Board 8 > KCF plays Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

(+) Yeah! (+)

The story is a slow builder, but I bet you'll love it by the end. I was skeptical too at first, but this ended up being my favorite game in the series.
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No comment on the culprit's name huh
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Until you mentioned it, I didn't give his name another look beyond figuring out a way to shorten it.
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Until I said it out loud, I thought his name was a pun about peeing while standing up.
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Episode 2: The Magical Turnabout

Alice in Wonderland meets The Smurfs meets Trucy Wright? Okay...

How long after the events of Dual Destinies does this take place? Trucy was a complete nobody right (I originally put down "wright" by accident)? How is she somebody that does TV/theater/magic shows with serious budgets?

Not that I didn't forget about Athena, but I'm hoping that she has evolved beyond generic, spunky emotional fireball #1000. Apollo isn't exactly much better. Can we just have a bromance between Phoenix and Miles?

Ah, the many faces of Athena Cykes, too many of which make me want to punch here. It was the same three years ago when I went through Dual Destinies.

Something's awfully fishy about Trucy Wright selling out in her debut performance.
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I kind of had a soft spot for Trucy's silly magic panties. I wonder if she's does more with it than making attorney badges disappear.

Oh neat, I can actually present my attorney badge this game. Disaster averted.

This is Trucy's debut as an entertainer, and she already has an absurd amount of fans. This is a red flag guys. Back me up here!

Troupe Gramarye huh. Didn't that literally die out? How did she get the copyright papers to use that name?

This doesn't sound like a troupe at all but a sole person with an assistant and another person, a former member, lending a helping hand with a secret trick. Gee, I wonder what the odds are that the former member is going to die and Trucy will be the prime suspect.

Bonny dressed up as a bunny, how cute. She's also totally creepy.
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Aaaaand Trucy stabs the coffin. Obvious result is obvious, well except for the suspended, wooden dragon plummeting to the floor.

Some over-the-top producer-type appears (I think they called him Mr. Retinz).

Upon examining the dog outside of the theater, Athena blurts out, "There's Trucy!"

The optical illusion of the Penrose Theater building was neat. I'm glad that they included it in the budget.

I know of a certain president that would approve of the portrayal of the media misleading the audience by jumping to conclusions without any evidence.

Even though they didn't show the body, I'm surprised that the TV coverage didn't warn the audience that what they see might be disturbing. It was neat seeing the silhouettes of stuff moving via string/pulley. That does mean that is likely very important. I remember seeing two. One happened when Mr. Hat went up after the smokescreen. The other is a mystery unless that is how Trucy reappeared. I'm guessing not, and there's more to the footage than meets the eye.
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Really promising start to this case in terms of your views on it!

The beginning of each game spans about a year, so it's been two years since AA4. I think you can explain some of Trucy's popularity due to her connection to Troupe Gramarye for sure. It's pretty clear she's been performing as an amateur since well before Apollo met her; I think she mentions having dedicated fans even then, and word of mouth is strong. And... well, she's a cute seventeen-year-old girl who likes to show off her panties.

It's Japan.

There are also other reasons that are touched on in this case.
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Nailed it, Trucy was arrested for manslaughter of the dead guy. Man, the police in the Ace Attorney universe arrest people mighty fast. I would like to know of their investigative process.

Note to self: Look up Sisyphus (based on Apollo and Athena's name, I'm guessing he was a figure of Greek mythology).
- Apollo called Athena that when she wanted to cut out TV to protest Trucy's portrayal but realized that there was a TV show that she wanted to watch.

Trucy explaining the trick reveals that there was no reason for a second silhouette in the TV footage. The first one checks out, but the second one that appeared between Bonny and the coffin is unknown. Based on how Trucy opened the top flap of the coffin, I do not believe that there was an opening to lower Reus' body into it.

I forgot about Apollo's bracelet. This was probably my favorite of the character-specific abilities, though I really like the psych locks during investigations.

Is this sword-switching thing like her magic panties where the explanation isn't important? Regardless, I doubt that it directly explains the second silhouette.
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Off the top of my head, Sisyphus sounds like the guy who has to push a boulder up a hill for eternity?
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I had to decide if I wanted to visit the stage or read the notebook of a teenage girl. I'll take the stage...or not. Well, I'm still holding off on the notebook.

Oh, it's Ema Skye. I haven't seen her in ages. I wonder if she still has the emotional level of an eleven year-old. Eh, I'll promote her to 16-18. She still has a lot of room for improvement. Oh wow, she's listed as being my age now. Is that possible? Was she really like 18 during 1-6?

Apollo, you are right to be alarmed or someone wanting to collect fingerprints as a "hobby" and add them to their personal database. You and Athena complied, so you both deserve what's coming to you.

LMAO, the prosecutor for the case if from Khura'in who has no experience with the judicial process in the country. He was given the murder case upon request. You can't make this shit up.

Nahuyata is his name, and I would like to call him Nah. I'm hoping that this will set up many opportunities to make fun of him if he doesn't meet my standards.

I stopped right when I got to the stage to investigate.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

Off the top of my head, Sisyphus sounds like the guy who has to push a boulder up a hill for eternity?

Google says yes
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So the camera footage is the same that was shown on TV. I still have no theories about where the second silhouette came from.

I vaguely remember that this takes place in the United States, but I also vaguely remember that it is just a localization thing.
- Reaction to Apollo saying "us Americans"

It means nothing to me right now, but the left and right panels of the coffin are interchangeable.

If he was stabbed in the back at what appears to be a straight-ish angle based on the size of the wound and where the blood is, how is Trucy even a culprit? She was caught on video stabbing the inside the coffin at an acute angle, and the coffin is shown to have hidden sections or anything of that nature.

So if Trucy went through the trap door at the bottom, it seems like the only way to get the body
(under the assumption that Reus was already dead and placed inside there) inside was through the back of the coffin. That is unless the culprit was somehow unable to alert Trucy of their presence down below, and were able to do everything inhumanely fast.

Of course the dragon falling was too convenient to not be considered deliberate Apollo! Whether or not it was for switching the rubber and real sword is not known at this point, but come on man!
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Apollo believes that somebody switched the metal and rubber sword to pin the murder on Trucy. I sincerely hope that his nickname growing up was Captain Obvious.

So far, all signs point to someone who is intimately familiar with Trucy's act. So far, we only know of three people who did. One is dead, and the other is a suspected murderer, so I'm assuming that Bonny gets cleared or new suspects emerge (like Retinz or someone else). Bonny was acting so blatantly suspicious though, so it would be a letdown if it was that simple.

Bonny and Mr. Reus' prints were found on the coffin as expected, but I regret not paying attention to see if Bonny was wearing gloves during the performance because that would at least cast some shadow of doubt if she was.

The third print belongs to a mystery person. I am assuming that Retinz was in the system, but if not, he's as good of a guess as anyone.

I didn't pay attention to the direction of Reus' prints, but if he was facing the back of the coffin, it is a near lock that he was dead long before the act.

Underground passage is locked from the outside. I do not know if that is important.
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Ah, so the first winch going up explains the first silhouette. It caused the dragon to fall. Unless there's some sort of timed contraption or there are co-conspirators, Bonny is currently in the clear.

A bucket meant to be used for a fire trick for the performance wasn't prepared. I wonder if magicians are in charge of their own trick preparations. That would certainly make this interesting.

There's a second coffin, but nobody gave it a second glance and didn't appear as evidence. I'm not quick to discard this though.

Mr. Hat's cap slashed with a blade, likely on his way up. I wasn't paying attention in the video to know if it was already slashed or not. Assuming it was slashed on his way up and Reus was facing backwards in the coffin, perhaps something was rigged to put the real sword in the prop thing as Mr. Hat was coming up. There's no blood on his cape, so that would mean that Reus did die quite some time ago.

Oh, they locked the underground passage post-incident. It doesn't necessarily lock from the outside.

Mr. Retinz appears again, and to nobody's surprise, he is a TV producer. He even has a money fan. They really like beating you over the head with their singular character traits. I do like his theme music!
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Semi-aside on the country: I basically believe that AA takes place in Japan, and I basically overlook anything that suggests the characters are American. It's only when talking about foreign characters/travel that my mindset defaults the main characters to being American, because I'm not really good a processing foreign things from a foreign perspective - and because you can't trust the localization to be referring to the same countries.

I think Retinz might have to do with Trucy's show being so full.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

I think Retinz might have to do with Trucy's show being so full.

I have no idea what you are trying to say. The pun with his name? I assume Retinz is supposed to be pronounced like Ratings
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He seems like a pretty influential media mogul, so he might have been able to drum up some publicity for her.
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Oh, okay, that makes sense. I definitely went in another direction with that interpretation.
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"Talk to the hand! KA-POW!"
- Apollo giving his "best shot"

Move on over Rayfa, this is hands down (*ba dum tss*) my favorite moment! I seriously laughed out loud for a good 10-15 seconds. Now for the love of god let me be Athena!

"That's going in the cringe reel for sure. I think we can all agree that was a mistake."
- Retinz reacting to Apollo giving his best shot

Okay, Retinz, this can be an excellent first step in the path for redemption.

Retinz really dislikes magicians and/or Gramaryes. Way to instantly make you a suspect!
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I think Retinz is a double-entendre between 'Ratings' and 'Cretin'?
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Was anyone going to come and feed these birds and rabbits inside the dressing room? One person is dead, another is in jail, and who knows about Bonny. Retinz doesn't seem to care about human life. Who else would that leave?

The female member from Troupe Gramarye is Apollo's mom right? That was like a decade ago, so many details remain fuzzy, but I'm guessing this means that Apollo is still unaware. I guess the poster that featured Troupe Gramarye is evidence. The only possibility that comes to mind is that the Reus in the poster and the Reus from the performance are two different people or some other sort of discrepancy. I mean, the profiles tab doesn't even list his name or age.

I don't recall of Damian or Jinxie Tenma. Klavier Gavin, that guy I do remember!

Lamiroir is Apollo's mom's stage name right? This confirms that he doesn't know the truth.
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So a set list reveals that the fire trick was supposed to go on, but it was Reus performing it. The bucket wasn't ready (according to Apollo, a non-magician), and hadn't seen use in a long time. My guess is that Bonny might be targeted hard and early as the culprit by the defense, but there's a lot about Reus that makes it seem that there's a lot more to the story than being the means to an end to ruin Trucy.

Trucy's notebook was among Reus' belongings, but it's location and way it stands out makes it hard to believe that it wasn't planted. Perhaps "Reus" really was that stupid, wanted the notebook for selfish reasons but forgot to be discreet about it. I'm not buying what someone is selling.

I like Bonny's theme too. We're on a roll here!

For how small the Apollo bracelet perception window is, I'm glad that in this instance there's an obvious statement to look out for and a telegraphed area of their body to look out for. Not that I want everything to be easy, but for how slow the process is, I do not want to have to do it five times.

Ugh, Bonny keeps saying things and acting in a way that makes her guilt look so obvious. Mr. Hat being on the wrong side was convenient to make the dragon fall. She also adopted this fangirl persona that screams "I'm faking it!"
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lol a breach of contract means the Wright Anything Agency is currently on the hook for $3 million.

Bonny and Retinz are so blatantly suspicious that I do not know if I'm going to be pleased with the ultimate culprit because either the writers decided to be super obvious with them and only have the player work out the "how" or the writers decided to be make them so suspicious that it has to be an unidentified third person that will be revealed way too late. Either way, I am disinterested in the "who" at this point. I'm more interested about Reus than anything else.

Back at the visiting room from where Trucy is being held, I tried presenting Trucy with a bunch of evidence that she without a doubt could shed light on, but the game wouldn't allow me and tried to make me forget about if by using her magic panties. I will not be so distracted!

Some of the information contains tricks that only Troupe Gramarye knows. Trucy has the only key. Gee, this sounds familiar. Back on subject, this further supports my theories that either the notebook was planted among Reus' belongings and/or Reus from before is not the Reus from now. That's why the fire trick wasn't prepared or the bucket appear to have been used in a long time. That does bring up the question of how a fake Reus would even know of the fire trick.

Trucy swears that the contract wasn't a case of not reading the fine print. It's likely true, but she doesn't strike me as the type to read contracts in their entirety.
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Trucy found out that Mr. Hat was in the incorrect position while she was in the underground passage due to "a signal from Bonny." Uh, care to elaborate? You weren't in visual range, and there's no evidence that you were in constant contact via microphone.

That aside, I did get a glimpse of the underground passage from a still shot of Trucy moving lifts. I'm calling BS that Trucy had the time to move them. THAT aside, Trucy says that we are the first people that she told that. Wouldn't Bonny also realize her solution?

Apollo is so dense that he doesn't realize that Trucy was offering to make the contract disappear via magic panties.

Back at the dressing room, the clipboard that Trucy signed the contract on contains a hidden compartment with carbon paper still there. Now this is circumstantial evidence, but why would anyone risk leaving that behind for others to figure out the trick and eventually work to find hard evidence?
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After finally gaining access to the underground passage, a bombshell was dropped on me. Two people are required to use one of the lifts, which Trucy did not mention. This is looking more and more like multiple people were in on this murder.

"Aaagh! The Lights! It Buuuurns!"
- Apollo climbing the ladder leading to the stage

This places among my top three moments. Why can't any of these be voiced?

Bonny is really a bitch that loathes Trucy. Color me shocked. Retinz is into her. Eww, she's like half his age (he is listed as a decade younger than he looks).

They are both working together to nail Trucy for murdering Reus. This all makes sense though since I just that it wasn't feasible for one person to pull this off given the information that we have. That being said, they could actually not be involved with the murder. I'm guessing that events are more complicated, such as another person taking advantage of Bonny and Retinz's plans and committing murder themselves (or suicide).
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Everything has a repossessed sticker in the office, including the door. Retinz appears to be collecting on his debt early. I'm not sure that he has legal authority to force a specific timeline.

"Wright Whatever Warehouse"
- Retinz

I didn't think that it was possible, but Andis no longer has the weakest burn in the game.

If they handled his personality way better, Retinz would actually make for a compelling character. Wasted potential is such a bummer.

Blah cutscene introducing Nah.
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I'm guessing that since there's a lot of loose ends (namely the mystery fingerprints, circumstances surrounding "Reus," motive for anyone (this actually looks bad for both Retinz and Bonny's careers) and lack of any sort of definitive evidence pointing toward anyone) there might be a second investigation period, not that I can think of a new location to check out.

I stopped right before heading into the courtroom.
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The pun for Retinz is indeed "ratings." While I was playing I couldn't figure it out, and thought it was supposed to be a play on "retina" because his camera is like an eye or... something

Also I'm like 98% sure his design was based on Johnny Depp
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Roger Retinz is a pun on Ratings Rajah, except backwards.
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Oh wow didn't know about the Roger/Rajah part
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I technically made some progress, but it was barely anything, so I will wait until I get more done to post.
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i thought mr. retinz was a pun on "misdirection"
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just finished up 6-5's first investigation day

holy

fucking

fuck
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uh, spoilers?

yeah, i loooove aa playthroughs, but 6-5 needs its own topic.
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I do not know when I should play it, but I finally purchased the DLC after Capcom refused to let me until beating the first case, or something like that.
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play the DLC at the end, don't worry about it for now
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+1 on leaving DLC for the very end

Will post an update tonight
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Nah can "accurately read a trial's karma and it's ultimate fate." Oh brother...

Reus' name is Manov Mistree --> man of mystery. One of the few that I got immediately. Anyway, his blood is on the sword. He was allegedly 30 years old. I'm not sure that checks out, but whatever, I'll accept it for now.

Ema's here and binge-eating Snackoos. If I was told what they were, that was a hell of a long time ago. They look like dog treats or freeze-dried Slim Jims.

I may not be a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that Apollo had multiple, legitimate opportunities to object to Nah's rambling insults.

Reus held a grudge against Troupe Gramarye. Let's pretend that this is actually important and this will not end in a way where he sacrificed his life so Trucy's dream wouldn't be ruined or he had written something posthumously for Trucy to read. Let's assume that this was really Reus. Was he really driven to such madness that he would commit suicide just to spite his former employers? It's not like we had an opportunity to meet the guy.

Oh how I missed hearing back-to-back objections going through the speakers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karinto

These are what Snackoos are supposed to be.
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The motive that they are trying to push for Trucy killing Reus (that she was trying to prevent him from reading the Troupe Gramarye notebook) doesn't hold up since Trucy kept the key on her. That isn't part of the evidence, so I was forced to keep pressing statements.

Aha, so the second coffin on the stage did mean something! Supposedly, the tape in the underground passage was moved and Reus went into the incorrect coffin.

According to the still shot, Trucy did not put the sword in at an acute angle. Well, she technically might have, but it looks to be straight.

Is it not a legal requirement in Japan for legal teams to give, in advance, each other evidence to be submitted into court. Or do they do that just for dramatic effect? This happens way too often in Ace Attorney for me to not be curious.

I presented the incorrect evidence first (statement about Trucy moving lifts), but then I remembered that Trucy was wearing gloves.

How am I supposed to take being "promoted to stag beetle"
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_SecretSquirrel posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karinto

These are what Snackoos are supposed to be.

That is not a flattering picture, but the description sounds alright
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It does make sense that he was killed under the stage since that definitely seems like the only way to transport the body into the coffin.

As an aside, I hadn't played the game for roughly three days at this point, so a lot of stuff surrounding the case was a little fuzzy. It didn't help that I apparently saved and quit in the middle of an exchange.

"May we have your testimony witness? Once you have recovered from your disappointment [from not being permitted to perform magic]"
- Judge to Bonny

God I love the judge!

So I found what I thought were three flaws in Bonny's testimony:
1. It was mentioned earlier that it requires multiple people to operate a lift. I even remember seeing a handle on the side/in front of each lift.
2. Bonny doesn't know which lift Trucy used unless she manipulated events that forced Trucy to use the lift #2 as Bonny called it.
3. The lifts do not lead to where the coffin was but to its sides.

That being said, I do remember side flaps for the coffin were interchangeable. So Bonny and Retinz used the first lift to put Reus while it was in a different coffin maybe? The timing is all weird, and I wish that it was more clear on the timeline for the sequence of events that Trucy allegedly did to kill Reus. The autopsy report says Reus died at approximately 10:30 in the morning, but when did the show take place? When was rehearsal? I regret not writing this all down at the beginning of the episode.

Apollo says that Bonny's testimony had no inconsistencies. Evidence says otherwise, but whatever, you are the boss Apollo.

I stopped as Bonny's facade was easily broken.
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KCF0107 posted...

Let's pretend that this is actually important and this will not end in a way where he sacrificed his life so Trucy's dream wouldn't be ruined or he had written something posthumously for Trucy to read.

oh man this would have been SO BAD
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I will not read that spoiler tag until after the trial, but I will be furious if the second or third scenario is true.
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I am an awful human being who has not given this the attention you all deserve these past few days. I am going to hunker down soon and hopefully make significant progress.
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As long as it gets done, you're all right. My biggest concern is that you lose your enthusiasm/momentum because of long layovers.
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So what I have written down from my last progress will only take up 2-3 posts, so I'm going to hold off posting it today, hopefully get through the remainder of this trial tonight, and then have a lot of posts tomorrow.
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