July 2013
GuardianDreamer
I wrote my replies... in America.
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
GuardianDreamer: Greetings Tap, at your service. I'm honored to be here.
GuardianDreamer: It's hard to believe that it's been about three years since then. I remember discovering the AA series through one of the GameFAQS Top 10 Lists. Which unfortunately spoiled 2-4 for me. Still, I would forget about the series until I saw Apollo Justice in a store once. It was sort of an impulse buy for me, but definitely one I don't regret.
To be honest, me discovering AAO was a bit of an accident. I remember one day wanting to discover what the community was like, but due to personal reasons, I was trying to stay away from GameFAQS for quite a while, so I didn't check the boards there. Instead, I went to Google, and searched up "Ace Attorney Online", since that sounded like it could probably be a notable community. So yeah. Really got lucky there, I suppose.
I'm not sure what made me want to join, to be honest. I only planned on staying for a few months at the most, but then I got caught up in a few roleplays (Most notably SuperGanondorf's RP, Endless Time) so I would have felt guilty if I left, since I was committed to roleplaying. But now, I've grown very close to the community, mostly through the Xat, so now I would stay here even if all the roleplays suddenly died. Though I sincerely hope that doesn't happen. Still, I'm really grateful to SG for creating Endless Time... Without it, I might have left AAO before getting to know a lot of you. Quite the scary thought.
GuardianDreamer: I'd describe it as more of a "friendship sim with a few romantic elements depending on your interpretation" sim, but that's not quite as easy to remember. Anyway, UD is an independent prequel to my first trial, and it's an idea I had in mind for a while. It started off with me wondering if I could make a trial with a protagonist that seemed more or less like your standard "heroic lawyer" protagonist, but then make them interesting in some way, probably by making them grow as a character. From the feedback I've received so far, I like to think that part was at least mostly successful.
A lot more ideas came to mind, and I wrote them down. While I'd prefer to hold off on some of the details until I've completed the trial (Which I've been procrastinating on a lot. I blame Fire Emblem: Awakening for taking away three months of free time.) I will say that I eventually decided that I would make it more character-driven, rather than focused on the mystery. I decided to do my best to create a trial that I would personally love to play, while hopefully listening to the feedback from my previous trial so that I could avoid repeating the same mistakes.
To complement my own strengths and weaknesses, I decided to make it play like a beginner's trial, something that would be very easy, especially compared to some of the insanely difficult things on this site (that isn't limited to normal trials. I've sworn to never enter the EN thread). I would never be able to keep up with the insane mysteries a lot of AAOers are capable of creating, so I decided to head in the opposite direction instead, which I think was a better move for me in many ways, since a few people actually said it was refreshing to play a trial where they didn't have to resort to using a guide. Despite being a trial, I actually wouldn't count UD as a mystery at all though. If you're looking for a mystery, then I can't really provide one.
Of course, I still have to thank Gumpei and Ping' for making a Competition Prompt that somehow fit the trial that I had in mind. By entering the competition, I was able to gather enough motivation to actually make the case, rather than just letting the idea stay on my mind. I'm a horrible procrastinator, you see. It eventually somehow ended up as a sort of love letter to a lot of Visual Novels I've played, since I was inspired by many Visual Novels as well.
GuardianDreamer: I'll answer this in the opposite order, because why not? It's definitely no coincidence that my currently released trials are all from competition prompts. The main reason for this is that I find it much easier to pace myself if I have a deadline of some kind. Otherwise I'll just end up procrastinating and I would never do anything. I'm sure there are quite a few writers who feel the same way I do.
As for ZZ, I guess I was inspired by a few of the prosecution-type cases on this site. Mostly ShadowEdgeworth's first case in his Miles Edgeworth series (that seems to be going through a reboot), which was the first trial on AAO I played. I was also inspired by Blader's first trial on this site, which starred Raymond Hope and Glase Canon. It was met with mostly mixed reception, I believe. Mostly because it was constantly on the border between a Comedy and an actual serious trial. My original idea for ZZ (Which was vastly different from the final product) actually was a Comedy, but I tried to make it into a serious trial, since Comedies weren't allowed in the Competition I entered it into. And also because I honestly just made up the crime/plot as I went along, which backfired quite a bit. Still, I was praised for my sense of humor and some of the characters, so I knew what my strengths and weaknesses were. I'll never say that it's the best trial ever, but it holds many fond memories for me.
GuardianDreamer: It was a bit of an impulse, mostly. I remember that the Highlander Turnabout really needed a detective and a prosecutor (Not sure if it was a prosecutor, DA, or something else). So I decided to join as the detective because I thought it would be interesting to see how it would work out. It was quite fun, even if the trial ended up going completely off-the-rails, and it was never actually finished. And also, I really like writing, which I'm sure is obvious.
Tap: Most members think of you as that "RP'ing guy". Why RPs? What's the interest?
GuardianDreamer: What isn't interesting about it? I think it's fascinating to be able to create entire worlds while collaborating with other people. There's just something magical about the ability to create a larger story through the efforts of a lot of people. Done well, a roleplay can honestly seem like an entirely different world where you're allowed to play the role of a character you create from your own thoughts and imagination. Besides, there's something special about creating a character in a roleplay. It might sound a bit odd, but I honestly think of my own RP characters as a close family to me, and while it does cause me to take roleplaying a bit too seriously at times, it's a special feeling that I would never want to replace. I think it's good to have something to be passionate about anyway, even as I grow older.
GuardianDreamer: I actually haven't played as many fancases as most people have. Still, if I had to pick out one that I enjoyed above all others, I would have to go with Turnabout Inferno by Truf (now known as deHughes) and Blader (now known as SwagmaWampyr). Truf and Blader will both say that they aren't good at writing Mysteries, but that isn't as important to me as it is with most people here. While playing through the trial, I could just feel how much love and emotion was put into it, mostly through the characters. There was just something about it that made it seem like it was special. Both Truf and Blader are writers I admire greatly, and while the case is on an indefinite hiatus, I still enjoyed what was released so far.
If you don't count incomplete trials, then I'd say that my favorite trial is "I Wanna Be The Turnabout" by Zeel. It's a masterpiece. An evil masterpiece, but still brilliant.
GuardianDreamer: I'm going to assume by "childhood", you mean from when I was born up until I was 10 or so. My memory works in a very strange way. I can remember the most minor and insignificant things very well, but things that should be considered important are hard for me to remember. Still, from what I remember, my parents were always busy with work. They often left me in the care of my uncle, and I ended up befriending one of my cousins. I'd say that I was an extremely shy child. I rarely spoke, even when spoken to. It didn't help that there was always a language barrier between myself and most of my family. (I've explained this in the Rant topic, but for anyone who doesn't know: My family, including my parents, mostly only speak Spanish. I was raised by my uncle for the most part, who always spoke to me in English. Leads to a lot of awkwardness now.)
I also remember my family moving a lot from when I was a young child up until I was a pre-teen, though now we don't move. Like I said, I only remember the most insignificant things. I could tell you all sorts of irrelevant yet amusing stories about my childhood, but not much about things that would normally be remembered. It was definitely not what I'd call a normal childhood, but it did shape me into who I am today.
GuardianDreamer: I'm on summer vacation right now, but since an "average" day would usually be a school day, I'll describe that instead. I wake up very early in order to prepare myself for school. Right now, my current school is within walking distance, but I always wake up very early anyway. It gives me a lot more time to prepare, I suppose. After preparing for school and eating breakfast, I then go to school. I'm extremely committed to always going to school. I have perfect attendance in High School so far.
The school day varies, but I always end up walking home. I usually don't visit my friends unless it's a weekend. Most of the time when I'm home, I end up doing any homework I have first, so that it isn't on my mind later. After that, I'm usually using my computer. Naturally I visit AAO, and I tend to be in the AAO Xat as often as I can. If there are any roleplays that I need to post in, I do my best to post as soon as I can. What I do depends on my mood, but I often write (Usually short stories for myself) or read a Visual Novel, all while listening to video game music, of course. Just randomly surfing the web is also an option. Eventually, I have dinner, and after making sure I've done everything that needs to be done for the day, I go to sleep. That tends to be what a "normal, relaxed" day is like for me, though I often have other things to do instead. I could go into more detail, but I suspect that you'll all use those details to hunt me down and spy on me (No, not really).
GuardianDreamer: I wish I knew the answer to that one. I guess right now, I'm trying to focus on school. I'm mostly in Honors-level classes and I think I'm doing fairly well in them. I'm definitely considering writing a novel one day, but as for my "dream job"... I guess I want to help people. Of course, "help people" is rather vague, as there are multiple jobs that could fit that description, but nothing's really set in stone yet. When school reconvenes for me, I plan on talking to my school's guidance counselor so I can plan this out better. And of course, I plan to always strive to improve myself as a person. I also have some ideas if I ever want to make a Visual Novel of my own, but I'm not sure how likely that is, since it would be quite the commitment.
GuardianDreamer: Hm, that's a tough one. Apollo Justice is the one I've played the most, but I'm well-aware of the plot holes that it has (still really fond of some of the characters, though). Maybe the best case would be easier for me. In which case (Pun not intended, but I don't regret it.) I would have to say 1-5. It interested me the most, and it's the only case in the official AA games where I felt like I had to keep playing.
GuardianDreamer: I could be here all day if I listed them all. I think everyone knows about my undying love towards the Fire Emblem series, and if you count Visual Novels as games, then I could create a very long list. I guess if someone on this thread requests a list of my favorite Visual Novels, I could "try" to make one, but no promises. Anyway, my list... Most things from Nippon Ichi (Their most famous series being Disgaea), Shin Megami Tensei, some Final Fantasy games, Samurai/Dynasty Warriors, a lot of the Mega Man games, Suikoden, BlazBlue, Etrian Odyssey, the Atelier series, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Harvest Moon, Ratchet and Clank, Jak, Sly Cooper, Steambot Chronicles, Star Ocean, Der Langrisser, Growlanser, Chrono Trigger, Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, Recettear, Punch-Out!!, some of the Dept Heaven games, Shadow Hearts, Shining Force, Legend of Heroes... I think I'll stop now. I like a lot of games.
I also like a bunch of RPG Maker games and Flash games, but I won't make a list of those unless someone asks about it... But again, no promises.
GuardianDreamer: I think it was The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a spin-off to the Mega Man Legends series, starring Tron Bonne (of course) the Ensemble Darkhorse of the Legends series. For those of you who haven't played that game, I'd basically describe it as a collection of minigames, but with an actual storyline. It was definitely pretty fun, and probably the reason why I'm really fond of the Mega Man franchise in general. Though in hindsight, it was certainly odd to have it as my first video game.
GuardianDreamer: If I made any comments, I'm sure I'd embarrass myself. I don't consider myself particularly knowledgable about politics. Hm... I guess if I had to say one thing, I'd say that I'm opposed to the two-party system. I'm well aware that there are other more minor political parties, but Democrats and Republicans seem to be the only ones most people take seriously. And it's no secret that members of each party tend to demonize each other, though not all of them, of course. And when you have two parties that have the opposite viewpoints, you feel kind of pressured to pick an extreme.
So yeah. Criticizing the two-party system. Nothing new here, move along.
GuardianDreamer: I have an interest in the Occult, mythology, reading, writing, butlers, maids, traps, reverse-traps, the attorney's badge, philosophy, tea and taking walks in the rain. Only light rain though. It feels nicer that way.
GuardianDreamer: I want thank everyone here for letting me be a part of this wonderful community, even if my interests don't quite match the norm around here. I've made some very close friendships here, and my time on AAO has seen me grow a lot as a person, and I think it's been for the better. I do genuinely love all of you.
Oh, and remember to join the Cult of the Badge today!