Board 8 > great ace attorney playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

I figure I should probably document my thoughts here given how much I've talked about AA over the years, huh?

first, some housekeeping - I know nothing about this game, didn't watch any playthroughs over the years that it's been around and didn't even really watch the trailers or read any reviews. please don't talk about what's upcoming for me or hint at what might come. I'll probably drop the topic if I feel like I can't get an authentic experience. I likely won't be too quick so I might be well behind some of you who have lots of free time to play games. thanks for understanding, etc.

oh, and spoilers, obviously.

Case 1, Part 1

I won't recap the story beat by beat because that would take entirely too long and I'd probably make a fool of myself by trying to remember what's going on. my first immediate takeaway are the names! our main character is Ryunosuke or something like that. Ryu, I guess, for this topic. Naruhodo, that's at least a name I recognize! we've got a Kazama and a bunch of other names that I couldn't even begin to remember correctly. now, I'm not saying that I'm dying to go back to the Rheel Neemus of the world, but I'm definitely going to struggle with this game being so much more openly japanese. do I miss "japanifornia"? no, not really, but it's really damn convenient to have a memorable name like April May as opposed to these names.

our main character is.. kind of an idiot, even moreso than Phoenix in 1-1. our lawyer best friend is much smoother and feels like what Edgeworth might have been if we didn't get DL-6. he's ready to defend me but some clearly underhanded teacher comes in and suggests that I defend myself. I actually refuse to do this just because this guy is so shady, but the game makes me do it anyway. Kazuma joins me as my assistant, and it's a weird dynamic of being a newb while your partner is so much better than you. it's something like Armando in 3-4 or Gavin in 4-1, and because of the latter, he's immediately sus.

I get excited in a way that I wasn't expecting when I see a Payne. I realize quite quickly that I'm looking for anything that can familiarize myself with this new, foreign world, and I get completely pumped that I get to wreck this guy. "Auchi" is a great name for a Payne, and one of the only ones I've managed to commit to memory. despite that, he's still just Payne to me, and I'm going to destroy him.

I need to spend a minute talking about animations. Ryu's animations are *killing* me. his hand raise is amazing and his eyes shooting everywhere is really good. "Yes!" is... I don't know how we came to this, but it's kind of great. I'm waiting for him to break into an honest objection. that might be really hype as a way to close out the case.

actually, let's tease this out for a minute. Phoenix has been the game's mascot for like 20 years here, 15 years in the states. I've been playing as him for what feels like half my life. it is extremely weird to not be him, and to have this idiot as my player character after all this time! I think I'm on board with it because I get to see him grow. AA1 Phoenix was always good because he grew into himself throughout the course of that game, but basically never changed from AA2 on. having a new face, foreign as it is, is going to make this game stand out, good or bad.

I'm really hoping that we get some kind of character development arc with his animations. maybe his eyes stop going everywhere and he gains some confidence as he does this more. right now I love how green he is, and half the time Kazuma steps in and does the job for me because I'm just so bad at this. it'll be neat if I develop new animations over time as I become more and more competent. I'm going to love it when I get my first objection, assuming we ever progress past "Yes!".

our first witnesses here are a waiter that acts like the opening Gumshoe witness to lay out the case, and then a couple of idiots, a soldier and an old man whose names have totally escaped me already. the multiple character interrogation reminds me of the Layton game, but thankfully is a lot better than that as it's just one testimony and you're never trying to play them off each other. these testimonies make 1-1 look competent as they are hilariously easy to break, but this is a good thing narratively as Ryunosuke's not exactly sharp here.

the first section of this case revolves around a missing person at a restaurant and has obvious parallels to 3-3. I was worried that there might be a double murder event like that case because the crime scene wasn't making any sense. fortunately, as we pull out the dentist visit, the lack of eating and the missing person, we have a case that looks a bit more standard than the recent AA games where everything is extremely convoluted.

we eventually find out that the waiter is an inspector and hid the crime scene at somebody's request. this guy reminds me of Kristoph Gavin with his animations - they feel wholeheartedly ripped from him with the glasses and the way he shakes his head. it's obviously not the only 4-1 parallel here. he doesn't seem villainous though and is a fairly helpful witness. I don't have to break this guy into pieces in order to ascertain the truth, which I appreciate. I think I like this guy, though his character design is not great.

Ryu eventually gets a little more competent by the end of this section, and it seems like he's got a good memory for details and some strong convictions. I like that Kazuma isn't some kind of uber defense attorney here - he's just your BFF doing his best. if he sticks around, that dynamic will be interesting - the guy who knows how to do the job, and the goofy protagonist who sometimes stumbles into the right logic with his natural gifts. it's like they split Phoenix into two characters.

we finally confirm that a young woman was in the restaurant with the victim and break for the midway point.

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just finished up case 1, interested to see what you think when youre done

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Hi, haven't seen you for a while. You're probably going to fly through the games way faster than me so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow along. But, I look forward to reading this topic when I'm done.
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I will say, with the exception of Kazamas theme, which is excellent, the music isnt really doing it for me

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Case 1, Part 2

I normally dislike witnesses that can't communicate to you in english. Machi in 4-3 is the obvious example. I like what they did with this woman though, who speaks in English to everyone else's Japanese. her character design is pretty fun, though I wish she had more animations. I'm guessing she'll get more as we peel away the layers. that hat is dying to go flying.

my first "oh, I'm an idiot" moment happened while trying to solve the story behind this woman. a photo is produced with a burn mark. for some stupid reason, I thought the arm here was the woman's, and it took me entirely too long to realize that it was actually the victim's. I presented the evidence and walked through the motions, completely confused, until I realized that I'm just a moron.

it was completely obvious that Brett (weird that they call her by her male-sounding last name given how feminine she is, but I guess it fits the japan theme) was going to be able to speak Japanese, but I still loved the way they teased it out. the font for English was fun and I really liked when they dropped "No" out of nowhere. Brett's milkshake clearly brings all the boys to the yard, and they even love it when she mocks their barbarism.

we get a new "pursue" mechanic that seems like it'll be the game's main twist, and suggests that I'm going to have a lot of multiple witness testimonies going forward. not sure how to feel here yet. regardless, this case gets a lot more fun once Brett drops the facade. her "SHUT UP" is amazing and I love her snobbiness. usually these kinds of uppity witnesses are painful but the way she does it kind of exudes style. it helps when the audience is a Payne and my idiot protagonist.

we're just about to lose when we get a new "hold it" voice sample, which as everyone knows is a Big Deal. Susato Mikotoba seems like she'll be important from her first sentence. an immediate "to be continued" only further confirms that point.

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As someone who has blazed through the first three cases already, I'm excited to get someone else's thoughts on them, because I definitely have opinions on them.

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Auchi is actually what Payne was ALWAYS named in Japanese (Winston Payne = Takefumi Auchi) and it's an absolutely wonderful bit of serendipity that his Japanese name pun works flawlessly in English as well

I've watched an LP of both games already (since I didn't think we'd ever get them and wasn't that interested in the fan translation patch), so I'm curious to see how you take to this as someone walking in totally blind.

Brett's SHUT UP in the Japanese version was amazing and it was honestly the thing I was most looking forward to seeing what they did with it in the English version!

I was planning to start up a playthrough topic of my own this weekend (out of town until Friday) and once again torture myself to do line counts and timing out the cases!

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tagging this

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Case 1, Part 3

I expected Susato to become a major part of the case, but she just drops off a piece of evidence and books it on out of there, since apparently we're far enough back that women aren't allowed in the court. I guess that lines up. I'm surprised we even have black and white photographs, but I guess we need evidence.

our case shifts to the poison that may or may not be in the bottle, how it infects people, what it does, etc. it's just longwinded and teased out for maximum effect, right down to Brett drinking and eventually breaking the bottle. she's kind of a boss, huh? this case reminds me of the whole Dahlia arc in a way, from 3-1's charm to 3-4's poison. well, at least up until her death. I really like Brett as a villain, if that is what she is. she's so comically evil for seemingly no reason that I kinda wonder.

we finally get Ryu's first objection, and it's kinda... weak? with that much buildup I think I expected something on Dhurke's level, but it was just a pretty standard, plain objection. it didn't even have much buildup. I thought we were wrapping up the case, but instead we.. see in color?, and then the inspector produces a random piece of steak that's somehow not completely gross. this murder must have been like 2 hours ago.

we search the meat and we find.. a coin?! this was the first time that the case felt unexpected. I like the callback because I had completely forgotten about those two goofballs. now we have four (five?) idiots on the stand and it just looks kind of comical. Brett must be seething to share the stage with these dorks.

this next part is weird. there's no more testimony at all. it feels like a visual novel with a couple of choices being made here and there. we discover that the Sergeant hid the coin, switched the plates and that our inspector friend just steals evidence like he's Money the Monkey. it isn't until we identify the switched plate that Brett starts to get nervous.

it doesn't take too long for her to confess. her breakdown animation is underwhelming -- more goofy than what I wanted. I wanted that hat to go and to see her face. she explains that we were mostly right about the methods, but doesn't really get into why it was done. she's fairly graceful about it all, which I guess makes sense given what's coming.

as we close down the case, it's revealed by the Professor that Brett won't stand trial here and is being shipped off to Shanghai. I'm not sure how we went there and not Britain, but hey. I can see this being really unrewarding for a lot of people, but I'm just happy that we're not done with Brett just yet. there's clearly more to come on this arc, and on the modernization of Japan. it looks like we're in the early twentieth century.

Kazuma has something tell me, which we never hear by the end of case 1. I have some suspicions on where this arc goes and I'm looking forward to seeing him go off to Britain and, presumably, return.

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I think I'd give Case 1 a 4/10. it's a really amateur case without much in the ways of deduction but I liked what it offered in terms of character and world building. if I had one complaint, it's that it continues down the path that the 3DS games took where everything is explained so thoroughly at the expense of pacing. sometimes I feel like they could cut half the dialogue and get on with it.

it's better than 5-1 for sure, but probably not quite on 6-1's level. I get the feeling that this case will feel cumbersome on a replay, but it does have a certain appeal as the start to a new story, kind of like what you get with Apollo's first case, but without any grounding in what's happening, what the legal system is really like or what is to come.

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Yeah, for an intro case, it's fine. They at least give you a villain to care about, but the case details aren't anything special. I do enjoy Naruhodo's evolving animations. It feels like they really put a lot of thought and effort into them.

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Tag.

I agree that it's not on the elite first-case level of 6-1 or E2-1, but I think I'm kinder towards it because, as you said, it introduces the new characters really well.
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aw man, I just started case 2 and I do not like where they took this

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Just started Case 5 tonight, hoping to wrap the first game up some time in tomorrow afternoon. In Discord, I've been ranking the G1 cases with where I'd place them with their numbered compatriots as I beat them, and your sentiments are actually exactly mine, regarding Case 1.

E2-1 > 4-1 > 3-1 > 6-1 > G1-1 > E1-1 > 5-1 > 2-1 > 1-1

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transience posted...

Kazuma joins me as my assistant, and it's a weird dynamic of being a newb while your partner is so much better than you. it's something like Armando in 3-4 or Gavin in 4-1, and because of the latter, he's immediately sus.

Kinda funny you made those comparisons but not to Mia in 1-1.
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I'll have to stop participating now because you're going to blow past where I am, but I did have to complain about case 1 a little bit to somebody - I feel like the steak plate swap was a really boring conclusion that they took like an hour to get to. The moment the plate didn't have blood on it I was like 'oh, plates swapped.' and that was it, there really was no other intrigue to it. The trick with the poison and the extracted tooth was WAAAAAY cooler, and the case should have ended on that. Hell, I would have done the steak plate swap before Brett even showed up, and have Nosa's crime of theft be why he eventually squeals about the woman (he could say that he switched plates with the victim, but we'd object and say that he couldn't eat, and then get him to confess who he really swapped with).

Other than that, I liked the case, Ryunosuke's animations are all great, Auchi is fun, Brett is a really fun villain.

Case 2, beginning

aw man. I had this hope that Ryunosuke and Kazuma would part ways, and then meet up at the end to take down whatever villain we're tracking in this game. but instead, Kazuma shows up dead on the ship taking him to London, with... Ryunosuke stowing away, now in handcuffs?

I kind of don't believe it. the relationship between those two was the basis of the game. I guess you could say the same about Mia in AA1 though, and this does have some parallels to that. still, I have a sneaking suspicion, probably just blind hope, that this a red herring, that he's not actually dead. the picture didn't look especially convincing, and the crime really reminded me of Apollo's in 5-1, when he was knocked out by Tonate.

I'm immediately apprehended and given the Susato Takedown by who seems like the new Maya. I like Susato. she doesn't mess around and isn't overly bubbly or silly, which is a first for the series. she's understandably reeling from Kazuma's death here and doesn't come to my defense at all. after talking through how I couldn't have created the locked room scenario, we start to kinda get her on my side and start investigating the room.

in the middle of this, I get to meet Herlock Sholmes. I have to believe that this is a copyright thing and that he's just Holmes in the Japanese version. Sholmes is... oh man. like, I'm not going to say he's Luke Atmey, but if you ran him through a Redd White/Richard Wellington filter? yeah, let's go with that. this guy seems to be clever but with the worst deductions possible. it's kind of entertaining. it's also sorta exhausting. I'm not sure to having a guy like this in an AA game. usually it's just a goof like Gumshoe or a plot device like Ema.

speaking of plot devices, inspector whats-his-name is here too. I'm really hoping that this guy isn't just a receptacle for hidden/stolen evidence at convenient moments! I see his new outfit and call it a night.

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transience posted...

in the middle of this, I get to meet Herlock Sholmes. I have to believe that this is a copyright thing and that he's just Holmes in the Japanese version.

Yup.

Though it is worth noting that Herlock Sholmes is a name that has been used in literature nearly as old as Sherlock Holmes, for the exact same reason, so there is actually history by the name which makes me way more enthusiastic about it.

Absolutely love Susato. Easily my favorite non-Maya assistant, and I don't think she's honestly that far behind Maya.

And yeah, the copyright thing is also why it's John Wilson in case 1.

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i thought case 1 was good up until it started to really drag in the 3rd segment. like, the detective admits he took two plates of steak from the scene, why did we need to go through such a long run-around instead of just saying "hey can we see the second one"

i'm also hoping kazuma is alive though i can't tell if that's just a foolish delusion. i like kazuma.

and i think, like. they already did the "mentor dies" thing for phoenix and then "mentor is evil" for apollo, i think they could've gone a different direction with it. i was getting some real "we'll split paths for most of the game and then he triumphantly returns in case 5 for a major plot event" vibes, but... i guess not? idk. we'll see if we get to see the body for real. remember paralysis has been introduced as a thing, maybe that's what happened? the intro did show a snake, right? snake could poison him and it induces paralysis but not death

(that's not a spoiler because i stopped at the same point as you last night, just speculation)

transience posted...

Sholmes is... oh man. like, I'm not going to say he's Luke Atmey, but if you ran him through a Redd White/Richard Wellington filter?

sounds like my type of guy

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He's the sillier parts of the character from the books dialed up to 11, and it works. I think he's a mostly faithful representation of the book version, if you assume that Watson embellished his accomplishments in his writings (which Holmes himself in the stories implies is the case).

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Case 2: The First Deduction

we speak with inspector.. hosonoga or something like that, and he tells us that he was asked to protect Kazuma from assassination by the minister of justice. interesting! I can't see minister of justice without thinking of Inga, but that's neither here nor there. the inspector tells us that he would be happy to help us, which.. doesn't seem like something he would do on a whim after allowing Kazuma to get killed, but hey, maybe the trial convinced him that we're bros. he can't leave the room, but allows us to poke around.

we meet a super stereotypical russian who threatens us before randomly going away. we take the opportunity to move into the adjacent room only to find Sholmes hanging out there. our neighbor screams and we go to barge in and Sholmes really wants to break down the unlocked door, but gets stopped by us. I really enjoyed this for quite some time.

we walk in and find the heavily bearded guy from the newspaper, who tells us to get the heck out. Sholmes starts working his deduction magic, and oh man, he's all over the place. he spins up a crazy story that Ryu now has to fix.

enter the new investigation mechanic of this game: deduction and correction. it feels very similar to logic chess from the second Edgeworth game but a whole lot more longwinded. we're basically switching the main parts of his deduction with other things in the room. by doing this, we discover that this isn't the russian revolutionary but the ballerina on the back of the newspaper.

this is great and all, but it ends up being super unsatisfying thanks to an uncooperative witness. Pavlova doesn't really tell us much of anything. she doesn't seem to trust us, and the bouncing suitcase never gets opened. eventually the guard comes back in and throws us out as she leaves the room. all that deduction got us was a waste of time, at least for now. we hit our first to be continued.

this is a good point to discuss what I've been thinking about this case. this boat feels like an Investigations game. the deductions add to it even more so. how are we going to have a trial here? who are we even arguing against? are we just going to dock and go to court in a random country? I'm stuck thinking more about the structure here than the case itself. setting-wise, it reminds me of the airlines case in AAI1 when Edgeworth is accused, but that gets cleared up fairly quickly. we've spent a segment of the game here and haven't learned a single thing. it's yet more exposition and introduction, this time with Sholmes, and that's all good but I'd sure like to know what's going on with my situation sometime soon.


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Case 2 is strange. It's probably the case I remember the least about overall though.

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Case 2, Part 2 & 3

so, I finished case 2. I have so many thoughts, all of them strong and most of them very negative. I don't think I have it in me to sum it all up tonight, but the mere idea that my best friend was killed by tripping over a cat is just unfathomable. imagine if this were Mia! imagine if, with Maya grieving, Phoenix was out there trying to piece some ink, shoe polish, russian text and jam it all together with an accident involving a cat. it's so dumb!

the only thing keeping me going was the thought that maybe Kazuma wasn't dead, that this whole thing is some elaborate gotcha, but nope, we just kept peeling layers from Pavlova and the russian dude. the pieces actually fit together fairly well given how bland the locked box room was, although some of them fit together a little too well. picking up the bookshelf, the door locking after the button was pressed, the ship's log -- it just felt entirely too clean. but, it was a satisfying conclusion to an awful premise and case.

I will say, though, that case 2's ending serves as one hell of an origin story: Ryunosuke and Susato coming together to be the lawyer that Kazuma was going to be. taking his sword, cramming to be a lawyer, and living for that dude.

I kinda wish that Kazuma had stolen the show a little more in case 1 because it would have made for a big shadow the rest of the game. Ryu was already outperforming Kazuma just on natural ability by the end of case 1 and it almost feels like a faulty premise that we're trying to march on in his legacy. there probably could have been a way to play this where Kazuma is the playable character in case 1, defending his best friend Ryunosuke, only to end up dead to start case 2. and then, at the end of case 2 when you find the killer, the game reveals that Ryu's last name is Naruhodo. hmm. it's never good when you have to theorycraft better fictions to make the stakes feel worth it, but I do think that the origin story did end up feeling pretty strong anyway. while case 2 is probably somewhere around a 2/10 in my eyes, down there with the 4-3's and 2-3's of the world, I can't deny that the ending rescues the case in the last minutes.

okay, maybe I said more than I meant to tonight. did they really tie a snake around strogenov's head as a red herring? kazuma died because of a scared push from a girl that weighs like 72 pounds and a stupid cat? seriously?

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my thoughts on case 2 basically all boil down to how (s)herlock steals the show completely

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Case 2's story is only saved from the dregs of 2-3 and 4-3 by virtue of being, imo, the funniest case in all of Ace Attorney. Sholmes had me rolling the entire fucking time.

The one point in particular when the three guys all corner you and Naruhodo keeps saying internally "There's gotta be a savior for me in here somewhere". And then you pan the camera over to look to the left and he's hanging from the coat hook made me stop and laugh for a solid minute. Then the whole schtick where he kept taking off and putting back on the handcuffs was really good, too.

I was enraptured by Sholmes all case, and for that, it's at least better than stuff like 6-4 and some AAI1 cases, imo.

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I agree that Herlock Sholmes completely saves G1-2 from being one of the worst cases. It's still in the lower fourth of the ranking, but Sholmes... really does save it.

I'm still holding out hope that there's more we don't know about the incident and that it's part of some greater conspiracy and the accident argument was wrong all along.

It kinda felt like they were trying to establish that Naruhodo has some sort of innate natural lawyer ability and I guess it's just genetic or something

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I feel bad for my great-great-grandfather who probably had like awesome innate video game playing abilities but was born too early to know it

I really thought that the takeaway from case 1 was going to be Kazuma realizing that Ryunosuke is actually the gifted lawyer and not him, and he sends him on the Britain trip in his stead, since he feels that he let his friend down by being unable to defend him properly when he was able to defend himself. It would have been a good way to get Kazuma out of the plot and have Ryunosuke be on his own without having Kazuma trip over a cat.

I agree that Sholmes dominated case 2.. but I also didn't find it that entertaining? like, someone mentioned when you're cornered and look over and he's just kind of hanging off the wall. I was like "oh, this guy again, huh?" I just didn't enjoy his antics and felt like he actually overshadowed the case in a negative way. he didn't really make me laugh at all. call me a killjoy, I guess.

at one point I was wondering if he was even real, because he just kind of comes and goes at the plot's whim, almost like ghost Mia in a weird way. I spent some time thinking about if other characters had seen him or if this was all my imagination. I knew he was there in the beginning but the way he ghosts people at his convenience made me wonder.

beyond the antics, I kinda felt like Sholmes was doing the heavy lifting that was more reserved for the protagonist. he often comes up with the ideas and I'm just fixing his nonsense. I like my character to solve the mystery but here he's basically dangling it all in front of me like a quiz. I dunno. he didn't improve case 2 for me.

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Paratroopa1 posted...

I feel bad for my great-great-grandfather who probably had like awesome innate video game playing abilities but was born too early to know it

Luckily for Naruhodo, lawyers were just invented in Japan!

And Holmes going everywhere doing whatever he wants is in character from the stories. It probably does feel pretty obnoxious if you don't enjoy the shtick though.

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i thought it was a fun case, but yeah, i liked kazuma. mia dying to redd white, once you know her whole story, is a bit anticlimactic, but in the moment it works because a) it's shocking and b) we spent like half an hour with mia whereas G1-1 is like 6 hours long. so i wanted kazuma to stick around. and it's almost never satisfying in any piece of fiction when an important character dies just by happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

also i think case 2 shows the importance of music. because we never go to trial, the music never ramps up. if this was an investigations game, we'd at least start going allegro, presto, pursuit at the final confrontation. but it's not, and we just kind of have mostly the same music tracks playing the whole time, together with the "wait is there going to be a trial", it's sort of anticlimactic. especially because the mystery isn't even that compelling, so it's just like "oh, that's it?" the whole time.

Mia at least dies because she's working to take down a powerful opponent, and ultimately succeeds. Kazuma just falls over a cat to a harmless runaway ballerina.

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Yeah, I get they wanted to get Kazuma out of the picture to inspire Naruhodo to carry on his legacy, but it also seems like Takumi should've known better than to remove such an important character from the story in such a silly way.

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Case 3, Beginning

Ryu and his assistant arrive on the streets of London to a huge culture shock. London's a lot more impressive than what they're used to in Japan, and I'm sure 50 days of living in a room on a boat didn't help matters there, especially when Kazuma's death still hangs heavy. I'm actually surprised that Ryunosuke didn't lose it more. it was all focused on his innocence without much grief.

anyway, we take a carriage over to the justice hall and meet Lord Stronghart. Stronghart is a magnanimous dude, almost Will Powers-y in stature but without any of the sheepishness. this guy looks to be all business and would make a good final boss if that's the direction that the story decides to go. or maybe we'll end up investigating his murder scene. both seem equally possible.

Stronghart doesn't seem evil, but does seem pragmatic. he listens to our plea to take Kazuma's place -- a really pathetic plea, I might add -- and gives us the option to defend a man if we hurry down to the court as a test. I try to accept, but Ryu doesn't go along with it, thinking it to be too cruel to play with the fate of a man as a test. Stronghart half acknowledges this while also saying that we better hurry if we want to help, since the guy has no one. we end up heading down there because our help is better than nothing.

when we arrive, we meet our defendant - a guy named McGilded that looks like he fell out of a Willy Wonka movie or something. we also hear about a 'reaper' of a prosecutor, a guy who terrifying that even a rich guy can't get anyone to defend him. he throws some money at us in desperation to try to get some help, as rich people do, not knowing that we're there to attempt to help him. without knowing a single thing about the case, we walk in to do battle with our new god of prosecutors.

my first reaction here is that it's too bad we're seemingly doing another case without an investigation, but if I'm being honest, after that boat ride I'm really itching to get back to the courtroom. time to see what this prosecutor has to offer. Ryunosuke is still quite the nobody and this is an even more impossible situation than I was in for case 1.

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Hype

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Case 3, Trial 1

we meet Van Zieks, our new god of prosecutors, and our new judge that looks like Santa. the whole place looks very stuffy and high class. and here we are, two foreigners who are treated exactly as such.

but that's not the biggest deal. we've got a jury! after 15 years! the jurist system doesn't count! these six dudes look like miis. each one is a caricature of a real person, even more one-note than actual AA characters.

the jury doesn't come into play immediately. first we converse a little with our new co-stars and learn that van zieks hasn't been in front of the court for five years. is that because no one dares face him, or some other reason? we'll find out soon, I suppose. we start our first cross examination with three witnesses who all saw the crime, and as we gather more information, the jury gets more and more convinced that my rich bro is guilty.

the mechanics here are wacky: dudes shooting fire over their heads onto a scale that decides if people are innocent or guilty. I... don't love this, just because I kinda just want to navigate the truth, not massage the feelings of a bunch of randos. but I don't hate it either. eventually all six dudes go guilty and the case is basically over.

except, Susato pulls out an archaic trick: a summation, whereupon the jurors need to give their reasoning. Van Zieks hates this but the judge goes along with it without pause. like the OG Judge, this guy is ancient, and seems to follow tradition. we have the option to pit the arguments against each other, something that feels a little flimsy, but eventually enough guys turn to the point where we have more not guilty votes than guilty. we manage to extract information about the cost of Beppo's omnibus and that there was possibly one missing person, but otherwise it just seems like a waste of time. again I don't hate it, but I don't want to drag trials out any more than they already are.

Van Zieks gets mad and takes off his cape. looks like he's recognized that we might actually be a decent opponent and is ready to respond in kind. I still don't see any evidence at all that suggests we're going to get off here, but I'm sure we'll conjure something out of thin air soon!

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between AJ and GAA, Takumi's ideas of what a jury is sure are interesting

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I find it fascinating that, when localizing Hart Vortex to Mael Stronghart, they kept "hart," even though that was really the word "hato," "pigeon," and pigeons play into his animations so much.
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I can't believe Capcom made the truly shocking choice to localize Cosney Megundal to a new name, surely the fan translators were right to leave that one untouched

Paratroopa1 posted...

I can't believe Capcom made the truly shocking choice to localize Cosney Megundal to a new name, surely the fan translators were right to leave that one untouched

This is when I decided the fan translation wasn't for me, no lie.

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Paratroopa1 posted...

I can't believe Capcom made the truly shocking choice to localize Cosney Megundal to a new name, surely the fan translators were right to leave that one untouched

I mean, Cosney Megundal is just Japanese for "I'll give you some spare change" so I feel like localizing it to something with an English meaning makes perfect sense.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

I mean, Cosney Megundal is just Japanese for "I'll give you some spare change" so I feel like localizing it to something with an English meaning makes perfect sense.

In case it was not clear I was being sarcastic, I think the decision to not localize that name was a bluntly amateurish choice

Paratroopa1 posted...

In case it was not clear I was being sarcastic, I think the decision to not localize that name was a bluntly amateurish choice

followed by them belittling everyone who wanted localized names

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There were some names that still made sense even unlocalized. Cosney Megundal was not one of them.

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Mewtwo59 posted...

There were some names that still made sense even unlocalized. Cosney Megundal was not one of them.

Capcom did a good job in this game, imo, of only changing that which would really benefit from needing to be changed. I think leaving (most of) the Japanese names unchanged is a good call and shows some faith in the audience (especially with a name like Ryunosuke!), there might be meaning to their names that I'm missing but that's fine. The rest of the names they only really changed them if they weren't working in English at all. The key to good localization is preserving the feeling of seeing a name, imo, not the precise meaning.