puts the pieces together and realizes the old man is probably Yanni Yogi, the man who was in the elevator with Miles and his father, and was declared innocent.
I'll bring this up later in the analysis portion, but he was declared Not Guilty due to Insanity, not innocent. Actually, courts never declare people "innocent".
That's fair, I guess that is a distinction worth noting. Edgeworth finally opens up about what exactly happened, explaining that a strong earthquake knocked out power to the building while he, his father, and Yanni were in an elevator. The lights went out, the air thinned, and tensions rose as Yanni started panicking. The next thing Edgeworth remembers is waking up in a hospital bed. In court, the defense attorney claimed that Yanni was temporarily insane due to the oxygen deprivation and stress, a claim backed up by Yanni’s brain damage and lack of memory. After explaining all this, Edgeworth finally sees fit to tell Phoenix everything.
Which is the thing you're supposed to do before the trial starts, not at the last possible minute.
Edgeworth's approach so far has been rather melancholic and intentionally self-destructive, so it's nice to at least see him trying at this point. Turns out he’s been having the same dream every night for the last 15 years. A dream in that elevator, in which Yanni Yogi attacks Edgeworth’s father in a frenzy, and Miles sees a gun and throws it to stop the assault. It goes off. Edgeworth says he’s believed it was just a dream, to keep himself sane, but he fears it may be a repressed memory, and that it may have actually been him who killed his father.
Which would be accidentally killing, not a crime, and definitely not murder which is what every character in this game calls it.
To try and clear things up, Phoenix and Maya head to Grossberg’s office to see if he knows anything that could help. He mostly recounts the DL-6 incident, with added insight that Robert Hammond, the victim in this current case, was a defense attorney based on his own abilities, not the trust or well-being of his clients, and thus did not care that Yanni’s career was ruined regardless of his innocence.
That, at least, is sadly realistic.
But when Phoenix shows Grossberg the letter from the old man’s boat house, he realizes the handwriting looks familiar. Phoenix can make a few suggestions, but the one that clicks with Grossberg is that of Manfred von Karma. He wrote the note to Yanni. Which means von Karma is the one who orchestrated this whole thing.
Now, obviously, Phoenix just needs to keep it safe and wait for court the next day...
Hahahahaha anyway Grossberg concludes that if this was von Karma’s doing, he probably knows that Edgeworth accidentally killed his father, and will bring that up in court the next day. The motivation is unsure; perhaps he’s hurting Edgeworth to get a sort of roundabout revenge on his late father for accusing von Karma of false evidence in a previous case. Gregory Edgeworth put the closest thing to a black mark on von Karma’s record.
This is, as we all know, the kind of thing that inspires long-term murderous revenge schemes.
Grossberg suggests looking at the police records for the case with all this in mind, but when Phoenix and Maya get there the DL-6 file is completely empty and von Karma is in the room with them. He refuses to explain why he took the son of his rival under his wing, but confirms that he expects Edgeworth to plead guilty to DL-6 tomorrow.
He also doesn't recognize Phoenix or Maya at all which is frankly amazing.
Because Phoenix apparently never learns some things, the player has to present the letter to von Karma, which results in him admitting that he did indeed write it, and told Yanni to burn it. He thanks Phoenix for bringing it to him, and pulls out a stun gun. Maya tries to take the metaphorical bullet for Phoenix, telling him to run, but since Phoenix is still an idiot he just stands there while Maya is electrocuted, and von Karma turns the weapon on him next.
We will assuredly talk about this more in the analysis section.
When Phoenix comes to, the letter is gone, and Maya, while alright, is once again disappointed that she was unable to help, and sinks further into her belief that she’s useless to Phoenix and can’t help the case. But Phoenix notices she’s holding something; an evidence bag holding the bullet that pierced the heart of Gregory Edgeworth in the DL-6 case. She must have grabbed it off von Karma when she jumped him. Phoenix vows to use it to prove Maya’s worth in court the next day.
While this investigation period is rather short, much of import happened. Have would you like to start the analysis, Sam?
Well much of what's going on in this chapter relates to themes the game has already brought up multiple times--especially that of corruption--but it's also started really digging into the trauma that characters, especially Edgeworth, carry with them. It adds something of a more personal exploration of how these events affect the people involved, and it's more powerful for the fact that it's so adversely affecting the character that, up until now, the game has gone to great lengths to paint as stoic, stable, and strong.
The concept that Edgeworth's hatred of crime may on some level be a self-hatred for his own crime is fascinating, and it adds up with the guilt and low self-esteem we've seen exposed in this case.
Exactly. A single traumatic incident basically flipped his ideology around, so he pursues the same goal he always believed in from the completely opposite direction. He still values justice, but his approach has been so tainted by fear and hatred (directed as much at himself as the criminals he prosecutes) that he's implied to have caused more injustice than not. Seeing how this one event haunts him and defines his worldview and career is very revealing.
At the same time, we see how Phoenix became the man we know today, or at least what started him down that path. In some ways, it's definitely a childish reason to choose a career, but it reflects Phoenix's single-minded determination and drive. The fact that he chose his job so he could meet Edgeworth again recasts his journey in a new light: this has never just been about saving people, it's been about redeeming his friend.
It is a childish reason, but also one that speaks to Phoenix's character and motivations in a very powerful way. Both Edgeworth and Phoenix do what they do out of a passionate belief in justice, but Phoenix does it from a place of empathy and a desire to save people. Edgeworth does it out of fear and a desire to punish people. And it can be shocking how different the results can be between those two motivations.
This will be much more relevant next game, but I stand resolute that justice is more of a byproduct of Phoenix's efforts than a goal. He moreso focuses on saving those he believes are good and damning those he sees as evil.
That's fair, though "saving the good and damning the evil" is basically what justice is. It's just that Phoenix comes at it from a relatively naive perspective where he basically decides which is which early on and moves forward relentlessly under that assumption. Which again, is the same process as Edgeworth, but from the completely opposite perspective.
I'd argue that, in addition to that, Phoenix's perspective is, at it's worst, very black and white. But again, that's the next game's theme. We mentioned it in the recap, but this is really when Maya's self esteem problems hit. Not only has she been completely unable to contact Mia, but she feels useless for her inability to stop von Karma. That isn't exactly rational, but low self esteem rarely is.
And also kind of relates back to the theme of trauma that Edgeworth is headlining. She discovered her sister's dead body, and her self-esteem problems are exacerbated by the fact that she feels a need to fill the void Mia left, and she's finding herself unable to do so. And really, I wouldn't be surprised to find that this is part of why she stuck around in the first place.
That and, as we'll see later in the series, her life back at home isn't exactly one she'd want to return to. With her mother missing and her sister dead, Maya is next in line to lead the family. It's entirely reasonable that another reason to stay in LA with Phoenix is to avoid her responsibilities and be somewhere she feels comfortable, with a friend who cares about her, doing a job that she finds she isn't bad at, able to be her silly self with freedom. But her inability to summon Mia has her doubting all of that, and we'll see next week where that leads her.
Yeah, it's really all coming to a head now! If this isn't the strongest case in the game it's at least the most compelling on a narrative level, I'd say, especially as it's what everything has been building up to from the beginning.
That said, it isn't without faults. The information learned today about DL-6 raises some serious questions. Everyone has been talking about how, because Yanni Yogi was declared Not Guilty, he was probably innocent of the murder, hence shaming the Fey family for Misty fingering Yanni as the culprit. But he was given that plea due to an insanity plea! That's basically an admission that he did kill the victim! How was Misty wrong? Why is everyone assuming Yanni's innocence?! This is a key part of both this case the entire series's lore but it makes no sense!!!
That's... okay yeah, that's a fair point. Kind of a glaring issue, actually.
There's also the issue of presenting the letter to von Karma. You want to tackle that ludonarrative dissonance, Sam?
Ugh. Okay.
Oh come on, you're the one who taught me the phrase!
I forget if we've defined this in previous Wright Wednesdays, but ludonarrative dissonance is a concept in game design/criticism that describes when a game's story and gameplay are, essentially, not in sync. Where the message or feeling of the gameplay contradicts that of the story. Now at this point in the story, Phoenix has had antagonists take critical evidence from him twice already. The player knows how this goes. They know showing von Karma the letter would be a stupid thing to do. But they have to do it to move on, so they do, and it unfolds exactly as expected.
Now I have to specify, this is not inherently a problem. Some of the most powerful moments in games I've played have been ones that require me to do something that I, as a player, would not do, and do not want to do, but that the character I'm controlling absolutely would, so I have to. It can be a great storytelling tool.
Ooooorrrrrr it can take you out of the experience by so disconnecting you from your in-game actions that it shines a light on narrative weaknesses. This is a glaring example of the latter.
It feels like they wrote themselves into a corner: the only way to make the player realize von Karma planned the murder is with really obvious evidence, but said evidence can't be taken into the next trial day as it would take away all the challenge and gameplay from it. So you're forced to get rid of it in the dumbest way possible.
It certainly does present a writing challenge. But there has to have been a more elegant solution than this. Even a plot contrivance would have been better than making the player do something both they and Phoenix should know better than to do by this point.
On the subject of von Karma, I think we should talk about the stun gun using jerkface.
Well, he's... a dick.
Thanks for that stunning observation, professor.
I mean, he's basically everything the rumors painted Edgeworth to be. There's not too much here we didn't already know about him, aside from just the extreme lengths he'll actually go to.
I mean, murder is pretty extreme yes. So is assault.
Can we assume he is also either a master hacker or has the police department in his pocket? Because no way are there no security cameras in the freaking evidence room.
Eh, it's an evidence room for old cold cases, I can believe there's no need for security beyond getting police approval before going in. Now, why Phoenix and Maya didn't try to tell the police about the incident afterwards is up for speculation.
That's fair. I feel like two people who had just been tazed walking out of a room in the police department right after a smug prosecutor who's known for his ruthless tactics might beg explanation.
I mean, unless they tell anyone, how would they know they were tazed?
Specifically, they might not, but I don't get the impression one who just had a ton of electricity pumped through them would look like they're doing particularly well.
Maybe the police think any defense team against von Karma will just look that bad all the time?
That... yeah, I could actually see that. Especially in the Phoenix Wright universe. In any case, this whole incident mirrors the similar encounter with Redd White in many ways, and it similarly cements von Karma as a dangerous enemy.
Is there anything else you thought was worth discussing from today?
Off the top of my head, I think we covered it! Lots to talk about in the game's finale next time (not counting the case that was stapled onto the DS version), so we'll have a lot of fun then!
We will indeed! Auf wiedersehen!
Later everyone!
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