Hallo, alle miteinander, and welcome back to Wright Wednesday. This is where we recap, analyze, and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series. But who is the "we"? Well, I'm Roy and I am so happy this case is ending.
I'm Sam, and I'm just mad Roy made me play it again.
Don't be too mad Sam, because this is it! Today so the final trial segment of Turnabout Big Top, so why don't you get the recap going?
As the trial is about to start, Max is all nerves until Regina shows up to offer him milk. Apparently Moe suggested she come watch the trial, which Phoenix notes is a little strange. It quickly becomes clear she doesn’t know what’s happening here. Moe shows up once she leaves, offering even more milk to Max. Turns out Moe is also pretty sure Acro is the culprit, and through some weirdly vague reasoning Phoenix decides this trial will rely more on evidence than his usual psychological warfare (i.e. throwing out ideas and accusations willy-nilly).
It is pretty odd how both Phoenix and Moe are so sure Acro is the killer especially when it becomes clear in court that he has no clue how the murder took place.
Moe clarifies that he needs Regina to see the proceedings today so she’ll be forced to confront the reality of what happened to her father. “She needs to know that when people die, they don’t just become stars.”
I feel like that is like 50% actually a good idea and 50% purposefully inflicting trauma.
As the trial begins, von Karma says Acro’s testimony has given them a new understanding of how things went down, and calls him to the stand. He says that just after 10pm, he heard a thump outside, then saw Max fly upward just outside his window. Of course he only saw him in silhouette, and he claims to have seen the silk hat. This is a contradiction, of course, since the hat was found on the ground at the crime scene. Phoenix takes this opportunity to accuse Acro of being the murderer.
Franziska claims she totally figured out the flying trick, and had Gumshoe do a mock-up to prove it, but Phoenix never asks her to explain so we don't know what she worked on at all. Also, Phoenix is accusing Acro out of literal nowhere, it's a ridiculous move.
It is, but that doesn’t phase Acro, who tells the audience to look at him; he can’t even stand on his own. Franziska tries to lure Phoenix into claiming Acro had an accomplice, but he doesn’t fall for it, instead claiming that he did it on his own, and all from his own room 3 floors above the crime scene. Everyone freaks out about how impossible this is, as though the alternative explanation on offer isn’t that a man flew.
Again, von Karma is claiming to have figured that out. Somehow.
When asked to explain how this is possible, Phoenix presents the bust of Max Galactica that had gone missing before the murder; Acro dropped it onto the Ringmaster’s head from the 3rd story window. Phoenix posits that an acrobat would have the upper body strength to carry the bust, but von Karma manages to get a testimony from Acro on his physical health, hoping to stall.
I will give minor credit that someone mentions that if Acro doesn't feel up to testifying about this, they could call an expert witness. They don't, they just trust Acro will tell the truth, but still.
Acro testifies that he could have lifted the bust, but wouldn’t have been able to exert the force on his lower body necessary to look out the window and drop the bust on the ringmaster. So Phoenix makes one of those leaps of logic that the player has the burden of figuring out, claiming that the box the ringmaster was slumped over was placed there ahead of time so Acro could know where to aim when the ringmaster stooped to look at it.
I don't want to interrupt your recap, but I have to talk about this during the analysis.
Oh, we will have a lot to talk about by the end of this case. Acro follows this up by claiming he couldn’t have gotten the bust up to his room in the first place, because he can’t get up there on his own. But Phoenix points out that the cards on the statue are made of shiny platinum, and posits that Money brought the bust up to Acro’s room on his own (something Acro himself confirmed was possible in an offhand comment earlier). The prosecution rebuts by pointing out that Max was seen at the scene of the crime, and for once the solution to one of her gotchas is exceedingly obvious; the cape was put on the bust of Max.
In a manner of speaking.
The actual explanation is…well, when Russell Berry left the meeting with Max, he wore Max’s costume; even Phoenix simply posits at why he might have done this, since there’s no clear reason. But this is why Ben and Trilo saw Max walk by. When the ringmaster tried to pick up the box by the lodging, Acro let go of the rope he had rigged to hold the bust and dropped it on the ringmaster, killing him. The impact sent the cloak flying off the Ringmaster’s back, settling on the bust. This is when Moe heard the impact and looked out, seeing the bust clothed in the cape just before Acro pulled it back up, accidentally creating the illusion that Max flew away.
I mean, it's more clarified why he was wearing the costume later on.
Ah, I guess that's true, and that explanation is another whole issue. The prosecutor claims there isn’t proof of this theory, but Phoenix points out that it explains Moe’s testimony. Max’s hat was found at the scene of the crime, but since the bust includes the hat he could still have seen it on the figure. He also explains that the white roses wouldn’t have been visible to Moe because the cloak was snagged on the cards of the bust, and weren’t visible to him. This is just more explanation, not hard evidence, but it apparently satisfies von Karma and the Judge.
It, like so much in this case, is a lot of talking with not a lot to back it up.
The problem now is that they’re lacking motive. Acro’s debt of gratitude to the ringmaster is well known. The Judge agrees to hear his story as testimony after a brief recess.
During the recess, everyone's discussion of Acro being the killer is interrupted by Gumshoe. He's brought evidence, the scarf that von Karma took the day before. It has pepper on it. Gumshoe says that everything so far has gone according to "their plan" and that "the prosecutor" has a message for Phoenix: Judgement comes at the final moment.
Oh, oh, ooohhhhh! That makes more sense now. Okay. We'll get to it.
We will indeed. Back in the court, which feels so much like right before the recess that I might have to say that was the lamest, least needed recess in Ace Attorney history, Acro testifies about his past with the victim. It's all stuff we've heard before, and it really makes him sympathetic to the court.
A compelling enough defense, I have to admit; proving Acro bore ill will toward Berry would be difficult.
Counterpoint: the prosecution has yet to provide any motive for Max. In fact, he also has a good reason not the kill the victim: he just got a raise.
Oh that's 100% true. These games are often way more demanding of Phoenix when it comes to hard evidence than the prosecution, but this case practically bathes in that hypocrisy.
After Pressing everything, only to get more and more details that support the strong bond, the Judge calls off the cross-examination and Phoenix is asked how Acro could have any kind of motive. The answer is simple: he doesn't. Or rather, he does, but for killing someone else. Namely, Regina. The note that called the victim to his death was originally in her pocket, and it's been clear Acro has a grudge against her, one that started in the accident. Franziska already knows all about it, because she does her research, but as far as she could see, that had been a clear-cut accident.
This case relies on a lot of putting pieces together without any solid connective tissue.
For an example of that, Phoenix brings up the scarf: it has pepper on it, it was a gift from Regina (despite that info not being in the Court Record), and the pepper was what made the lion sneeze, biting down on Bat's head. This is why he addressed the note to Regina as "To the Murderer", as to him it felt like she has murdered his brother.
That whole "the lion was smiling" thing led up to this. That he bit Bat because he sneezed from the pepper.
But after all of this, Phoenix hits a new wall: he's proven his theory possible, but there's no direct evidence. The supposed murder weapon, the bust, is nowhere to be found. When Phoenix suggests searching his room for it, Franziska explains she has a surprise search done the day before, and it was not found. With no murder weapon, it looks like Acro is going to leave, and he says some super suspicious taunts before he does.
Phoenix Wright murderers always getting cocky and saying obviously villainous things in the 11th hour, and of course no one calls them on it. I'd have thought it unrealistic a few years ago.
But before Acro can leave, Maya butts in and claims the defense can totally find Max's bust, then retreats into the background so Phoenix can solve the mystery himself. There is a branching tree of options here, and some amazing comedy behind them: is it at the Lodging House, the Big Top, or in the Courtroom?
I do admit I went through a few of these before finding the right one, and we'll talk about why in a bit. I imagine you have some wrong answers to go over first, though!
Just two, both relating to the courtroom branch. All the others are funny too, but these are the top tier. Saying it's under the prosecutor's bench makes von Karma whip Phoenix so hard they have wait for him to regain consciousness, and when he does they reference the amnesia plot of the first case. It's pretty good.
I did get that one! Thank God they didn't retread the amnesia ground.
Even better us if you say it's under the Judge's desk. He gets angrier than we've ever seen before, tears Phoenix a new one, then after giving a penalty, says "WHAT'S THAT!? YOU WANT A DOUBLE!? HERE YA GO!!" This double penalty is a Game Over if you have lost any amount of the penalty bar at all. It's possibly my favorite moment of this case.
Haha, oh no, I didn't do that one. And good thing I guess, I loaded that save enough times as it was.
The answer is that it is the courtroom: at the witness stand. The surprise search caught Acro unawares, and he had to hide the bust quickly, under his chair. Now, he's been caught in court hiding the murder weapon, and he knows there's no way to escape that. He congratulates Phoenix...and von Karma, since it was her search that caused him to bring it to court. He once again matches the two as equals.
Poor von Karma.
Acro lays out why he did all of this, which we will discuss later, but the plot relevant thing is that it says twice that, while he wanted to die for killing the ringmaster, he couldn't leave just yet. The Judge gives the verdict, and von Karma is very mad. Back in the lobby, Maya is down in the dumps, saying that no one in this case was really a bad person.
Which, as you may have guessed, is pretty much this case's contribution to the game's overall point.
Regina is crying over everything, which is fair, but is also paranoid that what Acro said means he'll try to kill her again. Phoenix disagrees, saying that his comments were more meant to mean that, since Bat could still wake back up, he couldn't be arrested or kill himself yet. Regina decides to take care of Bat in his place, until he wakes up.
One of the weirder "present evidence to make someone feel better" puzzles, but a nice enough moment.
Moe is going to be the new ringmaster, Regina will stay at the circus, and so will Max. It's a happy(ish) ending, but the case isn't done. We cut to an airport, where someone is on a phone call with Gumshoe, someone who was working with him to get the evidence to Phoenix, planned the search, and found the truth first. That man is Miles Edgeworth, and he's coming home.
Wait...ONE OF THE SERIES MAIN CHARACTERS ISN'T DEAD????? I am shocked.
Alright Sam, it's time to analyze this sucker. You start.
Well, all the characters, to one degree or another, embody the main thing this case is going for. The case's poor execution harms it a bit, though. Acro, to start, is a very intentionally sympathetic murderer, though honestly that's as much because of his tragic backstory as it is because we barely got to spend any time with him at all. All we really know of the guy is his tragic past.
We also have his present demeanor, which is definitely something that makes him stand out among the killers in the series. And yeah, the writing really, really wants you to sympathize with the guy. A lot of fans do. I used to. But honestly...I can't be that sympathetic to him anymore. I'd say he's a tragic villain, sure, but even leaving aside the way he sometimes acts in court, which is pretty freaking jerky, the case never ruminates on the fact he wanted to murder a teenage girl for an accident. It's very sad that he accidentally killed his father figure, but that leaves out the fact that, if he'd succeeded he would have killed said father figure's actual daughter. There are several killers, including last case's Mimi Miney, who I find more sympathetic than Acro. The fact the case tries to push his sympathy so hard, including Edgeworth saying he'll try to make sure the prosecutors go easy on him, just makes me like him less.
I honestly think the fact that he comes across as sympathetic as he does is more because of his lack of presence in the case than any of the actual content. His calm demeanor and tragic backstory is part of it, but what he tried to do is still pretty despicable. That just doesn't come across very strongly because his entire presence in the case is crammed into the last half and he never gets a chance to develop beyond his basic character concept.
I don't know if I'd agree. A lot of villain characters aren't introduced until halfway through their cases, and are very memorable characters, such as Redd White. I think Acro may come off as underdeveloped because he, by design, is much less exaggerated in personality. He's more stoic and focused. I also actually really liked him apologizing to Max at the end, since he really never planned of framing the guy and is one of the only circus performers without a grudge against him.
I suppose that makes sense. You're right that other killers have been introduced halfway through and worked way better, I think I'm still just annoyed that the first half of this case was a complete waste of time.
That is a totally legit way to feel. As you said, Acro is probably the strongest connection in this case to the game's central theme: he's supposed to be a good guy, defying the expectation of the killer being a loathsome, evil person. Unfortunately, as we've said, the case kind of falls flat there, since his sympatheticness is very subjective. Honestly, I find Yanni Yogi far more sympathetic.
There are more characters to talk about, but I would like to get one thing out of the way: Ben and Trilo weren't even in this segment, because it turns out they're completely tangential to the entire case and they have literally no reason to exist.
You're completely right. It's so odd they don't appear in the ending wrap up, it makes it feel like the case itself is just done with them. I mean, I didn't like them, they're some of my least favorite characters in the series, but some resolution for them would have been nice.
As much as I don't enjoy them, it feels a little weird to have an ending where everyone in the circus decides to move forward and do the best they can to make it great, except them. They're just...not part of that. They didn't do anything important in the investigation segment either, which means the only part of the case they mattered in was the part that should have just been cut entirely. It's weirdly blatant, like the game doesn't even try to make them seem like they matter.
Whereas Moe, on the other hand, is actually way better in this one. Once he stops with his annoying gimmicks and treats the situation seriously, he comes across a lot better. I think he'll be a good ringmaster, as opposed to the first three quarters of this case when I just wanted him to stop existing.
They did stick the landing with Moe, even if his plan to help Regina felt a little...iffy to me. Speaking of, we should talk about the animal tamer. For someone who the entire case revolves around, she's barely in this. She goes to see the trial, sees how her actions, by accident, hurt others, she's broken, then everyone comforts her. As the only female member of the circus seen, it's disappointing, though not surprising, that she's effectively a prop for the other characters.
That is extremely true, and I'm glad we're getting to Regina last because she's...pretty much the thematic crux of this entire case, I would argue. Or at the very least, of its relation to the game's overall themes. This is weakened by her relative lack of involvement in the case, weak development as a character, and also by being in Turnabout Big Top, where everything is bad even when it does manage to mean something, but it's there.
I mean...I guess? I feel like her story is very tangentially related to the overall theme of the game, unless you take her story as "you need to think more critically about yourself and your actions", in which case it is tied in, for sure. But you can just as easily see her plot as about the need to be realistic instead of idealistic, the case never really dives into the territory her story creates. We never even really learn how she felt about Bat, or Trilo, or Max.
Well okay, I agree completely that we don't have much to go on in terms of details of her character. The game flubs her up in a big way. But while I don't think she contributes a lot to the case as a character, the concept she represents is a major part of what this overall game is aiming to communicate.
This series is a legal drama, meaning much of the story deals with the concept of innocence. Especially since Phoenix is a defense attorney trying to get people declared innocent, and is taught early on to believe in the innocence of his clients. The concept of innocence is one that this series interacts with on a near-constant basis, in one way or another, and usually in pretty black-and-white terms; a person who is innocent is in no way responsible for the suffering or death a case handles.
Regina is different. She's innocent; obnoxiously, impossibly, naively innocent. To a fault, to say the absolute least. And suddenly the game is giving us a different definition of innocence that paints a very different picture of what it means. What's more, the actual inciting incident for this case was harm caused by Regina's innocence; not her malice or carelessness, but her innocence. This case uses Regina to expand the idea of "innocence" from the black-and-white legal definition (and the game's fairly idealistic idea of it) into more complex territory. It challenges and complicates one of the game's core tools for black-and-white moral reasoning. This case is complete and utter garbage, but I have to admire that intent.
Huh, I've got to say, I've never seen it like that, and you are absolutely correct that, from that angle, her character does fit the major theme of this particular game. The other way the case contributes, as we've mentioned before, is with Max Galactica and Acro. The defendants of these games are, more often than not, really good people. The closest we had to someone morally negative as a defendant so far was Edgeworth, but that was more about his personal journey than anything to do with the idea of defendant's being innocent. But Max is a different story. While he got some more texture in the back half of the care, Maximillion Galactica is still a rude, abrasive, arrogant person who physically assaulted a coworker. He's innocent of murder, but not the kind of person most people would want to save. Even Gumshoe, the ultimate cinnamon roll, says at one point during this trial period that Max "deserves to be guilty anyways..."
As I've touched on earlier, Acro is the other aspect that throws things into whack. The killers of Ace Attorney cases are, traditionally, anywhere from Card Carrying Villains to Tragic Villains, undeniably bad people. But Acro isn't written to be seen that way. The game stresses, again and again, that he's actually quite a good person, one whose actions were motivated by grief and trauma. I'd personally argue he's still pretty messed up, but the point is nonetheless that Phoenix doesn't take any schadenfreude in sending Acro to jail, unlike someone like Redd White or Manfred von Karma. More and more, this game is making the point that morality can be very complex, and where a person stands in court has little to do with their actual moral fiber.
It's definitely true that the entire cast of this case (the ones that matter, anyway) aren't easily put into the boxes we can usually put Ace Attorney characters. Max is kind of an asshole and Acro is a nice person with a tragic backstory.
Another element of this that I think is worth discussing is that Max's bad behavior is written to be sort of a misguided expression of an ultimately positive trait; he wants everyone to experience the joy of being in a Class A circus act. That's why he pushes people, and gets upset when they're not giving it their all, and why he's such a braggart; he thinks that seeing his success will motivate them. Between his explanation and Moe's agreement in the last segment, and their exchange at the end of this one (in which Moe offers Max the ability to leave with good pay, but Max chooses to stay when Moe expresses that he wants to make the circus the best there is), it's written as though the conflict between Max and Moe (and perhaps the others, too) was more about a misunderstanding than about good and bad people.
This is severely undercut by the fact that Max is actually pretty terrible, because like everything in this case the idea is there but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
For sure. I think we should talk about the prosecutors next. Want to start with the new, or the returning old?
Well I'm really curious what analysis you can get out of Edgeworth's five lines of dialogue, so let's start with him!
First of all, as you noted in the recap portion, Gumshoe was not referring to von Karma during the recess, he was referring to Edgeworth. It's something that comes off as very odd most people's first time through, and the wording only really becomes noticeable on a replay if you remember who Gumshoe is really working with. Edgeworth had been keeping a close eye on the case, from wherever he was, and directing Gumshoe from afar to assist. Even if Phoenix is still upset about the sudden disappearance, it's only thanks to Edgeworth's intervention that Phoenix was able to get his win. It's also very cool that Gumshoe is doing this, secretly betraying von Karma to work in concert with his favorite prosecutor. The only thing I have to wonder is how Edgeworth got the surprise search to happen. Before he mentions it at the end, it seems pretty clear that was von Karma's move, she even admonishes herself for doing it. Either he just guessed she'd do that, or had Gumshoe quietly point von Karma in that direction through indirect manipulation. Either way, I do feel like that could have been more clear.
Honestly that mostly makes me love Gumshoe more than anything else. He's so good.
He is such a good boy. Meanwhile, this segment did do a few things for Franziska. First, it further established what makes her special as a prosecutor: her research skills. She actually took the time to look into Bat's accident, even though, as she said, it had nothing to do with the case. Edgeworth frequently missed things like this, and later prosecutors similarly aren't as up-to-date on other things going on related to the case.
Second, Acro ends up claiming that Franziska and Phoenix worked together to catch him. Neither intended that, but it did end up happening, and this ties together with what he'd said the day before, about how they're similar people. This will be dug into more later, but the case is further cementing a tie between the two that neither is aware of or particularly enthused to hear about.
I do love that Acro ends up implying that Phoenix and Franziska worked together. It's a rather pointed misunderstanding. I will say, this segment does have one moment for Maya, and it's one of the weirder "it's about to end before someone jumps into save the day" moments so far. Because it's literally just Maya yelling at the last second, then telling Phoenix to...do his job, pretty much. No new evidence or angles, just...don't give up. And that's her only real contribution here.
You are not wrong. It's pretty weak. Speaking of weak, let's move from analyzing characters to the story. We've said previously how shaky the logic has been in this case so far and this segment might have taken the cake. For as much praise I want to give it for making things finally actually happen, what ends up happening is hard to follow and annoying to play through. For one example: the trunk. Okay, so, Acro says because he can't have seen out he window, he couldn't have seen the head to hit. Contradiction? The trunk. If that had been built up to, through a logical series of inferences and stuff, that could work. Instead, you have to jump straight to that evidence. And why? Well, the box was heavy, so Acro could predict where the head would be when it was being lifted up. That is some shaky as heck logic, another example of the game going "Yup, there's only one possible explanation," even though that feels like utter nonsense. That's just one example, this segment is full of those kind of logical jumps.
It also talks about how Acro managed to drop the bust on the Ringmaster using a pulley system outside his window, because his paralysis means he couldn't have done it normally. But, you know, apparently he can set up a freaking pulley system outside his window.
See, I didn't interpret it that way. I thought he was just lifting and dropping stuff using the rope, no pulley. The illustration isn't super clear, and this is the case with no evidence, so we'll never really know. Every time we harp on logical problems like this, I do feel like it's worth repeating that we both normally hate stuff like that. Nitpicky complaining about plot holes is the lamest kind of internet criticism. But this is a mystery, and one where the player has to figure things out themselves.
This case has poor mystery elements, and somehow combines, for many people, two of the series's worst traits when used without purpose: the player being miles ahead of Phoenix in solving the mystery, and the player being miles behind him. Phoenix enters this day of court seemingly having figured out who did it and why, and there are several points where it feels like Phoenix is leading the player by the nose through hoops that don't feel justified by the story. But other times, Phoenix is absolutely clueless to something the player figured out ages ago. This issue happens occasionally all throughout the series, it's quite subjective, but I feel it's worth nothing that this case brings up that ire more than most, for many people.
That's kind of the story of this whole case, in a way. It manages to be way too busy while simultaneously going nowhere. It somehow keeps Phoenix way behind the curve despite also giving him answers that require huge leaps of logic for us to catch up with. The whole thing is split between opposite types of bad, and it's...kind of astonishing, really.
One last thing for analysis: the ties this case has with the previous case in its position, Turnabout Samurai. The second cases of the first and second games had some parallels, such as Maya as the defendant and the case being in some ways about Fey family backstory, but the link here is stronger, and this is the first time going through it that this hit me as hard as it did.
A performer is arrested, there's a large cast of characters from his place of entertainment employment, we don't meet the real killer until the second day of investigation, Maya's a big fan of the defendant, the murder has its root in a tragedy at that same place in the past which then caused a need for revenge, and in both there was a crucial mix-up: in Samurai the victim was an attempted murderer, and in Big Top the murderer killed the wrong person.
That's true, the parallels are strong. They're also the worst case in their game, at least in my opinion, but I'd be lying if I said they're similar in quality. Turnabout Samurai is exceptionally better than Turnabout Big Top. Their only quality similarity is in where they stand relative to the other cases of their respective games.
If nothing else, Turnabout Big Top just makes Turnabout Samurai look amazing in comparison. With that said, it's time to move on to the review portion. Just like the previously mentioned Turnabout Samurai, this case was the Filler Case of the game. These cases are meant to be lighter, fluffier stories in between the Establishing Case and the Finale Case. They're rarely anyone's favorite stories, but they serve a vital part of the overall game's pacing. While the second case of the game introduces us to the new Assistant and Rival characters, it's the Filler Case that actually allows us to really get to know them, in the sense that we have a new scenario to see them interact in. It better defines who they are, and how everyone relates to one another. It also serves to set up the status quo, as the second case of the game is too busy introducing new things, and the Finale Case is going to smash that status quo.
So, in order of relevance, a good Filler Case needs to give the player a good sense of what goes on at Wright and Co. in less serious cases, develop newer characters the game in introducing to us, further overarching plot or theme elements for the game in question, and be an entertaining to play case in its own right. How do you feel it did on all those levels, Sam?
Well, it tried to further the overarching themes of the game, but that's the only point I'll give it in this regard. We don't get anything out of Phoenix and Maya's interaction we hadn't already seen. The only important new characters in the game are Pearl and Franziska, and we get none of the former and only a little development of the latter. And it's not very fun to play on account of being both weirdly constructed and a poorly written mystery.
So it serves one of those purposes, and I'd argue even has the potential to serve it well. But it's also just...not good. So it's hard to credit to the broad strokes of meaning in the story when the execution is so poor.
Let's go down the list here: a good sense of Wright and Co in the downtime? Eh? Sure? But I'd argue Turnabout Samurai did a much better job of that. Develop the new characters? A bit with Franziska, but Pearl Fey was a cameo. Some would say that's okay, because she's less of a traditional assistant and more of a back-up for Maya, but considering there's a full case next game with both of them as the assistant character throughout, I disagree, it can be done and they just chose not to.
What about overarching plot? Well, the Edgeworth plotline got moved forward a little bit, more than the last case set it up really. But it's still a pretty weak overarching plot element. As for the themes, we went in depth there, but on the whole this case contributes to it...so long as you don't think about it too much, or at all really. And as a case in its own right...yeah, I think our thoughts there have been very clear. It's ill-constructed, poorly paced, and weakly written.
When it comes to expressing our ultimate opinions regarding cases, we use a 1 to 10 scale. This is a relative scale, not some attempt to measure objective quality. 1's are the worst cases in the series, 10's the best, and 5's and 6's are around the average. That said, I do feel like I should mention now that each of us have something more than that, too: a 0 and an 11. They're only to be used for what we feel are the ultimate worst and best case, respectively, in our own opinions.
I'm aware that there are quite a few people who enjoy this case. That is obviously totally fine, and I can honestly see pieces of stuff here that people would enjoy. This case does have some funny moments, and some interesting ideas. But the execution doesn't live up to any of the promise, and it just plain doesn't work on the whole. That said, it isn't the worst case in the series, at least not to me. It is, however, a 1 out of 10 for me.
Well I hate to keep up the negative tone on this game, but I'm also giving Turnabout Big Top a 1/10. Its only real saving grace for me is how well the theme of innocence fits into Justice for All's overall ideas, but the case isn't done well enough to make that matter much. It just ends up as wasted potential in a game that is, so far, brimming with it.
Well, now that we've put this behind us, things are looking up next week, when we begin Farewell, My Turnabout. Auf wiedersehen.
I remember this one very, very well, so I look forward to seeing how it measures up. Until next time!
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