Board 8 > Yet another Great Ace Attorney Playthough topic (spoilers as I go)

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Topic may also contain spoilers for AA1-6 and AAI1. AAI2 and PWvsL spoilers will be marked.

I'm going through G1-1 and the first defendant is Ryunosuke Naruhodo. That was fast. I'm surprised even though I shouldn't be. I'm introduced to Kazuma Asogi who is Ryunosuke' best friend and a lawyer. It's not really a name I'm familiar with from pre-release material but I did avoid a lot of it. Kazuma is supposed to represent Japan overseas? My understanding is Ryunosuke is supposed to be the one to do that which is not a good sign for Kazuma. Kazuma was also at the restaurant where the murder happened. He's totally guilty. We get introduced to Yujin Mikotoba and a female character I recognize but don't recall the name of. In any case, the trial begins!

The prosecutor is Auchi. I think that was Payne's family name in Japanese? Ryunosuke starts of with hijacking the defense and defending himself in the trial. Yes! From there we go through the usual tutorial. The victim name is John H. Wilson. I'm not sure if there's a pun in there. Also, black and white photos are back in style.

We go through a few witnesses: Satoru Hosonaga, Iyesa Nosa and Kyurio Korekuta. They all seem to be in on a cover up trying to hide the existence of a mystery woman who was at the restaurant. The game doesn't support voice commands which is unfortunate. But, that won't stop me from yelling at my Switch anyways. Yes! We take apart the testimonies and eventually figure out that Hosonaga is a police inspector who was manipulating the other witnesses. I definitely tried to turn over the card before but it wasn't possible. The mystery woman is one Jezaille Brett.
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John Wilson is supposed to be John Watson but it's the same copyright issue that gave us Herlock Sholmes.

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Oh, and they just killed Watson off in 1-1? RIP
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I know right

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Part 2 begins with Hosonaga and Jezaille on the stand. Jezaille can't understand Japanese (or at least is pretending not to). There is this fancy script that is used for Jezaille's English. I wonder if the text is actually English in the Japanese version. Kazuma and Ryunosuke seem to know enough English to spot check Hosonaga's translations so I probably don't need to worry about fake translations. Jezaille explicitly lies and points at Ryunosuke as the culprit so it looks like she will be the true culprit of the case. We think we have her on the handbag issue but it turns out the handbag was see through and no gun could be seen. I have no idea what's wrong with the picture. Like I do see the mark on the wrist but how does that mean anything? I go through the Court Record and it hits me. It matches the hot plate! It's a bit of a stretch but Ryunosuke tries to push the idea that this means Dr. Wilson was dead even before the steak came out. I don't quite follow since it seems like Dr. Wilson could have died after the steak was brought but before he burned his hand. Also, it's a bit hard to tell when Hosonaga is translating for Jezaille but I get the impression she knows what is going on even when he doesn't seem to be translating anything.

There it is. Jezaille speaks Japanese. So she knows everything that is going on. The timing of the burn is based on the fact that the hot plate had to still be really hot which means it was just brought out. Although, I'm still not quite sure how a corpse that isn't moving ends up touching the plate at any point. Like the steak should be in front of Jezaille not Dr. Wilson since it was her meal.

I get introduced to the new "pursue" game mechanic. Hosonaga seems to react to Jezaille trash talking the Japanese police. Hosonaga is pretty cool. He manages to save the case by aggressively saving evidence including the water bottle. I'm guessing the water was poisoned. Can we test for that in ancient Japan? Is Auchi going to try drinking it? Hosonaga tested the water for poison already. What a guy! No poison was found, though. We're in trouble again but Susato Mikotoba shows up to save the day! I actually forgot she was told to to get something for us.

That brings an end to Part 2. I didn't expect this case to be this long.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

I wonder if the text is actually English in the Japanese version.

I'm pretty sure it's just the same scrawl in Japanese. She has the fancy script for the times you can actually read her English, too.

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That's true. I thought it was pretty <good> how they used a font change to indicate what language she was speaking.
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Part 3 begins! The gift from Susato is a copy of Jezaille's research on Curare which is a state of the art poison from Japan's perspective. As a result, it won't show up in any tests. So it turns out Auchi does not drink the water, Jezaille does instead! That bring us to yet another snag. The allegedly poisoned water had no effect on Jezaille. It looks like it's time to hit the Court Records again. The poison only works on open wounds and Dr. Wilson just had dental surgery done. Ryunosuke's first Objection! He says Take That as well now. We then hit another road block when Jezaille brazenly destroys the bottle of water.

To push on, we get back to how Dr. Wilson was shot. It was after he died but we still don't know how it happened or where the gunshot sound came from. Ryunosuke thinks there will be some clue on Jezaille's steak plate and it is Hosonaga to the rescue! He kept the plate as well but the expected blood spot isn't there. That actually makes sense since there was no blood spot in the photo either. Ryunosuke examines the steak plate anyways and finds the Koban coin?! It seems like this is the wrong steak plate somehow. Nosa and Korekuta are called back to the stand. It turns out that Nosa stole the coin, hid it under the steak then switched the plates. I was thinking it was going to be Jezaille who switched the plates because of the blood stain but it seems not. We also go through this line of reasoning with bite marks that doesn't seem necessary to me since the Koban coin already shows the plates were switched. In any case, the other steak plate is brought in and the blood stain is there! (Why did Hosonaga not notice this? He seemed to be on the ball testing other evidence.) Jezaille has seen enough and confesses to the crime. I'm still not sure where the second gun came from but Jezaille helpfully admits she hid it under her skirt. Ryunosuke gets a Not Guilty!

So Jezaille turned around the chair Dr. Wilson was in and Nosa switched the steak plates and neither noticed each other despite being the only ones in an open room. I'm not really sure that works out. Korekuta was also there but he was adamant about being focused on the missing Koban coin to the exclusion of all else. Also Hosonaga would have seen the Dr. Wilson facing one way when he went to capture Ryunosuke and facing a different way when he came back. It is possible he didn't notice, but that's not really a small change. Also I think the original bottle to curare was brought it on is just missing. It wasn't in Jezaille's bag and I don't think Hosonaga mentioned taking it but maybe he did.

After the trial Ryunosuke thinks about how Jezaille never said why she killed Dr. Wilson. Since Jezaille won't face trial in Japan, he may never find out. Kazuma is also still going to Great Britain. I really thought he was going to give up his spot to Ryunosuke somehow but I guess not. Kazuma wants to ask Ryunosuke for a favor but is interrupted since it is time to go celebrate.

Case 1-1 End

Overall I like the case but it definitely felt a bit long. It felt like we ran into a brick wall a few too many times during the case. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not entirely sure the details of the case work out that well. Jezaille was a whatever culprit (water drinking scene was neat, though) but Hosonaga was a lot of fun and Kazuma's pretty cool. I don't know the track name, but there's this really cool song that plays sometimes when Kazuma shows up. I'm interested in seeing where things go from here since Ryunosuke still isn't leaving Japan at this point in the story.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKIsiaCcoJU

I'm assuming you mean this song? Because yeah, it's excellent.

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Yep, that's the one!
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Case G1-2

The case opens up with a cryptic opening sequence of Sholmes and Wilson finding a snake that is referred to as a speckled band. I wonder what that's about. But no time for that since we then jump to Sholmes in the middle of solving a closed room murder. The culprit is... Ryunosuke! I guess he gets to be the defendant in 1-2 as well. The identity of the victim is Kazuma. ;_; That's a shame. I guess that explains why I didn't seem to hear much about Kazuma before the game came out. I doubt he'll be cheating death via spirit channeling but maybe I'm wrong!

Everyone is on a ship to London. Kazuma convinced Ryunosuke to stowaway on board which is why Ryunosuke was in the wardrobe. The facts of the case are Kazuma's room was locked from the inside when he was killed and the only other person in the room was Ryunosuke. There's also a dying message in Russian. Dying messages don't exactly have the greatest track record but considering this one is written in Russian, I think it's safe to say Kazuma didn't write it.

Sholmes shows up and finally introduces himself as Herlock Sholmes. Susato knows who he is. He's the most famous detective in the world! I'm not exactly sure what to make of him. I did see a bit of him from pre-release material. Sholmes apparently knows a Dr. Wilson. Probably the same Dr. Wilson from 1-1 but he doesn't go into detail. Sholmes dumps some info on us and helps to translate some of the Russian. Sholmes once again confirms it was a closed room. We also get an article on the revolutionary Vilen Borshevik and ballerina Nikolina Pavlova. Sholmes doesn't really know much Japanese, though so Susato has to help read Kazuma's diary entry about a speckled band and whsitling noise from last night. Overall investigating Kazuma's cabin doesn't turn up much useful information. Ryunosuke finds a few things but the closed room remains closed other than a vent that is too small for a human to get through.

Hosonaga shows up! I really like Hosonaga and he continues to shine here with his unwavering faith in Ryunosuke being innocent. Hosonaga's special orders were to be Kazuma's body guard. Oof. He really takes his failure hard. He tries to make up for it by letting Ryunosuke and Susato leave the room to investigate more. In regards to Susato she the investigation partner and I like her well enough but at the same time don't have much to say. Maybe that will change after she warms up to Ryunosuke since right now she still thinks there's a chance that Ryunosuke killed Kazuma.

In the hallway outside, senior crewman Bif Strogenov shows up. According to his log book, nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. We also find out the neighbour is Grimesby Roylott before Strogenov is called away. Next up is going to the neighbouring cabin to meet Roylott.

Sholmes enters with us (I thought he would already been in the room) and accuses Roylott of being Vilen Borshevik and kidnapping Pavlova. It doesn't really make sense so Susato suggests swapping out a few words to fix it. It's time for the first Dance of Deduction! Sholmes removes the handcuffs for the dance of deduction so Capcom doesn't need to make custom animations. The Dance of Deduction presentation is super cool and leads to discovering that Roylott is really Nikolina Pavlova who is hiding a pet of some sort.

We've run into the problem that Pavlova doesn't seem to be the one who killed Kazuma either. In any case, Ryunosuke asks Pavlova about what happened last night. She says she didn't notice anything and she's not keen on letting us investigate her room either. There's also the mystery of how she got on the ship since she must have boarded last night but there was no stop the previous night. My current guess is the mystery pet is wearing a speckled something and got through the vent but why that would even matter is still a huge question mark. We get thrown out of the room.

Part 1 complete.

The closed room mystery is interesting so far. I'm still at a loss on how it happened or if the culprit has even shown up in the case yet.
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Yeah, I like Hosonaga a lot, too. His fist pump animation is one of my favorites in the game so far.

Also, a lot of stuff in this case is a reference to a story called The Adventure of the Speckled Band, as you may have guessed. There's a lot of misdirection in this case that will completely go over your head if you haven't read it. For instance, Grimesby Roylott is the name of the culprit in that story.

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Part 2 was a lot shorter!

Since we can't investigate Pavlova's cabin, we check back with Hosonaga. He's in pretty bad shape and nearly got thrown off the ship for helping Ryunosuke. He really did risk his life to help us out. What a guy! It looks like Kazuma's post-mortem report is ready. Cause of death appears to be a broken neck. The report (barring future updates) says death was instantaneous. So Kazuma definitely didn't write the dying message. Sholmes did an analysis on the mark on the floor near the piece of glass and it seemed to be shoe polish. So maybe the glass came from a bottle of shoe polish? One final thing is Hosonaga mentions he has a headache like Ryunosuke. I guess there was something in the food last night? As I recall, Ryunosuke ate it all since Kazuma didn't like eating chicken (a rare misstep in his character). Also, now that I think about it the books in Pavlova's room were also slanted the same way as the books in Kazuma's room for some reason.

Back in the hallway we get an update from Sholmes. Apparently the log book normally has the phrase "nothing to report" in it when there is actually nothing to report. Instead the log back was suspiciously blank last night which suggests something did happen. Sholmes and Susato also confirm they have headaches so there was definitely something wrong with the food last night.

Since it is now unguarded, we go back to investigate Pavlova's room. "The bolt wouldn't just slide across of its own accord, would it?" Did Susato just spoil the surprise? That sounds like what might have actually happened somehow. Especially when combined with what happened to the books on the bookshelf. Maybe someone hit to emergency stop button which is what caused the books to tip over and the door to lock. Ryunosuke says that can't happen, though. But, he's wrong. The ship literally does an emergency stop which both causes the books to get knocked over and the door to lock itself. Ryunosuke sort of lucks into the answer but that's still one part of the mystery down.

Hosonaga comes knocking on the now closed door and Part 2 comes to an ominous end.

Two parts down and still no trial. I'm not really sure how a trial would even work since the boat is near Hong Kong right now. In modern Japan, a trial could be held on a moving train so a boat probably would have been doable as well. Not as easy in the current time period, though.
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Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, I like Hosonaga a lot, too. His fist pump animation is one of my favorites in the game so far.

Also, a lot of stuff in this case is a reference to a story called The Adventure of the Speckled Band, as you may have guessed. There's a lot of misdirection in this case that will completely go over your head if you haven't read it. For instance, Grimesby Roylott is the name of the culprit in that story.

Oh, I unfortunately have not read that story.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

In modern Japan, a trial could be held on a moving train

only in the anime!

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Part 3 begins and Sholmes claims the murder from last now has been solved. It looks like I'm nearing the end. My initial feeling is that Kazuma died by accident but this doesn't really line up with the evidence. Like maybe Kazuma did write the dying message and it was a meant to tell the Russian speaking crew to go rescue Ryunosuke from the wardrobe or something. But, that doesn't match up with the post-mortem report saying Kazuma died instantly.

Sholmes is trying to break open the closed room via the ventilator. The identity of the speckled band is a snake! Now that I think about it, this was revealed in the opening cutscene but I just forgot. The claim is the Pavlova's mystery pet is the snake and it went through the ventilator, killed Kazuma then came back the same way. The great deduction sequence is quite long and I'm not entirely sure how much the later parts matter since the situation will change a lot after Ryunosuke fixes up the earlier parts (that Susato viciously tore apart with her seemingly bottomless well of knowledge).

Ryunosuke works out the true identity of Pavlova's pet is a cat! Although this just opens up the question of where the snake came from. The cat's name is Darka and the real speckled band is a cat's toy. Ryunosuke also finds a matching half of a glass bell in the wastepaper bin. I'm pretty sure I tried to search that bin during the investigation phase but I don't recall if there was an excuse on why I didn't find it. So in the end it sounds like Kazuma really did die by accident. He tripped over Darka and fell just the wrong way. What a sad way to go. Although, there's still a bunch of unanswered stuff. Like where did the dying message come from? What about all the headaches going around? The emergency stop trick to lock the door also remains unused. At least I find out that the snake's name is Pirozhko.

Susato is also unhappy with the explanation and continues to press Pavlova for the truth. Ryunosuke is with her and points out that the dying message and location of the glass bell parts have not been resolved sufficiently. I assumed that Darka just brought back one half of the bell when it came back so I was mostly guessing on presenting the glass bell. One interesting part about the dying message is there should have only been two people who knew Ryunosuke was in the wardrobe: Kazuma and Ryunosuke. So, how did the true culprit find out?

Ryunosuke finally gets around to showing how the emergency stop can be used to break open the closed room in a different way and also used the log book to show something happened last night. It looks like the chicken was drugged as part of an elaborate plan to allow Pavlova to sneak on board. Pavlova and Strogenov visited Kazuma's room after the accident and rearranged it to make Ryunosuke look guilty to try and protect Pavlova as much as possible. I'm still not sure why they knew he was there, though. Is this finally the end? Nope. Sholmes says we are still not done. Kazuza was holding one of Pavlova's earrings when he died. That's a big problem for Pavlova. What in the world happened in that room last night?

Pavlova sounds like she's finally ready to tell the truth. She visited Kazuma's room to go get Darka back and at the time Kazuma was still alive. Pavlova panics when it seemed like Kazuma was going to call an inspector and pushes him. Even that shouldn't have amounted to much but due to Darka getting in Kazuma's legs, things ended up with his untimely death. A real shame. After that, Strogenov helped rearrange the crime scene and during this process found Ryunosuke in the wardrobe. When he was done, he pushed the emergency stop button to create the closed room while all the non-crew members were fast asleep. I think that tied up all my remaining questions. There's one last deduction. Where was Kazuma really looking? The wardrobe, of course! He was going to ask Ryunosuke for advice. Pavlova apologizes but Kazuma is still gone.

Pavlova will be handed over to the British police when the ship reaches London and Sholmes will help with immigration issues. But now Ryunosuke and Susato need to figure out what to do next. With Kazuma gone, there's no one in the lawyer position which means the study trip will be called off including Susato's part. Ryunosuke volunteers to take up that position and spend the next 40 days on ship learning to become a laywer. Susato also gives Kazuma's sword, Karuma, to Ryunosuke. There's one final scene where we get Kazuma's theme one final (?) time. In a flashback, Kazuma once again reiterates that he has an important thing to do in Britain but we'll never find out what.

Case 1-2 End

Overall the case was pretty good although it is a bit depressing that things turned out like they did. If any number of minor things went differently, everything would change. RIP Kazuma. Strogenov and Pavlova are fine as characters. They aren't outstanding but nothing particularly wrong with them either. The captain of the ship got mentioned a few times but ultimately never showed up at all. For quite a while I thought he would. I'm not sure what to make of Sholmes at all. Like near the end it was Sholmes who pushed the emergency stop button to reveal the trick to the closed room. Was he really just screwing around as he claims? I wouldn't put it past Sholmes. He also really does seem to pop out of nowhere in unexpected places all the time. Susato was helpful and I like how she plays an active role in pushing for the truth of the situation. Hosonaga was in perfect form as always.

Onward towards London!
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Holmes' original deduction at the end was the climax of the Speckled Band story, but yeah, I loved Susato's savage takedown of how absurd the premise is.

Also Karuma is von Karma's last name in Japanese, which is a cool reference. I wondered if they'd change it to Karma for the English version, but they opted to leave it the same.

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That's pretty neat. It was close enough that I though it might be a reference and I forgot that the von Karma family name was slightly different in Japanese.
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Case G1-3

I get another cryptic opening sequence about a murder in a carriage that goes sideways. So it seems like this case will be related to that somehow. Ryunosuke and Susato are now in London and meet up with Lord Chief Justice of the British Empire, Mael Stronghart. He has a cool clock theme going on and gives off "final boss prosecutor" vibes but that likely won't come up for a while. Ryunosuke and Susato report on Kazuma's death and to propose Ryunosuke become a lawyer in Kazuma's place. Stronghart reacts to the comment about Kazuma planning to do something in London so maybe he knows what it is. Stronghart proposes a test where Ryunosuke defends a client in a trial today. It's a murder trial because of course it is. Stronghart says it's a simple case so there's no way to lose but we'll see about that. I select "I'll do it" but Ryunosuke is not having any of that. Susato and Ryunosuke won't do it since it isn't fair to treat a real trial as a game. This draws a reaction from Stronghart so he tips his hand a bit more. The defendant doesn't have a lawyer at the moment so Ryunosuke is his last chance. That changes things considerably so Ryunosuke and Susato rush off to Old Bailey where the trial is. I do wonder why the defendant can't get a lawyer.

At the Old Bailey we meet a man with a very tall hat who I assume is the defendant. We also get some introductions to how much a guinea is worth. I can relate to trying to use lines from things I've read or played in real life and Susato definitely looked happy getting to do that here. The defendant is Magnus McGilded and he seems like a nice enough guy. But, despite how much money he is willing to offer, he can't find a lawyer. The reason appears to be because the prosecutor is Lord Barok van Zieks. I think I've heard the name "van Zieks" before, is he another undefeated prosecutor? Yep, he is. Another series staple confirmed. Now I'm really wondering why Stronghart said the case would be hard to lose when it seems like it will be impossible to win. But, that's all the time we have and the trial now begins!

In the courtroom there are witnesses lined up on the stand already. Oh, wait that's actually the jury. Van Zieks shows up and this is his first trial back after a 5 year hiatus for some reason. Anyways, the trial is for a murder that happened 3 days ago around 10 in the evening. The victim is "Thrice-Fired" Mason who was stabbed by a dagger while riding an omnibus. The only other pasenger inside was McGilded. Sounds like a simple case to me but not in a good way.

Three witnesses are brought in: Beppo, Bruce Fairplay and Lay D. Furst. Looking at the court record, Britain already has colour photographs. That won't be a thing in Japan until at least 2019. I wish there was a picture of the omnibus. I'm not sure how much an omnibus looks like a bus. Ryunosuke is with me on this. He doesn't know either! Van Zieks has us covered and brings in the omnibus and we get to do a makeshift investigation sequence of the crime scene. "Phoenix Wright Omnibus" Very funny. I wonder what it says in Japanese? The jury also seems to believe this is a simple case as we rack up 5 out of 6 guilty votes just while trying to collect information. After Van Zieks brings up how McGilded is a crooked money lender, the 6th and final Guilty vote comes soon afterwards. Oof. This trial fell apart quickly.

Susato to the rescue yet again! She looks up an old process called Summation Examination that gives the defense one last shot. I'm not sure if it is only for the defense. It would be interesting to see if a prosecutor can use it to stop a Not Guilty verdict somewhere down the line. Van Zieks is on the ball. He attacks Susato for using an old reference book but ultimately he does know what the procedure is. This is our only out so despite Van Zieks's complaints, Ryunosuke decides to go for it.

The first Summation Examination is a pretty simple affair since it's the first one. There are problems with the fares that were paid (enough fare for 5 passengers were collected) and also issues with the timing and direction the victim was stabbed. Ryunosuke is able to overturn 4 of the Guilty votes in short order. One scene that sort of stuck out as pretty neat was when Susato was narrating Ryunosuke's thoughts for him. The first time I read it I thought it was an error in the name tags!

The witnesses are called back and Beppo says he overcharged the 4 passengers closing the door on the possibility of a mysterious person X. He also didn't actually see the victim get stabbed. However, another issue comes up where Fairplay and Furst are both adamant that the culprit got blood on both of their bare hands and stand by the claim in the face of hard evidence otherwise. There's also room for doubt regarding how much the witnesses could really see through the skylight. So it's time for a gamble. There was a third person in the carrage out of sight and that person was McGilded! The two people the witnesses saw were the victim and the true culprit! The true culprit was the one with blood on their hands! With all that said, I have no idea how such a person X could escape from the crime scene without being noticed. It turns out that was because McGilded himself helped hide person X. McGilded suggests the possibility that the person might be in the courtroom right now when a smoke bomb goes off forcing the courtroom to be cleared.

Next up is part 3! Wait, 3? I guess we changed to part 2 somewhere in the middle.

This case feels odd. Like it feels pretty long but it doesn't feel like I've made much progress yet I'm think I'm near the end already? Since a new person has now appeared, it's hard for me to guess where the trial goes from here. It would be straightforward if it turns out person X is the culprit but it also feels like they might not be and that leaves McGilded as the only other possibility. So far Van Zieks doesn't really stand out. He's better than Nahyuta but definitely no Blackquill (but who is?). I think the case did a good job in the beginning with creating a connection with McGilded in a short amount of time to make it feel like he is someone you want to defend. But, as the trial goes on it seems there is more to McGilded than it seemed at first.
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It's the Phoenix Wright Omnibus in Japanese, too. Just a cool forward reference to the English version of the character.

And the Summation Examination is considered part 2, for the record.

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It's a good thing we got this collection. It would have been a waste if they put that in the game and it never got localized.
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Part 3 begins! When it was stated that the mystery girl was around 15 years old I briefly thought of Pavlova but she shouldn't have been in the country at the time of the incident. In any case the new girl and McGilded take the stand. It sounds like the new girl was hiding inside the storage compartment below the seat that McGilded was sitting on. At this point I went to examine the omnibus again. There's a giant blood stain on the floor of the cabin that I don't recall being there. Am I dumb? Did I just not see it before? The camera controls don't use inverted Y-axis like I'm used to so they always feel off to me. Even so, I'm sure I would have looked at the floor at some point. Also, the storage area under the seat in the omnibus? I don't think it was empty before. Weren't there tools or something inside when I checked before? I wish I wrote that down in my notes but I didn't.

The mystery girl is finally introduced as Gina Lestrade. She's guilty of being a thief but she doesn't seem to be the one to kill Mason either. She confirms she was hiding in the storage compartment. McGilded says there was no way she was guilty so he took the fall for her. Some of jurors are now changing their votes. Wait. We have SIX not guilty votes?! We won! That should be a good thing except it doesn't seem like it. >_>

Van Zieks isn't having any of this. He confirms that the storage compartment was full just after the incident just like I thought it was. What is going on? Did someone alter the scene of the crime in the middle of the recess? Van Zieks goes and says it. The evidence has been tampered with. McGilded is now being very pushy with getting Ryunosuke to say the storage area was empty at the start when it wasn't. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. Is McGilded guilty? My faith is wavering. I had 2-4 spoiled for me back in the day so I never really had to deal with that! For the record, I'm still going to say he's innocent but beliving is kinda hard!

"It wasn't empty". I can't lie when I know it wasn't empty. Also I like how the trial can continue with 6 Not Guilty votes but it comes to a grinding halt if there are 6 Guilty votes. It's not fair. I guess Van Zieks talks 3 jurors into changing their votes to Guilty, but we had to change 4 to continue the trial. Still not fair. Ryunosuke constantly saying things are bothering him is scaring me.

Gina helps solve one more mystery. She was the person who the previous witnesses saw with blood on both of her hands. This is just looking worse and worse for McGilded. Gina says she tossed out the stuff in the storage area when she hid in it. That's a reasonable claim but then why was it filled back in when the police got there? Also, she's likely telling the truth about being in the cabin since we know there needs to be a third person to make the blood on hands thing work. Things can work out if Gina was outside of the storage area when McGilded boarded but I'm not sure that makes sense since it means she would have been a direct witness to Mason being killed. Also, she clearly gets mad at McGilded for sitting on the seat so it feels like she really was there somehow.

Gina never heard Mason enter the omnibus. What?! But, that doesn't work at all. She even saw McGilded get on the omnibus alone. This is insane. How did Mason even get in there? I'm guessing that both seats have a storage compartment but one handle is just missing so it doesn't seem like it. Save me Juror No. 5! You should know what the omnibus layout is! Now I need to say how Mason got in?

"He was in there already" - Nope
"He was put there after he died" - Another penalty
"There's another entrance" - There we go! I did consider the skylight but it wasn't clear it could be opened.

McGilded takes charge and implies that Fairplay and Furst are the culprits and dropped the body in via the skylight. I'm feeling worse and worse about McGilded being innocent but I want to believe!

Fairplay and Furst take the stand. Gina is a thief and likely the most trustworthy person on the stand right now. >_> McGilded just keeps looking more and more suspicious. I think I've finally cracked. I told myself I would believe until the bitter end but I can't do it. He's guilty, isn't he? Official prediction: Guilty. McGilded is the one to point out the contradiction in Furst never doing business with Mason. I noticed the hat in the picture ages ago and never would I have guessed that it would be McGilded presenting it. Gina says the skylight can open but only from the top. Why didn't they just ask Juror No. 5? He probably knew this from the start. >_> Furst and Fairplay really seem like they didn't know this, though.

There's a bloodstain on the open skylight! But, I can't believe that Furst and Fairplay are guilty. I just had a thought. I think the blood on the skylight was planted there during the break. Same with the blood on the flood of the cabin. McGilded knows about the blood stain in the floor of the cabin somehow. He's looking really guilty right now!

Van Zieks confirms what I thought, the blood on the skylight was planted. Ryunosuke says it could have been possible for the evidence to be tampered with and also adds the blood stain on the floor to Van Zieks's list of problems. I've been leaning guilty for a while now but I'm a lot more certain now. McGilded killed Mason. That's crazy!

The trial has reached a road block and can't continue pursuing a guilty verdict. Susato says if we let things go on, we likely cruise to a not guilty verdict. But, is that okay?

"The defendant could be guilty"

It doesn't matter, though. With no other way to proceed, we get our Not Guilty.

In the end, we still don't know what really happened. As such, Susato and Ryunosuke congratulate each other on winning but at the same time are unhappy with how it ended. We talk with McGilded and find out there's going to be another inspection of the omnibus and McGilded will be there taking part.

Just before the end we also meet a new character. A girl with pink hair shows up. I've seen her in pre-release material. I think her name was Iris Watson? Iris Wright? Something like that.

And finally there's a cutscene of the omnibus catching on fire and seemingly someone being trapped inside. Well that's not good. I wonder who it is?

Case G1-3 End

This case certainly escalated a lot by the end. I'm still thinking that McGilded killed Mason but ultimately there's no guilty verdict. I don't have an answer for how Mason got inside the cabin or why the storage compartment wasn't empty. I assume a later case will reveal the answer but I'm curious how that will work. McGilded really got me with his act from the start. Even after finding out he was a crooked money lender I still maintained faith for a very long time. But, I just couldn't hold out until the end. With that said, I'm going to look very silly if he is somehow innocent in the end. I do wonder if there are any particularly unique game over lines since McGilded had a lot of things rigged in his favour. I'm guessing they are mostly just normal "Guilty verdict" ends but maybe not.

One last thing. The victim of the first jury trial is called Mason. That's a coincidence, right? >_>
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I love Case 3. I specifically remembered both the full storage bin and there being no blood on the floor. When Gina brought up the body falling on the floor, I immediately thought that wouldn't make sense because the only blood in the vehicle was on the seat. I went to re-check the inside of the omnibus for something else, saw the newly-planted blood, and from that moment until the word "End" popped up on my screen, I was hooked to my TV, with a big ol' grin on my face, just enamored with everything that was happening.

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Yeah, case 3 is wild.

Also, I think the victim's name was Mortar in Japanese, but they changed it to a name that actually exists in English, so yeah, coincidence.

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You're going through faster than I expected! You're finally getting to the meat of the game. The first two cases can be a bit of a slog to go through.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

That's true. I thought it was pretty <good> how they used a font change to indicate what language she was speaking.

There's another subtle tell for Ryunosuke and the other Japanese characters outside of Japan too. If they're using Mr/Miss they're speaking in English whereas if they're adding -san/sama they're speaking in Japanese.
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I actually just recently noticed that as well. I also like how Ryunosuke uses Japanese honorifics when thinking to himself because that will be in Japanese even when he might be speaking English at the time.
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Case G1-4

Based on the opening sequence this looks to be a case about a woman who gets stabbed in the back with a knife. The date is February 19 so this is the very next day after G1-3. We are meeting up with Stronghart who says Ryunosuke passed the test and is now a full on lawyer. He also has another case lined up for Ryunosuke. We also learn from him that McGilded passed away yesterday! I'm not sure what to think of that. I expected McGilded to show up later to tie a future case to G1-3. Now I'm really curious if G1-3 will ever be fully resolved. It turns out there was no inspection planned and McGilded was the one caught in the fire. For the new case, the trial is tomorrow and the defendant doesn't have a lawyer yet.

For more details we talk with Inspector Tobias Gregson. Gregson also says this is a simple case but I've heard that story before! Susato knows what's up. She knows this is going to be super complicated as well. The prosecutor is Van Zieks again and I apparently got the wrong idea about him before. He wasn't an undefeated prosecutor. The defendants he goes after are considered cursed because something bad happens to them even if they do get a Not Guilty verdict. McGilded dying in the fire is one such example. Gregson says we can go meet the defendant at the holding cells so that's what we do next.

The defendant speaks Japanese! His name is Soseki Natsume and I think this is a reference to a Japanese author. Soseki is a very animated person. He said the victim was stabbed with a knife right in front of him but somehow he couldn't see the actual attacker. That's not a good sign. Soseki wants Ryunosuke to defend him but Ryunosuke still isn't sure since the previous trial shook him up pretty badly. He wants a bit more time to make a decision.

Next we head to the scene of the crime, Briar Road. I investigate the area but there's not much to find. Gregson is there and reiterates how there were only two people in the area at the time of the attack: Soseki and the victim. He also tells us there are two witnesses to the crime as well. Gregson mentions how there's an oddity with how Van Zieks is the prosecutor. Normally, Van Zieks only takes on trials for particular bad criminals but in this case the victim is still alive so it isn't even a murder case. The makes things look bad for Soseki but I still believe in him! Sholmes was involved with hunting down Soseki so we want to go look for him next. Fortunately, Susato is a stalker and already knows Sholmes lives at 221B Baker Street. So, off we go!

At Sholmes's place we meet up with the mysterious pink haired girl from the end of the previous case. Her name is Iris Wilson so I did hear it before. I'm guessing she's related to Dr. Wilson from G1-1? It turns out that Iris is the author of The Great Adventures of Herlock Sholmes stories. But, Susato said the author is supposed to be Dr. John H. Wilson. Wait, why didn't this ever come up before? Also, why didn't Ryunosuke react to that name? We talk with Iris a bit about her situation and Dr. Wilson from G1-1 just never comes up at all. Iris eventually leaves us with the information that Sholmes is likely at Soseki's residence and that we should go ask Gregson about it.

That brings us to the end of the first part of the investigation. I like Soseki so far. He's another defendant who does a good job coming off as a person one wants to defend. I enjoyed Susato's reactions to looking around Sholmes's place and how reality measured up to what she pictured in her head. I feel like a lot of these things might be references to something but if so they all pretty much go over my head. As for learning about the case, I feel like I still don't know very much! My Court Record is still very empty. A lot of the information seemed to be more about the general world than the specific case.
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Soseki Natsume is indeed based on the real Japanese author of the same name.

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Team Rocket Elite posted...

I feel like I still don't know very much! My Court Record is still very empty

This is kind of a thing with GAA1 lol.

Also, I think this section has a unique part where examining the violin, the blackboard, and somewhere else (I think the bookshelf) before talking to Iris will get you different dialogue than when you examine them after you talked with her. Haven't seen that happen anywhere else yet.
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Back on Briar Road we bribe Gregson into telling us where Soseki lives. It turns out the place is right on Briar Road and that Soseki is renting the place from John Garrideb. Since it was right by the crime scene, we're off to ask Garrideb if he noticed anything. We find out that Garrideb lives on the third floor, Soseki moved into the second floor a week ago and there's also another tenant on the first floor. The layout of the residences was a bit confusing until I remembered that Britain counts floors slightly differently than in North America. The first floor there is the floor just above the ground floor (which is on the ground). Garrideb and his maid, Joan, were in their home when the incident took place. However, due to the fog they would not have been able to see the crime even though they weren't that far away.

Next up is to check out Soseki's room. Garrideb told us Sholmes should be here but he isn't. Wait, now he is. I was investigating the room a bit so it seems like I triggered an event somewhere. The only useful piece of evidence we find from investigating the room is a receipt from the day of the incident. Sholems fills us in on more world building with info about old window taxes and how maids are a status symbol. He also tells us that Garrideb is hiding something but he doesn't yet know what or if it is important to the case. So we all head back to figure it out!

It's time for another Great Deduction! Garrideb was keeping then sold a lion. The lion was responsible for eating the carpet to damage it. Sholmes is doing this on purpose. He must be doing this on purpose, right? >_> As usual, Susato makes Ryunosuke fix the deduction. I guess normally Iris handles that for the books? After fixing it, we work out that Joan is Garrideb's wife who is pretending to be a maid. The carpet was damaged in a fire two days ago at around 5pm because of course it was. None of this seems important enough to get an entry in the Court Records, though. RIP. Visiting hours are almost over at the prison so we need to get back that and follow up with Soseki. But, when I try to do that I automatically get hijacked and go to Briar Road. A playing card themed person shows up. They look guilty. They couldn't look more guilty if they tried. >_> We have a short chat with him after we interrupt his fight with another unknown person wearing yellow. It turns out this playing card guy is the tenant from the first floor.

Finally, we get back to the prison. It struck me as odd that Ryunosuke, Susato and Soseki would be holding their conversation in English rather than Japanese but I guess that was a necessary plot decision for Sholmes to drop in since he doesn't know much Japanese. Sholmes confirms that Van Zieks is not undefeated and that the defendants who get off the hook end up disappearing within a few month. Things like accidents or illnesses will strike them. That's definitely interesting. Like there's no way Van Zieks is actually having these people killed so I do wonder what is happening here. After talking a bit with Sholmes (I must say I can't say I remember Sholmes believing in Ryunosuke in G1-2...), Ryunosuke decides to believe in Soseki and defend him in court tomorrow. With all three (3) pieces of evidence in the Court Record.

Investigation Part 2 done. Did we actually find anything out about the crime? Maybe some of the seemingly unrelated events will get tied into the case somehow.
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If anything, Iris faithfully preserved the absurdity of Holmes' deductions because some of them are lifted straight from the stories!

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I believe ever since the first dance of deduction Sholmes starts respecting Ryunosuke. It was Sholmes who first brought up the idea of Ryunuske taking Kazuma's place after all.
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That is true. Sometimes I have a hard time following what Sholmes is thinking.
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The trial for Soseki begins! Juror No. 1 is Fairplay and I think Juror No. 3 is Furst? No.4 is Joan Garrideb of all people. The first person to take the stand is Gregson who tells us the victim's name might be Olive Green and that she hasn't woken up yet. We get to examine the knife used in the attack which oddly has no blood on it. I guess they wiped the blood off the knife for some reason. Van Zieks once again says that at the time of the incident only Soseki and Green were in the area. No one else could have committed the crime. We try to nitpick some details regarding the book store Soseki went to that day but ultimately make little progress. The jury has seen enough. We get 6 Guilty votes in the blink of a eye. It was actually pretty cool how they bothered to put in some voice acting for all the jurists casting a Guilty vote.

It's time for a summation examination but nothing really sticks out as being wrong. We manage to come up with the possibility that Juror No. 6, who was near Yore Books at the time while wearing a green coat, might have been the person Soseki saw. Also, there was some construction that may have caused Soseki to avoid the crime scene altogether. That's enough to make the trial last a bit longer but Van Zieks tears it apart afterwards. It's kinda weird how Japan uses Metric and Britain uses Imperial units but I guess that fits with the time period. I'm a bit curious how well known a Yard would be even in modern Japan. Van Zieks calls up the next witnesses.

Roly Beate and his wife Patricia Beate take the stand. This series sure loves its "patrol" puns. Anyways, Patricia unambiguously claims she saw the victim fall then explicitly saw Soseki run away from the scene of the crime. This is backed up by Roly who is a police officer. I'm of the impression that these two are telling the truth and aren't hiding anything at all. It seems unlikely they are mistaken about what they saw as well. So it'll be tricky to figure out how to work around it because it means Soseki really was there and that there really wasn't anyone else.

One oddity does arise from Patricia's testimony. Somehow the victim got a hold of Garrideb's burned copy of the book "The Lion's Pride". I'm not really sure what to make of that. Like it does tie the fight the Garridebs had to the case. But, it makes no sense that the book made its way to the crime scene. I guess somehow the burning book must have been thrown outside and across the street. Maybe a knife was as well? But ultimately, this line of reasoning isn't going anywhere since the only possible culprit is still Soseki. The jury is fed up and wants to vote Guilty. So they do! 6 Guilty votes. RIP.

Next up, Summation Examination Round 2!

I find it hard to believe that Roly or Patricia are lying about anything. They just seem way too trustworthy for that. It's not like Soseki is claiming a different version of events either. Soseki is also of the opinion that there wasn't anyone else there when the victim was attacked. So I think he really was there and we were wasting our time trying to suggest he wasn't. The Garridebs are now connected but it isn't clear how that helps. The playing card themed person, the first floor tenant, also hasn't shown up yet so maybe he'll reveal something useful when he does.
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Juror No. 3 looks like Furst, but I don't think it's supposed to be him. The hat is too nice!

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LeonhartFour posted...

Juror No. 3 looks like Furst, but I don't think it's supposed to be him. The hat is too nice!

I thought that was part of the gag. He changed his clothing and hat and now no one recognizes him. Not even Fairplay who is also in the jury. I'm also going off memory so maybe I'll notice something else wrong if I put pictures of them side by side.
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The AA wiki doesn't seem to regard them as the same person. Juror No. 3 kind of has a "blocky" head compared to Furst, so I think they are different guys.

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I'd suggest not looking up the AA wiki until you finish both games even for random jurors/witnesses since many of them reappear in future cases.

Since we're on the subject of Furst though (SPOILERS for entire first game)
he appears to be a case of "What happened to the Mouse". The last time he's mentioned is in Clouded Kokoro when Susato worries what happened to him and he's never brought up again. It kind of hints that he was the one tried for either Mason or Mcgilded's murder although nothing is mentioned about him after both cases are resolved
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Based on LeonhartFour's comment it sounds like I'm wrong. In regards to GiftedACIII, I'll have to get back to that later.
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Van Zieks helpfully informs us that all we need to do to continue the trial is show who and how the victim was stabbed. That sounds simple enough. Ryunosuke manages to bring up the possibility that the window was open because of the fire and Joan admits that he's right. She also confirms she was throwing flaming books at the time of the incident. Juror No. 5 remembers a story where he accidentally lost the money he earned that day and his wife threw a knife at him. So it seems like I might have been right and Joan threw a knife out the open window. That's what Ryunosuke thinks might have happened as well. This is also enough to get four jurors on board to let the trial continue. Susato wants to call Joan to the stand! But, it gets rejected. That's unfortunate. Usually assistants don't get to do stuff like that so it's a shame it got turned down. We do get more testimony from Roly and Patricia, though.

Roly and Patricia pretty much kill our theory dead. The windows don't open enough to toss an item to the other side of the street. Items would just fall straight down outside the Garridebs place at best. With that said, it means we still don't know how the book got the other side of the road. Ryunosuke wants to push to get Susato's idea accepted since they need Joan to testify but, they need to find a way to do this. After reading Roly's warrant card again, an idea suddenly hit me. Roly didn't move the body out of his area so he could go to dinner, did he? He wouldn't, right? Patricia said she dropped her bouquet when she saw the victim but after she came back from going to the police box, the bouquet was nowhere near the victim. Roly moved the body, didn't he? The bouquet was found just outside the window of the Garrideb household. Sounds like Roly moved the body. I totally thought these two witness would be trustworthy but Roly betrays me! Ryunosuke accuses Roly of tampering with the scene of the crime and Roly finally admits to it.

I sort of feel bad for Roly. He seems like a normally good guy who cut corners at just the wrong time to protect his wedding anniversary plans. He all but saw Soseki commit the crime. How much of an issue could it really have been to move the body from one side of the street to the other? It turns out, a lot! But, with this information, we finally know how the burning book made its way to the other side of Briar Road. Also, the true scene of the crime means the knife throwing theory is back on the table.

The defense calls for Joan to take the stand. Ryunosuke does this but I think it would have been cool if Ryunosuke had let Susato lead here and ask for Joan to take the stand since it was her idea and make up for the time Susato got shot down. Joining Joan on the stand is John Garrideb. I forgot that he's also a possible witness. The Garridebs say that while they have knives similar to the generic one that hurt the victim but, even they have no idea if one of their knives went missing that night. That's a reasonable claim, so I wonder how we'll figure out what really happened. I found it amusing when Ryunosuke was wishing there was some sort of technology that would let them identify the owner of an item and Susato literally brings up fingerprinting. Turns out that the technology exists but isn't accepted as evidence yet. So we need to do something else. At this point I still don't really know what is up with the tenant on the first floor but it seems unlikely he is involved at this point.

We find the decisive evidence in John's pipe. The broken tip of the knife is a perfect fit. A book went out the window and the victim stopped to pick it up. A knife soon followed. Ouch. "This was nothing more than a series of unlikely events that culminated in an unfortunate accident". Just "unlikely"? Anyways it seems like we've finally reached the unfortunate truth of the matter. It also sounds like the victim woke up. So somehow we've reach the end of a case with no one dying. \o/ It's a formality at this point but we get our six Not Guilty (and voiced!) votes. Cue confetti and fireworks!

After the trial we catch up with Soseki and he's super happy to be free! But, it looks like he has decided to head back to Japan after this whole ordeal. Ryunosuke and Susato still need a place to stay and Sholmes suggests staying in the attic of the building he lives in since a vacancy just opened up. So the new home office from now on is none other than 221B Baker Street!

Case G1-4 End

This is another case that's a bit unusual. At the end of it all, I see why they decided for the victim to survive the attack even though they wouldn't really participate in the case. It would be a bit of a downer (again) if it turned out a person died from all this. I do feel bad for Joan since she obviously never expected something like this to happen but at the same time she shouldn't be throwing knives around like that! Should be using a more refined weapon like a bow instead. The Garridebs were alright as characters but Patricia was great. I'm not sure exactly why but I ended up liking her a lot. It surprised me that the playing card tenant never showed up at all after his initial appearance. He lived near the scene of the crime and showed up in the case but otherwise was completely unrelated. In the end, we never do find out why Van Zieks took up the case. I thought he would show up after the case to at least give us a cryptic clue but nope. Not even that much. There's also the issue of the Reaper's curse. I doubt anything seriously bad is going to happen to Soseki at this point but ultimately this plot point is still hanging since it could be months before the curse kicks in.
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The Beates are great. The rare happily married couple in Ace Attorney!

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Team Rocket Elite posted...

The Garridebs were alright as characters but Patricia was great. I'm not sure exactly why but I ended up liking her a lot. It surprised me that the playing card tenant never showed up at all after his initial appearance. He lived near the scene of the crime and showed up in the case but otherwise was completely unrelated.

I think it's because of just how helpful she was, which is a far cry from the majority of witnesses in the series, even the ones that are supposed to be on your side. She willingly brings up many significant details that help Ryunosuke piece together the story. One might assume that her overtly cute personality might be a facade like it usually is for most cute/charismatic characters in the series so the fact that she's a genuinely helpful witness who doesn't try to hide anything and talks about everything she experienced in detail is a breath of fresh air.
On that note, Roly is also a pretty helpful witness despite his role in tampering with the crime scene and initially trying to cover it up. The moment Ryu gives the possibility of him tampering with the scene he admits to it rather than going into denial mode (which could've probably worked given that Ryu had no conclusive evidence to prove it). That plus his sympathetic motive for doing so and genuine remorse made me really like the Beates. I actually think the Beates plotline was the most compelling plotline in this case. I heard the localization made them a lot more bearable since the fan translation apparently had Patricia making a lot of mean spirited comments about Ryu and the victim though.
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Oh yeah, the Bustling People theme that first plays for them is super underrated too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyqtWXWE2I
I actually think it's one of the better "people" themes.
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Tag.

Poor Roly. Dude works so hard and just wanted a day with his wife.

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Case G1-5

Two months have passed since G1-4 and Ryunosuke hasn't had a chance to take on any new cases since then. Apparently Van Zieks hasn't been in court for the last two months either. I think we're still a few months away from the Great Exhibition as well. Before this case started, I thought G1-5 would take place closer to the Great Exhibition but I guess not. Susato receives a telegram and while something is clearly bothering her she doesn't yet want to talk about it. Putting that aside, we head off to meet up with Iris and Sholmes for breakfast.

Sholmes is down in the dumps after the sudden disappearance of his ability to play a violin after he got it back from a pawn broker. This is all used to introduce how a pawn broker works. They are used as both storage and a way to loan money by handing an item over as collateral. It turns out there was a mixup and Sholmes ended up with a viola instead of his violin. So it's off to the pawn broker to fix the mistake! Outside on Baker Street Susato says she wouldn't have any regrets if she ended up before a court of law. I think it's a bad idea to tempt fate like that. There are still 6 cases to go including G1-5 which doesn't have a defendant yet.

Windibank's Pawnbrokery is also on Baker Street so we head on in and meet Pop Windibank. Surprising no one, it was Sholmes's fault the instruments got switched and the issue is quickly sorted out. We also get introduced to the make shift security cameras in the shop. Sholmes invented special film so the cameras work perfectly even in the dark. Does something like that even exist today? >_>

A bit later a young girl with a speech pattern that sound familiar show up. Is this Gina? It turns out it is! She's trying to pawn a music box disk and thinks Windibank is low balling her on the value. Suddenly a man in white shows up to further complicate matters. He claims that Gina stole the redemption ticket for the coat and music box disk from him. Gina denys this. I believe in Gina. I think it really is her coat.

Windibank uses a password system for claiming items and somehow the man in white, knows the password. But, I assume Gina knew the password as well if she was able to retrieve the item. The person in white's name is Eggert Benedict and he also knows the exact date the coat was deposited, February 15. He misspeaks and hints that the coat isn't really his. I always knew Gina was telling the truth! To try and figure out what is going on, we call on Sholmes for another Great Deduction!

Sholmes tells us that Benedict is trying to dig a tunnel from the pawn broker into the sewers which is connected to the bank across the street so he can steal lots of money. Why did we want Sholmes's opinion again? It's up to Ryunosuke to fix things and work out that Benedict is really here to steal the coat and the music box disk.

In regards to the music box disk, I finally get around to looking at it in the Court Records. There's a note on it. "For McGilded". What in the world?! It looks like the coat's real owner was McGilded and it was deposited on the same day as the G1-3 murder in the omnibus! Maybe this case will resolved what really happened that night.

Benedict pulls out a gun and tries to get the music box disk by force but luckily Gregson shows up to save us! Benedict is forced to give up on the coat and music box disk and makes a run for it. Gregson takes the music box disk into custody since he is collecting everything related to McGilded for an investigation into something big.

That ends investigation part 1.

That was an interesting start. Seeing McGilded's name come up was a big surprise! I also like Gina so it's nice to see that she's back. One thing I'm a bit mad about is that I got interrupted in the middle of investigating the pawn broker and was forced to do plot stuff for the entire remainder of the section with the game constantly telling me I couldn't investigate.
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Holmes' crazy deduction is a loose summary of the plot of the short story "The Red-Headed League."

G1-5 is fun.

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Besides the Layton games I believe GAA1-5 is the longest case until we get a defendant. I'll admit I actually thought Gina stole the redemption ticket from the man the first time I played lol. I wasn't trusting of Gina at all.
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We get kicked out of Windibank's and we aren't allowed back in. Now I'm even more mad I wasn't able to finish examining things before. Gina gets to keep her coat but lost the music box disk. Since the violin issue was sorted out, Sholmes invites everyone to dinner with Iris but Gina is being tsundere and runs off. We head back to the Sholmes's suite to chat up Iris before dinner. Iris finally reveals her father's name is John H. Wilson and Ryunosuke finally makes the connection to the G1-1 victim. But, Ryunosuke and Susato decide not to push this subject any further so Iris still doesn't know what happened to her dad. We find out Sholmes was able to make a copy of McGilded's music box disk but we still have no idea what music box it goes with. While on the subject of Iris's stories, Susato accidentally lets it slip she knows the name of an unpublished Sholmes story called "The Hound of the Baskervilles". Susato seems unwilling to explain why she knows that. But no time for that, Gina now arrives so it's time for dinner!

At night, Susato is finally ready to talk about the telegram she got. She apparently needs to meet with Stronghart tomorrow morning. Only she got the request to come so Ryunosuke isn't invited. Next, Iris shows up with Gina. For unknown reasons, Susato still doesn't want to talk about why she knew the title of the unpublished manuscript. Gina thinks that Sholmes sold the manuscript instead of pawning it and that's how Susato found out from all the way in Japan. But, Iris is of the opinion that Sholmes wouldn't do that. At least she hopes, he wouldn't. After that, everyone breaks up for the night.

A bit later Sholmes wakes Ryunosuke up. It's still the middle of the night and Gina has gone missing. Also, for some reason, the light is on at Windibank's pawnbrokery. I can see where this is going. I'm guessing Gina will be the defendant for the case. Surely not the victim? I like Gina. Please don't kill her off. I was a bit worried about where Susato was but she showed up as well.

The date is now April 16. I remember Windibank saying he always changed the calendar date at midnight so I wonder if this will come up now the date has rolled over. Anyways, we all head inside the pawn brokery. We see two shadowy figures and Sholmes gets shot! He's still alive and yells at Ryunosuke to chase after the mysterious people who just ran outside. Unfortunately, Ryunosuke is too slow and loses track of them. Ryunosuke goes back inside Windibank's with an officer. He looks around the place and arrives at the door to the store room. The door is locked but when he looks inside through a window he sees Windibank and Gina passed out. I didn't get a good look but I think Windibank was bleeding and is likely the victim.

That's it for Investigation Part 2.

Well things fell apart quickly. I'm wondering if the officer brought in was really one of the two shadowy people but I think it was just a generic officer so probably not. Susato sure is hiding a lot! I can imagine a reason why she might need to hide what she knows about the manuscript from Iris but I'm curious why Ryunosuke also needs to be left in the dark. I also just noticed that Sholmes went to the trouble of creating a replica of the music box disk but this apparently didn't matter enough to make the court record. I guess it would just confuse things when we got the real one back.

GiftedACIII posted...

Besides the Layton games I believe GAA1-5 is the longest case until we get a defendant. I'll admit I actually thought Gina stole the redemption ticket from the man the first time I played lol. I wasn't trusting of Gina at all.

I believe Gina's profile was already updated at this time to say she was Iris's friend (Iris wouldn't reveal this until a bit later) and I think that was part of the reason I thought she was telling the truth. Although, even if I didn't see that I think I would have trusted her anyways. IIRC Gina explicitly admitted to pawning stuff she stole but also made it clear that she didn't steal anything in this specific case. Also was this really longer to get a defendant than in 6-5? IIRC that also took a long time before we even found out there was a case. Someone should try timing this.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

I believe Gina's profile was already updated at this time to say she was Iris's friend (Iris wouldn't reveal this until a bit later) and I think that was part of the reason I thought she was telling the truth. Although, even if I didn't see that I think I would have trusted her anyways. IIRC Gina explicitly admitted to pawning stuff she stole but also made it clear that she didn't steal anything in this specific case. Also was this really longer to get a defendant than in 6-5? IIRC that also took a long time before we even found out there was a case. Someone should try timing this.

True, but I still thought she was really fishy and that she'd be a semi-bad guy even while she was Iris's friend.

Anyway, I'd actually recently read somewhere that someone was timing case lengths and that G1-5 had the longest until a defendant happens. It does make sense if you think about it. It took one "to be continued" to get a defendant in SoJ while it took at least two of them in GAA and GAA chapters are a bit longer than the rest of the series.
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This is the longest it takes until the discovery of the crime, in any case. 6-5 is a weird situation because there isn't a criminal case on the first day because the victim's death is presumed to be an accident initially.

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