case by case: GAA 2-1: stabbed raiten the back
I am getting some very useful Susato reaction images from this playthrough.
If you can believe it, it's Monday once again, and that means it's time for more Case by Case! Last time, we wrapped up the first Great Ace Attorney game; this week, we are at last beginning the second Great Ace Attorney game, which means we are getting very near the end1. So, without further ado, the final introductory slash tutorial case! Spoilers, as ever, follow.
As tutorial cases go, this one seems simultaneously more simple than ever--there are almost no cross-examinations that aren't meant to teach us something about how to play the game--but also, on a more subjective level, it feels as if the deductions it's asking of us are a little more involved than is typical for them. It is as a result fairly short, but there are still a few points where I can imagine someone getting stuck on what they're expected to do here.
A quick aside. I have started, far too late in my journey, using a Reddit user's breakthrough of playtimes for the individual cases to give me an estimate of how much time I need to block out to play through these cases, which lets me plan better so that I don't end up starting an eight hour case later than I'd like and ending up staying up until the wee hours of the morning.2 This is such a profoundly helpful resource to have for someone like me; having an idea of just how much of something I have remaining makes it much easier for me to take breaks and otherwise not just power through because how much longer could it take?
Anyway. This tutorial case involves our murderess from the last tutorial case getting murdered by a journalist who was (a) mad that she was going to get away with murder and (b) also mad that she was being a massive racist when he confronted her about point A. Which is an interesting way to remind us that her meta-plot hasn't been resolved yet: the murder has nothing to do with it, but it does put her back in our thoughts. Since Ryunosuke is still in England, Susato has to disguise herself as a male student and pretend to be a lawyer to defend her best friend from suspicion of murder.
This case also has us meeting Soseki once again, as a witness, and throughout the trial he starts talking about his cases, plural, in England. Then, at the case's conclusion, we confirm slash learn a few things, to catch us up to speed: (1) Professor Mikotoba summoned Susato to return from England for secret reasons; (2) he was very interested in Soseki's second murder case; (3) Sholmes barred anyone from talking about the second case; (4) whatever happened in that case will apparently help resolve all these mysteries.
It is absolutely buck wild that the murder man today fairly straight away says "yeah, I tried to murder her, but she was already poisoned so I'm innocent." He doesn't really push back on the murder charge at all! I don't know much about law but I feel like "someone stole my kill" is not going to get you off the hook in most cases. Probably he was meant to be going for a lesser sentence, but I feel like this should have been emphasized a little more.
I had somehow forgotten most of the details about this case, including the victim. A sign, I think, that I was playing these games a little faster than I should have been.
Anyway, that's all I have for you this week. It's time for more Soseki-san next week! I remember this next one pretty well, but I always find it interesting to see what specific things I recall and what slips through the cracks.3 I will see you then, friends.
I don't know if I have yet said this on record, but I am posting this here: I will revive the series if Layton v. Wright ever comes to modern consoles; and I will, of course, also revive it in the event of new Ace Attorney games. But for now, at least, we approach the end.↩
Looking at the breakdowns of Great Ace Attorney case lengths, I now see why I burned out: GAA 2-3, the final one that I played when this collection originally came out, is over eight hours long. Getting blindsided by an eight hour case really burned me out.↩
I don't usually bore you with these details because one of the interesting things about memory is how you can remember things without really remembering, so it is often hard to say whether I knew the solution to a puzzle because I remembered it or whether I simply figured it out again, and also because there are so many little details in all of these cases that I wouldn't be able to get anything done. But I really enjoy this aspect of playing through.↩