[T] Imperishable Turnabout

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Spybreak001
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[T] Imperishable Turnabout

Post by Spybreak001 »

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Imperishable Turnabout is a story-oriented, Alice in Wonderland styled Phoenix Wright crossover adventure with Shin Gyakuten Touhou. When a simple forest shortcut to Kurain Village takes an unexpected turn, Phoenix finds himself warped into a land of fantasy magic, Youkai, colorfully eccentric characters, and thrust into an ongoing story involving the pasts, presents, and futures of two close friends.


Overview
This is a traditional Ace Attorney case with six parts. The investigation segments mimic the style of classic open-world adventure games and the trial segments are more standard Ace Attorney. Both make frequent use of animated/scrolling backgrounds and character zooms to imitate a cinematic anime style, with a bit of influence from the mainline Touhou games. This is my second AAO case and a more serious case done in a very different style, though it still contains a fair bit of quirkiness.


Resources
All sprites are from the game Shin Gyakuten Touhou. Each one has been slightly modified and compiled to animate them just like traditional Ace Attorney characters. Some have also been tweaked to provide new expressions. Layla Prismriver's sprite is courtesy of PiPoPa (Martin, you're the best). Backgrounds are from various online packs and some assorted sections from Shin Gyakuten Touhou, Studio Yuraki and Twintail. Apart from the Ace Attorney themes, the soundtrack is entirely Touhou originals and remixes.


Part 1 Screenshots
Spoiler : :
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Part 2 Screenshots
Spoiler : :
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Part 3 Screenshots
Spoiler : :
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Soundtrack
Spoiler : :
Part 1
Forest Prologue - The Bridge People No Longer Cross, O-Life Japan
Mokou in the Forest - Timeless Mind, WAVE
Opening Titles - Lullaby of a Deserted Hell, Kyoto Neets
The Hakurei Shrine - Maiden's Capriccio, CarrotWine
Forest of Magic, Part 1 - The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky, CarrotWine
The Shoreline - The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects (Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom)
City Streets, Curiosity Shop, North of Town, Outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion - Usual Days (Touhou 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody)
Marisa Kirisame's Theme - Magus Night (Touhou 13.5 - Hopeless Masquerade)
Aya Shameimaru's Theme - Wind God Girl (Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red)
Forest of Magic and Wilderness Theme - The Colorless Wind on Youkai Mountain, Kuroneko Lounge
Scarlet Devil Mansion Foyer - Septette for the Dead Princess, WAVE
The Magic Library - Voile, the Magic Library jazz remix (artist unknown)
Reminiscence ~ The Prismrivers - Green-Eyed Jealousy, Kitsunes Workshop
Mokou's Backstory - Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke (Touhou 8: Imperishable Night)
Fujiwara no Mokou - Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke (Haru Remix)
The Cemetery - Green-Eyed Jealousy, Saiko
Epilogue - Native Faith, Kuroneko Lounge

Part 2
Prologue - Lullaby of a Deserted Hell (Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism)
Waiting Room - Deep Mountain, xi~on
Trial Theme - Retrospective Kyoto, Higuma remix
CE Moderato - Cross-Examination, Shin Gyakuten Touhou
CE Allegro - Retrospective Kyoto, IOSYS remix
Patchouli's Theme - Locked Girl ~ The Girl's Secret Room (Touhou 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody)
Aya is Called to the Stand - The Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain (Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith)
Patchouli's Objection 1 - The Grimoire of Alice (Touhou Scarlet Curiosity)
Patchouli's Objection 2 - Electric Heritage (Touhou 17: Wily Beast and Weakest Creature)
Phoenix's Counterpoint - Entrusting This World to Idols (Touhou 17: Wily Beast and Weakest Creature)
Game Over Theme - The Girl Who Played With Peoples Shapes, RD Instrumental remix
The Cemetery, Layla and Alice Reunited - Phantom Ensemble, Spring Blossom Remix
Epilogue - Gensokyo Millenium, Logical Emotion remix

Part 3
Prologue - Extend Ash ~ Person of Hourai, Kuroneko Lounge remix
Hide and Seek with Marisa - Interdimensional Voyage of a Ghostly Passenger Ship (Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object)
Alice's Grimoire and Aya's Photo - The Eternal Frozen Capital, Melodic Taste remix
Mokou Confronts Layla - Thousand Leaves, Bach remix
Layla in the Cemetery, Day 2 - The Legend of Green Eyes, C-Clays remix
Patchouli in the Library - Locked Girl ~ The Girl's Secret Room, k-Waves Lab remix
Reminiscence ~ That Terrible Night - Last Remote, Melodic Taste remix
Reminiscence ~ Layla's Hope - Lullaby of a Deserted Hell, Melodic Taste remix
The Prismrivers Theme - Phantom Ensemble ~ Ghostly Band (Touhou 9: Phantasmagoria of Flower View)
Epilogue - Illusionary White Traveler, Kuroneko Lounge remix

Gameplay Links
Part 1: http://www.aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=103261
Part 2: http://www.aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=107831
Part 3: http://www.aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=111639


Miscellaneous notes

- No prior knowledge of Touhou or Shin Gyakuten Touhou is required, and the case is more or less intended for someone to go in blind (You might even enjoy it more).
- While it's still kind of a fancase of it, this case doesn't follow Shin Gyakuten Touhou itself, nor does it completely follow Touhou canon either. It's heavily inspired and dedicated to Setz's The Prismrivers, an online fancomic. This fancase is really my own personal take on envisioning all the concepts involved.
- This case is also being developed in PyWright as well. Currently the AAO version is halfway complete and the PyWright version is sitting at 75% or so. Parts 1-3 are available now and later segments (hopefully) will be coming soon.
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Enthalpy
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Re: [T] Imperishable Turnabout

Post by Enthalpy »

Alice in Wonderland, seriously?! This is now very very very high on my playlist.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Enthalpy
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Re: [T] Imperishable Turnabout

Post by Enthalpy »

I'm hoping to play a lot more AAO cases, and I've gotten to thinking about my review style. I'll be changing things up to do it in two phases. Phase One is going to be a non-spoiler review to answer, "Should I play this?" If the author wants, they can ask me to do a full critique on advice for how to improve. Just let me know how thorough you want me to be. Spybreak already told me he wanted the detailed critique, so that's next for me.
Spoiler : The Review: Non-Spoiler, but Moderately Long :
Since this is a Touhou crossover, I should start with...

Does Knowing Touhou Matter?

I didn't come into this knowing much Touhou. Here's what I knew:

Touhou is a very popular bullet hell series made by ZUN. It has a lot of good music, most famously "Bad Apple". I've come across Touhou tracks in quite a few AAO cases, but I couldn't tell you the names offhand. In some of those cases, the names have many words. There are way too many characters. The ones I can name...

Reimu: Lazy shrine maiden. Apparently people want her as a Smash character? Protagonist.
Marisa: Stole the precious thing.
Sakuya: Maid. Yes, she is a JoJo reference.
Suwako: Something with frogs, I think? Did I get her name right?
Cirno: The strongest(?) ice fairy. Associated with the number 9. There are a lot of remixes and arranges of her theme, including "Cirno's Perfect Math Class". An idiot.


Did it cause a problem? Not much of one. There were two parts that might have made more sense with Touhou knowledge, but that's it.

How Was the Trial?
It follows the Ace Attorney 1 format, so I feel I can't judge this fairly until more gets released. The first half of the trial has one really good contradiction and solid logic throughout, though the prosecution's case isn't as clear as it should be, so tension is lower than it should be. The case get a bit messy in the second half of the trial, and I'm honestly not sure what happened. I'm not sure if this was beta tested or not, but this needs some revisions. (I'll talk with Spybreak about this and go into way more detail in the critique section.)

After those, then if you like Ace Attorney 1-type trials, you'll like this as long as you know that's what you're in for.

How Was the Investigation?
The case's cast is its strongest asset. If you like quirky eccentrics, you'll love this case. Accordingly, this case strongly rewards taking the time to do extra examining and presenting. I didn't do nearly enough of this on my first playthrough. It's invaluable in fleshing out the world of Gensokyo, slowing down the fast-paced meeting of all these characters, and getting some of the narrative beats.

The case isn't just screwballs bouncing off each other, either. There's a serious story underlying this one. There are some serious elements from the start, but this case follows Ace Attorney pacing, so it's still coming out of the background. Don't expect the character depth that Shu Takumi can reach, but this gets the general style of an AA story impressively well so far!

I had to get used to Phoenix not having much inner monologue in this case. Normally, I can offload the task of telling if a character just said something weird onto the protagonist's inner monologue. You can't get away with that here, so read carefully and realize that not every conversation is going to have a sense of clear sign that the conversation is over. It's fine once you're used to it but can make the case a bit harder to follow when you don't realize that.

Other Thoughts
A well-made case, presentation wise! There are a lot of custom graphics that sell the intensity of the trial and the world of Gensokyo. Being based on Touhou, the music is excellent.

Summary
If you like traditional Ace Attorney 1-style cases with an extra dose of quirky eccentrics, this is a case for you to put on your to-play list! Just remember to take the time to examine everything. This is not for hardcore mystery fans who just want to get to the trial already.

Still, there are some logic elements in trial that need revising before I can give the case a wholehearted recommendation. I'll offer recommendations hopefully soon.
Spoiler : Parts that can be smoothed out at the top of my head :
The parts where I felt I needed Touhou knowledge:
1. The part with Alice's Grimoire confused me. When did Phoenix get a look at the Grimoire? Did Phoenix get a physical copy? This may be easier to understand with Touhou familiarity; I'm not sure.
2. The discussion about Alice's "mother" in Patchouli's spell card(?) against Alice's third testimony. That left me completely lost and wondering if I was supposed to understand this one.

For those of us who aren't familiar with Japnaese mythology, it would help to explain what a Tengu is when Aya appears. You do this a bit when Aya says "fellow bird Youkai", but it's easy to miss.

When Patchouli tells Layla's story, I was confused about when it's taking place. If this occurred more than three years ago, and she's 17 now... She seemed a bit young for a music interview.

Also, what's this story about the other world with a lamppost? I can't place that reference.

The line about "a technicality to be sure, but this allows for a charge of homicide" in Patchouli's opening statement... Is that about Mokou's revival? The court seems to understand without question that she's immortal, but I got the impression in the previous part that this was news to Aya, and thus to everybody in Gensokyo.

There's an extra newline on the press line where Mokou swears she caught a glimpse of Layla Prismriver.

The "dramatic lines" that happen at the start of Patchouli's counterpoints are... confusing. I assume this makes more sense to Touhou fans or those who played Shin Gyakuten Touhou. It'd be good to include a line where Aya explains that, or Phoenix admits he has no idea what just happened.

Is it clear that the photo shows the entire catwalk? Without that, Patchouli's argument has a hole in it. With that... It's a lot stronger. Only two people on the catwalk, and Layla was one of them.

Similarly, the relevance of Alice's first testimony is a little hazy... Is the argument that she would have seen Layla if she left the catwalk, and that's the only way onto the catwalk? If so, you could make more of a point of this both when Alice testifies and when the map is introduced. The catwalk is a really important point.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
Esrom
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Re: [T] Imperishable Turnabout

Post by Esrom »

Well, I'm played the case. I'm not familiar with Touhou (I was introduced to Patchouli Knowledge and Alice Margatroyd in a fan crossover RPG but that's about it), but thankfully, one doesn't have to be. Our viewpoint character at the start is Phoenix, who is encountering Gensokyo and its quirky inhabitants for the first time. So we, along with Phoenix, are introduced to the cast and their eccentricities and gradually get to know them better over the course of the investigation.

It's a bit like Turnabout Storm in the sense that it's Phoenix being taken to a strange land whose rules involving magic and so on are different, but where his skills as an attorney are still useful. Largely because even in this strange land of Youkai and immortality potions, people are still people and still understandable (or as understandable as they ever are).
Spoiler : Slightly spoilery comments :
At first I thought the shrine maiden Reimu would be our assistant, but Aya ended up being a better choice. Even if she writes exaggerated stories, she's still a great source of information for first-timers like Phoenix (and players unfamiliar with Touhou). One thing I liked is that you're able to present profiles and evidence to her at multiple locations and get answers at all of those places. That was a good touch, and a nice bit of going the extra mile to make things easier (as opposed to, say, going back to the office to present Maya or Trucy with profiles/evidence we encountered later in our investigation).

Mokou is also a very interesting character, and the timing of the reveal of the nature of her immortality is perfect. For those (like myself) who weren't familiar with the character, it comes as just as big a twist as it does to Phoenix. (I also find it interesting that Phoenix is in a case where one of the principal characters involved has similarities to the mythological phoenix).

Loved how Aya did the 'Scribble scribble scribble, scribble scribble scribble' after Mokou explained her immortality.

I also like Patchouli's alternative to 'Objection', namely the 'Caution!!! counterpoint incoming' alarm. At first, I was confused by it, but once I realized what was going on, I thought it was a nice change of pace.

As with a lot of the best Ace Attorney cases, there's also, amidst all the eccentric characters and antics, some more serious moments and a tragic backstory for a character or two. I certainly felt sorry for Layla, who was dealing with the loss of her sisters.

I trust that the rest of the cast, like Marisa, will have some important roles to play in the case. In Ace Attorney, even the comic relief characters contribute something relevant to the case even if they don't know it or even if our viewpoint attorney doesn't realize until later how relevant it is. So I trust they'll play some part, no matter how small, in helping to uncover the truth about what's really going on.
All in all, I enjoyed this. Looking forward to the rest of the case, and to its Pywright incarnation.
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