Hallo, alle mitenander, and welcome back to Wright Wednesday. This is the weekly show where we recap, analyze, and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series. Today, we're tackling the first day of trial in Turnabout Big Top. My name is Roy and getting penalties is no fun at all.
I'm Sam, and unfunny jokes cause all fun to stall.
Oh, are there unfunny jokes this week Sam? Please, do tell us.
Do I have to? The trial begins with the Judge being surprised to find that Max's name is Billy Bob Johns, so instead decides to refer to him in court as Maximilian Galactica. Franziska von Karma, meanwhile, calls the last trial a sham and insists she will best Phoenix this time.
Also, before the trial started, we learned that Max likes to have milk before going on stage to calm him, and he suggested Phoenix could fly into court, which he actually seriously considered.
Gumshoe takes the stand to give the basic facts of the case. It was snowing the night of the murder, and the performers were in the Big Top to practice their routines until around 10pm. The murder took place in front of the Lodging House at 10:15pm. The victim was found dead, slumped over a wooden box, having been hit over the head and broken his neck. The box was locked, but the police broke it open and all they found was a small bottle of pepper.
If you're wondering what this pepper and box have to do with the murder...don't get your expectations too high.
Next, von Karma calls Benjamin Woodman to the stand. Trilo testifies that he and Ben left practice with Moe the clown, but once they got to the Lodging House he ditched Moe and went back to the entrance. That's when he saw Max going toward the scene of the crime, and he says he was the only one going that way. The police picked him up later. The Judge points out that Moe could also have been the killer, since Ben and Trilo weren't with him anymore when the murder happened, but von Karma presents Max's hat, which was found on the scene of the crime and seems to prove he was there.
It should be mentioned that this is apparently a one-of-a-kind hat. That doesn't really prove Max was there, since anyone can take and hold physical objects, but whatever.
Phoenix can claim that they would have seen Max and the Ringmaster walking together, but von Karma establishes that there's no proof they walked back at the same time, so that's thrown out. But Phoenix does wonder why Ben and Trilo were waiting outside in the snow, and posits that they were waiting for Regina. Trilo admits to this, and Phoenix posits that his distraction with Regina explains why he wouldn't have seen the victim pass by along with Max, which would then open the possibility that someone else went to the scene of the crime without their noticing.
Once again, Phoenix Wright fills a hole in the prosecution's case for them, at no charge, with no plan on how to make it work for him.
Trilo ends up testifying about his plans to propose to Regina for some reason, and Phoenix Objects to him saying he still has the ring because he found the ring in the monkey's pile of stuff last night. Trilo admits that Money stole it soon after they saw Max walk by, and they left to try and get it back. Phoenix points out that this makes Trilo's testimony inadequate, since they weren't actually watching the plaza the whole time and, thus, someone else could have gone there while they were away. So Trilo tries going into more detail about who they saw.
Oh man, it's everyone's favorite part of the case. Say it with me, audience: Silk hat! Cloak! White roses! Repeating this! Won't ever! Get annoying!
Since all our Objections in this case seem to be kind of flimsy, what we get him on here is that he wouldn't have politely said, "Good evening," to Max right after Max had hit Ben over the head with a bottle. Phoenix's theory, then, is that they saw someone else entirely. More specifically, Russell Berry, the ringmaster and victim.
But Sam! Silk hat! Cloak! White roses!
Whatever the truth of the situation, the Judge is apparently convinced that he can't convict Max based on Ben and Trilo's testimony alone. So von Karma announces that she has another witness.
A recess is called for between the witnesses. Max tells Phoenix and Maya that he was for sure in the Ringmaster's Room that whole time. The only thing they can think is that the victim really did wear Max's clothes and head to the Lodging House, but they don't know why. There's also the question of where the cloak went, as no one has found it. You'd think that would be an important fact the Judge should know, but that would be logical, and this case wouldn't allow that.
That would be an important and interesting detail, and so far this case has not contained those.
It's now time for Moe the Clown to take the stand. At first he's quiet, but when von Karma whips him he starts spouting a clown-version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's theme song. Sadly, this actually kind of funny moment goes by really quickly without the player's control, and it's easy to miss the full text. Moe makes it clear he's nervous because he isn't sure what type of joke to tell, and then proceeds to tell several absolutely awful jokes that the entire court hates. Eventually, von Karma gets him to say his name and occupation, and then his testimony.
Remember how it wasn't funny when the clown told a ton of bad jokes and laughed at them a lot? Well here's way more of that. You're welcome.
Actually, his first testimony isn't a joke, and it has nothing to do with the crime. It's basically a cry for help and validation from Moe, where he tells the court about how awful the last ten years of his life have been, makes it clear he hates how unfunny he is, tells everyone he made jokes to lighten up the dreary atmosphere, and asks people to give him feedback so he can be better. It doesn't really make up for his awful jokes earlier, but I thought it was the nicest testimony so far today.
Sure would be great if the game would actually let this character be interesting instead of using what character he has as the butt of yet another unfunny joke, but...
Franziska gets an actual testimony out of him by promising to have someone else hear what he has to say and give him the validation he wants after the trial is over, which spurs Moe into action. His testimony is simple: he went to the his room after practice, started to sleep, then looked out his window to see Max and the Ringmaster's silhouettes. Then, he saw Max hit Russell Berry over the head. But there's a new twist with this testimony: every statement can be Pressed for more details, but because Moe loves using those moments to go into bad jokes, if you Press too hard on the wrong statements, you get a penalty. This is a mechanic we will have to talk about during the analysis.
I do love that she promises to give him a straight man later, and Phoenix feels sorry for Gumshoe because you know it's gonna be him.
I will say now, if you take the penalty to hear some of this jokes, they can actually be funny.
We sure will be talking about that whole mechanic.
If you Press a lot of stuff, Moe tries to do the huge, courtroom combined "Silk hat! Cloak! White roses!" thing, but no one joins him on it, and it is really funny. Pressing the clown about looking out the window has Phoenix remind him what he'd said the day before, that he only looked out the window in the first place because he'd heard a loud sound outside. This becomes relevant by then Pressing the final statement, about seeing Max hit the Ringmaster. Moe has no details towards what the weapon was, despite claiming he saw it, and Phoenix can then point out that, since he only looked out because he heard the thump of someone being hit, clearly the crime had already happened before he looked out there.
I love when the game relies on us to remember a thing that was said in the previous segment and is in no way preserved in the Court Record.
Well, Phoenix brings it up so we don't have to, and once it's been said it does clearly contradict his last point. This contradiction revealed, Moe does the Fresh Prince thing again, but with the A-Team intro. But the Judge recognizes it as the "C-Team theme", implying that in the Ace Attorney universe, there was a show like the A-Team but they were clowns. This truly is the darkest timeline.
How is there a timeline worse than ours? How did Ace Attorney do this?!
Does this mean a clown version of Mr. T exists in their universe?
Please God no.
This is Justice for All. There is no God here. Now, Moe admits he didn't actually see the moment of the crime, and that von Karma helped him 'fill in the gaps'. Unlike last time something like this happened, Phoenix just silently fumes and the Judge says nothing. Now, it's time for another testimony, this time about the silhouette he saw, since that's basically the only true part of what he said before. The testimony really comes down to that he didn't see Max's face, but he's sure it was him, because he saw the cloak and the silk hat, "all of his symbols". At least this time around, there's no penalties for Pressing statements.
I do love that von Karma is caught red-handed telling the witness to lie to make his story more complete, and the only consequence is a stern look from Phoenix. That's great. Phoenix can't even make a tiny logical jump without getting called on it, but von Karma can straight-up fabricate witness testimony and nothing happens.
Now, this is a bit of a nit-picky contradiction at first glance, but the issue is that Moe says he saw "all the symbols" but only saw the cloak and silk hat, meaning he didn't see the white roses. Seemingly a lame detail, but the witness's eyesight and memory are a large issue in this case, and another witness testified to seeing the roses. It's not a lot, the Judge is still 99% sure that Max is the culprit, but he wants one last testimony from Moe to settle his mind. The only issue? Phoenix has one chance. Literally. Press any statement, and it's a Guilty verdict, no matter how much Penalty bar is left.
I must say I appreciate the Switch version for letting me just save whenever I want without quitting, but in the original version these setups are appropriately tense but mostly just unfair.
Wait, seriously? There is just a normal save system?! I am so jealous!
Makes things like this waaaaay less of an issue.
Luckily for those of us without the feature, the contradiction is easy. It's mostly a restatement of stuff we've already heard, but he says that Max wore the silk hat the whole time, including when he left the scene. Of course, the hat was found at the scene, so that's a lie. The Judge goes ballistic on Moe, clearly being 1000% done with this clown and all the contradictions he's bringing to the courtroom.
Now that Phoenix has gained a little ground, he asks Moe about something: how exactly did the killer leave the scene? After all, there are no footprints on the scene from anyone except the victim. When Moe seems like he doesn't want to answer the question, Phoenix asks that his entire testimony be stricken due to how full of holes and lies it is. This is a wonderful thing that Phoenix should do more often, but for some reason he never remembers to do it in good cases.
Which leads to a reveal that makes a lot less sense to me than it should given the circumstances.
Yeah, so, Moe hates being treated like this, and tells everyone he's going to tell the real truth now. Franziska tries to stop him, but the Judge, tiredly, decided to give him another last chance. So, what's the real truth of what he saw? Well, he did see Max standing near the dead body, and then...he floated away, which explains the lack of footprints. Phoenix is given a chance to share what he thinks. It doesn't actually matter what his thoughts are, because really no one knows what to do with this testimony. The Judge also delivers the amazing line "If you disregard a need for proof, Ms. von Karma's case is sound." And then the day of court ends, because clearly more evidence and investigation is required.
Gotta love court cases that basically change nothing at all.
Well, that's where the day ends. Which means it is time for analysis. Start us off wherever you'd like, Sam.
I know I've been negative about this case so far, but...I legit can't think of what to analyze here. We learn no relevant new information. The closest is the fact that the killer supposedly flew away, which is like...that's a hook. It's a single, small, but inexplicable information that establishes the thing you need to explain in order to get to the truth. And we wasted a whole day getting there. No new character development, no new information, no nothing but wasting time leading to a single morsel of information that sends us straight back out there. This segment is nothing.
I think you're underselling this segment Sam. It has substance. It's just that most of it is absolutely nothing but annoying. Trilo and Ben bring the headache with the repeated mantra of Max's symbols, and the testimony itself is just ridiculous. This is a mystery! And we are given such ramshackle, nothing testimony like "I think I saw the defendant because he was wearing those clothes, except not really at first I though it was the victim and a monkey stole my ring."
Moe's section brings some good laughs, I don't hate all of it, but the depths of annoying are deeper. As you said, little of actual consequence happens, but then we get the special penalty/game over system. Sam, what were your thoughts on those?
Here's the thing about that segment with Moe; it's not an unworkable idea. Specifically, if you only got penalized for pushing too hard on a thread that doesn't lead anywhere, that would make sense. But that's only one of the instances, at least that I found. There's even one statement that penalizes you just for pressing it. No warning, no way to know you even could get anything wrong. That's not cool.
These bits where someone threatens penalty for certain actions are supposed to raise the stakes and tension, so the player has to be more careful with how they proceed. This is more like a minefield; you just never know when you might stumble on a penalty. That's not interesting or fair.
I agree, but I'd go a little further. Honestly? This is a Filler Case. We'll go over the specs for that two weeks from now, but for now, I'll just remind everyone that this is supposed to function as a dip in the interest curve between heavy cases, a light trial that gives us time to get to know the characters more and have fun doing it. We should not be given a mechanic that punishes us this much, up to instant game over. And even if it was going to be used on a case like this, it would better be served near the finale, not on the first trial segment!
As you said, it's not a bad idea at all, but it feels entirely out of place in terms of difficulty curve. Because of this, the player is left with the feeling that the only reason its happening to them is because Moe is so annoying we get extra harsh cross-examinations. If I'm being honest, if it wasn't for this mechanic being specifically tied to Moe, I don't think he would be as disliked by much of the fandom. Again, I actually like a lot of the humor around him. Those bits with the Judge getting freaking pissed at him? Funny. Him singing television show themes but themed around clowns? I'd prefer if they worked like normal and didn't go on so you'll miss them if you're not paying attention, but still funny.
I did appreciate the Judge getting mad, I'll admit. I also chuckled when von Karma promised to subject Gumshoe to his jokes later. But in addition to all this, so much of this simply felt unimportant. I remember when I was presenting Regina to prove who Trilo was out there waiting for, and I thought, "Why am I doing this? Why does this matter to this case? What am I proving?" Even on a moment-to-moment basis, most of this case felt like I was pedaling a bike with no chain.
You're absolutely correct. Despite the parts I like here and there, this case is 95% air. We're heading into the second day of investigation knowing very slightly more than we did before. It didn't even do anything for von Karma! We'll have to see if they do anything with her in the next two segments, but she still feels underused. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about for today's segment?
I feel like there should be, but man there is just nothing in this segment. There's more I could complain about, but I've been negative enough as it is. Is there a cheat code to skip to the next case?
Nope, that just means next week we'll be talking about the second day of investigation. Auf wiedersehen.
Later!
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