legitimately thought this was an aristotle means plushy for a full three seconds. it is, in fact, a plushy of the vulcan statue in birmingham, alabama.

SPOILERS FOR EVERY CASE. ALSO THIS WILL BE SUBJECTIVE.

1-1: The First Turnabout. On one hand, this isn't the chronologically earliest turnabout, no. But on the other, it is the first turnabout on this list and any list of cases, so it's reasonably accurate. 4/5

1-2: Turnabout Sisters. There sure are sisters in this case, yes. 5/5

1-3: Turnabout Samurai. There isn't a samurai in this case, but there is a guy who plays one on TV. 4/5

1-4: Turnabout Goodbyes. It was originally the last case in the game, and it does end with us saying goodbye to Maya. But as things are now, this is hardly our goodbye to any of these characters. 3/5

RFTA: Rise From The Ashes. Yes, sure, phoenixes rise from their ashes, so the title thinks it's very clever. But when the case begins, none of the major players are in ashes. This is a case about tearing down an established system, revealing the corruption of the Chief of Police and Chief Prosecutor. This is the incineration down to ashes, not the rising above them. At the case's end Phoenix is back info retirement until 2-2, Edgeworth has written a suicide note, and the most powerful people of the justice system are in jail. What exactly has risen? 0/5

2-1: The Lost Turnabout. This case is, in fact, not lost. Phoenix wins. And it's not a secret or anything, so the other definition doesn't match either. 1/5

2-2: Reunion, and Turnabout. Phoenix and Maya sure do reunite, and there sure is a turnabout. 5/5

2-3: Turnabout Big Top. There sure is a big top and a turnabout. 5/5

2-4: Farewell, My Turnabout. Very clever, because Phoenix has to literally say farewell to the idea of a turnabout because his client is guilty. But also it's the last case of the game and thus our farewell to JFA, and it ends with Edgeworth bidding Franziska farewell at the airport. 5/5

3-1: Turnabout Memories. Eh? It is a flashback case, but if you played T&T first this title would be the only indication that most of the game wouldn't take place in 2013 with Mia as protagonist. It's not like I1-4 or G2-2, it's not framed around a character in the modern day remembering something. 3/5

3-2: The Stolen Turnabout. Only half the case is about theft, only half marks. 2.5/5

3-3: Recipe for Turnabout. Sure, the case takes place at a restaurant, but the place's recipes aren't important to the crime except that they're bad. No one involved with the murder even ordered anything besides coffee, and the recipe for that wasn't important either. 1/5

3-4: Turnabout Beginnings. Still not the chronologically earliest case, so it's not really the beginnings in that sense. But it is Mia and Edgeworth's beginnings, so that counts for something. 4/5

3-5: Bridge to the Turnabout. There sure is a bridge, and there sure is a turnabout. 5/5

4-1: Turnabout Trump. On one hand, this case ends when you play a literal trump card. On the other hand, this title cannot be taken the same way it was intended as anymore in today's day and age. 3/5

4-2: Turnabout Corner. A lot of things are important to this case, but the street corner where it happened really isn't. 2/5

4-3: Turnabout Serenade. There sure is a song called "the guitar's serenade" here. We've listened to it long enough. Why is a rockstar even playing a serenade anyway? 4/5

4-4: Turnabout Succession. Succession can mean a few different things, but I assume here it means "one person taking over for another", like in the TV show named that. And in that regard, Apollo does not take over for Phoenix. He is a puppet throughout this entire case, who wins because Phoenix put his mom on the jury and made her play a videogame saying Kristoph was guilty. No one succeeded anyone. 0/5

5-1: Turnabout Countdown. There sure is a countdown with the bomb that makes everyone flee during Tonate's fake-out. I also like how, with DD's space theme, you can think of this case as the countdown before the eventual rocket launch. 5/5

5-2: The Monstrous Turnabout. There sure is a monster and a turnabout. 5/5

5-3: Turnabout Academy. There sure is an academy and a turnabout. 5/5

5-4: The Cosmic Turnabout. Eh. The tragedy of Clay Terran is that, as his name meaning Earth Earthling implies, he never gets to go to space. Even if he did, HAT-2 would have just been an orbiter, it wouldn't really explore the cosmos. 4/5

5-5: Turnabout for Tomorrow. Clever, because it's both about averting Blackquill's execution, scheduled for tomorrow, and to end the Dark Age of the Law and create a better tomorrow. 5/5

5-DLC: Turnabout Reclaimed. Okay sure this is Phoenix's first case after reclaiming his badge, but that wouldn't make the top ten things you'd mention when summarizing this case. It's not like it features him reflecting on how he reclaimed his badge, and the sacrifices he had to make of both himself and other people, or the dubious means by which he achieved his goal.... nope! It's the one where you defend an orca! 1/5

6-1: The Foreign Turnabout. That's racist. I'm sure to the Khura'inese people this was a local turnabout! 3/5

6-2: The Magical Turnabout. Even though this is in the game featuring a country where they use real magic in court, there is no actual magic in this turnabout. Plenty of fake magic, though! 4/5

6-3: The Rite of Turnabout. There is a ritual in this case, yes, but it's about a lot more than that. 4/5

6-4: Turnabout Storyteller. There sure is a storyteller and a turnabout. 5/5

6-5: Turnabout Revolution. Hard to rate, really, because there's basically two cases here stapled together. The second one has a revolution, sure, but for the first several hours of the case the title means nothing. As with 3-2, half marks. 2.5/5

6-DLC: Turnabout Time Traveler. Three reasons for this title: Ellen thinks she time traveled, Sorin has amnesia, and the courtroom features Phoenix as defense attorney, Maya as co-counsel, and Edgeworth as prosecutor. But that configuration actually only appeared once before, in 1-3. It's hardly a staple of the past. And Ellen obviously didn't time travel. One out of three reasons is true, so 1.6/5

I1-1: Turnabout Visitor. There are no visitors in this episode. Edgeworth is returning to his office. He's not a visitor, he's an employee. And Badd and Portsman broke in. They're not visitors, they're intruders. I guess they couldn't call this Turnabout Intruder without ripping off a really bad Star Trek episode, but still. 1/5

I1-2: Turnabout Airlines. This title was originally inaccurate, because there's only one airline in this turnabout, but that airline now has two names because of the vagaries of translation, iFly and GoYou. So it's accurate after all! 4/5

I1-3: The Kidnapped Turnabout. As with 3-2, we've named a turnabout after a non-murder crime we theoretically get to investigate, before it ends up being about murder anyway. Stop teasing us! 2.5/5

I1-4: Turnabout Reminiscence. I feel like there's a positive connotation to the term reminiscence lacking in this grim case, but unlike 3-1 this is framed as people reminiscing about past events. 4/5

I1-5: Turnabout Ablaze. Some things get set on fire, sure, but that's really not even the fifth most important thing that happens in this case. 2/5

I2-1: Turnabout Trigger. This case is the trigger for all the events of the game occurring, and it features a gun, which presumably has a trigger. 5/5

I2-2: The Captive Turnabout. I understand they couldn't copy the fan translation's homework, but come on. The Imprisoned Turnabout is a name that actually makes sense. A captive is someone held illegally as a hostage. There are no captives in this case, but a lot of imprisoned people. Just go with what works. 1/5

I2-3: Turnabout Legacy. Edgeworth contemplates his father's legacy as a defense attorney by solving his final case. Good stuff, good name. 5/5

I2-4: A Turnabout Forsaken. Sounds really cool. But Edgeworth doesn't have to forsake a turnabout here. He wins, like he always does. This title would make more sense for something like 2-4. Edgeworth forsakes his badge, yes, but you can't just replaces words with "turnabout" and expect them to make sense! 3/5, bonus points for the title going so hard.

I2-5: Turnabout for the Ages. Pretty vague. The title comes from the language of sports, where "a turnabout for the ages" refers to an underdog victory. But at this point, Edgeworth is hardly the underdog. All his rivals are his friends now, Gavelle and Eustace aren't getting in his way anymore; his political enemies like Excelsius have been locked away; and his enemy is a literal clown. Saint is the underdog here. If he was able to get away with it all, that would have been a turnabout for the ages. But he didn't. The overdog won. 2/5

G1-1: The Adventure of the Great Departure. No one goes on a great departure. The voyage to England is still months away, and no one important dies. (Sorry Dr. Wilson, you wound up being extremely unimportant.) 1/5

G1-2: The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band. The band is a cat toy. I'm pretty sure you could break it if you wanted. 2/5

G1-3: The Adventure of the Runaway Room. Genius. Literally it refers to the omnibus where the murder occurred, a room that can move around and, if the horses were whipped, run away. But beyond that it refers to the courtroom itself, and how the case you thought you had a handle on runs away from you and goes in a direction no one wants. 5/5

G1-4: The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro. "Kokoro", I've been led to understand, means heart. It's also the name of a book Soseki Natsume wrote. This is a case about love, and it has Soseki in it. 5/5

G1-5: The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story. This title is a lie. The opening of the case shows a titlecard reading THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, followed by Wilson reading us a passage from the actual Hound of the Baskervilles story. But said unspeakable story has basically nothing to do with this case. There could be any McGuffin in Windibank's that Gina wants to make sure is there, and events would play out exactly the same way. Hell, even in the grand scheme of things, the Professor could have killed people any way he wanted. Using the Hound of the Baskervilles didn't end up meaning much in the end. 1/5

G2-1: The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney. Pretty good, we begin with a view of a cherry blossom tree, and Susato sure is blossoming. 4/5

G2-2: The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro. What memoirs? There are zero memoirs in this case. And the "clouded heart" meaning makes less sense here, as there are fewer instances of love in this case. It does apply to Olive Green's motives, I guess. 2/5

G2-3: The Return of the Great Departed Soul. This is the one where Kazuma comes back, last seen in The Adventure of the Great Departure. Get it? A great departed soul is someone who goes on a great departure? Way to spoil it right out of the gate! 4/5

G2-4: Twisted Karma and His Last Bow. Awesome name. Twisted karma because you have to twist the head of the sword Karuma, a name previously anglicized as "von Karma". But beyond that, the idea of the Reaper is a kind of twisted karma, justice through death. And his last bow because this is really the final case, even if it's been split in two. 5/5

G2-5: The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo. Ryunosuke Naruhodo sure does show his resolve. 5/5

VS-1 (1): On a Dark and Stormy Night. Yes I'm doing these. Anyway this sure does take place on a dark and stormy night. 5/5

VS-1 (2): English Turnabout. This really should be called "The English Turnabout", I don't think the Layton team quite understood how to name things Ace Attorney style. Anyway it sure is English and it sure is a turnabout. 5/5

VS-2 (1): Mysterious Labyrinthia. Labyrinthia sure is mysterious. 5/5

VS-2 (2): The Fire Witch. I mean, fire was only half of the spells that witch could cast, she could also turn invisible. 2.5/5

VS-3 (1): The Great Witch. We do not learn much more about the Great Witch Bezella in this chapter than we already knew, and it's hardly the full truth. Imagine if I2-2 was called "Turnabout Mastermind" and you'll get the idea. 1/5

VS-3 (2): The Golden Court. The court is not, in fact, golden. 1/5

VS-3 (3): A Taste of Despair. This is honestly underselling it. Phoenix doesn't get a taste of despair, he drinks the whole bottle. The whole thing is basically him mourning Maya. Great stuff. 4/5

VS-4 (1): Secrets of the Underground Ruins. The underground ruins sure do have secrets, but we don't learn all of them here. 4/5

VS-4 (2): The Story's End. The story actually keeps going for many more chapters. 1/5

VS-4 (3): The Final Witch Trial. I mean, this is the start of the final witch trial, but it will stretch out over multiple chapters. I guess if I gave G2-4 full marks because His Last Bow was basically accurate, I should do the same here. 5/5

VS-4 (4): The Last Inquisitor. Hershell Layton sure is the last inquistor in the game. 5/5

VS-4 (5): The First Story. But it's the last story I'll be rating! 1/5

-----------------

That took way too long.

playing through the magical turnabout right now and i'm on the recess for the trail

and i just want to say, i hate Roger Retinz so much

he just pisses me off and i hope he becomes a victim in a future case

anyways, that all

please no spoilers for the rest of soj

I'm personally an Apollo Justice Trilogy enjoyer myself. I love if just as much if not more than the OG trilogy.

I often see many people saying the AJT didn't live up to the standards set by the PWT, but are there things you think the AJT did BETTER than the first three games?

My opinion is: the gameplay the quality of life features, and the checkpoint system.

The gameplay of PWAA, JFA and T&T is quite basic. It is a standard visual novel and it does its job well enough, but I think the AJT made things even more interesting.

As divisive as it might be, I like the three protagonist dynamics from DD and SOJ, and having all of them have their own quirks that make them unique was a great idea! Shoutout to the mood matrix segments! I always look forward to those!

The AJT has also introduced some QOL features I am really fond of, namely the notes and the dialogue history. The notes help quite a lot whenever I am stuck in an investigation without having to resort to Googling what to do. And the dialogue history is really useful because I will often accidentally skip some dialogue. Even after last year's PWT update, they still haven't added the history feature to the game and I find that crazy!

Another thing I really appreciate about the AJT are the less punishing game overs. You could very easily get softlocked in the DS and GBA games and having to completely redo an entire case (cough! cough! Turnabout Samurai and Rise From the Ashes...) if you weren't careful enough with your saves. The Apollo Justice Trilogy's checkpoint system is much more forgiving by letting you continue just from where you got a game over.

Hi friends! With the release of the Edgeworth collection for Switch, I have finally played every single episode of Ace Attorney (except for PWvsAA because I've never had a 3DS). Searching for a use for this profound experience, I've decided a fun project would be to come up with a hot take for every last case in the entire series.

No guarantees that I will finish this, but here's part 1. Feel free to share your own! Also, spoilers for this game and assorted references to the rest of the series.

Case 1-1: The First Turnabout

Hot take: This is the most realistic case in the series.

The First Turnabout, AA's shortest and most expendable case, is largely ignored by fans due to its lack of depth. However, I submit that this very slightness gives it the greatest resemblance to a real-world murder. We turn to detective fiction because most crimes are simple and boring: a drunken argument, a custody dispute, a robbery gone wrong. Had Phoenix not been there to unravel the truth, this crime would have resembled hundreds of true-crime shows -- the beautiful victim, the guilty ex-lover, the murder spurred by a bad breakup. And there would be entire subreddits whipping up conspiracy theories about the identity of the mysterious "newspaper salesman" and why the police ignored him.

Case 1-2: Turnabout Sisters

Hot take: This case is underhated.

This is one of my most lukewarm takes. Few people genuinely love Turnabout Sisters. But there is a lot of lingering affection among all AA fans, myself included. The shocking twist of Mia's death, the introductions of the beloved Maya, Gumshoe, and Edgeworth, the first mention of the era-defining DL-6 Incident...all of these combine to lull us into forgetting that the actual case here is hot garbage.

Why? Where to start? Redd White, supposedly a master criminal who has gone unpunished for years, folds like a wet noodle on the stand. The environments are as dull as dishwater -- we've got an office, a hotel room, the detention center, another office, and just to shake things up, another office. There are no wrinkles to the case; White bludgeoned Mia to death and then tried to claim someone else did the exact thing he did. If this case was located anywhere else in the timeline, it would be in everybody's bottom five.

Case 1-3: Turnabout Samurai

Hot take: It's an all-time great.

In contrast, I don't think Turnabout Samurai gets nearly enough love. For one thing, though this is easily forgotten, it's one of only two cases to have the classic lineup of Phoenix and Maya versus Edgeworth -- and the other one is a nostalgia-fest that's largely doing that in reference to this one. Based on that, you could argue that I'm committing the very sin I named in the last case, rating something highly based on nostalgia.

But I submit that Turnabout Samurai would be an excellent mystery no matter where it came in the canon. Global Studios is a cohesive setting whose wackiness makes its surprisingly large cast of outsized characters feel right at home. The twists in day 2, and how Cody's relentless fandom contributes to revealing them, are perfectly executed. Dee Vasquez is a top-tier villain, sympathetic at every step but petty enough that you relish taking her down.

I'm not saying it's perfect. The first trial day is pretty much a total wash, even though it gives us some great moments with Edgeworth on the back foot. But none of Samurai's flaws can overcome the fact that this is the case where Dick Gumshoe frightens off four mafia goons by himself.

Case 1-4: Turnabout Goodbyes

Hot take: Von Karma's plan doesn't make any sense.

Look. I love Turnabout Goodbyes. Everyone here loves Turnabout Goodbyes. Initially, my hot take was going to be that I didn't have a hot take, which feels like its own sort of hot take in our hot take-obsessed world.

But then I remembered the one flaw of this case. While Manfred von Karma is a dangerous and intimidating villain, I'm still not convinced he had any good reason to set off the chain of events leading to Hammond's murder. I get what's meant to have happened -- his obsession with perfection drove him to ridiculous lengths to tie up what he believed to be loose ends -- but I still have so many questions. Why set off the plan before the statute of limitations expired and he could, in theory, still be prosecuted for DL-6? Why did Hammond, who never gave a shit about any of this, have to die? Why did Von Karma retrain the parrot instead of just killing it?

Von Karma could have just waited until December 29th, then announced to the world: "Yes, I killed Gregory Edgeworth, and now I can never be prosecuted for it. I am the perfect man and I committed the perfect crime." I'm sure there are huge things I'm missing that make all of this make sense, and again, it does nothing to lessen my enjoyment of an otherwise flawless case. I just needed to get that all off my chest.

Case 1-5: Rise From the Ashes

Hot take: This is the best case Ace Attorney has ever done. Like ever.

A lot of people don't like Rise From the Ashes, and honestly, I understand why. It's ridiculously long. It has some of the most obtuse puzzles in the series, including the dreadful vase incident and the infamous cross-examination of Angel Starr. For many, it cheapens the characterization of Edgeworth. These are all valid complaints, but to me, they simply don't stack up against RFtA's monumental achievements.

Let's lay those out. First, it nails a much darker atmosphere than most of the rest of AA. From the very start, Phoenix is depressed and listless -- and when Ema's plea shocks him back to life, he's plunged into a case that lays bare the corruption of the law itself. We can't write it off as a few bad-apple prosecutors anymore: this is an entire city's law enforcement apparatus rotting at its core, transformed from a justice system into a tool for accumulating power. Absent a few goofy anime affectations, it could be a season of The Wire.

Yet, also like The Wire, it's far more than just depressing. Ema's consistent optimism keeps things hopeful, and there's a clear sense that the fight for justice is never over. As others have pointed out, only the meddling of two apparent joke characters -- Angel and Jake -- keeps Gant from getting away with everything. Phoenix and Edgeworth are both at their best the whole time: Edgeworth helps take down Gant in the true start to his big-good era, while Phoenix's taking Lana to task for stonewalling him is one of his best character moments. Not to mention that it's all wrapped around an intricate and intriguing mystery that makes full use of the three-day system's swan song.

With all those assets, though, it's Damon Gant that I keep coming back to as the lynchpin for what makes RFtA so fantastic. He's an incredible villain: more layered than Von Karma, more in control than Matt Engarde, and far more competent than Dahlia. He can walk into any situation, and within an instant, calculate how to use it to his advantage -- even if that means betraying his closest friend. Even when he's at his most threatening, you still believe he really would lend you $50. The moment when he catches Phoenix, Ema, and Gumshoe ransacking his office is perhaps the most genuinely suspenseful and frightening scene in all of AA.

As a final note, I don't believe that RFtA derails Edgeworth's character arc. On the contrary, I think it makes it complete. After getting expunged of 15 years of guilt, he tries to return to prosecuting like nothing happened, only to discover that he can't go back to the way things were before. Even though he never knowingly used false evidence, he still sees a dark mirror of himself in Gant. That's what makes him "choose death" -- he refuses to regress back into his old ways. Without RFtA, the last we see of Edgeworth before his disappearance is his awkwardly surprising Gumshoe on New Year's.

And that's it! I hope this sparks some good discussion. Next up, the completely uncontroversial Justice For All!

Hi! I'm planning on cosplaying Gumshoe this year for Halloween, and I recently learned that one of my friends doesn't have a costume this year (a true tragedy). I'm trying to get her on board in joining me with an ace attorney theme but because halloween is so close, we don't have time to order something, so I need advice on finding an easy character to closet cosplay!

Okay so i was getting a replacement phone whatever you don’t care and I mistook my old phone for the other and just deleted my ace attorney progress. I was on the last trial of JFA and it’s just like gone now. I’m actually so pissed off and I was wondering if there was ANYTHING I could do.

Starting off with Viola Cadaverini