Board 8 > Rate the Ace Attorney case: Turnabout Big Top (2-3)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules:

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

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13m5XfS5RBshTDe48UIwr52BWTBvnxq4YUuVk7aLSXvs/edit?usp=sharing

Previous Results:

Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4) - 9.2 (29 votes)
Rise from the Ashes (1-5) - 8.1 (26 votes)
Turnabout Samurai (1-3) - 7.5 (26 votes)
Turnabout Sisters (1-2) - 5.7 (22 votes)
Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2) - 6.7 (20 votes)
The First Turnabout (1-1) - 4.8 (23 votes)
The Lost Turnabout (2-1) - 3.3 (24 votes)

2-2 does respectable. Some liked the premise and some didn't, but pretty much everyone agreed that it's strange that Morgan Fey is an accomplice and never gets pinned down.

Summary:

Phoenix takes the case of famous magician Max Galactica in the murder of his boss, circus ringmaster Russell Berry. Can magicians really fly?

Main Characters: Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, Mia Fey, Pearl Fey, Dick Gumshoe, Franziska von Karma, The Judge
Other Characters: Max Galactica, Russell Berry, Regina Berry, Benjamin Woodman, Trilo, Moe, Acro, Bat, Money, Regent, Leon

My rating: 3.5/10. 3/10 is the lowest I would go while still having more positive feelings than negative feelings. This case tends to get flack for a variety of reasons. The murder mystery, I always thought was fine and was honestly enjoyable. The cast is good; though, Day 1 can be a bit rough. I used to be a bit of an apologist for penalties on pressing. It's bad, but I didn't think it was that bad. Nowadays, I think it is bad just because it de-incentives the player from pressing, which shouldn't be the goal. No one really plays AA for the difficulty. My biggest issue is really the premise. Regina being the target of several characters' affection is...not good when she's 15. It just makes the characters seem skeevy, which is rough considering this case's whole premise is about sympathizing with them.

3

7/10

Way overhated! Falls into the upper half of AA cases pretty comfortably for me. Yeah, I found the murder silly the first time I played too but hot take: the circus is fun actually? The cast is entertaining, Acro is a great villain, and it's just all-around classic Ace Attorney. There are only five cases in the original trilogy where we get Phoenix and Maya together for the whole thing, and this is one of them, so it's worth appreciating for that alone imo. Still love Franziska too. I dunno, I think this case is great (it's a 7 because the competition at the top is really tight).

3

yeah it's actively unfun between the music and the witness characters. the defendant, culprit, and murder itself I'm okay with but woof.

1.7/10

Key portions of the case revolve around turning all the characters involved into pedophiles, including Phoenix. No thanks.

4

What did Acro do to deserve being saddled with all of these other terrible characters?

Yeah, I can really sympathize with Acro. Legitimately one of my favorite villains, and not actually for the joke reason that he's been driven insane by everyone around him losing their minds.

6.5/10

This is a fun case! The circus is a great location. Hot take: Trilo is hilarious. Moe is annoying on Day 1, but he makes up for it on Day 2. The story of Russell and Regina is the tragedy of parental overprotection gone wrong. Acro is a fantastic culprit. There really hasn't been another like him since. True Pain is one of my favorite Reminiscence themes, and it makes Acro's emotional breakdown even more impactful.

So yeah, 2-3 is good! Even Max has his good points.

1.5/10

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/ae967265.png

Acro is also bad by the way, but he is better than Benjamin Woodman, the lowest of bars except maybe Hotti

2

8/10.

I'm probably going to have the highest score of anyone today! (not that it's anywhere near being a "favorite" case) The first trial day is pretty bad, but I really liked the second day, even if the victim's cloak falling off and attaching to Max's bust was pretty ridiculous, but I think it's great regardless. Also, I liked Acro as a villain... if there's any one villain that can make you think he's innocent, Acro is the guy.

*gets whipped* PAIN!! *gets whipped* MORE PAIN!!

(Ben/Trilo is funny sometimes, but he's more often annoying to me)

1

Yes it is that bad

It's telling that Max, Moe, and Regina are all involved in this case's emotional climax, but Ben and Trilo are basically nowhere to be seen on day 2 at all, they get completely shoved aside after trial day 1

MrSmartGuy posted...

Key portions of the case revolve around turning all the characters involved into pedophiles, including Phoenix. No thanks.

....I just accidentally came across this part of the script, which I totally forgot about... (wow)

Judge:
You were going to propose... You... A puppet...

Trilo:
Don't be so obtuse! Just because I'm a puppet doesn't mean I can't love!

Judge:
I guess you're right... Just because I'm old doesn't mean I couldn't propose to her too!

Trilo:
Exactly!

Phoenix:
(His Honor is looking a little less than honorable right now...)

Hbthebattle posted...

Acro is also bad by the way, but he is better than Benjamin Woodman, the lowest of bars except maybe Hotti

Don't forget Mike Meekins.

4/10. Its not as bad as is sometimes claimed. However, it is not good.

6.5/10

on paper the idea is great. a dysfunctional family in their own universe is the exact kind of set up i want from a circus setting, and when it lands, it lands. but boy, when it misses, it misses. the decision to make so many characters enamored by regina in a way that wasn't specifically platonic is ... a choice (though i wasn't bothered by maya's or phoenix's characterisations ... and bat's as well, of course) like i get what they were doing, but woof. max would be an amazing character otherwise, and the only reason why i can stand ben is if i rationalise trilo as being a different character (im huffing copium, i know). i just really did not like the first day of the trial at all! so uncomfortable the entire time.

acro is a great culprit, being one of the few sympathetic ones that have been introduced. my only nitpick being that him wanting to kill regina sours the whole "but he cares so much for russell!!" narrative. but whatever, humans behave irrationally and contradictory all the time. moe is awesome, huge moe fan. he's terribly unfunny in a way that it looped back to funny for me. and we love money the monkey in this house if only for the joke where phoenix pretends to be a monkey. ive flip flopped on whether the murder method is too goofy for me, but honestly, considering the setting, i think a little goof is fine.

in the end, its definitely a mixed bag. the stuff i love i really love and the stuff i don't makes me want to die.

I feel like this case is going to do better than 1-1 and 2-1 despite being way worse because people are pity voting this one

Well it is a lot better than 2-1 at least.

LightningStrikes posted...

Well it is a lot better than 2-1 at least.

both are significantly worse than 1-1 though

4/10

It's perhaps my least favorite individual case in the series, but it's not really bad.

The main issue I had with this case was the bumbling about and that was far more pronounced in 1-3, which seemingly everybody f'ing loves. 1-3 is better, (and doesn't involve characters fawning over a 15-yo airhead,) but not by a great deal.

6.5/10

1.5/10

After suffering through it twice, it's one of the only cases I skip on subsequent playthroughs. Most of the cast is bad; Moe has some hilarious moments but others that are just terrible, Acro is an underrated ruthless asshole who the game instead tries to make you feel sorry for, Ben is an incel pedophile (I mean, he's twice Regina's age), Trilo is the obnoxious twit Ben wants to be, and Regina is oblivious in the least endearing way possible. Max is okay, I guess, and really the only characters who are likable are too dead to make a difference in the case.

What I mean about Acro is the fact that he was legitimately planning to murder a teenager over an accident caused by her being a teenager. All because she's too young and naive to understand the ramifications of what she did!Like... that's as fucked up as "fucked up" gets. I don't feel sorry for him at all, but I do feel really sorry for Bat.

Lopen posted...

I feel like this case is going to do better than 1-1 and 2-1 despite being way worse because people are pity voting this one

No pity required!

2. This is easily the worst case of the original trilogy and would've been the worst outright had two later games not put out even worse cases.

2-2 gets a 6 from me.

4/10

2/10 for 2-3

9/10 for 2-2 (Severely underrated case.)

Why am I, Phoenix Wright, such a great lawyer? Because I am "Wright" all of the time!

Under the Judge's bench

4/10

Just replayed this one, and I think it coincidentally has the most typos of any case.

1/10. I'd rate it a 0 if I could. Worst case in the series.

3. the regina stuff is bad, max is bad, franziska is bad, day 1 in general is bad, the murder method is absurd

but upon replay, it's nice having a phoenix/maya case and day 2 is pretty good. acro is a good culprit.