Countdown to Apollo

[sabinelagrande]

DAY EIGHT: REUNION, AND TURNABOUT
or, Ini Miney Miney Mo

Defense Attorney: Phoenix Wright
Side Bar: Pearl Fey, Mia Fey
Prosecutor: Franziska Von Karma
Defendant: Maya Fey
Victim: Turner Grey
Play Time: 3 hours, 17 min

This is the only case that manages to make Mia's giant breasts look EVEN BIGGER. That shot of her in the detention center? What the fuck's up with that angle?

This is also the only (?) case where you see the victim before the crime (excepting, of course, Mia, but that's different). The only thing it changed, though, is that I didn't feel bad when that dick kicked the bucket. I find I really don't like any of the one-off characters in this case.

This is the first case that ever really involved me in the series. JFA was the first game I ever preordered, and I think only the second game I bought for my DS (after Elite Beat Agents, cause… that's kinda why I wanted the system). The Lost Turnabout mostly just pissed me off at the time, because I couldn't work out how to save, and so I had to play a good bit of it twice.

Though the individual portions of this case are nearly as lengthy as those from Rise from the Ashes, the pacing is much improved. There's more twists and turns, especially in trial, and less wandering around (excluding the first investigation, which is just a whole bunch of wandering around). This case is much heavier on using the capabilities of the DS, but it doesn't feel as arbitrary as it did in Rise from the Ashes. The exception is that one damn puzzle where you have to point out where Maya was when Grey shot at her. I almost lose the case EVERY DAMN TIME right there. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was just temporarily ate up with the dumbass.

I know I talked about it back a few cases ago, but I don't find the layout of Fey Manor as annoying as I did when I first played it. Maybe it's because, though sometimes time consuming, it's logical. I mean… it's a house. It doesn't seem arbitrary as some of the other case maps.

And of course, new game, new prosecutor. When I first played this game, I really didn't care for Franziska until Farewell, My Turnabout. I have to say that she has definitely grown on me. It's partly because of fandom, and partly because of T&T, but I lovify her now. Also, she has a whip. And she uses it on Gumshoe. And it excites me in an inappropriate manner. There've been people making noises on the meme about how Fran must obviously be a sub, because she's so dominant in her everyday life. Bullshit, I say. I don't care if I wrote it. Fran tops. Always.

When I first played this game, I knew practically nothing about the series. I had no idea that Edgeworth was only metaphorically dead. From this case forward, I always referred to him as Phoenix's Dead Gay Boyfriend™. It's kind of funny, because the game goes out of its way to drive home Phoenix/Maya (a pairing that has always squicked me), but ends up coming down so hard on the side of Phoenix/Edgeworth (which, it has been pointed out in interviews, is at least a little intentional). More on this in later cases.

I never felt sorry for Morgan until T&T. She's a crazy bitch, alright, but she's been through some really rough stuff, all because of her insatiable desire to control Kurain. I've got a bad weak spot for characters with a tragic flaw, as you may or may not have guessed by now. You can really see the congruity of the Kurain storyline starting with this case. There are all these pairs of sisters- Mia and Maya, Morgan and Misty, Dahlia and Iris, and even Mimi and Ini. The storyline starts with Ini and Mimi switching identities, and ends with Dahlia and Iris doing the same thing.

Incidentally, LJ, how do you pronounce Kurain? I've always pronounced it "kuh-rah-EEN", which is how Phoenix reads it off the scroll in the Meditation Room. But I noticed over on gyakuten_podfic that aprilechidna5 pronounced it "koo-RAYN", which is how you would expect it to be pronounced in English.

This is another point about this case- this is the first case in which the world of the games feels Japanese. The only time you even see a Japanese character in AA is on Meekins's armband. But in AA, it's all over the place. With the Asian cultural influences in California, the existence of a place like Kurain is easily explainable, but-

TL;DR SABINE LEIK JAPAN

The real mystery of this whole game is why the hell they keep letting Mia in the courtroom in them hoochie clothes. Somebody get the defense a jacket.

Anyway-

Top Three Reasons To Play Reunion, and Turnabout
3. The fun of saying Mimi and Ini Miney really fast (Iminiemeymimineemini)
2. D cups, full of justice (sweet!)
1. Pearly!