@nate38

Together, maybe 10 hours. 4 is shorter, but 5 goes by quickly because it keeps piling on exciting things.

I like how at the end of case 3 they just straight up refer to finger pointing pose as the "objection pose". Apparently in that world it's just a matter of fact that when a lawyer objects, they will strike that pose.

Probably didn't need to spoiler tag that but it is loosely connected to the plot so... yeah.

Finished case 3. My thoughts:

I think it started off pretty strong, the whole mock trial / real trial parallel thing was pretty neat. But it sort of started to feel like it was dragging on after awhile, and then the conclusion was... I dunno. Fundamentally flawed?

The whole thing rests upon this idea that the body would look like Phoenix Wright under a tarp with the right conditions in place, but it requires ignoring the fact that a spear coming out of a woman's abdomen is not going to be anywhere near at the same height as a (presumably taller) man's arm when he is holding it out and pointing. You even see the spear low down when Sykes is demonstrating it without the tarp over her, and when she has the tarp over her it's just magically way higher up. Furthermore when she holds the spear you can clearly see that to get the arm length right she has to hold it at a length where a few feet of it stick out behind her, but nowhere in the entire case did anyone ever suggest that the victim's wound went all the way through her body, and in fact it definitely didn't. I guess he could have stabbed her and then taped the spear to her side or something, but even then it would still be jutting out the back and I dunno... not the most believable case.

@Zero

Regarding the height: the statue wasn't a full-body version of Phoenix and Klavier, they were just waist-up ones. So it seemed reasonable that the body of the victim could've been posed around the same height of a Phoenix statue.

I do agree that the actual murder and some of the details around it felt overtly convoluted, and I had that problem with case 2's killing too. What I really liked about case 3 were the characters though, who I felt were really fun and fleshed out nicely. *BIG CASE 3 SPOILERS* Robin Newman's hyper-masculinity/hyper-feminity split was hilarious and adorable, Hugh was insufferable and then became really likable and interesting, Juniper was much more enticing than in case 1, Scuttlebutt was kind of the breakout star for me, and Means had a great transformation and breakdown.

I'm excited about the new case DLC releasing this Thursday--I hear really good things about it, and it's hitting right when the wife and I are leaving on a vacation to Disney World. Great timing for the road!

Finished!

As always, the final case (or I guess two in this one) was the high point of it all. I loved the absolutely unexpected final reveal of the ultimate villain, even if Phoenix's realization stemmed entirely from a throwaway line that sent him into an insane leap of logic that almost certainly never should have occurred to anyone. And because it ended up being so crazy, it would have been really nice to have a recap of how the villain actually managed to weave his tendrils into all the incidents over a period of, like, eight years or whatever. And then he gets sniped in the middle of the courtroom that had days earlier been bombed-out, and nobody panics or anything? The judge just calmly hands down Athena's not-guilty verdict immediately afterward and the confetti flies.

Overall, there's not much to complain about that hasn't been said already. Unbidden hints were a smidge too prevalent, all the way into the final minutes of the last case. The actual crime events were pretty convoluted and farfetched, even for the series' standards. And the progression from the original murder theory to the eventual truth was based on the defense going WAY out on limbs and then some surprise evidence or theretofore unknown memories suddenly coming up, sometimes not even related to the defense's argument. As a result, the final result and the opening setup are much harder to connect in retrospect, which then makes it really difficult to picture the actual events in your mind. I guess it's always been sort of like that, but it felt a little more so this time around.

And all that said, the cast was great as always, the production values were top notch, and it was a fun ride for its hiccups here and there. Smile on my face the whole time. My pessimistic side says the DLC is a typical sneaky cash-grab job from Capcom, but I'm still so pumped up for more Ace Attorney, I JUST DON'T EVEN CARE MAAAAAAAAANNN


Other spoiler thoughts:

- Apollo Justice spoilers: So I guess Phoenix is just keeping Apollo and Trucy's relationship secret from everyone? Do they know about their mother? Won't she reach out to them, since she knows who they are? (That point might have been addressed in AJ actually, can't remember for sure). Trucy in general didn't have much of a purpose this time around, except to get hostage'd, which wasn't even necessary as it didn't add much to the stakes. She might just be a victim of having so many possible attorneys and assistants who all have a pretty interchangeable dynamic no matter the combination.

- Final case spoilers: I was so sure there would be a decisive scar to reveal...Athena stabbed deep into the phantom's hand, and that guy's always wearing gloves, and then he takes it off and DRAMATIC REVELATION THERE'S THE SCAR!!! But no.

- Cameo spoilers, including final case: It's Pearls! It's been like ten years but she looks almost exactly the same as when she was five! Must be the never-changing spirit medium wardrobe. Maybe Maya still looks like a teenager, too. Even if she didn't appear, it was nice they acknowledged her openly this time, instead of the extremely brief tease from Apollo Justice. Klavier's one of my faves so it was nice to see him, but his role was pretty small, and he didn't even do his beautifully animated air-guitar! Edgeworth was nice to see as well, but kind of bland without Gumshoe, his better half.

@TriforceBun But if the spear is at the height of his arm, it would still mean there is a half a body to conceal above his "arm". And that still doesn't explain how the length of the spear was dealt with! Plus I'm thinking about the discrepancy between Athena posing with and without... it just straight up moves the spear up higher when the tarp is on and makes the back of it disappear... doesn't really add up.

@nate38

I feel like recaps in general would've really helped put the crime scene occurrences together a little more neatly. Past games did this in pretty much every case, so I'm not sure why DD doesn't really do it. You figure out what happened piece by piece, but the timeline gets a little messy after awhile and it really helps to have someone go over the whole thing again to recap.

(Case 5) I was pretty surprised that Phoenix's idea of the Phantom jumping onto the ladder led him to suspect the real culprit; when he started going along that train of thought, he was startin' to lose me. I mean, a 20 foot leap onto a ladder 50 feet in the air?? That's a pretty crazy stretch. Oh well--still a neat case with some big surprises. Bring on the DLC!

@Zero

Oh, I see what you're saying now. Yeah, that is kind of weird in hindsight, although the length of the thing doesn't really bother me so much, but the placement would be a little strange. I can't remember if Courte was stabbed through the heart or through the abdomen, but either way, the staff would kinda poke out of her middle, rather than the shoulder.

The best I can figure it is that the tied-up body with the sheet looked pretty unconvincing, but not weird enough for students to get suspicious and tear the sheet off. But yeah, Athena cheats a little with this bit and it probably didn't look as good when Courte was placed like that.

Double-post, but a worthy bump and a heads-up to you DD owners out there: supposedly, the DLC case hits tonight at midnight in your region! Some Europeans have already picked it up, so midnight owl lawyers may want to check the eShop when the moon is high. It's $6, a full case, and supposedly quite good.

BTW what did you guys mean when you said the 4th case was short? It seems pretty average to me. Definitely longer than the first case.

@Zero
I feel it's about on par with the first case in length, which is pretty short.
The absence of any investigating also helps speed it along. I easily got through it in one sitting.

@TriforceBun
I still can't download it! Just the silly costumes show up. I NEED MORE PHOENIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!

It's up now. Go geddit!

And regarding case 4: most cases are 2 investigation days (or 3) and 2 trials (or 3). Case 4 was 1 investigation day and 2 trials, and the trials felt a little shorter than usual to me. It was longer than case 1, but I'd say it's easily the second-shortest case in the game.

I don't even remember the investigation for case 4, it breezed by so fast!

So I am deep into the special DLC case. Not too sure how I feel about it so far, but it's nice to have some more Phoenix to play.
It's strange that they train you on some of the game's controls though. I know that you can play it out of order (and that it happens out of order), but I'd advise that people play it after completing the regular cases first.

I don't know how you people have finished the game already! I waited a week before buying it, and yet I feel I'm lagging behind by months. It's pretty damn long!

I just wanted to pop in and say that I wasn't really feeling the second case, but the third case is fantastic. The culprit is on the verge of cracking, and it's beautiful to see. Creepiest-looking character in the series, too, yikes!

Well, the DLC case was actually pretty great--it starts off kinda silly but ends up being one of the best cases in the game! I definitely recommend it to fans of Phoenix Wright.

I'm late to the party but I started this game last night as part of my New Years Resolution to complete my backlog before buying any new games, and I just want to say it's fantastic, I couldn't put it down, I stayed up way too late playing, ended up being late for work as a result, and now it's all I'm thinking about! I haven't felt this excited about an Ace Attorney game since the original! (maybe it helps that I haven't played any in the past few years, and damn that reminds me Investigations is part of my backlog too! )

I also started playing recently, I'm on the 2nd case (if you've seen my Miiverse posts you would know this). The first case was good, but could have been better, it just felt a bit flat. Although yeah, it's just the first case, things should ramp up. I like all the snazzy upgrades the 3DS allows like cutscenes with VA and the graphics and animation are just perfect.

I'm pretty far into the DLC now, and I'm loving it. It's pretty substantial, too. It's one of those "sure, you solved this mystery, but you're not done until you also solve this old-ass case" kind of deal.

After this, I'm starting Investigations, which I picked up shortly before Dual Destinies was released.

Yeah the DLC case turned out to be one of the longest and most substantial cases. It also works off of a sort of "goofier" starting premise than the other cases in the game, so it adds some variety there.

@Guillaume
Let me know when you plan on playing Investigations maybe I'll start it at the same time (if I've finished DD).