Ace Attorney Case Files: Turnabout Corner Part 1/2

Spoilers for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney follow

This is a blog post I've been meaning to write for a while now; the last remaining case in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. I already did the first case, the third case and the fourth case, and now, the second remains.

Investigation Day 1

We rejoin Apollo Justice two months after the events of "Turnabout Trump." With his mentor Kristoph Gavin arrested at the end of the trial, Apollo is out of a job. Desperate for work, he reluctantly agrees to go to work for Phoenix Wright, the man who manipulated him into presenting forged evidence at the previous trial, only to learn from Phoenix's daughter Trucy that it's actually the Wright Anything Talent Agency, not a law office.

It soon turns out that Phoenix was hit by a car, and while he wasn't badly hurt, he's on bed rest and won't be able to perform his usual job, thus jeopardizing the Wright family's finances. Over the course of the morning, Apollo learns of several incidents that turn out to be interconnected- the hit-and-run on Phoenix, the theft of Guy Eldoon's noodle stand and the theft of Trucy's panties- and sets out to solve them.

One thing I should point out is that the localization ended up creating a plot hole. In the original Japanese, Phoenix's assistant Maya was fond of ramen, which is Japanese fast food, but the localization changed it to burgers to make it easier for Western players to understand(since ramen is often associated with poor college students). Unfortunately, this caused problems when Eldoon was introduced running what could only be a ramen stand.

Speaking of undeniably Japanese parts of the case, Apollo and Trucy go out to question Plum Kitaki, who wears a kimono and is part of the Kitaki yakuza clan, about the incidents, and eventually learns that someone stole her panties. Nearby, People Park is labeled as a crime scene, and is guarded by Ema Skye, a character who debuted in Rise From The Ashes, the bonus case of the first Phoenix Wright game. While in the vicinity, Apollo and Trucy speak to a young woman, who seems interested in the Wright Anything Agency.

Still in search of the missing items, Apollo and Trucy come to the Meraktis Clinic, where they see a police car parked. Eldoon isn't sure what's going on even though he's a local, but notes that whatever happened to Dr. Pal Meraktis, the man probably deserves it for working for the wrong crowd.

Inside the garage, Apollo sees a car parked with a cell phone near the wheels. He checks the exhaust pipe, having heard of a case that was solved due to evidence being found there (i.e. Rise From the Ashes) and finds Trucy's panties. The car has a broken mirror, and the one they found near People's Park matches it.

After reporting their progress to Phoenix, Trucy and Apollo return to the office, where they see the woman from earlier. Her name is Alita Tiala and she has a request- defend her fiancé, Wocky Kitaki, who's been accused of murder. At this point, the case finally gets to the murder mystery part after 45 minutes of walking around and talking to people..

I'm of two minds about the cases that take a while to get to the murder, such as "Reunion, and Turnabout," "Bridge to the Turnabout," "Turnabout Serenade" and this case. On the one hand, they take a while to get going. On the other hand, they can subtly establish small details that become important later. The cases sometimes allow you to interact with the victim while they are alive, but this isn't the case here.

With a letter of request from Alita, Apollo returns to the park and sees a prosecutor, a man by the name of Gavin, investigating the crime scene. Apollo is rather shocked at the man's name and the resemblance to his boss Kristoph Gavin, who was arrested for murder at the end of the previous case.

Apollo gives the letter to the detective, who introduces herself. She's a far cry from her mostly cheerful self from Rise From The Ashes, having failed to get her dream job as a forensic investigator and seeing that the man she respects is no longer a defense attorney.

Apollo converses with Phoenix at the clinic, and discovers that Phoenix met Ema on a case in the past(again, Rise From the Ashes), and that he believes that Prosecutor Gavin is Kristoph Gavin's younger brother. He then has Apollo and Trucy pick up some white powder to give to Ema.

Upon seeing the white powder and realizing Trucy is Phoenix's daughter, Ema suddenly becomes much more cooperative and allows them to investigate. They find that the victim was pulling Eldoon's stolen noodle stand at the time of his death, behavior that seems incomprehensible to them. Strangely enough, while the murder weapon was a gun, a shiv was also found at the crime scene, with Wocky's handprint on it. That isn't a good sign, and neither is the fact that there's a witness to the crime, but Ema sees it as par for the course for Phoenix.

Apollo and Trucy head to the detention center to meet their client, something that usually happens at the start of the investigation. They find Wocky there arguing with his father, who asks them to defend him well. Wocky, however, insists on being found guilty and going to prison. Naturally, this does not improve Apollo's confidence in his chances of success.

Trial Day 1, Trial Former

The trial begins, and Klavier, who is prosecuting, says he took an interest in the case due to the fact that Apollo, the lawyer who defeated Kristoph, is the defense attorney.

Wocky takes the stand, and reveals that he has a motive for killing Meraktis- the doctor botched Wocky's operation half a year ago, and tried to hide his mistake, leaving the bullet in Wocky's heart. The truth came out at a recent family checkup, resulting in Wocky becoming furious. Klavier chides Wocky for killing the one man who could have helped him, although one would think that Meraktis wouldn't have bothered with this deception if he had the skill to remove the bullet.

The first witness takes the stand- Wesley Stickler, a student at Ivy University. He's rather full of himself, and erroneously claims that the witness was shot in the forehead when the autopsy report shows that it was actually in the right temple. That contradiction is easily explained- Meraktis turned to look at Stickler just before being shot- but doesn't speak well of Stickler's intelligence. Apollo then makes headway by pointing out that the murder weapon doesn't have the defendant's fingerprint, and since the knife does, the defendant couldn't have been wearing gloves.

Unfortunately for Apollo, Klavier manages to prove that Wocky threatened the victim, and Stickler's latest testimony about not seeing anyone else in the park until the police arrived appears ironclad. All seems lost and the judge is about to declare a verdict when a mysterious assailant threatens to kill Trucy unless the judge calls a recess, then vanishes without a trace.

Like many cases, the game offers a mid-trial save point.

Trial Day 1, Trial Latter

Apollo returns to the defendant lobby, where he finds out that Trucy staged the whole thing with the help of her magic prop Mr. Hat and is understandably furious with her. It turns out that this was all a ruse to buy time to teach Apollo about his ability to Perceive people- by identifying people's nervous tics and focusing on them when they show, he'll find flaws in their testimony when evidence isn't enough. One has to wonder why Trucy didn't explain this earlier, since it might have saved them some trouble.

In Stickler's case, the tic is obvious- he fiddles with his book when he's not sure of something- and Apollo's bracelet reacts to inform him of that testimony. That tic shows up when Stickler testifies about his phone, so Apollo calls him out and points out that Stickler's phone was found in the Meraktis clinic garage. It turns out that Stickler actually used a pay phone that's some distance from the park, and lied to cover up losing his cell phone. Not only does it mean that he left the park, but he also doesn't want people to know where he lost the phone- in the victim's garage.

Stickler gives more testimony, but Apollo's bracelet doesn't react, so he has to point out the contradiction the old-fashioned way- with evidence. By proving that Stickler saw "NOODLE" rather than "ELDOON," he proves that Stickler witnessed the crime from the north side of the park, and that if Wocky shot Meraktis after the latter turned his head, the victim would have been hit in the left temple, rather than the right. As suspicious as Stickler seems, Apollo can't accuse him of murder just yet- only panty theft.

Court then adjourns for the day, with the judge requesting more investigation to explain the victim's fatal injury.

The Case So Far

Apart from the slow-paced beginning, Turnabout Corner has one problem in common with Turnabout: Big Top's first day- a first trial day with an unlikable witness in which little real progress is made. The breakthrough that forces the judge to suspend the trial for the day and request additional investigations feels less significant than many other cases.

The day mainly serves as a tutorial for the Perceive mechanic, which is a nice addition, but has a few problems. The first is that you'll spend a lot of time looking for the tic, which only appears on one part of the witness in one part of the testimony, which may be why subsequent games limited Perceive to one statement and had it only happen in the investigation. The second is that whenever Apollo's bracelet reacts, the cross-examination is always solved by choosing Perceive. You generally don't even have to press the witness in order to get an additional statement or get any clues as to which of the statements is suspicious.

That's all for now. The next installment will focus on the investigation into Wocky's operation, the confrontation with Meraktis' true killer and my final thoughts on the trial.