TICKING TIME BOMB

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GuardianDreamer
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by GuardianDreamer »

An Explosive Turnabout
by Batman129 and Bannedfrom7
Spoiler : Screenshot :
Image
Maybe you should try whispering, Apollo.
Spoiler : Audio Review Transcript :
Spoiler : Synopsis :
An amnesiac Apollo Justice has to take on a case while being threatened by a mysterious figure known as "The Detonator" who has unclear ulterior motives, but presents a threat to the entire court that only Apollo is aware of.
Spoiler : Review :
Story: What we've got here is an interesting setup that really has me thinking about where it's going to go. The characters (almost all canon characters) are written well enough, and I like the vibes of this so far. However, this case is currently incomplete, so a lot of that setup currently doesn't amount to much, but what's here is still interesting enough and I can see it being a solid start once the rest is in. There's an interesting amount of tension due to the circumstances of the trial, and I'm interested in seeing where it'll go in terms of character drama and dynamics.

Presentation: The presentation here is mostly okay and serviceable, aside from one major issue that I encountered. To put it simply, what's here of the case functions as it should if you go about it the way the game expects you to. However, if you present the wrong piece of evidence and see the penalty dialogue in this case, or even go to the co-counsel conversation, the sprite positionings of everyone in the courtroom gets all messed up. From my experience with the AAO editor, I know exactly how this happened and it's something I've run into as well while play-testing my own cases so I sympathize deeply here, but as someone whose first instinct in a testimony is "let's go see the co-counsel dialogue" it stood out a lot. There were also a few typos I noticed, but they're minor errors in comparison. Oh also if you do game over, the testimony music doesn't cut out when it should, though the game over sequence is something I only saw because I deliberately tried to gun for it.

Gameplay: Due to the incomplete nature of this case, there's very little in the way of gameplay and it's hard to really get a feel for the case logic. That said, I do feel like this will be solid enough once this case has more to it. It's just at an awkward state right now where I can't really judge it much on this category.

Theme Relevance: Oh hey we got a case that actually has to do with explosions and stuff, theme relevance! The theme relevance here is pretty solid. I'm unsure how long the full case is planned to be, but while I personally didn't feel like I was in a rush, I did feel like I was unsettled in a good way. Rather than feeling like a bomb is about to go off, this feels more like you know there's a bomb in the background, and are constantly aware of it while being careful not to disturb it, which works in its own way.

Overall: An interesting and solid start that I hope gets expanded in the future, this is a neat little story with a good foundation. I wish Batman and Banned the best of luck in continuing it and hope to see it completed one day.
Hosted The Year of Luigi competition (and here's the awards ceremony).
Current AAO projects (to be completed eventually, probably, hopefully): A Silly Little Dream (hopefully 2024), My Dearest Direst Disgrace (hopefully 2025)
Stuff I've made on here: QotU
Make My Life Worse
Malleus Maleficarum: The Witch of San Ignacio
The Six Transgender Lesbian Goddesses of Love Are Having A Petty Argument, So They Try To Settle Things Alongside The Three Transgender Gay Gods of Flavor
Defend Him, Not Me!
The Guardian and the Dreamer
I was a guest judge and did a bit of writing for the TICKING TIME BOMB competition.
My Twitter is here
Avatar is of Marth from Fire Emblem, commissioned from @PiyoStoria on Twitter.
Super legenda
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by Super legenda »

Those cases are sounding interesting, excited to play these after the comp is over.
XavierWright
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by XavierWright »

Yep. We're nearing the end. GuardianDreamer only needs to review one more case, and TimeAxis three, I think.
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GuardianDreamer
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by GuardianDreamer »

Superboss of the Turnabout
by Super legenda
Spoiler : Screenshot :
Image
Got it memorized?
Spoiler : Audio Review Transcript :
Spoiler : Synopsis :
What if you booted up a friend's videogame and saw that they had a save right before the final dungeon, and then decided to load it up for a laugh while not caring about spoilers? That's the feeling of this case. You're dropped into the "final encounter" of a case with multiple defense attorneys and prosecutors, with only the court record to guide you about how you could have possibly gotten here.
Spoiler : Review :
Story: I think the strongest part of this case is the overall tone, which is immediately set and never really strays away from it. The characters, especially the defendant and the witness, are very gamer-brained and talk about how this is like the final boss of a RPG. Much of what happened in the actual case so far is left for the player to try to puzzle out by reading the evidence and profile descriptions, of which you're given a whole bunch at the very start. Go win against the final boss gamer, be the hero and slay the demon lord or something. Or in this case, be the defense attorneys and try to argue against the culprit who's being defended by two prosecutors. While there are several typos I found the dialogue fun to read and it does a fairly good job at having fun with itself while never getting TOO silly. I'm not very bothered by not being able to follow the crime very much due to the premise of the case, but I will say that it's currently unfinished which is unfortunate since it doesn't feel like much is resolved.

Presentation: The way that the "final cross-examination" is presented here is really fun, with the screen being split between showing our "final boss" and the prosecution at the same time to make it feel more like a proper battle. You're thrown a whole bunch of evidence and profiles at the very start, but most of them are fairly quick reads with a few exceptions. The biggest presentational issue here is that there are a high number of typos here, I might be wrong but I believe that Spanish is SL's first language, and I saw some common errors as someone who's familiar with seeing English writing by people whose native language is Spanish. Still, the dialogue is generally understandable, and I think it could be smoothed out. Also as someone who's bilingual I know fully well that language struggles are very real so I don't blame SL here, I imagine my Spanish writing would have similar errors.

Gameplay: Currently a bit of a mixed bag, though I think that's entirely because of how SL had to rush to get this in before the grace period was up. The central mechanic in this is that during the testimony, the screen is split between our final boss as well as Franziska, and I didn't understand that I was meant to pay attention to Franziska's pose since I thought it was just for flavor. Looking back, I realize that a character actually does sort of tell you to look out for it, but I mistook it for gamer-brained flavor text and not actual advice. My own incompetence aside though, it's still fun to explore the testimony here. I'm curious to see what else SL has planned. I recall SL asking me to make sure I got a game over a while back, but unfortunately there wasn't a unique game over sequence, so I have to assume that was something that got cut due to time.

Theme Relevance: I like the idea here of being dropped at the final encounter of a game and think it's a unique take on the comp theme. I never really felt a sense of urgency, but the final boss vibes are still a fun take. What's currently here can easily be finished in under 30 minutes, and I get the feeling the final version will be similar, though maybe not so much on a first run since I believe SL plans on making things more complicated based on what I've seen them talk about in the case developer Discord.

Overall: A fun idea that manages its tone well, I look forward to seeing what Superboss is like in its finished state. With some polishing and fixes, I could easily see it being a fun experience, and what's here is already promising.
Hosted The Year of Luigi competition (and here's the awards ceremony).
Current AAO projects (to be completed eventually, probably, hopefully): A Silly Little Dream (hopefully 2024), My Dearest Direst Disgrace (hopefully 2025)
Stuff I've made on here: QotU
Make My Life Worse
Malleus Maleficarum: The Witch of San Ignacio
The Six Transgender Lesbian Goddesses of Love Are Having A Petty Argument, So They Try To Settle Things Alongside The Three Transgender Gay Gods of Flavor
Defend Him, Not Me!
The Guardian and the Dreamer
I was a guest judge and did a bit of writing for the TICKING TIME BOMB competition.
My Twitter is here
Avatar is of Marth from Fire Emblem, commissioned from @PiyoStoria on Twitter.
Super legenda
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by Super legenda »

GuardianDreamer wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 7:57 pm
Superboss of the Turnabout
by Super legenda
Spoiler : Screenshot :
Image
Got it memorized?
Spoiler : Audio Review Transcript :
Spoiler : Synopsis :
What if you booted up a friend's videogame and saw that they had a save right before the final dungeon, and then decided to load it up for a laugh while not caring about spoilers? That's the feeling of this case. You're dropped into the "final encounter" of a case with multiple defense attorneys and prosecutors, with only the court record to guide you about how you could have possibly gotten here.
Spoiler : Review :
Story: I think the strongest part of this case is the overall tone, which is immediately set and never really strays away from it. The characters, especially the defendant and the witness, are very gamer-brained and talk about how this is like the final boss of a RPG. Much of what happened in the actual case so far is left for the player to try to puzzle out by reading the evidence and profile descriptions, of which you're given a whole bunch at the very start. Go win against the final boss gamer, be the hero and slay the demon lord or something. Or in this case, be the defense attorneys and try to argue against the culprit who's being defended by two prosecutors. While there are several typos I found the dialogue fun to read and it does a fairly good job at having fun with itself while never getting TOO silly. I'm not very bothered by not being able to follow the crime very much due to the premise of the case, but I will say that it's currently unfinished which is unfortunate since it doesn't feel like much is resolved.

Presentation: The way that the "final cross-examination" is presented here is really fun, with the screen being split between showing our "final boss" and the prosecution at the same time to make it feel more like a proper battle. You're thrown a whole bunch of evidence and profiles at the very start, but most of them are fairly quick reads with a few exceptions. The biggest presentational issue here is that there are a high number of typos here, I might be wrong but I believe that Spanish is SL's first language, and I saw some common errors as someone who's familiar with seeing English writing by people whose native language is Spanish. Still, the dialogue is generally understandable, and I think it could be smoothed out. Also as someone who's bilingual I know fully well that language struggles are very real so I don't blame SL here, I imagine my Spanish writing would have similar errors.

Gameplay: Currently a bit of a mixed bag, though I think that's entirely because of how SL had to rush to get this in before the grace period was up. The central mechanic in this is that during the testimony, the screen is split between our final boss as well as Franziska, and I didn't understand that I was meant to pay attention to Franziska's pose since I thought it was just for flavor. Looking back, I realize that a character actually does sort of tell you to look out for it, but I mistook it for gamer-brained flavor text and not actual advice. My own incompetence aside though, it's still fun to explore the testimony here. I'm curious to see what else SL has planned. I recall SL asking me to make sure I got a game over a while back, but unfortunately there wasn't a unique game over sequence, so I have to assume that was something that got cut due to time.

Theme Relevance: I like the idea here of being dropped at the final encounter of a game and think it's a unique take on the comp theme. I never really felt a sense of urgency, but the final boss vibes are still a fun take. What's currently here can easily be finished in under 30 minutes, and I get the feeling the final version will be similar, though maybe not so much on a first run since I believe SL plans on making things more complicated based on what I've seen them talk about in the case developer Discord.

Overall: A fun idea that manages its tone well, I look forward to seeing what Superboss is like in its finished state. With some polishing and fixes, I could easily see it being a fun experience, and what's here is already promising.
Thanks for the review! I tried with the grammar but, didn't get to ask for a tester as I did the last few frames I could on the last hours, I am very glad you found it enjoyable.
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by TimeAxis »

Note: This may be the kind of case that you want to play blind, and this review may contain some mild spoilers.

Athena Cykes Ace Attorney: Wisdom at Law - DEMO
by CallMeBlue & MasqueradeDemure & applekitty
Spoiler : Screenshot :
Image
Excuse me? Run that by me again?
Spoiler : Completion Time :
42:36
Spoiler : Synopsis :
Athena has a new apprentice, top of his class super prodigy Blaze Maverik (his sprites are so cool guys), and together they unravel a HUGE mystery and defeat a insane serial killer called "THE HAND OF DEATH" who threatens to destroy law and order and peace of everyone's lifes in Japanafornia!!
Spoiler : Review :
STORY
I'm going to be honest. When I saw the title of this case, a part of me rolled my eyes just a little bit. But then I thought, "you know what? I've played a few really good Athena cases. I'll go in with an open mind." And suffice to say, an open mind was more than required. In what seems like something meticulously designed in a laboratory to be the worst possible AAO case in existence, condensed down into roughly a half-hour of content, this case somehow managed to tell a compelling story about friendship, passion, and the meaning of life. I know that sounds like comedic hyperbole, but I promise you it's actually not. If you asked me whether I hated this case or loved it, I would not have an answer. All I could really tell you is that I experienced it, and it was an event that transpired. But really, I enjoyed it, against all odds.

That being said, if this were to be played by someone unfamiliar with the Ace Attorney fandom and AAO, as their first AAO case, I could see them bouncing off of it completely, not getting any of the humor, or possibly even feeling a little attacked (although the case does go out of its way to not feel too mean spirited if you stick it out). It's pretty irrelevant to point that out, though, given this is an AAO case competition in a community of case creators. Nothing wrong with tailoring a case to the audience most likely to play it.

CHARACTERS
Much like the rest of the case, the characters feel specially crafted to be comprised of the worst cliches in all of Ace Attorney fan-media. And yet despite that fact, there is a certain charm to them. Putting aside the portrayal of canon characters like the titular Athena or the Judge, the original characters especially manage to make you feel things, and their characterization ultimately feels well portrayed in a way that can't really be described without experiencing the story yourself.

PRESENTATION
I've been previously on the record as saying that intentionally bad presentation doesn't contribute to a case in any comedic or otherwise meaningful way. I hate to say it, but now this case has forced me to eat my words. The authors of this case have found the one circumstance in which going out of their way to make this case's presentation feel as god-awful as they possibly could actually managed to enhance it narratively, thematically, and comedically. Despite being filled with mistakes that I would be the first to criticize in any other case, nothing about this case's presentation feels like laziness or incompetence on the creators' parts. In fact, it feels like a great deal of effort went into making it look and feel as awful as it does. And at no point did any of the presentation quirks veer into making the case feel frustrating in any way. All bugs were limited to visual and other inconsequential stuff that doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of the case. I still hold that bad presentation usually is not excusable just by virtue of a case being a comedy, but in this specific circumstance, it fits extremely well. Every single presentation error in this case actually enhances the overall feeling that they're going for, and results in a more compelling story.

GAMEPLAY
Despite the narrative and presentation being intentionally bad, the creators of this case were smart enough not to give the gameplay the same treatment, at least not in any way that would result in a frustrating or unfun experience. The case logic, while silly, actually makes sense. And I'm not going to lie, I actually felt like the mystery managed to wrap up in a satisfying way. I thought the ending was a pretty clever way of making sense of what otherwise felt like meaningless nonsense. There was one part where what the game wanted from the player was a little unclear, where you're given a very big image with a lot of things on it and asked vaguely to point to a specific thing, but it did make sense in retrospect. And thankfully there were no penalties for guessing wrong at that point.

THEME RELEVANCE
While it took a while for the theme relevance to kick in, I liked the way this case handled it. It would spoil things to talk about it too much, but I'll just say that the case does manage to instill a sense of urgency, while also managing to keep the case run time pretty short. Great take on the case theme.
Spoiler : Overall :
PROS
  • a BRAND NEW protagonist
  • Athena's OWN STORY
  • It's a comedic case that's really good at doing what it's trying to do
CONS
  • Some people might be extremely turned off by this case
  • Relies on a lot of AAO meta-knowledge to enjoy it
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Question Arcs (Threads Coming Eventually)
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Gaiden Episodes
Champion of Turnabouts ★
HALLOWEEN HERO
Other
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attornauts
The Curious Case of the Phantom Limousine (Coming Eventually)
The Imposter's Turnabout (Coming Maybe)
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by TimeAxis »

An Explosive Turnabout

by Bannedfrom7 & Batman129
Spoiler : Screenshot :
Image
Color me absolutely shocked.
Spoiler : Completion Time :
35:36
Spoiler : Synopsis :
In a case set somewhere in the middle of AA5, a slightly amnesiac Apollo defends Athena for the murder of Phoenix Wright, but with some explosive consequences on the line.
Spoiler : Review :
STORY
This is an unfinished case that doesn't get very far into its story, but the set-up is very interesting and is fleshed out pretty well. As is, the sudden amnesia as an excuse to not have to show earlier parts of the case feels a bit contrived, but it's possible that there could be a good reason for it in the finished case. As I always say, however, I can't judge a case on how it might turn out, only how it is. Currently, this case is just a bag of questions that aren't answered. I'm interested to see where things go, though, so I hope the creators finish it.

CHARACTERS
This case is almost entirely canon characters, and for the most part they were portrayed well and felt true to their canon personalities. It did feel a little jarring how relatively calm everyone felt about the death of Phoenix Wright (apart from the Judge who has a nice reaction), but it's possible they had time off-screen pre-amnesia to get over the idea. It would have been nice to see a bit more of that though.

PRESENTATION
I have some nitpicks about the presentation, but it was mostly good. There were a fair few grammar issues, Testimony titles weren't centered, and there were no Court sprites when it showed the full court, but all of these are minor issues. The beginning felt a lot more polished than the later parts, which probably has a lot to do with the case being unfinished. A small error I noticed was:
Spoiler : Minor spoiler :
Trucy says "Apollo? Trucy?" when she probably meant to say "Apollo? Athena?"
One little touch I appreciated is that they went out of their way to make sure lines word-wrapped properly, something even veteran case creators rarely bother with, but it's always something I pay attention to.

One actual meaningful issue with the presentation, however, was some of the evidence images. Stuff like the floor plans, and the camera images. It's cool that they exist, but the floorplan was a little hard to read, with the icons on it being very tiny, and suffering from jpg compression. The timestamps on the camera images were also in red text that blended a little too much with the grey background and had jpg compression, so it was a little hard to read them. I do like that they went to the trouble of including that stuff, though.

GAMEPLAY
As is, there isn't a whole lot of gameplay besides 1 witness testimony where all you do is press everything. Everything worked, at least. But I wish there was more. Not much more to say on that, I'm afraid. The mystery has a lot of details and a lot of potential. I look forward to seeing where it goes if the authors finish this (which, again, I hope they do).

THEME RELEVANCE
One one hand, this is another case that suffers from "short because it's unfinished, not because it's actually short", but on the other hand, this is the first case I've played of these that actually takes the "TICKING TIME BOMB" theme literally, as you might imagine from the case's title. So while I wouldn't say it succeeded in making something short but complete feeling (especially as there are still a lot of details that seem like they'll take a while to wrap up), it does succeed at establishing a sense of there being high stakes and a bit of urgency.
Spoiler : Overall :
PROS
  • Canon characters feel true to themselves
  • Interesting setup for a case
CONS
  • Occasionally spotty presentation
  • Unfinished nature means almost no gameplay and no story resolution
Only one more case left for me to review, which will probably be done before the end of this weekend. Then it'll be a matter of puzzling out the winner (which may be pretty hard with all the great entries), deciding on awards, and then working on the award ceremony over the next couple of weeks.

For those wishing for something from their case to be featured in the award ceremony, you've probably got until the end of this weekend to let either of us know, as I won't be doing any case cameos without people's permission.
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Question Arcs (Threads Coming Eventually)
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Gaiden Episodes
Champion of Turnabouts ★
HALLOWEEN HERO
Other
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attornauts
The Curious Case of the Phantom Limousine (Coming Eventually)
The Imposter's Turnabout (Coming Maybe)
Super legenda
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by Super legenda »

Oh, you want permission for cameos here? Well I, Super legenda from the Ticking Time Bomb competition, hereby allow TimeAxis and GuardianDreamer to use anything from my case, Superboss of the Turnabout, as they see fit.
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by XavierWright »

We're talking bout cameos in the ceremony, so if I like sent of a short of a cameo of my case, would you be able to work with that?
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by TimeAxis »

XavierWright wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 5:40 pm We're talking bout cameos in the ceremony, so if I like sent of a short of a cameo of my case, would you be able to work with that?
Whatever you want, whether you want to send an actual case I can look at in the editor, or just a general outline or script of what you want and what graphics to use, or just "hey just make something up with this and this", I'll make it work. Just keep it to less than 30 seconds long.
Image
Question Arcs (Threads Coming Eventually)
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Gaiden Episodes
Champion of Turnabouts ★
HALLOWEEN HERO
Other
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attornauts
The Curious Case of the Phantom Limousine (Coming Eventually)
The Imposter's Turnabout (Coming Maybe)
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GuardianDreamer
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by GuardianDreamer »

I can't say for sure what TimeAxis' preferences are, but personally speaking I think having at least a little direction for the cameo, such as "I'd like it to involve this specific character, the rest is up to you" would help a lot. Though if you really want to give us absolute freedom then I'm sure something can be worked out.
Hosted The Year of Luigi competition (and here's the awards ceremony).
Current AAO projects (to be completed eventually, probably, hopefully): A Silly Little Dream (hopefully 2024), My Dearest Direst Disgrace (hopefully 2025)
Stuff I've made on here: QotU
Make My Life Worse
Malleus Maleficarum: The Witch of San Ignacio
The Six Transgender Lesbian Goddesses of Love Are Having A Petty Argument, So They Try To Settle Things Alongside The Three Transgender Gay Gods of Flavor
Defend Him, Not Me!
The Guardian and the Dreamer
I was a guest judge and did a bit of writing for the TICKING TIME BOMB competition.
My Twitter is here
Avatar is of Marth from Fire Emblem, commissioned from @PiyoStoria on Twitter.
XavierWright
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by XavierWright »

Eh, I'm not sure I can come up with anything that wouldn't be more than 30 seconds, so, I think I'll leave it to the judges. If you want to make a cameo of mine, do what you wish...
Spoiler : :
As long as its not a parody Ben 10 theme song :calisto:
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by Bannedfrom7 »

Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate the feedback!
I am Banned
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by Spoonmaster12 »

I don't know if I need to submit anything specific but you can use a cameo from my case in any way you like really
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Re: TICKING TIME BOMB

Post by AshuraMage »

If you want, you can use anything from my case. Characters, backgrounds, the Hang On! bubble, etc. Even just for making fun
In 2021 I was bored and made an AMV that now has 100K+ views
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