We’ve done it. We’ve stalled long enough for Franziska von Karma to storm into court with the evidence we need. Now we have everything we need to achieve our Turnabout.

And that’s all she wrote. I won’t lie, as much as I enjoy these games, I find myself mildly exhausted after playing them for so long on stream. We will eventually to Trials and Tribulations, but I need a break. So instead, in celebration of one of the newest sets in Magic: The Gathering, we’re going to play the original Assassin’s Creed.

From solving murders to causing them we go!

It’s a tough call. We don’t know whether to plead Guilty or Not Guilty, but we need to make a decision one way or the other. Too much is at stake for us to say “Farewell, My Turnabout”.

I like how we have to walk such a razor thing tight rope between stalling so that we can buy time, pumping De Killer for information so that Edgeworth can use it to convict, and making sure to do it without tipping him that we’re doing either one. It makes for a satisfying plot beat and climatic witness in the game’s finale.

Which, speaking of, is coming up next time. At last, we’re at the end of Justice for All.

If we win, Adrian Andrews will be put to death for a crime she didn’t commit. If we lose, Maya will be assassinated by De Killer.

It’s looking like a lose-lose situation, but is there still time for a Turnabout!

Continuing the tradition of wildly implausible witnesses, starting with the parrot from the first game, we are now taking witness statements and testimony from the actual murderer who committed the crimes. Sure, he’s not the one who planned it all out, but he’s still a professional assassin.

And in a delightful twist, even though his testimony favors our case, we still need to break his statements to try to figure out if there’s a workable plan from what we’ve gathered. If we can’t, we may just need to decide which scenario person we want to see suffer for Matt Engarde.

Let’s just hope it won’t come down to that.

After bring so rudely interrupted by my computer crashing in the middle of our recording, we are back with the final trial of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All.

Normally, this would be where I comment on how all of the threads of the case are starting to come together for the big finale where we solve everything, but this time it’s different. We already know everything, including who the culprit is along with how and why he did it. Those threads have already been resolved.

However, there’s still a tension in the air. I don’t think anyone playing this is wondering whether or not Phoenix Wright will find a way to both defeat Matt Engarde and save Maya at the same time. This is exactly the kind of game where everything works out in the end. Instead, the tension comes from figuring out how we’ll thread the needle to get to that point.

And the game is, right now, doing a great job in establishing that tension of we can work through it later.

Welp. It looks like our guilty client was caught paying off the assassin who performed the hit. How on Earth are we going to argue our way out of this?

Truthfully, we weren’t going to finish anyway so I can’t be too upset, but it is vexing that my computer completely crashed and hard reset in the middle of the recording.

Oh well. Next time, we’re actually going to finish Justice For All.

After a brief interlude with Adrian Andrews to hear her part of the story, we’ll finally be ready to face Edgeworth in the final trial.

I didn’t consider this when I first recorded the episode, but one of the more curious aspects of this case is the way that it inverts the typical Prosecutor/Defense relationship in the Ace Attorney games.

Normally, it’s the Prosecution that is going everything it can to secure a guilty verdict, pulling any dirty trick and manipulating facts and testimony to better suit their story. Old Edgeworth and Franziska do it all the time, because they’re convinced that it’s the only way to win, and that winning is everything. Which is why, as the Defense, it is usually up to us to break through their tricks in order to expose the truth of the case.

However, this time the opposite is true. Edgeworth is confident in his prosecution not because he’s resorting to cheap tactics and fabrications. This time it’s the opposite: He knows he’s correct, and can simply rely on the facts and evidence as presented to make the case. With the truth on his side, victory is almost assured.

Except, with Maya’s life on the line, we can’t afford to let that happen. Which means that we are the ones resorting to lies and dirty tricks to prolong the trial as much as we can. Ace Attorney doesn’t play this card too often, but when it does it works. The mechanics don’t change, yet in this new context they take on a whole different texture and flavor that adds to the work overall.

It’s a large reason why this case is so well remembered.

It’s clear that both Adrian Andrews and Matt Engarde still have their secrets: Secrets which will be vital to the final day of trial.

We’ll need to uncover those secrets if we want uncover the full story.

At last, we come to the crux of what makes Farewell, My Turnabout such a great case in the Ace Attorney canon. Our client, Matt Engarde, is, without a shadow of a doubt, the person who hired Shelby De Killer to assassinate Juan Corrida. For the first time, Phoenix Wright is in a position where he must defend a guilty man.

Up until now, all of our clients have been innocent of the charges laid against them. Whatever their crimes were, murder was never one of them. Though circumstances are complicated by Maya’s abduction, the question is posed as to whether or not it is morally correct to mount a legal defense for someone who is guilty.

Many words can describe me, but “lawyer” is not one of them. This question is probably better off answered by someone who can call himself a “lawyer”. However, as a layman, I do wish to point out a few factors that should be considered when answering. (I look forward to being crucified by lawyers for completely butchering basic legal concepts.)

• The US legal system specifically runs on the presumption of innocence. By the laws of my country, an accused person is presumed innocent until there is sufficient evidence to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. As Ben Franklin once said, “it is better that ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man be imprisoned.”
  
• To the end, our law grants that all accused persons are entitled to a fair trial and a legal defense. By that system, imperfect as it is, we still recognize that prosecution is a power that, without checks, can be wielded by the state against even the innocent, especially when those in power have ulterior motives for those prosecutions. For that reason, these rights are afforded to the accused such that this power is wielded judiciously.

To that end, I almost wish that Maya wasn’t kidnapped, and that Phoenix had to tackle this issue on a deeper, more philosophical level. However, that would be an entirely different script and I can’t fault the game developers for having their own vision and sticking to that vision. My curiosity is, frankly, not their problem.

But Matt Engarde’s guilt certainly is. And soon, we’ll finally get to the trial.

I convinced myself that by the end of this week’s batch of episodes, we would be finished with Phoenix Wright: Justice for All.

And I was a fool for believing that was the case.

I know that our client, Matt Engarde, didn’t actually kill Juan Corrida. If he had, our magatama would’ve detected his Psyche-Locks.

But a lot of the evidence still points to the possibility that he is the culprit, and it’s compelling. Could there be something we’re missing? Perhaps further investigation will yield fruit next time.

The revelations from the trial have called every assumption we had about the murder of Juan Corrida into question. While we aren’t starting from square one, we definitely need to rethink our approach.

And that starts with looking for new evidence.

And with that, we’re likely to wrap up Justice For All by the end of the next stream. Good timing too, since I will need to skip a week of recording to attend Anthrocon. If you happen to be attending, by all means let me know so we can meet up and say hi.

We knew going into this trial that Adrian Andrews had her own problems to deal with. But when it inevitably comes to light, will the poor girl be able to handle it.

And so we finally arrive at the meat of Farewell, My Turnabout.

While all the evidence pointed to Adrian Andrews, that’s simply because she’s the one who planted most of it to frame Matt Engarde. As misguided as her actions were, they were not the moves of a murderer. We should have figured it out from the very beginning: Juan Corrida was murdered by a professional assassin, the same one who kidnapped Maya.

And if we take that as a fact, then what does that mean for our client, Matt Engarde. We know he didn’t kill Corrida, but does that mean we can trust him.

In the real world, that doesn’t matter. Most lawyers would tell you (but specifically LegalEagle even though I can’t find the video) that believing in your client can actually make one worse at the job, because then they might miss avenues of attack the prosecution is likely to use against their client. A lawyer’s job is to provide legal counsel and representation so that a defendant can be granted a fair trial as they are entitled to under the law. For this reason, abdicating their duty, even when they know the client is guilty, is unethical practice.

However, here in the realm of fiction, this raises its own set of moral and ethical quandaries, one that parallels the different stances that Edgeworth and Franziska have regarding prosecution. As we continue the investigation, and the final trial, we’ll begin to explore what Justice For All has to say about both these questions.

Please look forward to it.