#kira plvaa

[lindleland]

[ballwizard]

speaking of plvaa we just started the final trial so thoughts on it so far before we actually get to the ending!! Under cut :-3

so overall the game has been VERY fun. bear in mind that I've been playing with octavius which makes games both more fun and funnier had I played them alone, so my opinion is a little rose-tinted a la having fun with my friend. HOWEVER. ive found the story and mysteries really fun and engaging!!! some of the twists have been pretty easy to call but i don't think that's necessarily bad? other than espella being bezella. that one is like comically obvious. but like the twist of both maya and layton being presumed dead?? that was fucking bonkers and i loved every minute of it (though it was obvious neither of them would 'stay dead'). i ALSO really liked the segment where Luke was a witness; it worked really well as a show of his character as well as a story beat. I'm always a sucker for distrust between good friends due to circumstances and it hit just the right pitch of desperation to be really really fun.

i think gameplay-wise it's a nice mix of both series, with the investigation portions taking after layton and the court parts taking after ace attorney (obviously). the hint coins in trials is a really nice mechanic & being thrust into an environment with new rules other than what seems most logical is a really fun way to play off the ace attorney format of solving cases.

I've had a running argument with otto that it's not actually magic and I'm genuinely excited to see how it goes. I still am convinced it's all just some incredibly convoluted plot a la unwound future or curious village or. any of the Layton games, but theres just enough doubt in my mind that it's compelling to consider. Im really excited to see how the final mysteries pan out...

visually the game looks pretty nice! though I do agree with the common sentiment that the styles clash a bit (every time we see phoenix in a cutscene surrounded by labyrinthians he looks SO out of place, or the one scene where phoenix and espella are talking and luke looks copy-pasted in). I would've loved to see the whole game in the Layton style, considering most NPCs trend that way anyways. It makes the more ace attorney-styled ones stick out like sore thumbs, like Greyerl and Mystere. Though it's so odd that most plot-important NPCs so far have been ace attorney styled, except for Kira? It caught me a bit off guard. But, even with the style mismatch, it still holds together.

I did want to talk about my disappointment with Greyerl though. Ive never been a fan of the 'secretly a girl/boy but posing as a different gender for REASONS!!' trope, more often than not because it's a) Easy to clock and not very interesting and b) Tends to lead into weird transphobic territory, a la "he's ACTUALLY a SHE?!?;?" or vice versa (or, in more annoying cases, like robin newman from dual destinies, flipping a switch in their behavior and suddenly presenting the complete opposite way. though i will admit i liked robin as a character). It kind of annoyed me with the whole thing. Either way, it was a smaller thing that didn't really impact my enjoyment all that much, but I still wanted to address in some way. I liked that Greyerl got to say it themself instead of being completely forcibly outed this time, but the whole thing with the unpinning of the hair was pretty dumb to me. I think their design could have stayed the same either way; an androgynous butler is not that strange of a character archetype, and makes way more sense than them just. Having extremely long hair somehow pinned up to make it look like a bowlcut. Blech. Whatever.

ANYWAY. This post is far too long already but I just wanted to close it out :-P TL:DR PLvAA has been a very fun and engaging experience so far and i hope and pray that it sticks the landing 😁👍💥‼️

[bearofohu]

i love the first witch trial in plvaa because wright and layton are really laying the fuck into Kira being guilty and it’s mentioned like 8 TIMES that witches are sent to death throughout the trial but when the verdict is announced, ONLY THEN, are they like “wait a second guys holy fuck”

[ladyloveandjustice]

PLVAA P20- arts!

First, check out this Very Important Epilogue photo:

G I R L S! (The blushing blonde one with the flowers is Lettie (who previously stated she was disappointed to learn Jean was a girl bc she had a crush on her), green hair is Jean. pigtails is Ridelle who I didn’t mention but she’s in charge of the library and is cute, and the girl tossing the flower petal is Kira)

I’m REALLY glad to see Lettie has accepted she is gay and maintains her crush on Jean. That saves a previously shitty line. She’s gonna give her a love letter, cute. I really liked all of these girls (aside from Lettie’s voice being REALLY ANNOYING but otherwise she was cute).

And here are Espella and Eve/Darklaw, WHO ARE TOTAL GIRLFRIENDS, and with their dad’s blessing too:

Also check out the baby girlfriends:

In additon. there was a lot of cute puzzle art in the game featuring Phoenix and Maya:

Under the cut: more cute puzzles, some cool concept art and character art for Darklaw showing all her Punk Goth outfits as well as her super cute epilogue one, and Jeans weird damn hair.

There was a cute maze puzzle where baby cg Maya had to find baby cg Phoenix, here’s some shots from it:

There was also this little sequence ft. Phoenix Suffering As Always:

Now a look at Darklaws different SUPER GOTH CATGIRL outfits, first up, her court regalia:

If you take away the weird things on her stomach (serious wtf are these) and clean up the chest area a bit (it looked especially awkward in the game let it me a normal shirt) this really works for me.) 

And I’m REALLY SUPER MAD IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO NOTICE HER HAIR IS SPOSED TO LOOK LIKE CAT EARS AND A TAIL AND THE CLAWS AGH. WHY AM I SO DUMB.

She’d also switch to this outfit sometime which works for me a lot less. What was especially weird was when Espella was all threatening to die she ran off in wearing her court clothes...but when she appeared out of nowhere to save Espella she was wearing this. When...did she have time to change? WHY would she go change in the midst of all this drama? Is she wearing this UNDER her court clothes? but the gloves are different? i?

And here’s when Espella was disguised as a school girl and Darklaw was disguised as hot teacher.

And here’s her post-epilogue outfit. I’m sad the edgy goth bit is gone but the outfit and look is REALLY pretty. 

Another look about Eve and Barnham in the epilogue, contrast to upper picture. I WASN’T LYING WHEN I SAID HE WENT FROM TOUGH KNIGHT TO THE TACKIEST NON THREATENING PREP IMAGINABLE.

Also looking at Jean profile art i have an important question- WTF IS HAPPENING WITH THAT HAIR

those TWO LAYERS ARE KILLING ME JEAN NO. At least I know how the heck she hid the long hair though.

Finally, some initial concept art for the game showed there was gonna be a “dark Phoenix” like Phoenix’s EVIL DOUBLE as well as a dark Layton. I wish they’d done that, woulda been hilar:

And that’s it for the art of PLVAA! Visually, this game was really interesting, and had a lot of neat side characters.

[ladyloveandjustice]

PLVAA P14- Maya’s okay guys

It’s investigating time! And who should we run into but...Kira, the witch from the second trial! She’s alive! Hurray! Which means Maya’s alive, as Phoenix immediately groks with much joy. However, she’s non-responsive and apparently brainwashed, so we have to figure out where Maya went ourselves. Phoenix and co. break into the courthouse, where they run into Jean. PHOENIX IMMEDIATELY QUIZZES HER ON WHETHER ALCHEMY CAN BRING BACK THE DEAD. I TOLD YOU GUYS. HUMAN TRANSMUTATION.

Jean immediately responds “"Alchemy: the science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art; it is impossible to create something out of nothing.[...] In accordance with this law, there is a taboo among alchemists: human transmutation is strictly forbidden - for what could equal the value of a human soul...?"

I MEAN IT REALLY IS BASICALLY WHAT SHE SAYS

 Apparently Phoenix’s and Maya’s speech shook the judge enough he’s considering maybe burning women alive just for having magic powers is a bad deal. Jean’s grateful, so she distracts the guards for us.

Phoenix is like “I hate heights so much guys but i guess i’ll go into that weird metal cage to test it out” (I’m glad Nick’s fear of heights is consistent across all games) and Luke’s like “nah i’ll do it”...at which point Nick lets the twelve-year-old try out the metal death trap. WHICH SEEMS OOC FRANKLY. I KNOW YOU’RE SCARED OF HEIGHTS NICK BUT THERE’S A LIMIT.

anyway, to no one’s surprise it’s actually a trapdoor and Nick, Luke and Espella stow away on the carriage under there.

CUT TO MAYA YAY SHE WASN’T GONE THAT LONG. She’s in a forest on the run from some brainwashed cult ppl (which is what all the convicted witches are turned into, i guess). AND I GUESS LAYTON EITHER WAS NEVER A STATUE OR ISN’T ONE ANYMORE, because he shows up to disarm them with a stick as a makeshift sword. 

you know, this might be the least amount of actual murders and deaths any ace attorney game has had. The only ppl actually killed in the game’s timeline so far have been those two rogues, WHO FOR ALL WE KNOW MIGHT BE OKAY. There’s also the alchemist, but he killed himself way before the games events. You pretty much assume most of those convicted in regular ace attorney games are headed for death row (Nick always seems to think that, anyway) but nobody’s actually ended up on death row in this game so far, not even our real culprits!

The Great Witch, who is almost certainly Darklaw, shows up and says Maya and Layton are free to investigate and she hopes they uncover the truth.

Maya’s worried about Nick being worried, awww.

Layton: blablabla the treehouse ladder

Maya: Don’t ask Nick his thoughts about ladders.

The essential callback.

Maya and Layton run into Barnham, who tells Maya “your courageous acts of bravery are deserving of my respect and admiration. That’s an extremely redundant sentence, but I can see how he’d be so awed by Maya he’d pile on unnecessary adjectives.

The Great Witch shows up to explain she’s not actually the Great Witch Bezella, they just call her the Great Witch to be confusing.

Nick, Luke and Espella finally meet up with Maya and Layton for a happy reunion! Maya greets Phoenix about the way you’d expect. “YOOOOOOO NIIIIICK!” But it is still very touching. ish.

She then tells the professor he’s as “good as gold”. MAYA. TOO SOON,

They puzzle their way through the temple and come across a “Bell of ruin” (it’s. a bell.) and Espella, to absolutely no one’s surprise, remembers she was the one who set the fire that destroyed the town as a kid (I’m completely positive she actually didn’t) and, going all zombie eyed again, says she’s really the Great Witch Bezella and runs off. And so the chaper ends! The next chapter is called “The End of the Story” which sounds extremely final. So buckle up kids, it’s climax time next time!