Board 8 > Rate the Ace Attorney case: Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band (G2-2)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules:

1. Rate each case on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Anything above 10 gets rounded down to a 10, and anything below a 1 gets rounded up to a 1.
2. Anything beyond one decimal point will be rounded accordingly: .04 and below will be rounded down, .05 and up will be rounded up.
3. You may grade on any criteria you like.
4. You can rate cases from previous topics if you miss a topic.

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PiEuURt1qf19VoYzcFCU1EFa8uqs2teJiVcip7JmjDw/edit?usp=sharing

Previous Results:

Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5) - 9.8 (37 votes)
Farewell, My Turnabout (2-4) - 9.7 (30 votes)
Turnabout Revolution (6-5) - 9.6 (25 votes)
Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4) - 9.2 (32 votes)
Turnabout Reclaimed (5-6) - 8.8 (23 votes)
The Golden Court (L-3) - 8.6 (14 votes)
The Inherited Turnabout (E2-3) - 8.5 (16 votes)
Turnabout Beginnings (3-4) - 8.4 (26 votes)
The Rite of Turnabout (6-3) - 8.4 (22 votes)
Rise from the Ashes (1-5) - 8.2 (28 votes)
The Stolen Turnabout (3-2) - 8.2 (24 votes)
Turnabout For Tomorrow (5-5) - 7.9 (27 votes)
Turnabout Memories (3-1) - 7.4 (30 votes)
Turnabout Samurai (1-3) - 7.4 (29 votes)
Turnabout Academy (5-3) - 7.4 (27 votes)
The Grand Turnabout (E2-5) - 7.3 (16 votes)
Turnabout Target (E2-1) - 7.1 (17 votes)
Turnabout Trump (4-1) - 6.9 (25 votes)
The Magical Turnabout (6-2) - 6.7 (22 votes)
Recipe for Turnabout (3-3) - 6.6 (27 votes)
The Fire Witch (L-2) - 6.6 (14 votes)
Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2) - 6.5 (25 votes)
The Monstrous Turnabout (5-2) - 6.5 (23 votes)
The Adventure of the Great Departure (G1-1) - 6.0 (20 votes)
Turnabout Ablaze (E1-5) - 6.0 (19 votes)
The Cosmic Turnabout (5-4) - 5.9 (24 votes)
Turnabout Sisters (1-2) - 5.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Reminiscence (E1-4) - 5.6 (22 votes)
Turnabout Storyteller (6-4) - 5.3 (21 votes)
The Imprisoned Turnabout (E2-2) - 5.3 (16 votes)
The Forgotten Turnabout (E2-4) - 5.2 (16 votes)
The Foreign Turnabout (6-1) - 5.0 (23 votes)
Turnabout Visitor (E1-1) - 5.0 (20 votes)
The Final Witch Trial (L-4) - 5.0 (13 votes)
The First Turnabout (1-1) - 4.9 (25 votes)
The Kidnapped Turnabout (E1-3) - 4.6 (22 votes)
English Turnabout (L-1) - 4.3 (14 votes)
Turnabout Airlines (E1-2) - 4.2 (22 votes)
Turnabout Countdown (5-1) - 4.1 (24 votes)
Turnabout Corner (4-2) - 4.0 (25 votes)
Turnabout Time Traveler (6-6) - 3.9 (19 votes)
Turnabout Big Top (2-3) - 3.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Succession (4-4) - 3.5 (24 votes)
The Lost Turnabout (2-1) - 3.3 (27 votes)
Turnabout Serenade (4-3) - 2.7 (24 votes)

Yeah, everyone pretty much agreed here. Good development for the GAA cast, especially for Ryunosuke and Kazuma. However, it's too long, Korekuta and Nosa are not the best witnesses, and the steak switching is pure fluff.

Summary:

Ryunosuke sets off for England with legal assistant Susato Mikotoba in tow, but things take a turn for the worst when a strange murder occurs on board the steamship they're traveling on. To crack this case, Ryunosuke's going to need the skills of a certain Great Detective...

Main Characters: Ryunosuke Naruhodo, Kazuma Asogi, Susato Mikatoba, Herlock Sholmes
Other Characters: Satoru Hosonaga, Bif Strogenov, Grimesby Roylett, Vilen Borshevik, Pirozhko, Nikolina Pavlova, Darka

My rating: 2/10. There's a lot of bad here. It's an investigation-only case and the murder is...quite silly. Even more devastating that Kazuma's taken out really early in GAA, so RIP his theme song. The cast is really weak with Hosonaga really being the only good part here. That said, I'll give it a point for Susato and especially Sholmes, who both make really good first impressions.

whoops wrong case #

6/10. Its quite interesting how it plays with the traditional case structure and twists what you expect from a typical case. The actual mystery is silly but I think it has some emotional heft to it. Also the way they pay off Kazuma in the second game definitely lessens the worse aspects of it.

3

Investigation only cases shouldn't exist. That being said I don't mind the characters.

1.9/10

0.5 points alone for the shot of Ryunosuke freaking out, wishing there was someone on his side, only to pan over and see Sholmes hanging onto a coat hook wearing a tiara.

5/10

It's the Herlock Sholmes show! That's... basically it. I kinda like the cramped nature of this mystery being in one tiny little corridor on a boat, and again, it's great development for both Ryunosuke and Susato and a good way to introduce them to each other. But yeah, it's really the Herlock Sholmes show, and... well, honestly, he alone does kind of make this case worth it, imo? It has TWO dances of deduction! Kinda like divination seances, those always provide major added value because they're just so good. Even though this case has no trial segments and the murder is, frankly, stupid, I feel I can't justify giving this worse than a 5/10 because of the interactions of the main cast alone. Both Susato and Sholmes are in peak form in their debuts (yeah I know Susato is in the first case but not really).

MrSmartGuy posted...

1.9/10

0.5 points alone for the shot of Ryunosuke freaking out, wishing there was someone on his side, only to pan over and see Sholmes hanging onto a coat hook wearing a tiara.

This except it's like +3 points for me

2.5/10

Definitely in the bottom 5 for the series for me. I don't need a replay to know that. Nothing about this case really works aside from the debut of Sholmes, and there's plenty more of him in other cases, so I'm not giving this one too much credit just for him being in it.

5.5

The real tragedy of this is that Kazuma is gone too soon and he has the best theme in the game

Despite being an Edgeworth Investigates apologist, the investigation focus is boring. Pick something else besides three boring rooms to investigate!!!!!

I feel bad for the killer, despite thinking the murder method is pretty damn stupid. And we didn't even see her cat in the end ... I wanted to see the cat. No, photos of the cat DON'T cut it.

Herlock and Susato have good introductions. Deduction sequences nice and its always fun seeing Herlock stand around like a weirdo.

2

I expected Kazama to bite it as soon as he appeared, but even I didnt expect him to go as fast as Mia did.

4

A case without a trial was an interesting experiment. One that should not be repeated.

I forget, is Nikolina ever told the truth about what happened with Kazuma?

3/10

+1 point for making Ryunosuke and Kazuma staying in the same room, giving rise to many fanfics and fan arts.

TeamRocketElite posted...

I forget, is Nikolina ever told the truth about what happened with Kazuma?

I don't think she's ever mentioned again after this case

3

We should never have another trial-less case in an Ace Attorney game ever again.

Paratroopa1 posted...

I don't think she's ever mentioned again after this case

I could swear that Sholmes mentions in the second game sending her off to wherever instead of jail.

1

It sucked playing it and thinking about it only makes the case seem worse.

2

5/10

I didn't think it was too bad

3.5

Cool intro for Sholmes.

The speckled band refers to the pattern on the snake

Will this topic series simply end after GAA2?

Yeah, I think participation will drop to single-digits if I do fan games or AA cases in musicals, books, etc.

This case also introduces the best jury member in the duology.

Maybe we could rate Ace Attorney appearances in other games

Or there's always Danganronpa I guess

Or we could endeavor to rate Ace Attorney characters

That'll give us another year of topics

Yeah, characters was a thought I had. The casts are really big though. You probably wouldn't want to rate absolutely everyone, but I'm not sure where the cutoff would lie.

I demand to rate Cindy Stone

Several weeks of the irrelevant side characters from PWxL no one can remember the names of, obviously.

Rate the characters by cases might not be so bad.

Anagram posted...

Several weeks of the irrelevant side characters from PWxL no one can remember the names of, obviously.

Excuse you, Tuggit deserves a fair rating

Raka_Putra posted...

Rate the characters by cases might not be so bad.

So, what, I give Phoenix a score for every case he's in?

Rate the Ace Attorney's Performance

That'll be pretty fun to see.

...especially for the AJ ones!

I can do AA characters, but I would probably keep it to playable characters, assistants, prosecutors/rivals, detectives, and judges or do it case-by-case. Or maybe I can do both: a series for major characters and a series for each case.

Don't feel like you need to if you're not up for it, but if you wanted restrictions, I'd say limit it to main characters, defendants, culprits, and then anyone who offers a testimony (sorry, Lisa Basil).

Leonhart4 posted...

Don't feel like you need to if you're not up for it, but if you wanted restrictions, I'd say limit it to main characters, defendants, culprits, and then anyone who offers a testimony (sorry, Lisa Basil).

And Charley. Gotta have Charley.

Charley falls under main characters, naturally

Bitto posted...

I can do AA characters, but I would probably keep it to playable characters, assistants, prosecutors/rivals, detectives, and judges or do it case-by-case. Or maybe I can do both: a series for major characters and a series for each case.

Any of those would be cool with me!

2.5/10

A locked room mystery murder of a major character set across 3 rooms with a small cast and no court case could be compelling, tense, claustrophobic. Instead it's dull, repetitive, and drags on for far too long. There's not much substance here. We're supposed to find Nikolina very sympathetic but she bores me and I don't think the angle of her being super desperate and alone works when we've established she has the entire crew unquestioningly behind her.

I didn't hate playing through this, but that's pretty much entirely down to the wonderful Sholmes. And he of course becomes a main character and gets cooler things to do later on so it can't boost this case too much. And even then, they probably did one too many deduction dances here, and his theories are far more compelling than the truth. The tone of this case is really odd, they have instant emotional investment from the player with the brutal death of Kazuma this early on, but the case can't decide if it wants to be serious or goofy and oscillates between the two wildly.

Side note I really thought Hosonaga was going to be a long term recurring character after this, but we only see him again once in the whole duology! And this is very minor but why did Kazuma never simply bolt his door so Ryunosuke could wander around the cabin freely in the evening?

TeamRocketElite posted...

I forget, is Nikolina ever told the truth about what happened with Kazuma?

Yes, in the second game Sholmes mentions having told her the truth and helping her get to America.
LightningStrikes posted...

This case also introduces the best jury member in the duology.

Fair, this is a great call back (as are the ship scenes in G2-5). But I credit the later cases for that, not this one!

andylt posted...

And this is very minor but why did Kazuma never simply bolt his door so Ryunosuke could wander around the cabin freely in the evening?

Didn't they establish that the rocking of the ship causes the bolt to come loose?

Yes but nobody knew that before the murder!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1776fcb0.jpg

5

Actually, 4.

1

...

Looks like I need to get back into GAAC seeing how I wasn't the only one who hated this case.

One of the weaknesses of the first game is that Takumi clearly viewed this almost as a prologue to set up the rest of the story he actually wanted to tell, and it suffers for it.