Hallo alle miteinander! It's once again time for Wright Wednesday, where we recap analyze and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series. We're one third of the way through Rise from the Ashes, the last case in the original Ace Attorney game, and boy do we still have so much to do. I'm Roy, and I'm ready to see more of the Blue Badger.
I'm Sam, and I see enough of the Blue Badger in my nightmares, thank you very much.
He's only there to arrest the monsters!
Until he realizes...he is one.
Okay, I will not accept any more slander against my boy in blue. This investigation segment starts with Ema and Phoenix trying to go over what they've just learned in court, namely that Detective Bruce Goodman was murdered in two separate locations at the same time. Some people would call this "absolutely impossible", but it earned them another day before a verdict, so they'll need to find out what's going on.
"Impossible" just means "haven't figured it out yet." Or more appropriately for Phoenix Wright, "haven't flailed around enough to stumble upon the explanation."
Ema isn't going to let a difficult mystery get her down, because she has science on her side. They automatically head the Prosecutor's Office Parking Lot and she unveils a secret weapon she'd bought with her allowance: luminol testing fluid. As every CSI-esque show ever has shown, this liquid can reveal blood that's been wiped away, and spraying the area reveals a small pool of blood directly outside the car's trunk. There's something odd about it though, it's a weirdly small amount of blood considering someone was stabbed to death. The location of the blood is added to the floor plans, which is really nifty.
It's a nice feature for sure. It gives more readily available and specific information when we'll inevitably use the floor plans in court.
Angel Starr suddenly appears, and Ema confronts her on lying in court. Angel defends herself by saying that the part about Lana stabbing Goodman was true so the rest isn't that important, and she did what she felt she had to do. She also ruminates on her past as a detective, and on the whole Cough-Up Queen nickname, which is still both gross sounding and out-of-place feeling.
At least we actually know where it comes from now. I can see the logic, it's just not a very good... thing. The whole thing.
Yeah, the idea that she got the nickname because she was good at interrogating witnesses...I'm just not going to touch that. Presenting evidence related to the SL-9 Incident has her reveal more about it. It was the biggest case she ever worked on, with high profile talent all around, and the killer was arrested, tried, and executed. The only issue is that Angel thinks they used fabricated evidence to get the conviction, even though she does believe the suspect was the real killer.
Finding out more about her makes me wish she was a better character, honestly. A disgraced detective, still obsessed with the case that ended her career and working behind the scenes to uncover the truth with her partner of old... I'm into it. It's just, you know. She's weird and bad.
Yep. Great idea, terrible execution. Several months after the trial ended, many of the people involved were quietly dealt with. She was fired, and Jake Marshall was demoted from a detective to a patrolman. It's implied others suffered similar fates, but that's never really elaborated on.
Honestly there's enough going on in this case without adding more characters. I'm good.
True, I just wished she'd name-checked some other detectives or something, but whatever. Because of what happened, Angel has grown to hate prosecutors, seeing them as being the ones behind the false evidence and her firing. She's been working with Officer Marshall to find the real truth that they attempted to bury. Since she sees that Phoenix really wants to discover the truth as well, she gives him a steak lunch box to give to Marshall so they can procure his help in their investigation.
I promise this will be my last time saying this, but this could have worked very well if she wasn't just a bad character.
Preaching to the choir, my dude. Anyway, heading to the new location, namely the office where Marshall works that is directly outside an evidence room, reveals that he isn't there and they need a keycard to enter the room, which is the second crime scene. You can also spray luminol here and find a bloodstain on top of one of the cacti, which as far as I can tell is the only fun use they gave luminol, a crying shame if you ask me, and something I never noticed until this playthrough
Oh wow, yeah I didn't even think to try that! That's funny.
Heading to outside the Police Department, we run into Gumshoe, who is full of energy and eager to be of help, as well as desperately hungry. Sadly, Phoenix taunts him with a steak lunch made for someone else. Truly, Wright is the real evil in this case. Gumshoe also mentions that they've arrested the 'real criminal', namely the 'murderer' behind the murder in the evidence room. Heading to the Detention Center, you can go and meet them.
Gumshoe is a perfect angel and teasing him is not allowed.
It turns out that the 'murderer' is none other than the only man in the world more pitiable than Detective Gumshoe, namely Officer Meekins. The poor man has no recollection of murdering anyone. In fact, he remembers being assaulted. He was guarding the evidence room at the time, and when he noticed someone inside he asked them to show their ID card. Instead, they pulled out a knife and attacked, which led to a struggle. After that, all Meekins remembers is waking up later, his hand badly cut, and only later being singled out as the only possible suspect in this 'murder'.
I would just like to state that Officer Meekins is a pure and wonderful kitten who never hurt anyone and doesn't deserve this treatment.
Dude, we shall talk Meekins in analysis today, but I'll just say now that I agree and I love my police boi. Now, after hearing his story, Phoenix and Ema are confused on why he was arrested, but apparently there was security footage of the incident, and taking that into account, he's the only person in the world who could have committed the crime.
Though his testimony, if true, also reveals extremely suspicious behavior on Goodman's part.
In Criminal Affairs, Phoenix runs into Gant. He's putting pressure on the Head of Detectives, who is supposed to have searched everywhere for all evidence relating to the case, and he claims to have come up empty. Actually talking to him reveals that there was one piece of paper he found on Goodman's desk that he felt was too worthless to show Gant, which Phoenix takes. Seeing more of this man makes Gumshoe's continued employment make much more sense
Yeah, as much as I wish Gumshoe was more competent than he seems, he's...usually not.
Talking with Gant, he reveals that Edgeworth has been called to task by the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee for an inquiry regarding his investigation. With what happened in the investigation, combined with the fact he's had rumors around him for years and the fact that he was recently in the defendant's chair himself, it all makes him look pretty bad. Gant also casually refers to the last case as Phoenix 'fixing' for von Karma to be arrested for the crime.
Definitely evil. Still my prediction.
I dunno man, the guy is so nice! After telling Phoenix that the police are still baffled how the same man was killed in two places at the same time, Phoenix asks Gant for a favor. This leads Gant to explain that he's a generous guy, the kind who would loan someone $50 no problem, so giving them access to the second crime scene with a new ID card is something he's happy to do for them with a smile on his face.
Press X to doubt.
Heading back to the security office reveals that they still can't enter the evidence room, because the card reader is turned off. Luckily, Officer Marshall finally shows up at his job, though he's acting really grumpy and dickish. Handing him the steak lunch cures that problem, so he's free to answer their questions and allow them into the crime scene.
I am embarrassed to admit I completely forgot I had that steak until a while after this encounter. It even specifically states its purpose in the Court Record.
I mean, I'll say right now that this investigation segment is one where the issue of searching for flags to trigger so you can continue is a bit of an issue
Oh yes, it was definitely my biggest issue. Wright brings up that Meekens said Marshall wasn't at his security station when the stabbing occurred, and Marshall admits that he doesn't try too hard at his job since the SL-9 incident, and was out riding his horse. He says the security cameras do his job fine anyway.
It's easy to make fun of the guy for caring so little about his job, but considering he went from his dream job to something like this, I can understand his apathy.
Agreed, even if there is a bit of stereotypical boomer "I don't understand this technology so I just ignore it" nonsense in there as well. The security tapes get erased every few hours if nothing happens. Getting into the evidence room requires a key card, and there's a record of everyone who goes in and out. Marshall says he can't show us much unless it's tied to the case, but since one of the numbers on the log is Goodman's ID, it's obviously connected. It seems Goodman used his key card to enter the evidence room (which...yeah, duh), which raises questions about why he supposedly pointed a knife at Meekins if he had his ID with him.
It's also specifically pointed out those are the only two pieces of security he understands, there are many other things at work, he just doesn't know or care.
In the evidence room, they run into Gumshoe, who's been removed from the investigation and is trying to figure things out on his own. He informs them that there are evidence lockers protected by fingerprint scanners so each can only be opened by a specific detective, and anyone else gets a jolt of electricity.
The lockers don't shock you, actually, that was Ema being silly. They just don't open.
Oh, well I don't know how that one flew over my head! In any case, the most worrying revelation is that, according to the log, another person entered at the same time as Goodman. And Gumshoe recognizes that number as Edgeworth's.
Well, not quite at the same time, but at 4:40, 34 minutes before Bruce Goodman.
Examining the evidence room, we find shards of some evidence from the SL-9 case, and set to put them back together to form a rather unstable-looking vase that's still missing a piece. We also find bloody handprints on two of the lockers, and mark their positions on the floor plan.
You can also spray the room with luminol, revealing a large pool of blood by the open locker of Detective Goodman.
When we visit Edgeworth, we come across the bellboy from Turnabout Sisters delivering tea. He leaves immediately, and it seems that Edgeworth is having a hard time. The inquiry decided to treat this mistake as a communication error, but there are some who think he was concealing evidence.
As much as we want to sympathize with Edgeworth here, you have to admit that he's done some shady stuff in the past
That's certainly true. Meanwhile, investigation into this case has been handed over to the police department, meaning it's now headed up by Gant himself. Incidentally, we also find out Gant was involved in the SL-9 investigation, back when he was just Deputy Chief of Police. Edgeworth also explains that he was in the evidence room because Gant had told him to get a piece of evidence from an old case and store it in his office. He can't say what case it's from, but assures us it's unrelated. Phoenix is not convinced. The screwdriver he took that day is added to the evidence.
Specifically, it's from the AI-16 case, as the tag shows.
Edgeworth also says that Lana wanted Ema to have something, and gives her a fingerprinting kit, as well as the fingerprint files of everyone involved in the case. When we check for fingerprints in the evidence room, the bloody handprint by the murder scene seems to he gloved, but the one closer to the entrance belongs to Marshall. And that's where we leave off for the day.
So, what do you think about today's segment, analysis wise?
Well, frankly... so far this case doesn't seem to have quite as much thematic heft as the previous ones. At least not yet. We've touched on corruption, bias, and internal politics, but most of this has just been mystery-solving. There's a lot of time for that to change, of course, but I'm not sure how much there is to analyze on a narrative level from this segment.
Well, to start with, why don't we focus a little on Meekins? He doesn't get a lot of development after this segment, and he's quite the character.
Oh I do love Meekins, don't get me wrong, he's just not all that complex. He's a zealous worker, seems to do his job well, and is a complete dork about it. He comes across as completely sincere, even if rather eccentric.
I absolutely love his character design. His body is so exaggerated that it doesn't really match the art style of anyone else, but it gives him a great comedic look and he has some of the funniest animations in the series. I also love his absolutely ridiculous character tic where instead of directly saying something he turns it into this vague "well, if I had to be considered X or non-X, consider me the latter!" It's a weird mix of nonsense and kinda eloquent that I just adore.
Oh yeah, the art goes a long way with this character. He's easily the most enjoyable in this case so far.
Another thing worthy of note is this segment is how it clears up something some people got confused about: when Marshall explains about evidence transferal, it's made clear the evidence room in this case is one for closed cases within the last two years. Some people get it confused with the evidence room of Turnabout Goodbyes, which was for long unsolved cold cases. This is a big city that has multiple evidence rooms.
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of important information in this segment. I guess it didn't leave a big impression on me because of the relative lack of narrative movement? We didn't see even a second of Lana Skye, and all we got about her and Ema (the most interesting part of the case, in my opinion) was a couple sad comments from Ema. It was a pretty purely mystery-centric segment, which is fine, just doesn't give me in particular a lot to talk about.
I agree, this does focus more on plot than character, for sure. However, there is one last hidden tidbit that I think you'll find interesting: when in the evidence room with Gumshoe, if you show him evidence relating to Angel Starr he'll talk about how something happened to him in high school and she was the only one who got him to open up about it. There's no further details, but it's a neat exchange that I really like. Also, Phoenix immediately thinks that Gumshoe probably wore a trenchcoat in high school.
Alright, I didn't catch that! That's a cool detail.
I think what we're dealing with is a side effect of how long this freaking case is. Normally, this far in a case, we'd have a good grasp of who our defendant is, the thematic and character components in play, but the shocking new mystery is eating up all of that time for itself, so the meatier elements are just laying in wait for later.
I could see that, but at the same time such a long case theoretically has a lot of time to dedicate to such things. I think the issue is more specifically that there's just too much stuff here. Too many moving parts. Not enough time to dedicate to character development and such.
I agree, it definitely could have spread out that kind of stuff more evenly throughout the case. That said, it did update the examinables. Charley is turning yellow, because Ema has been watering him and mixing in some special additive of her own design. Phoenix immediately points out that the plant turning yellow is not a good.
That's a neat little detail!
Looking out the window starts off like normal, but then the bellboy stares at Phoenix. Ema thinks there's a "sharp edge" hidden beneath his bellboy exterior, that he'll really be someone someday. Phoneix wishes anyone would think that about him.
Is that...foreshadowing? I don't remember seeing him again in future games.
Examining the bookshelf leads to Ema revealing that first thing after the trial she tried reading some of it, since the mention of Evidence Law piqued her interest, but it made her head hurt, then she dropped the book and it made her foot hurt. Phoenix sympathizes. Oh, and examining the Chief of Detectives after you get what you need from him has him learn that no one is supposed to know about the murder in the police department, which is bad considering he already spilled everything they knew to some random old lady.
Hey, for once I did actually find one of the examinables you mention! Go me.
I think that does it for today's segment, hopefully our court session next time gives us more meat. Auf wiedersehen.
Until then!
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