#i completed aai1 but not aai2 yet

[waffulaa]

.

[jynxedshapeshifter]

So fun fact: I never went into an Ace Attorney game completely blind and for every game except AAI1 and TGAA1, I knew who the final culprit was, or at least thought I did.

HOWEVER. For the Apollo Justice trilogy, AAI2, and TGAA2, my response was very consistently "wow this is SO much worse than I thought it'd be" because I only knew the culprit. I didn't know how they were taken down, I didn't know the details surrounding their crimes, and with Kristoph, I knew he was a murderer, but his role in AJ:AA still caught me completely off guard. If you go through my TGAA and Dual Destinies liveblogs you can actually see my slow descent to madness when I confronted the phantom and Stronghart (although the latter was more because of the associated reveals related to the Professor case). Like here's an overview of what I knew about each of the final culprits in the AJ trilogy, TGAA2, and AAI2 and what caught me off guard:

I knew Kristoph was a murderer. I don't remember exactly how, but I didn't know the specifics, only that Kristoph was a murderer. I did NOT expect him to be arrested during the first case, which is really obvious in the tags of this post lol. It's also very obvious I didn't know what was coming with Turnabout Succession. The thing that got me about Kristoph was the section of Turnabout Succession where you're cross-examining him because what the fuck do you mean Klavier was still prosecuting the case at that point (that continues to be my thought process during Turnabout Succession)

I "knew" Bobby Fulbright was the phantom in Dual Destinies. What I did not expect was that he was an international spy who steals people's identities in the most literal sense and for Bobby Fulbright to have been dead for a year and I made one post "what the fuck"ing about it then reblogged it with a bigger, slightly more horrified "what the fuck"

I knew Ga'ran was the overarching antagonist of Spirit of Justice. While I didn't quite go insane over the extent of her bullshit like I did with Stronghart, Kristoph, and the phantom, I still spent the entire last case of Spirit of Justice wanting to throw my computer across the house because of her

With Stronghart, I actually spoiled him being the final boss of TGAAC for myself by pure accident either while I was playing Unspeakable Story or Blossoming Attorney (I don't remember which). I did not spoil him being the head of the Reaper conspiracy, which I think is why The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo still filled me with "WHAT THE FUCK????" (but also Stronghart being the final boss is TINY compared to the astronomical levels of fuckery revealed in TGAA2-5, which was the actual thing that had me like "WHAT????????")

I knew Simeon and Excelsius were both antagonistic in AAI2, but I actually funnily enough got their roles mixed up. The only reason I deduced Simeon being the final boss was because Excelsius gets arrested by Turnabout for the Ages, which meant that because Simeon hadn't showed up as an antagonist yet, I knew he had to be the final culprit (and even then it took me a bit to deduce). Before that, I thought Excelsius would be the final culprit. Simeon and Excelsius still caught me completely off guard though. I knew Excelsius was an abusive piece of shit, but I didn't expect to hate him more after playing AAI2. Additionally, I didn't expect Simeon to be the mastermind behind everything in AAI2??? What the fuck????????

I, unfortunately, lost all the surprise of the original trilogy because I decided to watch the anime before I finished the game but the original trilogy is still an incredibly fun game whether you go in blind or not (however, the fact that Rise from the Ashes isn't in the anime meant I did go into Rise from the Ashes blind, but it wasn't all that notable to me honestly).

Anyway, this is just an elaborate way of me congratulating Capcom on having such well-developed cases that you can go in knowing who the final culprit is and still be caught completely off guard.

[cyandreamzaceattorney]

♡ April May ♡

Oh boy it's been a hot minute since I was last on this site, long story short I've been super busy with real life stuff and, while I've now gotten more time to draw than last week, I may become less active over the next few months :P

Anyways time to talk about the drawing! Yesterday I felt like drawing April May, why? Because not only did I feel like drawing something super cute and pink but, also I actually do enjoy April May's character quite a bit! It was a lot of fun to draw her and design a cute outfit loosely inspired by her canon outfit! I also gave her a fuller figure because she kinda has one in official art though that's probably mostly due to trilogy art style drawing often drawing aa characters (especially men) thicker, but I like drawing all kinds of body types so I decided I'd draw her chubby/mid sized anyways :P

now to talk more about her character >:-). A lot of people seem to think of her a lesser version of Ini Miney or even Dahlia Hawthorne but personally, I feel like all three of these women are quite different from each other, sure there are many traits that are same but that's the case for well, any one if you compare them to someone else, let alone characters in the same fictional franchise :P

So why do I like her? Well the main one is that to me she's to me a women who is unlikable but, you can't help but feel sorry for. I feel this way because while yes she did help Redd White blackmail many and kill Mia, and she does have a rude, harsh and literally catty personality but, she's was also stuck in a bad and potentially dangerous situation. A lot of people seem to forget that Redd White is a powerful and dangerous man, who had enough power to blackmail people with a lot of power and influence. also in one of her dialogue options she does outright mention being scared of him, because he knows how to shut people up. Personally wouldn't be surprised if Mia wasn't his first murder but that's a hc based off that line of dialogue.

speaking of hc's I do have a few for April May! (these do have minor spoilers for AA3, AAI1/2)

She's from Zheng Fa, now I haven't finished AAI2 yet (on case 4 atm) so idk if case 4 and 5 will effect this hc or not, but I noticed both Shi-Long and Di-Jun kinda act and look animal like in a similar way to April, of course her name doesn't really fit with Zheng Fa names but given she has a fake cutesy personality the name could also be fake (or she legally changed it to April May either after moving to America or after she started working at Blue Corp)

She met Dahlia in prison, I feel like she would've been sent to prison for a while due to being an accomplice in many of Redd White's crimes and since Morgan was able to meet Dahlia any other prisoner could as well, including April. I mostly have this hc cuz I feel like these two would at first bound over hating lawyers and how easy it is to fool people with a cutesy act, but than stop bonding when April learns a bit more about Dahlia.

Before working at Blue Corp she wanted to be a model and even dating a bit during that time, but neither worked out. One of her bf's just so happened to be Larry Butz (did I only come up with this hc because I learnt April and Larry are same age? maybe XD)

because she's a one off character in my mind she got her life together after serving her jail sentence. Maybe she got into a completely different job like running a bakery or something, idk lol

I hope you all enjoy my hc's and this drawing X3

[blueskittlesart]

Do you have any info for getting into AA? It looks like a game I'd enjoy but...its a LOT to see and I'm not sure where to start admittedly

ABSOLUTELY i do. ace attorney is a really fun series and i’d definitely recommend it!! before going in tho, if you really don’t know much about it it’s important to know that despite its appearance, it’s not a kids game. aa depicts murder, suicide, emotional abuse, etc, and certain plot points do have the potential to be triggering. @athenadykes actually compiled a spoiler-free list of potential triggers in all the games, so if you’re someone who could potentially be triggered by that kind of thing i highly advise you to look at it so you know what youre getting into. 

If you want to play the games following the canon timeline, this is how you should play:

aa1 (phoenix wright: ace attorney)

aa2 (justice for all)

aa3 (trials and tribulations)

ace attorney investigations 1

ace attorney investigations 2 (gyakuten kenji 2/prosecutor’s path)

aa4 (apollo justice)

aa5 (dual destinies)

aa6 (spirit of justice)

the first 3 games (aa, jfa, t&t) are a complete story and are referred to as ‘the trilogy’ by most fans. they’re definitely where you want to start. after aa3 is where things get a little murky with the timeline and play order. ace attorney investigations/gyakuten kenji are spinoff games following edgeworth instead of phoenix. they take place narratively just after the end of aa3, but were released between aa4 and aa5. they can technically be played at any time after completing the trilogy, and you don’t HAVE to play them to understand the rest of the games, but if you like edgeworth or franziska i’d recommend them! (note: aai2 never got an official US release, so if you want to play it in english you have to use a fan translation. there’s one that’s easy to find and very high quality tho.)

here’s a link to another ask where I explain how I emulated for aa1-4 and aai1&2, as well as emulation and ds hacking options for aa5&6. it also has links to every aa game in emulator-playable format. I’d pretend I love to suck nintendo’s dick at this point and say that there’s a switch and steam version of the trilogy for i think $30, but that only helps you out for the first 3 games and they just took dd and soj off the app store anyway so i hope they lose money because of me specifically actually. get fucked nintendo <3

(note, i didn’t include the dgs games here because 1. they haven’t been translated or released in the US and 2. i haven’t played them yet and honestly dont know if i even can because i havent tried the translation patches BUT if you do want to play them i think the general consensus is that you should play them after completing all the other games, even though they take place narratively a couple hundred(?) years before aa1.)

[franzizka]

Miles Edgeworth!!

AHHH THANK YOU ANON!!! sorry i have. the worst habit of asking for asks and then completely forgetting i did them. i love u

favorite thing about them

i love how secretly weird he is i love that there is so much to him that you get to unlock as you proceed through the series i love watching him get more comfortable with that and i just ;_____; he gets so much good character progression through the series it's everything to me

least favorite thing about them

i hate that he's such a jackass to gumshoe and that they make so many jokes about him cutting his salary. it's funny once or twice but it keeps getting annoying because like. clearly miles values him as a friend so eventually the jokes don't even make any fucking sense

favorite line

oh my god where do i even begin? i wrote down a bunch of stuff from aai1 when i was playing... of course i really love the "we have to claw and scratch for every inch" speech, but i'm also really a big fan of "There is no limit to the law. Any limit that exists was set there by man. When a person goes beyond that limit, then the law, too, crosses into new territory!" i just think that all the quotes miles has about the law and his own viewpoints on it in aai are so fucking good and do such a good job explaining how much he's changed and how he can continue on as a prosecutor bc sometimes playing only as defense attorneys who always have clients who aren't guilty makes you wonder how anyone could be a prosecutor lol. sorry this got so long

brOTP

i have no idea if this is canon or not because i haven't played aa4 yet but i really love the idea of miles and ema being friends once she's a detective sakdfhjdkfj i think it would be funny for them to have bitch sessions. i don't know if it's my brOTP specifically but i DO think it would be great

OTP

come on. COME ONNNNNN. he and phoenix are MADE for each other y'all i don't even know what i could say

nOTP

honestly pretty much any woman im pretty sure that is a gay man. the worst offense is people who ship him with franziska though yuck yukc yuck

random headcanon

i have sooooo many of these but heres one: i think he swims for exercise because it's very solitary and is a good way to think while also doing something else

unpopular opinion

i don't know if i have any really.......... OH i think he's better with kids than a lot of people seem to think. like not necessarily AMAZING with them but he can make them laugh and they like him bc he doesn't talk down to them

song i associate with them

beekeeper by keaton henson :pensive: and also i stole this from the wonderful @sinlizards skfjhskjfhd but to the blade by everything everything. i just. god

favorite picture of them

DEFINITELY the cg of him dramatically putting his jacket on from aai2 case 1 it's so great

//send me a character and i'll answer these questions!!!

[aceattorneymeta]

Why Ace Attorney has lost its potency

this blog isn’t done or open yet but i was talking to a friend about this a bit ago and i felt like i finally put together some thoughts i’d had floating around for a while so i just wanted to jot them down here :0

and i know that title sounds clickbaitey but i honestly, truely believe the series has. Ace attorney started off as the passion project of top tier writer shu takumi and his team of seven other people. it was a game project used to train new staff, and they weren’t given a lot of time to make a game as amazing as ace attorney is. But they did! And i firmly believe the reason they could was becuase it was grounded in three things things: strong characters, clever mysteries, and most importantly: social commentary.

If you aren’t a huge ace attorney obsessor like I am, or you just don’t know a lot about law in Japan, let me give you a basic rundown of what I picked up while doing research on the series. In Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright is the perfect prosecution’s punching bag. obviously, this is for comedic effect, no prosecutors in Japan bring whips or hurl coffee in court. But in Japan, especially at the time when Ace Attorney one was in development, Prosecutors ruled the court. It was expected that prosecutors not loose cases. It was expected that your client go to prison, as a Defense attorney. Prosecutors were infamous for forging evidence and forcing confessions, even leading testimony was common practice, and it even sometimes had a blind eye turned to it. So that’s what ace attorney was- a big, cartooney exaggeration of a very real problem in japan at the time. Phoenix is the defense attorney who cannot win, edgeworth and franziska are the “anything for a guilty verdict” prosecutors, adn the judge is the blind eye of the japanese justice system- a justice system that did not have a jurry in it until 2009.

So why is this gone? Ace Attorney one has overarching themes of the innocent deserve help, as well as biting critical commentary of Japan’s legal system at the time, the villinization of the prosecutor (something completely reverse from most american courtroom dramas, where the defense attorney is portrayed as evil) the innocent, hard working down on his luck defense attorney, the desperate, sympathy garnering clients in a place that so often paints them as villians (just look at Yanni Yogi, as well as Yomiel from Ghost trick, for example on that, albeit dramatic ones) Ace Attorney two is about the conviction of people who are ultimatly good- once again making sympathy where there often is none (i feel bad for ini, don’t you?) and then turning that on its nose with the scum bag client. AA2 was about how we understand innocence and how we need to look past it to create a good legal system. Finally, AA3 is about prosecution and defense working together to fix things- like takumi believes a courtroom should work. We see this carried over into apollo justice, which also has a more likeable prosectuion who actually cares about getting the correct verdict, it shows a step in the right direction, ESPECIALLY with takumi’s push for the jury system in this game (Apollo Justice was made in 2007, just two years before jury was reinstated in japan. clearly takumi was following this a lot)

 I’m not going to touch on AAI1 and 2 becuase i frankly dont feel like i understand their context well enough to, and I haven’t play AAI2 (plus theres no official translation that worked with the staff, and while i worship the fan translators it runs the risk of missing very subtle themes if they didnt work with the producers directly) and I’m not going to touch on DGS (completely different historical context) or PL vs AA (not as serious a game) becuase theyre in a different situation than main game ace attorney

But in Ace Attoreny 5 and 6, this is just... gone. i didnt really enjoy ace attoreny 5 just... in general, it had weird writing and stuff but on top of that? it doesn't have a cohesive theme to tie it together aside from “athena is traumatized” and we’re in the “DARK AGE OF THE LAW” which was about... fake japanifornia law and (as far as i know) was not meant to criticize any other law systems. Ace Attoreny six some how took this one step further by setting everything in fake tibet and then criticizing a law (the culpability act) that has NEVER BEEN INSTATED anywhere?? as far as i can find? certainly not in japan, and certainly not right now. it felt like a hollow imitation of 1-4′s biting social commentary (especially in 1, tbh) and it fell very flat. I had plenty of other issues with this game that I’m sure I’ll talk about too, but this post is long enough

If i’ve missed anything, espeically about real world stuff b/c my knowledge of ace attoreny is 100% better than my knowledge of law in the real world, please feel free to talk to me about it, or disagree, or set up a dialogue! This is a jumping off point and I’d love to hear other’s thoughts :)

thanks for reading!!