This is the official AAI Countdown thread for case 1-3, Turnabout Samurai. Use this thread to chat about the case and its characters, any pairings you drew from it, tell us when the last time you played it was and if your feelings about it have changed, etc.

This is just for fun so if you're not following the countdown exactly or at all you're still very welcome to post.

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When I started this case for the first time, I thought: OHMAHGAH THIS IS EPICAWESOME WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE KIDS' SHOWS AS EPICAWESOME AS THIS.

I also thought about how epic the Steel Samurai theme was, and I had it stuck in my head for a long time.

About the case:

I believe that the case was, overall, pretty good, especially for a filler case. There were quite a few interesting twists (5 years ago at the film studio, etc. etc.) and the ending was good.

The only negative thing about this case was that one character (Penny) wasn't really as memorable as the other characters from this case, such as Cody and Oldbag.

I rate it a 97/100, overall!

ONG I FINISHED IT ALREADY!!!!111!11!oen

Of course I'm going to do another commentary after I re-do this case, so this is what I remember from my last playthrough...

I was stumped more in this case than any othe case in the first game. Both Cody's and Sal's testimonies really got me apparntly. I love the giant cast of new characters, as opposed to the last case. They all were quite awesome, even the dissapointing Penny. I'm so glad that Will and Oldbag return, seeing as how they are two of my favorite characters. I actually forgot a lot about the case itself...and that giant monkey head also scares me....

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Ah, now here is a memorable filler case. Turnabout Samurai was one of my favourites cases in Ace Attorney history because it introduced Wendy Oldbag and also showed fans what criminals in the AA world are like. Jack Hammer disguising himself as Powers was a bit over the top but for the game, it fit.

Character development was good. We got to see that Edgeworth actually did have a heart and unfortunately, Phoenix was portrayed in this case as someone who still needed his mentor. This was shown by the constant "channel Mia" sections in the case.

I believe that Sal Manella and Penny Nichols were pretty pointless characters. They had minimal roles, Penny especially but Sal seemed like a character they put in for comic relief.

Overall, a great case to replay. It's interesting and fun so you don't get bored replaying it.

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Yeah, as one already said it was pretty much a filler case, but it still featured some characters we will see in later games. Most notable infamous Oldbag and the Steel Samurai.
Back then this case felt like the first real case for me, it's the first time we don't know who the killer is and it's the first time that the killer isn't as stupid as sh*t. It still quite annoys me, that originally Vasquez had a perfect case of self defense. I don't really get it, why she did all the things to make it look like a murder and to blame Will Powers.

I disliked this case- even though it had a reasonably good story, it still felt as though it was just there to fill the gaps. The only parts I really enjoyed were the various appearances of the wonderful Oldbag and Maya's fangirling over the Samurai Soda from the vending machine<3

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Croik wrote:

This is the official AAI Countdown thread for case 1-1, The First Turnabout.

You might wanna correct that.
This case gave me a little bit of trouble when I first played it, but it was really entertaining, especially Edgeworth trying to help Phoenix at the end. This is a bit of a hard case, because you cannot possibly solve the T-Bone steak contradiction without remembering one detail from the investigation.

Last edited by Dani on Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

↑Ah, ya beat me to it.

Now this is a case I can talk about.
This case really is the first case which doesn't have a dramatic and tragic feel (1-1... Is argueable.) It's a fun case, at least on first playing.

I really dislike the case. It seems to drone on for no given reason and throws in all these things you have to do in a linear order just to fill out the three days. It could have easily been wrapped up on day two if it turned out some other way.

I can't wait for 1-4.

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This was the first case that really gave me a hard time. Like what some other people have said, Cody and Sal's testimonies where really hard to figure out at first, but once I got it it came together.

The case itself was pretty good for the first filler case of the series, and the characters for the most part were pretty memorable (Especially Oldbag, she was so crazy! XD). The only character that I felt got too little screen time was Penny. I felt like she wasn't really necessary, except to get Cody to talk to you :P

It wasn't the best case, but a good one nonetheless to replay.

Grade- C+

Sal is a sexy beast.
Oldbag is epic and hilarious in court. And Will was so cute and dopey. I felt sorry for Dee. I liked how she always tries to be calm even when

Last edited by Chloe on Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Fixed. Spoiler tag on the last bit, dear.

I enjoyed the conversations between Oldbag, Edgeworth and Wright in this case. It also did well in introducing recurring characters like Oldbag and Powers.

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I had alot of fun playing this case...and the steel samurais theme is still one of my favorite ost in ace attorney
I remember jokingly putting up the right evidence for the murder weapon the first time I played through.

while it is true there are better cases I feel this one will always be one of my favorite

Why should we need spoiler tags in this thread?

As I'm sure many are aware, 1-3 is my favorite case.
As in, my favorite case ever.

I adored all of the characters (yes, even Sal) and I thought the plot and twists of the case were fun to play through. Even though I replay it all the time, Oldbag never fails to make me laugh, especially with her Edgey fangirlism XD I was very glad to see her return later on in 2-4, as she ended up being one of my favorites. Of course, Dee was my favorite character in the case (and the series, for that matter). I found her character to be exceptional, and thought her relationships with the other characters, espcially Jack and Manuel, were interesting as well. I felt bad for her in the end, the way she didn't even mean to kill Jack and her somewhat tragic backstory. I really hoped she would find closure about the case five years ago and maybe even get a happy ending.
I thought Hammer was one of the more interesting victims, and I liked that it wasn't really revealed if he actually meant to push Manuel off of the stairs or not. I enjoyed Cody and Penny as well, just not as much as the other characters. Cody's conversations with the Judge always made me smile XD

For shippings, the only pairings I started to like her are Jack x Dee, Dee x Manuel and Edgey x Oldbag. I'm also somewhat fond of Dee x Phoenix and Older!Cody x Penny. I played the cases in order, so I didn't discover my OTP until I played 1-5 XDD

As far as main characters are concerned, I liked seeing Edgeworth start to help you out a little bit, perhaps hinting at what is to come in 1-4 and onward as far as the Phoenix-Edgeworth relationship goes. I enjoyed seeing Maya and Phoenix work together for the first time, too.

Overall, I can't really say enough good things about 1-3. The characters, story, etc, it was all just amazing

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Just played through the first day of court for 1-3. It's kind of easy to see why later games decided not to stretch most cases out ot three days, since they really had to stretch this case for it to take that long. Phoenix goes into court with just a photo! And they didn't really prove anything that day that couldn't have been popped into the second day. There's also a lot of filler (such as first you talk to Will, then go to the studio, then realize you can't do anything at the studio so you have to go back to Will...etc).

But I still kind of like the case. Will is sympathetic, and I like that the Steel Samurai adds to the AA world canon. Though one thing that really bothers me at the end of the first day is the way that Phoenix goes on the attack, and pretty much says "I know none of these people are guilty, but I'm just going to accuse one for the sake of buying some time." Oldbag's tough and could take it, but Phoenix's motivation to become a lawyer was based in having been falsely accused himself. Having touched on that already in 1-2, it seems strange that he's so apathetic to waving his finger around.

Maya shows off in this case her love of things childish, but while I was playing this time it occured to me that her love of SS could have a deeper meaning in the localized version than in the original. In the Japanese version, she's just fawning over a very typical kids samurai show. There are entire networks devoted to samurai drama there (I watched quite a bit when I was there >.>) Obviously that's not the case here. Being not only Asian American, but one very deeply connected with her cultural roots, maybe the Steel Samurai is a way for Maya to celebrate her heritage in a way that is also acceptable in the mainstream (in a way her niche of culture usually isn't?) Among otaku, kimono and spiritualists would be cool.

It adds an interesting angle to her localized characterization, I think. But then I'm not Asian American myself, so maybe someone else can offer some insights...?

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Finishing 1-3 the second time, some things quite have changed for me.

First of all, Sal Manella. For the very first time I played this, I hated him. I still do. This time when I encountered him, my cousins were with me at the time. They are also AA fans, but anyway it was always funny to see his "tongue" pose. Whenever he wiggles his tongue, me and my cousins laugh at it, mostly because it's creepy.

I can't make this post without talking about Oldbag! Like always, Oldbag is going crazy over the dead actor, and yelling into Phoenix's face.

And of course, this case was a lot easier doing it the second time around. And for some reason, Cody reminds me of someone I know in real life, but I can't point it out. It's on the tip of my tongue..

By the way, the Steel Samurai Theme is awesome!

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Deeeeeeeeeee!!! After the ridiculosity that is Redd White it is nice to see someone who knows what they're doing, even if that happens to be frameing someone for murder. The case was realy slow at first, but after you showed how much of an idiot you were by presenting that photo it got a lot better. Also, Edgeworth! Nice to see that my therory of him actualy being an evil robot created by Franziska (Don't ask...) was proven wrong.

This may be my favorite case from the original version of GS1. The characters were great (particularly Will and Sal, Will because he's adorable and Sal because he amused the everloving crap out of me) for the most part, and the plot was intriguing, despite it being a filler case.

On a related note, am I the only one who tends to prefer filler cases? I find that they're more fun and lighthearted.

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I really hate that term. I don't see why the cases that don't contribute to the 'overall plot' are classified as separate and expected to be not as good. These are games about lawyers and mysteries. Every case is interesting and important.

Anyway, this is one of the best cases. It really shows what this series is made of. Cody is the best example of this. He's such an unusual witness. His lies are for such a different reason than the usual witness and require some clever thinking to see through. And the truth that he reveals is one of the best twists in the series.

Everything about this case embodies the Turnabout theme that characterizes AA. Everything you think you know from the start is entirely flipped around as you work your way through, and Phoenix has to piece together what REALLY happened from behind all the smokescreens.

And even though Edgeworth helps out at the end, the player still hits Vasquez with the final blow.

I think when I first played it, this case was the one that really hooked me. Actually, that's a lie. The first time through the first case I was hooked as well. But I think this one is where they flex their arms and really show you what they're made of. And it only gets better with the next two cases in this game! I can't wait.

I was totally gonna ask about the filler thing, but Regy put it nicely.

I'm a complete dork and I replay all the Ace Attorney games a lot, so I played this case for the fifth time two weeks ago. I can't say my opinion has changed much, everyone so far as said anything that I would've about the characters and such (Aw, I'm so boring).

But one thing I failed to see that was pointed out was how Gumshoe of all characters, was portrayed. The previous case showed him as the dutiful Detective that got his information wrong and had loose lips. :( But in this case, when you examine the camera, you get information that you would've never known about without Gumshoe. <3 He's shown in a better light, I think, and it only gets better from there.

What happens when you examine the camera, again? Is that his "dramatique" line or am I thinking of something else? XD
I had forgotten to mention Gumshoe; I loved how he totally saved you when you were talking to Dee about the photo~

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XD Okay, that's not much. Whoops, guess two weeks is too long to remember things. But he goes into more detail if you ask about...ah, nevermind.

Sorry Gumshoe, you're still a doofus. But him coming to Phoenix's rescue was AWESOME. X3

Maya [to Gumshoe]: You know, you could always quit being a detective and work here?

Phoenix: Yeah! And what perfect timing, with the monkey's neck broken and all.

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God, watching this case made me remember how much I LOVE Cody and Dee. This is the first case that Edgeworth gets screwed over, and it happens with practically every witness. (Minus Sal and Gumshoe, of course.)

Oh, by the way, was it ever established why

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Nah, IIRC the most you got about the 5 years ago incident was that Oldbag thinks it was on accident and Dee thinks it was on purpose.

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Like Croik said, this case was really way too dragged out. Tedious as hell, until... After that, well, I was definitely hooked, not only to the case, but to the whole series.

It's a pretty good case overall - it introduces the KICKIN' RAD Steel Samurai, the adorable Will Powers and the hilarious Oldbag.

...Now... was I the only one who seriously suspected Will at first? ._.;;

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My first impressions of this case left a very negative impact on the way I see 3rd cases in general. For starters, I felt mad that I would have to face Edgeworth again because I was getting sick of him and I wanted to face someone new. I also felt disappointed that Dee was the only new interesting female. But she smokes a pipe, so that was a turnoff.

Oldbag instantly became my least favorite character the moment I saw her. But she quickly had to compete for this title with practically everyone else introduced in this case. Penny is very boring and lazily animated, Sal's language makes me feel like I imported the game, and Cody is just another dumb fanboy. I would've liked Dee though. If she didn't smoke...

I also didn't like how this case made me go back and forth a lot. It was also challenging to me and very tedious. Pretty much the only things I originally thought were good about this case was Edgeworth getting pwned a lot and the Steel Samurai theme.

Now that I've played it again I discovered that the dialouge is hilarious, the case is actually not too challenging, and that the court phases are actually much shorter then in other cases. However, my opinions on most of the characters have not changed. With the exception of Oldbag, but that's about another case...

ALSO: Edgeworth's front view sprite scared the hell out of me when I first saw it, his face looked so...disfigured...I got used to it since then though.

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To me, this case was far less annoying then the first time I played it. I think they should have talked more about the incident five years ago. Especially Jack's motive for killing "Manuel". Also, I really wanna know what Manuel looks like now. Was he Dee's boyfriend or something?

After rewatching, I think that Dee arrived on the scene later and was told it was an accident, but blamed Jack anyway. The only reason I can think of why is that Manuel was indeed her boyfriend, or else her brother or something...

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I thought I would never get through this playthrough. I don't know what kind of mental block I was having, but I just took way to long to get into this one this time around.

This is the third time I've played this case and I did notice one or two new things in this playthrough. I was much more interested in playing this one the first and second time, and I was surprised that I wasn't excited this time because I really love the Steel Samurai. I guess what makes me not like this case is the length and all the running back and forth between locations. I was happy that I remembered enough of this case to not need a walkthrough, but I did however mess up a few times, but none of them earned me a penalty.

I think this is my favorite case opening out of all the games. I love the Steel Samurai theme. I was glad that we didn't know who the villain was going into the case. I thought it made it more fun during the investigation phases and I think it had more impact when we did find out it was Dee.

Maya's comment about Nick being old at 24 always makes me laugh too.

Oldbag: I really thought her little rants were kind of endearing to her character. It was fun to try to read everything she said. Her character design was fitting as well. I remember their being something funny that Edgeworth says in cross examination about Oldbag wearing the costume, but I didn't encounter it this time. I'll have to go check the game script to see if I'm just making that up or if it really happened.

Penny: They really try to help yoy forget her name because they almost never say it in the game. I thought she was cute, but a little boring. The only time she ever gets excited is during that Ultra Rare card scene. Every other time her sprite movements are the same. She was helpful though, so that made her likable to me.

Cody: I remember him being really annoying on the first playthrough, but now I just found him to be kind of precious. Precious in an evil little kid sort of way, but precious still. I felt bad for him that he had to see his hero get vanquished before his eyes. He looked like a typical otaku type kid to me, so his character design was good.

Sal: He creeped me out the most on the first and second playthrough. His look alone does it for me, but I noticed how he stared at Maya on my second playthrough. His creepiest sprite is the one where his tongue is sticking out and he looks like he's about to pounce. I thought his look fit the localizations choice for his speaking mannerisms. I didn't have any trouble understanding him for the most part because I'm used to people speaking that way.

Dee: I don't remember liking her too much on the first playthrough, but on the subsequent ones she's kind of grown on me. She's a bitch, but "bitches get stuff done" as Tina Fey once said. Her character design is pleasing to the eye as well.

Will: I remember upon seeing him the first time and then seeing Jack I asked myself why. Why do the cute ones have to die and the ugly one live? Well, that still didn't put me off to Will because, like Gumshoe, he's a nice guy. I thought his design was fitting for a children's show actor in which the actor is behind a mask. Other than that, Will doesn't have a big presence in the case, so to me, he's also kind of forgettable. He's not overly whiny like Larry and you aren't OMG don't let Mia down concerned about him like you were for Maya. He's just there and you were kind of forced to be his attorney by Maya so the stakes aren't very high.

Maya: I thought she was cute in this case. She helped out a bit and made funny comments along the way.

Mia: I remember being excited to see her again on my first and second playthroughs, but this time I was kind of mad she was there. It seemed like it was another, "you aren't smart enough to figure this out on your own" cop-outs. Also, I felt that both she and Phoenix made some highly inappropriate comments at the end of the case talking about Power's situation. Then Mia says she was just kidding, but Phoenix says that he wasn't (to himself). It made me feel bad for Powers. That was really the only thing I had noticed that was new.

Edgeworth: This is the case where Edgeworth became more endearing because he helps out. If it wasn't for him, you'd have been screwed. Again, it's kind of a writing cop-out, but at least Edgeworth let's you do most of your own thinking for yourself. My favorite part of the case about Edgeworth are the crushing the hot coffee and the line at the end about being a Powers fan. When I first played, I was with Phoenix in thinking that Edgeworth was just being nice. Now I know better and it made me think about how Edgeworth felt prosecuting his hero.

The Judge: Still just the judge as usual. I had plenty of opportunity for penalties, but it seemed as if I he didn't dish them out. Not sure why really.

I didn't really ship anyone from this case the first time I played it. Now, I think I have some ships from this that could work or are just crack. First, how can we forget the famous "Unnecessary feelings" line. I honestly didn't see anything in that the first time I played this case. I read it how they want you to see it. That he feels uneasy and doubtful about his abilities around Phoenix. I like the yaoi implications it has too.

Other ships: You can have Will/Penny. I think that would be cute. Sal/Dee. I always thought that line about "taking" her in the van was funny and crack pairing worthy. Maya/Miles because they like the Steel Samurai and could fangasm over it together.

Overall, I thought the writing on this case was better than the second. It is an enjoyable story, but I think it loses replay value not because it is a bad case, but because it is overly long and complicated because of all the running around you have to do in order to get the evidence.

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