case by case: 1-5: skye's the limit
It is time once again for our weekly foray into the world of Ace Attorney, one case at a time. Last week we busted myths about a local cryptid; now we get into our first DLC case. I knew this would be a long one, but reader, I dillied and I dallied and I ended up finishing this one at 1:30 in the morning. Spoilers below.
I don't think being very long is inherently a flaw here; it's actually pretty well paced for its length, and in many ways it does what the previous case was trying to do (weave together two mysteries into one), but because it's a longer case it's able to do so more effectively. There is much more of a sense of getting to the bottom of both mysteries at once, of understanding how the cases are connected.
The main notable thing here is that this one introduces more verbs that we can do with our investigations. No longer are we limited to merely presenting evidence; now we can spray luminol to find blood traces (it comes up maybe twice), and dust for fingerprints (ditto), and examine evidence as 3D objects and find little hidden details about them. This is great for adding some more variety and depth to things but it does mean it's way easier to get walled by missing a fairly obvious thing the game wants you to do just because you forgot to try one of your verbs in a specific spot. The case being longer and more involved also means you have more pieces of evidence to keep track of. This is also the first time we are forced get to watch a video and point out clues in the video, which is a cool idea except the fast forward is too slow and we have to listen to the Blue Badger music the whole time. It can be a little maddening.
This also has what is unmistakably one of the most frustrating moments in the entire series, where you are asked to rotate a weirdly-shaped vase until its silhouette resembles the blue badger's weird jester hat, and the controls are janky and it demands a very precise input. Both times I've played this case I ended up googling an image of what the game would accept (though this time I actually had it lined up pretty well on the time I finally gave up and did a search so I didn't need to do the manual adjusting I did my first time through).
I feel like this is also a high point for the game's storytelling so far. The characters here are on the whole less wacky than usual (we have Officer Meekins, who is only briefly present, and I guess you could count Angel Starr, the weird lunch lady slash former detective, and Officer Marshall, the LA cop who thinks he's an old timey cowboy, but they are honestly fairly subdued by Ace Attorney standards), which is in keeping with the general tone here. We are dealing with extensive police corruption and an uncooperative client; our boyfriend Edgeworth is being accused of fraud and forgery and is having a crisis of faith and confidence; things aren't going great in Japanifornia. The fraught sibling relationship of the Skye sisters is well done, and I do enjoy that in the end of this case we once again get to work alongside Edgeworth rather than remaining in the traditionally adversarial role. I think it's safe to say that in many ways this one is Edgeworth's story almost moreso than the previous one. It certainly shows the consequences of having lived through the previous case (and everything that led up to that point).
This is the stuff that has me coming back to the series. Look at all of these characters reacting to adversity: Edgeworth, weathered but standing tall; Lana Skye, who gave up her principles because she was afraid of what would happen; Gumshoe's sacrifice for Edgeworth; and Damon Gant's vanishing wholly into a world where self-aggrandizement is all that matters. It's a goofy world, and Japanifornia is a little bit nonsensical, but Ace Attorney at its best gives us some amazing characters, and some delightful puzzles to unravel.
So, like, yeah, this one had some frustrating moments in investigations and probably could have stood to be a little shorter, but it also shows us so much of what the series can do when it's firing on all cylinders.
Anyway, that wraps up the first game! Next week we'll be moving onto the second game, Justice for All, and we will be seeing the word "fool" a fair number of times and be threatened with a whip more times than feels reasonable for a court of law. I know I'm excited.