LogFAQs > #979877308

Somehow Lord Stronghart looks even more intimidating in the judge's chair. He's taken control of the case himself, presumably as a failsafe in case Kazuma goes rogue. Which he of course does. It's a good way to set the tone for the finale.

Gina is our first witness, and she maintains that Gregson could never be involved in shady dealings and has done more for her than anyone in the world. The same Gregson who, earlier this very year, colluded with a murderer on the witness stand to ensure that she would be found guilty of murder. Well, alright then. And I still don't see a good ingame reason why we don't get Gregsy's notebook in the court record.

I like that we're not handheld much here, the game trusts us to find the SS Grouse and to note Kazuma's statement about the metal trunk. It's good stuff. Though I try to present the gash on the trunk twice before realising there's a fragment of Karuma in there. Whoopsies! I'm also impressed how breakneck the pace of this trial is, I suppose that's the benefit of starting your finale in the middle of an ongoing case. We cut to the chase of the France thing immediately, and quickly after that we're accusing Kazuma of working with the Reaper. I'm really glad we're at this point already, I thought Kazuma would be the final boss and Ryunosuke would only realise his involvement at the end but no we're there already! I mean he has more to confess but the cards are on the table now, what lies ahead is unknown.

Soon after Jigoku's name comes up as the Reaper's intended victim, we have one of the more bullshit court contrivances that I've seen. If we don't manage to produce Jigoku within 30 minutes, the court will take that as concrete evidence that he is dead at the hands of the defendant, who has been locked up for two days. I know this is Stronghart's kangaroo court, but this is truly absurd, I thought he was trying to maintain a facade of this being a fair trial! Not to mention that we don't call Kazuma to the stand, despite him admitting to having traveled with the victim on the night in question and is therefore the last person we know to have seen him alive. And then we have a ridiculous invention from Iris to keep the pace moving along.

...That being said, it's hard to remotely care about any of that because suddenly we're PLAYING AS MIKOTOBA! Investigating with Sholmes! And he taps his feet!!!! A literal Dance of Deduction. All is forgiven, game, what a glorious moment. Unfortunately we don't get to discuss every potential clue in the deduction, and it ends rather quickly, but I am confident that's not the last we'll see of these two together. At least, it had better not be. I can't believe how abruptly Mikotoba has become a main character, or how much I'm enjoying that turn. That was the best scene on a boat in Great Ace Attorney.

We find Jigoku (OK, Hareley was a very effective way to keep the pace moving), and trial ends so he can be called as a witness. Finally, tomorrow we'll have someone in court who saw Gregson the night he died! What's that? Kazuma who?

I don't know where anything is going to go from here but this was a very promising start to the final case, please please let there be more Sholmes+Mikotoba to come.