Ace Attorney Case Files: The Lost Turnabout

 Justice For All is generally considered the weakest entry in the first Ace Attorney trilogy for a few reasons, particularly a lack of an overarching storyline and the cases (with the exception of "Farewell, My Turnabout,") being weak overall. The first case is no exception, since it comes off as a rather contrived introduction to the series that feels like an excuse for a tutorial.

The Introduction

Phoenix has a nightmare about facing a massive, shadowy version of the Judge, who declares that he's no longer fit to be a defense attorney and prepares to strike him down with a large gavel. This ends up foreshadowing events in "Farewell, My Turnabout," when the nightmare is repeated in a more dramatic context, but it feels rather strange at first glanc.

Phoenix wakes up on a sofa in the court lobby, and hears his cell phone ringing. At that point, a man assaults him with a fire extinguisher.

After regaining consciousness, Phoenix sees a female police officer named Maggey Byrde, and, after briefly assuming that he's in trouble with the law, realizes that he has lost his memory. The timing for this is especially bad, since Maggey is on trial for murdering her lover and fellow officer, Dustin Prince, and the Judge is unwilling to listen to Phoenix's "excuses." The only good news is that the prosecutor is the rather inept Winston Payne, who presided over the previous game's tutorial.

Maggey Byrde, who's a fan of watching court cases, guides you through the proceedings, although one would wonder why she, a police officer, has never been called in to testify in court (or at least trained in how to testify), although perhaps that's more of a detective's responsibility, rather than a mere patrolman like her.

Detective Gumshoe is the first witness to take the stand, as is typical for most Ace Attorney cases. He testifies about Dustin's cause of death- breaking his neck after a fall- and how he wrote "Maggie" in the sand with his right hand. Based on what he said, can you guess what the biggest problem with this testimony is?

1. Dustin died instantly of a broken neck(or at least was paralyzed until he died) and couldn't move his arm.
2. Dustin is actually left-handed.
3. Dustin misspelled "Maggey."

The correct answer is #1, but in the game, you have to point out #3, then #2- #1 never comes up. The former requires presenting Maggey's profile, which is the first time in the series that a character profile becomes actual evidence(as opposed to just reminding you who they are). The latter is the game's way of introducing the press mechanic- you have to ask Gumshoe about the present Maggey gave Dustin to learn that it's a baseball give, then point out that the glove is for the right hand (meaning that it was made for a left-handed person).

The Judge is about to declare Maggey innocent, when Payne calls a witness. At this point, the court takes a recess and the game gives you an opportunity to save. The trial isn't terribly challenging, and is barely longer than The First Turnabout, but now is as good a time as any.

The Second Half

During the recess, Maggey is shocked to learn that Phoenix really does have amnesia..

At this point, Maya arrives, being formally introduced to the player for the first time, and gives Phoenix a list of names she looked into- a group of con artists Phoenix asked her to investigate. This ends up revealing that this case is after the game's second case, "Reunion, and Turnabout," and thereby spoils that Maya gets acquitted. This isn't the only time that this happened- Investigations' first case takes place between the third and the last case (the fourth is a flashback), while Dual Destinies' first case takes place in the middle of the fourth case- but both of those cases had ties to the fifth cases. There was no good reason to put this one out of order or even to include Maya.

Court resumes and Payne says that he had hesitated to call his witness because of the latter's attitude problems. The witness, whose name is Richard Wellington, is immediately recognizable as the one who attacked Phoenix. He quickly demonstrates his personality when he takes umbrage to Payne calling him a "drifter," arrogantly saying the term doesn't suit him.

Wellington then gives his testimony, claiming to have seen the moment Maggey pushed Dustin to his death, but gets more than a few things wrong. He claims that he saw some "bananas" (actually the yellow baseball glove) fall, which proves that he has bad eyesight. He also didn't immediately go to the pay phone next to the body, because he was looking for his glasses under the victim's corpse. By putting these facts together, Phoenix is able to accuse Wellington of the murder.

The only thing left is the motive, at which point Phoenix must bring up the list of the con artists on Maggey's phone, reveal that Wellington was afraid about Dustin investigating his phone, and then prove that when Dustin attacked Phoenix this morning, he took Phoenix's phone. Wellington then screams in shock and asphyxiates himself with his scarf, before collapsing

In the aftermath, Wellington is then taken into custody for the murder, even if he never seems to be charged for assaulting Phoenix. The judge is impressed by Phoenix's performance and gives Maggey a Not Guilty verdict.

Conclusion

At the end of the case, Maggey laments her misfortune, but hopes to turn her life around. Phoenix then remembers, Gumshoe, the Judge and Maya, but can't remember Payne.

All in all, this isn't the worst case in the series, but it's probably the weakest starting case that I've played due to not being connected to any other cases(which is one reason why third cases are usually considered the weakest) and feeling rather contrived, especially with the amnesia plot device. Apart from introducing Maggey, it mainly seems to exist to provide an excuse for a tutorial case.

Interestingly enough, the anime adaptation moves "The Lost Turnabout" to the start of the second seasons, even though the first adapts the original game and the other three cases of Justice For All. This may be because it serves as a reintroduction to Phoenix, because the creators didn't have room for it in the 2cour first season (which also includes an anime-exclusive episode), or so that both of Maggey's cases would be in the second season, among any number of other reasons. In any case, this feels like more of a plot device to introduce the cast than an actual case, and is one of the more lackluster chapters in the series.