1/10
The more I think about this case the more it pisses me off, lol. It's a very strong contender with 4-4 and G1-4 for my least favorite case in the series. It's especially disappointing given that the previous game's DLC case was a 10/10 for me, and the previous case in this game was a 10/10 - they just couldn't be further apart in my rankings. Literally two of my top 4 there and then one of my bottom 3.
It just feels like it was written by amateurs. The cast is so terrible and flat that it's completely unworthy of the series. Ellen Wyatt, Sorin Sprocket, and Pierce Nichody all probably make my bottom 10 AA characters list - each one of them is a complete black hole of charisma in a way that's frankly shocking. Larry's return is also depressing - he hasn't changed a bit, in a bad way. He's only become more flanderized since the way he was in AA1. At the beginning of the case I thought maybe he actually found someone he liked who liked him back, good for him! Instead he's just more insane than ever. I hate Larry in this case, and I've never hated him before. It sucks.
The murder is mindnumbingly boring and forgettable. They were really trying to make the 'time travel' twist work but they had to force it super hard with the whole two ceremonies thing - I GUESS this could have been an interesting idea but it just... wasn't? It's super convoluted and doesn't really make sense as a way to trick Sorin at the end of the day. The airship could have been a cool location for a murder I guess but it's somehow not interesting and the steampunk vibes of this case are just bizarre.
The only redeeming quality of this case WOULD be the return of Maya as the sidekick and Edgeworth as the prosecutor but it's honestly just depressing. Like, THIS is what they returned for? This godawful, boring case? Again, it's unworthy of them. Edgeworth has never been the prosecutor of a more boring, lower-stakes case. Maya feels like she's just tagging along here for old time's sake. There's a real sense of the death of the series here, for me - like, oh, we're just reminiscing about how things used to be, but they can't go back to being that way anymore. Everyone feels old here. It's such a depressing vibe after the rest of the game ACTUALLY revives the old magic of the series. I hate it.
The more I rant about this case the more I realize it's easily my least favorite! Every other bad case has some redeeming quality to it that I really like. This has nothing. It just makes me sad.