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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-5 Part 3

This is a transcript of a liveblog that I originally did on Discord, having played a fan translation of the first game years ago and knowing a spoiler for the second game. I do not recommend following along with this on your first playthrough!

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Interim thoughts: I AM HAVING EMOTIONS

elyvorg

you know usually I post some kind of analytical speculation to give an idea of where my thoughts are at in between play sessions, but this time my thoughts have just been an incoherent emotional jumble of please let Kazuma be happy, please let his and Ryunosuke's friendship be okay in the end, this is breaking my heart.

Like, yes, we're going to figure out the truth of what happened to Kazuma's dad, of course, and I know that's what's most important to him - but Kazuma has made it clear that he doesn't give a fuck what happens to himself after today so long as he achieves that, even if it means betraying his friends, even if it means going to prison or whatever for nominally agreeing to an assassination he never intended to actually carry out, and it's heartwrenching. You're worth so much more than that, Kazuma! It's not fair that he had to sacrifice practically everything just to be able to get here and do this, and he shouldn't be okay with that!

And it's doubly heartwrenching that Ryunosuke still seems shaken enough by the assassin reveal that he's not even mentally protesting any of this at all. They had that bit at the end of the last investigation section with Ryunosuke thinking about his new found family and how lucky he is to have them all, all these people except Kazuma, and all the while Kazuma must have been so fucking lonely this whole time and he deserves just as much to be part of the found family too because he's supposed to be Ryunosuke's best friend and gaaaaaaah.

I just. I just have A Lot Of Feelings about Kazuma right now. Just getting a snapshot of that out there before I start playing again.

Live reactions: 2-5 final trial segment – the Professor case

elyvorg

the judge just started cackling evilly, nothing sus about that at all, perfectly normal above-board court proceedings going on here

Genshin actually confessed to all five murders? Huh.

love that Maria's helping us, she is Good ^o^

aaaa Kazuma's disgusted reaction at hearing that his father saved van Zieks's life

GENSHIN HAD THE RING IN THAT FLASHBACK

AFTER KLINT WAS DEAD

ghhhhh Kazuma is so desperate to keep hating van Zieks, my heart

so was this whole prison break a thing of, get him to confess by promising they'll help him escape, but then actually they're planning to shoot him dead and make it look like he was properly executed and totally guilty after all? Sounds like it might be.

...though Vigil makes a good point that like, why bother with the escape in that case

sudden wild theory: what if Genshin, like, hid the real papers in the sheath of Karuma somehow? Then we'd still have them after all this time.

something's up with that scarlet ink, Klint had that on his hand too, hmmm

also that sure was a reaction from Stronghart, huh

it was Klint's last will?

so wait if Klint wanted to die for some reason, did Genshin actually do it for him? oh man

i have absolutely no idea what wild truth Ryunosuke has just figured out

okay so it was Klint apparently but now I don't understand why the secret confession and assisted suicide

also, if Sholmes reacted so strongly upon seeing the dog's collar in 2-2, did he always know?

oh look someone else who became the kind of monster he hated!

GENSHIN JUST WANTED TO SEE HIS SON AGAIN, MY HEART ;o;

yeah see it doesn't make sense that Genshin would go and force a confession from Klint before killing him if it actually was Klint! So was it really Stronghart after all?

excuse me bro, you just said three pages, good job giving yourself away!!!

FUCK I misclicked and now I'm gonna look like an idiot saying van Zieks said something contradictory

MY ARMBAND is the contradiction, anyway can I get a redo on that pls

though props to the writers for taking us down this entire path of entertaining the idea van Zieks could have said something fishy and making you prove it, just in case anybody who hadn't spotted it tried to trial-and-error which of the two it was.

DID GENSHIN ACTUALLY SEND THAT LETTER TO KAZUMA?

...no, never mind, doesn't look like it

he DID hide the papers inside Karuma!!!!!

Bench

What is the last piece of evidence you have received?

elyvorg

Klint's will, which was inside Karuma's hilt.

Bench

Twist thy head and watch them fall

elyvorg

guhhhh Kazuma's dad didn't even have to die, just the random chance that Drebber was there made them do it

yeeeeeeeeah look at Kazuma standing up for van Zieks finally! \o/

Bench

\o/

elyvorg

it's the GANT CLAP

i was gonna SAY he reminded me of Gant!

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

oh come off it he instigated like a bajillion murders how is he not gonna go down for this

Bench

Fun fact: I believe one of the main writers for this game really liked Rise from the Ashes

elyvorg

yeah getting that impression too, heh

Bench

How much do you hate probably Gant's ancestor Stronghart so far?

elyvorg

a lot

seatherny

whaaaat, stronghart is an upstanding lord chief justice and would never ever do anything immoral

elyvorg

BUNNY TIME APPARENTLY

i'm sorry is that a fucking HOLOGRAM IN 1900

seatherny

looooooooool

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

oh no he's so guilty he broke the scales

Bench

My favorite breakdown in the series.

elyvorg

are we not gonna give Kazuma some of the credit for this too

gonna take a break before doing the ending bits, I'm mentally exhausted after all that

(in a good way!)

Live reactions: Ending

elyvorg

Kazuma and van Zieks are making up! ...sort of.

...Iris is KLINT'S daughter

welp, Barok, guess you're an uncle now!

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

the "Lord Chief Injustice" fucking DRAG HIM, Sholmes

ghhh Kazuma why are you just LEAVING why can you not just HAVE A NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND

and now Ryunosuke's gonna go back to Japan soon isn't he, ghhhhhhh

SHOLMES IS HER REAL MEANINGFUL DAD, awwww

still sad that Kazuma's not being assimilated into this found family and we're acting like this is okay

Ryunosuke you were never a fucking replacement for Kazuma, can't you at least talk to Kazuma about this and hear him explain why he really brought you along because it can't have been that, surely

pleeeeaaaase have a proper fucking conversation with Kazuma before you leave at least

"...anyone who thinks of you as a substitute or locum should be ashamed of themselves!"

and that includes you, Ryunosuke!

WHY ISN'T KAZUMA HERE AT DOVER TO SEE HIM OFF

WAIT NEVER MIND

:3!!!

Kazuma you BETTER LET THE SHOLMES FAMILY ADOPT YOU, okay

seatherny

my first thought when finding out iris's real father: uncle barok better learn to take iris up on her tea party offers

elyvorg

this too

Credits highlights:

- Hosonaga and Rei and Soseki and KITTIES

- Harebrayne! He's come back to England now it's safe and he's gonna hang out with his broooo

- oh god Vigil why have you palled up with those guys

- THAT'S WHY KAZUMA BROUGHT RYUNOSUKE ALONG

HE WANTED RYUNOSUKE TO DEFEND HIM IF THE ASSASSIN THING WENT SOUTH

AAAAAA THAT'S ADORABLE

(and also tantalising as hell, why would you consider that option but not make it happen, writers)

- RYUNOSUKE DOTTED THE DARUMA'S EYE

- THE PHOTO

FRIEEEEENDS

that was an absolutely lovely ending! :3

I'd been terrified they were just gonna brush Kazuma aside and forget that his friendship with Ryunosuke mattered at all but they DIDN'T and they're FRIENDS and it's GOOD

and very >:3 at Kazuma being afraid that he almost became one of those monsters himself and awww at him giving Karuma to Ryunosuke for the time being until he can sort himself out, love Kazuma having Issues, love that he actually momentarily wanted to kill Gregson, yessss

seatherny

poor Kazuma. he has so. many. Issues

elyvorg

love that the character who was already my favourite as of case 1 (was still alive and) turned out to be the one with The Most Issues

elyvorg

i want more stories in this continuity where Ryunosuke and Kazuma can have more courtroom battles again as FRIENDS with fewer issues getting in the way

seatherny

yessss PLEASE

Bench

YES

I really hope more games in this timeframe happen.

Ending hype chats!

Bench

Congratulations on finishing!

seatherny

and congrats indeed!!

elyvorg

Thank you both for keeping me company on this Wild Ride!

(also hope you enjoyed my several AUs I accidentally came up with due to speculating things that didn't ever actually happen, lol)

Bench

I did!

elyvorg

how about that faking-amnesia AU though

or the DEFENDING KAZUMA one, still frustrated that didn't happen, I'd have loved it

Bench

At least there's always fanfics!

[[fun fact: this comment of Bench’s basically made my brain go “…so I guess I’ve got to write fic of that myself, huh”, and that’s currently something I’m working on...

[[...which I’ve now finished! Here is Kazuma faking amnesia, and Kazuma becoming the final defendant. And also a bonus unrelated fic, featuring the friends and whump.]]

elyvorg

also fic where Kazuma is adopted at the Sholmes family, please

(and Uncle Barok too of course, except I guess he needs to not mention that he's literally her uncle)

Bench

What do you think of GAA2 overall, if I may ask?

elyvorg

Loved it! It's up there with AAI2 as my favourite Ace Attorney game! (or, well, both parts of GAA combined, really, they go together)

Bench

Woohoo!

elyvorg

You know how I feel about things I wish had happened that I'd have loved even more if they had, but overall, still a very very good Ace Attorney game that I loved a lot.

Oh yeah, @ Bench , you mentioned way back that there were some other Parts you were really excited for me to get to, can I ask what they were?

Bench

- Kazuma forcing out Vigil's repressed memories

- The final dance of deduction

- Gregson's body having been in the suitcase at the start of the chapter during the group photo

- The true meaning of the List

- EVERYTHING after the final cross examination

- The final scene at the port

elyvorg

lots of good Parts

Bench

What do you think of Susato and Barok van Zieks, now that everything's come to a close?

elyvorg

They are Good! There wasn't as much Susato in the later parts of this game but she is still very good, oh my god Susato how can you say you're terribly incompetent, you're like the most hypercompetent judicial assistant ever.

Van Zieks is good and Friend, was hoping to see him do an Ace Attorney Smile(TM) at the end but I guess the revelation that his brother was a serial killer kinda dampened any chance of that happening for the time being, whoops. Love the parallels between him and Kazuma and how they're really quite similar but the situation and cover-ups surrounding their brother/father resulted in them tragically hating each other instead. Hopefully they can start to be friends now!

Bench

Top 3 cases from the duology?

elyvorg

2-4/5 are the same case, so, that one. Then probably 2-3, and then a toss-up between 1-2 or 1-1? I gotta play the earlier ones again now with the knowledge of where everything ends up.

...whoops I literally just listed every case with Kazuma in it, didn't I

seatherny

would love to see van zieks and kazuma's work with each other as prosecutors in another game too

elyvorg

yesssss

Kazuma having the epic dodges of van Zieks's chalice throws

seatherny

i'm glad there are more fans who place TGAA in their top faves

your reactions may or may not have inspired me to started over at 1-1 already to experience the game while knowing Everything :D

Bench

seatherny

and i didn't even finish that long ago lmao

elyvorg

That's obviously the Correct thing to do, I gotta do that too sometime.

Bench

Same.

After I finish the rest of my Ace Attorney marathon.

elyvorg

I also really need to replay 2-4/5 while actually, like, knowing exactly what's going on in Kazuma's head and not having my assumption of it flip-flop wildly literally every segment, so that I can properly solidify my perception of why he acted the way he did throughout all this.

Bench

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on these games!

elyvorg

Thank you for giving me an audience so that I felt like it would be worthwhile to share them!

I don't usually formulate such detailed thoughts about stories I'm currently experiencing because I don't have a reason to articulate them, so for better or worse I think you being here partly contributed to the number of absolutely Wild Ideas I had that, uh, didn't actually happen in the story but are fun to think about anyway.

[[which is also why I decided I liked these Thoughts enough to repost them on tumblr to a wider audience. I hope everyone reading this liveblog from here had fun on this Wild Ride too!]]

Bench

Glad I could help!

seatherny

yeah, i'd like to digest kazuma's insanely guarded behaviors and thought processes a bit more on this 2nd playthrough too

wish i'd found this thread a bit earlier, rip :D

elyvorg

Hey, it's not going anywhere, you can read the backlog any time you like!

also love to hear that you are a kindred spirit of figuring out what the hell is going on in the heads of Characters With Issues, that kind of thing is my jam

seatherny

my fave always ends up being that exact kind of char and i hyperfixate on them like crazy lmao

van Zieks ended up being that char for me at the end of TGAA actually??? i think I’m in the minority there but that’s okay

elyvorg

van Zieks didn't quite latch onto my hyperfixation buttons like Kazuma did for whatever reason but he's certainly very interesting and I can definitely understand the appeal, would love to hear any of your Van Zieks Thoughts you ever wanted to share

seatherny

i like the image of characters fighting in the background over literal buttons to push :V "no, they get to obsess about ME more"

elyvorg

to be fair, Kazuma pretty much had me from 1-1. His Massive Issues were a delightful unexpected bonus, but I inevitably go for the supportive best friend character every single time <3

seatherny

but yeah, idk, i enjoy well written Tsundere characters with Tragic pasts that lead to Loneliness (self-induced or not) and lots of Trust issues, and van Zieks fits all those bills lmao?? really wish we'd gotten that AA smile you mentioned out of him for maximum Tsundere moment but damn budget constraints (probably)

i also really loved the whole reaper of the bailey ordeal, with van Zieks not even having to try hard to be a terrifying public figure prone to a million assassination attempts but still being more than willing to let it happen for the sake of other people, even if he trusts none of them and sees corruption everywhere - surely he knew he'd run into someone trustworthy eventually to make it all worth it?

i enjoyed the pressure he put on Ryunosuke in court to actually think in ways that would lead to the truth and not like cases are just another "i want to one up you" game.

i also enjoyed that he actually doesn't slip into self-pity much, i cannot articulate why but his almost-unwavering confidence and suffer-no-bullshit attitude was great in any scene

I have replayed the scene where van Zieks refers to Ryunosuke by name for the first time and says he needs to believe in his integrity as a lawyer, finally, a Lot of times

let's not forget the endearing quirks like the chalice throwing, keeping motherfucking BATS in his office and he's the ONLY one allowed to rearrange his wine barrels (on a weekly basis, guy, where do you find TIME for that?) and also i think a lot about that evidence dialogue where he wonders what color haired league he's supposed to join if the only choices are red or black lmao

and ugh I have a 4:00 meeting now to switch my mind to WHY

elyvorg

haha, whoops, awkward time to Ramble, but love your thoughts! :3 I too really loved the scene where van Zieks finally decides to trust Ryunosuke with his defence and will enjoy replaying that one a lot.

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

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elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-5 Part 2

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: the final Great Deduction

elyvorg

Diving back in!

Wait, Jigoku was actually here on the ship just recently? Why would he go back to it?

love the banter between Mikotoba and Sholmes, these two are so clearly good friends :3

THE NAME UPSIDE DOWN IS NUMBERS

OH THAT'S CLEVER

so he's not dead. What the fuck is going ON, then.

Is this really just going to be as simple as, Jigoku killed Gregson, we prove it in court, and that's it? Surely there's got to be more to it than that, there's a bajillion unsolved mysteries left.

what is Kazuma doing, he still can't actually think van Zieks is guilty surely, Ryunosuke insists he wouldn't lie but I really think he kind of is lying about some things.

Bench

I'll just say that I tied this with The Grand Turnabout in terms of quality for a reason.

elyvorg

excellent to hear. :D

ummmm Ryunosuke I think Kazuma is also a witness who can clarify what happened, as well as Jigoku, actually

kazumaaaa what on earth is going through your head, friend

nnnnnnn Ryunosuke admitting Kazuma's not quite the friend he knew any more DDDD:

yeah haha he was floored by the assassin thing, wasn't he, even if he shelved it in the courtroom to freak out about later

seatherny

[[here seatherny posted some kind of analytical thought about Ryunosuke and Kazuma’s friendship; something about how Kazuma always had these massive issues all along and Ryunosuke just never knew it, from my vague recollection]]

elyvorg

please save analytical thoughts like this until I've seen the full story and can make a judgement for myself!

(as in, I would actually appreciate if you deleted that so I can forget what I semi-read)

seatherny

ohh okay, sorry! i was careful not to put spoilers, but i can see why you'd still want ppl to wait

elyvorg

it's okay, I can totally understand the overwhelming urge to Ramble

but we can do all the rambles we like once I'm done! ^o^

(possibly after I've had a bit to solidify my thoughts without outside influence)

seatherny

kazuma has that effect on people :V

elyvorg

I'LL SAY

Iris's dad is SOMEBODY ELSE?

(awww but I liked the thought of her and Susato being sisters that would have been cute)

like if Iris's dad is some other person it's got to be someone who matters, it can't just be a randomer

Sholmes's inability to sit properly on the couch is a mood

seatherny

Same

Bench

>:3

Brief interim thoughts

elyvorg

stopping to take a break to get some food and am Thinking while my food cooks. Now that it's abundantly clear Jigoku is super suspicious, I'm coming back around to thinking Kazuma's mission was more than purely personal and he was assigned to be the Reaper's new assassin by Jigoku (the List is starting to make sense!!!). Which also means Kazuma was partly lying during the conversation in his office in case 4 when he made his mission sound entirely personal. I wonder how much truth there was in the part about him receiving the letter mentioning his dad's crimes and how Jigoku laughed it off like a joke. That feels like it wouldn't be an anecdote Kazuma would fabricate, because it'd be very personal and painful, but. hm.

Live reactions: The truth about the List

elyvorg

THE FUCKING LIIIIIIST

FINALLY LET'S GET SOME ANSWERS

[[for context, if you haven’t, I highly recommend reading my theorising about the List that I did at the beginning of this liveblog, here, before reading the rest of my reactions to this reveal]]

one year ago? as in, before Wilson died? so after all my confusion in 1-5 thinking the disc must have been made shortly before 1-3, it WAS actually earlier than that?

Hosonaga dug it up for us! What a bro.

there's slashes between the pairs of names on this version that we never had before. Like, Kazuma/Shinn were the assassins, Gregson/Wilson were the organisers?

but why did Shinn assassinate Wilson then argh

Sholmes didn't want to save Kazuma's life, he wanted to stop Kazuma being the assassin. Yeah, that... that sure tracks, doesn't it.

but then how did he know?

lucky for Sholmes that Kazuma had happened to drag a potential replacement lawyer along with him, then, he can't have predicted that beforehand

YES PLEASE TELL ME NIKOLINA'S OKAY

GOOD SHE IS

PROTECT HER

don't fucking tell me Sholmes knew this because McGilded sold the info to him???

oh so SHOLMES is just casually also stealing government secrets!

SHOLMES THOUGHT THEY WERE ALL ASSASSINATION TARGETS JUST LIKE I DID

HE WAS TRYING TO PROTECT KAZUMA

I WAS KIND OF PARTLY RIGHT

WOOOOOOOO

Bench

\o/

seatherny

\o/

elyvorg

fucking LOVE that Sholmes's thought process regarding this list has turned out to be BASICALLY THE SAME AS MINE

WHOOPS THEY WERE ALL ACTUALLY ASSASSINS

wait, no?

it's the assassins paired with their targets?

...

that means Kazuma was always supposed to kill Gregson

oh boy

(the message also said "these are all four", which really implied all four were the same category of people, grr)

...in court, Kazuma said "the assassination of the mark". he did not specify it was Jigoku. DAMN that's sneaky.

fffffucking assassin exchange, you know, as you do, normal student exchange business

seatherny

yep, nothing sus there at all

elyvorg

if Kazuma knew this, did he also know that Wilson was assassinated by his counterpart and just, uhhhh, casually hid that from Ryunosuke for the entirety of 1-1?

(it goes without saying that I refuse to believe Kazuma actually had any intention of killing anyone)

oh noooo that's why Gregson was gonna transfer

maybe he isn't actually the Reaper at all and pinning all this on him was part of the plan?

anyway. so.

WE GET TO DEFEND KAZUMA FOR THIS, RIGHT

RIGHT?????

makes a lot of sense why Kazuma never confided in Ryunosuke about this. "Hey bro, my real mission is to kill someone - but, wait, hear me out, not actually, I swear--". He must have been terrified Ryunosuke would never trust him when he heard that.

also the bit where Ryunosuke arrived and Stronghart was like "do you intend to do everything Asogi planned to do?" he was really thinking "so you'll do a murder for me, will you?"

yes please can Susato and Iris be honorary sisters anyway

(love how we've just switched onto this topic after HEY YOUR BEST FRIEND'S AN ASSASSIN)

yes let Iris learn the Susato Takedown, she'll be a TERROR

AWWWWW RYUNOSUKE'S GONNA BE HER BROTHER TOO

FOUND FAMILYYYY

(still want Kazuma to be assimilated into this found family too and no I do not care that he's literally a fucking assassin apparently)

Ryunosuke really is just pulling a huge Not Gonna Think About That about the assassin news isn't he, wow.

yyyeeeaaah think I'm gonna stop there for tonight I need to FUCKING PROCESS THAT

this fucking game, by the way

this fucking game

Bench

>:3

Interim thoughts: more assassin thoughts, featuring Somehow I Am Still Stuck On This Amnesia Thing

elyvorg

hmmmmmm guess what I've just thought about: an actual plausible reason for Kazuma hypothetically having faked the amnesia if that was indeed a thing, which whoops I guess I'm still leaving open the possibility of actually. For as long as Stronghart believed he had amnesia, he wasn't going to ask Kazuma to kill anybody. If Kazuma had no intention of ever carrying out the assassination (and of course he didn't), then that's the perfect way to put it off without arousing suspicion. Then I imagine him choosing the moment he did to hypothetically fake remembering everything would be out of a combination of having heard Gregson would be transferring soon, and the truth of the Professor case finally beginning to come to light such that he needed to be able to act with more agency to investigate that.

elyvorg

LITERALLY BOTH OF THE FUCKING ASSASSINS WORE A MASK OVER THEIR EYES AT SOME POINT god i love all the parallels and foreshadowing in this game

seatherny

ohhh I actually didn’t catch the mask thing till you just said it! love it

elyvorg

still can't believe this entire story's plot happened because Kazuma nominally agreed to go and assassinate someone halfway across the world. Like, I'd been increasingly suspecting he was some kind of assassin somehow, he straight-up admitted it in the latest court section, and yet I was still floored by realising just how important that was to the everything. It's literally the only reason Ryunosuke's in England. Kazuma must have known and been hiding it the whole time from before the beginning of the game. I'd been worrying that the Secret List's true nature would be kind of a letdown and not actually matter that much after how much I'd been trying to make sense of it, but it sure delivered.

Also I love the narrative bookending of how Exchange Assassination #1 was the very first murder case in the game, and now Exchange Assassination #2 (or something that looks like that) is the very last murder case in the game. Really brings it full circle.

Live reactions: 2-5 second trial day, aka And Then They Still Didn’t Arrest Kazuma >:(

elyvorg

so anyway I jumped the gun last time I said this, but THIS time it's time to go to court and accidentally make it look like Kazuma did a murder, right???

yeah I no longer remotely believe Gregson was actually part of the Reaper, this is being pinned on him posthumously

oh. no, huh, Kazuma basically already has been charged with being an assassin.

Kazuma's looking like he... didn't know about the exchange?

geez, this offer. You get to go on a study exchange tour! if you'll do a murder for us.

"There's nothing I wouldn't have done to get here. Be that agreeing to assume the role of an assassin... or betraying people's trust."

GHHHHHHH KAZUMAAAAAA

- Ryunosuke mentions how Kazuma lost his memory

- the camera pans to Kazuma, who is silent and doesn't confirm this

HMMMMMM

hee, love Kazuma helping us by telling us exactly the kind of proof we need to present to get this guy

Kazuma's claiming he just left the room after looking around but that's a LIE because we know he attacked Gregson's trunk at some point

okay I am very stumped at proving that the murder didn't actually take place at Fresno Street, I thought we established this well enough on the first day and have tried presenting most every piece of evidence relevant to Gregson's actual death and nothing works. Help?

okay, done it through guesswork, game please explain how the fuck it's the photo

okay, sure, the position of his body apparently. And why did nobody bring this up two days ago?

I guessss it's easier to interpret what it means now that we know he was transported in a trunk

that was annoyingly obscure, though

Kazuma seems... actually surprised that Jigoku did it?

my god I keep flip-flopping constantly on whether he actually ever thought it was van Zieks or not, what is going on in his head

or was he faking that reaction

looks like Jigoku's about to pin it on Kazuma here we goooo

...wait, what do you mean it actually was impossible for Kazuma to have done it and I have evidence

...okay, my logic for a second was "he was shot at point-blank range, that would have got blood over Kazuma, his outfit is very white and there'd be no way he could hide that", but apparently that's not it.

how IS the crew itinerary proof, Kazuma could be lying about where he was, surely?

okay, totally forgot he had an actual alibi there, derp

very sad that we don't seem to be actually arresting Kazuma for this murder, by the way

(I still assume there's way more to this case than this, though!)

hee, he broke the witness stand again!

still haven't explained the sword tip in the trunk, either...

Bench

Thoughts on Jigoku?

elyvorg

hold on, still not done with his confession

he wasn't actually planning to frame van Zieks apparently, interesting!

hm, he still can't say who his boss is even now. Is Stronghart (it's obviously Stronghart) threatening him in some way?

(could HE be Iris's dad?)

KAZUMAAA WHAT ARE YOU DOING

okay so hold on before we get into that, Jigoku: really fun twist to have a judge be a culprit! He seemed like a decent guy when we got to actually meet him and I totally didn't suspect him at all until quite close to when it became apparent he was super corrupt. Also, see what I just speculated about him being threatened and not actually as on board with all this as he might seem.

Bench

elyvorg

though you'd think I could have guessed earlier that he was gonna be bad news because his name literally means Hell in Japanese. (Well, possibly not spelled with those kanji, but it's read the same way, at least.)

seatherny

well, seeing jigoku certainly is hell enough for Ryunosuke :D but yeah I didn’t expect him to be so involved either!

elyvorg

kazumaaaaa I know you're hurt and angry but van Zieks is not your enemy

also wow they sure got a new witness stand in fast

ryunosuke is determined to face him as his friend nnnnngh

wait, Gregson actually did bring Kazuma with him to kill Jigoku???

oooooh did they really pull an SL-9 on this

very >:3 at Kazuma furiously demanding the truth off Gregson while threatening him with a sword

someone please tell Kazuma that Stronghart was the original prosecutor on this case

ghhhh, Kazuma had no idea it was Stronghart

“Unless you were thinking of summoning a ghost to the stand." bwahaha, alas, no Feys around here

kazumaaaaaaaaaa, that breakdown, my HEART, he needs hugs

aaaaa that look of hope in Kazuma's eyes

[[so even though Kazuma never got arrested to become the final defendant and I am Still Not Over That, there were nonetheless some very delightful Kazuma moments here that I dug a lot >:3]]

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-3 Part 2

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-3, second trial day, a short ways in

elyvorg

Van Zieks seemed quite angry to hear that Tusspells saw the face of his brother's killer. I guess he never did himself?

"It's not possible for the dead to come back to life."

Love how we're discussing this in this case of all things. More than one Great Departed Soul referred to in the title, it seems.

Bench

: >

elyvorg

lots of themes about Masks flying around here

(it has also not escaped me that Kazuma isn't the only person we've met who wore a mask concealing the top half of their face)

honestly don't think I was expecting van Zieks to LEG with Kazuma there, it's making me imagine Kazuma doing it too, which is a very silly image

(also good job remaining pokerfaced about that, Kazuma)

(unless he's just used to it because van Zieks does it around the office all the time???)

(you know, though it's probably really for the sake of animation economy, there is something to be said for the fact that Kazuma never even so much as glances at van Zieks except for when he's directly doing him an assistance. He spends the entire trial looking straight at Ryunosuke and nobody else. aaaaa)

BWAHAHA Kazuma dodged out of the way of the chalice throw

I was thinking he would have to do that, heh

are we actually going to acquit a defendant without conclusively proving the real killer did it? :o gasp, unheard of in Ace Attorney

nope, never mind, couldn't possibly have that

okay I was not expecting this sudden switch-up of who the killer is

(love the more low-key variant of the Cornered theme as a build-up, too!)

so... is Sithe the Reaper...?

no idea what this has to do with the scalpels but SURE

oh I see, it's not actually about scalpels

yeah did not at all figure out the victim was blackmailing her

oh hey another person who became the kind of monster he hated!

awwww van Zieks believing in and defending his friend, he is Good

love Harebrayne's tiny little "Science!" book, and how excited he is about it, it's precious

"You're one of the few true friends I have."

FRIENDS

and van Zieks trusted Ryunosuke to do the defence!

...he thinks someone else is going to try and kill Harebrayne, doesn't he, oh god

(but Gina's still fine!)

Bench

Friends!

elyvorg

...or sometimes months after

oh geez, so Gina's still in danger? D:

aaaaa he's so determined to protect his friend even if it means not getting to be with his friend

(hello yes Kazuma parallels maybe???)

(Does your friend-shaped package get any say in it...?)

okay, I will admit, Harebrayne is pretty friend-shaped.

also speaking of friend-shaped packages, like that time Ryunosuke was in a trunk, anyone

oh no was this Japanese person who wronged him the Professor?

he said three visiting Japanese students, but we only know the two, so...

[[then there was a gap of a few minutes in which I didn’t react to anything immediately because guess what was happening that I didn’t want to stop in the middle of]]

Post-end of case flailing!!!

elyvorg

okay so

a lot of things

*deep breath*

- KAZUMA'S DAD????

- huh they really are still acting like he had amnesia until that moment but I'm still not sure I buy it? Kazuma seemed to instantly know what was going on, like he already knew his dad was the bad guy and already hated him, which, doesn't seem to fit, so maybe he just used this as an excuse to drop the amnesia pretence?

- ADORABLE REUNION YES

- one last thing I distinctly remember from the blog that spoiled me was "we didn't get a hug because Capcom are cowards", and yes, alas. :( Maybe later, though, Kazuma was rather Busy with a lot of thoughts at the time

- that's why Susato and Kazuma are friends!!!! that's adorable

- FRIENDS

this went some Directions I was very not expecting but I am HYPE to see where it goes from here

also the next title, Twisted Karma and His Last Bow, sure sounds intriguing, given the name of Kazuma's sword

(oh also yes Ryunosuke gave back the sword! I am going to miss his confident sword-lean, but it is back where it belongs. :3)

Bench

Hehehehehe

That reunion is one of my favorite things in the franchise.

elyvorg

they're FRIENDS

I was starting to think we wouldn't even get one in this case because Kazuma was just there being Mysterious and Totally Amnesiac and it'd actually happen later but :3

I was a little surprised at the way Ryunosuke and Susato were all ":OOOOO it's Kazuma!" when he took the hood off. Like... that's not news, you already figured out it was him? Maybe they were more thinking that he was getting his memories back or something, I don't know.

(also lol Kazuma's hair is big and distinctive enough that it totally should have been visible even under the hood, that fact became eminently clear the moment he took the hood off and suddenly his hair was there)

oh, and yes, the fact that Kazuma's sword was handed down the Asogi clan and was therefore probably passed onto him from his father has not escaped me, that sure is, uhhhh

maaaaan I was not expecting Kazuma's character to go in the direction of Daddy Issues but I am very down

also I note that the achievement name for finishing the case was "The Demasking", which, you know, doesn't really seem like it's about him remembering so much as it's just about him no longer wearing a mask in a possibly-not-just-literal sense ¬.¬

...okay I suppose this can also be interpreted to be about the Professor too, lol

OH ALSO

it occurred to me that depending on the given name of Kazuma's dad, that could potentially be the "K. Asogi" in the secret message.

Bench

Fun fact: Do you remember what the watchword for redeeming McGuilded's overcoat back in GAA1-5 was?

elyvorg

OH FUCK IT WAS WASN'T IT

[[“Professor”, that is.]]

thank you for that reminder that is Interesting

the client chooses the watchword, right? and McGilded told the bus driver to use that word?

Bench

Hehehe

elyvorg

also love how every major character seems to be connected to this backstory one way another through either themselves or a family member, except for Ryunosuke, who's literally only involved because he's Kazuma's best friend and Kazuma wanted to bring him along for this, aaaaa

Interim thoughts: Kazuma theories, including amnesia

elyvorg

okay so have had a shower while I Process Things. Updated thoughts on the amnesia thing (yes I'm really hung up on this point okay) - I think I can actually believe that Kazuma, if he'd been amnesiac, would have regained his memories upon being reminded of his father, whether or not he knew about the murders, and he might've reacted by slicing the waxwork in two regardless of whether he knew or whether he remembered any of it before just then, fine.

BUT. What does jar at me, if the amnesia was real, is the way that his reunion with his friends was pretty much just on the topic of their friendship, and then he goes "anyway I've got stuff to do, talk to you later", and leaves. That doesn't make sense. If he had amnesia for nine months, then whatever he was planning to do here probably doesn't have anything to do with being an assistant prosecutor, and he's probably kind of disoriented at suddenly finding himself in this position, so you'd think he wouldn't be so happy to immediately go back to it instead of spending more time regaining his bearings with his friends? Like, these are not the actions of someone who's just recovered from a nine-month-long amnesia in front of their best friends who'd assumed they were dead.

I keep flip-flopping on whether Kazuma knew his dad was a killer or not, though I suppose we'll learn that soon enough as we get into case 4 (hopefully, Kazuma please talk to your friends about your issues, they're here for you). One argument for no is that, if the amnesia was faked, it does feel... a little random that Kazuma would decide to take this opportunity to drop the facade after working so hard to keep it up until now. Unless, his shock at having just learned right then that his father was the killer was so great that he couldn't keep his composure - and then because of that reaction, it was like, welp, nobody's gonna think he's an amnesiac after that, he's got to drop the facade and pretend he just remembered everything.

also, I have done the maths and realised that Kazuma would have been only seven the last time he saw his father, oh god he was so small, that sounds like an ample source for Feelings however this all went down

crossed my mind that Kazuma's father might actually not be the killer and he could have been wrongly accused (especially with the faked execution?), but then again, Sholmes solved the case (it seems), so he probably got it right?

elyvorg

just watched The Cutscene again and actually cried this time, which I was surprised I didn't do the first time but I guess I was busy reeling over the dad reveal

also whoops lol, they make it pretty explicitly clear that Kazuma knew his dad was the killer, that was not just an ambiguous implication

also, "It's been a long road..." is not what you say upon reuniting with your best friends if you've just recovered from amnesia, I don't think? I don't think.

haha, yes, suddenly I am finally having the teary Emotions I knew I'd have over this, dunno why it took a rewatch of the scene to make me cry but here we are. ;o; <3 :3 they are friends I love them

Interim chat: Unspoiled experiences!

elyvorg

Also! @ Bench. Obviously you can't respond to any of my theories, but never mind that. Now that I've reached the end of this case, It's Happened, and there's no longer anything approaching spoilers regarding Kazuma being alive and their reunion: if you don't mind describing it, I'd love to hear how you experienced this reveal, as someone who (presumably) wasn't spoiled. Like, at what point did you start to suspect it, become sure about it, how thrilled were you at the possibility, stuff like that.

Bench

Fun fact: I thought the masked apprentice was Herlock Sholmes in disguise at first.

elyvorg

bwahaha I suppose that'd be an option, wouldn't it! He does like to disguise himself.

When did you realise/begin to suspect it was Kazuma?

Bench

Only after Susato shouted his name.

I was completely shocked.

elyvorg

awwwww, ouch, that's a delightful moment to realise it <3

I take it the case title didn't make you suspect anything? I really have no way to know whether or not it would have done in isolation, since I was spoiled.

Bench

I thought Wilson was going to be relevant.

elyvorg

Ahhh, okay! I suppose there are other Great Departed Souls whom it could have referred to.

Bench

As for the final cutscene...I stared in shock for the whole thing, literally shaking with glee.

elyvorg

Were you sure it was Kazuma before then, during the trial where he was standing there, or was this the moment of certainty and confirmation for you?

Bench

I was almost sure during the trial, but the final cutscene confirmed it.

elyvorg

Oh! One other thing. If the moment you realised Kazuma might be alive was when Susato called his name, what did you make of the earlier bit where they were all "hey, Kazuma's body went missing, that's weird, what if he's..."?

Bench

I thought some important evidence for something was on his body, and was thus hidden somewhere.

elyvorg

Heh, I see.

And so you assumed the part with Susato being terrified to hope he could be alive was just another sad emotional beat and not a hint towards anything actually being possible, I suppose?

Bench

Yeah.

I was not in the best mental state at the time of playing that part of the case, so I was a bit pessimistic.

elyvorg

aww, I see. :( I imagine the reveal and the reunion helped cheer you up, though!

Bench

Yeah!

elyvorg

...I also wasn't in the best mental state when I started playing the first half of this game, but by now I am deeply hyperfixated and feeling happier than I have in a long time <3

Bench

Sorry to hear that, but I'm really happy to hear you're doing really well now!

elyvorg

(...to the expense of me getting anything else done, mind, but that's how hyperfixations be)

Bench

They're both a blessing and a curse.

elyvorg

incidentally, I know this thread is just me and Bench right now, but this request goes out to any other hypothetical future person who's reading my liveblogging having played the game themselves. I have had an absolute Wild Ride thanks to being spoiled for this but in a plausibly-deniable way that left me guessing and terrified it wouldn't happen the whole time, and it was enjoyable enough that I don't even precisely regret having been spoiled in this way, in the end. But still, I'd love to hear more accounts of the kind of experience a player was supposed to have with this twist, the way the writers actually put it into the game. Like, literally, even if it's been months or years, DM me, I will be delighted to hear you talk about this (and flail about these friends with you if you'd like).

[[…yeah, this also applies to anybody reading this liveblog on tumblr; I would be thrilled to hear about more people’s unspoiled first-time experiences of Kazuma’s return!]]

Interim chat: general 2-3 stuff and overall game impressions

Bench

What are your thoughts on the coroner, the craftswoman, and the cyborg?

elyvorg

Tusspells has a neat design, but character-wise she's just kinda there, not that interesting to me. Sithe is neat, I feel like there'll be more to her, mostly intrigued by her for plot reasons rather than character reasons though. And I'm... weirdly kinda fond of Drebber, actually, despite him being a pretty bad person all in all. I can dig characters with revenge motives, and I love that we're still seeing the theme of "whoops you became the kind of monster you hated".

also this probably goes without saying after all the :3-ing at him being friends with Barok, but Harebrayne is pretty adorable, I am fond of him.

Bench

Enoch Drebber is one of my favorite characters in the duology, due to just how much of a magnificent bastard he is.

Also, his design is just really cool.

elyvorg

Yeah, his animations are really fun to watch.

He also talks using all these highlighted words all the time, making me think they're trying to give the impression of a kind of robot-speak.

Bench

Yeah.

Thoughts on the mystery itself? I really enjoyed it! It was really fun to piece together what really happened.

elyvorg

Yeah! I thought I'd figured out most bits but I was so not expecting Sithe to be the real killer at the end, man.

Also love just slowly unravelling this whole old controversial mystery in the process of it

(which at the time I was somewhat less intrigued by because, well, the Professor was just some random killer dude, so I don't care about him that much, reall-- WHOOPS NO, never mind, it's freaking Kazuma's dad, turns out I Care, I care a Lot, actually)

Bench

There is something upcoming that I am dying to talk to you about. I won't say anything until you get there, but it's part of the reason why GAA2 is one of my favorite games of all time.

elyvorg

ooooooohhhhhh!!!! that's intriguing. I assumed that a lot of the reason you loved this game was mostly about THE ADORABLE BEST FRIEND YOU THOUGHT WAS DEAD IS ACTUALLY STILL ALIVE, but I'm thrilled to hear that there's going to keep being more Extremely Good Things than just that.

Bench

Oh, there's so much more. Not that Kazuma being alive isn't absolutely amazing already, but

elyvorg

...not that I'm not already getting the impression that this is just going to keep being delightful. Man, I'd had so many thoughts and ideas about how Kazuma coming back might play out, but I think this managed to be? better?? than any of my expectations????

Bench

My favorite track in the entire AA franchise debuts next case. You'll probably know it when you hear it.

elyvorg

ooooh

also can I extent my heartfelt thanks and also that I am deeply impressed by you for restraining yourself this entire time and doing a great job of never confirming or denying anything, man, I would have been just about ready to explode if I'd been in your position.

Bench

No problem!

I do not want to ruin the experience for you.

elyvorg

sure is frustrating to know that simply "somebody who loves friendship is really really excited about this game" can technically potentially be a spoiler, I am going to have to be very careful and restrained when yelling about this game to other people and trying to get them to play it

(because oh god every single Ace Attorney fan needs to play this game, how does Ace Attorney just keep being so fantastic)

Bench

I'm so happy you like it so much, too!

elyvorg

I was even pretty lukewarm on GAA1 when I first experienced it, because I didn't realise it was the first half of a two-parter and was expecting a complete story and when I didn't get one from the one game it kinda soured me on it. But man, it's so much better when they're both experienced together.

There's just so many connections and parallels and I dig that kind of stuff so much.

Bench

It truly is amazing.

Any speculation you have?

elyvorg

I think I've given most of my thoughts, at least about Kazuma-related things (what do you mean there's other parts to this story that aren't about him ;P).

Uhhh, I stil feel like Stronghart's gonna be evil or something because he just seems like that kind of Ace Attorney Big Bad, and yet I've been getting some kinda genuine vibes from him lately? and am also not sure what to think about him being the one to appoint Kazuma to be van Zieks's apprentice, that feels like it should make him on Kazuma's side and therefore a good guy, but I dunno.

how can I still not make any sense of the goddamn secret message, I know a lot about the significance of each of these four people (except Gregson really?) by now and yet I can't figure out why just those four and nobody else were on some list, aaaaaagh

oh, suppose I might as well mention, in this hypothetical mental image I have of a final case in which Kazuma is the defendant, Susato's dad is the victim, just because that would be Maximum Drama. He's coming to England soon so that'd be possible. Who knows. He and Jigoku are bound to end up wrapped up in whatever goes down one way or another.

Bench

Interesting!

Aaaaa, I'm so hyped to see what you think of the next case.

elyvorg

I am so stoked to get to the next case too! (Kazuma please tell us about your daddy issues I am itching to hear them)

Bench

Favorite character so far, besides Kazuma?

elyvorg

bwahaha I like how you don't even need to ask who's my favourite

uhhh I don't think I have a clear second-favourite? I love pretty much all of the regulars a lot.

Bench

Valid!

elyvorg

I suppose if I had to pick a second-favourite, it'd probably be Ryunosuke? Phoenix was always my favourite in his games, and obviously Ryunosuke has a lot of the same energy, with bonus FRIENDS that certainly doesn't hurt

Bench

Interim thoughts: replaying/rereading things with new context

elyvorg

Sholmes: "I took the liberty of investigating the victim's fist a short while ago." Sorry, how short a while ago? Since his body was removed from the cabin? because, uhhhhhhhh (I presume he really means while he was still investigating the body in the room, but that's some misleading phrasing.)

HUH HE SURE FUCKING DID DIDN'T HE (hi I'm reading back over my old comments now that I Know, this bit puzzled me at the time because I had no conception that Sholmes could've been in on faking it and known Kazuma wasn't dead, but since he apparently was, figures he might have examined his unconscious body sometime offscreen)

elyvorg

I went back to replay the Kazuma scene on the second investigation day of case 3 to check for the one line that first made me suspect he doesn't actually have amnesia. Specifically, it's Ryunosuke thinking that Susato calling out his name "seemed like it hit a nerve". Assuming the localisation team is good at its job - and it's certainly looking like it is - that's... not how you describe someone's reaction when something jogs their lost memories a little? "Hit a nerve" specifically implies that he's frustrated by it in some small way, which is what made me think it must be that he remembers, and didn't want them to recognise him at all. Just throwing that out there.

(also went to replay the Kazuma scene on the first investigation day while I was at it, and man, I know characters like Drebber have some fantastic animations, but I really don't think anything's going to beat out "Kazuma turning his head two inches to the left" for my personal favourite animation in the game, I love it, it is so distinctly him from so little)

(I really want there to be someone whose first-time unspoiled experience of this case went from Kazuma's survival not even being on their radar to "that's Kazuma" from that one animation.)

[[okay, listen. I’ve replayed enough of the game while looking out for this that I’m now pretty sure the head-turning animation is just a general animation algorithm that every character uses when turning their head, and not a bespoke one for Kazuma. But, listen. It happened to work exactly like it needed to to give me the appropriate Kazuma Vibes from the masked apprentice, and the Moment I had from that the first time I saw it is something I still remember fondly, so, shush.]]

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-3 Part 1

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-3, beginning

elyvorg

alright I'm doing it I'M GOING IN

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

before I do, just a little prediction for totally no reason whatsoever that this is also going to end up being my favourite case 3 in any game

elyvorg

clearly the important article on the back of this newspaper is... the lost cat!

the person in the article photo who's not van Zieks is wearing a mask and a hood. could that be Kazuma in disguise?

pfffft the way Iris's hat covers her round poofy pigtails

what the heck do you mean you know about Kazuma's real mission, Stronghart? ¬.¬

IS THAT HOODED PERSON KAZUMA

I'm jumping on this idea so quickly, for the record, because one of the many Wild Ideas I had about how this reunion might go down is that Kazuma might be in disguise somehow and then we do a Great Deduction to deduce his identity based on the way he reacts to Ryunosuke's presence. I would love it if I'm right about that.

haha, the prosecutor has a chess set in his office!

also an endless supply of glasses and bottles, of course, because he keeps smashing them repeatedly in every trial

love that they put in a silly nod to that

yes van Zieks, it's clearly all Ryunosuke's fault that you have no choice but to smash your poor glasses

ooh, the defendant is van Zieks's friend! ...not the Japanese one, but another one, still.

gonna suck for him to prosecute a friend of his, ouch.

aww, he's actually cool with being thought of as a killer for the sake of stopping crimes!

"there's merit in reminding yourself of who helped you become what you are today," says van Zieks as I present the armband to him. I feel like he's thinking about something personal there.

aww, I got an achievement for doing that!

why is this guy who I'm like 90% sure is Kazuma learning to be a prosecutor? :O

OH THAT IS SO HIM I saw the way he turned his head those were his mannerisms!!!!

please can we Great Deduce this it'd be delightful

RYUNOSUKE CAN TELL HE'S FAMILIAR

HE CAN TELLLLLL

OF COURSE HIS BEST FRIEND WOULD SPOT THE SAME MANNERISMS

oh hey we sure are talking to the university friend of this mysterious and imposing prosecutor, huhhhhh that's a parallel

GINAAAAAAA

this case is already great on so many levels

she's a detectiiiiiiive

(this was also something I'd been accidentally spoiled for, entirely separately, but that makes me no less happy to see it!)

oh no she promised Iris to look for her father, ooouuuuch that's not gonna end well

Bench

: >

elyvorg

she's so happy and proud of herself!!!! :3

waaaaiiiit, bombing the Crystal Tower was what Vilen Borshevik wanted to do, maybe this has something to do with him?

Great Deduction time! ...But not the one I wanted, here's hoping it's not the only one in this case.

Bench

Wait, I don't remember this one. What are you currently doing?

elyvorg

The waxwork one.

Bench

Ah, yeah.

Forgot about that.

elyvorg

ooh van Zieks's brother was murdered. Yeah this case is really racking up the interesting facts about him, isn't it.

aww van Zieks coming to talk to his friend in prison but not actually facing him for the entire conversation

Live reactions: 2-3, first trial day

elyvorg

Gina's gonna testify! In like a normal, non-defendant, non-perjury way! :3

Bench

elyvorg

oh hey I just noticed in a zoom-out shot how most of the balloons Lune is holding are red and blue, but then there's one green one, just like in the actual case! Fun detail.

Bench

Oh, that's cool! I never noticed!

elyvorg

what do you mean my client's just decided to confess

Is he protecting somebody else? that'd be the only reason to, right?

or is he just... protecting his science. my dude. my dude, please.

has van Zieks been trying to insist the teleportation really happened all along to help out his friend? That'd be pretty adorable.

THE TRUST THEME AGAIN i love this so much

Susato!!!

(okay so for a moment I may have thought that unidentified voice was Kazuma but shush)

also I love Susato's Objection theme

Susato being here means she's also going to be present for The Identification Of Kazuma, whenever that happens (soooooon, pleeeeaaaase)

pfft, Susato gives happy-to-see-you Susato Takedowns instead of hugs, I see

also rip to Susato spending literally half of her past year on a boat going in one direction or another

...our tale was about to take yet another extraordinary turn.

YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT WAS

Live reactions: 2-3, second investigation day

elyvorg

oh, if she's here for the forensic science thing, did her dad come too? and maybe Rei as well?

I figured Susato's dad may have had some involvement in Hound of the Baskervilles and that's how she knew!

MISS BRETT WAS "A SHIN"

wait no

please don't tell me her first name was Asa

would they seriously

(then again I guess Asa Shinn isn't any worse than Shelly DE KILLER)

okay so, Kazuma, Shinn, and Wilson all being on the Secret List of Names make some kind of sense because they all seem(ed) to have some kind of secret missions. But why the hell's Gregson on there? Does he also have more to him than he's letting on?

hmmmmm Kazuma's body disappeared what a mysterious surprise :o

Susato: "Just thinking about the possibility [of Kazuma being alive] pains me. So very much."

yeah girl I've been there too

WAIT THEY'RE SAYING SHOLMES WOULD HAVE FUCKING KNOWN THE WHOLE TIME AND JUST HID IT

was it him who hid it and not Hosonaga?

aaaaaaa Susato's terrified of having hope

Ryunosuke do you wanna tell her about the guy you met yesterday who gave you Vibes, I think that might be pertinent to mention right now

listen. listen, I know we're supposed to go and like, investigate and prove our client didn't do a murder or whatever. But I really just want to go to van Zieks's office, drag Sholmes along possibly, and do some deduction. Everything else feels significantly less important right now.

oh you cheeky fucking game, you're literally barring me from going to the prosecutor's office right now, I see exactly what you're doing

Is Strongheart the Reaper? He really seems to hate criminals.

aww, Harebrayne insists that his friend believed in him! :3

I bet he did, too!

my appreciation of van Zieks keeps rising and rising, he is Good

believe in your old friend who's become a mysterious scary prosecutor for reasons you don't quite understand, dammit

dude, Harebrayne, this guy blindfolds you to take you to his workshop and it doesn't cross your mind that that's just a little bit sus?

Gregson's being transferred! Huh, maybe he does have a secret mission that makes him worthy of somehow being on the Secret Names List

(still weird that two of the people on that list were clearly not on the same side, given one of the murdered the other!)

aww, he's grown fond of Gina

GINA'S GOT A PUPPY :3

(another thing I knew from spoilers - that's what I get for trying to look up fanart of Gina after finishing GAA1 back last time - but still, PUPPY)

aww, she thinks van Zieks would be a decent boss!

(I hope so, given he's apparently the only company Kazuma's had for like, months)

:3 her puppy friend's going to help!

you know, I wonder. Van Zieks said before that he kept choosing to face Ryunosuke in court because he reminded him of his Japanese ex-friend. Except, van Zieks also literally has a Japanese guy as his apprentice, it turns out. So is that really why? Or did Kazuma ask him to face Ryunosuke in court, so that he could have a way to hear about how his friend had been doing?

van Zieks's brother's death was ten years ago... the timing would add up with when Hound of the Baskervilles happened, no?

OH HELLO GUESS WHO'S HERE

Susato can just Tell, too, can't she

ghhhhhh he pretended he didn't know them and just LEFT, my heart

oh, only three months ago? I wonder where he's been for the other few months.

oh he's got amnesia

oh shit that changes everything

Bench

: >

elyvorg

(this is going to be ADORABLE)

(though I did really dig the idea I had until now that Kazuma was himself and knew perfectly well it was Ryunosuke and just had to pretend he didn't the entire time they were in the same room, aaaaa)

he's gonna be in COURT

oh HELL YEAH

this is gonna be ADORABLE

or wait

does he actually have amnesia?

is he just pretending to?

kazumaaaaa

what the fuck is with Sithe's daughter, she's terrifying

Bench

Hehehe

elyvorg

wait, so, if Kazuma doesn't actually have amnesia and is only pretending to, is that gonna be a Great Deduction? (we're clearly past the point of using one to simply identify him now.) I'd love that possibly even more than the original idea.

I honestly would have been willing to buy Sholmes not realising Kazuma wasn't dead, given we've now seen two other cases of it

also Strogenov moved his body, how did he not realise he wasn't dead

i s'pose their logic is "he's a detective, he should have checked properly", eh

...but then again he didn't check if Shamspeare was dead, did he?

Bench

Nope!

elyvorg

okay, ANTI-GRAVITY definitely in the running for Wackiest Great Deduction

ryunosuke are you sure you're not trying to steal sholmes's spotlight in these, it's kind of literally what you always do

pffft, love Ryunosuke's anecdote about his lottery ticket shenanigans

welp there was me casually trying every wrong answer in the Great Deduction while a literal timebomb ticked away in the background, no biggie

Bench

: >

elyvorg

(^ re: the other timebomb)

Bench

Hehehehe.

How do you like the steampunk cyborg so far?

elyvorg

oh, he's fun. I mean, creepy and totally the murderer, but very fun animations.

The animators had a Time with some of the characters in this game.

elyvorg

ohhhh, and while I'm here talking about the animations, since it's now completely unambiguous that it's Kazuma under the mask so this is safe to talk about, I love how I could notice that fact through the subtlest of animations. He was there standing still and I sort of stared at his chin going "well it could be him, but I suppose it could still technically be someone else with a similar facial structure", and then he moved his head like an inch to look at van Zieks and my brain immediately went "IT'S HIM" without a single shred of doubt, just from the familiarity of the way he did that tiny movement. It's so good.

You mentioned elsewhere that GAA2 does some really neat foreshadowing and stuff with its animations; I assume this is one of the things you were thinking of!

Bench

Yep!

elyvorg

Ryunosuke still instinctively leans his hand on Kazuma's sword when he's feeling confident even though he knows Kazuma's rrrrright there opposite him

(not that I was expecting the animation to change, but it hits different now!)

elyvorg

man Kazuma's pokerfacing so hard as he watches his best friend run the whole spectrum from being an awesome and competent lawyer to freaking the hell out. (Ryunosuke and Susato seem to be buying the amnesia story for now but I for one am 100% convinced he's faking it.)

Interim thoughts: faking amnesia? and a Prediction

elyvorg

Am going to continue the trial soon, but first, I have been having a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about the current Kazuma situation that I wanted to get off my chest before there are any possible new developments in it. So hold tight for a textwall, big elyvorgramble incoming:

A rundown of the evidence that Kazuma's faking the amnesia, apart from that one comment Susato made that kinda hinted at it, which she's since decided to brush off: If Kazuma actually had amnesia, he'd want to figure out who he is, so he wouldn't have tried to leave as soon as Ryunosuke and Susato asked to talk to him, and he certainly wouldn't have reacted to Susato calling his name by going, "what are these meaningless syllables? they couldn't possibly have anything to do with me, anyway bye." An actual amnesiac would react to that situation with, "Is that my name? Do you know me?" and would want to hear more. Also, the very fact that it's the way he moves and holds himself that's causing his friends to recognise him is proof of it, because if he didn't remember who he was, he wouldn't have any of that conviction and he wouldn't hold himself in the same way. (We've seen from you-know-who in another Ace Attorney game that actually-amnesiac characters have completely different and unrecognisable mannerisms!!!)

But anyway, not only am I convinced that Kazuma's faking the amnesia, it's also what I really want to be true rather than the alternative. If he has amnesia then that's potential for an adorable scene where they help him remember through the power of friendship, but that's pretty much it; he's otherwise essentially a passive pawn with no agency while in that state, and that's way less interesting. I want Kazuma to be still secretly working on his mission right now, even if that means he has to put on a metaphorical as well as literal mask and convince everyone around him that he doesn't remember a thing. Van Zieks seems to genuinely believe he has amnesia; even Stronghart might, though I'm unsure on that one. If whoever Kazuma's working against thinks he's just some random apprentice with no identity or personal motives due to the amnesia, they're going to underestimate him and he can strike when they least expect it.

And I have a lot - like, a lot - of Feelings about Kazuma putting himself in that situation, because it must be so lonely for him, not able to show anybody at all who he really is and how he really feels. He's sacrificing so much for whatever this is. I want his friends to give him a hug (except for the part where they can't because that would break the whole facade he's working so hard to keep up, aaaagh).

And of course, he must have fled from Ryunosuke and Susato trying to talk to him because he was terrified that if he interacted with his friends again after all this time, he wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he remembers them and the whole mission would be ruined. Plus, ruining the mission or not, he probably wants them to think he's amnesiac rather than the alternative, which is that he's lying to and hiding things from them on purpose, including literally the fact that he was even alive. That'd make them feel like he'd betrayed them, and he wouldn't want to hurt them like that. (Oh hey it's that trust theme again!!!)

(And actually, I bet Susato and Ryunosuke brushed off the vague implication that he's faking the amnesia because they don't want to believe that he'd be lying to them, and despite it all it's less painful for them to assume that he simply doesn't remember. Aaaaa these friends, believe in him, it's going to be okay.)

[[lol, there was no actual “vague implication that he’s faking the amnesia” at all, that was me reading way too much into a single thought of Ryunosuke’s, I’ll mention that bit later]]

I was actually thinking about something along these lines back while I was having a bajillion different thoughts about how Kazuma coming back might play out. The big focus on the trust theme, and especially the reminiscence from a scene in 1-5 about how Ryunosuke felt when Kazuma believed in him back in 1-1 (he didn't even think Kazuma would, despite them being best friends!), made me think that it'd be thematically fucking beautiful if we got to have the same sort of situation with the roles reversed.

What if Ryunosuke has to defend Kazuma, except not only does it look like he did a murder, but he's also been keeping so many secrets from them to the point that it's perfectly reasonable for Kazuma to assume Ryunosuke would never believe in him now, and for Ryunosuke to legitimately struggle to do so. Because of this thought, I'd had this possible idea of "what if Kazuma's basically acting like some kind of spy", not even for plot reasons (though those fit with it), but just for narrative reasons because it'd fit with the themes so well, and it's starting to look like that really is roughly what's going on with him! I am so thrilled. (I did not remotely expect the prosecutor thing, though, nor the faking amnesia, which are so many more reasons for this to feel like essentially a kind of betrayal, and aaaa.)

So I really hope Kazuma gets himself accused of murder, probably in case 5, so that Ryunosuke has to choose to believe in his best friend anyway despite everything, simply because he wants to, and it can be ADORABLE and FRIENDS.

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Cases 2-1 & 2-2

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-1, beginning

elyvorg

- ooooooh we get to play as Susato being a lawyer, that's cool!!!

- Miss Brett's been murdered?!?!

- I totally assumed that was her father's grave she was visiting, not Kazuma's

Bench

Yep, twists right off the bat!

elyvorg

I did vaguely suspect the Susato thing, because I'd seen some art that implies you get to play as a female lawyer in GAA2, but I doubted they'd introduce somebody new for the second half of the story, so I was like, hmmmm what if that's Susato pretending to be a guy because sexism

her dad looks... fine... not ill at all... ¬.¬

huh for a second I thought she'd be defending her dad, heh

guess he's more like the assistant role here

:3 it's Susato's best friend! everybody in this game has friends (please let Kazuma still be alive)

Bench

Friendship!

elyvorg

susato you'll be fiiine, you understood this law thing way better than Ryunosuke ever did in his first case

oh no she's picked up the nervous darting eyes from him xD

yes, look, judge, "Ryutaro" has the same nervous eyes as his "cousin", this is completely legit

elyvorg

...the fact that Ryunosuke was studying English at university sure helps to explain why he's so fluent in it, dunno why they didn't establish that fact sooner

okay so Brett definitely never got on the ship during case 2, shushhhh there goes that theory

(did somebody murder the swan, too? D: )

she asked to go to the bathing spot before leaving, something's definitely Up with that

she just kept working at the university? geez, Japan's judicial system

Auchi it was really more Kazuma who humiliated you, not Ryunosuke, you know

yes, Hosonaga, the best disguise

also Soseki!

love how some instinct in Susato's brain feels she needs to slam herself backwards into the wall exactly like Ryunosuke does when damning evidence is presented

these newspapers always know how to have a conveniently relevant story on the back page, I see

...how am I stumped on the second testimony of the tutorial case

okay surely it's one hell of a leap to assume that the defendant saw the victim having been horribly stabbed and, rather than anything else, immediately thought the blade must have been poisoned

(also admittedly I didn't realise examining the back of the paper had given me a whole separate article that I could read properly for detailed info, so I, um, hadn't)

ohhhh there's a tiny slit in the back of the hut just behind the stool she was sitting on, that's how the real killer stabbed her

wild jump to conclusions for now - is the killer the photographer???

A+ pun name on this guy

also those sure are some initials, huh!

yesssss we're still on the trust theme, please don't ever stop having this be a thing

government secrets being leaked? hmmm how about that

she "swanned in", pfft I bet she did xD

surely stabbing someone in the back is pretty fatal anyway and whether the blade was poisoned doesn't matter that much?

but since there was clearly poison there, probably on the fountain pen instead, right

and it's definitely the reporter's pen, he's looking very guilty about now

looks like we have here another case of someone being subtly poisoned and then being mortally wounded in some other big obvious way so that the defendant ends up looking like they did it that way! the irony.

Bench

Parallels!

elyvorg

...she didn't say "remember me" while she was dying, did she

oh god she probably did

that's an awkward punny name to have when you're a defendant

...no? did she really not? Did I just galaxy-brain that but it's not what they're actually going with?

haha, she even drank the poison through carbonated water!

is this guy really just a lone vigilante, or was there something more secret behind his motives?

(or, is the poison not actually in the pen, and she killed herself?)

aww, double Susato Takedown!!!

hmm, it does seem to be a random impulsive act of vigilantism rather than anything worthy of greater conspiracy theories

I'm also spotting some themes of people becoming the very kind of monsters they claim to hate.

excuse me, Auchi, you have literally zero right to use the sad Kazuma music, how dare you D:<

oooooooh the plot thickens, Susato's dad is in on some Conspiracies, I suspected he might be in some way

he has something to do with Kazuma's death??? the Japanese people don't know Kazuma died? (but Susato was visiting his grave, surely there was some kind of funeral service on the Japan end, then?)

waaaiiit, I heard the name Jigoku before in the previous game, can't remember the exact context (but it was probably just Mikotoba)

YEAH I thought it was weird that Soseki mentioned he was involved in two cases in Britain??????

Bench

: >

Thoughts on Menimino?

elyvorg

Nothing special really; he's your average Wacky AA Character

wish he'd given us more of The Dirt, I am itching to unravel this conspiracy

Bench

You'll see in due time. Also, before I forget, thoughts on McGuilded and Graydon in 1?

elyvorg

Uhhh. I've already talked about how it was neat to be duped into trusting McGilded in case 3 and then whoops he's a massive scumbag. Graydon is... very hammy and ridiculous. I remember feeling a bit weird about him on the first time through, because he didn't really seem like a Final Case killer, but then that's because it wasn't the final case actually, just the halfway point. I guess I kind of appreciate his tragic backstory a little but I'm pretty indifferent to him overall.

Bench

Ah, ok!

elyvorg

Do you have any thoughts on them you want to share that wouldn't be a spoiler to me?

Bench

I found the dichotomy between the two really interesting, and also paralleling Menimino a bit. Graydon hated McGuilded so much, murdered him, becoming the monster he hated. Just like Menimino.

Also, Ashley Graydon manipulating his childhood friends made me seethe.

elyvorg

It is cute that those two dorky thieves were his friends when they were kids, alas. And yeah, I enjoyed the Menimemo/Graydon parallel, it's neat.

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

I suppose I'll mention for the record that this focus Susato's getting has rekindled my terror that the friendshipping blog was actually just excited about a Susato reunion and not a Kazuma one. D:

AND YET. I can't let go of the thought that, if I really did make up the concept of Kazuma being not-actually-dead out of nowhere because I jumped to conclusions about something unrelated... it's such a weird coincidence that, of all the deaths of any victim in an AA game ever, this one particular death of a very important character happens to have a bunch of little circumstantial things around it that suggest it's possible it could have been faked. That doesn't usually happen in Ace Attorney! Usually a victim is very decidedly dead!

It just... still feels possible, despite that I have absolutely no concrete proof, not even from the "spoiler" I thought I had. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Live reactions: 2-2, beginning

elyvorg

wait, so are we doing the Hound of the Baskervilles case now?

huh, this flashback case did have a court appearance! I assumed it didn't because the narration in case 5 said he hadn't taken any more cases in the two months since he defended Soseki... but I guess that's still technically true, now, isn't it, the sneaks.

Bench

Hehehe.

elyvorg

yesssss Great Deduction time

man I love how these are such utter nonsense in the beginning that you can't begin to fathom how they'd actually make sense in the end

HE ATE A BAR OF SOAP AND KILLED HIMSELF, yes, very logic, much deduction

Bench

That one is one of my favorites.

elyvorg

it's pretty great so far. Loved Ryunosuke's expression when Sholmes was suddenly all "Of course, nobody would be stupid enough as to eat soap!"

The failure dialogues for these are more elaborate in this game! In the first one, Ryunosuke had some unique (and often very ridiculous) dialogue where he argued that [random thing] totally solved the mystery, but then the part where Sholmes shot him down was always one of the same three generic exchanges each time. This game, the bits with Sholmes shutting him down are also unique to each thing! I'm going to have so much fun failing these repeatedly.

Bench

I need to replay this and fail everything.

elyvorg

you do, highly recommend

Bench

Thank you for letting me know about this!

elyvorg

interesting twist that this particular Great Deduction ends up implicating our defendant in the murder!

It was really Ryunosuke's incriminating deduction, not Sholmes's!

also, the biggest mystery that remains unsolved is why the heck was there a bar of soap on a plate on his table

why is there so much soap

Bench

Hehehe

elyvorg

...WOW everyone's really gotta stop assuming people are dead without checking!!!!

(but I do very appreciate the fact that victims not actually being dead is apparently a running theme in this game, hmmmmmmmm how about that!!!!!)

Bench

Introducing the most animated character in the franchise:

elyvorg

oh boy

you know, I did think it weird when we found him "dead". He seemed far too wacky a character to just be a random victim and not have to deal with cross-examining him in court.

I am amused by the notion that Soseki and Shamspeare were effectively having a friendly Shakespeare fandom debate.

feel like this might be no attempted murder at all, but rather something about problems with the gas lamps causing people to pass out and such.

(currently have no idea why this case is so Important and Secret, though! hm)

"curious disdain for us Japanese" listen I know van Zieks has an actual reason for it, but have you not noticed that most people in this country have a disdain for the Japanese, it's called racism

hello, Old Bailey, can we please select the jury from a pool of people bigger than, like twenty xD

oh, the repeat jury is on purpose this time, huh.

(that doesn't feel... like how it'd actually work. not that I'd know.)

okay, that is not gas poisoning, huh

pffft the "Romeo vs Juliet" debate was a literal mock fight, these dorks

does he make fake coins out of soap to use in the gas meter?

(and, to be fair, what does this have to do with the poisoning, really)

A DRONE BEE, to go with queen bee!!!

man that guy's name pun was stumping me for ages

(yes, very important Lawyer Things I've been pondering during this trial)

Oh, huh, a second day! Wasn't expecting this case to do that, since not even case 5 in the previous game did.

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

while I take a break in the case, status update on my Spoiler-Feelings Rollercoaster: starting to lean back towards it being about Kazuma after all. Having this case with Ryunosuke and Susato hanging out solving crimes like normal makes it feel like their actual upcoming reunion in the present isn't going to be anything worth getting that excited about even if you really dig their friendship, because the player doesn't feel like they've been apart that long, thanks to this. That and this case marks the at-least-second time the victim's been not actually dead despite everyone on the scene assuming so at first glance hhhhggghhh

Live reactions: 2-2, second investigation day

elyvorg

van Zieks always has a concrete alibi for all the deaths linked to him... hmm yeah that really does sound like somebody else is doing it on his behalf, huh.

Sholmes knows what went down with van Zieks but won't tell us, huhhh!

did Soseki just imply that the person who died in his room was one of van Zieks's "victims"? oohhh

HOW HAVE I NOT SPRAYED EVERYTHING IN THIS ROOM YET

god this is the stupidest thing to be stuck on, it literally will not let me stop spraying but I MUST have sprayed everything like ten times by now, what the fuck

UGHHHH I literally had to look in a playthrough to see exactly where I needed to spray, HOW is it so freaking sensitive, please don't make me do this again, game

cat!

oh hey, they named it Wagahai, not Soseki

so it turns out the animators are halfway decent at animating a cat and now I'm sad we never saw Nina's kitty friend in person

did Soseki just imply that the person who died in his room was one of van Zieks's "victims"? oohhh

welp, never mind, too recent for that actually

Shamspeare wants Soseki's room for the treasure, presumably; did he kill the previous lodger and is now trying to get Soseki found guilty for his own attempted murder in order to do so? yikes.

yeah he really does seem wacky and fishy enough to be The Culprit of this case, somehow, despite also technically being the victim

Duncan Ross... Duncan Ross... where the hell is the pun, this guy has a normal name, how can that be

Great Deduction, by any chance? :D

...no? no, perhaps best not to be that silly about someone almost committing suicide, huh.

aww, this poor woman, I want to help her :(

stopping at the end of the second investigation day for tonight!

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

okay actually, am still stopped here, but some more Thoughts for now, because there was another Kazuma Feelings scene in that investigation that had a few more little tidbits in it. They hinted more strongly than before (or I just didn't pick up on it before) that the "something very important" Kazuma wanted to do in Britain was effectively to "strike down evil", aka what his sword's about. Which makes sense; I imagined it might be something like that. Ryunosuke also brought up that he suspects that that's actually always been more important to Kazuma than his stated goal of reforming Japan's legal system... almost like the law goal was really just an excuse this whole time, and the real reason he wanted the exchange trip so much was his secret mission?

Which is all really interesting stuff about Kazuma's character... and what gets me is that, like, none of this matters if Kazuma really is dead and we're never going to hear from him again. This isn't just a plot hook for the sake of Ryunosuke and the upcoming mysteries he'll be unravelling, because it doesn't matter in that context which goal was Kazuma's priority; this is a character hook about Kazuma, and that has to mean something please let it mean something

Live reactions: 2-2, second trial day

elyvorg

wwwwwelp guess who's so hyperfixated she got half as much sleep as she should have done

it's almost like I have a suspicion about what part of the game I may or may not be able to reach today

but first! Time to finish case 2.

Woo! I was half worried that there somehow would be strychnine in the tea and we'd have to figure that out.

heh, does van Zieks have a Godot-style "X cups per trial" rule

...oh no. If the strychnine was on the gas lamp that he uses to try and kill the lodger in the other room, did Olive Green do it? D:

ohhhh she would have had to poison the pipes the day she was stabbed! And then Shamspeare didn't need to blow into the pipes for the next few days because Soseki had been arrested!

that's some neat interconnection and I'm very glad I did actually replay case 1-4, wow.

but wait then if she did do it on the night of the stabbing that doesn't explain where she got the poison from, hm

and also Soseki wasn't arrested until the day after the stabbing

aaaaaaagh she was gonna strychnine herself too, that's such a horrible way to go, this poor woman

I would say "The Slug and Salad" is an amusingly unfortunate pub name, but... I have actually seen a pub in England called something like "The Slug's Lettuce", so, apparently that's pretty accurate and not just a joke.

oh no look who's breaking character now that he's under pressure ;P

I'm a little confused, though, because wasn't Olive heading south down the road when she was stabbed? Meaning, from the pub to the victim's room? So she can't have broken in there and poisoned it before she got stabbed, surely?

ah, there's the reason he didn't attempt to murder Soseki the night of the stabbing! yeah, the rest of the timing adds up now.

i want to give Olive Green a hug, even though she attempted murder. :(

Bench

I felt the same way. I like to imagine that, at the very least, her sentence was relatively light.

elyvorg

I hope so!

(though she did at one point say something like "I don't want to be sent to the gallows for the likes of this guy", which... D: )

Bench

...I'll take that as her exaggerating.

elyvorg

Let's hope so.

wow Sholmes's indicator solution is pretty magic if it can pick up signs of a person touching a thing several months ago, even when other people have touched the thing a lot since

love this small round sad lady full of anger and vengeance

like obviously her attempted murder was wrong, but I love characters who get so broken that they're driven to do something like that

also, was she actually trying to kill herself in the hospital? Or was that an excuse, to hide the fact that she was going to make another attempt to kill him?

the latter seems more likely, really. She did suddenly decide "you know what, guess I'm not gonna suicide after all" for rather little reason for a supposedly-suicidal person.

also, can we talk about the fact that being poisoned with strychnine happens to be a really slow and painful way to go. I wonder if that's why she picked this particular poison, or if it's just that it's conveniently also a poison that works in very small amounts?

Oh! The judge said she'd be "stripped of her freedom as punishment", so it sounds like she is just getting prison and not execution, that's good.

oh huh I guess it was a suicidal moment after all

which makes a lot of sense given the whole being-an-attempted-murderer thing

yes, it is a blessing he didn't die, for the sake of his would-have-been-killer, isn't it *stares intently in the direction of Nikolina*

Awww, she smiled! Didn't think we'd be getting an Ace Attorney Smile(TM) from her!

this is the collar of the "Hound of the Baskervilles", perhaps?

oh huh, the Great Exhibition's not going to be case 5? They'd been hyping it up so much I assumed it had to be a Final Case thing.

...

THE RETURN OF THE GREAT DEPARTED SOUL

WELL THAT SURE IMPLIES A THING OR TWO DOESN'T IT

(still do not confirm or deny for me, but)

!!!!!!!!!!!

and here's the other thing! a thing about the Spoiler I got that I never mentioned until now...

one thing I'm pretty sure I remember about it is that the blog was very excited that It's Going To Happen In Case 3

(it's going to happen in case 3!!!!!!!! i am equally excite)

(this is why I got half as much sleep last night)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

now to take a break and Attempt to have some lunch while I flail internally

other thing I'm glad I did: make a point of not checking the case title cards of the second game at any point. It feels most right to have had this Moment immediately before beginning the case and no sooner.

Bench

Good choice.

I also like how its title is a callback to case GAA1-1.

elyvorg

Oh right, the Great Departure! Yeah, neat.

Bench

Next case is my second favorite in the franchise so far! Hope you enjoy it!

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

8 notes · View notes

elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 1-5

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

been looking over my Great Deduction theories I posted at the beginning of this thread and had another Thought. If the names on the disc are assassination targets, and Miss Brett is an assassin who was carrying out those orders when she killed Wilson, it stands to reason she might have gone after Kazuma next, right? Apparently she was taken to Shanghai to possibly but also probably not stand trial there... and the SS Burya apparently docked at Shanghai like a day before case 2 happened, which is an interesting coincidence. Could Miss Brett have made her way onto the ship then, with the intent of assassinating Kazuma, except whoops he already ended up definitely-very-dead before she could get around to it?

I also incidentally noticed while re-replaying a bit of case 2 to confirm those details, that apparently the Russian revolutionary guy who never actually showed up was planning to bomb the Crystal Tower... which is that thing in England where the exhibition's happening in a few months that's clearly going to be important because they keep mentioning it. So I guess Russian revolutionary guy isn't such a random red herring actually maybe?

Live reactions: 1-5, beginning

elyvorg

...I guess stepladders don't exist in Ye Olde England yet? Because Ryunosuke and Susato just had a heated spade/shovel debate instead, the tone of which felt very familiar.

Bench

Heh, yeah. That was a nice callback.

elyvorg

"And... whenever I wear [the armband], I feel as though it gives me strength... through Kazuma." FRIEEEEENDS <3

(also love Ryunosuke's animation where he adjusts the armband as he pulls himself up from that defeated pose)

Bench

elyvorg

oh no, I'm examining this very English street, and my brain suddenly went "check the lampposts for hint coins!!!!" ...wrong game. XD

Bench

Heh.

elyvorg

I love how they write Gina's accent and dialect, it feels really authentic.

(The fan translation also did a great job with it, but I actually wasn't expecting the probably-American-based official localisation to necessarily do so well!)

ah. Eggert Benedict is slightly more convincing than the fake name he gave in the fan translation, which was literally just "Eggs Benedict".

(and by "slightly" I mean, actually, that could perfectly plausibly be his name, because this is Ace Attorney)

Bench

Hope you have fun reexperiencing case 5!

elyvorg

feels like there's something fishy about Susato's father falling ill for no apparent reason. I suspect either someone's trying to assassinate him too, or the whole thing's a hoax made up to get Susato away from England.

ghhhh, Gina signing the lawyer papers because it'll make them happy but then still insisting she doesn't need anyone to stick up for her, this poor lonely kid

Ryunosuke and Susato's goodbye-without-saying-goodbye gave me some Feelings... which suddenly made me terrified that what if this was the thing the friendshipping blog was excited about in game 2, that it was just about Ryunosuke and Susato reuniting and has nothing to do with Kazuma at all???? D: man, being "spoiled" for a thing you actively want to be true but in a way that has legitimate plausible deniability to it sure is an Experience. (in a good way, please continue not to confirm or deny anything!)

Bench

Glad you're having a good time!

elyvorg

i sure am having a Time

Live reactions: 1-5, trial

elyvorg

hmmm, vague memories are coming back, possibly these two weirdo thieves are the ones who steal the telegraph disc during the trial or something like you mentioned that one time? I will have to keep a close eye on them and see if I can spot it.

[[context: in an earlier conversation elsewhere, Bench had mentioned to me that TGAA makes great use of character animations during “the transferral of the music box disc” in this trial. I would otherwise have not remotely remembered that anything fishy happens involving the disc, but because of this, I was looking out for it.]]

Bench

Are you at the trial?

elyvorg

Yep! Just on the first testimony.

Bench

Alright! Good luck!

elyvorg

pretty sure I'm starting to recall Mr Egg-Face being the third brother of these two. They have the same silly pose! It's easy to miss, because he has a bunch of other silly poses, but it's there.

starting to see an answer something like: Gina picked up the victim's (empty) gun and locked the door because a guy had just been shot dead in front of her and she was scared, not for any other reason.

(I honestly have zero recollection of how we prove Gina didn't do it; this is all being re-deduced from scratch).

...okay, so we reached that conclusion quite quickly and there's way more to it than that, but.

Gregson's very desperate to not have the disk submitted as evidence. Does he know his name's encoded on it...?

no, probably not. Higher-ups' orders. Makes sense that the bigwigs might know it's something dodgy.

Ah! That isn't Sholmes's blood on the wall! I did notice that the bullet and blood were already there when we rushed into the shop during the incident, but I wasn't sure if that was an error or not. Seemingly not!

(but it's fair that Ryunosuke wouldn't have noticed it at the time, because it's not in a direction he would have looked)

Game, please. "It's impossible" versus "I can prove it!" is a false dichotomy. It can be perfectly possible (that there's a third bullet) without me having the evidence to prove it yet!

"These two statements clearly contradict... the idea that all I do is pit jurors against each other!" Pfft. The writers are having fun poking at the fact that half the time you're not even finding contradictions in these jury parts.

you know things are getting serious when van Zieks just

L E G

I know Eggert Benedict is a false name, but it really doesn't actually sound like one in the Ace Attorney universe. It made more sense for them to be instantly sure of that when it literally was just "Eggs Benedict" in the fan-translation.

I was all ready to assume the victim shot his killer first and that's the green blood on the wall, but if the two gunshots happened at the same time then that doesn't explain how the victim got shot in the back, huh.

AAAAA THE SAD KAZUMA THEME

Ryunosuke cried with happiness when Kazuma said he believed in him, awwww, I love these friends so much

(And I hope you're watching over me too... partner!)

my FEELINGS ;o;

please please please let the spoiler be right they're friends i just want them to be happy

your honour, I would like to present evidence of a connection between this witness and the two thugs, that evidence being, they have the same silly pose! Incontrovertible proof.

Bench

Heh.

elyvorg

...does Gregson really not remember that he walked in on Graydon pointing a gun at Ryunosuke?

awww, Gina admits to her perjury in court and then immediately asserts that Ryunosuke had nothing to do with it when the crowd starts yelling at him too, she's so good

OI i see you two whispering to each other in the background as Gina testifies!!!!

oh whoops I probably should have cross-examined the whole thing before pointing that out lol

I wonder if the music box sound that plays in the game was actually figured out in Japanese morse code and really does say what it's supposed to say

okay so my memory of the purpose of the disk was very fuzzy other than "it encodes something Super Top Secret And Important which was apparently this list of names", but now that we're getting into the juicy stuff about it, I am avidly trying to piece together what's going on so I can see if my assassination targets theory actually holds water in light of the facts

there's a second disk! he did seem to think there should have been "another one" back at the shop, didn't he?

Bench

: >

elyvorg

I think I finally just spotted the disk being, ah, transferred, in the background. Though I doubt that would have occurred to me to be what was going on if I hadn't been looking for it!

Bench

Pretty clever, huh?

elyvorg

That and the negotiating they were doing earlier, yeah! Neat use of the multiple witnesses system; I don't recall PL vs AA ever doing anything that sneaky with it.

sholmes why are you a bailiff

also how was his very distinctive hair not visible under the helmet until the reveal

bro maybe you don't wanna prance around so hammily when you're still seriously injured

okay so Susato galaxy-brained the peephole thing, but I don't entirely understand quite yet why she didn't just... not make a peephole at all so that Graydon couldn't testify to having seen anything through the door in the first place.

Bench

My thoughts are that she initially made the peephole to see what was inside the storeroom, then galaxy-brained things from there.

elyvorg

Yeah, that seems like it'd be a more logical initial reason to use it - of course you'd want to see what was going on in there.

other question, possibly rhetorical, don't answer if it's going to be answered in game because I'm still not quite done - how did Graydon know the peephole was added? He should have left the shop before that.

right, okay, that is going to be a key point. Somehow. Not sure how yet.

OH GREGSON TOLD HIM

THE SCAMP

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

right okay so I wasn't sure which direction the disk was being transferred in in that moment, but if it was a trade for information that could get Graydon off scot-free, then it stands to reason that Gregson received the disk, as in, the second one.

how the hell did Susato guess that Gregson would sell knowledge of the peephole to the real killer in the middle of court

if the Big Secret has actually been leaked overseas... how is that possible when nobody actually had their hands on both disks and the music box this entire time?

or perhaps it's just they're afraid that they might have been because they figured out someone had made them into disks?

oh, wait, no, okay, so he did just get literally given the disk while they were negotiating, and then he planted it on Nash during that one bit to hide it. Sneaky. Not sure how he was planning on getting it back later, but.

...well I guess he could have just got it back off Nash later in prison, since he's a criminal and all, duh.

Big Doubt on the claim that keeping this stuff secret is in the best interests of the country. The best interests of the country continuing to secretly do bad things, perhaps.

ooooh one of these Final Moments where I've got to figure out how to prove an entire-ass thing from scratch, including which thing I can even prove. And I don't remember this at all, happily!

okay so I've had a long Thunk and I'm still not really sure. My logic is I should probably go after Gregson, because if there's evidence that proves Graydon's either the killer or the mole, we'd already have it and have been able to present it a while ago, whereas this Gregson thing only just came out. Not sure what to present to Gregson though, other than... the Hound of the Baskervilles? mostly on the logic that it's still here in my Court Record and hasn't been relevant yet, and ummm, something something secrets that may involve Gregson somehow that shouldn't have been revealed but also one person knew about anyway???

am I right? Are we about to like, blackmail him in the middle of court or something

nnnnnope that's a failure dialogue

but I was right to pick Gregson, it seems!

do we just have to... play the disks???

i guess Gregson can't actually stop us now, can he

okay I think I way overthought this

"I will stop at nothing to protect my client! I don't care who I make an enemy of!" awwww Ryunosuke's so good

maybe I overthought this because I was already aware that the message on the disk was super obscure and the chances of anyone actually learning anything meaningful from it was practically zero, so it didn't really feel like blackmail

althooouuuugh. Gregson cut the playback off after a certain point, so maybe what would have come after would have been the extra-incriminating part, at least to anyone who understands Japanese morse code.

hmm I wonder if Graydon actually knows what's on the disk or not. He's good at ciphers, apparently, but does he know Japanese morse code? or, just Japanese at all?

heh, nice double breakdown!

hmmm yeah the message must have cut off and actually been way longer than we heard, it's really weird for McGilded to go this out of his way to buy a completely context-less list of names.

wait no, he'd sold McGilded lots of disk pairs before, this one was just the latest in a long line

dammit, give me a date! When was the government transmission that these disks in question contain a copy of!!! If it was after Wilson/Kazuma's deaths (and that's beginning to sound likely) then my assassination targets theory falls apart!

oh, I guess the two-gunshots thing wasn't weird, they just weren't as close together as Gina had made them sound

so what gets me is, if this particular secret transmission was from after Wilson and Kazuma's deaths, what's the point in having the names of a pair of dead guys on there? What's it for? Aaaaaghgh.

(and no, I don't think I can accept a theory in which Wilson is also not dead, dude was both poisoned and shot, he is very much a goner)

hm, so, as I'd begun to suspect, seems van Zieks's vague racism isn't just plain old racism but is because of an incident with a specific Japanese person he used to know. (I wonder if it's A. Shin?)

also ooh, is this going to be a Friends thing with van Zieks as well, because I'd be very down for that

seems like van Zieks's story will fit well into this theme of trust, too!

ghhhhh Ryunosuke of course Kazuma would be proud of you right now!!!!!

was it van Zieks's ex-friend who killed all of his not-guilty defendants, I wonder, and that's why he's so mad and quit prosecuting?

aww Gina, look at you trusting that van Zieks trusts you and won't have you murdered now

hhhhh Gina's genuinely never had any cause to thank anybody before in her life

nnnnnn Gina's genuine smile :3

(one thing I distinctly remember from my first time with this case was that I just knew they were going to do that Ace Attorney thing where the character who basically never smiles finally gives a genuine smile at the end of the case when you've saved them, and I was just itching for it to happen for the entire final conversation with her, and awwwww. Happy Gina is good Gina. ^o^)

okay I guess Susato didn't necessarily galaxy-brain the killer buying info about the peephole off of Gregson of all things, she just figured they might have noticed it somehow the next day and assumed it'd always been there

and yeah, definitely seems like she made it just to look in the room at first

hmmmm it occurs to me only now that the secret message could also have come from Japan, rather than being sent from Britain to Japan. not that that makes me any the wiser about what it means, but

(one day we are gonna have to tell Iris her dad was murdered D: )

iris you brought the CAT all the way to Dover to say goodbye that's dedication

yesssss the final objection, exactly like it always is for Phoenix!

SOSEKI BROUGHT KITTIES BACK TO JAPAN

(also I knew Wagahai was a female cat! they kept calling "him" a boy and I was like ???? is a calico tho)

aaa the extra credits with Ryunosuke following Kazuma through all the story's cases and then in case 2 Kazuma stops and goes offscreen and Susato shows up later with his sword, agh, why would you do this to me ;;

well that's game 1 fully replayed! It feels a lot better when I know I'm immediately going to jump into game 2 and see the answers to all these bajillion mysteries right away, rather than, like, literal years from now when I'll have forgotten most everything (which I sure had)

gonna start game 2 tomorrow I am hyyyyyype

Bench

Glad you had fun! Hope you have fun with Resolve, too!

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Cases 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 & 1-4

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

I have acquired Great Ace Attorney and have been replaying my way through the first game (which I'd already played/seen before as the fan translation). I've accumulated some wild conspiracy theories based on this and also a Spoiler I unfortunately probably know about the second game, soooo that seems like just the right excuse to start a liveblog thread.

Bench (@ask-team-searchlights)

Hope you're having fun!

elyvorg

again, warning for people poking their heads in: I (probably) know a Big Spoiler about the second game despite currently only being in the process of replaying the first, please exercise caution.

Bench

Alright!

elyvorg

So the spoiler I unfortunately have came from me following a platonic shipping blog on tumblr, who at one point was being very excited about a certain Thing that was going to happen soon in a fan translation of GAA2 they were watching. They were very careful not to give any specifics about this Thing, but given that I'd played GAA1, there was only one thing a platonic shipping blog could possibly be that excited about. Thus, I am like 95% sure Kazuma's not actually dead and there's going to be an adorable reunion with him and Ryunosuke halfway through game 2.

Kinda sad that I got spoiled for the surprise of this, but also if I didn't know this I would be only like half as excited to play GAA2, so perhaps it balances out. FRIENDS. I am very looking forward to more FRIENDS. (But also don't tell me anything about the hypothetical future friends-ness because I'm not supposed to know this and there's a small chance I'm wrong.)

So, knowing that, I've been replaying cases 1 and 2 of the first game (am currently halfway through 2) for rather obvious reasons. I considered hiding the fact that I'm probably spoiled for the thing, but that'd give a very limited impression of my thoughts while replaying, because like half of the thoughts I've been having in case 2 in particular have inevitably been me trying to figure out how this could be possible.

In fact, I've been coming up with some Great Deductions! ...Which is to say, wild theorising extrapolated from just a few vague facts, which may be anywhere from brilliantly correct to hilariously wrong. :D

Bench

I will not confirm nor deny anything.

elyvorg

~Topic 1~

The truth of Kazuma's death

- I guess he wasn't actually quite dead when they found him? they've been vague about the cause of death so far

- Hosonaga's gotta be in on it, he's the only Japan-aligned person on the ship who'd be able to hide this - he said he was here to be Kazuma's bodyguard and protect him from assassination attempts?

- (also possibly one of the things worrying Kazuma that he never told us was that he knew there was a chance he might be assassinated, and that's part of why he brought Ryunosuke along, so he could take his place in the event of that)

- I'd totally forgotten this mention of possible assassination until replaying the case, because it seemed to amount to nothing when it turned out the whole incident was a huge tragic accident

- I'm certain Nikolina's genuine and not in on some massive assassin conspiracy, give her hugs and safety, she has nothing to do with this

- so, neither an assassination nor a premeditated faking of Kazuma's death

- BUT, perhaps Hosonaga took this random stroke of luck, of Kazuma being apparently killed but actually not quite dead, and used it to fake his death, to protect him from any ACTUAL assassins who might be after him

- (how must Kazuma have felt waking up and being told "so hey, I'm faking your death to protect you, no you can't talk to Ryunosuke again, he's gonna think you're dead for, like, months")

~Conclusion~

Opportunistically faked by Hosonaga to prevent a real assassination

~Topic 2~

Overarching conspiracy

- I was also thinking about the mysterious list of names on the telegraph disc at the end of game 1, which included Kazuma and John Wilson

- we never learned Brett's motive for killing Wilson, she just... murdered her own professor, for some reason???

- then she got given diplomatic immunity or whatever and isn't going to be tried properly because ~politics~

- so maybe that was also some kind of assassination ordered by higher-ups, just like what apparently nearly happened to Kazuma

- maybe there's some kind of conspiracy to destabilise relations between Britain and Japan, and the people on the list are assassination targets for that purpose; would make sense for Kazuma and Wilson at least

- if an "A. Shin" turns up dead sometime in GAA2 I'm gonna feel very confident about this - also lol I guess Gregson better watch out? not sure why he matters, but

- (no I am also not sure if this makes sense timing-wise, in that I think the disc might have been made after at least two of these people were (supposedly) killed, but, shush, my memory of case 5 is still fuzzy)

~Conclusion~

Targeted assassinations to destabilise foreign relations

Bench

Interesting.

elyvorg

and yes, I freaking love Great Deductions, they are delightfully shamelessly hammy

Bench

They're fantastic.

Hope you have fun with your replaythrough!

elyvorg

I may or may not skip some bits. Currently not really intending to play case 4, because one way or another that's the one I ended up remembering most clearly, and I'm pretty sure it's mostly filler, but I think I want to replay 3 and 5 because they're likely to be more plot related and it'd be nice to be reminded of potentially-important details that have definitely slipped my mind (such as the whole mention-of-assassinations thing)

[[spoiler: I did not end up skipping any parts and did in fact replay all of case 4, lol]]

Bench

Sounds like a good plan.

elyvorg

I've also been seeing how the characters' names are different from the fan translation, which as far as I could tell translated them pretty directly from the Japanese. In short, it seems like most of the major characters keep the same names (except for the "what do you mean we're ripping off Arthur Conan Doyle no we're not" ones), while less important characters get their names completely changed to puns that work in English. There's been several times I've been like "I cannot at all recall what this character's name was in the fan translation but it definitely wasn't this, I'd remember that pun".

love Iyesa Nosa and his son, Aido Nosa. Peak Ace Attorney punny names.

Bench

Yeah, those were great AA names.

Where are you currently, if I may ask?

elyvorg

Halfway through Case 2. It's weird, I remembered everything up to this point somewhat well, but I have very little recollection of the second half of the case other than the tragic accidentalness of how the killing happened and the thing with the snake that was a red herring. I'm kinda wondering what else there is I forgot that fills up the rest of this half of the case.

I also had almost no memory at all of case 1's deductions, man. Practically playing blind except for vague feelings such as "wasn't poison involved somehow???" and "didn't the coin end up, like, in the steak for some reason?????"

Bench

Well, you get to have the fun of deducing everything again!

elyvorg

Yep! Back in the day I'd replay Ace Attorney games almost immediately and therefore would commit most of its details to memory so I never got to do that twice like I'm having now :D

Bench

Excited to hear your thoughts on the rest of case 2, case 3, and case 5!

elyvorg

I suppose I can also give a brief summary of my thoughts replaying case 1, which were, as predicted, AAAAA FRIENDS. Kazuma and Ryunosuke are a very elyvorgcore kind of friendship, I love them. Love how it's established very early on that they're both willing to risk sacrificing something important to them for the sake of the other, love how Ryunosuke looks up to Kazuma as The Coolest and yet Kazuma believes in Ryunosuke and feels he might actually be the more talented of the two despite his nerves. That kind of friendship dynamic is just exquisite.

also instant serotonin every time Kazuma called Ryunosuke "partner", I cannot believe I forgot he did that

Bench

Yeah, that was great!

elyvorg

also also, while Ryunosuke doesn't seem inclined to call Kazuma "partner" nearly as much in return, there's one time he did do so, after his death when he was regretting and apologising that he couldn't understand the dying message his friend supposedly left to try and tell him something, aaaaaa, my heart

Bench

Yeah. It was delightfully tragic.

Thanks for deciding to liveblog this! It's fun listening to your thoughts on all this!

elyvorg

Live reactions: 1-2, second half

elyvorg

OH I just remembered another thought I had while playing case 2, though I don't recall if it comes up later in case 2 or if perhaps it could be an Overarching Thing. Ryunosuke says he remembers nothing about what happened last night after he had dinner. His dinner was chicken, which Kazuma doesn't eat. Did Kazuma... slip him sleeping drugs? for some reason???

and now there's an actual port-mortem report, hmmmmm

oh wait, Hosonaga also feels weird, I think this is a case 2-related thing and everyone was drugged that night, if they ate anything

oh lmao well that solves the locked room mystery. Gravity locked the door! shipmakers really oughta install better bolts

I have discovered something terrifying: there is unique dialogue for every single wrong answer you can give in a Great Deduction, and it's usually hilarious. My penalty bar is going to hate me.

"Yes, who could you have a more cosy relationship with... than a shiny teapot!"

Bench

Oh, huh! Didn't know that

elyvorg

love how this Russian sailor just has a big snek friend who hangs out on his face

Hosonaga seems to really want us to think it was all pure accident. Is he just being nice and protecting Nikolina, or.......?

I can't help but notice how Ryunosuke keeps calling Kazuma "Mr Asogi" when talking about the details of the case, like he's trying to distance himself from thinking about the fact that it's his best friend who's dead. :(

(this was a detail that could not be in the fan translation, because in that version they addressed each other by surname anyway)

(also, dude, way to withhold vital evidence that obviously points to the culprit until now, geez)

Kazuma expected his nighttime visitor to be Hosonaga, huh.

fffffffff I completely forgot there was this other, sadder variant of Kazuma's theme, my feelings

(i better be right about this spoiler)

guhhhh. this whole tragic mess of why the murder happened and the fact that Kazuma was really trying to help Nina and not turn her in was one of the things I distinctly remembered about this case because it was so heartbreaking, and yeah, turns out it still is a second time even when I know it's coming ;o;

(also please protecc Nina, she does not deserve to go to prison for this)

"I wish there was something... I could say..." says Hosonaga to Ryunosuke and Susato as they're grieving. hmmmmmmm

"My duty was to see Asogi-san safely to Great Britain. But I failed. And caused his two closest friends great pain and suffering as a result." ...not actually specifically mentioning that he let Kazuma die, there.

Bench

Interesting.

elyvorg

interesting that Hosonaga was initially very against the idea of Ryunosuke taking Kazuma's place. hm.

I'm sorry, Kazuma's sword is called Karuma? I do not recall if that was the same in the fan translation, but, uhhhh, that's von Karma's Japanese name? i am not sure how to feel about this.

(I mean I otherwise do very much have Feelings about Ryunosuke keeping Kazuma's sword, but boy that name feels a bit awkward.)

Bench

Yeah. It's certainly interesting.

Interim thoughts

[[featuring a tangent in which I sell TGAA fans on the Ace Attorney/Layton crossover (in a spoiler-free way), please play that too if you haven’t it’s Very Good]]

Bench

What's your opinion on how ballistic markings, fingerprinting, and blood analysis and such aren't a thing here due to this being before it was all invented? Personally, I really like it! It allows for mysteries that aren't possible in modern Ace Attorney.

elyvorg

I've played some other games that lack those too, and yeah, it works fine! Makes for things that would be easily solved with a blood test or fingerprint analysis need to be proved some other way, which honestly probably gives the writers more flexibility.

Layton vs Wright also takes place in a setting where they don't have those kinds of forensic analyses, leading to a fun moment where Phoenix goes "We should test for fingerprints!" and everyone in court just sort of stares at him blankly because they've literally never heard of that.

Bench

Oooooooh.

That's going to be fun!

Yeah, for example, GAA1-1 would be over in minutes with ballistic markings investigating. The bullet in Wilson wouldn't match the gun Ryunosuke had, and that'd be it.

elyvorg

Haha, yeah.

also the absolutely wild concept of Hosonaga preserving evidence from the crime scene, good on him for doing that, what a bro, we'd be lost without him

Bench

Yeah.

I love the historical setting.

I learned quite a few things due to it.

I hope they do another historic Ace Attorney someday.

elyvorg

another fun tidbit about Layton vs Wright you might like: they're in a setting where magic is real, so the trials are witch trials. However, the magic in this world has specific rules governing how it works, so a lot of the logic in the cases is around proving whether or not the magic could have been done based on the rules of how it's supposed to work!

Bench

Ooooooooooh.

That sounds like SO much fun!

I'm hyped!

elyvorg

OH, they also don't have photographs at all, and instead you get sketches based on witness accounts, which can sometimes matter and lead to contradictions that wouldn't have happened with an actual photograph!

and while I'm here, may as well mention that the cross-examining multiple witnesses mechanic from GAA actually originated in PL vs PW, so there'll be more of that there if you enjoyed that.

Bench

OOOOOOOOOOOOH

I'm so excited!

It sounds like everything I love about Ace Attorney and Professor Layton in the same package!

elyvorg

It really is a great blending of the two. You get your Layton-style wandering around the mysterious town solving puzzles and learning about the mystery, in between AA-style courtroom segments with a fantasy medieval setting, with AA-level emotional stakes and Layton-level what-the-fuck-even-is-this-plot.

(but like, in a good way!)

Bench

More interim thoughts

Bench

Want to discuss cases 1 and 2 some more?

elyvorg

I don't think anything more about them comes to mind that I can think of to say, but if you wanted to bring up anything, sure, feel free to do so!

Bench

Opinions on Jezeille Brett and the eternal Payne that is Auchi?

elyvorg

Brett sure has an entire swan on her head. (Love how Ryunosuke "I'm proud of my observation skills" Naruhodo saw that and was like "...there was a woman.") Don't have much of an opinion on her character (I'm usually pretty indifferent to villains), other than my theories on maybe this was an assassination???

Auchi sure was Payne. I liked the bit where Kazuma boasted that the Naruhodo clan would never lose to the Auchi clan... shame that doesn't work quite as well in the localisation where they have different names in modern day now, but still.

Bench

Neat!

elyvorg

It's kind of awkward how this is apparently Phoenix's ancestor and yet they don't share the same surname or nationality at all, however, I've headcanoned a fix for that: modern day localised Ace Attorney takes place in a California with a lot of Japanese cultural influence, so probably there were a lot of Japanese immigrants there. One of them could have been a descendant of Ryunosuke's! And either they changed their name to something more Western, or, hey, who says the line has to be purely patrilineal. So Phoenix has a small amount of Japanese blood in him, and so Ryunosuke can still be an ancestor of his.

[[apparently Janet Hsu has confirmed that this is indeed canon in the localisation!]]

Bench

Yeah, that's my headcanon as well.

elyvorg

Kind of a shame that Kazuma's goal of changing Japan's legal system doesn't work here, though, because whoops that's not the same country's legal system as we have in localised Ace Attorney.

Bench

Thoughts on Nikola and Strogenov?

elyvorg

I love Nikolina, she's so lost and scared and none of this is her fault, hugs for her and get her somewhere safe and absolutely do not prosecute her for anything, simply knowing she killed someone who was actually going to help her is more than punishment enough.

It's pretty cute how all the Russian sailors on the ship have basically adopted her and Will Protecc to the point of drugging the entire ship if they need to. I like Strogenov's snek friend. (And Nina's kitty friend! Shame we never saw her in-person, but animating cats to move like actual cats is tricky so I understand.)

Bench

Yeah! I really liked all that, too!

elyvorg

Case 2 miiight be my favourite in the first game, going by my vague memory of the others, because it gave me the highest concentration of Feelings, not only from Kazuma's death but also from everything with Nikolina's situation and the tragedy of it all.

Though I do also remember really loving Gina and having a lot of Feelings about her in case 5, which is one of the reasons I want to replay that one and also case 3, to re-experience her arc.

Bench

Gina is one of my favorite characters in the subseries. I have a lot of Feelings about her as well.

She's a great character.

elyvorg

She is!

Live reactions: 1-3, beginning

elyvorg

About to start case 3. My memory of the details are pretty fuzzy, but I do remember the major things:

- Our client is a scumbag who's guilty as sin, but this doesn't become apparent until after we get him acquitted.

- Gina was threatened by him into lying for him in court.

It'll be pretty interesting playing through the case again knowing these things.

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

okay, very interesting that there's this opening that appears to be describing this very case, sounding like it's being narrated by John Wilson... who's dead. Unless that's just Iris writing it up afterwards, pretending it involved her dad? I forget exactly how her biographing worked.

feels a little weird that Susato and Ryunosuke don't have any audible Japanese accent in their voice lines, but what can you do

[[uhh yes, apparently I thought this at the time, but later voiced lines from both of them do very much have a noticeable accent and I appreciate this a lot]]

ah yes, this Chief Justice guy, who definitely never gave off any kind of ominous, probably-going-to-be-evil vibes at all.

mr chief justice guy are you thinking about having Ryunosuke assassinated now that he's said he's going to do everything Kazuma would have, was it you who ordered the assassinations ¬.¬

(the assassinations that may not actually be a thing at all, but, shush)

so he's assigning us to this trial in which he probably knows that the defendant is actually super guilty, in the hope that we'll lose spectacularly and have to leave, right? seems that way.

Ryunosuke's being all "I can't have this man's life in my hands!", but wasn't he going to have no lawyer at all otherwise? You're better than nobody, Ryunosuke, come on.

they keep throwing the word "resolve" around, but that's the second game, not this one! ;P

neat how they make a big thing of how we're this poor defendant's only hope to survive! to make us instinctively want to save this guy and trust him. Pretty sure it worked like a treat on me the first time around.

Bench

Same here.

I was completely fooled the first time.

elyvorg

is there really nobody willing to go up against this big scary prosecutor who's never lost, even when the defendant's absolutely loaded? feel like there might be something else going on there.

agh, it's painful in hindsight how determined Ryunosuke is to not turn his back on this poor guy who's all alone

no wonder he's gonna get trust issues for case 4

(might have to play the investigation part of case 4, too, because I remember enjoying that little arc he had there)

(I hope you're watching over me, Kazuma...)

ghhhhhhhh Feelings

FRIENDS

huh, van Zieks hasn't prosecuted in five years and chooses now of all times to change that, that's got to be important somehow.

love how there's blood on McGilded's gloves because (so I assume, memory fuzzy) he literally did stab the guy, but in true Ace Attorney style we're used to our defendants looking this apparently-guilty in the beginning and so we don't even think anything of it

...the Phoenix Wright Omnibus? really? the fan translation wasn't that cheeky.

[[apparently the original Japanese did this, actually! Guess I just forgot.]]

love how Ryunosuke leans his hand on Kazuma's sword when he's feeling confident ^o^

also, as well as the classic Wright-style deskslam, he's picked up Kazuma's variant of the deskslam, too! Fun little details.

it's pretty silly how, when you make a juror go from "HE DEFINITELY DID IT" to "ehhh I'm still undecided?", they nonetheless have to put in an active vote for not guilty, rather than simply removing their guilty vote.

and how we have to do that four times to get the trial to continue, instead of just having anyone at all be no longer sure about it.

(obviously the reason is because it makes for more fun gameplay, but.)

I can't get over how polite Ryunosuke's Objection voice clip sounds

it's interesting how I almost didn't figure out a thing I was supposed to present, because I'm insistently running under the assumption of "okay, so he definitely did stab the guy, but let's get all the facts about it straight anyway"

haha, yes, Gina sure was taking a huge risk to even be at the trial, it's almost like she didn't actually have a choice in that matter

Judge: "You will tell the court exactly what happened in the omnibus on the night in question."

*Gina looks downwards for a moment, probably guiltily thinking, "no the heck I won't".*

there was also a bit where she glanced at McGilded as if silently checking if he wanted her to speak at all

agh, this poor girl

Bench

Gina deserves hugs.

elyvorg

man, McGilded really has his whole story planned out to the T. And yet, it wouldn't have worked if Ryunosuke hadn't had the galaxy-brain take of "what if the victim fell through the skylight", which McGilded can't have counted on him necessarily doing. I'm getting the impression... McGilded didn't have a lawyer because he really was planning to defend himself and do all this on his own. And maybe justice guy assigning us to him was because he knew that and wanted us to do a worse job than McGilded would have done for himself...?

Bench

Oh yeah, forgot to ask, but what did you think of having the whole crime scene as evidence in case 3?

elyvorg

oh yeah, that was neat

as well as a clever way for the crime scene to be tampered with in the middle of a trial

Bench

Yeah. That was really cool!

Also served as karmic comeuppance for McGuilded. Burnt alive in the same omnibus he killed another in. Burning alive is a horrible way to go, but

elyvorg

yeah, that was pretty chilling

Live reactions: 1-4, beginning

[[I went through most of this case without commenting on much; for whatever reason this one ended up the one I remembered most details about from playing the fan translation years ago]]

elyvorg

"Because I'm employing an extremely advanced detection method called 'jumping to conclusions', you see!" - Ryunosuke in Great Deduction mode, when I accidentally present a photograph without examining what's in it. I love these failure dialogues, he's so confident about his utter nonsense

elyvorg

:3! Ryunosuke has the same thought of hoping Kazuma's watching over him that he did at the beginning of trial 3 (whoops I'm at the beginning of trial 4 now), but this time instead of the context being "because HELP I NEED IT", it's because he knows he can do this and is going to prove that Kazuma was right to believe in him! aaaaaaa, FRIENDS ^o^

Bench

Ryunosuke's character development is great!

Interim thoughts

Bench

Thoughts on van Zieks so far?

elyvorg

not much on his actual character; he's your usual Scary Prosecutor Guy, though he does seem to be legit in that he was trying really hard to get McGilded found guilty. The plot thing of how he apparently implicitly murders criminals he's not able to convict is an interesting hook; I wonder where they're gonna go with that.

Bench

Neat! Van Zieks is one of my favorite prosecutors in the franchise.

elyvorg

ooh, that's interesting to hear; sounds like there'll be more to him later, then. (Which is to be expected, because basically all the prosecutors turn out to be a lot more interesting than they might seem at first glance.)

Bench

Heh, yeah.

elyvorg

It's kind of weird being in this position of having been (somewhat, fuzzy memory permitting) familiar with the first GAA but not the second for a few years, when the first is a really incomplete story on its own. So there's things like van Zieks kinda just existing but not having had the chance to be really interesting yet, and I've had to wait years to get to seeing the second half of his story. Among many other things.

something else I'd completely forgotten about - there were these two very wacky-seeming dudes outside Soseki's house in a small scene during case 4's investigation, whom I completely forgot about because they never come up again in the first game? Presumably they'll show up in the second, but man, that really does go to show that these games were meant to be played together.

Bench

Ah, yeah. Those two. Yeah, the games are best together. It's like one ten-case game instead of two five-case games.

Albeit one really amazing ten-case game.

elyvorg

I hope I think so too! I remember my feelings on GAA1 when I finished it the first time those years ago being pretty lukewarm overall, but then, that's fair, when I'd only seen the first half of an incomplete story.

Releasing them both together on the Switch really was the right decision, so that people can experience them together like they're meant to be instead of having an awkward wait in between the two halves like the original Japanese audience must have had.

Bench

Yeah.

Great Ace Attorney 2 is my favorite game in the franchise (so far, Investigations 2 might change that if it's good enough). I really hope you like it!

elyvorg

Live reactions: 1-4, trial

elyvorg

My brain is getting its wires crossed with this young couple in trial 4, some of the few characters whose fan translation names I remember, because their names were Pat and Rola... but the other way around.

Bench

Huh!

elyvorg

(meanwhile the official localisation went with Patricia, not knowing or caring that AAI2's fan translation already had a character called Patricia. For some reason Ace Attorney really likes making "patrol" pun names!)

Bench

Heh.

elyvorg

oh hey this sure is a case where everyone assumes the victim's dead at first glance but on closer inspection they're actually still alive and just in a coma, how about that

Bench

Yeah, very rare you see a case that's not a murder case!

elyvorg

It is nice, since this whole thing was just a ridiculous accident, that a person didn't actually die from it.

Bench

Yeah, it's nice.

elyvorg

oh hey, they're getting close to figuring out fingerprinting in this time period, apparently! Neat.

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

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elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Intro

Here’s a game that I’ve become extremely hyperfixated on recently, and something new for my dormant blog!

I originally liveblogged my playthrough of The Great Ace Attorney in a thread on a Discord server, with only one, later two, people there with me for it. But I feel like my experience of the game and the thoughts and speculations I had about it while playing through it for the first time were interesting enough that I figured, hey, why not share that liveblog to a wider audience? So, that’s what I’m going to be doing here: posting the Discord transcripts of my liveblog with some minor reformatting to make it easier to follow, in parts on a daily schedule until I’ve got through the whole thing.

Some background for this: I originally played/watched a fan translation of TGAA1 several years ago (having no idea the games would eventually get a proper localisation). So my playthrough of the first game was not entirely blind, since I remembered the broad strokes of the cases – but had forgotten most of the details – and that part of the liveblog is shorter. I had also accidentally come across a spoiler for TGAA2 at a certain point after playing the fan translation of TGAA1, which I referred to a few times during my liveblog speculations before actually reaching the part of the second game where the spoiler happened. So I definitely do not recommend following along with this liveblog case-by-case during your own first playthrough!

This announcement also comes with a general spoiler warning for this blog! If you’re an Ace Attorney fan who hasn’t played The Great Ace Attorney yet, first of all, get on that, it’s fantastic, every Ace Attorney fan should play it, and second of all, I strongly recommend you block the tag #tgaa spoilers until you’ve done so. I am pretty much guaranteed to be posting more content for this game on here, and a lot of it is likely to be about things that are very spoilery. Please heed this warning; I was spoiled for this game myself, and I really don’t want to be the reason anybody else is.

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa #oh god why are there like a bajillion different things this game could be tagged as help #(almost would have put this on commentaryvorg but that blog's occupied right now while this one's super empty so hey)

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

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elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-5 Part 1

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-5, beginning

elyvorg

anyway, with that giant textwall [[see the previous liveblog post]] posted, I'm finally going to continue! SO stoked to watch Ryunosuke accidentally stumble his way into implicating Kazuma in the murder, this is gonna be GREAT

ooooooh different antechamber music!

Susato seems distracted, has she noticed what I've noticed

oh wait right her dad thing

van Zieks needs hugs (that he would never accept)

Bench

Indeed he does.

elyvorg

they're really insisting this day is the final trial; do I really not get to defend Kazuma? :(

OH look who's the judge huh

yeah that's not gonna bias this trial or anything

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

oh this is SO corrupt, why is this even happening

all the audience members are Stronghart's minions

Bench

Good luck!

elyvorg

sudden turnaround in thinking: does Kazuma know that Stronghart and co are actually the people he should be going after, and he only pretended to go after van Zieks to get things this far?

Stronghart, dude, you're really speaking more like a prosecutor than a judge here, you're not supposed to join in with the opening statement.

hey, Kazuma, bro, I also updated that autopsy report, you don't get to claim full credit for doing that

THIS JUDGE IS SO FUCKING CORRUPT, STOP GIVING YOUR OPINIONS

seatherny

YOOO i just checked this server first time in forever and am loving the ace attorney love and reactions, hope you don't mind if i pop in to see your reactions to my newfound favorite games in the series

elyvorg

(hello? I see someone new typing here, hi welcome I hope you've already played the game yourself, please don't spoil and have fun seeing me react to the rest of it!)

seatherny

i have! i wouldn't dream of spoiling anything, enjoy!

elyvorg

Bench

Welcome!

elyvorg

oh wow you even have a van Zieks pfp, you really mean it about liking this game heh

seatherny

lol yesss

he needs all the hugs and love

kazuma too

elyvorg

this is very true.

haha, Stronghart acted like it was totally Kazuma's idea to hide this confidential information, and then Kazuma was like "nah it's fine to reveal it actually". Wonder whose idea it really was

awww Gina's so proud that she can read!

Gregson was not there at that club, because he was actually with Kazuma, and Kazuma was somewhere outside of London that day!!!!

seatherny

breaks my heart that gregson and gina never got to live their best detective lives together in france

elyvorg

I am... legit stumped on Gina's first testimony, I don't see anything here I can actually object to, could I get a little hint? (I have revealed the name "The Grouse".)

Bench

Maybe you should re-examine your evidence, one by one.

elyvorg

as in, turn it over in 3D and look at it examine?

Bench

Yeah.

elyvorg

Hmm! Thanks.

I do already have the passport, though, and that didn't work on the Grouse statement.

(Like, Gina doesn't actually have a statement saying Gregson was there, is my thing.)

seatherny

my go-to after re-examining the evidence is to press all the statements a second time

elyvorg

I have pressed everything a second time!

seatherny

dang okay let me press my memory a bit more D:

Bench

I'll say this: It's within the first page and a half of evidence.

seatherny

elyvorg

OHHHHHHH thank you, I found it

seatherny

yes it took me forever to find this too

elyvorg

damn I totally forgot that name had already come up

Bench

Same here. Took me quite a while.

seatherny

there was another one in this case that drove me nuts (won't spoil but am happy to try to help if you also get stuck lol)

elyvorg

glad to have help, that would have frustrated me for AGES

heheee, Kazuma's using our help to get the prosecutor's office to stop covering shit up

he is working against Stronghart as much as he can! look at him gooo

i just... wild paranoid galaxy-braining here, but was Kazuma supposed to be the Reaper's new assassin????

you know, if the crime scene really was on the steamship, it does seem like today couldn't possibly be the final trial, surely they've gotta investigate there, right?

OHHHHH HE WAS GONNA MURDER JIGOKU

that's... not even a Reaper job, that's just a straight-up international assassination, yikes

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

so, if Kazuma was there (which I still maintain he totally was), did he try and protect Jigoku?

van Zieks just casually gonna LEG on the witness stand, love it

"But you're in danger of becoming a far more sinister Reaper yourself..." YESSSS BECOMING THE MONSTERS YOU HATE

(Kazuma please don't do that)

yes totally, the most impartial court right now

were the people on the List not assassination targets, but assassins...?

(still trying to make sense of that goddamn Secret List)

OHHHHHH Kazuma just let on that he knew about the trunk when he shouldn't, right??? >:3

aaaaaaa Ryunosuke's gonna start doubting his friend!!!

"Asa Shinn... the assassin."

*Gina gasps*

yes Gina, such shock :o

but Ryunosuke, you know it couldn't have been Shinn he brought with him, don't you? >:3

KAZUMA WAS ORDERED TO ASSASSINATE JIGOKU I'M SO SURE OF IT OH MAN

can't believe my latest textwall of thoughts has been debunked again

i wonder if it was a question mark there because the entry was written before Kazuma regained his memories, so Gregson didn't know his name

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

oh, man, Stronghart mentored Jigoku, hmmmm that's juicy

there's no way Kazuma actually believes van Zieks was trying to Reaper Jigoku, given that he was the actual fucking assassin

is the Reaper really just one big excuse to assassinate people inconvenient for the British empire, and blame it all on van Zieks?

can't believe I'm circling back around to what if Kazuma actually was faking the amnesia after all, because if he's meant to be like a new Reaper recruit or something like that, surely they'd have brought him here, rather than him randomly showing up of his own accord

oh no Gina ;;

NO DON'T YOU DARE FIRE GINA, she is gonna be the BEST detective, just give her time

NOOOO HER TRUST ISSUES

oh MAN Ryunosuke hasn't let go of that suspicious thing Kazuma said, aaaaaaaaaaa

NNNNNNNNNNGH I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BLADE TIP IT'S KARUMA

wow he's just ADMITTING to being the assassin right here

he's still insisting van Zieks did it???

he's gotta still be hiding a bunch about what went down on the boat

(you know like why he slashed Gregson's trunk)

oh shit, IS Jigoku dead? D:

Kazuma, come on, there's a million reasons someone would want to kill the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs that isn't just the Reaper

well, this has taken a Turn now that I'm suddenly on the ship. Gonna take a break here for a bit.

(please tell me I'm going to find something that super incriminates Kazuma, I want to get to defend him, dammit)

Interim thoughts/chatting

elyvorg

surely if Jigoku does show up dead, we're going to have to hold another trial for that, right? so this isn't actually the final trial?

I'm also thinking. Whoever the hell killed Gregson (and it wasn't Kazuma because I believe in him), surely there's a significant chance that Kazuma was at least the one who brought his body back and used it to frame van Zieks? (on Stronghart's orders though probably?) which is not murder but also a pretty bad crime. Aaaaaa I don't know

also at this point I suppose I should bring up that it's looking extremely likely that Stronghart is the real leader of the Reaper, obviously, dude is so blatantly corrupt

seatherny

interested to hear what you think of how kazuma is handled by the end

elyvorg

I am expecting to be thrilled by whatever it is, given that you can, uh, probably tell he was already my favourite ages ago.

seatherny

yep! Haha

i don’t blame ya

elyvorg

(have you actually read through my backlog of ridiculously long ramblings oh my god)

seatherny

Lol a little to see where you were in the game when i saw the thread but not all

elyvorg

oh haha, you probably haven't seen my Wild Plausibly-Deniable Spoiler Rollercoaster that I went on yet, then! As in, I was spoiled for Kazuma's survival, but only sort of, in an ambiguous way that could have been interpreted to mean something else, and it resulted in a really Interesting experience of the game up to case 2-3.

seatherny

nope! i spoiled myself on his return because 1-2 felt way too unsatisfactorily Weird but all I knew was “yeah he’s coming back” - all the other facts were super fun to witness as the games went on

elyvorg

I started this thread when I was halfway through case 2, but I'd already played a fan-translation of GAA1 a few years ago so all of the GAA1 stuff was essentially me replaying it with an extremely fuzzy memory of everything except for the broad strokes. The beginning of the thread is quite far back, although I'm pretty sure my density of Things To Say has increased dramatically since 2-3 (hmmm I wonder why), so it might not be as far back as you'd think.

When I played GAA1 for the first time, I totally bought Kazuma's death! Felt very Mia-esque to me. The super awesome idolised mentor character needs to die for the protagonist to get a chance to step into the spotlight, right?

And it still kinda works that way, narratively, because now that Kazuma's back, he is decidedly playing a very different role from the mentor figure. Having him come back only to... continue to be a mentor, would have felt unnecessary.

seatherny

about to leave for appointments but I’ll look after

and I agree, I bought it in that it was an obvious parallel to Mia but the method of death felt… contrived… and his body was moved so quickly and Sholmes is kinda sus and a lot of other things set off red flags! So I got the strong suspicion there was more to it. I think the return worked with the prosecutor role and I thought the character development with Ryunosuke - feeling like an undeserving replacement but diving into the role headfirst anyway - was great.

elyvorg

Maybe I was just so sold by the heartbreaking tragedy of what Nikolina did and Kazuma was trying to help her not turn her in oh god that I didn't even want to question anything else. But good on you for noticing the fishy bits before you had any outside spoiler information!

seatherny

Yeah, I avoided the fan translations and any official/fandom content until the localization pretty well, in case of spoilers. So much so that I didn’t know Resolve was released at the same time until I finished GAA1

elyvorg

bwahaha, that must have been a relief, seeing everything frustratingly end halfway through only to realise that you get to play the second half immediately.

seatherny

yeah my fiancé enjoyed the angry “oh hell no they really just ended game 1 here” texts followed by the ones with all the excited screaming : ‘ )

elyvorg

meanwhile on my end "oh hell no they really just ended game 1 here. i'm not gonna get to see the second half for like. years. welp."

(and naturally by the time this came around I'd forgotten most of the details of game 1 and so had to play it again anyway)

seatherny

the rollercoaster you were referring to was Kazuma's amnesia, right??? i have Thoughts but cannot fully articulate them until you finish the game i think!

tis hard not to actually answer your questions btw :D

elyvorg

nah, the amnesia is a more recent thing, the rollercoaster was about is he actually still alive or not oh god please let him be alive because the spoiler I'd had about that was ambiguous and might have meant something else!

also yes please keep any amnesia thoughts until I've finished the game and can have an absolute 100% definitely correct understanding of what's going on

and yes, all questions should be assumed to be rhetorical unless I very specifically state otherwise! ;P

seatherny

gotcha! this is me then: :x

Interim thoughts: assassins

elyvorg

It's interesting how this trial went in the direction of proving that Kazuma was there with Gregson like I thought it would, but while I was expecting things would erupt into utter emotionally-painful chaos from that point, actually all that happened was Kazuma went, "Yeah. I was there. I was the assassin. So what?"

I also can't help but think that if the regular judge had been here, he would have been all, "I'm SORRY, Prosecutor Asogi, you were the fucking WHAT?!?!" and not let it slide. But instead Stronghart's just here like, yeah, the leading prosecutor just admitted to being ordered to assassinate somebody, anyway, no big, moving on. I wonder who actually gave the assassination order.

I wonder if what's going to happen is that, though Stronghart seems quite happy to turn a blind eye to everything seemingly suspicious about Kazuma right now because they're supposedly working together, at some point Kazuma's going to step just a little too far out of line with his double-agentry and cause Stronghart to retaliate with "you know what? Fuck you, you did it." Putting Kazuma in a position where there's a bunch of super suspicious things around his actions does give him that leverage.

HEY I JUST REALISED ANOTHER THING. The List of Names is a thing, sure, something something Reaper assassins something probably. But also, it was in Japanese morse code, meaning it was a secret message sent to Japan (or from Japan). Someone else other than presumably Stronghart must be in possession of whatever knowledge was in that message, someone in Japan. So... is Jigoku also corrupt, or...?

elyvorg

Not actually continuing yet, got some other stuff to do first, but some more interim thoughts. I'm thinking about who must have actually killed Gregson, and there's literally only three relevant suspects who were on the ship at the time: Kazuma, Mikotoba, and Jigoku. It's not Kazuma because I believe in him, and it's almost certainly not Mikotoba because he's freaking John Watson and we're literally playing as him in this section I just started so I doubt he could hide it if he actually knew about what went down here. So... Jigoku did it, I guess? It's also notable how, in the hotel when they arrived, Mikotoba and Jigoku both expressed surprise that Kazuma was alive when we told them. Except, Jigoku would have almost certainly seen Kazuma during the incident, and he just... decided not to mention it. So that's pretty fishy.

Soooo it's sounding a lot like Jigoku's definitely going to show up dead soon. I was also thinking about Klint's autopsy report and how he was killed with a sword, how about that. So, prediction, for maximum parallels, Jigoku's also gonna have been killed with a sword and it's gonna look like Kazuma did it please I just want to defend Kazuma okay

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-4 Part 3

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-4, second investigation day

elyvorg

(I really need to sit down with Kazuma and try to understand what he's going through...)

YES RYUNOSUKE, TALK TO YOUR FRIEND ABOUT HIS ISSUES, you are FRIENDS

oh geez, Gregson's been getting Vigil to give him alibis, has he?

goddammit Kazuma, stop LEAVING, just TALK TO YOUR FRIEND

guhhhhh this rift in their friendship

he's not even in his office yet, game sure knows how to tease me

Gregson is the leader of the Reaper organisation? oh boyyyyy

A. Shinn, right?

I FUCKING KNEW HER FIRST NAME WAS ASA

figuring out plot points through Ace Attorney pun names!

but if she's the Reaper, why did she Reaper Wilson?

also, uh

the Names on the List

are they

all parts of the Reaper or something somehow

and Kazuma's supposed to be one of them too?

not entirely sure that makes sense when Wilson's been in Japan for ten years but you know

also if Gregson was the Reaper (one of them), what was up with the upcoming transfer to France?

oh whoops let's not talk about Iris's dad being murdered in front of her lol : >

yeah, reeeeaaally getting the sense that Genshin wouldn't have murdered Klint even if he did the others

of COURSE Genshin had Karuma!

also did he have magical fluttery ponytail-band aura too, it looks like he might've, guess that's an Asogi genetic thing

nice job, Mikotoba, not letting on that you were friends with Iris's dad

aww, he's proud that Ryunosuke did so well against Kazuma!

some day we really gotta find a way to tell Iris the bad news somehow

wait, Wilson only came to the Yumei University four years ago, but has been overseas doing Important Things for Iris's entire life, hmmmm

Wilson... wasn't Sholmes's partner?

what the heck, that's not how Sherlock Holmes works, you can't just do that

or I guess there's just two different Dr. John H Wilsons, so Iris's dad is actually still alive, hmmmm

oh no, Ryunosuke feels kind of like a loose end now that Kazuma's alive after all! D:

Ryunosuke you were never here to replace Kazuma, he brought you along himself to help him

what does Sholmes know about Asa Shinn? :O

man, Kazuma even brings his absolute banger of a new theme into his office, it almost feels like too much, heh

he DID steal himself away from Hong Kong!

I'm sorry, if he had AMNESIA, then how did he know BRITISH LAW, hm? That... feels like a thing that would be erased through general amnesia? Maybe? Probably? ...I'm not actually sure.

OH MY GOD SMOL KAZUMA HE'S ADORABLE

hmmmm I wonder who sent that letter to him about his dad's crimes

(god, what a dick thing to send to the guy's teenage son)

examining stuff around his office and discussing it with Kazuma and they're just BANTERING like FRIENDS :3

Kazuma... really is doing this for revenge like van Zieks thought, aaaaaaaaa

(and YET. Kazuma helped us get van Zieks to agree to let us defend him, by giving us the photo of him and his brother to show him and remind him of what it felt like to believe in people. That's the only reason van Zieks agreed. Kazuma gets it about believing in people; surely that means that he also knew van Zieks is someone worth believing in, or he wouldn't have done that?)

one of Genshin Asogi's apprentices took the sword's name for a surname, DID HE NOW, hahaha, that's that connection solved

Bench

>:3

elyvorg

smh, von Karma, you're such a disgrace to your ancestor's master, how could you :/

anyway brb sobbing over Kazuma's MASSIVE DAD COMPLEX and that's why the sword's so important to him and oh god, this poor kid

no longer want to believe Genshin murdered anybody at all because I don't want to believe little Kazuma's judgement of his dad could be wrong, aaaa, he's going to be devastated if it turns out he did do any of the murders

I, uh... might be begrudgingly accepting the amnesia was real. It felt a lot like he was being completely earnest and truthful throughout this conversation.

...Genshin admitted in confidence to Vigil that he took somebody's life (but not necessarily the people he was accused of killing), huh. That sounds like he meant it. I wonder what's up with that.

(I wonder if Vigil told Kazuma that part where he was here asking questions. : > )

you'd think if they'd made a point of confiscating anything from Genshin in prison it would have been his sword

...was the letter Kazuma received from his dad?!? Did he know his son would stop at nothing to avenge him and find the truth if he heard about it? aaaa, I want that to be it now

game, are you really not going to let me show Kazuma's father's will to him to see how he reacts? really. :(

haha, someone tried to throw off the time of death by freezing the body!

...oh. Wilson autopsied Klint, huh.

and Mikotoba, too

what the fuck was Sholmes up to

man, this is making all the characters I trust look super sus!

IRIS what are you hiding, MAN

EVERYONE IS SUS SUDDENLY

Bench

Has the word "Indeterminate" come up yet?

elyvorg

In the autopsy report, yes.

Bench

You just updated the autopsy report yourself.

elyvorg

pfft, I guess we did!

Bench

It's a small moment, but I really liked how Maria decided to not follow the path of her mother, and chose to not falsify the autopsy report anymore.

elyvorg

Yeah! She's actually a good person! If still rather terrifying because she grew up around corpses, yeesh.

Bench

Yeah.

elyvorg

wait, suddenly Gina can read, when eight days ago-ish she was only just working on learning

Gregson was out to reap someone non-English on the day he died, was he, hmmm.

PUPPY

I have this horrible wild theory that the gash in Gregson's trunk was made by Karuma. I hope that is not true but god

(it's just, Kazuma was also AWOL on the day Gregson died, what is up with that, aaaaa. I refuse to believe he did it, he wouldn't have, but, geez this is concerning.)

was this non-English person Gregson was going after Kazuma, oh god. I'd initially assumed Gina would recognise his name, but maybe not, she's not so good at paying attention to people's names.

geez no I'm looking at the tip of the blade in the trunk and I really think it might be from Karuma, the shape matches, most blades are much pointier than this, aaaaa

Gregson and one additional person were going to France - was that meant to be Kazuma?

(welcome to my everything was Kazuma paranoid theorymongering apparently)

that's Susato's dad on the couch in Kazuma's mask, he is not singing German, what the FUCK is going on, don't tell me he's dead, oh god

OH are we gonna Great Deduce this! Excellent, it's about time!

also love how we're apparently in an anime universe where wearing a mask over the top half of your face instantly makes you unrecognisable

examined the mask during the deduction and Ryunosuke was all "wait I know this mask, COULD IT BE...?" Bro, it is literally not Kazuma, he does not have a moustache

"I've encountered somebody else whose behaviour became very strange indeed whilst wearing this." as I try to present the mask as an explanation for the singing, heh

haha, love how the answer of the gramophone is actually kind of non-obvious for Ryunosuke, because he's not heard of a machine that sings before

GASP I could never have guessed who this person was

hee, Susato gets to do some poses!

also yes, very logic, we looked at him

this Great Deduction is a good one already

love how they keep referring to all their ridiculous twirling and posing as literal dancing, these dorks

"Miss Susato... sometimes a man needs to point his finger first and think later." xD

SUSATO DOES THE FAILURE DIALOGUES while Sholmes is knocked out, heee

(complete with his poses, too!)

surely the mask did not land on his face, it was under his hat

anyway that was a 10/10 Great Deduction, top marks

NOPE NEVER MIND WE'RE NOT DONE

...Iris's dad isn't Wilson, is it, it's Mikotoba.

the person actually doing an autopsy wouldn't be the one taking notes

he just signed it at the end

also I want Iris to talk to Kazuma sometime, I think she'd be able to relate to his Dad Feelings

YES SUSATO RECOGNISES HER DAD'S HANDWRITING I KNEW IT

So Sholmes was there on the ship to protect Kazuma, because Mikotoba - his actual "Watson" - cares about him...?

maaaaan I didn't see this twist coming (until like two minutes beforehand), nice

wait, that's the END OF THE CASE?

what do you MEAN

(does this mean I don't get to defend Kazuma in case 5? DDDD: )

...or, case 5 is going to still be Gregson's murder the whole way through, but the defendant's going to change partway, because I'm RIGHT about Karuma, and Ryunosuke's going to accidentally make it seem like Kazuma did it in the middle of court? oooooh please let that be it

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Bench

What did you think of Twisted Karma overall?

elyvorg

I mean, apparently it's only half a case, so I can't quite have a full opinion yet! But VERY GOOD YES

Bench

Case 5 is my favorite in the franchise, though AAI2-5 may dethrone it.

elyvorg

see right now I'm already thinking that GAA2-5 is gonna end up being my favourite case and GAA is gonna end up being my favourite game! ;P I love AAI2 an awful lot too and I really hope you enjoy how it ends, but MAN.

Bench

I think I will!

elyvorg

maaaaaan I was all ready to take a break between cases trying to get myself to catch up on Doing Other Things a little bit because, hey, there'd be a good stopping point in the story so I'd be slightly less hyperfixated, but then THIS HAPPENED IT'S NOT OVER aaaaaaa

Bench

I hope you enjoy the ending of this, too!

elyvorg

If I'm right about Kazuma having been with Gregson on the day he died, and at this point I'm like 90% sure of that, I KNOW I'm going to fucking love this >:3

Bench

Thoughts on Daley Vigil?

elyvorg

I like him and feel bad for him! All these people being screwed over by the cover-up, man. (And Vigil didn't murder someone over it like Drebber did, so, plus.)

Bench

Same here! He's one of my favorite side characters. I feel really bad for him.

Interim thoughts: vengeful Kazuma

elyvorg

I made the very sensible decision to rewatch the second recess scene of trial 1-5, aka the scene where Ryunosuke reminisces adorably about how good it felt to realise how much Kazuma believed in him in 1-1, complete with both the normal and the sadder variant of Kazuma's regular theme, and I was in floods of tears again despite knowing how perfectly alive Kazuma was gonna turn out to be. This is what Kazuma's supposed to be like, not... *gestures wildly at prosecutor-Kazuma* that. Man, the composer of Revival of the Prosecutor knew exactly what they were doing with it, it fucking hurts so much, I love it.

Anyway, you know how we've been talking about that "whoops I turned into the kind of monster I hated" theme? I... I'm pretty sure that's in the process of happening to Kazuma right now. D: It's becoming clear that he knows enough about this case that he surely must have always known van Zieks was obviously framed, and yet he's determined to wrongly pin the crime on him anyway, all in revenge for van Zieks having wrongly pinned a crime on his father, and no, Kazuma, that is not the right way to deal with this, aaaaaa. Ryunosuke needs to save him from this and snap him out of it before it's too late.

However, I do think there's a small part of Kazuma that he's not allowing to have much say which does realise that what he's doing is wrong and is hoping Ryunosuke can save him from this. I still can't let go of the fact that he gave us the photo which we needed to get van Zieks to trust us. Kazuma wouldn't have done that if there wasn't some part of him deep down that understands van Zieks really is trustworthy and wants Ryunosuke to prove it to him, even while the rest of him is just a wall of unrelenting vengeance, aaaa.

Interim thoughts: KAZUMA RAMBLE EARLY DRAFT

[[I just know I’m gonna write a proper full Kazuma Ramble for this blog at some point okay, I was literally thinking of this here as being effectively a partial early draft of such a thing when I wrote it]]

[[Future edit: I finally did! Here it is.]]

elyvorg

During this break in playing, I have been articulating some more lengthy Kazuma Thoughts, as if I haven't already had enough Kazuma Thoughts yet (I definitely have not and probably never will). See, the conversation in his office, in which he finally just talked to his friends about his issues to a reasonable extent while seeming earnest and truthful, has let me finally get a decent, proper picture of what's going on with him and what his issues are. (Mind you, pretty sure there's a bunch of important things he still wasn't telling them there, but we'll get into those in case 5 won't we >:3)

Most of my prior ideas about what Kazuma's up to seem to have turned out to be pretty off the mark now, but I put that down to the fact that this whole time I've been fixated on these Big Conspiracies to the point that I assumed Kazuma was in on some of that somehow, working with others to achieve some overarching goal (especially thanks to his name being on The List, still not sure what's up with that). But no, actually; he's working entirely alone on a personal mission that nobody but himself put him on. This isn't what I ever imagined, but I think I like it more this way; it just goes to show how deeply important this is to him and how impressively determined he is to do it no matter what.

So, okay, fine, FINE, I will shut up about the things that made me think the amnesia could have been fake and accept it was real, because I finally understand its narrative purpose, which is to play a part in the story's presentation of Kazuma's issues. Kazuma's dad complex and fervent Mission as a result of that is so powerful that it manages to persist in some vague, subconscious form even when he's consciously forgotten who he is. He was so intensely determined to get to London and find out the truth about his dad and punish the ones responsible that not even amnesia managed to stop him from throwing himself halfway across the world to do so while he didn't even remember his own name. Damn, that's some compelling determination right there. I can dig that.

Also, can we please talk about when teenage Kazuma found out all of this horrible stuff about his dad, because oh my god, this poor kid. Especially how the two adults who were part of events and could have told him the truth made it clear that they had no intention of doing so. Kazuma had nobody he could turn to or share this incredible burden with; it must have been so lonely. No wonder it festered inside him to the point that he got this single-mindedly determined to sort it out all on his own. He never even confided in Susato about it, perhaps because she was a fair bit younger than him, or because she's the daughter of one of the men who seemed intent on hiding it.

Interestingly, Kazuma came closest to confiding in Ryunosuke out of anyone - not completely, but he mentioned the "something very important" he needed to do in England, which Susato remarked he'd never once mentioned to her. Perhaps it's Ryunosuke being completely unconnected to this whole mess that let Kazuma feel slightly more able to possibly trust him with it; maybe he'd have managed to work up to doing so sometime during the voyage if he hadn't been bonked into a coma partway.

We can blame the accident for the way he's acting right now, for that matter. If Kazuma had arrived in England as planned with Ryunosuke and Susato, I'm not sure exactly what he'd have been planning to do from there re: finding the truth about his dad, but at least he'd have been with his friends and probably assimilated into the Sholmes found family. From that position, when the truth about his dad began to come out, he wouldn't have gone so rogue, because his friends would have been there to offer to help investigate and to talk him out of anything drastic before he tunnel-visioned on it too hard.

But, because of the accident and the amnesia, while Ryunosuke's been accumulating a lovely found family, Kazuma's spent the past year completely alone. He wasn't only travelling alone, but he'd literally forgotten he had any friends; all he had was that single-minded subconscious drive of a Very Important Mission in London somewhere. So, even when he regained his memories and his friends were right there, he was happy to see them, but they didn't seem nearly as important as his Mission that he now finally understands and is face-to-face with. Hence, awkwardly leaving to go focus on that after some short obligatory greetings, without explaining things to them until much later when they're already halfway into van Zieks's trial. He is evidently never really one for talking to his friends about his issues even at the best of times, but that was also definitely quite far from the best of times.

With all that in mind, some plot speculation that I'm now pretty sure is on the money or at least close to it. Because Kazuma is, by his own account, apparently not working for anyone but himself towards anything but his own goals, any idea that he's co-operating with Stronghart's goals or trying to double-agent against Stronghart no longer really works. Instead, it seems worringly like Stronghart's using Kazuma, pointing this seething ball of dad complex-fuelled anger and vengeance in just slightly the wrong direction and watching the carnage ensue while keeping his own hands clean. Ryunosuke's gonna have to save his best friend from that and I am here for it. Stronghart's absolutely gonna be the Big Bad (to nobody's surprise). He might even prosecute when Kazuma almost certainly ends up as the final defendant? We have heard that he used to be a prosecutor.

Sus things about Stronghart: on the day of the incident, he claimed Kazuma had "gone missing" yesterday as if he had no idea where or why, but then later that day, we overheard Kazuma talking to him and it sounded very much like he'd left London and returned on Stronghart's orders, hmmmm. Also the argument we overheard after the first trial day where Stronghart was all "stop going down unnecessary tangents, leave your ulterior motives out of this", and Kazuma was all "Yes, sir (but I won't, though)". Meaning, Stronghart wants to use Kazuma's anger at the person who condemned his dad to get van Zieks convicted, but he does not like how Kazuma's using this trial to dig further into what actually happened to his dad. Hmmm I wonder who might have something to lose if more of that gets uncovered.

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-4 Part 2

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-4, trial

[[reminder of some relevant context for this one: Bench had previously told me that this case debuts their favourite piece of music in AA, and simply said, “you’ll know it when you hear it.”]]

elyvorg

Gina: still needs many hugs, I love her

my brain kinda does a double-take every time I see "Prosecutor Asogi". I'd never have dreamed of hearing that two cases ago. :D

Bench

: >

Where are you currently at?

elyvorg

Only just started the trial!

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

you know, this predicament van Zieks was in is rather parallel to what happened to Edgeworth. In a place with one guy, gunshot happens out of nowhere, picks up the gun out of confusion, whoops just made himself look very guilty.

Bench

Yep!

Lots of parallels with the present-day series.

elyvorg

something something there's a Karma at the prosecutor's bench

Bench

Heh.

elyvorg

KAZUMA'S OBJECTION VOICE CLIP IS DIFFERENT

this is the music you meant isn't it, oh god

Bench

YEP

elyvorg

aaaaaagh my feelings, Kazuma what's happened to you

(I am literally sobbing hysterically from just this piece, oh my god, I haven't even advanced the dialogue further yet)

Bench

This is my favorite track in all of Ace Attorney.

elyvorg

can you tell me what its title is without it being a spoiler?

Bench

Yep!

Revival of the Prosecutor

elyvorg

huh.

...Kazuma just objected to the testimony by presenting evidence that contradicted it. I guess that's fair, because the testimony supported the defence's side, but prosecutors aren't supposed to get to do that! That's a defence attorney's thing!

Bench

YEP

elyvorg

THIS

FUCKING

CASE

Bench

: >

elyvorg

I WAS GOING TO POINT OUT THE CANDLE CONTRADICTION DAMN IT

HE GOT THERE FIRST

Bench

Hehehe

elyvorg

did he summon van Zieks as his first witness specifically so he could do the objecting-to-the-testimony thing?

just want to put out there that [[another friend of mine who was currently playing through the game but was further behind]] is going to fucking love this just as much as I do, friends tragically and excruciatingly turned against each other by circumstances is one of her Extremely Favourite Things in fiction

Bench

Wish I could see her reactions.

Has Kazuma said the word "backwards" yet?

elyvorg

Yes, he has.

(wow you know this trial well huh >:3)

Bench

Yep!

You know how he said you're "looking at it backwards"? You know how in the original Ace Attorney trilogy you almost always have to "turn things around"? You know how he pointed out contradictions in a witness' testimony?

Kazuma is using defense attorney tactics.

elyvorg

Yes, exactly, he is!

it's so GOOD

Bench

I love this moment so much.

elyvorg

ME FUCKING TOO

that music broke me, I am in a mess of sobbing

Bench

Oh yeah, reminder that Edgeworth's theme is called The Great Revival.

P a r a l l e l s

elyvorg

yeah, so, it occurred to me earlier that like, why does Edgeworth get a theme called "Great Revival", it's not like he ever, you know, came back from the dead or anything

(I mean I guess technically Phoenix thought he was dead for a bit but that was just Edgeworth being melodramatic in making a resignation sound like a suicide note)

Bench

Well...yeah, that.

elyvorg

love how Ryunosuke's response to all that is basically "yeah, Kazuma really is that awesome". He's not even shocked; he looks up to him so much!

Bench

Yeah!

elyvorg

man, somehow it never occurred to me that Kazuma would be a really terrifyingly good prosecutor. Perhaps because we never saw him properly defending in case 1-1 because he left most of that to Ryunosuke and just picked up the slack when he had to.

and it's also like, I believe van Zieks is telling the truth, and yet I also believe that Kazuma genuinely believes the arguments he just made against him and has got a point (about everything except for van Zieks being the actual Reaper). Damn. How do we even solve this.

Bench

: >

elyvorg

huh, this female witness looks surprisingly reminiscent of a major character in PL vs AA. I wonder if she's a deliberate reference.

Bench

Oooooh, interesting!

Aaaaaaaa, I can't stop shaking with glee I'm so happy to see you finally get to this part.

elyvorg

was this the Part you were excited to talk about :D

Bench

Not the Part, but it's one of the Parts, yes.

elyvorg

oh man can't wait for so many more Parts

she sells fireworks, huh

I'm all ready to argue that this was the gunshot everyone heard, AND YET I'm also already terrified that Kazuma's pre-empted that argument and is going to get there first.

just, gah, I cannot BELIEVE the cheek of him pointing out the candle thing, that was supposed to be my job

Bench

>:3

Dun, dun dun dun da da da da da da da, dun, dun dun dun da da da da da da da I can't stop listening to The Revival of the Prosecutor.

elyvorg

can't believe we're now messing with these absolute derps of witnesses when *gesticulates incoherently in Kazuma's direction!!!!*

Bench

Well, you've always gotta have some comic relief. Even Turnabout Goodbyes had Larry Butz and the parrot.

elyvorg

oh I know, it's just a Contrast

Bench

Yeah.

elyvorg

please no let's not argue Gregson wasn't actually this redheaded guy, Kazuma's gonna jump on that so fast

oh lol I guess there's a photo too, fair.

the candles were burning when they came in, shit, I was thinking it'd be possible that they weren't if the real gunshot happened earlier, what is up with that, why would van Zieks lie about the candles

not only have we lost the sword-leaning (obviously), Ryunosuke doesn't do the confident smile in the new equivalent of that animation!

aaa look at Ryunosuke not backing down as Kazuma keeps trying to discredit his argument before he's even finished making it

never mind, the confident grin is indeed here!

the door flew open hard enough that it knocked the board over!

and so van Zieks didn't see the candlelight, take that, Kazuma

oh FUCK why did the watch have to be stopped at five, that could have been our out!

huh, never mind!

bit of a coincidence that the watch just happened to run out of ticking juice at exactly 5, though? unless somebody tampered with it deliberately.

aww, a little moment of Kazuma and Ryunosuke sharing exasperation at the witness (in their very different ways)

getting some real Phoenix and Edgeworth vibes simply from knowing that the two attorneys on opposite sides are FRIENDS

"The defence is fated to lose. And the prosecution to win."

I don't believe you mean that, Kazuma! Why would you go out of your way to make sure Ryunosuke took this case if you just wanted the defence to lose! aaaaaagh

Kazuma's getting more worked up here than I've seen him, like, ever. Is this just a thing he'd normally do if he was leading a case on either side, or is this about his Prosecutor Issues?

oh damn I didn't realise the watch thing meant he died yesterday, nice catch, Ryunosuke

suddenly "my learned friend" can be a lot more literal here

I am majorly stumped, where the hell is any kind of evidence that there was a timed device, the only thing that made any possible sense was the watch but that wasn't it

oh man, I did not think about the contradiction of the scorch mark on the candles, huh

(and neither did Kazuma, I note)

as much as this music still hurts to listen to, Kazuma is proud of Ryunosuke, awwwww!

...actually, it's weird, the first time it played, the music gave me this horribly sinister feel, and now, it doesn't seem as bad?

oh NO i just presented a wrong thing and it killed the music and Kazuma threatened Ryunosuke with Karuma, aaa

MAN this case is just putting me through the wringer

in terms of like, getting everything wrong

how is the board of Reaper evidence not what proves what Gregson was investigating?

what do you mean it's the red wig, wasn't that a diversion by the real killer and nothing else?

you know what, as delightful as this trial is being, the fact that I keep being like two steps behind Ryunosuke miiiight be a sign that I'm kinda tired and brainfried behind the excitement and I should prooooobably try and sleep, heh.

(I was already a bit tired when I started the trial, but I was like, "eh, I can do a testimony or two just to see what prosecutor-Kazuma's like", and then MAN that first testimony just blew me away and made me completely ignore how sleepy I was for the next, like, couple hours.)

Interim thoughts: Prosecutor Asogi

elyvorg

I guess despite how floored I was by his ruthlessness in that first testimony, Kazuma's not actually being that un-Kazuma-like, because he's still believing in Ryunosuke and trying to pursue all angles to find the truth. He's just putting on a bit of a different prosecutor persona that has more of a... wait for it... Edge to it that we're used to.

(Edgeworth's Japanese name contains the kanji for sword, fun fact!)

elyvorg

woke up and decided I immediately needed to put Revival of the Prosecutor back in my head

it occurs to me that there's bound to be a Gyakuten Meets Orchestra for GAA somewhere, right? and if this track's not on there I'm gonna riot

Bench

There is, and it's there. I'll link you it once you finish the game.

elyvorg

I'm thinking about how Kazuma tore down that first testimony with ruthless precision, but then after that point he kinda started floundering a bit as Ryunosuke gradually came up with an alternative explanation. It feels like Kazuma's much better than Ryunosuke at having things planned out in the beginning and executing that plan flawlessly, but that Ryunosuke's much better than he is at improvising and reacting to new developments on the fly without getting thrown off. We kinda saw a bit of that with the two of them in 1-1, as well. And it's appropriate, because having things planned is more of a prosecutor's approach to a trial, while making things up on the fly is more what a defence attorney needs to do!

elyvorg

Been having some more thoughts about the Professor case, based on the knowledge that most of the victims were corrupt assholes and the only one who wasn't (presumably, I trust Barok's idolisation of his brother) was Klint, the final one whose death got the killer caught. This is very reminiscent of Rise from the Ashes! Someone's older brother was killed by a serial killer, which gave them the evidence they needed to finally convict the guy. So, what if, Genshin killed the other victims but he didn't actually kill Klint - somebody else did, and set up the scene to make it look like Genshin did it in order to finally catch him.

Also I'm now leaning towards the unidentified person who shot Genshin dead being not Wilson, but Mikotoba, for no reason other than that it'd be Maximum Drama Points. Susato's dad killed Kazuma's dad!

Live reactions: 2-4 trial, roughly halfway

elyvorg

Huh, so Ryunosuke reckons Kazuma expected things to get this far. Maybe he really did spot the real issue with the candles and just left it for Ryunosuke to point out.

It's very neat how Kazuma being the prosecutor is making me think about the prosecutor's approach and tactics in a trial more than I ever have before.

I'm sorry, these people graduated frommmmmm "Temsik"? Well that's a Ghost Trick reference if I ever saw one.

yesss Ryunosuke and Kazuma double-teaming the witnesses with intimidating deskslams

Kazuma just contradicted an argument he himself had made a minute ago, I think his brain accidentally slipped into defence-mode.

is this Gossip guy actually Daley Vigil?

guh, love this prelude to the Cornered theme

Bench

Yeah, it's great!

elyvorg

and it makes the full Cornered theme hit even harder when you get to it!

man Gregson was up to some fishy stuff!

(does Kazuma know this guy is relevant to his father's faked execution?)

he DOES, doesn't he

is this why he even took us down this tangent at all oh man

hhhhhh Kazuma asking Ryunosuke to trust him, they are friends

Kazuma sounds like he's talking from experience re: blocking out memories, is this the amnesia finally being relevant - or is this something else?

yikes, I feel kinda bad about helping Kazuma force this guy's memories back, ouch

Interim thoughts: still not shutting up about the amnesia

elyvorg

yes hello it's me yammering on about Kazuma's alleged amnesia again - the thing is, what Kazuma was talking about was the kind of amnesia when you block out traumatic events to protect yourself. Which is not the kind of complete forgetting of who you are caused by a physical injury that apparently happened to him. So if those words of his were from some kind of personal experience, they're still not actually about his alleged recent amnesia! (but oh boy did Kazuma have some kind of PTSD-based amnesia relevant to his dad that got shattered the moment he saw the waxwork, that'd be delightful)

just rewatched The Cutscene (again), and... yeah, I think there's a plausible reading of it there in which Kazuma suddenly recovered not from regular amnesia but from PTSD-based amnesia in which he'd blocked out knowledge that his dad was the killer, this shook him so much that he dropped the pretense, he managed to collect himself enough to greet his friends because obviously... but then he left because he needed to process the massive issues and trauma that had just resurfaced and didn't want to let his friends see him like that oh my god Kazuma please talk to your friends about your issues

However you look at it, it really is weird that Kazuma's response after "regaining" his memories and unmasking amounted to:

- Hey Susato, thanks for looking after Ryunosuke

- Hey Ryunosuke, thanks for looking after Karuma

- Fuck this waxwork

- Anyway, talk to you guys later, bye.

Those are not the reactions of someone who is okay!

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #the great ace attorney #great ace attorney #elyvorg liveblogs tgaa

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elyvorg · 3 years ago

Text

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-4 Part 1

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Interim thoughts: Kazuma theories, again

elyvorg

About to dive into case 4, but first, let me get out some more Theories (about Kazuma, who else) that have been formulating in my head, before I potentially have all of it immediately debunked the moment I talk to Kazuma in this case.

So! Whatever Kazuma's doing here, it's something along the lines of his "mission" that's the real reason he ever came to England, for which the law exchange thing was always just an excuse. That seems pretty apparent to me now, and obviously it has something to do with his dad. Given that Stronghart was the one who appointed Kazuma into this position, it's also pretty apparent that Stronghart knew about this and possibly was never even going to have Kazuma act as a lawyer at all. He almost certainly knew Kazuma was still alive by the time Ryunosuke was there reporting the news of his death. So, Stronghart's working together with Kazuma right now. Except, I can't let go of the feeling that Stronghart's going to be evil. And yet obviously Kazuma isn't; I refuse to entertain that possibility for even a second.

I imagine that the reason Stronghart had Kazuma wear a mask at all times could well be because he bears enough resemblance to his father that anyone personally involved in the Professor case might notice they're related if they saw Kazuma's face. Apparently Stronghart doesn't want anybody to know this is the Professor's son, not even - perhaps especially not? - van Zieks. Then there's the fact that Kazuma's father murdered a bunch of British aristocrats while appearing perfectly innocent, and then when he was caught (by Sholmes, so probably he'd otherwise not have been caught at all), the British authorities faked his execution. Specifically, Sithe did, and she's allied with Stronghart, so he's bound to have been in on it, too. So, like, these people on the British side of things... wanted this Japanese murderer of their aristocracy to stay alive, actually? So that he could... keep murdering more Brits?

So I have a suspicion that, though Kazuma's father murdered these people, he was some kind of international spy assassin doing it on British orders, for some reason, and when he got unexpectedly caught by Sholmes, some of the British conspired to keep him around (except then somebody else shot him dead and put an end to that, not sure who that might be yet). And, like... the Asogi clan sounds like it's one of those very traditional Japanese clans where the same duty is passed down through the family. So, is Kazuma supposed to also be a secret assassin for the British government? Is that what Stronghart intends to have him do?

But of course, if it is, obviously that's not what Kazuma actually intends to do. If I'm right about all of the above, then what Kazuma's really got to be doing here is acting as a double agent, pretending to be the same kind of person as his father and have the same goals and be aligned with Stronghart, when actually he's using this opportunity to secretly work against Stronghart and destroy that corruption from the inside.

Bench

Interesting!

Live reactions: 2-4, beginning

elyvorg

okay, Kazuma's father's name does not begin with a K, that rules that out, the message was definitely referring to Kazuma himself.

Kazuma didn't know his dad was the killer, but he suspected it, hm?

Bench

Have you started Twisted Karma?

elyvorg

Yep, only just beginning!

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

Mikotoba and Jigoku didn't know Kazuma was alive! Huhhhhh, was not expecting that. (or maybe they just didn't know he was here already)

okay no, they didn't, they only knew his body had vanished. Huh.

guess it really was Sholmes and not Hosonaga involved in faking his death then???

damn this has gotta be why Sholmes was even on the ship in the first place; I don't remember the reason he gave but it was vague and seemed irrelevant and therefore could easily have been a lie.

(Would it be wrong of us to go and visit him?)

OBVIOUSLY NOT, how the HELL has this not been the first thing you've wanted to do for the past eight days, oh my god Ryunosuke

OH the hospital that Mikotoba and Wilson studied in was the same one next to That Graveyard, that has got to be significant.

Maybe it was Wilson who shot Genshin dead?

guh, they're talking about how they wanted to save their friend from these horrible charges, and I'm really hoping this can get a parallel with Kazuma being a defendant in the future???

Susato's mother has never been mentioned, did she die in childbirth or something

getting this feeling that Susato's dad's gonna die in this case, actually

love that Ryunosuke is worried about Kazuma. :3 Despite having always looked up to him, seems he's still perfectly aware that Kazuma's probably gonna be Not Okay right now with all these developments.

SHOLMES PLEASE, YOUR HAIR

wait a second why is Kazuma's mask on the table in Sholmes's place?

oh I see, he dropped it

bet that's gonna come back into relevance somehow

Sholmes helped fake Kazuma's death but didn't expect him to disappear in Hong Kong, hmmmmm

also I guess he was in a coma for a while. That was actually a possibility that occurred to me back in 1-4 when they were making a big thing of how "if only we'd noticed Olive was alive and got her medical help sooner, maybe she wouldn't have been in a coma for three days". Parallels! I thought it felt like they were emphasising that for a reason.

OHHHH it just occurred to me that if Sholmes bought the Russian crew's silence and they all actually knew Kazuma was alive, that means one of them could have easily told Nikolina in confidence sometime that she didn't actually kill him, that's good, that's excellent, that's a relief. <3

Kazuma's gone missing?

love how at the start of 2-3 Ryunosuke was like "I'm really sorry for revealing government secrets in the middle of court, I promise I won't do it again, can I get back to lawyering now", and then in his very next trial he immediately proceeds to reveal more government secrets in the middle of court.

sure, Stronghart, I totally believe you were surprised to learn the apprentice was a friend of Ryunosuke's ¬.¬

Kazuma just... showed up in England stowed away on a boat, with amnesia? I still do not know if I buy the amnesia thing, that's a really fucking weird thing for an amnesiac person to do, or for somebody else to send a random amnesiac person into. (Or Stronghart is just lying through his teeth about this whole story of how he found Kazuma, that's very possible.)

yeah, the mask was totally only because he was Eastern and not for any more specific reason, suuuuure ¬.¬

Some of the Professor's victims were terrible people? ...But definitely not van Zieks's brother, surely?

OH Susato makes an interesting point that that's a bit like the Reaper, huh!

so I guess I just Don't Get To Talk To Kazuma, because he's run off to do mysterious things and not share his burdens and issues with his friends, damn it, Kazuma

(Ryunosuke you nut you should have asked to see him sooner)

hey Sholmes if you wanna do a job to locate a runaway, how about Kazuma

oooh is this missing person the executioner who didn't execute Genshin

...could Kazuma have kidnapped him? for like, info?

YEAH they both went missing at the same time, surely that's not a coincidence

huhhh this is the Scottish guy Mikotoba mentioned, he's totally connected to what went down ten years ago somehow

the Professor had AGENTS, did he?

yesss this is totally the guy who should've executed Genshin, and then the powers that be probably fired him to cover that up

he helped him escape?

SOMEONE MURDERED GREGSON OH BOY

oh boy finally some answers as to why he's on the List

also rip I guess

Bench

: >

elyvorg

that makes everyone on the List who's "died" now, actually

but at least two of those deaths seem random and unplanned

but HUH

was I right about the assassination targets thing somehow?

also Gina is sad, hugs for Gina :(

he was being a good mentor figure to her in the previous case! :(

VAN ZIEKS???

oh HELL YEAH

(does this mean Kazuma will be prosecuting please tell me Kazuma will be prosecuting that'd be SO GOOD)

this is like, THE most intriguing victim-defendant combo possible, given that I'm still hoping for a defendant-Kazuma in the final case, oh MAN

DAMN I LOVE THIS GAME

Sholmes is actually legit upset! Aww.

van Zieks, come on bro, don't pull an Edgeworth on us here

AWW Ryunosuke did not even hesitate to say that he trusts him, yes, he's so good

OH NO LOOK WHO HAS TRUST ISSUES THOUGH

aaaaaaaaaaa

is this another Edgeworth-style thing of he doesn't want to be vulnerable in front of us? He is very good at staying guarded, despite all the Issues he must have

ohoho Gregson was into some Secret Stuff!

guys, really? isn't it obvious why Evie's photo's here? the prison guy who hasn't been working at the prison for ten years comes here, obviously.

Gregson was totally some kind of spy, everyone on that list was some kind of spy, I knew it had to be something like that, still don't entirely get why all four of them (and why one of them killed someone else on the list), but yessss, Gregson was the last piece we needed for this to start making some Sense

KAZUMA FINALLY

aww, I'm sad he didn't put his headband back on, he doesn't feel the same without the Magical Headband Fluttering Aura

YESSSSS HE'S GONNA PROSECUUUUTE

Bench

\o/

elyvorg

a voice in his head told him to come to London? At this point I feel like I'm supposed to be buying the amnesia thing but I still don't fucking know, all this is so fishy

depending on when he woke up from the coma, could he have stolen himself away from Hong Kong?

Stronghart seems quite happy about van Zieks being on trial, huh ¬.¬

Kazuma asked to prosecute this trial? oooh

wait, his headband's not on the sword sheath any more, where is it?

...never mind, it is, it just wasn't in that one animation which was originally from before the headband was on it, I guess

also aaaaaaa the hostility Ryunosuke's feeling from him, this is painful in the best way and EXACTLY the direction I wanted this to go in!!!!!

I am going to be so surprised if Kazuma's not the defendant in the final case with the way this is shaping up, eeeeee.

awwwwww Kazuma wants Ryunosuke to be the defence! :3

he's proud of Ryunosuke and believes in him! ...even if he's being a bit distant about showing it right now because of Whatever Reasons

"It's not easy to see behind the facade sometimes."

could say the same about YOU, Kazuma ¬_¬

oh no younger van Zieks with his brother and Gregson, my heart

has van Zieks just been reading Harebrayne's probably-fairly-short letter over and over again because he's lonely

...never mind, he was reading case notes apparently

oh no, van Zieks seems to really hate Kazuma because of his dad, aaaaa

hmmmm why WOULD he assign the trial to somebody who'd only just recovered from amnesia????? it IS strange, isn't it????

right, he trusted Genshin and felt horribly betrayed by him, gaaaaaah TRUST ISSUES

was looking forward to learning about the source of van Zieks's trust issues but was very much not expecting it to be Kazuma's dad, man

hhhhUH, Stronghart was a prosecutor who was supposed to prosecute the Professor case!

oh geez was he planning to throw the case

and van Zieks stepping in and doing it properly was why they had to fake the execution

(also that must have been van Zieks's first case, no? ouch)

oh noooo, van Zieks is grateful towards Stronghart, that cannot end well

there is no way Kazuma's doing this for revenge, I refuse to believe that

guhhh van Zieks being all "what do you mean people respect and trust me", this poor lonely guy who's convinced everyone needs to see him as a monster

he used Ryunosuke's NAME!

he's just like Gina with his trust issues aaaaaaa

he wants to believe in Ryunosuke aaaaaaaaaa

yES

this is ALREADY MY FAVOURITE CASE IN THE GAME SO FAR AND I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED THE TRIAL

Bench

Glad you're liking it so much!

elyvorg

:D :D :D :D :D

Interim thoughts: agdhfdghg AMNESIA

elyvorg

You know what else gets me about the amnesia thing (no I am not shutting up about the amnesia thing) - there's barely any point to it from a writing perspective. We're here in the next case and just kind of completely brushing the amnesia under the rug now that it's over without having it matter to where Kazuma's character is at now. They're not even making a thing about how it was his dad that caused him to remember (oh hey how about that). The only reason I can see from here that the writers would have decided to give Kazuma amnesia is that they needed him to be a mysterious masked figure who didn't recognise his friends, for the sake of ambiguity with the reveal. That's literally it, no other point to it.

And, like... this game's writing is way, way better than that? Absolutely everything has served multiple purposes, with various different connections and parallels going on with it. It's so good. If Kazuma was faking the amnesia then that's also a thing that'll serve multiple purposes, for the ambiguity of the reveal and probably plot reasons and also some delicious Trust Issues between him and Ryunosuke once Ryunosuke learns he was faking it. If he really actually just had amnesia... then it was just nothing but a weird narrative loose end for only the one kinda clumsy reason, and that's not how this game's been written otherwise!

[[for the record, I am in fact perfectly satisfied with the amnesia now, because it is in fact very relevant to Kazuma’s Issues in some fun ways. I just hadn’t seen any of that yet at this point in the case.]]

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