Ace Attorney Case Files: Turnabout Serenade

 Spoilers for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney follow.

While I've mostly been doing Ace Attorney cases in order, I sometimes skip over cases that I'm not as interested in discussing, and this time, I'll skip even farther. While Trials and Tribulations is probably the best Ace Attorney game, it doesn't have many cases that seem like good Ace Attorney Case Files material.

Instead, I'll segue into a case that's similar to the previous one I covered. Last time, I covered "Turnabout Big Top," a candidate for the worst Ace Attorney case ever, and this time, I'll skip to another candidate for the dubious honor, "Turnabout Serenade." Despite some glaring problems with the case, it actually is better than I remember, and a more important part of the narrative than people give it credit for.

Before the Murder

This case is one of a few in which the characters arrive before anything has gone wrong, meet the victim and are around for the murder. Others include "Reunion, and Turnabout," "Bridge to the Turnabout" and technically "Turnabout Academy"

The case begins backstage at the Gavinners' concert, which Apollo and Trucy are attending at Klavier's invitation(although to Apollo's dismay, Klavier only gave them a discount on the tickets, rather than providing them for free). Klavier introduces the foreign singer Lamiroir, her manager Romein LeTouse and Machi Tobaye, the pianist who accompanies her. Machi and Lamiroir hail from the Republic of Borginia.

A cutscene showing their performance, "The Guitar's Serenade," plays. As the song reaches the part about fire, Klavier's guitar catches fire, while Lamiroir appears on another platform. This cutscene has a number of small details you can notice if you watch knowing how things will play out.

Backstage, Klavier is furious about his expensive guitar's destruction. Apparently, the audience thought it was part of the show, despite the fact that Klavier can't afford to destroy a guitar every time he performs. He also adds that the song was a collaboration between him and Lamiroir.

Apollo chooses to sit out the last act, and meets Ema, who's doing security, backstage. Unusually for most conversations, you progress this by looking at the door to Lamiroir's dressing room, at which point you hear gunshots.

Apollo and Ema see LeTouse lying on the floor, with a gunshot wound to his chest. As Ema goes to call for backup, LeTouse tells Apollo that he doesn't know who the shooter is, but the witness is "siren." He then breathes his last without elaborating or clarifying. While Apollo has taken part in murder trials before, he's understandably traumatized by seeing someone die a violent death.

Investigation Day 1

Klavier's bandmate Daryan tells him that the venue has been locked down, and he's taken the names and addresses of everyone at the concert. Klavier also makes everyone sign a gag order to keep everything besides the fact that LeTouse is dead- from the cause of death to the fact that it's a murder- secret.

Your first stop is the crime scene, where Apollo investigates the body. He and Ema notice that the murder weapon is a .45 revolver, which Ema says is a powerful firearm that would dislocate the shoulder of anyone firing it unless that person was an experienced shooter. The latter fact is important, so keep it in mind for later. The dressing room has several other pieces of evidence, including a heart-shaped keyring in the victim's hand.

After finishing with the crime scene, Apollo and Trucy head for the stage, and run into a mysterious man (who later turns out to be Valant Gramarye) on the way. Once there, they overhear Klavier ranting about everything that went wrong that day and accusing Daryan of making a mistake during the song. Klavier then orders Daryan to confirm something with the Republic of Borginia, revealing that Daryan is also a detective.

In order to settle a dispute between Klavier and Daryan over who made a mistake during the concert, you have to use the mixing board to find the person responsible- Daryan, in the last fourth of the song.

Presenting Klavier's keyring to him has him mention that all his troubles began when the keyring went missing. He notices that everything that happened, from losing his keys to his guitar burning up, went according to the song.

Apollo and Trucy go to question Lamiroir, but Machi leaves the room over Lamiroir's objections. Lamiroir reveals a bit about her backstory, including that she's known as a "siren," as LeTouse had said, but refuses to say more to Apollo, due to him not being involved in the case.

Suddenly, Ema reveals that LeTouse's body has gone missing, while Daryan mentions that the same thing happened to "Geeter"- his guitar. Both of those are found next to an unconscious Machi on the raised stage platform.

The next morning, Klavier reveals that Machi has been arrested as a suspect for the murder (admittedly, the circumstances don't look very good for him), but says he's not at liberty to disclose anything more than that to the defense attorney, all but outright saying he hopes Apollo will take the case. Apollo meets with Machi, but is unable to get anything out of him due to the latter not speaking English. As such, the game skips straight to the trial.

Trial Day 1

At the start of the trial, the Judge mentions in passing that the Chief Justice's son has a terminal disease, and that he's not sure what to say to the patient.

Klavier brings up how LeTouse died from the gunshot wound, but didn't die immediately due to being hit in the shoulder. The gun is brought up, and its recoil is mentioned yet again. Klavier says that under the circumstances, the murder is impossible for anyone besides Machi, a point he aims to prove with Ema's testimony.

Ema has a reasonable enough basis for suspecting Machi- apart from the front door, the only way in or out of the dressing room was through the vent, and Machi was the only one small enough to fit- but it falls apart upon further scrutiny. As the smallest person in the pool of suspects, Machi would have the most difficulty firing the revolver, not to mention transporting LeTouse's body. One would think Klavier, one of the more honest and reasonable prosecutors in the series, would think of this.

Unfortunately, the Judge is rather convinced, and is prepared to hand down his verdict unless Apollo brings up something, whether a witness or a piece of evidence, to contradict this. Lamiroir is the witness in question

Lamiroir takes the stand, and Klavier reveals that she has amnesia, so he wanted to avoid causing her undue stress. Lamiroir claims to have seen nothing, but a bit of pressing and presenting reveals that she knows LeTouse was shot, despite the gag order on everyone at the venue. She mentions seeing bullet holes, but that's impossible from the doorway, since the open door obscured them.

Lamiroir revises her testimony, and admits that she saw the crime from "a little window,"(like the one in the back) but claims to have seen a grown man instead of Machi. Klavier, however, points out that the window was closed, and Lamiroir couldn't have seen the murder, so she ends up being dismissed.

Ema returns to the stand and testifies about LeTouse's body going missing. She assumes that Machi is guilty based on the murder matching the song's lyrics. She even goes so far as to claim that because Machi was blind, he missed the first shot at such a close range, even if one has to wonder how he could hit LeTouse at all. Apollo misses another opportunity to bring up how ridiculous it is that Machi is the shooter, and instead disproves the idea that the killer is blind by mentioning how someone rubbed out the bloody writing on the floor. This allows him to play right into Klavier's hands, and Klavier reveals that Machi can, in fact, see. 

Despite this, the bloody message is significant, and some Luminol testing reveals that it's an Interpol agent's number. As Daryan looks into it, the discussion returns to Machi's supposed blindness, and Klavier infers that not only can Machi actually see, but Lamiroir is actually blind. As Lamiroir returns to the stand, Klavier says that Lamiroir's assertion that she "saw nothing" is technically true if she's blind.

Apollo cross-examines Lamiroir again, and asks about whether LeTouse knew about her blindness. He doesn't like the answer, since it's revealed that LeTouse had known, and had tried to tell Apollo in his dying moments. At the time, Apollo had thought LeTouse had said "Can't see..." because he was dying, not because the witness was blind.

The bailiff then returns with Daryan's report, identifying LeTouse as an Interpol agent and saying he had a permit to carry the revolver. Lamiroir then stops Daryan from leaving, claiming that she heard his voice. This accusation throws the courtroom into chaos and causes the trial to be suspended for the day.

Like with "Turnabout Big Top," the trial gets off to a rather poor start, mainly because of how implausible Machi's presumed guilt seems. Unlike "Turnabout Big Top," there aren't any obtuse evidence presentations, nor are there too many excess penalties, save for a 40% penalty if you choose someone other than Lamiroir as the witness(which should be obvious).

Investigation Day 2

After the trial, neither Apollo nor Trucy are sure to think of what transpired. With Phoenix away on a "top secret" mission, it's up to them to solve the case. Despite Lamiroir's accusation, Apollo is sure that Daryan can't be guilty, since the Gavinners have an alibi.

As they're discussing the case, Trucy's "uncle" Valant shows up. He's not only a great magician, but Trucy's biological father's best friend. After introducing himself, he gives Trucy and Apollo a recording of the concert. He points out that he knows about the trick, but he and Trucy refuse to tell Apollo how it works, citing the magicians' professional code. This seems like a rather contrived device to force the player to uncover the trick when an innocent boy's life is on the line.

After Valant leaves, Apollo and Trucy visit Machi, despite the fact that he can't understand English. Apollo notices his bracelet react, but doesn't have anything to go off of.

The two return to backstage at the Sunshine Coliseum, and encounter Lamiroir there. She stands by her statement that she heard Daryan's voice, even if she didn't know who he was until the trial, and shares a few details about her "opposite act" with Machi. She mentions that Valant told her not to tell anyone about the magic.

You encounter Valant on the stage, and he and Apollo discuss the trick, particularly how improbable Lamiroir's disappearance seems. Valant shares some of Troupe Gramarye's story, relating how they were a household name 20 years ago, but they have fallen from their previous stardom, and that he hopes to restore troupe to its former glory. At Valant's suggestion, Trucy tries the piano and finds a remote control switch between the strings.

The next stop is Lamiroir's dressing room, where Apollo meets with a rather annoyed Ema. He learns about the  existence of a small remote-controlled device that starts a fire when activated, and was controlled by the switch. According to Ema's diagram, someone could have activated that device from Lamiroir's dressing room.

Outside the Sunshine Coliseum, Daryan is in a foul mood, since Lamiroir's accusation made him a suspect, and he can't work on the investigation while being suspected. He insists he has an alibi, due to being on stage at the time of the shooting. Daryan refers Apollo to Klavier, and says he wants access to the crime scene.

Apollo goes to see Kristoph, and finds that the case has made the news in Borginia, even though Lamiroir's ballad wasn't mentioned. Talking to him reveals that there had been an igniter inside the burned guitar, which had been vacuum-packed as it was shipped over from Borginia. What's more, LeTouse had been in possession of a plastic egg-shaped item, which was a replica of what he was searching for.

Apollo and Trucy return to the Sunshine Coliseum, where Ema is searching for Lamiroir. They find her in the contrabass case backstage, and take her to the hospital. After coming to, she reveals someone attacked her. She identifies the item as a replica of a Borginian Cocoon, and says that smuggling one out of the country is punishable by death.

Apollo has Lamiroir accompany him to the detention center to interpret for Machi. Machi recognizes the cocoon, which can supposedly create a cure for "Incuritis," an otherwise untreatable disease. Apollo realizes Machi is a smuggler, and that he is terrified of being sentenced to death for smuggling. Before Apollo can question him more, Daryan arrives, saying that there's a call from Borginia for Machi, and refuses to let Apollo speak to him any longer. After this rather suspicious action, it's obvious that Daryan is the culprit.

Trial Day 2

The start of the trial ends up being postponed due to the Judge visiting the Chief Justice's son, who has Incuritis.

The Judge asks Klavier about Lamiroir accusing Daryan at the end of the trial yesterday, but Klavier insists that Daryan has a rock-solid alibi. The Judge prepares to hand down a verdict on Machi yet again, but Apollo insists that Machi take the stand, with Lamiroir as an interpreter. Again, it seems as though the Judge is unusually eager to convict the defendant despite the holes in the case.

Machi testifies about his innocence, claiming that he couldn't have followed the lyrics of the song while committing the murder because he doesn't know English. A Perceive reveals that he has a "tell" for lying when talking about not knowing English, and presenting the Borginian newspaper reveals that he couldn't have learned about the song's lyrics from the paper(a rather minor detail to prominently mention in the evidence description). Lamiroir tries to lie and claim that she told Machi about the lyrics, but another Perceive on Lamiroir proves that he knows English, albeit a little. The witnesses' refusal to be honest is another frustrating aspect to this trial.

Machi protests in broken English that he isn't guilty, but admits to being at the crime scene and refuses to say anything more. This results in a five-minute recess.

During the recess, Machi tells Apollo what happened- he arrived on the scene after the gunshots were fired, then escaped through the air vents to backstage. Despite being convinced in Machi's innocence, Apollo realizes he can't prove it with this testimony.

When court resumes,  Apollo calls Lamiroir to the stand to testify about her assault. Klavier is rather skeptical about the idea that Lamiroir heard anything that might pressure the killer into silencing her, but Apollo gets her to testify. He learns that around the time of the murder, the killer ordered someone to push a switch, activating the igniter that burned up Klavier's guitar. Klavier chides Apollo for claiming that the guitar caught fire after the murder when the former was in the second set and the latter was in the third set, but Apollo asserts that both were in the second set, something that took the court too long to figure out. Apollo adds that the murder following the crime was meant to confuse people about the order of events to give the killer an alibi, and that person would be someone who had an alibi during the third set, but not the second.

The court returns to the question of how Lamiroir could have heard the gunshots through the "small window" if it was closed(never mind how it could keep out a sound that loud), but Apollo proves that she actually heard them through the air vents. It turns out that Lamiroir mistranslated the Borginian word for "vent" into "small window."

Lamiroir testifies again, and admits that she didn't report the crime because she was in the middle of her performance. Apollo then ha to prove she was in the vents during her performance, as well as why it seemingly only took 20 seconds for her to make a two-minute trip through the vents- it wasn't actually her on stage. Lamiroir reveals that she was singing during the trip through the vents, with her voice broadcast through her headset... or  she was supposed to, until she suddenly stopped after hearing the gunshot. The mixing board is brought up again and used to find the point at which Lamiroir stops.

Klavier still is reluctant to believe Apollo's case, which is entirely dependent on Lamiroir's testimony, but agrees to call Daryan to the stand as a suspect. This leads to a 15-minute recess and a save point.

Phoenix visits Apollo during the recess, and gives him some burnt fragments that Ema found. He also warns Apollo that it will be impossible to prove Daryan's guilt conventionally, and Apollo must find Daryan's "igniter" to set him off and prove his guilt.

Court then resumes. Before calling Daryan, Klavier recalls how Daryan was the first detective Klavier worked with. As Daryan arrives, he's annoyed with Klavier for letting him be called to testify, and utterly contemptuous of Apollo and Lamiroir. His plan is, unsurprisingly, to paint Lamiroir as a liar, but Apollo proves that the "gunshots" during the third set were firecrackers. Klavier knew about them, too, and so registered Daryan as a witness just in case. While it was rather fortuitous for the killer that Apollo and Ema were around when the firecrackers went off, Klavier also noticed the headset in the hallway, which was used to broadcast the "gunshots" to the stage.

The mixing board sees use again, as Apollo uses it to prove that the gunshots were fired at the start of the second verse, confirming Lamiroir's testimony. The original use also becomes relevant when Klavier notices that Daryan was playing poorly during the third set and realizes it was because Daryan dislocated his shoulder by shooting. Daryan is used to firing guns, but only a .38 caliber gun as opposed to LeTouse's .45 caliber, and he had struggled with LeTouse. This effectively ties some seemingly irrelevant aspects of the case to the gun, but doesn't excuse Machi being accused of the crime on such flimsy grounds.

The discussion turns to Daryan's motive, which is where the cocoon replica comes in. Daryan asserts that it would be too dangerous to sell the cocoon on the black market, but Apollo realizes he has a safer client- the Chief Justice, who wants to save his son's life and would stay quiet about the deal to protect himself. Of course, getting the cocoons out of Borginia is the hard part, since Borginia has incredibly tight security, but Apollo proves that Klavier's guitar was the way out, with the igniter as a safety precaution.

Apollo summarizes the crime, revealing that Daryan stole Klavier's keys to get into the guitar case, but found that the guitar was wrapped. LeTouse came to investigate during the second set, resulting in Daryan shooting him dead and having the igniter activated, resulting in the loss of the valuable but illegal merchandise he went to all this trouble to obtain.

Daryan reminds Apollo that he's never been to Borginia due to not liking to travel by plane, but Apollo reveals an accomplice- Machi. The Judge is shocked that Apollo would accuse his own client of a crime, but Apollo says that he's still convinced Machi is not a murderer, and that he's the only person who could have done it. Lamiroir was too far away from Klavier's guitar to have triggered the igniter herself. The hard part is proving when Machi could have hit the switch, which is yet another job for the mixing board.

While Daryan's guilt seems assured, Apollo lacks decisive evidence to legally prove he is the murder. He despairs, but then recalls Phoenix's advice and calls a witness- Daryan's accomplice Machi. Confessing will result in Machi being convicted of cocoon smuggling in America... and avoiding being convicted of cocoon smuggling in Borginia. As such, it's the only way to avoid getting the death penalty for murder or cocoon smuggling. Daryan panics and pleads with Machi not to talk, resulting in him outing himself.

Machi agrees to tell the court everything(although he remains silent about why he needed the money) in exchange for a fair trial by the country's laws, and the Judge says that perhaps the law should be rethought.

In the lobby, Lamiroir and Phoenix thank Apollo for his efforts. Lamiroir is saddened by Machi becoming a criminal, but says he must be punished, and mentions that she's considering getting an eye operation. Phoenix, meanwhile, says that he intends to hurry up his "secret mission."

Daryan's Involvement

I've heard that part of the reason why Machi was charged with such flimsy proof was that Daryan was using his authority to try to frame Machi, but Shu Takumi had forgotten to make it clear. Despite that, there are a number of clues that Daryan is trying to interfere, which are clear in hindsight.

1. The vast majority of the progress on the case takes place on the second investigation day, after Daryan is taken off the investigation
2. Daryan is noticeably bitter about being named as a suspect, and demands that Klavier give him access to the crime scene.
3. Despite being removed, Daryan suddenly shows up to prevent Machi from talking to Apollo. He has good reason to be concerned, since Machi's testimony results in Daryan's conviction.
4. Lastly, and most importantly, this helps explain why Apollo must pressure Daryan into confessing rather than use evidence to prove his guilt..

On the other hand, there are a few reasons why it's less than clear that Daryan is interfering, at least without the benefit  of knowing in hindsight that he is the killer First, Daryan never brings up the claim that Machi fired the gun; Ema and Klavier did. Second, the investigation never finds any proof that Daryan interfered, nor does anyone raise the possibility.

The entire problem seems to be an issue of showing vs. telling in works of fiction, and ordinarily, the former is preferable. After all, people are more likely to believe that Alice is arrogant if we hear her bragging about herself in casual conversation rather than just hear other characters say that she is, since there's actual evidence for it. Besides, showing aspects of the world rather than telling about them has more respect for readers' intelligence.

That said, the evidence should also be easily noticeable and not require too much reading between the lines, lest it fly over many readers' heads. In a mystery-solving game like Ace Attorney, players should be tasked with finding out how Daryan interfered with the investigation, and required to provide evidence showing his involvement, something that would make the case more challenging and fun.

Conclusion

Like "Turnabout Big Top," "Turnabout Serenade" is overall lackluster but has some good aspects. Unlike "Turnabout Big Top," "Turnabout Serenade" introduces plot elements that come up in the final case, such as Troupe Gramarye, Lamiroir(aka Thalassa Gramarye) and the fact that some killers can't be convicted through evidence alone. While the actual execution, particularly the uncooperative witnesses and flimsy motive for accusing Machi, leaves much to be desired, it's still an essential part of Apollo Justice's narrative. As such, it's not a case that players should skip, even though it leaves much to be desired.