This is the official AAI Countdown thread for case 4-31, Turnabout Serenade. 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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Ok, where do I begin...

Well, this is one messed up case. I mean, I like Klavier. He's my second favourite prosecutor. But a whole case nearly completely centered around him was a bit too much. I mean, to list some faults, the whole gun scenario was confusing, the Guitar's Serenade was played so many times I just got sick of it, Valant Gramarye is an annoyingly normal magician, and the fact that the whole case was nearly unwinnable was just plain ol' frustrating.

But I did like Daryan's breakdown. It was epic and cool. The best bit of the case for me!

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Despite the numerous contradictions and illogicalities in this case, I still really liked it! I'm not too fond of Lamiroir's character, but her theme's pretty nice. Daryan's a real jerk, but he's supposed to be! (Loved that bit where Apollo's ready to take him on.)

Daryan:
See, we know what we're doing!

Daryan:
Not like some yipping little
doggies that lap up every
word that diva says.

Apollo:
...!
Why I oughta...!

Daryan:
Oughta what? You want some
of this?

Klavier:
Ah ha. Chill, both of you.
Let's do this cool, ja?

Apollo:
(Grr! Screw cool! I want this
guy's head on a stick!)

Once again, Apollo's passion shines through (he is the passionate heart burning red, after all)!

Machi's a cool dude, even if you can't understand him for most of the case. The moment when he took off his shades and smiled at the end was very heartwarming to me.

Trucy further proved her capability (she'd already done a fine job in case 4-2) by being the first to figure out the connection between the song lyrics and the events of that day. This has a lot to do with why I like her a lot, perhaps even more so than Maya. Klavier really comes into his own as a likeable guy in this case as well. Good stuff all around!

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Oh boy! This case... Well, I suppose I'll start with the good parts first, and then move on to what I hate about this case.

First of all, the intro to this case really rocked! Not only that, I find the bits where you have to use the mixing board fun (it beats dusting for prints anyday). Finally, I like Daryan's very over the top breakdown.

Unfortunately, that is all that I think that is good with the case. Not only is that goddamn video repeated over and over again, it's this case that makes me aware of how much of AJ is just flashbacks. Take the end of the 2nd investgation day, for example: Daryan bursts in to stop Machi from talking. The game then cuts to a save point, and then the same scene with Daryan is played again, not 30 seconds into the beginning of the 2nd trial day.

Talking about Machi, I find it hard to like him, mainly due to the fact he doesn't (apparently) speak english, instead all he seems to say is either a bunch of funny symbols or ". . . . . . . . . .". Therefore, I've little sympathy for him and am annoyed at him, as I really like seeing Phoenix/Apollo build up a rapport with the client.

Finally, I hate the fact that they seem to arrest him without a motive or direct evidence, like has happened in every other case up to this point.

This case is by far, my least favorite. So terrible that I finished it quickly just to get it over with this time.

Okay, there were only three good things about this case and they're all minor. The first thing is the introduction of snackoo weaponry, the second is the introduction of Valant Gramarye, and the only other good thing left is Apollo's opinion on rock music.

I had high hopes for this case seeing as the previous one was so good. Things were going smoothly until right about the time when the killing happened. From the last case, Klavier had seemed to me like he wasn't just some average rock star singer dude. Boy was I wrong, once he whines about that FUCKING MISSED CUE. It took me two hours to figure out what a missed cue even meant and another 3 weeks to figure out how to find the missed cue and that was with a walkthrough. I'm not too good with timing and things like that so it really peeved me off when even naive little Trucy could recognize that something was actually off. To this day, I still can't see how it's a little off. So yeah, my opinion of Klavier was completely crushed and packed into a cigarette of hatred and death. He's also got a ridiculous tan in the video...

Apollo however, stood out further towards Phoenix's level of respect from me in that he seems to despise Klavier's type of music. Well maybe Phoenix does too, but there's no way of telling for now. He even basically tells Daryan to go screw himself or something like that. And yet, he's still behind Phoenix simply because I don't like his voice too much. I think this case made it sound even raspier than the last two. It's also quite a shame that Phoenix is nowhere to be found until close to the end.

Trucy was alright in this case but her fangirlisms put me off her a little while...

When I first saw the Guitar's Serenade, I thought, "Oh so THAT'S why there's a ActiMobiVideo Clip sign thingy in the beginning!" I was also very, VERY disappointed that there was no real singing for it. Lamiroir's "voice" sounded like the annoying sort of bells you'd hear from a JFA cross-examination. In fact, the fact that it kept being repeated with no mercy on fast-forwarding really made me dislike the song. Though I'm quite alright with it now since hearing this. Now I know the song by heart!

Despite that however, I still hate this case. The mixing board was just the first of my troubles with this case. Another thing that really got on my nerves is BORGINIAN. I'm not being racist but I swear to god, it was so upsetting to see an actual foreign language (not accent) in A LOCALIZED GAME! I'm being irrational but inside, I've always felt ripped off. It was as if I bought the game in Borginian and not English... Even when Lamiroir was interpreting, Machi was so annoying. Especially when it's possible he could've been lying and we'll never know what he really said. I still like Machi though. Nobody could hate someone with shades as cool as those!

I guess Lamiroir was alright at first. Looking back, she's the closest thing this game has to a BUSTY BEAUTY. Seriously, Apollo Justice (the game of course :P) was seriously lacking some boobies. I mean come on! Even Justice For All had Adrian and Pearl!Mia... I thought it was a shame that her body is mostly covered. Although I really try not to think much of that anymore seeing as she's really Apollo's mom and she's forty...

And now for the best part of this troublesome case, Valant Gramarye! The REAL magician! Trucy was a bit too quirky as a magician and I don't even need to explain Max Galactica's lack of magicry. Valant! The true showman! I can't really explain why I liked him in this case except that the music played was AWESOME!.

And now for the worst part of this most terrible case! Ladies and Gentlemen it's Daryan Crescend! I did not like him one bit from the moment I saw him. He represents another of my dark interpretations of rock stars and dickheads in general (no pun intended). I know one of the staff said he was based on a shark but that kinda only applies to the jacket. Truthfully, at first I did not imagine any innuendo of any kind from his...phallic hair. I honestly thought it was based on a skunk. Which explains his smelly attitude.

In short: MIXING BOARD + BORGINIAN + DARYAN = BAD CASE.

Though I guess it could've gone worse...

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I really like the basic principles of this case, but in execution I think everyone can agree that 4-3 was a little lacking. It's full of those pesky Contradictions You Can't Present (how the hell would Machi have gotten LeTouse on the stage? For that matter how did Daryan!?) and in some places you can tell they went way out of their way to create mystery and contradictions (like how LeTouse didn't just say "The pomp! The pomp did it!!"). It's a shame because I think there were a lot of good things to work with.

I liked seeing Klavier more serious (it's especially funny that he seems to take Daryan's missed note more seriously than the bullet in Wocky's heart, lol), but they didn't really address as well as they could have what it was like for him to have to prosecute his friend. And we didn't get to see the rest of the band! The first thing Daryan should have done when they proved that the band was off stage at the time of the murder was throw the drummer under the bus (why the drummer? I dunno). I want to see the rest of them!

Also Valant has amazing music, I loves it.

It reminds me of 3-3 in that I liked all the characters, but something just didn't quite come together in the case details which makes me less enthusiastic about it (though even Tigre's plan made more sense than a 14 year old taking out an Interpol agent).

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It just kinda dragged on for me. The mixing board stuff was neat at first, but the fact that you didn't even need to point out the time of a mess-up is kinda stupid. "Oh, the thing is on this part... somewhere." "OH! I hear it right here, thanks Apollo."

Investigations seemed to take much longer than they should have and everyone was generally unpleasant other than Lamiroir and Machi. I also got sick of the Guitar's Serenade by the end of the case. And the way to finally bust Daryan was kind of... obscure.

Speaking of Daryan, his hair is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously, they weren't trying to make him look like a shark, they were totally going for phallic hair. Especially with his stroking and the bounciness. Ugh.

I guess if anything good came from the case, it's Lamiroir, Machi, and Guilty Love.

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Hehe, I'm one of the few who really likes this case. I loved all the Apollo Justice cases but this was my second favourite case out of GS4. I'm not going to bother with a long review as I have no time but I thought the plot was good, graphics were awesome, music was fabulous and character development was just brilliant. If not for the iffy contradictions then this case might have taken first place out of my favourite GS4 cases :p

Also I didn't mind the mixing board and video. Although the video was played at what seems to me being 3 times each part of the trial, it was a good video in terms of technology (DS supporting videos now :D), and content wise. Of course, after my first play through I learned the lyrics to Guitar's Serenade.

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Uh-oh.

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Eee, one of my absolute favorites! <3

First off, I agree that this case has a ridiculous number of contradictions that shouldn't have been so easily glazed over. The bullet holes in Lamiroir's dressing room make it VERY clear that Machi couldn't have fired off the gun (they were too low on the wall), and... well. I'd like to see a 75-pound pianist take down a massive Interpol agent with a .45 caliber revolver. XD At the same time, though, the circumstances of this case were different in that the authorities wanted it to be solved as quickly as possible. They weren't willing to do a more thorough investigation before going "Oh, hey, we can't find a better suspect and we have to arrest someone, so... hi, Machi!" It's still a load of crock, but I think this case was purposely set up as a "worst case scenario" to build up to the introduction of the jurist system. Even with that in mind, though, the contradictions are too much to ignore. I love this case to death, but it's not perfect.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I want to ramble about why I love this case: the characters! I'm biased because my favorite character in the series is the defendant, but... yeah. I love Machi to itty bitty bits because he's such an unusual character. We aren't told much about him, but I liked that because it leaves a huge amount of room for speculation. All we know is that he's an orphan and met Lamiroir before their major debut. I love playing around with ideas for his backstory, such as how and when he was orphaned, what his parents were like, his first meeting with Lamiroir... everything, really. Personality-wise, he could be taken in a few different ways. He definitely has a kind and gentle side to him - he cares for Lamiroir very, very much - but he isn't what one would call innocent, either. He willingly smuggled a cocoon out of Borginia, knowing that he was risking the death penalty. I think he's capable of being very clever and even manipulative at times. At heart, though, he's a good kid. :3 Seeing him finally smile so sweetly at the end of the case was a joy.

And presenting the wrong evidence during a perception segment gives you this little gem:
Lamiroir: Machi says, "Try again, adhesive."
Machi: *speaks to Lamiroir*
Lamiroir: Oh, I'm sorry. "Try again, sucker!"
Apollo got owned by a 14-year-old boy. Nice. XD

I find Daryan interesting, too. I think a part of him did honestly want to save the Chief Justice's dying child, even if he didn't show it on the surface; I don't think he wants other people to see him showing sympathy for others. At the same time, though, I can see him wanting the cocoon money as a sort of insurance in case anything happened to the band. He comes off as being a jerkass, but he isn't entirely a bad person. (I love the design for his outfit, too! ...But his hair scares me.) When I first played this case, Lamiroir didn't catch my attention that much. It was only after my second playthrough that I grew to appreciate her character a lot more.

So... yeah. Despite its flaws, this was one of my favorite cases ever. <3

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This was a great case. I felt the pacing was spot on. There was a bit of fun a-la steel samurai case (1-3) and yet a lot of intrigue and adventure while still keeping the character roster fresh.

In addition...do I need to put this in spoiler tags anymore? I haven't been around in a while, but just in case...


For one, Klavier wasn't the "New kid on the block" anymore by time this case came about which gave him time to shine as something other than an antagonist, which made things all the more interesting as he even somewhat co-oped with you on certain points. His calm, open minded demeanor might be off putting to some, but I personally welcomed it. I enjoyed the fact he was a friendly antagonist and sometimes, a friendly 3rd party. The more forces at work, generally, the greater the tapestry.

And with all the characters in this case (Lamiroir, Daryan, etc.), it really was great. There was a lot to concentrate on and it was all given to us in managable doses. Lamiroir's somewhat baffling history as well as the matter of "Who is blind here again?"

And there was Valant. Valant not only began to stir the clouds of foreshadowing as the inevitable "Past meets present" came to a head, but also was genuinly lovable and had a great heart. He was a man of "Show, don't tell." We didn't need to be told he was a nice guy with an unfortunate past, but it becomes more evident as time passes and his actions speak for him.

It's not all sunshine and butterflies though. I must agree with Croik in that I felt it suffered a bit of 3-3 syndrome. It wasn't that I disliked 3-3, not at all, I really liked it, it just lacked the sort of interconnectivity and fluidity of the better cases. I'm sure there's someone who could illustrate that better than I could.

It had the fun of 1-3. It had the adventure and dark aspects of 1-4 (Not quite as thick, but still there). Put those together and you have one hell of a case. Overall, I'd give it an 8.5/10.

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I think this is what I was going to say but a bit more elegantly >_> I thought the basic concept, of murder by song and how the murderer used that assumption to make an alibi, was pretty cool, but of course, there were some problems... With (a lot of) willing suspension of disbelief about arresting Machi, it gets bearable.

They should've made Machi older, but really thin and skinny (so he'd still be able to get into the vent) and had LeTouse shot in the head. Then, (1) they could've said, "He could be stronger than he looks" for Machi firing the gun, and once it was revealed that he knew English, "Well, if he could secretly learn English, he could secretly learn to fire a gun," (2) LeTouse saying something stupid could be explained by brain damage, and (3) another of the reasons it makes sense not to arrest Machi (the placement of the bullet holes) would go away.

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I don't mind this case. It's the best-looking one right behind 4-4 and it had some of the most memorable characters in the game. However, the second time around I realized how much BS there was in the case. XD

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I'm not sure whether this was actually explained in the case, but why and how were Machi and LeTouse brought to the stage, and who did it?

Why: Because the killer wanted the events of that day to be as close to the song lyrics as possible.
How: I guess he carried them? I dunno.
Who: Daryan.

Ah yes... I got quite a shocker learining Lamiror was the blind one... and the whole smuggling thing was interesting...

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I think a lot of the problems would have gone away if the writers had chosen a different location for the murder itself. Looking at the inclosed space of the dressing room, it's very hard to believe that LeTouse was standing alone in the room with Daryan and didn't see enough of him to identify him, that Daryan (a cop!) missed even with an unfamiliar gun, that LeTouse knew Lamiroir was nearby even though he couldn't possibly have seen her, etc. If it had somehow been in a room where Daryan could fire from hiding (someplace with a box that the prosecution argued Machi stood on or something) and Lamiroir really did pass a small window, the case would already start to make more sense.

Throw in a ramp and a cart that "Machi" used to move the body and they'd be even better off!

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There aren't any cases I dislike, and this one was sorta good, but there were way too many Wall Bangers.

Worst part is, with almost all of them, they could easily explain them.

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Ah, Trunabout Serenade...


I saw the Defendant, face-palmed, sighed and thought: "This is gonna be a long, long session..."


Seriously, the premise was good, but it just bugged me how exactly Klavier didn't appear in the Courtroom wearing a paper bag over his head out of shame for not finding a better subject than a FOURTEEN YEARS OLD KID, WHO COULDN'T EVEN HOLD THE WEAPON, I MEAN, HELLO, ARE YOU INSANE, YOU GUYS?!

I'm quite sure our good ol' Edgey would have told the Detective in Charge to go and do it again as soon as he saw the Defendant. Just saying.

As side from this, I also find it quite ridiculous that the victim didn't just say "Dickhead killed me", instead of giving them a VAGUE hint that Lamiroir MIGHT have HEARD the gunshot. Hurray for idiotic murder victims!

I liked the mixpult-parts a lot, but still, the Guitar Serenade was repeated WA~AY too many times. This made the Blue Badger-video from 1-5 look like the most interesting thing in the world.
I still like the song though.

My greatest problem was the sollution and the end. Burned smuggling items? Really? And what about that sick kid in the hospital? They just let him die? Neat, neat!

And Dickheads whole plan was... idiotic. He made Richard Wellington look SMART, really.


Eh, I had fun playing regardless. Not as much fun as with the other cases, but still.

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I wasn't particularly attached to any of the defendants from AJ. Well, apart from Phoenix.

Wocky was a bit of a twit, and rather irritating - especially his constant confession-ing (Well, Ron did it but HIS wife wasn't the villain and Alita QUITE BLATANTLY was...). Oh, and he's a "GANGSTA" prat.
The defendant from the second case... Sorry, what was his name again? Really, that's how little impact he made on me.
And Vera, well, she was nice and the most likeable character there, but her shyness and the fact that she didn't talk a lot made her a tough person to empathise with. I did like her in the end, though. I'm just not as attached to her as I am to, say, WP or Iris.

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