Let's talk about Ace Attorney 6 in this thread as we play through the latest game in everyone's favorite visual novel series! (sorry, Zero Escape)

Just remember to mark your spoilers, and please give an indication of what part of the game the spoiler refers to!

Example: (case 1 spoilers) Phoenix doesn't get his tongue removed.

I'm guessing I'm a little over halfway through the first case, as the true culprit (revealed in the opening scene, as per tradition) has just taken the stand.

It's hard to say for sure, since Dual Destinies was three years ago, but I think the production values have improved a bit here and there. And I like the Seance thing so far, seems like a nice gimmick. But man, it's pretty jarring moving from Zero Escape's bleak tension back to Ace Attorney's nutty shenanigans...

More tomorrow!

I joculate because I love! To be fair, I might like VLR more than any of the AA games...

I've cleared Case 1. All in all, it was quite good! Despite not having any returning characters outside of Phoenix and Payne, the new cast carried it well--I particularly liked Ahlbi and Ahndastand'in (despite being one of the more labored puns in the game). The bad guy's gimmick was a lot of fun (Phoenix Wright: The Musical!) and the breakdown was also enjoyably over the top. Got some laughs during the trial for sure, and I like where the story is going with the revolt and that ominous meeting at the end of the case. Payne seemed more evil than ever, but that's okay.

For the downsides...have the pop-culture references always felt this "forced"? Maybe it's just me, but they were more jarring than usual and came across as a bit dated or out-of-place. Also, it felt like for such a traditional country, the judge, prosecution and priestess sure were accommodating to let Phoenix have a fair trial (you know, between references to them cutting out his tongue). I think the world-building could've maybe been a bit sharper in that regard.

Otherwise, I'm having a good time with my old friends. Looking forward to seeing how the Apollo stuff is going back at home too.

I started downloading this last night and intended to check it out and then I promptly fell asleep while laying in bed waiting for it to finish downloading.

I feel like Blink 182 needs to make another song about growing up only this time it is about how everyone is tired all the time.

@Zero

Would they still appear nekkid in most of the accompanying video?

Case 2 is enjoyable so far as well. I still haven't even gotten to the first trial sequence yet, but right now it feels like a follow-up/reunion to a lot of the characters in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Pretty cool!

I just beat the 2nd case, and man do I ever enjoy the character breakdowns in this game!
I guessed a lot of this case's twists, but that makes it more believable I suppose (in its unbelievable way, of course).

@TriforceBun
What pulp culture references are bugging you? I found the ones I caught to be so far out of time that they're clearly not meant to be recent, so they were just fun.

Finished the first case. Definitely enjoying it, but something about the whole set-up isn't quite gelling with me.

For one, I've never been a big fan of the "spiritual" stuff in these games, and I know they all have them, but this one seems to be jumping into that pool head first. Whatever, not a huge deal, but definitely not my favorite thing about the game.

The whole set-up of this country and its legal system though... finding it tough to buy into. So like, somehow there is this country that for over 20 years has had this totally Fed up legal system where they literally put lawyers to death if their clients are found guilty to the point where lawyers don't even really exist there anymore, and it's not a big enough deal worldwide that a lawyer like Wright walks into the country having no idea what is going on? It'd be like some American lawyer walking into North Korea and being like hey, what up, here to do law in the way I do it in the US not expecting any differences yo. Except even North Korea's legal system isn't this bad. Point is, this country and its totally Fed up legal system would be all over the news constantly, no way Wright wouldn't know the deal. WHATEVER, moving on. So they have done this for like 20+ years, and basically no lawyers even exist anymore, but Wright somehow not only talks them into having a real trial, but then... they somehow still have a ton of evidence ready for the trial. WHY? THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE REAL TRIALS WHY WOULD THEY GO THROUGH ALL OF THE WORK TO INVESTIGATE WHEN THEY JUST LISTEN TO THE GIRL AND HER POOL APPARITIONS BLINDLY FOR LITERALLY EVERY TRIAL ANYWAY?! Who would they even be gathering evidence for if there is no defense? It makes no sense! Gahhhhhhhhhhhh.

I know it is just an over-the-top silly game but I have to at least somewhat believe in the world a game creates for me and this one has too many holes.

WITH THAT SAID... since it is just an over-the-top silly game it's not bothering me too much. But it does bother me a little. Wish they had put more thought into the world. Hard to get totally engaged in the game if I can't get engaged in the initial set-up of things.

/EDIT Just now going back and reading other people's replies and realizing I'm not the only one with concerns about the world-building. Whew.

@Zero
Yeah, I agree 100% with this. The gallery chanting "annihilate" just made me roll my eyes.

Luckily we still get some great characters and writing.

I dunno why they'd even bother having a chief prosecutor.

Second case finished! Is it just me, or have the cases seemed longer than usual thus far? The first case took me about three hours, and the second one took over six. This is fine.

I agree that the Khura'in angle isn't knocking my socks off yet. The dynamic in the first case seemed to kind of whiplash back and forth inconsistently, but at this point Ace Attorney has done such nutty things with its legal system(s) that I'm fine going along for this weird ride. But I particularly don't care for the new prosecutor thus far, though as always it seems there's more to him we'll see later on.

Oh, but I like the new features in the Options menu: you can "skip" through all text now, not just text you've already read, so speed-readers rejoice. Personally, the differing paces of text displays are part of the Ace Attorney charm for me, so I haven't sped it up. And something called "Consultations" can be toggled on or off. I turned that off, and thus far the game seems like it's giving out fewer unwanted hints than Dual Destinies was.

@Zero

I somewhat agree, but I don't feel as strongly about it as you. I'm fine with Khurai'in being in its own corner of the world to the point that Phoenix wouldn't be aware of how extreme they are until he's in there. And I'm also fine with the general anti-lawyer sentiment (although it's really anti-defense attorney, to be specific, since they seem to have no problem with prosecutors). But I did think that a foreigner coming in and flipping the whole legal system on its head in Case 1 seemed somehow too...easy? Considering how traditional Khurai'in seems to be.

I finished Case 2 last night, and it was strong all-around. Some very good characters and plot twists, even if the core whodunit mystery itself wasn't particularly stymieing. Glad to see some real development on Trucy, who I'd felt was kind of a flat character in the past. This is probably her best AA case yet; on the flipside, Athena--who I enjoyed in DD--was somewhat lackluster to me in this case.

So far, I'm quite impressed and am excited for later cases. Right now, the only consistent complaint I have across case 1 and 2 is that there are a few points where our heroic lawyer will make a big leap of logic. For example... (BIG CASE 2 SPOILERS)

CASE 2: Bonny knowing that Trucy moved the lifts causes Apollo to assume she has a twin?? There are several, much less convoluted possibilities there: 1) Bonny saw that the lift had been moved after the show and just realized what Trucy did. 2) Bonny saw that Trucy corrected for her mistake during the show and simply figured out how she did it. 3) Trucy simply lied about not telling anyone else. Unlikely, but a point that could easily be made by the prosecution.

Sometimes it feels like they'll go from point A to point C without enough of an explanation why. It makes me wonder how I'm supposed to figure it out when these other potential options still exist.

@ploot
I dunno, there was like a "live long and prosper" one that just kind felt shoehorned in, like one of the localizers liked Star Trek and threw that in. It didn't really feel natural for the characters to say, and it also wasn't really a joke so much as, "Yeah, that's a thing that exists." But I dunno, maybe the series has always been like that with its pop-culture references and I just have less of a taste for them.

@nate38

Yeah, at this point, the text speed is part of the experience for me. They do a great job at replicating the cadence or speaking pattern of the characters, which makes the game feel like more than simply reading a book.

@TriforceBun In context the PW series always seems to use "lawyer" and "defense attorney" interchangeably. I think it considers prosecutors... something else. Not lawyers.

Speaking of case 1, not only was it bizarre that Wright could come and overturn everything so fast, but then it turns out that the lead prosecutor and the head monk are both foreigners who have only been there for a short amount of time as well? I could KIND OF see that happening if it were one of these small countries with a poor education system that looks up to educated foreigners or something, but it's still weird. Supposedly the head monk position is this SUPER IMPORTANT thing in their culture, but they handed it out to some nobody who showed up a few months ago?

@Zero

I think that there might be more to Case 1's culprit than we initially see. The end of Case 1 did reveal a bit more of the motive for murder, so I'm theorizing that it's like Dual Destinies, where the events of Case 1 are initially elaborated on more later.

@TriforceBun
I do feel that AA has been loose with its references for quite some time, but I've always enjoyed it.
"Well excuuuuuse me, Princess!" Being a prime example.

The example you provided actually made me chuckle because it came across like Phoenix was (not purposely) trivializing the culture's sentiments. He says he wants to "live long and prosper" after the princess was told to be prosperous with long life.
And let's not forget that his life was literally on the line!

@TriforceBun Yeah Apollo's jump to that twist in case 2 came out of nowhere. I mean, I liked how it ended up (even if it's not exactly fresh) but getting there was an awkward leap to be sure.

As for the pop culture references, I don't have any issue with them so far. The series has always been pretty loose with them. In West Clownadelphia, born and raised...

@Zero
@nate38
Speaking of that jump of logic in the 2nd case, isn't it weird that Apollo argued that Bonny was in both places at once, but showed genuine surprise that they were twins?

@ploot Yeah, that whole sequence was kind of awkward. I liked it just fine after that setup, though.


Started up Case 3...guess who the assistant is! It's Rayfa lololol awesome

@ploot

Oh yeah, forgot that he would be referring to his own life being at risk. I guess it works better in that sense then, yeah. But maybe I'm just pickier about pop culture stuff than I used to be.

Started Case 3!