So this trial is basically me ignoring warnings all over the place. The first "dumb" thing I did was starting to play this trial before I finished Turnabout Succession
. Normally I don't think too highly of spoiler warnings, but I definetly should have looked at this one and safe this one for later.^^
The second dumb thing I did was ignoring that warning the editor gives you when you open up a safe after the case was being edited. So this basically led to me getting stuck on that Vera Misham present and not long after that I realised I had screwed up. Thank the lord for instant text typing!
I really liked the presence Von Karma had in this trial. Taking away all of your evidence and not allowing to use your "Lawyer Superpowers" was a really neat thing to do. It gives you that powerless feeling and it proves that the prosecution isn't fooling around. And because this case doesn't have a clear murderer, it's sort of necessary to give the player the idea that there is some of villain there you have to take down.
Also, the way you wrote the characters was near perfection if not perfect. I especially liked the way you wrote Franziska, Ema, (Mainly the testimony part, even though I barely understood anything of it, which could be because of me not having English as a first language, or not knowing anything about chemistry
, I still enjoyed and it just... feeled right. ) The Judge and Athena making little remarks about psychology was also a thing I really enjoyed. It really helps in getting the full experience.
It's really impressive you're able to make out such a good trial with almost no evidence at all. The attorney's badge was used wonderfully. Even though the lack of evidence does make the trial fairly easy, I don't think it can be changed without rewriting the whole thing or atleast major plot parts, and I'm not even sure if I'd like it better that way. It's good as is.
After the present of the attorney's badge, I got that feeling that the trial wasn't going to give a full conclusion. I found it to be a bit of a shame to find out that I was right. I know that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, and I like that it's being realistic with that here, but seeing Von Karma dropping the ball like that just made it feel... a bit anti-climactic? And again, I don't know if the case would be better of if it had a full end. Probably not, so I guess this is just a bit of a personal, little issue...
...but suprisingly, (and thankfully
) that issue got pretty much negated by the ending scene with Phoenix and Von Karma. (I said it was only a little issue because of the ending after the trial
) Now, I've once seen a ranking of all the AA characters up till AAI. In the description of Olga Orly it said this:
Solfadore wrote:
She spent just a little too much time in “meek mode” for me to rank her any higher. It’s cool that she did that, or else the case would’ve been much shorter (and weaker), but though it strengthens the case, it doesn’t help her character. She’s pretty much a decoy villain, and that can only get you so far, sadly.
She's ranked 50. BTW
I do sort of think it did so here as well, but not necessarily with a character. Franziska at first drops the case and the player is left a bit astounded. "Did she just gave up, what happened?" were words going through my head when I reached that part, atleast. But then, you come to the conclusion that Franziska meant for this to happen and that she didn't want the guilty verdict. It does remove that villain feel where I was talking about earlier, but that doesn't matter at all. The character development you've given Franziska is really a beautiful thing, and I can't give any points of improvement on her character. (Not that I've pointed out a lot of things that could be improved, but oh well.)
Coming back on my earlier point with the Ranking thing, it actually sort of happened the other way around. But to a certain degree. Franziska gives up and the trial just ends. The player is in a bit of a shock. Then, you reach the ending on Vitamin Square (for which I'm really glad it was Phoenix and not Apollo) and give Franziska a reason to end the trial, and the shocky state we just had vanishes. It was a really neat concept.
I actually think that one scene there is the best scene in the whole trial, and it's inclusion is good. If it was left out, the ending would've felt really anti-climactic which I said earlier, so I'm really glad it's there.
All in all. I really enjoyed this trial! Even though I've never played 4-4 before, it still managed to be really entertaining. I hope to see more trials from you!
Also, please don't take any "critique" I had too harsh. With all the points I made here, I don't think the trial would've been of better if they were different.
