Board 8 > Rate the Ace Attorney case: The Monstrous Turnabout (5-2)

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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)
The Inherited Turnabout (E2-3) - 8.5 (16 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)
The Grand Turnabout (E2-5) - 7.3 (16 votes)
Turnabout Target (E2-1) - 7.1 (17 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 Ablaze (E1-5) - 6.0 (19 votes)
Turnabout Sisters (1-2) - 5.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Reminiscence (E1-4) - 5.6 (22 votes)
The Imprisoned Turnabout (E2-2) - 5.3 (16 votes)
The Forgotten Turnabout (E2-4) - 5.2 (16 votes)
Turnabout Visitor (E1-1) - 5.0 (20 votes)
The First Turnabout (1-1) - 4.9 (25 votes)
The Kidnapped Turnabout (E1-3) - 4.6 (22 votes)
Turnabout Airlines (E1-2) - 4.2 (22 votes)
Turnabout Countdown (5-1) - 4.1 (23 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)

Most people felt just fine on 5-1, which...isn't necessarily bad. Some didn't like the timeline of this case and felt it just made things more confusing than it should. Some liked the ending with the bomb being a bluff. Speaking of an exciting ending, 5-1 gets its two highest scores at the very end of the day.

Summary:

In a small mountain village crazy for yokai, a terrible murder is blamed on a man accused also of being a demon. Taking place before Case 1, Apollo and Athena team up for the first time against the mysterious, possibly murderous Prosecutor Simon Blackquill.

Main Characters: Apollo Justice, Athena Cykes, Phoenix Wright, Trucy Wright, Bobby Fulbright, Simon Blackquill, The Judge
Other Characters: Jinxie Tenma, Damian Tenma, Rex Kyubi, Phineas Finch, Florent L'Belle, Tenma Taro

My rating: 8/10. I really wasn't vibing with this case at first. You know who the murderer is with the cold open and I wasn't really into Nine-tails Vale or the Tenma Taro legend. Trial 1 changes that. Blackquill makes an amazing first impression and Apollo, who has always been likable but never got a chance to truly flex, gets a worthy opponent with Blackquill. Blackquill breaking the chains and going SILENCE is so dang good. Ending Trial 1 with the morose Damian becoming a way more cartoon-y evil version of himself was also really good. Day 2 is just really good in general, with of course the final twist being an all-time non-epic-case classic for the series.

7.5/10

I am a L'Belle defender, he's funny

7/10

I like the twist in how the murder was done. The supporting characters are fine. Also the setting was quite unique.

5

7.5

4/10

uh oh, I'm in the minority opinion that doesn't like this one. too obvi and also I just don't vibe with the whole yokai/professional wrestling set up

8

6

Think Apollo, Athena, Blackquill and Fulbright carry this case hard. Damian and L'Belle are serviceable defendants and culprits respectively.

8.5/10

Apollo vs. Blackquill is so good. It's a shame we only get another half a case of it. I love locked room mysteries, so it gets points for that, too. Damian Tenma is a fantastic defendant, and the twist at the end of the case is great.

7

Pretty good case

7.5

8

8.8

Love this case.

8.9/10

Despite giving you the killer at the beginning, this case has some of the most misdirects in the series. Everything seems pretty cut and dry, but Filch throws a huge wrench into everything, and even motivations aren't as clear as they seem.

I think this might be the only time in the series where there's a logical conclusion you make in court, and when you get back to the investigation phase, it turns out it was completely wrong and have to start from scratch.

L'Belle is good, not great. Jinxie is adorbs, but Damian is the key to the case and he owns every scene he's in. He's so fucking cool.

6/10

8

MrSmartGuy posted...

I think this might be the only time in the series where there's a logical conclusion you make in court, and when you get back to the investigation phase, it turns out it was completely wrong and have to start from scratch.

Yeah, I noticed this. I can't think of another time in the series where you pretty conclusively prove a series of events that fits your narrative and then it turns out it just didn't happen that way at all.

6.5

the concept is great. i love how they just increasingly gave up on un-japanifying the series in english, culminating in a case that name drops as many yokai as the average touhou game.

the characters are mostly fine. i can't help but be disappointed by jinxie. the game sets up her friendship with trucy only to immediately yeet trucy out of the story. filch is a hoot, one of the best designs since the transition to 3d. l'belle is good, but not great. im not bothered by the reveal that he's the killer in the intro, personally, as sometimes it is just as fun learning how to solve the mystery as it is finding out who did it. damian is the biggest highlight. big over the top and scary personality makes him really fun.

i just don't know why but i wasn't really feeling this one despite enjoying the characters well enough. the mystery didn't hook me as much as i'd like. i revisit these cases before ranking them, so maybe i was just in a bad mood, but l'belle's plan was a little too convoluted for my tastes i guess? dunno, this one just felt off, like it sounds way cooler than it actually is.

why oh why did i insist on typing this out right before bed

7

3/10

I hate the part where the guy pretends to be possessed, almost as bad as the Mr. Hat hostage scene.

Wow, really surprised by the ratings here. 5-2 falls into the same bucket as most case 2s for me - its perfectly fine, but nothing particularly memorable. Tenma is for sure the highlight of the case, but I don't think I regard him as highly as some do either. DD is a solid game, but I like my AA games with a greater sense of ambition, and I suspect my ratings here will be lower than average.

5/10

5-1 is exceptionally cool in theory but the execution falls flat on its face, particularly with regard to the timeline. If you wanna talk about botching a decent case premise, this is worse than most of the famous examples from AJ in my opinion.

3/10

7/10

It's a good case, though I think it's hindered a little bit by the cold reveal at the start - I mean, obviously L'Belle did it, sure, but seeing not just the killer but seeing the actual murder itself occur does take away from some of the intrigue... although there's still some fairly good mysteries to unravel here anyway. Damian Tenma is one of my favorite one-off characters - him seeming scary but being a really good guy and nice dad is a fun cliche, and when he breaks out the wrestling kayfabe he's awesome. It's totally different from the Mr. Hat thing for me - that was completely out of nowhere, merely meant to fake out the player into thinking something exciting was happening, and the way they drop it immediately afterwards doesn't make sense. This, instead, was a clever last ditch effort where we're in on the joke and it kind of makes sense that the Judge is superstitious and naive enough to buy it (Blackquill obviously doesn't). Top tier defendant in terms of being useful to the case. I love Damian Tenma. Also, the twist that he's not the wrestler we think he is is awesome.

Apollo vs Blackquill is a great personality match and it's a shame we don't see it much after this (I've always found it very ironic that Apollo vs Blackquill and Athena vs Nahyuta are way better matchups than the reverse, but I guess it makes sense). This is the first case in the series where it feels like Apollo starts to come into his own, which is nice and kind of an underrated aspect of the case. The murder mystery is fine and the rest of the cast are fine. Apollo, Blackquill, and Damian carry it for me primarily. It does struggle a little bit with being somewhat unmemorable.

I'm starting to feel like this is opposite day lol. This is by far the most shocking topic of this series yet and probably for the entirety of it. This getting ratings above a 5 blows me away. I rate this a 1/10, no, a 0/10 if that's allowed. This is THE worst case in the series for me. I dislike every character in the case with Jinxie the most tolerable still being very annoying. Even Blackquill is uncharacteristically assholerish compared to his subsequent appearances. On my latest watchthrough of an LP playing through all the games this is the only case I nearly skipped, instead watching on fast-forward. I'd rather replay 4-3 multiple times than this. At least Klavier getting BTFO by Lamiror several times is funny. The only good thing about this case is L'belle's theme being a banger and way too good for the case.
This comic is a good summary of this case.
http://i.imgur.com/h9zRgBt.jpg

Blackquill shutting down Apollo's Perceive was great. I think that's when I knew I had to take this dude seriously.

I like Taka's animations, particular that he laughs when Blackquill laughs and he gets startled when Blackquill slams his desk.

It's wild that wrestling kayfabe is a crucial aspect of this case

Bitto posted...

I like Taka's animations, particular that he laughs when Blackquill laughs and he gets startled when Blackquill slams his desk.

My favourite is when he standss on the Judge's head and scratches himself.

this is easily the best blackquill case

Random Blackquill thought that I may not remember when we get to 5-5 or 6-5:

Blackquill is the only person in the credits of both games he's in who isn't theoretically speaking to the "player" during his scenes. I wonder if they actually had somebody in mind for who he was speaking to, but we may never find out now.

Leonhart4 posted...

Random Blackquill thought that I may not remember when we get to 5-5 or 6-5:

Blackquill is the only person in the credits of both games he's in who isn't theoretically speaking to the "player" during his scenes. I wonder if they actually had somebody in mind for who he was speaking to, but we may never find out now.

Wow I never picked up on this before. Both of his ending scenes imply that he's talking to someone specific who we don't know.

Leonhart4 posted...

Blackquill shutting down Apollo's Perceive was great. I think that's when I knew I had to take this dude seriously.

Eh, Nahyuta does that to everyone in SoJ too.

SeabassDebeste posted...

this is easily the best blackquill case

I find him much better in 5-3, 6, and even 6-4. Actually hes way better in 5-4 and 5 too just because I didnt find him exasperating in those but hes not as enjoyable in those.

Eh, Nahyuta doing his beads thing isn't quite as striking as Blackquill sending Taka after Apollo to interrupt his concentration.

It's also a message to the player that Blackquill isn't the dirty cheater you might expect him to be despite being a convict.

Blackquill has more presence than Nahyuta. It also helps that he did it first.

True, but Im still not too impressed by it. I will at least give the beads credit for having new expression animations specifically for it whereas Taka/Blackquills finger swords just reuse the regular damage animations just with an added Taka/something sliced off.