Board 8 > Rate the Ace Attorney case: Turnabout Airlines (E1-2)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules:

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

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

Previous Results:

Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5) - 9.8 (37 votes)
Farewell, My Turnabout (2-4) - 9.7 (30 votes)
Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4) - 9.2 (32 votes)
Turnabout Beginnings (3-4) - 8.4 (26 votes)
Rise from the Ashes (1-5) - 8.2 (28 votes)
The Stolen Turnabout (3-2) - 8.2 (24 votes)
Turnabout Samurai (1-3) - 7.4 (29 votes)
Turnabout Memories (3-1) - 7.4 (30 votes)
Turnabout Trump (4-1) - 6.9 (25 votes)
Recipe for Turnabout (3-3) - 6.6 (27 votes)
Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2) - 6.5 (25 votes)
Turnabout Sisters (1-2) - 5.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Visitor (E1-1) - 5.0 (18 votes)
The First Turnabout (1-1) - 4.9 (25 votes)
Turnabout Corner (4-2) - 4.0 (25 votes)
Turnabout Big Top (2-3) - 3.7 (25 votes)
Turnabout Succession (4-4) - 3.5 (24 votes)
The Lost Turnabout (2-1) - 3.3 (27 votes)
Turnabout Serenade (4-3) - 2.7 (24 votes)

Turnabout Visitor lands right exactly in the middle, which seems appropriate for a short, but interesting Case 1. People generally liked that there were actually 2 visitors and the brevity of the case, especially compared to other AAI1 cases. I wonder what that means for the other cases.

Summary:

While taking a trip on an airplane, Edgeworth stumbles on a dead body and is mistaken for the killer!

Main Characters: Miles Edgeworth, Dick Gumshoe, Franziska von Karma
Other Characters: Rhoda Teneiro, Akbey Hicks, Zinc Lablanc, Cammy Meele

My Rating: 1.5/10. I'm tentatively putting this one down as the most boring case in the series. It's long and the cast is mediocre at best. Edgeworth is stuck with Teneiro for half of the case and...I like Teneiro, but she's just not an interesting character to have as a companion. Lablanc is terrible and Meele is boring...then transforms and...nope, still boring. The murder method is probably the only interesting thing about this case.

Starting this one early because I'll be gone until around 6:30 PM.

I think it would be funny if E1-1 ended up the highest ranked case in the game just for being brief, inoffensive, and fairly neat.

But I haven't played this game in long enough (basically since the week it released) to remember if I actually agree with that. From what I recall, the start of this case still had the game feeling fresh, and the airplane setup was cool and I liked Rhoda but then the case just sort of went nowhere and idk I don't remember anything about it other than Rhoda's love of suitcases. Zinc Lablanc is not a good villain.

3.5/10

Pretty boring, honestly. None of the original characters are very interesting. I like the idea of a murder on an airplane, but that's about it.

But the clouds, they tell me nothing.

4/10

Narrowly escapes a worse rating mainly because the ending of the case is pretty solid - Cammy Meele is a fairly brief but fun villain and I like the last few details needed to catch her, the bit about her knowing Borginese was clever. The idea of a murder on an airplane is cool, and the case does a decent job of making it interesting. Franziska is also here, and she's fun. That's enough to barely keep an otherwise pretty unremarkable case afloat for me. It's not very good, but it has its moments.

4.5

I wish this game had just been Edgeworth actually prosecuting people. Facing off against corrupt defense attorneys in court. That would have been fun.

2.5

Nope, I don't like it! Don't like the characters, setting, suitcase... the list goes on.

2.6/10

It sucks. Legitimately gets, like, a full point for the sequence of Zinc falling over a railing in slow motion while Edgeworth is lost in thought.

Cammy Meele's design bothers me because it feels like it doesn't belong in an Ace Attorney game.

I think I have to abstain on this one because I couldn't even remember enough to remember it was on a plane.

Maybe I'll read a synopsis later and see if it jogs my memory.

6

1

7/10

Kinda liked this one.

2.5

This one drags and is really unmemorable. Like I remembered it with the summary but when I first clicked the topic I was like "what the heck is Edgeworth Case 2" which I can't say happened with any other case in this series thus far.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Cammy Meele is a fairly brief but fun villain

okay so as you can see, i forgot who the villain in this case was. which is just a testament to how forgettable it is, really.

Dels posted...

okay so as you can see, i forgot who the villain in this case was. which is just a testament to how forgettable it is, really.

Leblanc is probably the most memorable original character from this case because of how annoying he is

But the clouds, they tell me nothing

i mean, surely he's still... villain-ish, right? He's not a good guy? He gets in your money and is a bad person...?

He's antagonistic toward Edgeworth but he's technically not a bad guy otherwise no

But the clouds, they tell me nothing

3/10

This one sets the trend of the major flaw of the game, that everyone is very stupid.

7/10

I didn't like it the first time, but I found it enjoyable the second time around.

3

I still don't understand why the stewardess blows bubbles. If anyone understands that, please tell me.

Anagram posted...

3

I still don't understand why the stewardess blows bubbles. If anyone understands that, please tell me.

Bubbles coming out of someone's mouth/nose is a classic anime-trope way to depict that someone is sleeping, so the comedic reveal is that Cammy Meele is blowing those bubbles herself to make it LOOK like she's anime-sleeping.

Oh jeez

Well, that is an answer, at least.

1.5/10

The horrible suitcase and Zinc Lablanc kinda wrecked my retina, we need to file a class action lawsuit.

Anagram posted...

Oh jeez

Well, that is an answer, at least.

It's one of my favorite visual gags in the whole series! The animation where she flips up her hair to reveal that she's been blowing the bubbles herself the whole time is one of my favorite animations that nobody talks about.

Cammy deliberately invoking the trope to throw everyone off the scent is a pretty cool move

But it only worked because the clouds, they tell me nothing

7.5/10.

Apparently this case is very underrated!

More like overrated, in my humble opinion.

6

i actually remember it at least

LightningStrikes posted...

7.5/10.

Apparently this case is very underrated!

There are people here who use a rating standard where 5 is average for an Ace Attorney case. Would you say it's far above average by that standard?

Yes!

I think this is the first E1-2 fan I've seen in the wild

OK reading through write-ups I think I remember it well enough to give it a rating.

3/10

Nothing about this case was actively terrible but it really just never did anything worth mentioning. I also remember feeling like Franziska's only purpose here is to give us a competent adversary for a few minutes, which seems like a waste.

Oh man I forgot about Franziska accusing Edgeworth of murder for no reason

That's one of the only things I remembered on my own. I can't say it's 100% out of character for her but still. Like calm down bitch.

kevwaffles posted...

Nothing about this case was actively terrible

can assure you that zinc was meekins-tier and arguably worse

Probably 6/10 but I'll give it a bone with 8/10.

Leonhart4 posted...

I think this is the first E1-2 fan I've seen in the wild

I'm not an active fan of it but I do think it's not that bad. I like how it utilized Edgeworth's earthquake fear and it's a better intro case than E1-1. Cammy is a rather interesting and clever villain too. The big thing for me is that I think it does basically everything better than a certain GAA case.

"It's better than the boat" isn't a high bar...!

SeabassDebeste posted...

can assure you that zinc was meekins-tier and arguably worse

Man I just do not remember this character.

kevwaffles posted...

Man I just do not remember this character.

Lucky you

I feel that the average AA case is great compared to other games I could be playing, and therefore the average score I give should reflect that, rather than just normalizing things to a 5.

That said, E1-2 is probably my favorite AAI case, or at least the one I remember the best. I expect the scores to go down from here for this game.

Yeah, that's a fine way to score things too.

I'm expecting E1-4 and E1-5 to get better scores, but we'll see how those go when their topics arrive.

I don't remember anything about E1-3 though... Is that the first Kay case?

E1-3 is the amusement park case, and yeah, Kay's debut

The next two cases are where I'll get into hot take territory

5

"Mr. Edgeworth...? You... look like you're talking to the clouds."
"Is that so? Then tell me, what do you suppose I said to them?"
"I don't know, but it looked like a rather one-sided conversation."

2

The worst of the Investigations cases and one of the five (if not three) worst cases in the whole franchise. Bad case in a setting that squandered its potential, unlikable or bland characters, Franziska felt shoehorned in, and should have been either completely rewritten or scrapped during development. I seem to recall being angry after first playing E1-2 due to how bad it was. The fact that we still haven't been introduced to our rival or "obligatory young female" assistant of the game two cases in when every other game in the series has already done so (or at least one of them) is also insulting. And no, things don't get much better when they do both show up in the following case.

Hot take AAI would've been better off without a teen girl assistant

Leonhart4 posted...

Hot take AAI would've been better off without a teen girl assistant

AAI would have been better with a complete and total rewrite, yes

There's a pay-off to Kay, but...it takes a while. I think I would generally prefer an AAI without Kay too.

I think Kay as a character kinda works, but her best moments are when she's in trouble and Edgeworth puts himself on the line for her.

One of the rare effective examples of the damsel in distress trope.

Kay as an assistant to Edgeworth in particular doesn't work because he's way too smart for it to be believable that she figured out something he didn't. She exists to make quips and occasionally bust out Little Thief (for which Edgeworth does all the work anyway).

7

I think my biggest hot take about this game is that the only serious problem is the pacing/length. All my other issues feel like nitpicks or only really effect one scene, well, except for one part, but we'll get there.

Setting cool and unique, and the new characters are great. I think Lablanc falling in slow motion while Gumshoe is the only one who gives a shit is fucking hilarious. And the visual gag of Cammy with the bubbles is brilliant and proof that the designers and animators are part of what makes Ace Attorney so memorable. Whomever came up with that better got a raise. Rhoda is lovely, honestly somewhat relatable of a character.

My only serious complaint is that Franziska feels a little too tacked on. While she doesn't come across as wholly out of character, I wish her antagonism felt more like she's trying to prove herself to Edgeworth, which is more in line with her later appearances. Oh, I do also think it is weird that Kay/Little Thief don't show up yet, I agree with those takes.