Sunday, April 27, 2014

Case by Case:Turnabout Sisters

Frequent readers of this blog may remember my weird attempt to talk about every case in the original Phoenix Wright trilogy. I did one post involving that then decided screw it,I'm going to seduce people with cookies. I decided since I finally started playing the newest game in the series,it's a good a time as any to start this up again. A minor revision on my part, provided I don't flake out again we will probably discuss Investigations and Duel Destinies. Also if I my cartridge for it materializes then we may get into Apollo Justice as Duel Destines is warming me up to the title character. So without further ado let's move on to Game one,case two: Turnabout Sisters. Also this is a plot discussion/analysis so spoilers ahoy

This is probably one of the bigger cases of the original trilogy as plot threads from here form the plot for this entire game and go on to infect cases in Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations. The central mystery being the death of Mia Fey which brings with it the main plot of this game the DL-6 incident. The finer details of the case and how it affects everybody is better delved into during Turnabout Goodbyes,so like the game I'll save that for then.

The main plot is the murder of Phoenix's mentor,Mia Fey. How this death truly affects you is probably more based on how much you've played the rest of the series and/or how easily attached you get to characters we've spent 20 minutes with. The case gives a sense of how motivated and dedicated a person she is. She leaves her home and starts a new career just to avenge her mother. She also probably would have done it if she hadn't been killed. Mind you she also left her sixteen year old sister,Maya, in the hands of her insane aunt who's so obsessed with the rite of succession that she enacts entire murder plots in the next two games. Though really it's never explained where Maya is living,so she may be avoiding all of that mess...for now.

Speaking of Maya, we really don't get a feel for her in this case. There are little bits here in there of her true personality,a playful yet naïve teenager. The issues with her mother and how this has affected her life and the Fey Family in general aren't deeply discussed outside of what is necessary to this plot specifically. She's better for letting us look at how Phoenix thinks and acts. He sees her as a person in need of help and jumps to her defense without hesitation. Since he truly admires Mia this in turn let's us know how she would do in this sort of situation They both truly believe in their clients and the both have that strong sense of justice. So we learn about Mia via Phoenix via Maya.

On the Villain side we have Redd White...of Blue corp. and his secretary Miss April May. They are odd characters that while entertaining in their own way are decidedly one note with White's sole motivation is him being a power hungry jerk. Some of the other villains in the series have this aspirations or something akin to that but are much better set up. However it is still immensely satisfying to bring him down. I'll save talking about Edgeworth for now as like Maya there is not much to talk about with him yet.

The plot itself is very solid and is probably going to screw with people who look at the first case and decide that this is how the whole game is going to play out. It re-introduces the Thinker statue from the first case and has the player think they are going to use the same tactics as the first one. Then Edgeworth just jumps in and lets you know things are not going to be that simple. This game is going to have twists and layers. Mind you it's still pretty simple ones now but it's give it time and they'll blow your mind.

The game sort of tries to explain why the courtroom shenanigans are allowed to go on as they are by way of corruption. Redd White is cited as a major source of said corruption but after this case the antics go even further and no one really seems to mind. This explanation may have worked better if this was say the final case of the game but instead it's sort of a one off mention. True the whole concept is explored a bit more thoroughly in Apollo Justice,but here it's more of lets fight for the truth.

Since I spent the time to complain about Ghost Banri during the Golden Time review,I'll take a second to explain why I'm okay with the whole spirit channeling idea. First off it's still only the second case of the first game and outside of the court segment we have no idea the boundaries of the world just yet. Second,it becomes well integrated  into the series,something Ghost Banri could have done. Third, the limitations of what this particular technique can do are outlined enough. Fourth,it's quite clear it is supernatural and doesn't pretend to be other wise. So yeah it's a very well explained concept that is introduced early on and adds something to the story. Another thing Ghost Banri forgot to be.

I'd like to take this short section to recognize the sheer idiocy of a certain plot point. Mia hides some papers early on in the Thinker Statue but the mystery of where those papers went or what happened to them is never brought up. Phoenix never mentions them despite having access to a phone conversation about them. They never come up till the final part which would be implying that they are the list of names of people that White was blackmailing. However,White knew about them and where they were so he probably stole them,otherwise why break in there and murder Mia and frame Maya if you didn't steal the proof that would be your undoing. If that's the case then how in the hell would Maya have them if he stole them.

The other way this works out is that Maya took them before he could get them but she herself didn't know about the papers till the day of the murder and therefore wouldn't have had the time to take these papers. If those papers were indeed the papers that were inside the Thinker,it's never really established if they are or not. Which brings us back to the question what the hell was Maya doing with this piece of evidence. It's established early on that she can't summon Mia at will and Mia only appears in the end of the case. Therefore Maya would have no real reason to hold onto papers she would know thing about and Mia couldn't have them when she is summoned. The memo could have possibly been written by Mia during the trial but the fact that the channeler could imitate handwriting is one of the few things never explained. This is really nothing more than a nitpick but it sort of irked me as this series tends not to leave plot threads dangling.

So to wrap this one up,a very emotional case for those who get more invested in the series despite have a really one note killer. We get some semi-important character moments and actually important plot points but they really won't come into play until later in the series.

This gets a Dead Mia out of Iris

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