Ace Attorney Case Files: The First Turnabout

 Every game series begins somewhere, and Ace Attorney is no exception. Considering how much the series has changed over time, it can be surprising to see the story's more humble beginnings, which are best represented in the very first case, the aptly titled The First Turnabout.

From a gameplay perspective, the case is essentially a tutorial, especially since it's Phoenix Wright's first case as a defense attorney. This is reflected in a few aspects of the case.

• The game has the Judge quiz Phoenix, and by extension, the player, on three facts about the case- the name of the defendant, the name of the victim and the cause of death. The former is obvious, but the latter two require you two check the Court Record, serving as a way to introduce that feature.
• The culprit, Frank Sahwit, is shown to you in a flashback detailing the moment of the murder, and is the only witness besides the defendant who takes the stand. Only a handful of other cases did this- the second case of this game, the first two cases of Dual Destinies and to a certain extent, the first case of Justice For All (Richard Wellington isn't shown committing the murder, but he is shown bashing Phoenix on the head).
• There are only a handful of pieces of evidence- the autopsy report, the news of a power outage, "The Thinker" statue, the victim's passport and Phoenix's Attorney's Badge(which does nothing).
• There is no investigation phase for the trial. This is a constant for all of the first cases, as well as Case 4 of Trials and Tribulations.
• More surprisingly, pressing is not required to complete the trial, unlike even the other first cases. In each case, the contradictions  in the testimony are rather obvious, just from looking at the testimony (for example, he says the time of death is 1 p.m., when the autopsy report says it was between 4 and 5 p.m.).

With these factors in mind, it's easy to complete the trial in as little as 20 minutes, even without a guide.

The character designs are relatively plain. Phoenix, Winston Payne and Frank Sahwit all wear relatively plain suits and ties, while Phoenix's mentor Mia Fey wears a dark skirt suit, the Judge wears a suit under his robes and Larry Butz wears casual clothes. In Sahwit's case, the only memorable part of his design is his toupee, which he throws at Phoenix when he's pushed too far. It isn't until the second case that the designers started going for more colorful character designs, starting with Miles Edgeworth's red suit, black vest and white cravat.

The case itself is relatively simple, as mentioned above. Sahwit tried to burglarize Cindy Stone's apartment, and when she caught him in the act, he hit her on the head with The Thinker and tried to frame Larry. He's definitely not sympathetic, but at the same time, he isn't nearly as monstrous as some of the most evil culprits in the series.

Speaking of Sahwit, his breakdown, one of the signature parts of the Ace Attorney franchise, is relatively low-key. While he transitions from borderline-sycophantic levels of politeness to angry hostility after throwing his toupee at Phoenix, when the final piece of evidence confirms his guilt, he simply foams at the mouth and collapses.

The final piece of evidence in question happens to be Cindy's passport, which had previously been the most inconsequential piece of evidence apart from Phoenix's badge. The autopsy report is almost always a crucial piece of evidence in an Ace Attorney case (like the Monokuma File in Danganronpa), the Thinker statue was the murder weapon and the blackout report explains some things about the case, but the passport proves that Cindy had been returning from a different time zone at the time of her death, which was why the clock was three (or rather, nine) hours off. Apparently, this case, as well as the need to make an understandable time zone example for Americans, is why the Ace Attorney series tries to act as though it takes place in America, despite many obvious signs that it's in Japan, from a court system with a suspiciously high conviction rate to frequent earthquakes.

Compared to later cases, The First Turnabout comes off as simplistic and forgettable, but it helped set the stage for the rest of the game, as well as the rest of the series, making it an important part of Ace Attorney.