This is the official AAI Countdown thread for case 1-5, Rise From The Ashes. 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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*gasp* no sticky!!

Anyway, a very interesting case, all the plot holes/inconsistencies aside. I'm annoyed that it causes a lot of stuff Edgey says in JFA to not make sense... Why couldn't the translators just think of something else to say when they brought it over? T_T


Ah well.

Blue Badger FTW!

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I liked this case. It went on a bit long, but it was a good case. It was cool seeing a young Ema Skye(I played AJ before I played this game, so I already knew her) and the relationship between her and Lana was so sweet. Gant's music was also one of the better themes in the series, and the sciencey stuff was great fun. The only thing was, like I said already, it was way too long. Near the end I was starting to lose interest in the whole game.


I know, that irritated me when I was replaying JFA. Expecially when it would have been so easy for the translators to just change the lines a little so everything did make sense.

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Pfft too long? This is a nice meaty case I can really sink my teeth into. I like its length.

Anyway, I've barely started playing but I came across something interesting that I wanted to point out.

Early on, when you encounter Jake Marshall for the first time, he threatens you to keep you from investigating the car and tells you "You'd better mosey along unless you fancy biting the bullet!" and makes his gun shooting motion. But this is the wrong use of that phrase! To "bite the bullet" doesn't have anything to do with getting shot. It means to endure pain or something unpleasant with strength or determination. It refers to the practice before anesthetics when injured soldiers would bite down on a bullet in their mouths to help them endure the pain of operations needed to save them, such as amputation etc.

Interestingly, this mistake seems to be a deliberate error by the writers as part of Jake's wannabe cowboy character, as Gumshoe uses the same phrase correctly just a short while later in reference to Edgeworth prosecuting Lana.

One of my favourite cases thanks to its complexity and semi-noir atmosphere, with a focus on the police's internal affairs.
1-5 really makes you earn your victory. The case is incredibly ambitious (it looks like they intended it to be a homage to the AA series itself), but contrary to 4-4, manages to live up to its ambition. It takes more its time than other climax cases (such as 3-5) to bring you answers and revelations, but when it does, they're usually very satisfying.
The dialogue is great, the new characters are deeper than their gimmicks suggest, and it is full of Easter Eggs for AA fans. To make it even better, the villain is one of my favourite of all time, a charismatic bastard you can't help but love.
Unfortunately, there's this:

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I loved this case <3 The hands-on forensic stuff never fails to make me smile and it's a great utilisation of the Touch Screen. The storyline is extremely clever, in particular the simultaneous murder conundrum and unlike most of the other GS1 cases, it's genuinely challenging. So many wonderful characters in this case- famously the first appearance of lil' Ema and of course, the terrifying Gantinator himself. Probably one of my favourite GS cases :)

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This may well be my favorite case of the first game. Ema is adorably nerdy, the villain is a magnificent bastard, and I liked pretty much all the characters.

And for some reason, the Dancing Blue Badger made me laugh uncontrollably.

It did annoy me that they had trouble tying it into JFA, but for me, that's kind of a minor complaint. I also thought it was a bit too long, but I didn't think that really detracted much from my enjoyment of the game.

All in all, it was a very fun and surprisingly emotional case. Truly a classic.

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1-5 is the reason I'm such a Dee x Damon fangirl, so of course I love it XD
As a warning to anyone who hasn't finished the case; this post will certainly contain spoilers~

I enjoyed having Ema around instead of Maya, even though it was a bit hard to get used to at first. I loved her obsession with science, and how she always insisted that we use science to investigate. It was also interesting to me to see how Phoenix would compare her to Maya, and Lana to Mia. It was pretty heartbreaking for me, when she was on the stand and found out the truth about the Blue Badger vase and the Marshall-Darke showdown.

As for Lana, I really didn't care for her. I was happy that she and Ema got their happy ending, and I was pleased with how she turned out in the end, but throughout the case, I was actually sort of hoping she would just get the guilty verdict she wanted so bad. I realize that she's not like that because she wants to be, necessarily, but I think I would've liked her a bit more if she would just trust in Phoenix and Ema at first, instead of waiting until the very end.

Gant ended up being one of my favorite characters in the series. The way he manipulated Lana for so long and preying on her weaknesses was amazing as far as I'm concerned. Of course, I also loved his "nice and gentlemanly" side, always asking about our swimming habits. I was sort of dissappointed to find that that wasn't how he really was, but that's part of what makes his character so interesting to me.

Jake and Angel got on my nerves a bit, at first, but once their motivations were revealed, I appreciated them a lot more. I liked it how they were both going after the truth of the Joe Darke killings/Neil's death, but they were both taking different paths to get there. I found it interesting when Angel revealed that she was doing what she did because she "hates prosecutors" and her motives for lying on the stand, and when Jake dressed up as Goodman in the evidence room.

This is another case that shows how awesome Gumshoe is. I had a new respect for his character when he lent you his ID to break into Gant's office and how he still tried to help you once Gant fired him. He had annoyed me in previous cases, but I found myself very happy when he got his ID back at the end.

Goodman was another one of the more interesting victims to me. He was essentially only after the truth the whole time, like everyone else in the SL-9 case was, but he just happened to be unlucky enough to reach it first and ended up dying for it. Joe Darke also proved interesting, as he only really kept killing because he wound up with so many witnesses. If they hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time, he probably wouldn't have done it. I liked it how he planned his escape from questioning, and almost succeeded.

Shippings I got from this case were Jake x Angel, Lana x Ema, and Ema x Edgeworth, my favorite being Jake x Angel. I'm actually surprised how many people don't ship it, in favor of Lana x Jake. In fact, when I first played it, I actually assumed Jake and Angel were canon XD

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Awesome case, best in the game. All the characters were solid except for the infinitely annoying Meekins - this is probably one of the only cases where I really like most of the characters. I loved Marshall so damn much, and I also quite like Angel, although I must admit I got pretty badly stuck on her testimony. Ema made me laugh and was adorable, which was a surprise for me having played AJ before. I prefer her to Maya for some reason - I guess I like science better than spirit mediums. Sprites were beautiful and pretty different to the rest of the cases - it's cool seeing how the style changes throughout the games. Marshall's theme is the best in the game~

The only real problem I have is that the ending was a choice rather than a presentation, as it's always "Let's just see what happens" with those kinda things. And it also had to stick to the first game five-strikes method of gameplay which meant it wasn't exactly as tense or nerve-racking as the climaxes in the other games (barring AJ, obviously).

I didn't find the case to be too long at all: it was one of those rare cases where I fully enjoyed the investigation segments, mostly due to the ability to examine evidence and spray Luminol everywhere. Oh, and being able to investigate Edgeworth's office :3 Ema's comments completely cracked me up in there with how much it resembled the Edgeworth fangirls I know.

OH YES. AND THERE WAS GANT.

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This was my second favorite case from GS1. It was definitely unique from the other games in the series, considering that it was a bonus case and doesn't really connect with the other games's storylines (Except somewhat in GS4). It was nice to get a different assistant in Ema Skye after having Maya around for so long, so it was nice to get a break from her. Her fangirlish comments on Edgeworth were absolutely priceless XD

And, oh yes, the rest of the cast. They were all pretty good, especially Gant, who is full of epicness. Actually, almost every character in this case was full of epicness... Well, except Meekins, he kinda annoyed me a bit.

When I first played through this case I found it was one of the more difficult cases because of all the investigation stuff you had to do, looking in every nook and cranny with you Luminol spray to find bloody handprints and such. It was cool though, and if you think about it was kind of a precursor to the forensics stuff you get in GS4. During the whole thing, I honestly had no idea who the killer was gonna be; At first I thought it was Angel, then Jake, then thinking Lana really did do it. But when you go snooping around Gant's office, that's when I realized "Alrighty, then, HE'S the real killer!"

Also, out of all the breakdowns, Gant's is definitely the best I think. It's just... Crazy :D

My grade for this case is... A B+

oo I love what you cool people have already. Gant does have a nice fanbase, eh? <3 He made 1-5 even better than it wa to begin with. I think it may be obvious by now thatI love him. xD @ Scarf: another Jake/Angel fan? Hell yeah. Its up there on my otp list. Though I have to say that I've lked quite a few 1-5 induced pairings. Ahhh I'll type a more detailed account once I replay it <3

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Awesome! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the couple & the rest of 1-5, of course

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All right, I'll say it: I don't like this case.

Even ignoring the fact that the cases that come after it don't mention it at all, it doesn't really fit with the rest of the first game either. It irritates me how they make a big deal even before the first day of court about the rumors of Edgeworth's misconduct, and Ema and Gumshoe are so eager to say "He'd never do that!" Except that Phoenix has SEEN Edgeworth do it already! In the very first case you face Edgeworth, he instructs witnesses on what they should and should not testify about, hiding important information from the court; it's strongly hinted that he doctored the second autopsy performed on Mia sot hat it said what he wanted it to say; and he especially had no trouble switching from prosecuting Maya to Phoenix despite no change in the evidence and no reason to believe either of them was guilty. Edgeworth was a dick; trying to act in 1-5 like he wasn't is just plain silly.

I also think it's not so kind to Phoenix's character to say that he spent two months after 1-4 sulking. He turned down people whose very lives might have been in danger just because he felt down? If he missed Maya that much why didn't he write to her, or visit? How can he afford to turn down clients anyway??

In my replay I've only just finished the first court day, and I never realized how much I dislike Angel. Her "vile evil villains!" rant when she first shows up really got on my nerves. She sounds like a cartoon. On the other hand, I like Ema. She at least acts like a 16 year old, and shows her vulnerability more reasonably than Maya, I thought.

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...while I don't feel as strongly....I have to admit I agree; they did try a little too hard to make Edgeworth a victim. It seemed a little weird. And I disagree with everyone! I totally loved Meekins; he was adorable! (...okay, not really, but I found it hilarious that it was kinda his fault Edgeworth got in trouble the first time in this case)

I finished up this case, and I couldn't stop thinking how LONG it was. I know for a fact that it didn't cross my mind when I first played it. This time around, everything just seemed dragged out; and I haven't the slightest idea why. Near the end, I was almost skipping all of the testimonies, and I almost slipped up on showing my evidence too soon. Haha.

GUMSHOE~!!!! He had never shone in the previous cases like he did in this one. <3 Even not being part of the investigation, he was in the background, dancing and helping out. XD And I found that him building that wriggling piece of plywood AWESOME. YES. Blue Badger ftw!

To put it simple- I hated this case. It shares the same position as 2-4 on my most hated AA cases.

The plot of the case is okay. The introduction is great. The music is good but everything else is awful. Once again...



Character development is awful. A lot of it, leaning towards Edgeworth mostly, isn't explained very well. In the previous cases, it was assumed that Edgeworth forged evidence to win. In this case, we see that it was unintentional and he didn't know about it. It doesn't fit with the previous conceptions of Edgeworth. The creators should have really put this case after 2-4, so we had the Edgeworth monologue already.

Phoenix is totally OOC in this case. That really sucks. How he acts about Maya not being there is awful. Does he need someone to hold his hand all the way? Ergh, it makes me cringe thinking about it.

Finally, the best aspect of this case was no Maya in it, which is a thumbs up. It raises RFTA's rating from 4 to 6/10.

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Not to mention he almost gives up on the very first day and has to have a "Mia flash" to get through it. Have some freaking guts, Phoenix.

And amen to no Maya. I used to dislike Ema because I thought she was just a Maya clone, but when I gave her a chance, I really started to like her more.

It's a shame because through the first game I didn't mind Maya that much, I was just a little irritated that she acted so much younger than her stated age. It was going through JFA and T&T with case after case of bad jokes and Maya needing saving that soured her for me. There are ways of developing characters and relationships without just tossing someone in harm's way, writers!

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To be fair, Lana confessed to the crime and Angel, whatever problems there were with her testimony, consistently claimed to have seen Lana stab Goodman (which did happen, even if Goodman was already dead). It's not like Phoenix was ready to throw in the towel for no reason.



A-MEN! Really not trying to fling the thread off-topic, but Maya got on my freaking nerves SO MUCH in GS3, in which she crossed the line from kinda annoying sometimes to downright stupid! I mean, at least she had a brain in GS1! If anyone wants to know why the vote for best assistant was so close between Maya and Trucy (only 277 votes), here's the answer.

Forgive me, back to the topic. There are lots of things I love about this case, but the one I want to talk about here is...Jake Marshall. In his character bio here on Court Records, it is said he "was made a cowboy...to differentiate him from Godot, who he resembled in early drafts of the script (character-wise)." I say he's better than Godot, though. I'll never forget that moment in the game when Phoenix and Ema talk to him in the Security Room, but he turns them away, still talking like a cowboy. Ema says something like, "You can't talk to us right now?" and he says something like, "Did I say that? I merely said I didn't wish to speak with you."

When I heard that, I just thought he was so awesome. In summary, > , even if technically came first.

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I feel that this case actually fits extremely well and the game as a whole is stronger for it, particularly from the Edgeworth angle. I've always felt that the comparisons drawn between Edgeworth and Gant at the end provided a much stronger impetus for him to resign than what had happened in 1-4. I could really believe that the combined effect of the rumors, von Karma, and Gant would have had such a profound effect on Edgeworth that he needed to disappear and reevaluate what he'd been doing all this time. Sure he's made out to be a jerk in 1-2, but even over the course of the next two cases he's lost that. Personally I think it's more of a fault of 1-2 than it is of this case.

Anyway this case does start out slow on the first day, but after that it's fast paced and exciting. The last day of trial is one of the best of all. I particularly love that Phoenix really figures everything out from the moment the picture of Marshall dead is shown. From that point on, Phoenix has the case in the bag and knows it. It's one of the rare times in the series where Phoenix literally holds all the cards and just plays dumb, causing the criminal to completely fall into his trap. Beautiful.

Yeah, but that's also kind of the problem. All through JFA Phoenix acts like it was a shock that Edgeworth left, and he takes it exteremly personally; after 1-5 you'd think he would have expected it. There are so many reasons for Edgeworth to leave that it's ridiculous Phoenix holds it against him.

This morning I finished Gant's first testimony and I'm not sure I can bring myself to finish the case because it's getting on my nerves so much. His entire testimony was a waste of time; the police are dumb, but how can he even begin to argue "You have to prove the cases are related before I'll say anything" when he already sent a report to Edgeworth the day before saying they're related? Knowing that Gant's going to pull the same double-talk bullshit for the rest of the case is killing my insentive to keep playing. He's just so...passive aggressive and lame. It makes me want to punch him (and not in a good way).

And then at the end of it Edgeworth cries out, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He faced confessing to his father's murder forcefully, but Gant reduces him to begging and apologizing? Give me a break.

It's a shame because I really like Gant's design and many of his mannerisms, but the case he's surrounded in makes no sense. What was the point of his bid for power (through SL-9) if Redd White already had power over everyone who mattered? If he was willing to kill a co-worker in cold blood in order to get a promotion, why did it take him to the age of 65 to make an opportunity for himself? It's like they forgot that Gant is already surrounded by easiliy manipulated idiot-cops, a blackmailer in control of everyone who outranks him, and a prosecutor with a 40 year perfect record. Just what did he think he could use his position as "chief of police" for? It's just so sloppily put together.

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Would he really? At the end of 1-5 Lana and Phoenix work together to 'prove' to Edgeworth how different he is from Gant. Edgeworth worked together with Phoenix to nail him, and neither of them could have done it alone.

From Phoenix's perspective, he's finally gotten through to Edgeworth. First, he's saved him and reconnected with him in 1-4. And now they've finally worked as a team to fight evil. This is Phoenix's dream - to reunite with the friend that he lost. And now at last he thinks he's succeeded. He knew Edgeworth was thinking of resigning, but now he thinks that's been averted, Edgeworth's been saved, everything's alright.

But Phoenix doesn't realize how heavily all the events have been weighing on Edgeworth. Despite what he proved, I think Gant's final words were the last straw. Edgeworth still can't take what he's afraid of becoming - a person like Gant or von Karma, and so he leaves.

To me, this 'abandoning' of Phoenix, after Phoenix has already decided that he's gotten through to Edgeworth, fits Phoenix's feelings of betrayal far MORE than the original "Edgeworth leaves after the events of 1-4".

I dunno, I still can't agree with that. Maybe it's because I played the GBA ones first, but to go from Edgeworth "Whoop!"-ing at the end of 1-4, everyone seemingly getting along or at least on the way towards it, makes the punch of JFA's "EDGEWORTH IS DEAD" completely unexpected. But the way they beat Edgeworth down again and again in 1-5, toting him as a victim, a screw up, etc etc, it's like...how could you *not* quit after that? If Phoenix saw all that and was still shocked when Edgeworth resigned, then his expectations are a little out there.

It's like, "How dare you quit when the entire city and its law enforcement turned against you and called your entire career into question!" Give the guy a break, Phoenix.

It's also kind of anti-climatic with the "I'm resigning" "No wait I'm not" "No wait I am" aspect of it. It changes the perspective of the player heading into JFA. It goes from "Wait where's Edgeworth!?" to "Oh, so he ended up quitting after all, jerk." And I liked it better the way it was.

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Edgeworth doesn't exactly, um... resign in the most traditional sense. I mean...



I thought the inconsistency was there, but I assumed that Edgeworth had previously allowed people to suspect he was forging evidence because, well, that was what a von Karma student does. He wouldn't want to appear too spineless to his mentor. I guess it helps that I thought the revised autopsy report was correct; we see that Mia lives long enough to mutter the words "Red... white... blue..." So Edgeworth can hardly be called a forger for getting that cleared up.

The witness trickery was stuff that Franziska pulled, too, and even Godot and Payne veered towards now and then. Apparently, prosecutors aren't really discouraged from getting witnesses to hide details in the AA universe; presumably this makes up for their inability to do much questioning themselves.

Mostly, I liked 1-5 for its final day. Damon Gant comes off as a person who knows the system and intends to play it; few of the other antagonists really give that sense that they can set traps, wriggle off on technicalities, and match Wright and Edgeworth blow-for-blow. His plan was lousy, of course, but that's sort of justifiable in hindsight.

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What I'd like to know is why 1-5 even happened, because if Lana pled guilty to the murder, wouldn't the trial not have even happened?

Too true!



I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't question the authenticity of the second autopsy report.



In relation to all you've said here, there was a quote in case 1-5 wherein Edgeworth said something to the effect of, "I have done nothing to be ashamed of," or something close to that. Croik was giving Edgeworth a lot of flack for his actions earlier in GS1, but, as you argued here, it's not like the other prosecutors are much better.

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That quote is one of the reasons I don't like 1-5. Throughout the first three games you're lead to believe that Edgeworth was an underhanded prosecutor (and he WAS), who Phoenix "saved" and helped to reform. He fled the country because he needed to get his life together and re-evaluate. He admitted earlier in the game that he tries to find everyone guilty no matter what. And I don't see how you can look at his behavior in 1-2 (if nothing else, switching targets from Maya to Phoenix at the drop of a hat) and think he never broke the rules.

The fact that the other game's prosecutors are also assholes doesn't change that. Franziska blatantly cheats because she learned from her father, and Godot was on a vengence streak trying to ruin Phoenix in any way possible.

1-5 ret-conning Edgeworth's inethical behavior is pointless, because by 2-4 he's reformed. They even did a sloppy job, since we know Edgeworth was being called "demon" before 3-1, and SL-9 took place after that. Let Edgeworth be a dickweed that Phoenix saved, game! It's so much more interesting than Edgeworth the martyr who ran away crying because Gant was mean to him.

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they still need to figure out things about the murder, and every case needs a trial.
also, 3-2: ron said he did it too, didn't he?

anyways... compared to the last case, this one wasn't as good. i really got into 1-4, but this one... not so much. i just wasn't as concerned for the characters as much as i was for the other cases.

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Lana and Ron got trials because in the end they both caved and picked Phoenix as their attorney. If they hadn't, maybe the state-appointed attorney would have taken their confessions to the judge and made some kind of plea bargin.

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I have to say that this is my favorite case in Ace Attorney, and possibly my favorite case in the entire series (to be fair I haven't played Apollo Justice, nor finished Trials and Tribulations.). Despite the fact that its a filler per se its very lively and fresh. I love the extended DS uses. The story is clever and dramatic, though it still gives me chuckles quite a bit (even if Gant's memetic status is partially the blame) even if some things were a bit out of character. I do understand what Croik is going on about even though I disagree.

I admit that it was odd seeing Phoenix shook up about Maya, though, for some reason, considering the name of this case, it just feels a litte more right for Nick to feel alone and powerless. It set the mood well, even if I wanted to PAWWWWNCH Phoenix.Gumshoe was the best guy ever during the sneak into office bit. His dialogue was gold. I adore Ema. She's more mature and in my opinion, funnier than Maya. Her backstory and connections to SL-9 were interesting, as is her devotion to Lana. I love Ema's cute character design. Ema's role in SL-9 was also astounding. I will also note that if I listed a PW top ten favorite characters, Ema would be about 8 or 9? I was also irked by Lana. As time went on I grew to love her and feel great sympathy towards her, and I'm sure that if we saw a glimpse of pre SL-9!Lana i woul have instantly loved her. I also apparently like shipping her with half of the 1-5 cast (Gant, Jake, Neil, Edgeworth, Phoenix, heck I even think she'd be cute with Bruce.), particularly two pairs I'm really fond of.

Jake! Despite the fact that he tends to come off as a jerkass (though honestly, I never noticed it that much), this cowboy cop is pretty darn cool. His search for justice over his brother's death, the cute western language and pet cactus, and of course the "orignal design for Godot" bit really puts him on my PW top ten list. His theme song is also rather attractive.Angel is double edged for me. I admit she does get on my nerves (the only time I used a FAQ for 1-5 was during her testimony), and after Day 1 she kind of gets obsolete. I like her relationship with Jake and Bruce though, and I feel a lot of "chemistry" between the trio, particularly Jake and Angel. I also love her art design and the box lunches thing. Neil, Darke, and Bruce were all very interesting victims with very strong backstory ties to them. Darke's motives were particularly interesting. As was Neil's love for his brother and even Ema and Lana. I love Bruce's art design a lot for some reason. He's also my favorite victim :3 Meekins felt a bit out of place. While I adore him to death he just seemed like a lolfiller character. He's so adorable I'm overlooking his out of place-ness, though. :3

Damon Gant. I cannot express how much I adore him. This magnificent bastard is hands down my favorite character. Despite that disturbing stare of his, he's rather pleasant on the outside. Looking rather adorable/harmless in half of his sprites and bearing more eccentric quirks than most of the cast (and that's saying something), it would have been somewhat surprising to see him as the villain if tv tropes didn't ruin my life. His complexity is astounding. The fact that he personally killed Neil and framed Ema in an almost flawless manner, shows a lot of cunning and intelligence. I loved this character before I realized his memetic RAEP status. And I hate to say that I always love the meme characters, so it was inevitable anyway. This case shifted from enjoyable to awesome because of Gant. Plus he plays an organ, and its a fact that Loppy loves organs. And yes, I did give him his OWN PARAGRAPH. *crawls shamefully into emo corner*

I promised Scarf I'd go into pairings more. Three of my favorite pairings derive from here so I might as well. My favorites are: Gant/Lana, Jake/Lana, and Jake/Angel. I also like Phoenix/Lana, Neil/Lana, Edgeworth/Lana, and Edgeworth/Ema. Geez I'm turning Lana into a whore. >_> Jake/Angel has really started to appeal to me as of late. I can't really see Jake trying to re-establish his relationship with Lana, which I do believe is the most canon Lana pair, and quite possibly happened pre SL-9. I don't know how to explain the others D;

Once again I post towards the end of the deadline. I'm a jerk.

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FINALLY! IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO FINISH THIS CASE!

This case has always been really confusing to me. I honestly don't know whether I hate it or love it. On one hand, you get to do fun sciency things, listen to Edgeworth's objection a lot, smile at the little perverted things Angel said, and witness a truckload of references to other games. But then there's the disturbing stare of Damon Gant, the annoying testimonies, and the LENGTH.

I especially liked how Ema and Lana were supposed to completely parallel Mia and Maya in almost every way possible. It was just cool, unimaginative, but cool.

Edgeworth in this case had finally gotten my full respect and adoration for him during this case, maybe it was the fact that he DIDN'T forge evidence (on purpose), but most likely it was because his Objection voice was endearing, it can be heard a lot in this case.

When Angel showed up, I was glad that there was finally going to a female sex object with cleavage since I had been frustrated by the obvious lack of such a character during Cases 1 & 2. But when she said she was a lunch lady...it was then that I realized that the series was good enough without too many hotties running around (not that that's a bad thing!) She did say some rather...questionable things though...

Jake Marshall used to be my favorite character, I always idolized cowboys even when I learned that real cowboys were boring and underpaid. Unfortunately, when I discovered the connection to Brokeback Mountain...my dreams, and respect for Jake, were shattered. Though I still like his music, I also noticed that he's sort of like the "Godot" for Lana...

Mike Meekins originally came off as uninteresting, unfunny, unsatisfactory, just plain pathetic... Now he kinda reminds me of myself...

The Blue Badger. Disturbing is the only word I can say about it. I did find it hilarious how it happened to be so important for the case.

Damon Gant is one of my least favorite characters. He's a disgrace to the color orange and the staring caused me to want to have a seizure.

Another reason I hated this case was because I thought it was really stupid for everyone to care so much about SL-9 seeing as the Joe Darke really was guilty. Forged evidence shouldn't be much of a concern if there's no doubt that the person is guilty. The ends justify the means. But this is my only my opinion.

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Damn, it took me forever to finish this case. Can't justify taking off work for this countdown though. That would be bad and I'm already going to be out for training and other crap like a whole week anyway, so no free time for me and this projection. I've resigned myself to being permanently behind in this countdown if I don't get back on track later today.

Anyway, the case. This is my second time playing Rise from the Ashes, and I remember really loving it the first time because of all the cool stuff you could do. I also remember having to use the walkthrough almost the entire case because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing or presenting. I still needed a walkthrough on occasion this time, but I was happy I could get most of it on my own.

Ema: When I first encountered her I thought she was going to be a Maya clone, but I was surprised to see she had her own personality and quirks. I love her character design. She's wearing a school girl uniform, but they make it more unique because of the lab coat. Her hair and glasses are cute too. I also loved that she was a total Edgeworth fan girl, but he didn't seem to pay much attention to her (except he does mention how she had grown).

Lana: I thought her character design was fitting to her personality when you first encounter her. It's a good, strong design and I took her more seriously than I did Mia because she actually covers up her endowments. She was annoying in that she kept insisting she was guilty the whole time, but given the situation that is understandable. On this playthrough I really noticed her sprites after she finds peace, and I found them extremely creepy. Children of the corn creepy. I prefer her cold stoicism, thanks.

Jake: I thought he was hilarious on the first playthrough because he was so ridiculous. I'm from Texas and we don't have quite so many crazy people like him where I live. His manner of speaking was spot on. We often say "fixin" when we mean "about to." I loved Gumshoe's comment about him being from West LA. I did find Jake annoying alot because he was hindering my investigation, but the story about his brother endeared him to me.

Angel: I found her a bit annoying on this playthrough, but for different reasons than the first. The first time I just thought she was annoying because of her testimony and such, but this time her little "Evil Ones" rant was kind of over the top to me. I'll touch more on this in another section, but it has to do with the whole "we must demonize the prosecutors" theme this case goes for. That being said, I love her character design. I think she's the first pretty Ace Attorney character that I encountered in the games. She did have her funny moments when she tried to charm the judge and all the bits with her lunches.

Meekins: Totally can't stand this character at all. The worst part about him his the megaphone screeching. This character is just too dumb to function and I hated having to cross-examine him. His design is fitting to his profession and personality.

Gant: When I first encountered him I honestly thought my game had frozen and broken. Then I learned that was part of his personality quirks. Gant was a little too jolly for my tastes, and I think that's why I thought the ending of the game was a little off this time around. After you prove him guilty and such, he acts all happy and jolly still talking about doing what he had to do. It's like the man had no remorse for killing Neil or Goodman. Does the game even explain why he killed Neil? That just bothered me because Gant acts like this is the only time he's ever done anything wrong in his career and that can't be true because he's probably done crap like that the whole time. At least that would make sense to me. Overall, I do like Gant, I think his sprites are great. He reminds me of Zeus in his hair and his beard. It's a pretty unique design. Gant also kind of reminds me of a cross between Redd White and von Karma. I like how he could get away with giving everyone a nickname.

Judge: He has a very funny moment where he thinks Gant plays with dolls because they talk about Lana being his puppet. I imagined that scene from Spaceballs when Dark Helmet has his dolls out and Col. Sanders walks in on him.

Gumshoe: I really loved Gumshoe in this case. I felt bad for him because he really tried to help you, and he got punished for it. I also loved the reoccurring joke about Gumshoe interrupting something. I was just kind of cute. You really get to see how much Gumshoe cares about Edgeworth in this case because he risked his job. I love that he says he's coming to work for you after he gets fired.

Edgeworth: I love and hate him in this case. I love that we get to see his office and explore that a bit. Spray it with the luminol and find a bloodstain that is either a nosebleed or him smacking the everliving crap out of Gumshoe. I hate all the retcon they do with his character and the games. Edgeworth was supposed to be the Demon prosecutor and now they just pretend like he didn't know about all those forged pieces of evidence. I also didn't like when he was groveling and apologizing at one point in the trial. It was out of character for him. This case also tried to emphasize too much that Edgeworth would never forge evidence. Sometimes when you say something too many times, you're just covering up what is really true. Maybe the creators thought that if they said it alot, the player would forget all that other information.

I did like the Easter Eggs this case, since it is a retcon, threw in. I noticed the Tre Bien Flyer and the KB Security safe. I know there were some others, but I can't recall them offhand. I thought there was something about Phoenix losing his badge, as a joke, but I don't remember if that was in this case or something else.


I also liked how this was case was relively on your own for solving it. There was that one annoying moment where Mia's visage helps you, but other than that, it seems like Phoenix has totally forgotten about Mia and Maya except for one other point (Gumshoe mentioning he's coming to work for you). Phoenix even says himself, "It's not like we can talk to the victims." I'm surprised that they didn't throw in a mention of Maya at that point.

As for shipping, Gant/Lana in a dubcon situation came to mind. Thinking about other cases, I think Redd/Gant would be an interesting dynamic. Gant/von Karma is always an intriguing one to me, but grosses me out a little as well.

I thought the ending was funny with the Objection yell and the finger print powder/character sketches.

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You are very silly =P

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Yikes! You scare me.

The problem I had with SL-9 was that they seemed to have an army of detectives on the case, and yet they couldn't find a lick of evidence. Supposedly the killings were spur of the moment; was Darke THAT good of a criminal that he didn't leave anything behind? And if it was such a problem why not just hand the case over to Karma and let him forge everything, since that's what he'd been doing for 40 years?

All in all it feels like SL-9 (and the rest of 1-5) exist in some kind of bubble, where all of a sudden evidence law counts, where Gant can say in open court "Imma blackmail you" and no one blinks, and all the powerful police-controlling influences of every other case fly out the window.

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Semi-on the subject, I found it sort of, uh, hypocritical that the game goes 'omg Lana and Gant forged evidence to convict Darke how terrible!!!' when...

I thought the case was alright when I first played it, but I doubt I could ever drudge through it again. Even though I'm interested in how the fingerprint dusting will be handled in the port, this'll be the one case I don't get for Wii.

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Oh, there was no doubt about that.



That is a very good point you bring up. Perhaps Von Karma was already busy with another case, or maybe they didn't even know that Von Karma forged evidence before and chose Edgeworth because he was relatively new and thus easier to abuse?...

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Honestly, at one point I started to wonder if someone else was the killer, or if the victims even existed at all. They just don't expand on the lack of evidence thing.

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I kind of contended with them even calling Darke a serial killer. The way the crimes are described don't read like a traditional serial killer. It all kind of seemed like a spur of the moment thing caused by Darke's panic. You'd think there would have been some evidence.

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I feel like there are some good things in 1-5, but the make up of the cases (present and flashback) is so sloppy it hurts the characters' potential.

Especially Gant murdering a co-worker for a promotion he might have gotten anyway even though he should have been approaching retirement and Karma and Redd were already controlling everything by then anyway...!!

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This is my favourite case in the series. The characters, the minigames, the plot... Loved it. It was epic. The humour was also much better than in the first four cases.

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