Board 8 > SovietOmega plays Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Path (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

That's fair, and by all rights should have happened far sooner.

I think what I'll do is wrap up the third case here and make a new one for the final cases so that this abomination of my own making can be put to rest and everyone who jumped ship can pick back up there if they choose to.

Anyway, time to resolve this cold case before spring comes and melts everything.

Scene opens in the detention center, meeting the lady person. We are in the past being Dadworth and Ray again.

Master looks like he's been through a rough time...was he always so white hair'd? Karma's got some evil interrogation techniques...only a fiend would deprive a man of their sleep! At least Badd is putting up some slight resistance.

Gregory wonders if we have anything spirit/sugar related as they talk about some investigation that happened the day prior. Do we? Did it? These are they mysteries we must answer now.
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Right away I am reminded of the little touches this game does. Master is energy starved, so his text moves at a crawl, the music is pretty down to boot creating a very defeated atmosphere.

We're not gonna get anywhere unless we give this poor man some candy. Luckily we happen to have some in our inventory with the description of 'Mr. Master's favorite food'.

One secret under the table chocolate trade later...Master is bursting out into song, a sure sign of recovery.

Now we can finally get somewhere maybe.
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One of the contestants was a cheater, two had desserts that tasted the same, and the statues were amazing. Specifically the lyre, which used to have strings before the tasting. This is a case relevant detail.

Seems that Master has trouble tasting salt? Salty prison food, and apparently the lyre was salty too. Strange. "I just never realized it because I eat nothing but sweets..." the dream of every kid...

A recipe for a drug, how ominous. One of a few things we'll need to look for when we do more mansion stuff.

edit: speaking of energy, time for a little food break
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Patio only, and nobody to talk to about the case. Some pretty strict terms...

Everything except the fountain has been checked already. I wonder if the the fountain is going to be the key to this patio area, the only area we can be in where there is only one thing left to check.

Begin Investigation!

Karma so evil that even authorized personnel are unauthorized to go into the side rooms. Lots of things along the sides that are made of candy...a santa, a reindeer, a trophy, a snowman, and a tree. And a slew of musical instruments that are not.

Kate gives us a photo of the semifinal desserts. Mentions something about Gustavia's son visiting, but not the finals. Fishy. Also recipe book...she's just giving everything away today geez.

Well, I guess that about does it for this patio, can't think of anything else that could possibly need examining.
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This game...thought I would have a quick chat with Kate before fountain time, but nooo, she's turned into an exposition dump. Here, have a photo. Also a shady person. Also the book info. Also Master is the only heir to some pharmaceutical group. Also she's pregnant. I might have made that last one up, but at this rate....

This case has now turned into one big advertisement for Coldkiller X. Coldkiller X, it kills colds dead. Try Coldkiller X today! What are you, a pansy?

Well, at least this explains Delicia's involvement...she was an orderly of the Master Group sent to protect the secrets of the arcane pharmaceutical practices from outsiders. Not evil after all, just spineless and made of dough.

This is a fine plot and all, but it is a little hard to take it seriously when it is being played out with food.
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Kate's been a fine help so far, but the men are getting thirsty now. Gender role reinforcement go! It isn't sexist if it happens in the past.

We ask the forensics guy by the fountain what he's inspecting. He spouts off that there's chocolate and sherbet in the water, a testament to how connected the rooms all are via the circulating water. And then he goes on to say that oh yeah, there's blood too. What a goober.

The blood is Dover's. This is enough to complete this part of the investigation. Can't think of anything else we would really need either, there's plenty of motivation with this pharma secrets book reveal, all that remains to be found are a few of the minor details.

Gustavia is the last link in the chain it seems. Gregory muses about Dover and him...one a skilled chef bad at design, and the other a designer bad at being a chef. Each with suspiciously similar semifinal entries...
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Karma saunters into the scene right on time to dash our hopes and dreams.

While he is not going to permit us to speak to the guy directly, he will graciously allow us to speak to him instead. The relationship between the two contest entrants? None, now scram, according to Karma.

First round was a gimme, just had to point out the point that has been repeatedly established that the desserts were too similar. Karma knew, and suggests that before the finals they did indeed work together, but that's all. He's determined not to budge an inch before court!

Supposedly we have the link that connects the two through to the finals. This one is a bit less obvious...
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Retracked! Will read the contents later.
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Well, not that bad really, just had to present Delicia's testimony that Dover made good sherbet on the final statement, and not the one we got clarified into existence. The case now hinges on novice chefs sucking at cooking or not.

Ahh, that's a cute little twist...Karma was technically correct, the best kind of correct. The cooperation did indeed last until the finals, but that included the making of the sherbet. Seems logical enough.

A little back and forth and Karma give us a photo of a happy gay coup...of Gustavia, Dover, and their sons.
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Karma is a busy man, with little time to waste on peons like Greg. No more arguments, he's just gone. What means will we reach Gustavia with now?

Hmm...Gregory is going on a bit of a sudden logic trip here. Bit lazy game design imo to just dump it at us like the previous investigation, but it does have the proper narrative flow I think. Really, this is less about us connecting the dots here as it is watching Gregory patch it together.

Lack of autopsy report...missing bloodstain...fountain blood...and we are now asked to connect two of these three together. Two of these involve blood sooo...

The blood logics combine to unlock the notion of a moved body idea, which combines with the lack of autopsy report to suggest that Karma is not infallible. Biggest twist of the case yet!
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Gregory decides that Karma's shady shenanigans will not stand, and moves in for what is likely the final confrontation.

Approaches almost philosophical levels with Karma telling ol' Greg that he is the one with burden of proof. One simple test of the 'body' found would be all that is needed. Was it secretly candy? That'd be kinda funny given all the sweets everywhere else.

Submitting proof that Karma didn't find the body is quite the tall order. I guess this is as far as Gregory can really go until court. The rest will have been history from Miles' perspective.
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SovietOmega posted...

Approaches almost philosophical levels with Karma telling ol' Greg that he is the one with burden of proof.

yesss.

really like the ending to this segment, the way it focuses not on discovering the truth, but just on exposing karma's wrongdoing - that's who gregory is - he's dogged and determined not uber-gifted like his son
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Gregory is pretty determined to expose Karma, and everyone is all pumped to save Master here from a wrongful sentencing. Something tells me that it doesn't quite go down as the happy ending given then 'to be continued' and a fast forwarding back to Miles' time.

That'll do it for me for now, will continue later.
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I don't know if I'd say Gregory isn't gifted. He's considered one of the best ever for a reason.
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I'm saying he's not gifted in the same sense Phoenix isn't gifted - he doesn't appear as some super-genius type who's winning as a defense attorney at age 18 or prosecuting at age 13 or whatever.
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he might have been

Edgeworth got it from somewhere
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Thanks to some wonky sleep schedule shenanigans, I will not be continuing until much later today.

I will say though, that Gregory is quite capable, he's just weirdly out of place as this Clark Kent guy who has an Anime for a son.
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speaking of gregory's appearance, gregory's damage animation is so fucking great
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Yeah, Gregory is a bit stiff and serious compared to most playable characters, but I really enjoyed that section.
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Mmk, so we're in the present now, and Miles now has all the information Ray has on the case. Kay asks about the trial, and Ray is quick to just blurt out that they lost. I suppose for him this is a pretty old case, so it is hard to get too worked up about it. Yadda yadda, Karma is Satan, it is a familiar tune to the player too.

Really, the only surprising thing is that Ray mentions the trial dragging on for nearly a year. Here we have a game in the series acknowledging that trials can take more than a couple days to complete. Could you imagine a year long AA case? I couldn't. I would give up after the first week of investigation phases.

More trial summary...Gregory fought hard, but all he could ultimately do is give Karma a legal smack on the wrist with the chief prosecutor giving him a penalty for some forced confession shenanigans.
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So there was some record forgery by Karma and the charge was altered from Miles' perspective, something about hiding the truth so that the statute of limitations could expire.

Miles wonders what can be done now, he seeks the truth of this case in spite of his prosecutor leanings.

'a lot' of evidence from the past case is handed off to Miles. I can only presume that 'a lot' is japanese for 'four' because that's how many new evidences I have.

Oh right, there was the whole incident here in present times with the gas and a certain guest star who will not be named. Gustavia is the victim here this time, which might end up convenient since he was the man that Gregory needed to talk to so badly in the past.
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Ah...I forgot they had found a mysterious body in the fountain too, which knowing what I know now is almost guaranteed to be the missing corpse of Dover. We're pumped to look for clues and be all investigationy but are confronted by a clown.

If we're gonna move forward it appears we will have to identify the body. Since we've been paying attention, this is a breeze. Even if we hadn't been paying attention, most of the options are kinda still alive and currently having a conversation.

That's right, it is Isaac Dover, whose current age is 'dead', according to the profile.

Courtney is fighting tooth and nail to keep Miles from getting in on this, even going so far as to say that the truth is none of his business, but Miles has more than just a father/son generational bond going for him here, but also has Ray, who is something of a living witness to the events that transpired.
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Ray defends Miles as son of Gregory, student of Karma, and witness to the trial's end. Miles may lack the direct connection Ray has, but he has pretty much every side connection one could ask for.

And so we are permitted to examine just the patio again. Feels like old times.

Our goal will be to find how the body was hidden, and also the normallium. Apparently the liquid is being given a higher priority for some reason. It also has a minty aroma. I am now desiring some chocolate mint candy.
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hype for the endgame.
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Bump for now, will work on tackling this tail end of the case in a few hours.
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a few hours later...

"wtf where did all that time go, zzz"

anyway, we're in the present examining a room for a thing that is normal.

Statues of a man fighting a snake..."The Math Test". Heh, reminded me of our resident letter rearranger.

We chat with Ray who naturally asks how the investigation is going. Since this conversation can happen at any point, Miles is forced to be super vague and respond that he's little by little forming a picture of what happened. Turns out that since the body was never really found, there was no funeral for Dover...how that didn't cause hell to be raised by his family and friends is beyond the scope of this game.

Mercifully, the discussion with Larry is short and only there so that the audience can see his sexist ways ogling Courtney under the pretense of 'art'. The puddle of tea in front of him has more character development and plot significance than him.
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And now for some tea. Mint tea, perhaps. That would be too easy...

Miles logics that the tea from earlier had a different aroma. That's...actually pretty neat. If Miles made a minty comment then, I sure glossed over it.

This new information is a bit soured by SJW Larry bashing Miles for daring to say anything about the tea that Kate made. Meanwhile, in Miles' head "...It's like arguing with a child..."

Two aroma logics and the game denies me connecting them...either that assumption is wrong, or there is another puzzle piece we need to combine before the game lets us acknowledge it.
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Larry switched the pots. Classic Larry. Probably secretly doomed us all, who knows what was meant to be hidden in that other teapot.

But for now we are fine, and Larry is gonna make it all better by showing us a sketch of beauties. It...actually doesn't look half bad by this game's standards.

...Jesus Christ Larry. He could have just left well enough alone, but had to specifically point out that the beauties only apply to Courtney and Kate, not the plump one. That is literally a view that he just expressed. I get we're supposed to have a low opinion of him, but come on!
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We connect tea aroma to switched pots. Kate suddenly remembers she fixed some mint tea the other day. As an avid drinker of tea, this would be quite plausible to me if we were not in the middle of a murder mystery where minty arema is one half of a deadly assassin. Either it is true, and the one with murderous intent thought they could use the mint as a cover, or Kate is less innocent than she seems.

So basically, the culprit is either Kate or anyone who drank Kate's tea. Aka pretty much everyone.
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sjw larry more like white knight larry
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Gamergate Larry. Misogynist Larry, Nazi Larry. Really, there is no end to the labels you could give him, so long as Larry is attached, they're gonna be worse off for it.

Theorizing about the natural evolution of Larry's character aside, there is an attempted murder to solve!

With all the right means to set up the trap, Kate is the logical suspect. She points the finger at a week's worth of potential outsider suspicion, and also Delicia. Furthermore, she proclaims that she does not know how to make poison gas. Miles suggests that he will have to shatter that argument.

Of note, this investigation phase is still going. Also of note, this is all only half the equation, there is still the matter of how the body was hidden and all the connecting evidences and fighting people for the truth to get to.
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A lift trolley that's wet, and was seen by Ray where some of the sculptures were. It makes me think the body might have been frozen inside one of them, but that might be a bit of a stretch.

The fountain itself is the last thing to investigate. Despite the forensics guy saying it was all clear before, he reports now that there's trace amounts of normallium, fatalium, and sugar.

This triggers a call from Gumshoe, who has some winter palace details for us. The Taurus case had only sugar, but the Gemini one had...sugar, salt, and blood! Also a rainbow light thing and notes about liquids. Quite an evidence dump all of a sudden!
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Delicia is naturally a good source for poison intel, being a pharmacist and all. Seems if you know the Angel recipe you can make poison, and we know from Ray that Kate got the recipe back as well as the mansion too. This is all shaping up to be preeeetty damning stuff!

Ahh...so Delicia found the fluorescent cloth in the fountain...THAT's what Larry was drawing...which Miles goes on to think the same.

All this and we're stiiiill not done. I even connect the two logics of the Angel Recipe and Kate having the book, which Miles says is the link needed to expose her. But yet, no new dialogue has opened up with her, and the investigation continues to go!

A much clearer picture is being formed though, and the next round of arguments should seal the deal if I can just find the one bit I need to move the case along.
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dat gumshoe competence
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this will need a bump. unlikely to get to it today, but im feeling like it can be wrapped up very soon.
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Mmk...

So, the helper chats are about as useful as they ever are 'the case is a mist but we already have everything we need, just gotta logic blah blah the mists will fade'.

One thing that's been bugging me was the tea cart investigation area, as it has the option to deduce, but it is presented without preamble or comment. Usually Miles says something like 'i won't stop until i've uncovered everything in the scene' or if everything has been found he'd go with something like 'i've already examined everything, but it never hurts to double check'.

But going on the assumption that there is something here to uncover, I do notice that the drawing we have shows a blue cloth and candy rather than the white one and a tea set.

One deduction later and we get in a conversation about the number of service carts and trolly carts. Definitely casts some major suspicion on Kate too...why, I bet you could fit a wet body on one of them...
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Investigation complete!

Miles complains that the chocolates are nice, but too sweet for his tastes. Why can't you just appreciate hand made chocolate like a normal person Miles?! Kay, on the other hand, has no problem enjoying them. If this were a darker series, here would be where the poison would hit and Kate would watch as two people die of natural causes right before her eyes...

But this is AAI, and while it can dip into sad territory, it just isn't that kind of game!

Finally, we're at what has to be the climax. It is fite time, and our opponent is Courtney and/or Kate. We don't even have to fight the point that she knew how to make the poison, game gives us that as a freebie. But the flames needed to kick start the reaction...that is left untouched. I imagine the melted chocolates will come into play there.

"Thinking the other way around" ...! (Did my father do that too?)

And so, one turnabout later, Miles suddenly knows all. It is now my job to see if I can keep up...
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Her initial testimony is almost reasonable...if the game were not so open about suggesting the sculptures are the giveaway it might have been difficult sniffing out the contradiction. She says she made replicas but...composition is not so easily forged. The game suddenly dumps a chemistry lesson on us while the music starts to rev up. Sugar comes in different forms you see....

18 years ago...Kate did some stuff. But did she steal the sculptures? Before doing any pressing, this sounds like it might be hard. Perhaps the game will point me in the right direction again.

Oh man, is every press gonna be 'could she have stolen the sherbet here, y/n'? Interesting....and some of the extra dialogue here is nice too.

The post testimony suggestion was for me to listen to someone who was there, aka Ray. And on the tea comment, Ray is telling me about how she pushed her cart back and forth....that already sets off alarms for me, but then he goes on to mention how Gregory commented on the saucers being chilled. Yeah, there's no way this isn't the right time. Shame they made it this obvious with using important coloring for chilled saucers, but I could see someone getting lost without a clear marker here given all the dialogue in the other choices and a vague goal of 'figure out when these giant sculptures were stolen during some day 18 years ago'.

Really, it is a very poetic time to steal the sculptures too given how much that tea set is wrapped up into her character not to mention the present case too.
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Even coming this far, it seems to do Miles little good. Kate admits to stealing, but those pesky Statute of Limitations rear their ugly head here and deny any courtroom destinations.

But Miles is not one to be so easily halted. No, he knows where the body is at! And after thinking about it a bit, so do I! It was as I suspected, the body is hidden in one of the sculptures. I didn't quiiiite catch the cloth bit, but it made lots of sense after the fact.

It is a simple matter to tie in the present body movement given the established means that happened in the past. I just dislike that I am going to have to use that person's sketch to do it with.

And what is the final nail in the coffin...not just a sketch but....chocolate. That's just rich!

Aww...the game goes one step further and has us point out she's wearing the tablecloth. Not quite as rich then, but still alright.
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And yet, it is not the end. For Kate was truly acting out of love, and was innocent all along. This present day a setup to sniff out the true culprit, who could only be Gustavia given the limited pool of people left.

We've an important decision to reach...to accuse or not to accuse. We have no evidence to back us up, but what can we do but press on for the Truth?
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So, now that you've come to this moment, let us declare that you have finally figured out that the victim...was iced over.
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Miles makes the accusation..it was obviously Dane! The trap is explained in full and everything is a bit more somber now.

Somehow we're supposed to find a solution in all this. Somehow it is to be continued. Somehow this case is still going. Please just make it stop...we figured the things out, it is supposed to be the end!

But we gotta find some way to save Master now, and it is probably going to involve some kind of clever statute of limitations loophole, i'm thinking either the living in foreign nation clause will be important, or if they're feeling particularly devious, the bit that mentions the statute being frozen.
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Huh. It resumed.

That's nice.

really like the showdown with kate, especially the fact that she winds up not being the real killer

enjoy the battle with gustavia!
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Ugh, I wanted to finish this case off today, but I've been feeling sick the past couple days, and it might be reaching a peak now. You are all horrible people for stooping to the level of ice puns <3.
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