Board 8 > Rate the Ace Attorney case: Turnabout Reminiscence (E1-4)

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Rules:

1. Rate each case on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Anything above 10 gets rounded down to a 10, and anything below a 1 gets rounded up to a 1.
2. Anything beyond one decimal point will be rounded accordingly: .04 and below will be rounded down, .05 and up will be rounded up.
3. You may grade on any criteria you like.
4. You can rate cases from previous topics if you miss a topic.

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PiEuURt1qf19VoYzcFCU1EFa8uqs2teJiVcip7JmjDw/edit?usp=sharing

Previous Results:

Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5) - 9.8 (37 votes)
Farewell, My Turnabout (2-4) - 9.7 (30 votes)
Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4) - 9.2 (32 votes)
Turnabout Beginnings (3-4) - 8.4 (26 votes)
Rise from the Ashes (1-5) - 8.2 (28 votes)
The Stolen Turnabout (3-2) - 8.2 (24 votes)
Turnabout Samurai (1-3) - 7.4 (29 votes)
Turnabout Memories (3-1) - 7.4 (30 votes)
Turnabout Trump (4-1) - 6.9 (25 votes)
Recipe for Turnabout (3-3) - 6.6 (27 votes)
Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2) - 6.5 (25 votes)
Turnabout Sisters (1-2) - 5.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Visitor (E1-1) - 5.0 (19 votes)
The First Turnabout (1-1) - 4.9 (25 votes)
The Kidnapped Turnabout (E1-3) - 4.6 (21 votes)
Turnabout Airlines (E1-2) - 4.3 (21 votes)
Turnabout Corner (4-2) - 4.0 (25 votes)
Turnabout Big Top (2-3) - 3.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Succession (4-4) - 3.5 (24 votes)
The Lost Turnabout (2-1) - 3.3 (27 votes)
Turnabout Serenade (4-3) - 2.7 (24 votes)

The Kidnapped Turnabout's topic went pretty similarly to Turnabout Airlines. Some dividing opinions, but generally a big ball of eh. There was some praise for the premise and Lauren's character. There were a lot of people that didn't care for the cast. Even Kay falls into the meh feeling towards the cast. I expected the discussion to go down significantly for the spin-off games, but this one's dire. I guess it doesn't help that it's the oldest spin-off and the least liked of them.

Summary:

Seven years before the start of AAI, a shocking murder takes place inside the courthouse itself, and a freshly-promoted detective is the prime suspect. Edgeworth takes on his first "investigation" and forms bonds that will last him a lifetime, all while taking on the mystery of the famed master thief, Yatagarasu.

Main Characters: Miles Edgeworth, Dick Gumshoe, Franziska von Karma, Kay Faraday
Other Characters: Manfred von Karma, Byrne Faraday, Mack Rell, Calisto Yew, Tyrell Badd, Deid Mann, Manny Coachen, The Judge

My Rating: 4.5/10. I remember thinking this was the standout case when AAI first came out. I've cooled it a lot since then. Starting with the positives: The cast, while still small, is solid. I really like Calisto and Badd. The double murder is interesting and, while there's a LOT of background characters in here, I think it makes the case memorable. I really like teenage Franziska and I'm OK towards Young Kay. Also, the remix of the T&T court music is great. Now the bad. This is probably the 2nd hardest retcon in the series, right after DD Phoenix completely erasing Hobonix, right? Miles von Karma is an asshole in 3-4 and he softens hardcore in this case, feeling a lot more like JFA-era Edgeworth. Poor Lang is erased from another case and Kay is effectively absent in this case too.

3.5

8.5/10.

AAI haters gonna AAI hate, apparently.

Shocking turnabout: people who genuinely do not like a game, do not like a game

4

3/10

I liked it more the first time I played it, probably just because it had any level of intrigue to it after the rest of an otherwise boring game - but on replay it felt really weak. The murder is just not interesting at all - the case starts with this premise of two people killing each other, and the game takes a really long time pulling this apart to absolutely no end because they didn't kill each other and the whole thing is just a red herring. I like that the Judge is in this case as a witness, which is really fun and remains a one-off novelty to this day, but the whole thing with the gunshot really being a balloon popping is silly, it's like Ace Attorney for kids stuff. The overarching plot that this is leading to is all super boring. Young Franziska is kind of funny but the re-use of young Edgeworth here does nothing for me. I like Calisto Yew but there just isn't a lot going on here. It's kind of a slog.

8/10

8/10

The only case in this game I legitimately like. More intrigue, more buddy-cop antics, Kay as a little kid, the Judge as a witness, and a thrilling climax that feels more like the showdowns we've come to know and love.

That said, I only played it twice and enjoyed it both times.

...that said, tomorrow I think I will leave the ranting to other people.

1.8/10

I despise this case. Get Calisto Yew out of my life forever. I think I said Lamiroir was my least favorite character in the series a few days ago, but that was because my mind tried to erase all memory I had of Yew i fucking hate it here lemme out

5

Wow I really have no strong opinions on this whole game.

I like that MSG and I disagree on how good Calisto Yew is but agree that the case sucks anyway

3.5/10

...even after reading these explanations, I still don't remember this case at all. This might be my most forgotten of any AA case I've played.

Pfft... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

5.5/10
Nothing egregiously wrong with this one. Just not very interesting. I like the cast ok. I also like having a Swiss roll as an evidence.

The Truth Isn't Sweet

No rating I barely remember this but Tyrell Badd is dope

3/10

I remember Yew and I remember being annoyed at some of the ridiculous contrivations of the case and thinking this case shouldn't really exist in the lore, even if it was technically not forbidden by Edgypoo's backstory

...Yew is actually decent but

8. i love these cases that meander a bit at first but get stronger and stronger as they go, especially if they go out on a super-high note

I wonder what case is going to have the highest standard deviation....?

Haste_2 posted...

I wonder what case is going to have the highest standard deviation....?

Possibly! I think E-5 will be a good candidate too

4.5/10

This case is a serious retcon and that bothers me. Why in the world does this Edgeworth care about finding the truth? I feel like 1-5 and E1-4 both worked really hard to make it seem like Edgeworth was never actually a bad guy, and I don't like it.

I also don't like Calisto Yew. I hate the laughing hyena archetype. She's annoying every time she talks until she pulls out the gun. The concept of the Judge as a witness is really fun, but I'm with Para. Confusing a balloon popping for a gunshot is dumb.

Speaking of dumb, Gumshoe being willing to get arrested for murder so no one will find out Kay talked to a stranger is really dumb. I feel like it's meant to be an endearing type of dumb in a way that's befitting of Gumshoe, but there's no reason to go this far to protect Kay.

That being said, I really like Badd. He plays the hardboiled detective mostly straight with a few fun swerves. I like the Yatagarasu plotline as a whole, and you get a good dose of it here.

Also, I hate to admit it, but moe Franziska is kinda adorbs. Might be her best appearance in the series.

Whew, had more to say about it than I thought!

Oh yeah I can agree that this might be Franziska's best appearance.

8

The only case in this game I really remember.

6/10.

Best case in the game, but...that's mostly because of Badd and Young Franziska/Edgeworth banter.

7

Good case though the Edgeworth retcon sucks.

7.5/10

I've never really understood the strong distaste a lot of people have for Yew. I mean her laugh shtick is stupid but I can just tune out for a sec whenever she does it.

Honestly this is a mostly pretty solid case to me. Really most of its points are deducted at the expense of Edgeworth's character. If I wanted to DA the shit out of it I could argue this outcome just hardened him further, but that's probably putting more thought into it than the writers did.

Some interesting ratings here and there that I didn't expect. Turnabout Succession surely isn't the best, and for me the weakest final case, but 3rd from the bottom? And the cases it's below surprise me, some of those are so intensely boring that the mess that is 4-4 automatically is more interesting to play.

And personally, I found E1-3 even more boring and tedious than E1-2, but to be fair, there are no winners in that game.

That is, aside from the case for this round; E1-4 is the only semblance of quality in terms of this game's cases. Even the least popular case from its sequel (case 2 I think) I already enjoyed more than pretty much anything in game 1. But I'll give E1-4 a 6/10. It's a pretty passable case that is more interesting than the other 4, but I also don't remember that much of it...for this game, probably a positive though.

I enjoyed the vending machine gag items

"When you're in hot water, you might need a hot dog."................Hmm...It looks like this slogan was decided through a public contest. And the winner was... Prosecutor Winston Payne...?

I think my biggest problem with this case it it heavily entrenches Kay Faraday into the lore of Ace Attorney and that's just not really what I wanted for her character. She herself isn't involved all that much but I dunno it just felt like a story was being told to make her more relevant and forget caring about consistency of Edgeworth's character and all that stuff (or even why nothing from here really comes up before this game)

Callisto Yew was annoying and Tyrell Badd existed but yeah I dunno I just remember this case annoying me-- I think a lot is I have no patience for flashback stuff.

It is the most playable of the stuff I have down here, it's not super boring or obnoxious. I think I mostly just don't like what it's trying to do.

2.3/10.

Lopen posted...

I think a lot is I have no patience for flashback stuff.

honestly in principle i agree here, but to me the execution was awesome so i loved it!

8

yeah sorry, being a little too long and messing with Edgeworth's character a bit isn't enough for me to justify bumping this lower. Maaaaaybe to 7.5 on a bad day ...

I love Badd. I love the Judge. I love Franziska. This is possibly her best appearance! Gumshoe is at his most adorable so I'm basically brainwashed into loving E1-4.

Yew is a little annoying. Mack Rell is in the running for one of the most boring victims (though a double murder is nice!) and Manny Coachen is pretty blah for being set up for the next case....

The setting is a novelty. A liiiittle boring, but the novelty of solving two murders in the courthouse wins out for me.

Yeah, idunno I just really liked this one. I'm such an apologist for this game lol

It's really interesting that this is one of the few genuinely divisive cases in the series. So far we haven't had a really wide range of disagreement on most cases - there's a few outliers for nearly all of them (every dumb case has someone who loves it, and it's often me), but nearly every case has a fairly general consensus about where it stands. This one doesn't at all.

Yeah, I thought 4-4 would be the biggest split, but it seems this case holds the crown for now. I felt like I was in the minority for not being a fan of this one, but there are more than I thought!

I almost forgot the greatness that is Deid Mann.

Deid Mann is one of the stupidest name puns that actually loops back into being funny

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, I thought 4-4 would be the biggest split, but it seems this case holds the crown for now. I felt like I was in the minority for not being a fan of this one, but there are more than I thought!

I think this case is where people who were trudging through AA1 out of series loyalty despite not really enjoying it just got fed up. It probably rates higher if it's somehow the second or third case.

5

Stopped playing at the first save break because the game just wasn't interesting enough to play by this point, though most of the blame is on the first three cases for being just so poor that this case really needed to be at 2-4 levels in order for me to keep playing. It wasn't and I knew there was another case after this so I never went back to play this or the last case, but I did watch a play-through on Youtube of these cases years later. Don't like the way Edgeworth is portrayed here given this was before his face turn years later and it doesn't fit his character at this stage in the timeline, but otherwise this is the best case of the game, which... Isn't a high bar set.