Ace Attorney Case Files: Turnabout Time Traveler(Part 1/2)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice spoilers follow
This installment of Ace Attorney Case Files will focus on Turnabout Time Traveler, the DLC case for Spirit of Justice.
This case is unusual in that it's largely a throwback to the Phoenix Wright trilogy. Not only is Phoenix the defense, but Edgeworth is the prosecutor, Maya is his assistant and Larry is a witness. While Ema is still the detective, she debuted in Rise from the Ashes. Obviously, this is appealing to older fans, but is it good for the case? Read on and find out.
Investigation Day 1
The case, like other 3DS Ace Attorney cases, begins with an animated movie. It shows someone in a butler outfit threatening someone with a wedding dress on the railing at the edge of somewhere high in the sky, saying he'll throw her "time machine" overboard with her. The bride then begs to go back to "that blissful moment," and after a flashback of various scenes, wakes up, with a maid telling her that it's almost time for the reception.
The scene then cuts to the Wright Anything Agency. It's September 21, about four months after the final case in the main game. As Trucy tries to walk Athena through her magic tricks, Phoenix briefly introduces himself and the rest of the members of the Agency. Apollo is absent for reasons I won't spoil here; the case assumes you've played the rest of Spirit of Justice first.
Larry shows up in the agency, and Phoenix sees him for the first time in years. It's entirely possible that Phoenix had no contact with him in the seven-year timeskip between Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice, which is rather strange considering that he's one of Phoenix's oldest friends. Despite Phoenix often being annoyed by Larry's immaturity, there's no indication that anything happened that would make Phoenix go seven years without contacting him.
In the years since then, Larry has been a picture book artist, branching off of his foray into art in Bridge to the Turnabout, although he's not especially successful.
Larry has someone he wants to introduce to Phoenix- the bride from the opening. Her name is Ellen Wyatt, and she's a maid in the Sprocket household. Sprocket Aviation is an extremely large company that owns Rainbull Airlines, among other things. Larry claims that he's getting married, much to Phoenix's shock, until Ellen says that there's a misunderstanding; she loves Sorin, not him.
Ellen reveals that the police are pursuing her as a murder suspect, since she was the one who discovered the body. Larry helped her escape- or as he put it, elope with her. Ellen then reveals something even more unbelievable- when she was being attacked by the murder, she made a wish to her pendant and went back in time.
Before long the police, who are hunting Ellen, surround the agency, and Ema comes in. She reveals that Larry had secured Ellen's escape by making a bomb threat, something Larry likens to Phoenix's bluffs. Ema then takes Ellen into custody and asks Phoenix to visit her at the Detention Center. At this point, Larry is decidedly less likable than in previous games, with his negative qualities amplified and his positive ones all but absent.
The entire bomb scare scene was entirely pointless. Larry could have shown up at the Wright Anything Agency while claiming that Ellen was his bride, only for her to set the record straight in the Detention Center.
Phoenix heads to the Detention Center with Larry in tow, but hasn't decided whether to defend Ellen. Athena offers to go with him, but Trucy insists Athena needs to practice.
At the Detention Center, Larry promises to have Phoenix defend Ellen, but Phoenix insists he hasn't decided, resulting in the ordinarily Ellen having an over-the-top crying fit, gushing tears into a frying pan. Phoenix decides she hasn't killed anyone and agrees to take her case.
Ellen reveals that the victim, Dumas Gloomsbury, was the Sprocket family's head butler, prompting Larry to hypocritically get mad about him laying a hand on someone else's bride. Ellen reveals that Gloomsbury was unhappy about her getting married and had even tried to push her to her death, giving her a potential motive for killing him. Ellen then reiterates her claim that by praying to her pendant, a gift from her husband-to-be, she went back in time. Phoenix is understandably skeptical, but Ellen insists no one acted as though anything was different during the second reception.
After the reception, Ellen started to clean up, as her last task as a servant of the Sprocket Household, but ended up dropping a decorative lantern that was heavier than usual... because it had Gloomsbury's dead body inside. Some of Ellen's in-laws caught her in the act- incidentally, they never show up as witnesses in the trial.
The second topic is the wedding. Ellen interacted with Larry a few times, so she didn't know him at all. Larry persists in insisting that Ellen is his soulmate, prompting Phoenix to threaten to send Larry to time-out. Ellen says her fiance is Sorin Sprocket, whom she considers a wonderful man and heir to Sprocket Aviation. Larry has the gall to say that he's the better choice, but Ellen calmly rebuffs him.
The last topic is a shadowy figure Ellen saw coming up from behind Gloomsbury during his attempt on her life, someone she believes is the true culprit even if her in-laws didn't believe her.
Larry takes Phoenix to the crime scene in Sprocket Park, but Phoenix can't find the reception hall. While Larry goes to hit on a woman, Phoenix searches for a while, and can only find a blimp and a damaged sign. It turns out that the blimp, known as the Flying Chapel, is the reception hall. Larry then gives Phoenix a pamphlet.
A red sports car shows up, which is the "backup" Larry called for Phoenix. Maya gets out of the car to greet Phoenix, and it turns out that Edgeworth, the owner and driver of the car, picked her up after almost running her over.
Edgeworth reveals that he's here on business- prosecuting the case. Phoenix finds it strange that Edgeworth would personally prosecute the case despite being chief prosecutor, but Edgeworth claims that it's because the Sprockets are trying to prevent the case from going to trial, and that his subordinates are "cowards." In addition to it seeming out of character for Blackquill and Klavier to refuse to take the case, and for Edgeworth to be so contemptuous of his staff, it comes off as a rather contrived way to make Edgeworth prosecutor again.
Nevertheless, Edgeworth is determined to find the truth, as he always has been since Justice For All, and refuses to be intimidated by the Sprockets or go easy on Phoenix. He then drags Larry off to take him to task for the bomb threat, while Maya rejoins Phoenix as his assistant.
Incidentally, out of all the cases in the series, Maya is only the assistant in a handful of investigations, namely:
- Turnabout Samurai
- Turnabout Goodbyes
- Turnabout Big Top(yes, only one case from Justice For All)
- The Stolen Turnabout
- Recipe For Turnabout
Maya also appears in court alongside Phoenix in Turnabout Sisters, The Lost Turnabout, and The Rite of Turnabout. As for the rest of the cases, Maya's unavailable due to having been arrested, being held hostage, not being in town or other reasons.
Phoenix and Maya proceed to the reception hall, where Ema is waiting. She gives the basic information of the crime and confirms that Gloomsbury was Ellen's boss, although the other servants didn't seem to like him. She suspects that Gloomsbury disapproved of Ellen marrying Sorin, and that Ellen was suspected of killing Sorin after he tried to kill her.
Ema reveals that Ellen had no family or relatives, so she worked as a live-in maid for the Sprockets, perhaps explaining why none of her family attended the wedding. Apparently, Sorin's parents and relatives opposed the wedding, but didn't stop the union, although they did seem rather quick to suspect Ellen. Phoenix concludes that those who opposed Ellen's marriage are likely happy, since the incident put a stop to it.
The murder weapon was a clock with a secret mechanism, one that sounds vaguely reminiscent of "The Thinker." It's known as the "Time Keeper," and brings the couple back to the memory of their wedding day, prompting Phoenix to wonder if Ellen's pendant was connected somehow. Ellen was seen holding it, and while no blood is currently visible, it was wiped off.
Phoenix and Maya check the decorative lantern where Gloomsbury's body was found, and after a bit of debate, read the pamphlet to see that it's a "Pegamoo"- like a pegasus, but it's a winged cow rather than a winged horse. They notice that there should be a male and a female Pegamoo- a "Pegabull" and a "Pegacow" respectively- but there are two males, and wonder why a fancy place like this would make such a blunder.
Phoenix asks Ema about the body's condition and she informs him that Gloomsbury was hit on the back of the head before giving a photo of the crime. A bloody doorknob is nearby(although curiously, it isn't admitted into evidence), as well as a strange flower petal-like scrap of paper and a slightly smudge note contains instructions for Ellen's murder- lure her to the vista deck and push her off. The latter draws Phoenix's attention, and he remarks that Gloomsbury is "a monster" for wanting to murder Ellen like that. Unfortunately, while Phoenix, Ema and Maya assume it's Gloomsbury's handwriting, no one knows why he wrote the note, or to whom.
Phoenix and Maya take a look around the reception hall. Maya's less than thrilled with the idea of getting married if she'll be too busy to eat much during her reception. They investigate the intact Pega-Bill, and notice it has a door that can open so that people can change the lights when necessary, not to mention a compartment easily large enough for someone to fit inside. I wonder why they didn't use the spacious compartment to store larger lightbulbs.
Phoenix and Maya find a business card wallet with Larry's face on it on one of the tables. Phoenix decides to bring it to Larry later, concluding the investigation. Phoenix and Maya then search the rest of the airship, hoping to find other people connected with the case, when they notice a strange young man staring at them. Phoenix asks if the man is with Sprocket Aviation, and he writes a note saying "Get out, intruders" in his notebook before tearing out the sheet, folding into a paper airplane and throwing it at them. Ema then introduces the man as Sorin Sprocket. Sorin refuses to answer whether he's Ellen's fiancé, and instead walks off. Ema escribes him as an eccentric genius inventor who invented many of Sprocket Aviation's inventions, including the airship.
Phoenix and Maya follow Sorin to the mooring dock, where he's too busy writing down scientific observations to pay much attention to them. Phoenix mentioning that he'll be defending Ellen gets him another paper airplane to the head, this time with "Not Interested" on it, and he continues thinking about the airship. It takes showing Sorin Ellen's pendant to get his attention, but even then, he brushes them off, saying he doesn't know anything about it. Surprisingly, he is willing to talk about Ellen's "time traveling," and even believes it's possible but impossible, since the pendant is not a time machine by itself, since the Time Keeper was the time machine. To use his analogy, the pendant is the key to the Time Keeper's car. Sorin has apparently been researching time travel, the next step in transportation. As impossible as it sounds, he believes time travelers really do exist.
Phoenix starts to understand Sorin better but is still concerned about his apparent indifference to Ellen's plight and asks him about how his family felt about their union. Before Sorin can respond, a servant interrupts him and informs him about the meeting on next term's project, then chides him on being overly focused on inventions while neglecting the business side of the company. The servant then uses a robot on his shoulder to ask people to send a car over. He opens a pocket watch while asking Sorin to go, and Sorin wordlessly complies.
The butler introduces himself as Piece Nichody, and appears grateful to Phoenix and Maya for taking on Ellen's case. He then interrupts the conversation to check his pocket watch, which he considers a good luck charm. Pierce says he has some time to invite Phoenix and Maya to Sorin's home.
They arrive in the foyer of Sprocket Manor, and Maya can barely contain her excitement, despite the fact that she's supposed to be more mature than in the original trilogy. Pierce then says that there won't be anyone "untoward" eavesdropping, although you can see a few well-dressed people sitting in the background. Phoenix is shocked, and Pierce then explains that he can't afford to risk talking about a murder in public and sullying the Sprocket family's reputation. Maya's disappointed at not being able to eat snacks, while Phoenix is mildly impressed at how shrewd Pierce is.
Maya clumsily breaks a vintage radio, and Phoenix scolds her, but Pierce is not at all bothered, having his shoulder robot fix the radio in seconds. He says he's not only the butler, but also Sprocket Aviation's repair department director. He says the robot on his shoulder is known as "FXR-UPR," one of Sorin's creations and a versatile robot. Pierce remarks that fixing things is easy but fixing people is difficult, since even skilled physicians can't bring back the dead. Pierce apologizes for getting distracted, and Phoenix assumes that he's still in shock over Gloomsbury's death, but decides to ask Pierce some questions and look around.
Maya throws the bridal bouquet at Phoenix, despite the fact that ladies usually catch it, and Phoenix ends up "catching" it in the face. A woman nearby remarks that Phoenix is better off, since it's best not to catch the bouquet thrown at a wedding for a marriage that doesn't last. After Phoenix examines a bull trophy, the woman explains that the bull is a symbol of Sprocket Aviation, stating that the company is strong and steady. Phoenix mentally snarks that it probably means they put their employees through backbreaking labor, although nothing suggests the company has that reputation. The woman then goes on to say that the Flying Chapel has the company mascot, Rainy the Rainbull, on it, so named because he's a rainbow-colored bull. Phoenix is less than impressed.
Maya takes a look at a photo a man took of the wedding, The picture shows Sorin and Ellen in the reception hall, looking as though they're walking on clouds because of the fog machine, as well as Pierce near the "sweetheart table" in the back. Phoenix doesn't notice anything too odd, but the photo ends up becoming evidence, with the description specifically pointing out the thick fog. Incidentally, whenever some tidbit of information is mentioned in a piece of evidence's description, it almost always becomes relevant to the investigation, especially in later games. Maya wonders if the photo is of the second reception, and Phoenix asks the man if this was after Ellen traveled back in time. Instead of dismissing the ludicrous claims out of hand, the man suddenly and suspiciously shuts up.
Phoenix sees a photo of a well-dressed and beautiful woman, who is Selena Sprocket, Sorin's older sister. The man describes her as beautiful and capable in the past tense, and Phoenix decides to show Pierce the photo later.
After seeing a propeller fan on the wall, Maya wonders if the rest of the plane is on the other side. Phoenix suggests that the rest of the bull is on the other side of the wall as the trophy, but Maya says that the bulls are used for beef.
Phoenix speaks with Pierce, who asks him if he thinks Ellen is guilty. Phoenix says that while he can't prove it, he doesn't think she is. Pierce, however, agrees with the prosecution's claim that Ellen killed Gloomsbury in self-defense, as does the rest of the Sprocket household. Phoenix then brings up how the Sprocket family supposedly tried to pressure the Prosecutor's Office into burying the case, but Pierce claims that they only sought a "consultation." Pierce then concludes that it doesn't matter, since Ellen isn't part of the family; she and Sorin hadn't gotten a marriage license before the ceremony. It seems rather contrived that Sorin and Ellen didn't get their marriage license before the ceremony, since it's easier to do that than arrange a ceremony.
Phoenix concludes that the Sprockets cut Ellen loose after realizing they would be unable to influence the Prosecutors' office and Pierce, likely reading his mind, realizes this sounds callous, but the Sprockets have to look out for their best interests, and Pierce will do whatever he must to achieve that. Maya and Phoenix agree that Pierce and Edgeworth have that pragmatic sense of duty in common.
Pierce dismisses Ellen's claims of time travel as delirium, but is surprised when Sorin claimed the same thing, albeit concluding that Sorin is stuck in the past. He then takes a phone call about "the madam" (presumably Sorin's mother, who never appears) and her tea, then resumes the conversation where he left off. He wishes Sorin would focus on the business side of things, but realizes there's something in his past he'd like to change.
Pierce mentions that he saw Ellen standing over Gloomsbury's body, holding the bloodied murder weapon. Despite Phoenix and Maya insisting that doesn't prove Ellen guilty, Pierce is convinced she did it, and said the same to the police who came when he called them.
When Phoenix and Maya show Piece Selena's photo, he's slightly shaken, but agrees to talk about her, saying she's a part of Sorin's past. Selena was originally the heiress to Sprocket Airlines (which apparently doesn't solely pass down the headship of the family to men), but she won't inherit the company because she died in a car accident. The fact that she's spoken of in the past tense seems to imply that, as does the fact that many Ace Attorney mysteries involve at least one death prior to the murder, so it's rather obvious that she's dead.
Pierce mentions that Sorin was in the car with her, and losing her devastated him. Ever since the accident, he became engrossed in his research and meticulous about taking notes. Pierce says he's worried about Sorin neglecting the business, and believes it's time to let go of the past.
When Phoenix presents the picture of the wedding, Pierce becomes worried about the company's reputation, and how people would be rather hesitant to use the Flying Chapel(I personally think it would be exorbitantly expensive to arrange a wedding on that blimp). Phoenix calls Pierce out on not caring about his subordinate's death, but Pierce counters that he does care, and that if the company goes under, many people will lose their jobs. That's a reasonable point, but I have to wonder if Sprocket Aviation's situation is that precarious.
Speaking of Gloomsbury, Pierce mentions that it's a shame that he ended up trying to kill Ellen, since he respects Gloomsbry as a servant. Pierce says he didn't notice anything suspicious about Gloomsbury, much to his shame.
When shown the Time Keeper, Pierce is sad that the symbol of Sorin and Ellen's love is tainted with blood, and says that even if Sorin believes in the woman he loves, he must put his feelings aside and think of the company.
Phoenix finds Ellen's key card to the Flying Chapel on the floor, which is strange, since Ellen never came back to the Sprocket manor after the murder. A man mentions that Larry was there earlier, and sure enough, Larry shows up.
Phoenix asks Larry about what he was doing on the Flying Chapel, but Larry flees. After saying goodbye to Pierce, Phoenix pursues Larry to Sprocket Park. Phoenix asks Larry what he saw on the airship, but Larry unconvincingly denies being on it, resulting in two Psyche-Locks appearing.
As a bit of a refresher, Psyche-locks appear to a bearer of the Magatama whenever someone is hiding something. One Psyche-lock is rather weak, usually reserved for tutorials. Two Psyche-locks usually appear for relatively minor secrets, often in early cases. Three Psyche-locks are harder to break, and the secret they're protecting might be key to early cases, or minor secrets in later cases. Four Psyche-locks are almost always concealing an important secret. Five Psyche-locks are the most difficult to break, and almost always guard key secrets for endgame cases. Sometimes, the Psyche-locks are black, but this only happened twice in the entire series, and only one set of those was broken.
Phoenix's first step is to prove who Larry was involved with, and he presents Ellen's profile, mentioning that he brought Ellen to the office(although that doesn't explain why Ellen invited him). That only breaks one Psyche-lock, and presenting the business card wallet breaks the other.
Larry finally admits he went to the airship to deliver the "Welcome To Our Wedding" sign they ordered, and Phoenix is surprised he does actual work. He met Ellen on the job and was smitten with her at first sight, but unfortunately, only family and relatives were invited to the wedding. He got lost and dropped his wallet, which someone else apparently picked up and took to the reception. He ended up seeing something amazing fly by the window, and that something apparently looked like a pterodactyl, proof that the airship traveled through time to the prehistoric era. Pierce told Larry to never mention that to anyone again, which sounds like an overly strong reaction to what sounds like Larry spouting nonsense, and that Larry says is because Sprocket Aviation is developing a time machine. Larry never told Edgeworth, either.
Larry takes his card wallet back from Phoenix, then offers a picture of the cargo hold, which is below the vista deck and was used as a prep area for the reception. Phoenix notices that the door to the hold is locked, but Larry refuses to explain how he got in.
Phoenix takes Maya to the Detention Center to introduce her to Ellen, whom they find speaking to Pierce. Pierce wants Ellen to call off her wedding to Sorin, saying that the heir to Sprocket Aviation cannot marry a criminal. Maya proposes that Phoenix could prove Ellen innocent, and Pierce is taken aback for a moment. He regains his composure and says that would work in theory, but is impossible. Maya backs Pierce up and Phoenix says he doesn't cases lightly, asking Pierce to drop the talk of calling off the wedding if he gets a Not Guilty verdict for Ellen. Pierce remains convinced that Ellen's guilt is an indisputable fact and agrees to Phoenix's proposal, but says he'll regret it.
Phoenix reports to Ellen about the results of the investigation. Ellen claims that she handled the murder weapon in the hopes of using it to go back in time. Unfortunately, that helped convince people that Ellen is guilty, and none of her in-laws backed up her time travel story. Larry does, however, and Ellen is shocked to hear about the pterodactyl, wondering if Larry's theory explains why they're keeping things under wraps. Speaking of which, Ellen is glad that one of her in-laws picked up her card.
Trial Day 1
Ema's description of the murder mentions that Gloomsbury was struck twice- once in the back and once in the side- and the first blow knocked the victim unconscious. Phoenix doesn't get it at first, but Edgeworth states that this proves that the killing wasn't in self-defense, and he intends to prove Ellen's murderous intent. Phoenix takes it about as well as you'd expect, knowing that even if he wasn't going to plead self-defense, the judge's opinion of Ellen has worsened.
Ema's claim that Ellen killed the victim is mostly solid, and even accounts for the blow to the back of the head, something that wouldn't have happened if she'd hit him in self-defense. However, the photo shows Gloomsbury lying on his back, when he should have fallen face-down if hit from behind. Ema recovers and declares that the killer must have moved the victim's body. However, Phoenix points out the lantern fragments on top ofthe body, which were not moved. Phoenix then says the body was in the lantern already, and the victim died before the reception, with Ellen discovering the body afterward.
Edgeworth, however, insists that since Ellen prepared the reception, he's still certain of her guilt; she merely hid the body afterward. Phoenix then gets Edgeworth on the defensive by asking where the body would be during the reception in his scenario. Phoenix points out that it's likely that the victim was killed elsewhere, and to prove it, he points to the photo of the victim, specifically the flower petals that came from the hold.
Edgeworth is unconvinced, claiming flowers are all the same, but the judge takes Phoenix's side, since he gave a flower like that to his wife. Phoenix taunts Edgeworth about how he doesn't have anyone he'd give a flower to (this, despite the fact that Phoenix himself is unmarried). After some verbal sparing, Phoenix asserts that the victim was killed in the hold, and his body was stored in the lantern.
Edgeworth regains his confidence and points out that the evidence doesn't support Phoenix's theory, resulting in Ema giving more testimony, since the estimated time of death was after the reception. Edgeworth chides Phoenix for having gotten rusty, but Phoenix confidently insists Edgeworth is underestimating them, showing that their relationship is more adversarial than usual here.
Phoenix finally gets around to presenting evidence- namely, the dry ice used in the fog machines- to prove that the killer could have kept the body cold to obscure the time of death. Edgeworth is forced to concede this possibility, but thanks Phoenix for helping him understand the evidence. He gives a list of the people who entered the hold, with Gloomsbury as #34, Pierce at #35 and Ellen as #36. No times are shown on the list, but Edgeworth is confident that Ellen being last proves her guilt. With help from Maya, Phoenix points out that Pierce went into the hold, but Edgeworth mentions that Pierce was escorting guests, who can vouch for him.
Edgeworth then gets back to his argument for Ellen's guilt, claiming that she volunteered to take on the cleanup to discreetly get rid of the body. As Phoenix sweats, Edgeworth condescendingly calls him out as being like a rookie even after all these years, with Ema cheering him on, and suggests that he prosecuted just to see "the miserable look on (Phoenix's) face" as stress relief. He then goes in for the kill and asks for the verdict. This is a good example of how the trial makes Edgeworth colder than usual, and reverts Phoenix to a rookie.
The judge asks if Phoenix has any more bluffs to offer. Phoenix asks how Edgeworth knows Ellen used the key card, then points out that Larry could have used the key card to enter the hold. Edgeworth is shocked to learn that Larry was on the airship, and dismayed that Larry is Phoenix's witness. Phoenix mentions that while Pierce told Larry to keep quiet about that, the photo Larry took is proof of his presence in the hold. Edgeworth asks if Larry moved the lantern, and Phoenix says it's possible, since, "When something smells, it's usually the Butz." Phoenix points out how Larry's in the gallery, and the judge has the bailiff seize Larry, before asking both sides to prepare for the cross-examination.
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