Hallo, alle miteinander. Today is the day we here at Wright Wednesday, where we recap, analyze, and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series, finally finish Rise From the Ashes, and with it, the first game in the series. I'm Roy and while this case didn't make me tear up, it came close.
And I'm Sam, who cries in everything but also didn't quite tear up in this one.
Like I said before, this is the last segment of the case, but oh what a segment it was. Start that recap, Sam!
As court’s about to begin, Lana and Ema are nowhere to be found. Edgeworth talks to Phoenix, saying that the unknown 7777777 ID number was the only reason for doubt last trial, and if they confirm it’s Gant--who has not been charged with a crime--that reason for doubt will be removed, and Edgeworth could have Lana declared guilty within five minutes of the trial’s start. But he didn’t come here to threaten Phoenix; he came to hear him out before the trial. Phoenix says that Lana is hiding something, and getting it out of her is the only way to find out the truth. Edgeworth does not react well to this, but Phoenix points out that if he gets that guilty verdict he’ll never find out what really happened back then.
This is the first time in the series Phoenix and Edgeworth have worked together as defense and prosecution. While Edgey helped out in Turnabout Samurai near the end, that involved zero coordination with Phoenix.
And we will definitely be talking more about that later, because wow. Once the trial starts, Gant takes the stage and says that Lana has asked to address the court directly. When she does, she asks to put an immediate end to the trial and confesses to all charges. When Phoenix objects, she forfeits her right to an attorney, claiming that the prosecution has enough circumstantial evidence and testimony to render a Guilty verdict, and should do so. The Judge agrees, but is interrupted by, of all people, Edgeworth.
Here he comes, to save the day!
Edgeworth explains that the prosecution has yet to prove the verdict beyond a reasonable doubt, so such a verdict would be premature. Gant objects, but Edgeworth stands up to him, saying he’s not as naive as he used to be, and straight-up says that this confession on Lana’s part makes it obvious that a deal was struck behind the scenes. Gant’s response is to try and turn it back on Edgeworth, saying not everyone operates as he does, but this only confirms Edgeworth’s suspicions. So he changes the prosecution’s first witness to…Ema Skye. Lana immediately and intensely objects, but Edgeworth insists that however tragic the truth may be, the greater tragedy is to avert one’s eyes from it. Gant’s only response is to drop his facade long enough to say that Edgeworth will live to regret this.
I find it interesting you use the word "facade", but we can talk about that more in the analysis.
Fair, that discussion will be interesting. Ema testifies to the events of that night two years before. She says what she told Phoenix before; she was waiting for Lana in her office when Joe Darke came in and took her hostage, followed by Marshall. The power went out, the room went dark, and in the moment of a lightning strike Darke stabbed Marshall in the chest. But she passed out and doesn’t remember much. Edgeworth assures the Judge that the connection between this testimony and the murder of detective Goodman will prove relevant, and Phoenix hypocritically notes Edgeworth’s bravery considering his lack of evidence.
The difference, of course, is that Phoenix has no poker face and everyone knows he's got no idea what's going on at all times.
When Ema elaborates, we find out that the detective Ema spoke to back then was Goodman, the victim of this trial. She had trouble speaking, and instead drew a picture. Edgeworth notes that this picture was not on the evidence list from the trial, but a quick examination of the second half of that list (found in the last investigation segment) has a picture drawn on the back. This provides more information, as well as a good segue into the obscured evidence from SL-9.
Funnily enough, you can look at that picture from the second you get the evidence, it's just treated as a weird thing that might be important later.
The Judge notices that the lists are different, and in an uncharacteristic moment of clarity realizes they’re two halves of the same list, and Edgeworth was given an incomplete evidence list two years before. It’s suggested that there may be more of the drawing on Edgeworth’s half of the list, and indeed…it’s the Blue Badger. Clearly it was the true murderer.
No, you fool, the Blue Badger was descending from on high to smite to serial killer, and only failed thanks to disbelievers like you.
Ah yes, the Blue Badger may have been created by Gumshoe days before this case, but its spirit is eternal. Clearly. Ema testifies that this is indeed her picture; the lightning flash outside the window was such that she could only see shadows, but the picture accurately reflects what she saw in that instant. Phoenix notes that the knife tip is broken off in the picture; Marshall was stabbed only once, and the knife tip was found inside his body, so the knife should not yet be broken when Ema saw Darke stab him.
Clarification: the Blue Badger was created by the Head of Detectives, not Gumshoe, and that was under a year before this case, but not that soon before.
I thought Gumshoe was taking pride in just having created the thing earlier in the case?
He created the dancing Blue Badger, but the character is older, and had a plushy cameo in Turnabout Goodbyes, having been created well before that case.
Ah, right. That's a good distinction. Anyway, on the subject of the broken knife in Ema's picture. Edgeworth says the only explanation is that Ema’s memory was faulty, but Phoenix reminds him that this case included falsified evidence. Since we don’t know which piece of evidence was falsified, it’s entirely possible that it was the knife, and that’s why it’s inconsistent with Ema’s testimony. Phoenix recounts the basic story, that Darke escaped interrogation, fled, and stabbed Marshall, and says that he believes one part of this story to be a lie that required falsified evidence to support.
Clearly, Marshall was the fake evidence, it was actually Meekins who died.
Roy. Don't even joke about that. Ema insists that her testimony is the truth, and the knife used was indeed broken. So Phoenix suggests that there was another knife, and presents the picture of Marshall holding the King of Prosecutors award with Lana and Gant. The knife in the trophy is broken. Edgeworth notes that, if this is the case, the roles of the two men would be reversed; Marshall had the award, not Darke, so Marshall would be the one doing the stabbing in the image.
It's weird that the award didn't just have, like, a sword and knife replica, but actually had a knife that could be separated from the award and used as a knife.
True, there's actually a lot of weirdly dangerous decorative items in this case. This confuses everyone, but jogs Ema’s memory, and she asks to see Edgeworth’s evidence list. She confirms that she drew the picture on the back, the one of the Blue Badger, and that it relates to a memory she had locked away. She testifies that she actually ran at the man with the knife and pushed him, and in the light of another lightning strike she saw the shadow of the Blue Badger, despite it not being in the room. Edgeworth points out that, even stranger, the Blue Badger hadn’t been designed and didn’t exist two years ago.
Because Gumshoe's derpy boss hadn't gotten around to it.
Lana bursts in, desperately telling them to stop pursuing this. But Edgeworth calmly explains that it’s too late to turn back now. So we cross-examine Ema on the subject, and Phoenix points out that there is something that would have looked like the outline of the Blue Badger in the room at the time; the unstable jar that broke on the scene of the crime. At the right angle, perhaps as it's falling, it has the same silhouette.
Some people have issues getting the game to approve the right angle, and while I haven't had that experience I understand that can be an issue.
Edgeworth points out that this revelation doesn’t actually change anything about the case, but Phoenix insists that it does. More specifically, considering where the jar was in the office (as seen in the picture of Gant, Marshall, and Lana), for Ema to have seen the jar the murder must have taken place in a different part of the room than was previously believed; on the other side, in Gant’s half of the office. But the body was found in Lana’s half of the office; Edgeworth points out that it would have been pointless for someone to move the body from one half of the office to the other. To which Phoenix agrees; but nevertheless, it seems to have happened. So there must be some reason they don’t understand yet.
Phoenix seems to have figured it all out. He runs through the series of events, noting that for the jar to have fallen after Ema pushed the person with the knife, she must have knocked him into the wall. And in the same direction as the unstable jar is the suit of armor, holding a sharp sword. This man, holding a broken knife, has been established to be Neil Marshall. Indicating that Marshall wasn’t stabbed by Joe Darke, but by Ema pushing him into the armor’s blade.
How exactly a young girl shoved a grown man with such force that he flew threw the air and got skewered on that spear is unclear.
This revelation, of course, traumatizes Ema, and Lana once again decries them for pursuing this far and making this claim. Edgeworth fills in the details that Lana moved the body to the other side of the room to keep anyone from discovering Ema’s role in this, but she says he needs proof if anyone is to believe it. In lieu of evidence, Edgeworth says they must rely on testimony, but since both people involved are dead Lana says this is impossible. But Edgeworth provides another possibility; that something in the evidence, perhaps a message from Marshall, establishes Ema as the killer. Lana is upset, but Edgeworth assures her no one is trying to accuse Ema of anything, but simply to uncover the truth, no matter how painful it is.
While this case is a little better than the one before it at referring to a child accidentally killing an adult as "murder", that still happens several times. I'll want to talk about that a little more during the analysis, though.
Phoenix then brings up the jar, with the writing in blood on the piece that was hidden in Gant’s safe. The blood was wiped away, but there remained a few marks, and dots where the lines changed directions. Connecting the dots spells out Ema’s name. Phoenix then brings up the jar, with the writing in blood on the piece that was hidden in Gant’s safe.
That is some really wonky reasoning to explain the connect-the-dots the game wants us to do.
That's kind of a theme of this trial session, really, and how much of it is intentional vs. unintentional is kind of up in the air. Now that everyone is convinced that Ema killed Marshall by accident rather than Darke, Gant shows up to gloat, pointing out that Darke was condemned to death based on this final murder, and if that turns out to have been false, Edgeworth was the prosecutor who got an innocent man condemned to death with forged evidence. Phoenix points out that Darke was still a serial murderer, that much was established fact, but Gant says this doesn’t matter; “We aren’t defenders of justice. We’re merely keepers of the law.” He recounts that the death sentence was based on this specific instance, and Edgeworth got Darke falsely convicted based on forged evidence.
This is a pretty huge deal to Edgeworth, as it's finally a concrete example where he actually convicted someone for a crime they didn't commit, and they paid the ultimate price for it.
The crowd erupts in angry speculation, and the Judge is unable to calm them down, so he declares a recess, bringing us to the halfway point of the trial.
During the recess, Phoenix and Edgeworth are hanging out in the defense lobby together when Gumshoe arrives with some evidence. It seems Lana Skye, for all her open defiance of Phoenix's position, arranged for Gumshoe to bring in some help in taking on Gant. Namely, it's a book on evidence law, something that came up on the first day of trial. For reiteration, the first rule of evidence law is that "All evidence must be approved by the police department before the trial." The second rule is that "Unregistered evidence presented must be relevant to the case in trial." Gumshoe isn't sure how this will help, but Edgeworth makes it clear that, for all that's been revealed, the real trial hasn't even started yet. They still need to prove who really killed Detective Goodman.
I do kind of like how the two rules of evidence law basically come down to, "All evidence relating to the case must be approved, unless it relates to the case." The wording comes into play later, of course, but still.
I was confused for a while on whether they were an either kind of rule or a both. Like, it's never explicitly stated whether all evidence needs to fit both rules or only one of them, but in practice it seems like they only need to fit one.
Yeah, that's what the word "unregistered" is there to specify. Must be registered, but if it's not, you've got to prove its relevance. It protects against useless evidence, but doesn't seem to protect from lawyers holding it back until it's advantageous for them. Which seems less than helpful.
That's somewhat based on Japan's court system, where lawyers can just reveal evidence during a trial without any prior notice if it's relevant.
Well that makes a little more sense then, at least.
Heading back into court, the Judge hesitantly brings up that, what with everything revealed regarding the SL-9 Incident, an inquiry board will need to be brought against Edgeworth, and his case from this point on is basically poisoned. After all, how can they guarantee he hasn't forged the evidence or made deals with witnesses? To move forward, Edgeworth suggests that, for the first time ever, the defence be given free reign on what witnesses will be called.
We'll have plenty to talk about regarding Edgeworth's character arc in this case, but I love this moment a lot.
It's obvious who the witness to call is: Gant. He shows up, but if clearly acting dumb as to why he was called. Edgeworth won't have that though, and makes him take this seriously. Before starting any testimony about SL-9, he brings up something important: as Police Chief, he has certain privileges that most other people don't. Case in point: he cannot be forced to testify. He has the ability to refuse testimony, though in the process he would lose the right to testify on that case permanently. Still, Gant assures the court he isn't using that...yet.
That is such a colossal loophole for abuse of power, but we'll talk plenty about that later I'm sure.
I mean, you have to wonder if that's something Gant added into the law himself, or if he's just taking use of it. His testimony is pretty basic: "I was around at the time, but I went downstairs when Marshall went upstairs, and when I reached the crime scene Lana had already staged everything herself." In other words, Gant claims he had nothing to do with the forgery. This testimony is pretty easy to debunk, as Phoenix can show the Jar or the Evidence List and point out that these vital pieces of evidence were found hidden inside his office, meaning he was involved in the framing of Darke. Or course, Gant just turns that around: "Oh, Wrighto here 'says' he found this evidence in my office, but he could have planted them there himself." It's Phoenix's word against Gant's, after all.
I would like to point out that the piece of cloth with Ema's handprint on it would also serve to prove this, since it was found in his safe as well, but the game doesn't let you because "it's not time for that yet," pretty nakedly saying "you can't do this because we have other plans for it in the plot." Gant's response would still work against it, of course, but I'm bitter about the mark I lost for presenting totally reasonable evidence before the game wanted me to.
Actually, that makes total sense. Doing that has Gant bring up Rule 2 of evidence law, that all unregistered evidence must relate to the case at hand. At this moment, that piece of cloth has no bearing on the case, it's never been mentioned or brought up, it has no explicit connection to SL-9. A cloth with Ema's fingerprints isn't immediately relevant, and you have nothing to prove relevance either. Just because he hid it in a safe doesn't mean anything at this moment, at least legally. I totally agree with the case not allowing you to present that in this case.
I can see how proving relevance could be an issue, but all you need to do here is prove he's holding things back. "I found this cloth with Ema's handprint on it in your safe" does that plenty well, and he would still use the "who says that was actually in my safe" defense, since that would call its relevance into question. It seems to me that it logically served the same purpose; but instead, we present the entire vase to point out one small, specific aspect of it. The logic didn't super work for me on this one.
I mean, I guess, but the jar fragment and the evidence list are clearly pieces of evidence from the SL-9 Incident, so him having those in his office, when they weren't presented in the original trial, is a crime and it implicates him in the forgery. The cloth doesn't work for that at all, because it has nothing to do with the case. It's like, "I know you were involved in the forgery, because this cloth was in your safe!" Like...sure it was. But what does that prove? What does that mean?
I sure can't think of any reason unrelated to the SL-9 incident that Gant would have a piece of cloth with Ema's handprint on it. It would mean like two extra lines of dialogue for Phoenix to plausibly make that connection before Gant shuts it down the same way he shuts down the vase.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree there. Anyway, Edgeworth jumps in and points out that Detective Gumshoe was present for the investigation, which is evidence towards the jar fragment and evidence list actually being in the office originally and not a lie from Phoenix. Gant provides a new testimony, countering that even if those things were in his office, which still hasn't been proven, then they could have been discovered after the trial for the SL-9 Incident, in which case their existence in his office proves nothing. Not only that, he adds that there's no reason he would engage in the forgery in the first place, as it does nothing to help him.
A lot of his arguments are just appealing to the things we haven't yet established, which makes it easy to just... establish them.
Pressing him on not getting anything for a forgery has Phoenix suggest that it's clear he did get something out of it, namely his job as Chief of Police. Gant laughs that off, pointing out he isn't incompetent. Sure, that case is what secured him the job, but he was already next in line anyway. At most, it advanced the timetable. Edgeworth confirms that is indeed the case, and without any other options Phoenix suggests if there was no self-gain to be had, he might have done it for someone else's sake, as an accomplice. Gant refutes that, claiming he only looks out for himself, and he adds a new statement making it clear he'd never be someone's accomplice if there wasn't anything it it for him.
Thus still keeping it open to the possibility that he did it for self-gain, just involving another person. And we already know who that person is.
Correct! Pressing that new statement allows Phoenix to suggest a scenario, namely that Gant assisted Lana in the cover-up, and did so entirely for himself. That case allowed him to put Lana as the Chief Prosecutor, and gave him material he could use to blackmail her. This would, in one fell swoop, give him complete control over the Police Department and the Prosecutor's Office. Gant counters this by asking for any evidence, anything at all the proves Lana is being controlled by him. After all, she hasn't even confessed to that. Edgeworth says that looking at the case so far, Lana's actions have all seemed incredibly odd, and her being controlled by Gant is the best answer to why she's acting the way she does. Edgeworth and Phoenix even go further, making it clear that Gant is the culprit responsible for Goodman's murder and he's been using Lana to protect himself, which shocks the Judge by just how audacious it is to accuse the Police Chief of such crimes.
As though Phoenix hasn't built his career thus far on making audacious accusations and proving them correct!
The Judge demands evidence for this claim, and Phoenix gives him the ID card record for the evidence room. The first number there, the one for the killer, is 7777777, which is also the number Gant uses to lock his safe. Gant admits to going in at that time, but says he hadn't seen Goodman that day at all, and it doesn't matter if he went there. Of course, Phoenix presents the Lost Item Report, showing that Goodman had lost is ID and had to have entered that room at that day, and the only possible solution left after everything presented so far is that he had to have entered with Gant. The Chief tries to claim he lent the ID card to Goodman, but the timeline doesn't match up, as he was murdered soon after and in that case Gant's ID would be with the body.
Starting to look like he would have been better off taking the "refuse to testify" option.
Phoenix and Edgeworth start really weaving their tale: Goodman and Gant go into the Evidence Room, and without premeditation the murder happens. He coordinates with Lana, but she's at the Prosecutor's Office. Gant can't exactly order a subordinate to move the body for him, so he hides in in Edgeworth's trunk and tells him to deliver a piece of unimportant evidence from the Police Department, where he had recently accepted his award, to the Prosecutor's Office, where Lana was waiting to dispose of the body. After all of this has been presented in front of him, Gant answers these accusations...by refusing to testify and heading to lunch. Like a boss.
I'd say this looks a lot like he's obstructing justice, but at least in American law blatant attempts to stop an investigation from uncovering the truth don't seem to qualify for that, so... clearly he's innocent.
True. When Phoenix objects to this, Gant just asks: do they have any conclusive evidence that suggests he is the murderer, at all. And the answer is no, they don't. Right before Phoenix gets a penalty, Edgeworth jumps in, suggesting they have someone testify, but Phoenix is in charge of that now. The choice is obvious: Lana Skye. They're about to have a recess before the new testimony, but Gant shows up again to openly tell Lana that if she tries to confirm Phoenix's theory, there will be more consequences. Then the recess begins.
Gant is getting pretty brazen at this point, and again, I'd question the believability of anyone thinking him innocent at this point if real life hadn't been doing pretty much this exact same thing lately.
In the defendant lobby, Gumshoe joins Phoenix and Edgeworth, wondering if since he got fired he could take Maya's place in the office. Then Ema shows up, and she's basically accepted that she killed Marshall on accident and actually kind of feels relieved to know the truth. I wish the series did more stuff like this, where people can have traumatic pasts and it doesn't all get washed away by "someone else did it, not you", but even here...we'll get back to it. Ema is resolved to work with Phoenix to free Lana from Gant's control, to bring her back to who she was before the SL-9 Incident.
Once court is back in session, Lana is at the stand and she's asked to testify regarding the forgery she committed, and how it relates to Gant. She tries to claim that while she'd worked with Gant for years, he was completely uninvolved with the crime. She forged the evidence, she rearranged the crime scene, and it was entirely to get Darke convicted, and had nothing to do with Ema. Pressing her further has her claim that Phoenix' theory is complete bull, that while they were on the opposite side of the room, Marshall was still killed by Darke, but using the knife from the trophy. She refuses to give any credence to the idea that Ema killed Marshall.
It's understandable that she's still trying to protect Ema, but it's hard to really square what we've discovered so far with the story she's insisting on.
Pressing makes her go into more detail, including mentioning that the shattered jar was dangerous to her plan, as it proved he was killed on the other side of the office. This is where Phoenix starts unraveling all this, objecting to point out there are...
That is true, it took me a bit to put the pieces together (heh) and realize the name was written over multiple shattered pieces of the jar, and thus would have had to be written when it was whole. But then Marshall writing Ema's name on a jar to make sure the child got convicted for accidentally pushing him into a sword is weird in the first place.
And it is never brought up. It's...we can talk about that later. Anyway, Lana says that she saw there was blood on the jar, but it was too dark to read, so she just cleaned it off as best she could, and she's sure she got every shard. Obvious contradiction there, as there's the one last piece that was in the safe, and it had the lines on it that made forming the full message possible. Since she's sure she cleaned every shard, but this one wasn't cleaned, that means she wasn't the first one on the scene, and whoever showed up first took the shard and hid it.
This case does have a nice buildup to realizing that even Lana doesn't seem to have the full picture here.
The Judge is shocked that the implication is that Chief Gant, his longtime friend, arrived first and hid evidence for all this time, and argues that Lana could have just missed a shard. Edgeworth disputes this, reminding the Judge that the jar was shattered already, someone had to have arrived first. This gives the Judge a dramatic moment...until he remembers he isn't on trial. Edgeworth argues now that Gant arrived first, shattered the jar with the message on it, then hid a shard. This is clearly a serious crime, and it raises the question of why he would do so.
I did enjoy seeing the Judge's own little Ace Attorney breakdown.
It was very cute. As for why Gant would do this, the answer is obvious. This incident led to Lana asking for Gant's assistance in framing Darke, which put him behind bars and Lana in Gant's control. Lana continues to deny all this, claiming she did it all on her own, but when Ema pipes up to plead with her sister to tell the truth, Lana lashes out at Phoenix, claiming Ema never killed anyone and Phoenix is trying to trick her to get the win he wants. It's clearly untrue, but it does cause Phoenix to rethink this whole case: what if they're still being manipulated by Gant? Now that they know he arrived on the scene first, Phoenix explains to Lana that if any of the evidence she found implicating Ema was fabricated by Gant, it's entirely possible she never killed anyone, that the blackmail is based on a lie. It's enough to finally make Lana testify the truth.
I do appreciate that extra layer, like the point where we're approaching the truth is still just part of the lie put forth by the villain and we need to get out of that trap first.
Lana testifies that everything happened as Phoenix has said: when she arrived, Marshall's body was impaled on the spear, and Ema and Darke were unconscious. Looking at the evidence there, Lana thought Ema had killed him, so she fabricated evidence with the help of Gant to pin the blame on Darke. When Edgeworth wishes there was more than just her word, Lana reveals there is evidence, and she already gave it to Phoenix. Opening the Evidence Law book in the back, there's a photo hidden inside, one of Marshall impaled on the spear, blood having poured out of his mouth and onto his shirt, where a square is missing from his vest.
The fact that Lana gave it to Phoenix earlier is an interesting bit of insight into her character, considering she was still refusing to cooperate at the time.
Just as the cross examination is about to start, Gant interrupts it, wanting to get a word in edgewise regarding being thrown under the proverbial bus. Edgeworth reminds him that he's refused to testify, then gives one of the best lines he's ever had. "Just sit back, relax... and enjoy the sound of the noose tightening around your own neck." Gant recovers quickly, pointing out he doesn't need to say anything, as Phoenix has the evidence that disproves his own case, decisive evidence, which he must now present. Otherwise, he would be holding evidence back, a crime. The question is put to Phoenix: does he actually have decisive evidence he can present right then and there?
Which is a great choice, because while most of these choices in the Ace Attorney games, the wrong choice just give you some dialogue, maybe a penalty, before forcing you onto the correct path. This one just ends your game and makes you replay this whole court session from the last recess.
The wrong choice is to present the leather cloth, as doing so gets you that instant game over. Instead, Phoenix claims he has no evidence that he's able to present at this time, which pisses off Gant something royal, making it clear he's just made a huge mistake. When everyone else is curious what he means, Gant admits he arrived at the crime scene earlier and prepared evidence just in case, for insurance, including the jar shard everyone knows about. But the other piece of evidence was a piece of cloth he cut from Marshall's vest, he even points out where it was clearly removed in the photo Lana gave. He knows Phoenix has it, and requests Phoenix present it to the court. After Phoenix takes the time to emphasize that Gant is confessing to cutting the cloth out himself, he then presents the evidence.
Gant makes a number of missteps at this point based on his assumption that he has things under control enough that he can concede some points. Phoenix is generally quite good at exploiting that.
He is indeed. Everyone's curious as to who's fingerprints are on it, and Phoenix admits they're Ema's. Everyone is shocked, especially Lana, who is furious at Phoenix for trying to trick her into thinking Ema was innocent. But to everyone's surprise, Phoenix calmly explains the truth: this evidence does prove who killed Neil Marshall, and that man is Damon Gant. The photo from earlier shows the man's shirt is soaked in blood, including the area where the cloth was cut from. But the cloth itself is entirely bloodless, meaning it was cut out before the blood was shed...before Marshall died. Therefore, as Gant has admitted to everyone he cut the cloth out, he must have done so before murdering Marshall himself.
It's a convoluted road that got us here, but we're finally at the truth.
Gant isn't quite done yet though. After all, Phoenix failed to present that evidence earlier, even though he clearly could have. Refusing to show it to the court then immediately made it illegal, meaning it cannot be used in the trial. Phoenix agrees with that logic...if it had been illegal. The gambit he was planning this whole time is finally ready to spring, and he presents that Evidence Law book he got earlier. The evidence clearly failed the first rule, having been stolen from the Police Chief, but it also failed the second. When Gant called for the new evidence, this piece of cloth had no relevance to the trial at hand, it had yet to be proven related. Therefore, it would have been illegal evidence if it had been presented. Only once Gant confirmed the connection by saying he cut it out from the victim's vest did the evidence become relevant, meaning Phoenix didn't break the law at all.
It's one hell of a technicality, but it works. Phoenix played the broken system to his own benefit.
For a second, it looks like Gant will explode, but instead he starts laughing and clapping, but far more frantically than usual. When he's done, he calmly explains the situation. Goodman had approached him on the day of the crime, and wanted help getting to his evidence locker. Gant had no issue with that, but he was on-edge from Marshall badgering him about SL-9 for so long. Then, Goodman requested opening the case back up, taking another look at the evidence. Gant freaked out and stabbed him with Darke's knife, then struggled to figure out how not to get caught, mopping up the blood but not even noticing the bloody handprint he'd left on Gumshoe's locker. He broke into Edgeworth's trunk and coordinated with Lana to move the body. He also cleared out all the SL-9 evidence he could, but left the gloves and jar fragments by accident. Gant admits it was all very sloppy, and that he shouldn't have done any of it.
It's a very unique and interesting response, compared to... pretty much every other Ace Attorney villain ever.
Edgeworth tries to play wise, but Gant has an honest question for the young man: what is he doing in court? He argues that the two of them are the same: they both hate crime, hate criminals, and the only difference is that Edgeworth has yet to realize that to truly fight crime, you need a weapon. The Judge is heartbroken, and openly mourns that the Damon Gant he once knew was a wonderful person, and he's sad to see that Gant has fallen so far. Gant looks back at their time together fondly, but says he shouldn't worry. Looking at Phoenix and Edgeworth, Gant feels like the justice system is in good hands, and claims he can hear the sound of a new beginning, with a smile on his face.
Abnormal villain response indeed.
With him gone, Lana gets brought out, and Phoenix makes it clear that Ema never killed anyone, that Gant betrayed her from the start. The spell she's been under for two years is finally broken, and she thanks Phoenix and Edgeworth each with a heartfelt smile, the first she's given in this entire game. With everything solved, the Judge hands down his verdict of Not Guilty and everyone meets up in the defendant lobby. Ema is pretty sad, because while her sister thanked the two attorneys, she had no words for Ema at all.
It's nice to see Lana smile, but I can definitely understand Ema's reaction. I felt for her in that moment.
Luckily, Gumshoe saves the day. He got permission to get Lana out of jail so she can say hi, and the two sisters embrace in a really heartfelt moment. Edgeworth also shows up, clearly stressed from what Gant said. Lana argues there was a bit of truth to what Gant said, that he, Edgeworth, and Manfred von Karma are all quite similar, they all have a passionate drive to stamp out crime. But unlike Gant and von Karma, Edgeworth isn't on his journey alone, he has friends to help him. It's a nice sentiment, but Edgeworth isn't completely convinced, even with the Evidence List proving it took them working together to win. Edgeworth isn't sure what he'll do now, but Phoenix lets him know he'll be waiting for him, in court.
And we're about to talk a lot about Edgeworth, so we'll plan on that!
Phoenix thinks about how he's on his own journey, and everything is all cute...up until Gumshoe interrupts his musing to reveal that he had to bribe a guard to get Lana away and the bill is heading to Phoenix. In what will soon become a series tradition, Phoenix is irate while all around him are happy at his expense, and he shouts "OBJECTION!" Then there's a great ending credits, with wonderful music while we see all the cases characters again, and can dust for prints while they talk to reveal really great art of the character. It ends with Ema revealing that she has a secret in the book Lana gave her at the end: a picture of Lana as a rookie officer, her little sister posing with her.
As a fun little detail, Phoenix's "OBJECTION!" actually forces the player to make use of the DS mic to yell it, a feature that's always present but never mandatory until this one instance.
Yeah, and if your DS, or 3DS in my case, is a bit more...used?...it's a little hard to do. Anyway, that's the end of the case, which means it's time for analysis. There's so much to cover! Let's go character by character, who do you want to start with, Sam?
Hoo boy. Well I think there's the most to say about Edgeworth, so let's start with him. Personally, I love what this case does with Edgeworth. It adds a lot more detail and motivation to his leave of absence that excludes him from the second game, but not just in a "fill in the gaps" sort of way. It actually takes the character development that started in Turnabout Goodbyes and brings it home, giving Edgeworth a full-on crisis of faith that ultimately leads to him working with Phoenix to uncover the truth rather than working as a prosecutor to get an indictment. This is a change we can surmise by the time he returns to the series, but this case adds a lot more detail to his growth as a person while still leaving plenty to be done on his soul-searching journey after this. It's a great addition to his character.
The scare with Gant also gives him a great reason to want to leave. Not only is he in hot water for what happened in SL-9, but just as he's overcome that despair and fought together with Phoenix, working together in such an amazing way that he clearly is just loving, it all falls apart. Gant cuts through all of that by reminding him who he's been for years now, and it's important that Edgeworth acknowledges that he was correct. Edgeworth really does hate criminals, and it's the kind of hate that can easily fester with time. Seeing a man who also started from that justice-seeking viewpoint, who has been corrupted into a villain in his own right, hits Edgeworth hard, no matter what Lana and Phoenix say to him. You can also see why Edgeworth's departure hit Phoenix so hard, Phoenix must have felt like he and his friend were reconnecting and hitting an all-time high of teamwork, only to find himself abandoned once more.
This case is full of so many good moments for Edgeworth, each inching him slightly further from his legalistic, competitive mindset and closer to valuing truth and justice above all else. When he trusts Phoenix to call witnesses, when he starts blatantly speaking out against Gant, when he outright says that the purpose of the trial is to determine the truth, rather than determine Lana's guilt. Then to be confronted with who he was right after such a change is an understandably difficult thing. It was great seeing Edgeworth struggle and grow in this way.
Speaking of Gant, I think it's time we finally talk about the guy in real detail. Earlier, you said something about a facade, but I Object to that terminology applying to the man. Damon Gant is one of my favorite villains in the entire series, probably my favorite Big Bad. He has a fantastic design, great dialogue, his staring is just weird, but what I love the most is his complexity. What we see first of the man is him as an affable, dopey police chief, an old man happy to lend a hand. More and more, we see something darker to him, his controlling, sadistic, and vindictive side, we see he's the kind of man who does whatever it takes to get what he wants. But his breakdown, my favorite in the entire series, for me that shows that his affable nature is genuine, it isn't a front, he really is a nice guy. The issue is that he's a nice man who wanted to help, who wanted to make the world a better place...and as Lana said before, he found time and time again the system hampering him rather than helping him. So he went around the system, broke the rules, all to help, all to fight crime...but ended up becoming just the kind of cynical, jaded, angry man he was originally trying to fight against. I interpret his ending lines as being genuinely happy seeing two attorneys take him down, take down who he's become, and doing so within the law, for the most part. It's evidence that maybe, just maybe, the world is becoming a better place, maybe the methods he used aren't needed anymore.
That's fair. I think it's worth acknowledging that someone can be a genuinely nice, affable person while also being a vindictive, abusive person who uses others for their own gain. Gant certainly does seem like that kind of person by the end. It's part of what makes him so dangerous. He's one of my favorite villains too, for sure. I also need to talk about the way his text is rendered. The Phoenix Wright games use timing in their text in a way that only so many games do (though more visual novels do than other genres), using it to communicate tone and delivery in a very effective manner. It's worth talking about in general, but Gant has probably the best use of it I've seen. Definitely the best of the first game. There are times he'll just stare calmly at the player for long seconds before he even starts speaking. There's a point near the end when he threatens Edgeworth, and the text spills out like he's rattling off his threat rather than speaking in his usual calm manner. It just does such a great job of getting his mannerisms across just through the speed and timing with which it delivers his lines.
For sure! And yes, one can be affable and evil, we'll see that later on, but with Gant there's the clear implication that he wasn't an abusive, awful person to begin with, that those behaviors formed as a way to take control of a system that everyone can see is broken. There's also been some people pointing out that, considering later games involve drug smuggling rings who infiltrate and corrupt everything they can to maintain power and international spies who will go to any length to achieve their ends, you can see the kind of things Gant has struggled to fight. Gant's prediction also comes true: Phoenix outright breaks the law in unethical ways in future games to achieve his ends, and Edgeworth spends his solo games struggling heavily with whether he can or should use illegal methods to find the truth. On the whole, I'd argue he's the most morally complex Big Bad.
There's a strong argument for that, yes. Which also brings me to talk about the game's themes of corruption and abuse of the system, specifically in that I do think on of this case's major weaknesses is that it spends the whole thing decrying the shortcomings of the system, and the ways it can be used to hurt people and enable crime, but in the end, while those ideas contribute to some character arcs, nothing really comes of those themes on their own. Phoenix's ultimate victory is about manipulating the rules more effectively than Gant by utilizing evidence law; he's still working within a broken system and nothing has been done, or even explicitly acknowledged, to challenge it. It's a little anticlimactic as far as the case's core thematic premise goes.
I agree there, it was little more than telegraphing that larger changes to the system would be an idea played with later on. I would also like to point out the von Karma reference in this case, as it's the first of several bits of additional characterization we get for him. In Turnabout Goodbyes, he's framed entirely as a man obsessed with his own perfection and no care for ideals. But Lana recasts this, pointing out how Manfred, Damon, and Miles all started at the same place. It's fascinating to look back at the God of Prosecutors and wonder if he started out where Edgeworth did, with a passion for fighting crime, only for that goal to be corrupted over time until forty years later all he cares about is himself. It adds to the seeming inevitability that good men will fall with time and power.
For sure. Really, much of this case's role in the larger series is to set things up for the future and recontextualize things from the past, which is understandable since it was added later for the DS release. I think that weakens it in some ways (especially since it seems interested in tackling certain issues but can do little to actually address them since later games do), but it serves that purpose remarkably well nonetheless.
I would argue that this case helps the overall series, and the game it's in, thematically far more than it falls flat. One more interesting connection it adds to a previous case is to Turnabout Sisters. In that case, Redd White called the Chief Prosecutor to let them know he'd be testifying in the trial, and browbeat them by making it clear he had blackmail material. Considering we now know that was Lana Skye, and the situation she was in, it seems to be the case that she was also being blackmailed by Redd White.
Ah, interesting connection to make. And yes, I agree, the case adds a lot, to Edgeworth in particular and to the series' growing criticism of its own fictional court system.
How about we talk a little more about Lana Skye? We discussed her a little bit last week, but with the extra light this case sheds on the entire situation, I feel like revisiting her character is important.
Absolutely it does. What I personally find most interesting is the show of priorities. While Edgeworth and Gant's major struggles in this case come back to their relationship to the law, Lana's ultimately centers on Ema. All three of these major figures have violated the law in one way or another. Gant did it for power, first to gain it then to maintain it. Edgeworth did it unintentionally, out of blind trust that he could not make an error so long as he followed the rules. But Lana did it to protect someone she loves, only ever changing course when it proved to be the better option for Ema. That kind of selflessness, while misguided, seems to be the game's most morally pure motivation for breaking with the system, corrupt or not. Even if it turned out to be easily manipulated.
The sheer depths of Lana's love her sister is amazing, and I would honestly argue I have a better feel for their relationship after this one case than I do for Mia and Maya's even after three games that feature it throughout. I'm honestly sad that this is (so far) Lana's only appearance in the series, as she is quite the fascinating character I'd love to see more done with. You mentioned in the recap how she low-key helped Phoenix even before she actively turned to his side, and I find that move interesting. You could argue she's hedging her bets, but I would say it feels more like she's allowing herself one tiny moment of optimism in a sea of despair. I wonder how many times during her two years while being controlled she worked against Gant in that hidden way, or if she ever did at all.
I agree, it seems to me that some part of her wanted to believe there was hope in finding the truth. She had relied on lies to protect Ema for so long, and it had completely changed who she was. The game's themes about the value of truth come into play here too, of course, but I think the main thing with Lana is her love for Ema.
I'm not gonna lie, her reunion hug with Ema was really affecting, and the picture at the end of them both when Lana had just joined the force is insanely adorable.
For sure. Their relationship is pretty great once we finally know what's going on and see the real Lana.
One element of Lana's character we've danced around a little is her sexuality. I've made a few comments here and there, but one of the things she's most remembered for in the fandom is a detail mentioned in her first appearance: that she and Mia were 'attracted' to each other during college. Ema steers that towards being interpreted as 'intellectual attraction', but Lana doesn't confirm or deny that. Still, fans have really latched onto the idea that Lana and Mia were an item back in the day. There isn't exactly a ton of textual evidence for that reading, but that scene can be read in that way, and it would be nice to have an actual same-sex relationship in the series.
Interesting. Yeah I didn't even catch on to that, so I'm not sure how intentional that is, but Lord knows this series could use more gay, so that sounds like a good theory to me!
If you search "Lana Skye" on Tumblr, it's 85% her and Mia cuteness. I highly recommend it.
Ooh, good call.
Why don't we pivot a little to our titular character, Phoenix Wright himself. Likely as a side-effect of this case being retconned in between games, but this case doesn't really affect his arc for the game at all, in fact I'd argue he doesn't have an arc inside it either. What it does give is one of the first major examples of Phoenix stepping up to the plate and doing some scheming, planning out strategies in advance in a way that skirts the edges of legality. Like Ema Skye and Mike Meekins's existence and the theme of the system being broken and in need of repair, this feels more like set up for the next game in the series made after this case, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
For sure, his whole "withhold evidence to prompt a confession from Gant, then justify it with evidence law" thing was a lot more forethought than we're used to seeing from him in this game. It shows that he's grown as a lawyer, but also makes it a bit more believable that he would do what he did between the trilogy and Apollo Justice.
Before we get into the review for the case as a whole, let's talk a little about how we feel about this segment in particular.
Well, I have to admit my feelings are kind of mixed. I really like what it does with Edgeworth and Gant, and the resolution with Ema and Lana is pretty great. But it also feels kind of cluttered and messy. There are a lot of times it felt to me like I was reasoning around the actual conclusion I had to make, which is pretty much the Ace Attorney series' form of padding. And sometimes (as in the entire last court segment) it felt like we were operating from a clearly flawed premise, like assuming Marshall would write Ema's name in blood to ensure that the scared child who accidentally killed him would face justice (which is just a really weird thing that no one questioned). Then when the big final moment in this case about corruption in the system ended with Phoenix beating the villain within the system instead of doing anything to actually bring that corruption arc to a close, I was pretty disappointed. So this one definitely had its ups and downs for me.
I completely agree, but the way I'd sum it up is that this trial segment has a great story, but terrible plotting. All the story beats, emotional scenes, and thematic heft worked for me, but the moment to moment plotting was nonsense. Every case has it's plot holes, but this was ridiculous, and as you said the faulty reasoning actually makes figuring out the next move more difficult the more you think about what's going on. I'm more positive than negative, but I understand anyone who was more cold on the case.
Yeah, and the unfortunate thing is that it kind of reflects my feelings on the entire case. I loved some of the stuff it did with its story, but it often felt like the actual plotting was twisted into convoluted nonsense to hit a certain runtime or a quota for dramatic reveals, and the result is that if often feels kind of clumsy and overstuffed. There's some real good narrative stuff in here, I just wish it had let itself be a bit shorter and stuck the landing a bit better.
Well, if we're talking about it that way, we should actually get the the Review portion formally. This case is special, a Bonus Case. Unlike the previous four types of cases we've talked about, Bonus Cases are one of two kinds of cases that are superfluous to the overall structure and aren't in every game. The Bonus Case, being unneeded for a full understanding of the game it's in, either because it was added in later or because it's DLC, doesn't have any duties in regards to the overall game, so it really only had two main criteria: it should do something interesting that relates to the game it's tenuously a part of, and it should be a good story in and of itself. You've already let slip some of those feelings, but what are your thoughts on the case as a whole, with that in mind?
I mean I think it accomplishes both of those goals just fine. It introduces Ema before she eventually shows up in later games, and helps us feel the absence of Maya between the first two games, but most importantly it does some great character work with Edgeworth. It really fills out what's going on with him in a better way than his simple absence in the next game does. And on its own, it's a compelling story that gives us some great new characters and plays with some interesting themes. It's brought down in my mind by its failure to really resolve its core thematic conflicts and its weirdly convoluted delivery (the entire middle trial segment being a weird red herring didn't help), but it fits your criteria for a good Bonus Case.
I'm also very much of two minds about this case as a whole. I agree that it did a lot of Edgeworth and is overall a compelling story. I'd also say it has one of the best villains in the series, and some of the best scenes and moments as well. When this case is on-point, it is on-freaking-point. I also absolutely adore that they took this special case that could be anything they wanted and used it to develop the prosecutors and police more, and I wish it's a point of focus they'd come back to in the future. But the pacing is absolutely terrible. This case goes on forever and has so much fluff it's ridiculous. Many of the characters feel wasted as well, especially Angel Starr. I'd also argue that while it's great they set Ema up, and they definitely differentiated her from Maya, I don't feel like they made me care about her in this case. She's honestly kind of annoying, and most of the best stuff regarding her comes from Lana, not from her own character and actions.
I don't think Ema ever annoyed me, but I agree she's not as developed as she could be. She mostly exists for the sake of Lana's development, on a narrative level, and I like her a lot more than I care about her. If that makes sense.
Now it's time to give our ratings for the case. They go from a 1 to 10 scale, and this isn't some attempt to pretend we're judging overall objective quality. 10's are the best cases in the Ace Attorney series, 1's are the worst, and 5's and 6's are around the average. Even if a case gets a low number from us, that doesn't mean we don't like it, that just means it doesn't fair well compared to other cases.
Rise from the Ashes is uneven in many, many spots. Despite that, it still richened the background of the series, gave me some of my favorite moments, and introduced some fantastic characters. For that, despite its many flaws, I give it a 7/10. It's above average, but not by much.
I'm in a real similar place, but I'm going to have to give it a 6.5. I love it in concept, and some of the stuff it managed to do, but it fell pretty short for me in execution.
So, now that we're done with the first game, if we line up our preferential listing so far it's, from best to worst, Turnabout Sisters>Turnabout Goodbyes>Rise from the Ashes>Turnabout Samurai>The First Turnabout for me, and Turnabout Goodbyes>Turnabout Sisters>The First Turnabout>Rise from the Ashes>Turnabout Samurai for you.
I'd also like to take some time to talk about the game as a whole, even though we usually just talk about cases. I feel like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney does a lot of great stuff, and I don't think there's a better game in the series when it comes to case-to-case pacing, except maybe for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. While they nailed that from the get go, there's also a lot of Early Installment Weirdness almost everywhere else. A lot of people revere this game as one of the best, for me it's more middle of the pack. It's not in my Top 3 of the series, but I wouldn't mind saying it's the fourth best of the eight games so far.
There's a degree to which I think this one captured a magic that sequels weren't quite capable of matching, just by virtue of the first to do it. I definitely get having fond memories of this one that the sequels don't quite live up to, but I agree that sequels refine the series ideas, and some of them are definitely better games on the whole.
You're definitely right that there is something different about this game, both compared to the other games in it's trilogy and everything that came after it. I would argue a lot of that is not exactly a compliment, but there is something great about seeing the series come together. Next time, we'll see how they follow it up when we dive into the first case of the second game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney-Justice For All, The Lost Turnabout. Auf wiedersehen.
Later!
