Board 8 > Yes! A Great Ace Attorney Chronicles playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hmmmmmm

The hmmmms were appropriate. Ryunosuke gets mauled by a hellhound, and Sholmes and Mikotoba are punched to death by a booby trapped chest. RIPx3.

Barry Caidin seems suspicious as hell about the Professor case, though he gives us the Asogi papers. Are these legitimate? If not, they must have been written by either Mikotoba or Jigoku to hide the truth.

Maria Gorey is surprisingly helpful. I shouldn't judge by appearances I guess, because behind the design she's actually a pretty interesting character, trying to do the right thing and having difficulty reconciling the image of her mother with the reality of her actions. If only she wasn't trying to dissect us all the time. We learn John H Wilson led the autopsy of Klint van Zieks, and Yujin and Sithe were also present. Both Maria and Barry claim Sithe aided in Genshin's escape, too, so I wonder if Stronghart was somehow involved in that. So many pieces on the board!

Gina apparently doesn't like defence lawyers anymore, how quickly she forgets what we've done for her! It's only recently dawned on me that she's somehow two years older than Susato. She also gives us vital info regarding Gregson and his Reaper notebook. Unfortunately we don't get the notebook for evidence, that'd make things too easy, but she mentions Shinn's name being repeated a lot, and a non-English name being noted down for the 31st October. And in his trunk we find a passport allowing Gregson and one companion to travel to France on that very same day. Well, the natural assumption here is that the Reaper's next victim was to be killed on the 31st October in France, and that they somehow turned the tables on him and his guest. I'm not gonna beat around the bush, this has to be either Mikotoba or Jigoku, after they told us about their one-night stay in France.

After a mauling by Toby, Sholmes shows his face and gives us an absurd dance of deduction. This one is fun and incredibly silly, it's immediately obvious who is laid unconscious on the settee but it's all worth it for the visual of Hurley getting punched into the air and landing exactly on top of Yujin. And we get a fakeout ending, and a Sholmes 'Objection!'! RIP to the coffee cup, also.

For a while I think poor Iris has learned the truth of her father's demise, but hoo boy had I underestimated how big of a deal this next scene would be. Yujin Mikotoba is Herlock Sholmes's partner! And the author of his stories. It's indicated he may be Iris's father too, but Yujin doesn't get a chance to explain before Sholmes suddenly decides it's time to run away. The 'Partners Arrange' music that I recognise and love from VGMC rears its head for the first time, and I'm so hyped for our next court day, only to be crestfallen upon seeing 'End' pop up. Damn, really? This is another DD situation where they randomly split the final case in two? Boo!!

But for real, this was one heck of a day. I've been incredibly suspicious of Yujin for so long, but now I have no idea. I mean, he still could be a twist final boss, but he could also just be the ultimate assistant character, and this revelation explains a lot of his shadiness. The Baskervilles manuscript, for one.

My theories as things stand: Seishiro Jigoku murdered Inspector Gregson, perhaps in self defence, after Gregson tried to reap him for whatever he did ten years ago (I guess he probably also ordered the hit on John H Wilson?! Jeez, what the hell did everybody do). I also sadly noticed the huge gash in the side of the metal trunk, which I unfortunately suspect arose from the blade of Karuma. Kazuma was missing for a couple of days, of course, so he could have been Shinn's replacement and the attempted killer of Jigoku. Though Gregson doesn't normally do the hits himself, so I wonder why he personally went to France, if that's what happened.

There's also the option to replace Jigoku with Mikotoba in that whole last paragraph, but then I wouldn't know what Jigoku's story role would be other than a red herring. And then there's the Professor case, which is still a big question mark. If the autopsy of Klint revealed the killer's identity, why would Gregson, who insisted on the autopsy, then be reaping on behalf of the said killer? I'm struggling to see his motivations. If the Reaper killed John H Wilson because of his role in the autopsy, it would make sense for him to then try to kill Yujin Mikotoba too instead of Seishiro, so the two of them are equal possibilities here.

Though, assuming Kazuma was helping Gregson, would he really try to kill the man who tried to raise him? And how about Stronghart, are his misdeeds all tied to ten years ago instead of the present? Who was on the Professor's side back then and who was against him? Who the hell was the Professor? All the names on The List are connected now but why would Kazuma's name be on it before he even got to England? And Wilson was a victim of the reapers, not one of them. Or was he?! And what happened to Yujin 16 years ago that made him abandon his family?

I have no idea about anything, but sometimes a man needs to point his finger first and think later.

Yay for Yujin Mikotoba and new music! Boo to the final case being split into two cases. I was extremely let down by this and there's part of me that wants to warn people before they get too disappointed but ah well. This one's even worse than 5-4/5-5 imo because at least those two do deal with two separate defendants, so it's two different cases - this one is only a continuation.

That German song that plays while Mikotoba is passed out was oddly haunting

Also this split is absolutely random. DD at least is dealing with two separate cases and two separate defendants

Yeah I feel like being really careful about "spoiling" people is (rightfully) such a taboo, but I do kinda think it should be standard practice to let people know that case 4 is just the final case so they don't get disappointed, because that is probably a universal reaction.

Definitely one of the best moments in a video game for the interaction between music + story + gameplay. Still get chills every time I hear that track.

The Yujin reveal is excellent. I also suspected Yujin for a long time. It also adds a nice touch that Susato is a big fangirl of Sholmes and her father is Sholmes's partner.

Case 4 and Case 5 being connected is pretty disappointing, even if I like what I got from Case 4. The double-reveal of Gregson as the victim and Yujin as the partner are really strong and I like the trial segment. DD also has Case 4 and Case 5 connected, but it has the DLC case so it still feels like we got 5 cases. GAA2 is one of the few AA games with only 4 cases.

Oh I like case 4, I just don't see why they split it to make us think there was another case coming when there wasn't! Maybe it's super long, but still. And yeah it's worse than DD's split in that regard because it's the exact same trial with the same victim and defendant and pieces of evidence (I assume).

Bitto posted...

adds a nice touch that Susato is a big fangirl of Sholmes and her father is Sholmes's partner.

Yes this is great! Yujin has definitely taken several dozen steps up as a character since arriving in England, he was a complete non-entity in Japan.

Random new theory: maybe Gregson was the Professor all along and framed Genshin by feeding Klint something that'd point the finger at him. And Kazuma found out and killed him for it. No I haven't thought this through at all.

Maria is the good kind of crazy.

yujin reveal has to be a top 3 moment of the GAA games, right?

We should probably be careful answering that question with a full (finale) case left to go in the playthrough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heck yeah tap dancing Mikotoba

I watched a streamer play this game a few years ago, and her reaction to that moment was so good, I saved the clip in my bookmarks.

https://clips.twitch.tv/RepleteThirstySwordAliens-88lWO3j2_7Ob_q9s

Also, a really fucking cool detail in this is that Sholmes never got funky with Mikotoba's dance of deduction like he does with Ryunosuke's. Because Mikotoba is his real partner and they just gel together that well as an investigative duo.

yeah, sholmes being actually smart in the mikotoba dance is phenomenal. i think there's a good case for that dance being the highlight of G2-5 overall!

The List is finally addressed for the first time this game. The four names were part of an assassination exchange program (?!) orchestrated by the British government, in which Shin kills Wilson and Kazuma kills Gregson and both assassins use diplomatic immunity to escape judgement. Well I hadn't figured that one out, I didn't think Kazuma would have been recruited for any shady dealings before even leaving Japan. It's certainly a risky manouevre on the Japanese side, but Jigoku was unable to deny the demand. Still, hiring a student instead of a professional killer was a choice!

So Wilson and Gregson were the targets all along, but we still don't know exactly why. It's surely tied to the Professor, but... why? 10 years later, why kill the Reaper's loyal henchman? Why Wilson and not Mikotoba or Sithe? Assuming Stronghart is the mastermind behind everything, I'm curious what his full plan is here.

Sholmes found out about Wilson's death and then took off to stop Kazuma from reaching Britain. So Ryunosuke's trial was on the 22nd November, Sholmes then immediately boarded a ship to Asia, and swapped ships onto the Burya heading back from Japan sometime before Kazuma is 'killed' on 9th January. There's just under 50 days between the two incidents, and the full journey from England to Japan takes 50 days, so that tracks. Another mystery solved!

At the trial, Seishiro is a great antagonistic witness to behold. I have a real hard time finding some of these contradictions, I did not remember Jigoku's line about not having to go through luggage checks! At one point he and Kazuma accuse each other of the murder, and I genuinely don't know which one did it. But Kazuma's name is cleared, for this incident at least (I haven't forgotten the gash in Gregson's trunk!), and Jigoku confesses. Well, there was a good reason they made him a character in this game after all. A great decision to make a judge such a major character, and even a culprit.

Of course things don't end here. Kazuma appears hellbent on taking van Zieks down, and I don't know if this is all misplaced emotion, if he knows something about Barok that we don't yet, or if this is all a performance from him in order to flush out the true culprit behind his father's death. Quite likely a combination. Stronghart allows the trial to continue, he must be eager to be rid of van Zieks to risk things carrying on at this stage. This isn't a stopping point but I'm stopping here anyway, please don't 'hmmmm' me if Kazuma promptly slices Barok in two on the (quickly reconstructed) witness stand.

But we can still hmm you for other reasons?

Hmmm

Wow, what a stopping point you chose!

andylt posted...

please don't 'hmmmm' me if Kazuma promptly slices Barok in two on the (quickly reconstructed) witness stand.

OK, what sound should we make instead?

Kazhmmma Asogi

hm

...It's finally open, is it?
Pandora's box...

As with the final case of the last game, I was too invested to be taking many notes here, my bad!

Kazuma is hellbent on taking Barok down. Despite the repeated insistence of Ryunosuke and Susato, I don't think this is really out of character for him. When we saw him as a defence lawyer he was just as determined and fierce, he merely had the right target that time and was driven by his confidence in his best friend. Now he's driven by revenge and a longing that's been burning inside him for a whole decade, it's understandable that he's acting like this. Ironically enough, he and van Zieks have a fair amount in common with their delusion, denial, and being caught in the relentless grip of the painful shadows of the past.

The back half of the trial turns out to be much easier than the first, now we're focussed solely on the Professor. Yujin winds up on the stand, and Maria uh comes along for the ride despite not being invited. I guess nobody dared say no to her? Between her and Herlock, this isn't a very closed trial. Maria gets a moment to complete her character arc, she's a weirdly well developed character despite having like 3 scenes total. And lol at her staring at Mikotoba the whole time. Also I did not expect Genshin's ring to look like that.

After that we have Daley and Caidin on the stand, as the closest thing to a comedic duo this case has. I like Barry bouncing back and forth between feeling apologising to poor Daley and assaulting him, and Daley getting used to it and not being intimidated any more. The talk here is all about the will(s), and the game does well to hide the truth for as long as it can.

I love everything about the reveal of Klint as the Professor, and Genshin as his murderer. Nothing else to say, this sequence is the peak of the trial, it's satisfying on every level. Klint's eventual will is solid too (What if Kazuma had twisted the hilt of Karuma at some point in the last 10 years, I wonder), it's slightly undercut by Stronghart being in charge of most of the killings but at least they don't make Klint innocent.

Stronghart himself is a decent final boss, though not quite as impressive as someone with two games worth of build up should be. Time and again he tries to end the trial, and time and again we use the same method to keep it going- his oft-stated pursuit of the truth and the will of the judiciary in the public gallery. To his credit he holds out for a pretty long time, I'm impressed he managed to turn the crowd even after the full extent of his misdeeds came to light. And I think he's never personally killed anyone, which must be a first for a big bad.

Unfortunately, the last takedown isn't all that satisfying for me. Iris casually invents holographic projections and Sholmes saves the day via Queen Victoria. Where to even start with this! Sholmes should absolutely have a role in the trial, but the final blow should be Ryunosuke's to make. IMO he should've made his rousing speech about the truth directly after the crowd turned in Stronghart's favour. Throw in some words about how his time in England has made him appreciate the resilience of the human spirit, add that he has faith in the people to handle these revelations, I dunno I'm not a writer but you get the idea. Instead we get a Sholmes ex machina, or I guess regina ex machina, or Sholmes ex... whatever the latin for 'hare' is. The rotten head of a corrupt institution is finally taken down by, of all things, the reigning monarch of the British Empire. Nah, maybe my distaste for the monarchy is colouring my perception too much but I don't like this! ...Aside from the dancing hologram Sholmes, which is admittedly one heck of an animation.

It's not a big deal though, the rest is fine. Mael even gets a brief Gant clap, and ultimately narrowly survives another fiery explosion in the court. It's no wonder London keeps burning down, really. He apparently set all this in motion two years ago to clean his closet of skeletons as he sought the Attorney General job, which seems incredibly risky. Of course there's dramatic irony in him causing his own downfall, but more than that it's... very stupid? There was no risk as it was, everyone was playing ball and had long since forgotten the Professor, he needlessly drew lots of attention to the past and scarred his own judiciary's image long before this last trial happened. Not a great plan, Mael.

Now Stronghart is gone, Everything is Good with the legal system. I guess everyone forgot that all the highly ranked members of the judiciary were chanting Stronghart's name after everything was out in the open.

The epilogue is very sweet. Kazuma and Barok share some kind words, really the best parts of this trial involved the Asogis and the van Zieks. Mikotoba reveals that Iris is Klint's daughter, which is a cool twist that I didn't see coming, but I'm glad they don't dwell on that for too long. The most emotional part of this whole ending is Iris calling Hurley 'daddy', that really got me.

Ryunosuke decides to go back to Japan of course, and gives another nice speech about his Resolve (TM). Susato goes with him, as if there was any doubt. Kazuma gets some good resolution, and he finally calls Ryunosuke 'partner' again. I'd be up for a sequel/spinoff with Kazuma and Barok tearing up London, tbh.

The Great Ace Attorney 2 -Resolve- FIN

More general talking to come tomorrow but I'm really happy with this game :) Thank you all for reading along!

GAA2 case ranking: 3 > 2 > 1 > 4 > 5

(I thought Kazuma was great in GAA1 but hated him in GAA2)

What do you do when there's a corrupt authority? Simply tattle on the authority above them that's absolutely not corrupt at all and everything will work out! Yay! Yeah I agree that it's a shit resolution

It's a shit resolution, but I still don't care because Dancing Sholmes is my favorite Sholmes moment and that's no small task.

Maria's the best. One of the rare side-characters in an AA game who entirely just helps you when you ask and is entirely honest and competent while doing so!

What do you think of Stronghart as a main antagonist?

MacArrowny posted...

(I thought Kazuma was great in GAA1 but hated him in GAA2)

Yeah I thought his newfound edginess was annoying lol but andy was tripping over himself making excuses for it ("well he's just pasionate! it's understandable!") but that's okay, your unconditional love of kazuma is cute

andylt posted...

And I think he's never personally killed anyone, which must be a first for a big bad.

Engarde didn't directly kill anyone either.

also I think I enjoyed Daley shaking himself at Barry like he was being choked more than even dancing Sholmes

just so delightfully awkward

<3 Maria

great writeup! agreed with everyone that the end was truly bad - it has major 1-5/E1-5 issues. i didn't enjoy kazuma in gaa2 as much as you but i do agree that his character felt consistent and well-written - it's hard watching someone who seemed as pure and dogged as AA3 mia reveal such a twisted hidden side.

I think it was an interesting twist to show someone with the determination of a defense attorney refusing to give up and believing they're right, except they're actually wrong.

It's been fun, thanks for the playthrough topic.

I really hated the hologram.

I wish I liked the final case of this game more than I do. Like, I think it's really really good but I just don't *love* it for some reason. While G2-2, G2-3, and even G2-4 have all stuck in my brain pretty solidly since I played the game a couple years ago, I don't remember much about G2-5 after the tap dance sequence - it's all kind of a mushy blur for me, I dunno why. I remember liking it when I was playing it but very little about it actually stands out to me as memorable now for reasons I can't explain.

GAA2 is a great game, much better than GAA1, but I really feel like the lack of a trilogy here is felt in the fact that the game has barely any time to settle into any kind of status quo. Like, Ryunosuke and Susato have only barely settled into England before we're basically moving into the endgame! G1-5, G2-2, and G2-3 are basically it as far as our 'midgame' is concerned. G2-3 is our only case with Gina as a detective before Gregson bites it. The cases are nice and long and allow a lot of time for the characters to develop but I can't get over this since that it hits its conclusion too fast - I want to have more time to really settle in and enjoy all of these characters and the story they're taking us on and I really do wish we had that middle game, even if it felt more like GAA1 than GAA2.

I think my biggest problem are the missed opportunities though. Like, the fact that the game starts us with Susato as a lawyer but she just goes "oh ok I don't want to be a lawyer" and we never get further payoff to this is baffling to me. I really thought we would have the final case start with Ryunosuke in some kind of danger and Susato would have to step in to help him out, Edgeworth-style - even if she doesn't finish things off, it still feels like the Ryutaro arc should have come back at some point, but as it was it just felt like they were teasing us.

I also wanted more Mikotoba and Sholmes together. Or it would have been nice to have a dance of deduction with Sholmes and Iris together, kind of passing the torch and officially establishing Iris as Sholmes's new partner, since we've established that she's good at deduction!

It kinda stands out to me that out of all the characters, it feels like Susato and Iris, the two main female leads, have the least agency in this story. I know it'd be obvious to say "well, it was the 1800's or whatever, women didn't really hold a very high status" but frankly, they were more than happy to suspend this logic for the sake of Japanese nationals fully practicing law in Britain with little obstacle so I find the logic dubious (also this is like fucking Steampunk Britain, who cares).

There's other aspects of this just not having enough time to do all its stories that stand out to me - like, I really think Courtney Sithe should have been established in the first game to make her being the real killer in G2-3 a LOT more intriguing - as it is she just feels like a random bad guy that I don't care about. I really like Maria Gorey but she gets almost no screentime - she basically gets introduced to us just in time for the endgame. And like I said, Gina doesn't get a whole lot of time to be a detective which is disappointing. Also what the hell is with Rei Membani having such a prominent spot on the box art for one of the game's least important characters? Why is it always women getting shafted? Seriously what's the freaking deal

I dunno, sorry, I just had to get this stuff of my chest. GAA2 is still good but I feel like it's just barely missing the mark of being brilliant and I'm annoyed by it

I'm also annoyed that the game only has 4 cases and the 5 case thing was a lie. I really thought we were going to have the Gregson murder wrapped up and then have a whole new thing for case 5 to tie everything together! Everything still tied together but I dunno, kind of disappointing!

Yeah, I agree with you about the last two cases. The details kind of blend and muddle together for me. For all the talk that 5-4 and 5-5 should've been one case, those two are clear and distinct to me.

The Ryutaro thing was just an excuse to have another intro case in Japan. I really don't think Takumi thought about it beyond that.

Weren't the games originally planned to be a trilogy? I remember reading something like that.

there's no question that GAA2 was a mess. it's a spectacular one but the way cases 4 and 5 go really blunted some of the greatness for me. 2 and 3 had me thinking we were on that AA3/AAI2 level.

Raka_Putra posted...

Weren't the games originally planned to be a trilogy? I remember reading something like that.

I don't know if Takumi ever confirmed it, but it was heavily rumored and when you play the games, it definitely feels like there were plot points set up in the first game that don't come to fruition or don't get the time in the second game they may have warranted.

Come on Capcom release The Great Ace Attorney 1.5.

Featuring Vilen Bolshevik, da.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Also what the hell is with Rei Membani having such a prominent spot on the box art for one of the game's least important characters? Why is it always women getting shafted? Seriously what's the freaking deal

tbh the vast majority of works for males, by males will be like this

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't care for the hologram queen stuff.

MacArrowny posted...

(I thought Kazuma was great in GAA1 but hated him in GAA2)

Dels posted...

Yeah I thought his newfound edginess was annoying lol but andy was tripping over himself making excuses for it ("well he's just pasionate! it's understandable!") but that's okay, your unconditional love of kazuma is cute

SeabassDebeste posted...

i didn't enjoy kazuma in gaa2 as much as you but i do agree that his character felt consistent and well-written - it's hard watching someone who seemed as pure and dogged as AA3 mia reveal such a twisted hidden side.

I really think Kazuma's characterisation made sense in this game! Of course it was a shame to see him go down that path, but they wouldn't have brought him back from the dead if he was just gonna remain our superhero best friend. We already have Sholmes for that!

Honestly I was expecting him to be Gregson's killer, so I'm happy with how things turned out for him. I think Ryunosuke and Susato were maybe idolising the man they thought they knew after he died, which is why they were so shocked, but in reality we only saw him pretty briefly back then (and he was still very aggressive in court at that time), and this was what he'd been training for for a decade. I like that they made him more flawed and human. Though him not talking to either of his friends after he gets his memory back is a bit annoying.

Leonhart4 posted...

I think it was an interesting twist to show someone with the determination of a defense attorney refusing to give up and believing they're right, except they're actually wrong.

yeah, agreed

Bitto posted...

What do you think of Stronghart as a main antagonist?

Good idea, but they didn't give him enough substance, the final takedown is weak for many reasons, and his plans seem to make less than zero sense. The Reaper only struck when van Zieks was prosecuting, but Barok quit the game five years ago. So he hadn't had anyone killed in all that time but suddenly decided to kill off all the loose ends connecting him to the past, including his loyal subordinate Gregson? ...But apparently not including his other loyal subordinate, Asa Shinn. And in the process he recruited another assassin to tie to his misdeeds, that one being the son of Genshin Asogi. Did he plan for Sithe to take the fall in the Harebrayne case, knowing it would tarnish his own team's image? If not, why'd he put Barok on the case, and if so, why didn't he also try to take down Yujin Mikotoba as a loose end?

LeonhartFour posted...

Engarde didn't directly kill anyone either.

Oh, of course!

I agree with several of Para's points. I haven't talked much about Susato this game because I already went through my thoughts on her and, sadly, this game didn't live up to its promise on giving her stuff to do. At the end of the first game and the start of this, I thought they were going somewhere interesting with her, but then she immediately reverts to being the contented impossibly perfect sidekick with little internal conflict or drive of her own.

Rei being on the boxart so prominently is really weird! She does nothing, is never mentioned before or after her one case, and there are several more important characters that don't get the spotlight that she does on that cover. Even in terms of single case characters, she hasn't got a patch on Shamspeare, Menimemo, Drebber, Daley, etc.

I had meant to note Iris. I like her as a character a lot, but in the second game she doesn't get given much. I think it hurts her that Susato comes back so quickly, so she can't fill the role she did in Gina's trial, and that Sholmes is heavily present from the get-go this time around.

I really like what they did with Mikotoba, but wish we'd gotten a more substantial dance of deduction with him. And I find it amusing that he watches a woman die in childbirth, and then immediately flees to the other side of the world. Twice!

If this really was meant to be a trilogy, and it does seem that way, I'd like to know what their plans were for everyone.

Gregson is a great character, but in a way I'm kinda sad that they killed him before revealing the Reaper stuff. His death definitely lands harder the way they did it, but it's a shame we didn't get to see him reaping. I always found him to be at his most interesting when he was being shady! Even the big reveal, which should be earth-shattering, doesn't get given much room to breathe, Barok just tells us in one of his convos.

No idea how I'd do a case ranking for the second game. The intro would be at the bottom by default with how little impact it winds up having and it being a relatively simple case. 2 and 3 are both really good, 3 has higher highs but also fumbles the climax, not sure which I'd put on top. And I've no idea how to even look at 4 and 5 as separate entities, but they're both strong.

I would like to note The Professor case, and how well the game handles it. AA is obviously in love with having unresolved past cases that involve several main characters, but instead of this one being another sterile cold case called DL-1 or something, it's introduced to us through a haunting stylish waxwork horror show in a separate case. The mood adds so much flair, and makes it all much more intriguing. There's some great plot work in this game, despite my minor gripes I'm overall very happy with it.

And it's worth repeating: the music in this duology is fantastic.

favorite tracks while your memory is fresh?

duology case rankings too ofc

G2-3 > G2-4 > G2-5 > G2-2 > G1-3 > G1-5 > G2-1 > G1-4 > G1-1 > G1-2 imo

I really need to replay the second game to get a better sense of the last two cases. Case 3 is the best regardless though.

Thinking more about it, does the game's ending even attempt to address any of the underlying corruption in the justice system? I don't believe anyone offers an answer to the problem that's been a major theme since the very start of the duology. Except for the killers, of course. Graydon, Menimemo, Green, Drebber, even Klint and Genshin, they all take the law into their own hands to seek retribution after the system has failed them. And of course we show them they are wrong- there are always innocents who suffer as collateral damage, and we see how a desire for revenge can consume people like Kazuma and Barok.

But if reaping is wrong, then what is the alternative? Stronghart being a selfish monster is kind of an easy way out to show the Reaper's path is mistaken, but he wasn't the cause of these problems. All of the issues endemic to the system predate Stronghart, it's why Klint takes action in the first place, and there's nothing to indicate they're going away now he's gone. Now I don't expect Ryunosuke to singlehandedly fix all of society's faults, but it's weird that our happy ending consists of us taking out the symptom, but not addressing the cause. What's going to stop the next McGilded from bribing jurors and falsifying evidence?

SeabassDebeste posted...

favorite tracks while your memory is fresh?

duology case rankings too ofc

No idea about case rankings for the second game, I'll need to think more on that.

The music is all great! I don't know the track names but I'm planning to go through the entire OST (so I can nominate one of them for VGMC). Off the top of my head, I love all of Kazuma's themes! Some others... the dance of deduction one, Jezaille Brett, Gregson, summation examination, The Professor, McGilded, and a couple of the trial ones I don't know how to describe. Case 3 in this game added a new gentle trial theme before shit goes down, and the last case added a bunch of new cool tracks. I will get back to you on this!

Another realisation I've had: there's only two juries in this game! And one of them was a rehash from the first game. Did juries not go down well in the fandom so they cut down on them? Or was there not enough budget to make loads more new characters? I really liked the jury mechanics :(

I think they realized they couldn't have silly jurors playing a major role in their most important cases. Even in 2-3, they weren't as prominently involved.

OK 'A Prosecutor, Reborn' may be my fav track in the duology. I would nominate it for VGMC but the music itself is a big ol' spoiler and I wouldn't want to ruin that for anyone. What an OST, though.

It's fine, if you haven't played the games, you don't even understand how it's a spoiler

Yeah but if someone starts the game afterwards (or is midway through a playthrough) they'd then recognise Kazuma's theme, watch him die, and know he comes back later!