Hallo, alle miteinander! We're on our second week of Rise From the Ashes here at Wright Wednesday, and that means it's time for the trial to begin! This is the weekly blog series where we recap, analyze, and review the cases of Ace Attorney. I'm Roy, and I have actually paid Capcom extra money before to play this case.
I'm Sam, and I only give Capcom money when absolutely necessary.
Stupid WiiWare port and the extra $1 it cost to buy this case...
Wow, that's...exceptionally scummy DLC practice considering it came on the original game for free. In any case, on to the first day of trial. Before court begins, Phoenix and Ema admit that the whole case is one big grey area, and Lana gives Phoenix an inversion of some rather familiar advice: never believe your client. If they’re suspected of wrongdoing, it would be foolish to simply assume they are innocent. Phoenix says that she reminds him a lot of Mia, except one major difference; she’s not a defense attorney. A simple statement, though perhaps one with deeper implications than simple profession.
In a way, it's the equal and opposite philosophy to Mia's. After all, prosecutors have to doubt the defendants, it is their job.
The first witness is Angel Starr, who dazzles the Judge with her food until Edgeworth finally forces things to continue. We find out that Starr was once a detective, at which point even the Judge recognizes her as “the Cough-Up Queen.” Her testimony is fairly straightforward; she was bringing lunch to her boyfriend when she saw Lana stab Goodman.
I don't know if there's some translation related reason for the name, but Cough-Up Queen is a clunky, weirdly suggestive nickname that doesn't feel like it works.
Yes, it's one of the rare moments when I feel like the localization slipped up on translating such idioms.
In pressing her testimony, we find out that Starr’s grudge against prosecutors is due to the fact that she was laid off from her investigative position. We also find out that she was in B-block, where visitors park, and thus was separated from the murder by a chain fence. It’s impressive, actually; I feel like the writing in this courtroom segment disseminates information more effectively through pressing multiple statements than the previous cases. Pressing non-essential statements still regularly yields information that helps the player better understand what happened.
True. My issue is when Phoenix brings up that, y'know, this witness is a self-identified prosecutor hater, and the defendant is the Chief Prosecutor. They just sweep that under the rug, when that should be a major issue, I'd think.
True, that doesn't get quite as much attention as it seems like it should. But then, "No, Phoenix, this legitimate issue you bring up will not help you at all, because screw you" is a fairly common occurrence in this franchise. In any case, when pressing her about seeing the crime, she reveals a photo she took of Lana with her hand on the open trunk of Edgeworth’s car. But as it turns out, a photo of Lana at the trunk of Edgeworth’s car proves little without seeing the victim, or even the knife. But of course, the photo is treated as having been taken directly after the stabbing, and there are dark stains on Lana’s jacked that, while unclear since the photo is black-and-white, appear to be blood splatters.
This is the kind of expert photography we're used to in the Ace Attorney series.
Even more to that point, Phoenix points out that this is clearly not the “moment of the murder,” as Starr claimed, since the victim isn't even visible and Lana is clearly not in the process of attacking anyone. But she deflects and claims the murder was premeditated, which is supported by the fact that Lana was wearing rubber gloves, presumably to avoid leaving fingerprints. But Phoenix resists the idea that it was premeditated by pointing out that the murder weapon was from Edgeworth’s toolkit, and had Lana planned the murder she would likely have brought her own weapon.
It's such a weird dodge, too. You corner her on the lack of evidence, and she's like, "Yeah, well, the murder was premeditated!" Lady, you haven't even proved Lana did it yet, what's wrong with you?
Seriously, it's like talking with a Flat-Earther or something; you point out the faulty evidence, and she just skips right along to some other, tangentially-related point she thinks will work better. Which comes back to bite us, of course, because proving the murder wasn't premeditated doesn't actually prove Lana didn't do it, and thus is kind of a useless victory. But Starr is asked to testify again, this time leaving out the details of what she thought in favor of a simple description of the facts. What she gives is quite the opposite, less a testimony of the events and more a theory as to why Lana did it. But in doing so, she mentions Lana madly plunging the knife into Goodman again and again, which contradicts the autopsy report that says he died of a single stab wound.
Ah yes, clearly Ms. Starr was one of the best detectives on the force. Obviously.
Obviously. In response to this glaring inconsistency, Starr corrects herself, saying that she had mistaken Lana’s red scarf for more blood and assumed she stabbed him more than once, but the picture she took shows that Lana wasn’t wearing that scarf during (or at least immediately after) the murder.
This is so dumb.
Very true. But rather than being dismissed for all her nonsense testimony and clear bias, Starr is asked to move on to the part where she arrested Lana, in hopes that there’s more accurate and useful information to be found there.
Angel testifies that Lana tried to run behind the partition, she pursued, arrested her, and then Lana mentioned something about a muffler, which is what confused her earlier. This testimony is so useless and so petty is beggars belief. She also mentions, outside the testimony but before the cross-examination, that Lana knocked over an oil drum in the struggle.
Yeah, it's really just a typical, "I did a thing, and oh also here's why I messed up before, yeah that explains it right, I'm definitely not lying" testimony. Typical for the Phoenix Wright universe, at least.
Pressing her statements reveals that Lana initially witnessed everything in B Block, which is 30 feet away from the crime scene and separated by a 9 foot tall chain link fence that she climbed over. Also, when she apprehended Lana, she was trying to make a call on the phone. Pressing further reveals that at first she'd tried the built-in phone in the wall, but when that didn't work she used her own cell phone, found at the scene of the crime.
I love when testimonies have such obvious flaws. Doesn't do much for the puzzle-solving elements of the game, but it's easy fun to point out, and displays how desperate the lies are getting.
Said flaw is that is would be impossible for Angel to see Lana making that call, as the phone is behind a partition that would hide her from B Block. At this point, Edgeworth asks Phoenix to explain what part of what Lana said is a lie: What she saw, Where she saw it, or The order of events.
The game has interesting ways of leading you to a conclusion sometimes.
As always, I chose the wrong options first, but both of them lead to everyone being like, "... that's possible, but what does it mean, and why would Angel lie about that? It seems meaningless" to which Phoenix has no rebuttal, and penalty.
No silly jokes or clever insults? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!
I mean, it's kind of funny, just a little lackluster. The correct answer is that she lied about where she was. She had to be somewhere where she could see the crime happening and Lana making the phone call, because it's such an inconsequential detail there would be no reason for her to lie about it. There's only one appropriate answer: the security office, which overlooks the entire lot.
This is a fairly easy one to figure out, on account of the game making note of the security office multiple times despite it having no relevance until this point.
One must wonder why there weren't any actual security guards there when the crime happened, but whatever. Angel was there, visiting her boyfriend, when she saw the crime through the window.
Her boyfriend who... I assume will also come into this somehow later? I don't remember this case very well, but it'd be weird if not.
Y-yeah Sam, that's definitely a character we'll get to meet...
I'm not sure if that's sarcasm and we never will, or that the security boyfriend is Larry Butz. I find both options equally likely.
Anyway, we have three choices here on how this new information changes everything: It changes the Angle of view to the crime, Distance to the crime, or Difference in lighting. The wrong options have no penalty, but no real jokes to them either. The right answer is based on distance. While the crime scene is still technically 30 feet away, Angel Starr had to go around a hallway and into B Block, cross that, and jump the fence. Angel admits that it took her around five minutes to reach the crime scene.
Which like... of course that's the kind of thing a disingenuous Ace Attorney witness omits from their testimony.
Phoenix points out that it makes no sense that Lana would just hang around the crime scene after supposedly committing murder for five minutes when she could have escaped. Angel has no rebuttal at first, and Edgeworth admits he has no other witnesses, so court is ready to be adjourned...when Angel Starr cuts in to offer Edgeworth some help. It turns out she has decisive evidence that she never turned over to the prosecution. In a new testimony, she explains that she took the victim's shoe from the scene of the crime, and had a different boyfriend in forensics test the blood on the top and bottom of the shoe: some of it belongs to the victim, and the rest belongs to the defendant.
I would say this twist is absurd, and further highlights Starr's untrustworthiness as a witness since she kept evidence just so prosecutors wouldn't have access to it, but holding evidence until a critical moment for little to no reason, regardless of the legality of such an act, is actually pretty common in the Ace Attorney universe.
We can talk more about that in the analysis section. Extensively. Anyway, before the cross-examination can begin, Edgeworth objects to the evidence being allowed. He brings up Evidence Law, something that has never been relevant before this case and will never be relevant after it's over. Basically, he rules that under Rule 1 of Evidence Law ("All evidence must be approved by the police department before the trial.") the shoe is inadmissible in court, as the shoe was not approved by the police department.
It is a weird rule that doesn't seem to fit well with the general legal system of the series, but... you know.
It isn't mentioned here, but Rule 2 of Evidence Law ("Unregistered evidence presented must be relevant to the case in trial. ") makes it clear that it's an either/or thing. All evidence has to either be preregistered by the prosecution/police department or be relevant, which as far as I can remember does nicely cover all evidence in the series.
Ah, okay that's fair.
Angel reveals that the shoe was, in fact, officially approved by the police department, as even citizens can independently submit evidence for a trial. This pisses Edgeworth off to no end, as he has no legal reason to reject the evidence.
I do love Edgeworth in this trial, as I'll talk about more in a bit.
After pressing around, Phoenix finds a contradiction with this otherwise damning piece of evidence: the blood on the sole of the shoe. Clearly, it would imply the detective stepped in a pool of his own blood, but looking at the crime scene photo, there is clearly no blood on the ground anywhere. It looks like things are going Phoenix's way when Edgeworth interjects. Remember earlier, how it turned out Lana kicked over an oil drum in her struggle? Well, turns out it was full of water, and once kicked over it cleaned the crime scene of the pool of blood.
A sensible enough observation, I suppose.
With no ammunition left for the defense, the Judge is ready to make a verdict, Ema commenting bitterly about how the witness is clearly in it with the prosecutor, that the trial is rigged. Right as the Judge is starting to make his verdict, Angel interrupts. She can't stand the idea that anyone thinks she's working with the prosecution to cover up the truth, so she brings out more secret evidence. It's another photo, this one at a different angle, and it shows the water on the ground clearly.
As much as I dislike this character, I love this bit and will explain later.
Honesty, I will give this section right here props, it's a solid character moment for both Angel and Edgeworth. Anyway, this gives Phoenix one last piece of evidence to find a contradiction with, or it's all over. Looking at the exhaust pipe, there's something clearly stuffed inside, something that apparently everyone investigating missed. This causes some linguistic confusion, as before they were talking about Lana's muffler, and this is a muffler, and honestly I'm kind of disappointed because I feel like the series is usually better at wordplay than this.
Yeah, it seems like there's a revelation that Lana's mention of a muffler was in reference to this when Starr thought it was about her scarf, but the whole thing kind of falls flat and makes no impact either emotionally or narratively. It just sort of... happens.
That's a good way of putting it. The Judge calls a recess so investigators can go retrieve whatever was inside the exhaust pipe, and in the lobby Phoenix and Ema are joined by Officer Marshall, who seems supportive, though mentions that, whatever the evidence says, he saw Lana Skye on the day of the incident, and she was wearing her red muffler at the time.
The plot thickens! In ways that I'm sure will make sense later!!
Once court resumes, one of the funniest moments of the game happens. Edgeworth starts off right away in his sweaty, frustrated animation, and the Judge gives a lengthy description of it that is absolute magic, I love it to death.
...wait.
Okay so this is not a bit: I thought that was the end of the court day and stopped playing when it did the timestamp thing. THIS CASE HAS SUCH LONG SEGMENTS.
Well then, hold on one moment, listeners, this recap will continue being made as soon as Samuel plays the rest of this day of trial. Which, thanks to editing magic, will be instantaneous for you.
And I've played it now!
So, like I said earlier, court resumes and the Crowning Moment of Funny for Edgeworth happens, with the Judge drawing out how pained and exasperated Edgeworth looks.
Poor Edgey is clearly having a rough go of it. I relished that look before, but now that he's more friendly and justice-minded it's just funny.
So, why exactly is Edgeworth so taken aback? Well, a big orange power man appears in the courtroom, who stares without dialogue for quite a while. This man is Damon Gant, the Chief of Police, and he has just brought Edgeworth some news about what was in the muffler, news that sent him into the state he's in now. Inside the muffler was a scarf, the clothing-type muffler everyone was talking about earlier, and wrapped inside it was a switchblade knife.
Side note: many people make a point to mention all the women in this series with exposed cleavage and feminine wiles, but wow does it have a lot of attractive older men. Pretty sure my wife has a crush on both Gumshoe and Gant.
Excuse me, I have a crush on both of them! Gant is old friends with the Judge, has fun nicknames for everyone, and is one of the first authority figures in the series who actually seems to like Phoenix. Edgeworth isn't in such a great mood because he's pissed off that the police missed such a huge piece of evidence, saying he doesn't want to hear excuses. Gant quickly turns the tables by pointing out the Edgeworth was in charge of the investigation, and makes it clear that if this is anyone's mistake, it's his.
Which reeks of the usual nonsense of these kinds of power structures, really; it seems as though Edgeworth was (perhaps intentionally) withheld information and put in a position where it was easier to make this mistake than not, but is now saddled with all the responsibility.
Someone wrote an essay online about how that very concept, but I can't find it anymore. A link in the comments would be amazing. The Judge asks Phoenix to open the blade of the knife, which reveals it's bloodstained and missing the tip. Gant gives a testimony, basically saying that he can't say anything about the knife because of legal reasons, but he is able to let slip that the police department has been quite busy, because a police detective was murdered in the police department, at the same time as Goodman's murder, but without an official link between the cases he can't give out any details. They don't want any leaks, and until it's officially released to the public, his lips are sealed.
Phoenix Wright villains (and like, I don't remember how this case turns out, but let my prediction be known that Gant totally did it) looooooove these kinds of technicalities.
You can call it a technicality if you want, but as far as I can tell, he's genuinely being bound by his position at the moment. You can press for some fun conversation with the Chief, but what needs to be done is to present the note the victim wrote to him asking for a connection between the switchblade and Goodman. You see, there's a tag on the knife, it's evidence from a previous case, the SL-9 Incident, and if you turn the victim's note upside down, it becomes clear that he wrote SL-9, a definitive link.
But then, taking things that don't seem to matter too much and turning an entire case around based on them is Phoenix's specialty.
Asking about the detective's division reveals that they were in Criminal Affairs, Division 1, the homicide unit. This is also where Gumshoe works, and it's the specific office visited in the previous case. One thing a lot of folks misunderstand with this case is that this is a large city with a large police force. There are multiple offices, evidence rooms, etc. I'll touch more on that next time.
Yeah, it can feel pretty small when we're only seeing a bit of it as one or two in-game locations, but it's not a small operation.
Asking about the detective's gender reveals that they were a man, which just leads to a silly joke. The important thing to ask about it the detective's ID number, which Gant is fine giving out because who goes with what number is top secret. The only issue is that the given ID number is the same as the one on Detective Goodman's identification card. The detective, killed at the same time as Bruce Goodman across town, was also Bruce Goodman.
The opening cutscene did show two murders taking place in the exact same way at the exact same time, but the reveal that they were (apparently) both the same person is a hell of a twist.
Edgeworth did not see this coming and blows a gasket, accosting Gant on why he wasn't told about this sooner. After all, as the Chief of Police pointed out earlier, Edgeworth is in charge of this investigation. The normally jovial Gant makes it clear that Edgeworth should not be talking to him in that tone, and reveals that it is Edgeworth who bears the responsibility of his ignorance. Remember the last section, when a police officer interrupted Edgeworth in his office and Edgey threw a fit? Well, it turns out he was trying to deliver the report with all of this information, and Edgeworth didn't even look at it.
Yes, this one is on Edgeworth, I'll give him that.
Yep, he legit made a huge mistake. Edgeworth tries to cover his ass by saying that it should have been given to him mid-trial, but Gant brings up Evidence Law. Since it wasn't publicly known information and it wasn't on the prosecutor's list of evidence, it had to have its relevance proven in court before it could be submitted, which Phoenix just did. As the trial day comes to a close, Gant makes it clear that he isn't happy with Edgeworth's job performance, and Edgeworth actually apologizes, profusely so. With this new mystery on everyone's mind, the day of court ends, as does our recap for the day. So, Professor, how would you like to start the analysis?
Well let's start with the first witness, Angel Starr. I'm legitimately considering whether she's worse than Lotta "I just wanted to be famous" Hart.
You're not wrong. I'm just going to say this now: this is the worst segment of this trial, and maybe one of the worst trial segments in the entire series. It's up there with "Silk Hat! Cloak! White Roses!" and that's very much because of Angel Starr.
Yeah, in general the witnesses that legitimately don't know anything and are making stuff up for their own reasons are less interesting than most, and when their reasons are nonsense it's just annoying. Starr is pretty bad in that regard.
Not only that, she starts the day off doing the job of a detective, giving the base facts of the case, in addition to her own witness duties, because she's a "professional". But at the same time, she's constantly making it clear that she hates prosecutors which renders any ability for her to be treated as a neutral third party completely ridiculous.
Yeah, Phoenix Wright isn't the most accurate simulation of a courtroom, but this stretches believability even by this game's standards.
Angel also has that whole Cough-Up Queen thing and that's...weird? We brought it up earlier regarding localization, but whether intended or not it has a sexual undertone, especially when combined with her polyamory. It feels slut-shamy at worst and just kind of gross at best.
Yeah, she's a weird character like that. The nickname makes little sense in the first place, and combined with the game's seeming unawareness that polyamory is an actual thing (making it seem more like she's just sleeping around and likely cheating) it does just seem kind of gross. And you know, why not add a problematic undertone to an already annoying character, sure.
Add to all of that the fact that she is consistently insulting and loves to talk down to others, her cross examinations are boring, and her character design is nothing that interesting, and you get a character who feels out of place and unneeded.
Pretty much. It didn't feel as much like filler to me as, say, the first Steel Samurai court session, but that's mostly because we don't know as much going in this time around. It still feels just kind of pointless and annoying.
Angel gets four testimonies. That is insane, especially considering how little was actually learned in any of them. In terms of character motivation, the game will try to make her somewhat more sympathetic going forward, but she holds herself up on this weird pedestal, like she's some kind of impossibly awesome person, yet in practice she doesn't seem very capable at all. She's not the worst Ace Attorney character, but I feel like we got overdosed on her.
Honestly, thus far I get the impression this case just thinks it should go on longer than it actually should. Both the investigation and trial segments were far longer then those of previous cases, and I'm not sure if they just used their time poorly or shouldn't be that long at all, but either way it seems a bit much.
Like I said at the end of the last Wright Wednesday, this case is trying to replicate the three-day structure that only the first game ever used but combined it with the length that segments have in every game after it, making it so long.
Yep. But thankfully, the latter part is a bit better, because I really enjoy Gant. I mean I kind of hate him, and definitely think he did it, but he's great.
I want to save a full discussion on Gant until the final part of this case, but I do love his introduction and he makes the last part of this case so much more fun. The disconnection between his affable mood, serious threats, and long bouts of staring with no dialogue is immediately noteworthy.
For sure. He comes across as genuinely likable and kind of meek, at first, but there's a point where he's about to shift the blame to Edgeworth where we get a flash of a seriously hostile smile, and it's a real great moment.
We should also talk about Evidence Law and the dissemination of information, which are basically things that are only important to this case.
How so?
Well, this is literally the only time the rules of Evidence Law are ever brought up, just this case. They're mostly consistent with evidence in other cases, but right now they're a seed to be remembered for later in the case.
Consistency within the case is good, at least. This case also seems to be setting up some familiar thematic conflicts; specifically those of corruption. We get more of a peek into the world of law enforcement in the Phoenix Wright universe than before, and it let's us see even more of the internal politics that sometimes muck up the pursuit of justice.
Like the three-day structure, I feel like that was a deliberate effort to tie this case in with the rest of the game. As we're already seeing, it's also added more consequences to the results of the last case.
For sure. And I am impressed with how well they tied it in to the events of the original game considering it was made afterward. As usual, the first investigation and trial segments are more setup than payoff, for obvious reasons, so there will be a lot more analysis to do later.
For sure. Well, since it seems we're done for the week, next time it will be back to investigating, but this time we'll be looking at a different crime scene for the same murder. Somehow. Auf wiedersehen!
Until next time!
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