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taotrooper) wrote2010-03-11 04:58 pm
taotrooper) wrote2010-03-11 04:58 pm
Entry tags:
La gallina cocorocoooo
Okay, so I finally finished Ace Attorney Investigations. I'm lukewarm about it: not completely horrid, but also not a delight. I want to train myself to make reviews of stuff, so I might as well rant about the good, the bad, and the cravat. And probably there's a need for non-Edgeworth fangirls talking about it. Just hints of spoilers for this game, but there are for Apollo Justice (WTF).
The gameplay was actually the best part. I liked Logic and the Deduce function. I was fine with not touching a courtroom ever, since the rebuttals were the same fucking thing than testimonies (except without the judge popping in to offer epically stupid lines). Compared to this, attorney investigations are so dull and difficult, just examining and presenting. There's a better flow here. I even believe after this that AA prosecutors have more fun/excitement in their jobs. Sucks to be you, Wright team.
And maybe it's a consequence of the gameplay -the fact you're using LOGIC and your character thinks and shit-, but the puzzles were (mostly) easier to figure out. I still had to do the Present Everything Because I Have No Clue in some rebuttals, or the solution was too thick for common sense (WTF that pulley in case 5), but it wasn't so frequent. Oh well, I guess it's not Ace Attorney without bullshitting your way out of it!
The overall story... I have mixed feelings about it. One part of me finds it neat that all cases are directly connected and all happened in less than a week. The other part finds it annoying, because maybe I needed a filler case to rest about the endless OMG Yatagarasu and OMG smuggling ring. It was so emphasized, I ended up not caring about neither. I mean yes, the Yatagarasu really is a cool idea with a cool backstory and I liked it as a concept, but I was too burned out to get attached to it. The smuggling ring, however, was annoying. Especially since I looked at 4-3 and was all "WTF, doesn't the Interpol do more stuff than pursuing smugglers? Oh, and that one guy was Borginean. Of course. DEJA-VU."
Incidentally, now I have the pet theory that tiny smuggling rings derived from the big one after the ending, and Daryan and Machi had just joined the same one and that's how they got in contact. Why yes, I'm trying to make sense of Apollo Justice plotholes with this shit. It'd also make it more believable that they had a motherfucking Interpol agent behind them, if they were involved indirectly with that case. Yeah I know, those cocoons are hardcore, but also, isn't it too convenient for a 15-year-old pianist with no social life except guiding a blind lady to have one? And to get an illegal agreement with the BFF of the rock star who's being buddies with his mother figure, and said BFF is 6456725 miles away? Yeah...
My case breakdown:
1. Fun to play!
2. WTF, but fun to play!
3. HJADGJAGD KILL IT WITH FIRE. SO BADLY WRITTEN
4. Yay, flashback case!
5. Not bad but TOO LONG, END ALREADY! Not as epic as other endcases, however
There's nothing to add about the regular old characters: they're as good as ever. Edgeworth is still a cool smartass, Gumshoe is still adorable, Franziska I still want to choke her half of the time /unpopular opinion. So, they're all IC! This was a huge relief.
Now for the regular new characters. Well, they were fun, yes. Yet I didn't feel they were particularly easy to get emotionally attached to? I thought it's like Apollo Justice, where they give us this amusing main cast with their own issues, but they just don't go deeper enough to move us to tears or get us desperate to help them out like in the PW games. And I say this as one of the 20 people who loves the AJ cast! In my opinion, the screenwriters have been lazy with the characters in the recent years, and the last time they made something amazing was with T&T. I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the writers after that one.
But anyway, I liked Kay lots better than I expected, and I suspect I can't dislike any happy sidekick loli in this franchise. With Lang, I was most times annoyed by him, but at one point I started thinking he's also pretty cool, then back to annoying. I was spoiled about Shih-na. Both appearances of Yew had character designs I really digged, but as a character she's too wishy-washy and bland, which is a pitythis game's Kristoph?. I liked Badd a lot, might be alone in this one. The non-recurrent characters were unmemorable, although for some reason I was fond of Ambassador Palaeno and his huge grin. Final boss was lame and UGH UGH UGH FFS.
The cameos from other games were so, so, so, so, so, so disappointing. And I don't mean the people in the background, nowe don't get to talk to Lotta? aww, but the ones who are actually given a role and dialogs. The ones I was truly looking forward, like Ema and Maggey and Meekins and Missile, just talked a little bit and then blended back to the background without even having a saying again, while shit was getting real in front of their eyes. That really frustrated me because they were the cameos with the most publicity before the game came out, and in the end it felt like a bait and the cake *was* a lie. Meanwhile, I couldn't shake Larry and Oldbag off me! They were given all this importance in the last case that I wished Ema had back in case 3. I actually kind of like Larry, but that doesn't make him less annoying. Don't get me started on Oldbag, who had two appearances. I suspect it was because Edgeworth's dread with them both is OMGLOLFUNNY, but I wasn't laughing much. I'm still hurt that Ema's cameo was wasted and she didn't really do anything important. Eshiro really hates her, that piece of shit.
Speaking of which, I was not fond of Little Thief. It was too Uncanny Valley to me. See the Alanis!irony: I can buy psychic magic jewelry, but not a massive VR hologram simulator. I just kept thinking that it's waaaaaay too advanced for the technology in the game, to the point I honestly wondered if Byrne Faraday was an alien. And all those members of the police, the prosecutor's office, and the Interpol were witnesses of this amazing Deus ex Machina, and no one could even ASK how does it work, or hell, even confiscate it? This crap is unbelievable and it'd help a lot to solve cases, yet no one gave a fuck about getting one. YOU GUYS SUCK BALLS.
Final and goofier considerations:
- No one wears the prosecutor badge. That's hilarious.
- It's funny that Trucy and Kay had daddy issues, while Maya and Ema had big sister issues. It only cements my idea that AAI was modeled/written more after AJ than PW.
- Badger family is nightmare fuel, but the worst one is Protobadger. THOSE EYES.
- I want Kay to become the DeLites' apprentice! As much as a woobie Ron is, he was a good thief. Plus, Desirée can teach her to ride a motorcycle, yaaaaaaay!
- Kay and Gumshoe's being bros is so d'awwwwwwwwww.
- I loved that Kay is more of a Jammin' Ninja fan.
- Wait, Kay is Klavier's age, what the hell!
- Why didn't Kay and Ema become friends? ;; Ah right, they hate Ema.
- I was so amused whenever they threw an Apollo Justice reference. Especially when thinking about those jerks who hate that game so much having to put up with it. HAHAHA YOU GOT AJ COOTIES IN YOUR EDGEWORTH FAPFEST. I wanted to examine the Gavinners' stage, though :( On the other hand, shipping Max/Valant is less crack now.
- And the other way around. Wocky's T-shirt with Bad Badger makes so much sense now.
- I hope Cohdopia and Zheng Fa make appearances in the other games.
- Actually, a Klavier vs. Lang match would be so cocky and stylish. They could even bond over BFF betrayal, despite of having the opposite approach to solving crimes.
- Or you know, I could just OT4 every combination of Lang/Klavier/Ema/Kay or something. Screw Miles and Franziska, this is cuter/sexier.
In short: I enjoyed several things of it, but the pacing was horrible and some parts dragged. I have mixed feelings about this game, but the additions to the canon are neat.
The gameplay was actually the best part. I liked Logic and the Deduce function. I was fine with not touching a courtroom ever, since the rebuttals were the same fucking thing than testimonies (except without the judge popping in to offer epically stupid lines). Compared to this, attorney investigations are so dull and difficult, just examining and presenting. There's a better flow here. I even believe after this that AA prosecutors have more fun/excitement in their jobs. Sucks to be you, Wright team.
And maybe it's a consequence of the gameplay -the fact you're using LOGIC and your character thinks and shit-, but the puzzles were (mostly) easier to figure out. I still had to do the Present Everything Because I Have No Clue in some rebuttals, or the solution was too thick for common sense (WTF that pulley in case 5), but it wasn't so frequent. Oh well, I guess it's not Ace Attorney without bullshitting your way out of it!
The overall story... I have mixed feelings about it. One part of me finds it neat that all cases are directly connected and all happened in less than a week. The other part finds it annoying, because maybe I needed a filler case to rest about the endless OMG Yatagarasu and OMG smuggling ring. It was so emphasized, I ended up not caring about neither. I mean yes, the Yatagarasu really is a cool idea with a cool backstory and I liked it as a concept, but I was too burned out to get attached to it. The smuggling ring, however, was annoying. Especially since I looked at 4-3 and was all "WTF, doesn't the Interpol do more stuff than pursuing smugglers? Oh, and that one guy was Borginean. Of course. DEJA-VU."
Incidentally, now I have the pet theory that tiny smuggling rings derived from the big one after the ending, and Daryan and Machi had just joined the same one and that's how they got in contact. Why yes, I'm trying to make sense of Apollo Justice plotholes with this shit. It'd also make it more believable that they had a motherfucking Interpol agent behind them, if they were involved indirectly with that case. Yeah I know, those cocoons are hardcore, but also, isn't it too convenient for a 15-year-old pianist with no social life except guiding a blind lady to have one? And to get an illegal agreement with the BFF of the rock star who's being buddies with his mother figure, and said BFF is 6456725 miles away? Yeah...
My case breakdown:
1. Fun to play!
2. WTF, but fun to play!
3. HJADGJAGD KILL IT WITH FIRE. SO BADLY WRITTEN
4. Yay, flashback case!
5. Not bad but TOO LONG, END ALREADY! Not as epic as other endcases, however
There's nothing to add about the regular old characters: they're as good as ever. Edgeworth is still a cool smartass, Gumshoe is still adorable, Franziska I still want to choke her half of the time /unpopular opinion. So, they're all IC! This was a huge relief.
Now for the regular new characters. Well, they were fun, yes. Yet I didn't feel they were particularly easy to get emotionally attached to? I thought it's like Apollo Justice, where they give us this amusing main cast with their own issues, but they just don't go deeper enough to move us to tears or get us desperate to help them out like in the PW games. And I say this as one of the 20 people who loves the AJ cast! In my opinion, the screenwriters have been lazy with the characters in the recent years, and the last time they made something amazing was with T&T. I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the writers after that one.
But anyway, I liked Kay lots better than I expected, and I suspect I can't dislike any happy sidekick loli in this franchise. With Lang, I was most times annoyed by him, but at one point I started thinking he's also pretty cool, then back to annoying. I was spoiled about Shih-na. Both appearances of Yew had character designs I really digged, but as a character she's too wishy-washy and bland, which is a pity
The cameos from other games were so, so, so, so, so, so disappointing. And I don't mean the people in the background, no
Speaking of which, I was not fond of Little Thief. It was too Uncanny Valley to me. See the Alanis!irony: I can buy psychic magic jewelry, but not a massive VR hologram simulator. I just kept thinking that it's waaaaaay too advanced for the technology in the game, to the point I honestly wondered if Byrne Faraday was an alien. And all those members of the police, the prosecutor's office, and the Interpol were witnesses of this amazing Deus ex Machina, and no one could even ASK how does it work, or hell, even confiscate it? This crap is unbelievable and it'd help a lot to solve cases, yet no one gave a fuck about getting one. YOU GUYS SUCK BALLS.
Final and goofier considerations:
- No one wears the prosecutor badge. That's hilarious.
- It's funny that Trucy and Kay had daddy issues, while Maya and Ema had big sister issues. It only cements my idea that AAI was modeled/written more after AJ than PW.
- Badger family is nightmare fuel, but the worst one is Protobadger. THOSE EYES.
- I want Kay to become the DeLites' apprentice! As much as a woobie Ron is, he was a good thief. Plus, Desirée can teach her to ride a motorcycle, yaaaaaaay!
- Kay and Gumshoe's being bros is so d'awwwwwwwwww.
- I loved that Kay is more of a Jammin' Ninja fan.
- Wait, Kay is Klavier's age, what the hell!
- Why didn't Kay and Ema become friends? ;; Ah right, they hate Ema.
- I was so amused whenever they threw an Apollo Justice reference. Especially when thinking about those jerks who hate that game so much having to put up with it. HAHAHA YOU GOT AJ COOTIES IN YOUR EDGEWORTH FAPFEST. I wanted to examine the Gavinners' stage, though :( On the other hand, shipping Max/Valant is less crack now.
- And the other way around. Wocky's T-shirt with Bad Badger makes so much sense now.
- I hope Cohdopia and Zheng Fa make appearances in the other games.
- Actually, a Klavier vs. Lang match would be so cocky and stylish. They could even bond over BFF betrayal, despite of having the opposite approach to solving crimes.
- Or you know, I could just OT4 every combination of Lang/Klavier/Ema/Kay or something. Screw Miles and Franziska, this is cuter/sexier.
In short: I enjoyed several things of it, but the pacing was horrible and some parts dragged. I have mixed feelings about this game, but the additions to the canon are neat.