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[bishopcruz]

Just beat the game, probably around T&T for me, with a less epic final case, but a better quality of cases overall. Probably 1>2>3=5>4 for me, but they are all really close. 2-4 is still the best case in the series, but I don't know if they will ever beat that one for sheer balls to the wall drama. Fullbright was a great reveal though, did not see that coming. I thought that maybe the Phantom was Clay because I was running out of suspects. Still surprised that Pearly didn't channel Athena's mom though. Really thought that would happen, because of the time that Cosmos mentioned seeing a medium who tipped him off.

Still, loved the whole team dynamic, and like AJ, it had a pretty great set of side characters, which was a main weakness in T&T. They were animated beautifully, and had great personalities.

Random note, was this game trying to imply that Apollo was gay? Aura certainly was and the conversation she had with Apollo about him loving Clay was interesting. Doubt they would go further than that, but it was an impression I got.

Also anyone else feel that the game was too easy? I got 1 game over, (maybe 2) and that was just with Apollo's bandages in case 1.

 

[Malreyn]

Also anyone else feel that the game was too easy? I got 1 game over, (maybe 2) and that was just with Apollo's bandages in case 1.

I felt the game was alot easier, but it feels like it took out more of the random guess work the games used to have. Investigation phases now have notes to tell you where to go and who to talk to, and when you press the witness testimonies, you are given a long comment about the exact inconsistancy you need to present evidence against, when the older games didn't exactly telegraph it as obvious as this game.

 

[perorist]

Just saw this interesting discrepancy between the US and JP version of the game.

In case 3 he shouldn't have the spear at that point since it was still in the body but apparently he carries it all the time in the English version due to a glitch.

https://twitter.com/hoso_boso/status/394250480462733312/photo/1

 

[Artemisia]

THIS IS THE OFFICIAL THREAD LS;KFHDJG;KJNL'SDFG

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Magnet_Man]

THIS IS THE OFFICIAL THREAD LS;KFHDJG;KJNL'SDFG

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What a horrible night to have a curse.

 

[Rezek]

I finished this several hours ago (and went to sleep cuz I marathoned the last two and a half cases haha) and WTF at the final case. I actually guessed the spy was Fulbright at the ladder part, but I was not expecting the way it went down at all. That breakdown was probably the creepiest one in the series. Also they really took advantage of using 3D models for that lol.

I think Means and Fulbright had some great reveals too. Like Matt Engarde levels of "Holy shit what."

 

[RyougaSaotome]

Hahaha oh wow.

 

[OceanBlue]

Just finished the game. What a crazy twist at the end lol. It's hard to pin down where I'd rank it since I just finished it. Maybe I'd say something like this: AA3 > AA5 >= AA1 > AA2 > AA4? I do have a couple of thoughts now that I've finished it.

To be honest, I wasn't as impressed by the last case as I expected to be. It was in part because of pacing; most of the details of last case were revealed before Fulbright was brought into court and a majority of his cross-examination involved pinning him down, so the final confrontation wasn't as intense as the final confrontations with the final villains of other games. To be fair, it's hard to compare to people like Von Karma, Kristoph, or Gant in intensity lol. I just didn't find the moon rock reveal or the way Athena was framed to be as interesting as the final tricks in the previous games and I had guessed at the the escape route (I actually suspected Aura at first because of this) and how he'd be identified pretty quickly, something I'm not usually good at doing in other cases. That left the game ending in a somewhat anti-climatic manner for me.

A really good thing about this game was the strength of all of the cases. I think this game might have my favorite collection of cases overall. Even though I've kinda been down on the end of the game, I still enjoyed the fifth case. There was still an interesting sequence of events that needed to be solved, and I really liked Apollo's desire to trust. That said, I thought the third case was the best because, despite its silliness, I liked Mr. Means's scheme. As a villain, Fulbright definitely seemed effective, but I never felt as if he had a master plan controlling everything. Mr. Means felt as if he were in complete control of all of the details regarding his case. L'Belle was also pretty tricky, although not to the level of Mr. Means, and Cosmos's antics in covering up his involvement were fun to unravel as well. The third case really stood out to me, partially because of this, but I enjoyed all of the cases.

I think my favorite thing about this game were the characters. I really liked everyone in the cast, maybe except for Jinxie and Mr. Tenma, who I only sorta liked lol. The animations were amazing and really made each character expressive, especially Filch, who is probably the most animated character in the game. I pretty much have good things to say about every character (especially Juniper, who is a cutie). The other reason I really liked the third case was because I really liked the story of the three friends. Mr. Perfect's (LMAO) circumstance as an idiot who worked as hard as he could by himself to protect who he thought were estranged friends especially spoke out to me. I was also glad to see Pearls and Edgeworth again. Seeing them and the letter from Maya (I thought they'd never mention her name!) was pretty much the ultimate fanservice, lol. The lawyer trio made the game though. Apollo really needed someone with less experience than him because he seemed as if he were guided along by adults all throughout Apollo Justice, and going into this more deadpan role really suited him. Athena was amazing. She took less shit from Blackquill than Apollo and I really loved how energetic and expressive she was. Of course, Phoenix was a boss, who was pretty much the only one of the three to have the momentum against Blackquill almost throughout their confrontation in fourth case.

Lol, it's been a long while since I've made such a large post on NeoGAF. tl;dr: I really enjoyed the game! Great characters, especially.

 

[PsionBolt]

Finished last night, had to sleep on it. Way too amazing.

The multi-attorney setup worked very well. Each member of the main cast gets to appear both as the lead and the assistant. I would have liked to have Trucy and Pearls as assistants for longer, but there's only so much time, I guess. Hopefully they feature in the DLC case. (I definitely subscribe to the theory that the DLC case was cut late into development. No case in this game goes 3 days - if case 4 was combined into 5, and the DLC case slotted in as case 3 or 4, I think the pacing would probably have been more in line with the average AA game.)

But still, the average quality of cases we did get in the main game is crazy high. The opening and endgame cases were great, as always, but the filler case (5-2) was pretty far ahead of comparable cases in other games - though I'd put it slightly below 1-3.

Tentatively, AA5 > 3 > 1 > 4 > 2. This game is great.

 

[Shahadan]

I finished this several hours ago (and went to sleep cuz I marathoned the last two and a half cases haha) and WTF at the final case. I actually guessed the spy was Fulbright at the ladder part"

I'm so glad I misinterpreted Aura when she talked about "That Detective" and thought she meant Candice Arme for some reason. Totally clouded my mind from Fulbright until the moment when I selected Arme and got a penalty.
Maximum effect. Mind blown.

 

[VegiHam]

So I just finished. Woah at, like, everything. I didn't see the twist coming until the same time as Nick because I was CONVINCED the whole way through case 5 that Starbuck was the Phantom, so that really surprised me. Also, I love that this game confirms my thoughts about Phoenix's friends in AA4; they really WERE all just off-screen staying in touch the whole time! That made me smile.

 

[dumbyugi]

I figured out who the Phantom was about the same time that Phoenix did, which is first for me. I don't think there was a time in any other game where I didn't work out the killer before the characters did. When Fulbright is revealing whose finger prints were on the lighter in case 4 I was expecting him to say they were Clay's because that seems like the type of twist that these games love to pull. So the reveal in case 5 that they really were Clay's finger prints amused me a little bit.

 

[ColossalLazy]

So I just began Case 5 and I have a theory of who is the Big Bad. Do not answer it.

HUGE SPOILERS

Spoiler

It is Fulbright. He has been keeping tabs on Blackquill until he was executed, the lighter he gave at the end of Case 4 must have been fabricated and he was in the Space Center on the day of the murder
Also in the monologues of Phoenix, he hints that the darkness was close by. And I was never conviced of his act

Just finished the game.

So my theory was right about the big bad being Fulbright, it become so damn obvious after he gave the lighter and the way he was acting in case 4 which reminded me of Persona 4 spoilers

Spoiler

ADACHIIIIIIII

.

But even so the twists were amazing and I lost my mind to when he pulled the mask, for a moment I thought it was Starbuck lol. His breakdown was amazing.

The picture of Athena on Simon Mood Matrix freaked me out. Cant wait for the DLC case.

 

[Nocturnowl]

A whole Sunday of AA, guess that's what happens when you start up a final case, there is no stopping.

I'm not sure how I feel about the final case right now, it essentially being a combo with the fourth case was a little bit of a downer and while the Fulbright reveal was good stuff I never found actually confronting him to be particularly engaging compared to other final villains.
A perfectly good case regardless but it was missing a certain something, perhaps it's that the true nature of the main villain leaves him lacking much of a character to get invested in outside of his phony acting.

The game on a whole I think slots in behind the original and T&T so on the whole it's one of the stronger entries.

Random thoughts...
- Animations on a whole were fantastic and breathe a lot of (exaggerated) life into each character, Mean's breakdown was the king. Safe to say the jump to models went better than I could've ever imagined.
- Speaking of animations Pearl still having those cutesy animations at her age is kind of unusual, she's older than Trucy? that threw me for a loop as she doesn't quite look it. Nice seeing her back as one of the few cameos, i'm glad that they toned down on them this time around.
- I actually found Apollo the most interesting of the main characters, then again I never had any problems with him in AA4, nice to see him shown to be more capable in this entry. Though the game building up to his dramatic departure so to speak doesn't deliver on much at all, I was really expecting some "dark side of the law stuff" to affect Apollo in his pursuit of the killer and instead not much actually happened at all.
- Athena didn't quite click with me, maybe there's been too many plucky female sidekicks in this series that she just feels like the next in line with more of a spotlight shone on her though she's very expressive.
- Jumping between different lawyers was a good angle to go with.
- Mood Matrix is okay but I wouldn't miss it if it didn't turn up in any future entries, it helps add variety to court sections yet doesn't deliver much satisfaction for pinpointing the issues in testimonies.
- I did like Blackquill quite a lot, actually he's my favourite of the new characters introduced in this game, upon his reveal I wasn't too big on the design but when the Samurai connection clicked I liked it a lot more and his mannerisms fit with the gimmick so to speak. Awesome theme as well.
- Anime cutscenes didn't add much or show anything really substantial outside of like the first one where of course Athena has to trip over because presumably it's the anime thing to do.
- The streamlining of the investigation segments disappoints me a bit, I know a few people who'll likely be happy with this so I can see why they did it but I did enjoy poking at the environment for humorous conversations. I wonder if we'll ever get the return of "scientific investigation".

All in all it's a step up over the last releases we got in the series since T&T with it maintaining a solid quality across all of the cases so i'm very ready for more be it the DLC case or the next full entry when the time comes (and hopefully gets localised).

 

[Lusankya]

Also it's hard for me to grasp that Pearls is one year older than Trucy.

Yeah, she still looks very young, but I guess she is just a fragile person. Btw. did you all noticed that she copied one of Maya's animations??? That totally made my day (although overall I wished Pearl would have been important for the case )

The picture of Athena on Simon Mood Matrix freaked me out.

That was so great. Anyone got a clean version/rip of it?

 

[GSR]

That was so great. Anyone got a clean version/rip of it?

Mood Matrix images are kind of compressed for some reason, same as the pre-cross eye-zooms.

I also have a ton of other screens from the JP version, by the way, if anyone's interested.

 

[ColossalLazy]

Mood Matrix images are kind of compressed for some reason, same as the pre-cross eye-zooms.

I also have a ton of other screens from the JP version, by the way, if anyone's interested.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Edit: So THAT'S why it's rated M

 

[Lusankya]

Nice, thanks. Athena surely had a troubled childhood.

 

[Shahadan]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Edit: So THAT'S why it's rated M

Yeah this scene and what she's saying there is M worthy
So creepy.

 

[GSR]

Also:

I feel like this image just sums up the entire game perfectly.

 

[ColossalLazy]

Also:

I feel like this image just sums up the entire game perfectly.

Needs more bandanges.

 

[zhorkat]

Finished the game this morning. Here are some of my thoughts.

With regards to mechanics, the game certainly feels a lot more restrictive to me. The number of scenes that can be examined is very limited. The game's handholding and guiding makes it feel like the investigation sections are just going from point A to point B to point C. Even the ability to teleport straight to my next destination without going through some intermediate locations plays a part in this. There were also very few situations in the game where you actually want to go to multiple locations at the same time instead of just knowing that you should go to place A. I definitely never felt lost in the investigative segments, which was nice, but I would trade me feeling lost and having to hunt for what to do next so that I could get more expansive and open investigative segments back.

I thought Athena's Mood Matrix thing was okay. I certainly like it better than Apollo's perception mechanic, but I still think the Psyche-locks are the best. The trial segments are still great. The weird mind focus thing they do at the end of the cases was neat, and I definitely felt that despite there being moments where the game pointed out to me what I should do, there were also great moments when the game just gave a brief overview and let me figure out what was next. I still felt like I was 10 minutes ahead of both the prosecution and defense at times, but I didn't run into cases where I wanted to present a piece of evidence and the game decided it wasn't time for that piece yet.

As for the story, I liked case 3 the best because of the way it examined the themes of the game through the three students Juniper, Hugh, and Robin. The killer and victim of that case felt more like ideals who existed to fuel the turmoil in the three students' relationship and to highlight the game's themes than like actual people who did things. Case 2 was nice, but I think the Tenmas were weaker characters than the Themis students. The craziness of L'Belle's plot saved case 2 for me after it dragged a bit in the first part, although minor stuff like Tenma swallowing the key still feels a bit weird. The nature of Tenma Taro and how it tied into the psychological theme of the game was interesting, as was the slight bits in which the game touched upon how the mind's state can alter a person's perceived reality. They briefly mentioned the subject of legal validity in the last case as well, and I hope they delve further into these themes in the future.

I liked how the game handled the 3 attorneys both in terms of how they swapped out which one you play as, and how they were presented in story terms. I liked how Phoenix took on a more Mia-like role, while Apollo became more like Phoenix-like, complete with an internal struggle about what truth is and how to pursue it. I like Athena, but mainly for the way she exists in the present of the game. I didn't find the way the story of her childhood life was presented nor the particular aspects of it that the game focused on to be very compelling. For example, I didn't really care much about the fake out of Athena possibly being the one to have killed her mother because it was so obviously fake, whereas I thought it was disappointing that they didn't focus more on the trial of Blackquill and how Athena tried to help him. I liked Blackquill's character, and I actually respected him as a prosecutor which is more than I can say for some of the prosecutors in the past games, even if his relationship with Metis as well as his experience during his trial was underdeveloped.

The phantom, I found, was a boring villain to defeat. He definitely felt like a phantom, even when he was on the stand, and I found that less appealing than an actual person would have been. The reveal of the phantom's true identity was great, though. I also thought it was neat how they never revealed his true face, leaving him as a faceless, identity-less person.

Also, the cutscenes and voice acting are really lame.

 

[Nohar]

I liked how in the game the image is revealed, without any text, without any music, and then the game waits patiently for you to be ready to continue... And when you do, THEN the nightmarish text pops up. Man, I really felt this "wham" moment :'(

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm just realizing that if you have some variety of Jazzy theme music (even upbeat) you must be guilty to some degree in this series, it's almost like a running trend at this point.

 

[kiryogi]

Finished it this morning @ 5AM. Always love marathoning from day one.

W O W indeed. I definitely agree with it being AA3>AA5=AA1>AA4>AA2. The overall package that is AA5 is so comprehensive. They really handled all 3 attorneys in a very fair/balanced manner.

I think the only real weak bit here is probably Fulbright as the final. Although he was pretty insane on a level, it was nowhere as satisfying nor challenging to take him down like Von Karma/Gant/Kristoph. But the entirety of case 5 otherwise was outstanding.

Thank god we have a DLC case to look forward to. . .

 

[Magnet_Man]

I didn't really care about Athena until you talk to Juniper and she tells you that Athena was pretty miserable and secluded as a child which I thought was nuts compared to how she has been for the entire game. Then we got that picture of her wearing those headphones she hated and that Remembrance track kicked in.

The feels....I can't hold them.

For me, I feel like 5's highlight was the last two cases (which should've just been put together). I was positive Starbuck or Clay was the Phantom so the Fulbright reveal (followed by him unmasking himself as "Starbuck") blew my mind. The other cases, while I don't dread doing them again like I do with 2-3 or 4-3, I'm not keyed up to do them again. I don't know, there just wasn't any real amazing moments in them. Like serious brain twisters, hilarious concepts, or significant moments of character development. I felt too many witnesses were just walking jokes and the villains were uninteresting outside of their goofy animations.

Still, this team's characterization has come a long way from AAI and I'm curious how they'll do in the future.

For me it goes AA1 > AA3 > AA5~AA2 > AAI2 > AAI1 > AA4

I still have a hard time telling if I like AA2 more than 5. With 5, it was pretty solid all throughout but it never hit those tense high moments that we know from the trilogy, but in AA2 2-4 was the only real redeeming case about it but it was so goddamn amazing that it makes up for the bland three cases that proceeded it. So it's like one is a 8.5/10 game all throughout while the other is a 4/10 game with a climax that is 11/10 insane quality.

Looking forward to your guys' reactions to the DLC case. THAT is a filler case I look forward to for repeat plays.

 

[Storm Chamber]

Marked the fuck out when Edgeworth showed up in case 5

pretty good game overall

Case 2 being the only bad spot and is an excellent contender for worst case in the entire series

Luckily the rest of the game more than made up for it

 

[OceanBlue]

Mood Matrix images are kind of compressed for some reason, same as the pre-cross eye-zooms.

I also have a ton of other screens from the JP version, by the way, if anyone's interested.

Damn. That got me good when I was playing. It still kinda freaks me out. I wonder if people have made fanart of psycho-loli Athena lol.

Are there any Juniper caps? I kinda want to use her for my avatar. She was way too cute and the third case was my favorite. Either version of her is fine with me.

 

[ActStriker]

Just saw this interesting discrepancy between the US and JP version of the game.

In case 3 he shouldn't have the spear at that point since it was still in the body but apparently he carries it all the time in the English version due to a glitch.

https://twitter.com/hoso_boso/status/394250480462733312/photo/1

This makes a hell of a lot more sense.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Just finished the game. It was awesome, of course. I'd rank it behind AA3 and ahead of AA1.

Best case for me was probably case 3 because of the setting and characters, but case 1 probably had the best culprit breakdown for me.

I would have preferred to not know that Pearl and Edgeworth were cameos in the game from official news since the first time they appear in case 5, but I'm glad that the game didn't have an overabundance of returning characters and had some really good new ones instead. Having Maya Fey mentioned by her letter was a good way to handle things instead of not mentioning her name at all or having her appear out of nowhere.

I felt that the game was a bit too easy. There's the handholding of the investigation scenes, which makes things less frustrating and less of a pixel hunt, but I also felt that the game often leads the player on concerning what to present next at a certain statement. I did have to use that assist button once, however, in one of Means' testimonies (to present the tape recorder).

The times when I had to actually think the most were usually during those end-of-case logic chain segments, which I really enjoyed. Those are a neat way to give player agency into the epiphanies of the defense.

There'll probably be an AA6 and I hope this does well enough outside of Japan to warrant a localization. This one was obviously quickly done, resulting in several typos, but that's fine as long as we get subsequent games in the series. At least we've got the DLC case to look forward to.

Also, yeah, the dynamic between the different Phoenix, Apollo and Athena as well as frequently changing perspectives between them is one of the best things about the game. The team synergy is too good. Would have been fun to see Apollo as the lead for the defense with Phoenix as his assistant.

Random points:

- Udgey is eternal.
- I think I'd want to see a case where Juniper is the judge while you play as Hugh with Robin as the prosecution and Myriam as a witness. All great characters.
- I think Maya should return for at least one case in the next game.
- Kinda saddened that Edgeworth is no longer on the front lines and that he doesn't have any subordinates Phoenix Wright style.
- Phoenix Wright vs. Apollo Justice was pretty awesome (and so was Phoenix Wright vs. Phoenix Wright).
- Athena's Objection theme is excellent.
- The Cornered theme wasn't as great as T&T's, but it was still good.
- Presenting the badge never gets old.
- This is one series where I think regularly released sequels and DLC cases would not bother me, as long as the quality remained consistent, of course.
- I can't stop thinking about how the previous games would look like with this style of 3D modelling and with the beautiful animations.
- I like the concept of the Mood Matrix, especially to set up the craziness that was going on with the Phantom, but I feel that it would need a bit more refinement to really shine. For one, I'd appreciate some interruptions from the judge or the prosecution during these sections. The first time it overloaded with Jinxie was a neat moment, so more twists like that could be interesting.
- Pearl being older than Trucy is a bit weird to think about. Would have liked to have seen more interaction between those two.
- One of the best soundtracks in the series.

 

[Lusankya]

- I think I'd want to see a case where Juniper is the judge while you play as Hugh with Robin as the prosecution and Myriam as a witness. All great characters.

I totally thought the same. That would be a great DLC case in my opinion (not really suitable for a normal case in a game though). Considerign the ending of case 3 Myriam doesn't need to be witness again, but could actually be Hugh's sidekick.

 

[McNum]

I'd love to see Juniper as the judge in a case in a new game. Not that there's anything wrong with our good old Judge, he's still as awesome as ever, but for variety's sake.

Apollo sure is blind when it comes to Juniper, by the way. For someone who can see the smallest of nervous tics, it's amazing he can miss that she starts knitting a scarf with hearts on it whenever she talks about him. Might be a clue, you know. Which would make it all the more fun to have Juniper as the judge in a case where you play as Apollo.

Also, am I the only one amused that instead of getting the prosecutor convicted of murder in the final case, you actually clear his name in this one? It's a fun little twist on the usual story.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Also, am I the only one amused that instead of getting the prosecutor convicted of murder in the final case, you actually clear his name in this one? It's a fun little twist on the usual story.

Didn't think of that. Yeah, that's a neat little twist on previous finales in the series.

 

[Nosgoroth]

Also:

I feel like this image just sums up the entire game perfectly.

My little lawyer can't be this emotional.

 

[Sorian]

Just finished the game.

So my theory was right about the big bad being Fulbright, it become so damn obvious after he gave the lighter and the way he was acting in case 4 which reminded me of Persona 4 spoilers

Spoiler

ADACHIIIIIIII

.

But even so the twists were amazing and I lost my mind to when he pulled the mask, for a moment I thought it was Starbuck lol. His breakdown was amazing.

The picture of Athena on Simon Mood Matrix freaked me out. Cant wait for the DLC case.

Well, I was with you on this one but you were the one who was smart enough to post your proof in the OT The second that lighter came into court, everything become so rushed that I knew it had to be faulty evidence and from that point my suspicion fell onto our good detective and well, it never left because there was no one else that really fit the bill. I will say that everything about the final case was fabulous except for the little scooby doo routine, it did make for an extremely excellent breakdown (though I feel that the bullet not killing him was kind of lame, I feel like the people sending assassins for this guy weren't going to send a sniper that can't even get the headshot) but it just felt too......odd I guess.

Other than that though, really spot on final case and really every case was great on its own merits (except for case 4 but thats really because case 4 is just day 1 of the finale case, no real reason that they were split up). I'll have to agree with the general consensus of 3>5>1 and I'm going to have to honestly say Edgeworth=Simon>Godot.

I'll have more to say tomorrow most like but off to bed now since I just marathoned that whole last case.

Also, as a last note, Space Larry was one of the best characters from this game once it was all said and done, loved that post credits anime scene. Shame about the detective though, he had really grown on me after case 3.

 

[Huw_Dawson]

One really despicable thing about Phantom is that for him to get away with replacing the real Fulbright, he would have had to correctly emulate him after the replacement. Which means that the lovable Fulbright from cases 1-4 actually did exist, was murdered, and his corpse lay unidentified for a year!

I need to write up my full thoughts about this game at some point...

 

[OceanBlue]

Also, as a last note, Space Larry was one of the best characters from this game once it was all said and done, loved that post credits anime scene. Shame about the detective though, he had really grown on me after case 3.

I still say that the trio of friends in the third case were my favorites, but I really appreciated how straightforward and honest Space Larry was. It was like a breath of fresh air, especially after the third case. I was so shocked at how he didn't really keep secrets in the beginning of the fourth case that I was surprised at how shocked I was!

 

[Lusankya]

I wonder what are your wishes for the next (main) AA game?

Personally I hope for

- More investigation again
While I really liked the streamlined design and especially the notebook, I wish for the next game that the ability to investigate every single scene returns. In general the focus on investigations was extremely small.

- Better handling of the returning characters
Overall I liked that there were only very few returning characters, but I wished they hadn't announced Pearl and Edgeworth before the game came out. At least one of them should have been a surprise. In addition the returning characters should have enough screen time and be somewhat important to the case/overall plot. Of course it makes sense for Trucy to be there but couldn't they give her a bigger role? Also it seems like that Pearl's reason for her return will only be explained in the DLC.
However contrary to other users I thought Klavier's role was just fine.


- Make the game more difficult
I don't mean to get rid of the hint system, but first don't have Phoenix, Apollo, Athena basically give you the solution in their inner monologue (only maybe after a few failed attempts) and second make harder contradictions.

Most of the time we read stuff like "I saw/heard/did X" and then we have a piece of evidence saying "Not X". That's too easy and a glance over your court record will immediately tell you the contradiction. It should work more like the one example in Mean's testimony when he said he wished to defend Juniper. There is no evidence that says "He doesn't want to defend Juniper", but instead there is a piece of false evidence he gave to Hugh to further frame Juniper. While still a very basic contradiction at least you have to make some connections first. Also I want testimonies where the witness appends new statement(s) and the new statements aren't actually the ones where you have to present evidence (but you still need the new informations to be able to reveal the contradiction in the original statements).

In short: Make the game harder but keep the optional hint systems


- A case with many suspects
Usually it's never about the "Who?" in Ace Attorney, but more about the "How?" and "Why?". For a change I would like to see a case more like an Agatha Christie novel with many suspects and a really hard to guess culprit.


- Ema back as the detective/scientific investigator
I just like her so much and for obvious reasons Fulbright can't return anyways.

 

[spiritfox]

Mood Matrix images are kind of compressed for some reason, same as the pre-cross eye-zooms.

I also have a ton of other screens from the JP version, by the way, if anyone's interested.

I was playing at night when this scene came up. Couldn't sleep for a while. And Edgeworth just casually stating it as fact. Nightmare fuel.

I love the Fulbright reveal. It plays with the basic idea of the bumbling detective being the ever helpful sidekick of Ace Attorney. I was totally thinking that Space Larry (awesome name lol) was the Phantom until the ladder escape plan, because Fulbright cannot be a suspect, right?

So wrong, man. And his breakdown was amazing.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Completed it yesterday.

I enjoyed cases 1,3 & 5, though 4 was a bit weird(the seperation between it and 5 didn't work that well), and 2 wasn't that good.
The change to 3d animation was a surprising victory, especially with Means. His courtroom animations were hilarious. Character designs were great.

Story-wise I'd say it's roundabout in the middle. None of the cases are of the calibre of "Rise from the Ashes", but it's better then AA2 & AA4.
For now I'll go:

AA1
AA3
AA5
AAI
AA4
AA2

(AAI2 feels like it'll slot in behind AAI from cases 1 or 2 at least)

Music-wise, I didn't think the OST was that great to be honest. Only track I really liked was Phantom's.

Random thoughs:

-Mean's grin so early on was a mistake I think - made it obvious it was him
-it was blindingly obvious critical evidence from seven years ago was in the capsule almost as soon as we heard about it
-it was totally oblique about fulbright. That was fantastic, I only realised it about when I presented the ladder & aura's testimony, which is I suppose when I'm supposed to.
-Mood matrix was ok, another arrow in the quiver to make things more interesting along with locks, perceive & the mission impossible style thing from AAI.
-Speaking of locks, they aren't nearly as annoying without a penalty.
-Finally getting to break black locks. Yesssssssssss
-No Kristoph was surprising, but I guess that's Takumi's story to tell, same with the MASON system.
-Investigation streamlining was nice. I like that it shows you what you've already checked out. Squashes one of the biggest time-delayers of the earlier games.

I think structure wise, they've almost perfected how to keep things interesting throughout in an AA game. Would have liked the quality of the scenarios to be a bit higher, and the bad guys to last a bit longer on the stand, but overall this has been a fantastic evolution of the AA series.

 

[Nohar]

I was a little disappointed by the final showdown against Phantom, to be honest. I don't know, I didn't feel the satisfaction I felt when I took down previous Big Bad of the series. However, he definitly has one of the best theme in the series.

Oh well: IN JUSTICE WE TRUST!

Also, I'm half-expecting to see a regular character to die in the next AA game (after all, the cast begins to be a little crowded). And, well, I wonder if Pearl will inherit the family tradition of being cast as a suspect in a murder (after all, Maya was suspected no less than 3 times to have killed someone).

Speaking about Pearl, it was subtle, but she seemed to empathize a lot with Athena, and acted very mature about it. I guess that now she has fully realized what happened when she was young, and managed to understand and accept that her mother is an awful person. I really would love to see a flashback of her being once again manipulated by her mother, but this time she would see right through it and call her out in court. That would be wonderfully cathartic (and tragic).

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I wonder what are your wishes for the next (main) AA game?

I want it to be released in North America. The status of this series truly is on thin ice right now and its future here depends on this game's performance and possibly PLvs.AA's.

I sure hope AA5 does well here. It's such a fantastic game.

 

[OceanBlue]

I want it to be released in North America. The status of this series truly is on thin ice right now and its future here depends on this game's performance and possibly PLvs.AA's.

I sure hope AA5 does well here. It's such a fantastic game.

Hasn't AA always been a niche series in the US? I'm hoping word of mouth gave the series a good boost in popularity, but it's the 5th game in a text-heavy series so I'm ready for bad news.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Hasn't AA always been a niche series in the US? I'm hoping word of mouth gave the series a good boost in popularity, but it's the 5th game in a text-heavy series so I'm ready for bad news.

I'm not aware of the specifics, but I'm pretty certain that sales for the series have actually always been pretty good in North America (outside of maybe AAI?).

On one hand, this is the fifth game in a relatively niche series that was only released on the eShop. On the other hand, it's one of the best games of the year, one of the best looking games on the 3DS (the only game I've actually kept the 3D on for lengthy periods, too) and it was released at a discounted price.

 

[OceanBlue]

I'm not aware of the specifics, but I'm pretty certain that sales for the series have actually always been pretty good in North America (outside of maybe AAI?).

On one hand, this is the fifth game in a relatively niche series that was only released on the eShop. On the other hand, it's one of the best games of the year, one of the best looking games on the 3DS (the only game I've actually kept the 3D on for lengthy periods, too) and it was released at a discounted price.

I don't know anything about the sales of the game, so I'll have to take your word for it. Lol, maybe I should load the game before I go out so people see it as my last played game. The game definitely deserves to do well, so here's hoping!

 

[FluxWaveZ]

The more I think about it, the more I love how they pulled off The Phantom as the Big Bad. He's a constant presence in the story throughout multiple cases and one can't help but compare him to Gumshoe i.e. a good guy. He just seems dumb, helpful and obsessed with justice.

Fantastic twist that I never saw coming.

Edit: Oh, and the moment Phoenix realized he couldn't disprove Athena's guilt and had failed despite all of his efforts totally reminded me of the JFA case when he thought he had failed Maya. For that reason, I had hoped that the memorable animation would return and I felt so glad when it did:

 

[Sorian]

Still waiting for the day where the piece of decisive evidence that will put away the big bad forever is a step ladder.

So I posted this in the OT yesterday.

Spoiler

Well it isn't a step ladder, but.................................

Then I saw this post this morning and had to think about......Yeah I guess I kind of got my wish.

So, question, I'll be vague so I don't have to tag it but whoever answers should probably tag since its a different game. Does the black psychlock explanation hold water in regards to the first time we saw them appear in the series? I don't know if said person was hiding something subconsciously or not.

 

[Nocturnowl]

So, question, I'll be vague so I don't have to tag it but whoever answers should probably tag since its a different game. Does the black psychlock explanation hold water in regards to the first time we saw them appear in the series? I don't know if said person was hiding something subconsciously or not.

*Ace Attorney 4 spoilers*

Spoiler

It's kind of hard to gauge, regarding Kristoph we could assume that he isn't entirely aware of just how dark his actions are relative to the circumstances that birthed them, it could even stem from a sense of insecurity of inferiority after having been dropped from Zak's case for Wright who he would basically describe as a chump of an attorney who gets by on bluffing.
Before the black psychlocks were explained I think the idea was that Kristoph's secret was one he held so deep with such darkness that there's no chance in hell that he'd reveal anything when directly confronted even with the evidence on hand, I kind of feel that this idea still works better for him than the subconscious secret idea.

But in the end it feels the same as it always has, which is to say Kristoph's locks are left up to interpretation, even with this new info coming to light there's nothing solid to really say about them, I mean i'm not sure if it was ever considered that they got broken at the end of AA4 though I guess with his super breakdown and mad laughter you could possibly assume that the locks were forcibly broken and in turn mentally broke him pretty severely. Once again it's really just all guess work.

 

[Vibranium]

I had so much fun with the game, the final case was great to me. I agree with guys that maybe the Phantom was fairly easy to take down, but the way they built up the actual twist was amazing since it initially made me think Fulbright was a Gumshoe replacement. The Phantom reminded me of Chameleon from Spider-Man a lot since he has a forgotten "true face" and exchanges so many disguises on a whim.

Pearl being young-looking for 17 isn't really a big deal considering she has gone through a lot of shit in her time, and I think it was a good move. Edgey's new glasses and position are great too, glad to see he still likes red sportscars.

So who's excited for a 26/27 year old Maya's potential return in AA6 provided we get a localization again!? I can't wait to see how things shake down between her and Phoenix.

What I want in the next game:

Better voice acting, especially if they want to do more anime cutscenes again (Apollo's VA is great, but they botched Edgey and I think Phoenix should be relooked at). Starbuck had a pretty good actor at the end though which was funny.

Examining crime-scenes as much as you want with tons of dialogue.

Harder cases.

Presenting profiles whenever you want.

Maybe a case where you defend the Judge's grandchild (who could have a mini gavel or something haha).

 

[Parablank]

Mood Matrix images are kind of compressed for some reason, same as the pre-cross eye-zooms.

I also have a ton of other screens from the JP version, by the way, if anyone's interested.

I finished this up last night and I got so freaked out when I saw that picture. Man, they just slam it your face for shock (it worked).

The Phantom was way too easy to take down. I didn't expect anything as convoluted as that "person" from the final case in AAI1 but some difficulty akin to

Spoiler

Godot

The 3D models worked out a lot better than I thought it would, unlike other games (VLR).

Is it just me or did investigations seem a lot shorter than before, or is it because they streamlined it so much (note section, telling you when you're done investigating, hardly any need to present items, move anywhere, etc)? I kind of liked the longer investigation sequences. I would love it if they bring back fully examinable environments for AA6.

The game was way too easy, Phoenix practically tells you the answer to the last question of the game (moon earring). There were a bunch of other ones but that one stuck out to me the most.

Just a bunch of random thoughts I had, but for now:
1-5 > 3 > 5 > 3 > 2 > 4 > 1