Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Part #154 - Episode 5, Final Day, Trial Former: One Possibility

Part 154: Episode 5, Final Day, Trial Former: One Possibility

Part 154: Episode 5, Final Day, Trial Former: One Possibility

Fairly unanimous this time. (I cut out the options that didn't get any votes.)

Between the two handles and the skinny bottom, this jar does seem to have three knobby protrusions...

Music: Silence

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

^{Sound: Realization}

But that's...

Er, what exactly is that?
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

I believe it's some sort of jar.

^{Sound: Whack}

Indeed it doesn't. As it stands now, it's just a plain jar.

^{Sound: Light Bulb}

Our viewpoint...?

quote:

Nothing else will work here:

Behold!

Music: Silence

In her confusion, the witness mistook this for the Blue Badger!
^{Sound: Realization}

The only person mistaking anything around here is you.
^{Sound: Realization}

Huh?
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

This doesn't look anything like the Blue Badger!
^{Sound: Whack}
^{Sound: Damage 2}

Tough penalty on that one.

Oh. Uh, give me a second here...

Music: Questioning - Allegro

(I'd better take another look at the evidence...)

(from every angle!)
^{Sound: Realization}

From there we're brought back to the cross.

quote:

We don't actually have to present the jar while pressing on Ema's last statement in order to continue. We can also directly present the jar on either of Ema's last two statements without pressing at all!

Music: The Blue Badger ~ I Want to Protect You

^{Sound: Realization}

Before I go further, I wanted to point out and applaud a really subtle hint from the last update. During the cross, when reaching the end of the testimony, Phoenix thinks to himself:

That reference to putting "the pieces of the puzzle together" could be a subtle reference to the jar, which we had to assemble from broken pieces like a puzzle!

That last comment will be the end of my positivity for awhile. This puzzle should be simple, but instead is simply terrible.

We're given the same ability to rotate the jar as in our examine-evidence mechanic. The goal is to line up the jar so that its silhouette resembles the Blue Badger photo above. Simple, right?

Music: Silence

^{Sound: Damage 2}

Allow me to remind the defense its case hinges on the witness's drawing.

^{Sound: Whack}

(I've got to find just the right angle!)

Music: The Blue Badger ~ I Want to Protect You

Come on, Mr. Wright! You can do it!

^{Sound: Realization}

Okay, so I guess we didn't line that one up quite right? Now imagine that same scene about twenty more times, because this angle is nearly impossible to get precisely correct enough for the game to allow us to continue.

It doesn't help that it seems like there are multiple angles that could work. This one is not the right one for sure.

Yeah, I know.

Maybe a little less of a tilt?

Look, I'm trying, okay!

I really thought I had it with this one. Maybe the upward-pointing prong is slightly off-center? (Pay no attention to the cropping, I had some recording glitches doing this puzzle over and over...)

I think I was short on tilt this time. The top prong isn't prominent enough I guess?

This one had even less tilt. Plus it's a little off-center. I was getting desperate. At least there are no penalties here.

I thought this one was perfect, frankly.

I hope that using the stylus in the original DS version was more forgiving than me trying to use either the mouse or the keyboard here. From what I read, the HD port has a lot more precision in the jar rotation, and the game didn't loosen up its allowable angles enough to compensate. And the entire time you're presenting angle after angle, that infernal Blue Badger music is playing, mocking you. This attempt looks almost identical to my last one, but for some reason this one was successful.

^{Sound: Realization}

Frankly after 10-15 minutes wrestling with that puzzle, I don't even remember why we were doing it. This game just lost all the goodwill I had going for it after a pretty rocking final day. One of the worst gameplay sins a puzzle game can commit is having the player know the answer but be unable to convince the game of it.

^{Sound: Damage 2}

Back to regular gameplay, and may the gimmick puzzles die with this episode.

Music: Silence

^{Sound: Gallery}

^{Sound: Gavel x 3}

Order! Order!

The defense has proven its claim.

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

What's your point!?

What do you mean?

I've kind of lost the plot, really. I think at this point I was thinking that Gant had snuck in, grabbed the jar, and smashed Marshall over the head with it? And then stabbed him with Darke's knife afterwards, and faked the autopsy report to say he died from the stabbing?

That doesn't change anything!
^{Sound: Drama Pound}

So, we need some way to prove that Ema seeing the jar is relevant to what happened...

Music: Investigation - Core

I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, Mr. Edgeworth.

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

Weird little mid-panel slam, but I dig it. What do you have in mind for us, Phoenix?

Indeed? Very well, then. Please tell us...

Uh, what is different? Is the jar the murder weapon?

Allow me to take these in turn.

At a very specific angle, I might add, Mr. Wright.

Yes, well, knowing this, where could she have seen this jar?

Where...?

quote:

So, Phoenix is talking about the location here, despite us picking a different option. As Phoenix said, he is actually going to tie all three options together in the same response. Meaning no matter what we picked, we get the same scene here.

^{Sound: Realization}

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

But the body was found lying near Lana Skye's desk!

The witness testified so herself!

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

You see...

The struggle between Darke and Marshall did not take place in Lana Skye's office!

^{Sound: Drama Pound}

Awww, fuck fuck fuck, this game faked me out again! It really was the suit of armor and its sharp sword all along! And Gant and Lana's falsified evidence included cleaning up / faking the crime scene! Wait, oh shit! We just heard Ema testify that she knocked the man with the knife back... the man was Neil Marshall... she knocked him into the armor's sword and killed him directly!!!

Are you implying the murderer moved the victim's body?

^{Sound: Wipe}

Imagine the game scrolling from Gant's side to Lana's side during this line; it was too big a file to capture as an animation.

Yes.

^{Sound: Whack}

Exactly.
^{Sound: Realization}

!
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

The only logical conclusion...

is that there was a "reason."

Do you know what that reason was, Mr. Wright?

(I've finally figured it out...)

^{Sound: Wipe}

^{Sound: Wipe}

Phoenix is about to ruin a teenager's life to save a client who doesn't want to be saved.

Music: Silence

Please recall the witness's testimony.

In the next instant, the jar was hit and flew through the air.

I wasn't really reading the situation as the jar randomly flying into the air on its own, but okay.

That would have to have been...

the impact the man made when he was knocked into the wall?
^{Sound: Realization}

I don't remember the armor being that close to the shelf in Gant's office. Maybe he moved everything around after the incident.

what would he have hit?
^{Sound: Realization}

^{Sound: Light Bulb}

^{Sound: Objection}

Music: Suspense

Yes.

The idea of some of the SL-9 evidence being fabricated is a good way to hide this twist from the player while still telling a fair mystery story. The game shows the armor and the sword from the moment we get into Gant's office, and isn't shy about pointing out how Gant and Lana covered up, fabricated, and manipulated the evidence in the case, and yet I still took the blood pool being on Lana's side of the office at face value. Well played.

^{Sound: Realization}

No...

Mr. Wright... You can't be thinking...
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

Yes.

Another possibility?

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

Of course the perpetrator would have had no idea, but nevertheless!

Myself, I've been advancing the dialogue almost on autopilot at this point. Ema's involvement was a lot more direct than I was thinking, and I hadn't fully processed it yet.

Mr. Wright? What's the matter?
^{Sound: Realization}

If events took place as the defense theorizes...

then the outcome is obvious.

In that moment...

Music: Silence

^{Sound: Whack}

The silence following Ema striking Neil Marshall in the dark is amazing here.

You mean...

Mr. Marshall died... because of... me...?

^{Sound: Guilty}

^{Sound: Thud 4}

So it was the witness who took the victim's life...

and then proved so with her own testimony!

This is unprecedented!

^{Sound: Gallery}

The witness stand is empty; I guess that was Ema fainting earlier.

^{Sound: Objection}

^{Sound: Drama Pound}

Music: Telling the Truth

What... What are you saying!?

I'm sorry, Ms. Skye, but given the circumstances...

Joe Darke murdered Prosecutor Marshall!
^{Sound: Desk Slam}

We've finally gotten Lana to show some emotion. Not exactly how I would've preferred to do it.

Imagine that, coming from you.

!
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

The reason you moved Prosecutor Marshall's body...

^{Sound: Realization}

So originally I was thinking Gant was more directly involved in Neil Marshall's death, thus why he was willing to kill Detective Goodman to keep it covered up. Murdering a detective just to hide some evidence tampering seems a little extreme? Maybe if the truth got out, Lana would be able to talk about all kinds of shady shit that Gant had done the last two years since then, and Gant was really trying to keep Lana under control?

I assure you, Mr. Edgeworth, I have no idea what you're talking about.
^{Sound: Whack}

I'm afraid you're going to have to have proof.

Tell me...

^{Sound: Desk Slam}

I can think of one thing...

E-evidence?
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

I'm willing to bet you don't.

If we don't have evidence,

then we'll have to rely on testimony.

^{Sound: Realization}

Both parties involved in the incident are dead.

...!
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

(We certainly can't get dead people to testify.)

Not without Maya here, anyway.

Music: Silence

Hmph. Touché, Ms. Skye.

^{Sound: Realization}

...!
^{Sound: Light Bulb}

(You mean, there's still another possibility?)

What do you mean, Mr. Edgeworth?
^{Sound: Whack}

How many times have we been down to one last possibility now?

^{Sound: Realization}

Okay, didn't see that one coming. Anyone remember seeing a message anywhere?

Music: Suspense

For better or for worse, Mr. Marshall did not die instantly.

in one manner or another.

That's....

That's impossible!

Edgeworth you're going to make us be the ones to back up your bluff, aren't you?

^{Sound: Gavel}

Well, Mr. Wright? This is the only possibility left to you.

(I've got to think back to the Court Record!)

I really have no idea here.

(No...)

That's not really what I was saying. I just don't remember seeing anything like that. Another nice parallel to the second episode, though, with Redd White faking the evidence that Mia had written out "Maya" as her killer's name.