As we continue to expose inconsistencies and contradictions in Adrian Andrews’s testimony, it’s becoming clear that all the evidence points to her guilt. There’s simply no one else it could be. Wright?

Wright!?

Edgeworth has always been an intense man, but now he’s at a whole new level. As we’re about to find out, he’s done a lot of growing as a person and as a prosecutor while everyone thought he committed suicide. (Don’t think I forgot about that.)

And next time, he’ll get to demonstrate just how far he’ll go in service to his new philosophy.

We know for a fact that Matt Engarde was not the one who killed Juan Corrida. If he was, our magical lawyer superpowers would have told us.

But that leaves us with a penny dreadfully short list of suspects, including our next witness.

Obviously, this would be a poor finale if the case was cracked and the trial was over after a single day, so it’s no surprise that we’ll have more to unravel after this trial. What may be a surprise is that all of this is a prelude to what makes Farewell, My Turnabout such an interesting case in the canon of Ace Attorney.

And I can’t wait to discuss it in more detail.

As a prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth has the tools to handle all sorts of unruly witnesses on the stand… except for Wendy Oldbag. I don’t think anyone could get her in line.

But this was only the prelude. The real battle starts next week, when Adrian Andrews takes the stand.

We’re finally ready for trial. And you can bet Franziska von Karma won’t let us go that easily. Not after losing to us twice already.

Or not. Surprise plot twist, Edgeworth is our prosecutor for this final case. I can’t remember if I said this already, but it was apparently the original plan to have Edgeworth reprise his role as prosecutor for the entire game. However, the developers noticed that if they did that, he would be a great prosecutor in name only, losing every case he prosecuted on screen. Franziska was invented to solve that problem, creating a new adversary for Phoenix Wright so that they could save Edgeworth for his triumphant return here, in the final case.

And what a return it is, though we’ll go into why at a later date. For now, we have to focus on the trial.

As light-hearted as the Ace Attorney games are, there are times where they delve into darker, more serious topics. This is one of those times.

Content Warning: Depictions and descriptions of suicide and suicidal tendencies.

Despite how our actions seem on paper, and how glib I am about them, I do appreciate how empathetic the writing here is regarding Adrian Andrews attempted suicide and her desire to set her life back in order afterwards. It’s clear that she doesn’t think very highly of herself, but it’s also clear that the game doesn’t share in her opinion. Even Phoenix is very gentle with her feelings and does promise to respect her wishes and keep it a secret. And he’s also careful not to condemn her for her actions.

There are still areas on improvement of course, but given the times this was surprisingly forward thinking.

Our most important investigation yet is underway, with Maya Fey’s life hanging in the balance. If Matt Engarde truly didn’t kill the victim, then we need to find another suspect quickly. The trial is fast approaching.

I preface this by saying that I personally love Miles Edgeworth. He is one of my favorite characters in the Ace Attorney games and I am far from alone in that.

However, as much as Phoenix himself is (rightfully) angry at him for leaving a suicide note and going away for a full year, the game itself doesn’t do enough to call attention to how fucked up it is to do that to people who love and care about you. One might argue that part of that is the urgency of the case we’re working on, but that’s never stopped this series from having a moment before.

After all, we’re already about to tackle some dark subjects very soon.

Well, that certainly escalated quickly. With Maya out of the picture, we’ll need to be Engarde if we want to get the full acquittal we need to save her.

As is expected of a good Ace Attorney case, already the game has done a lot of work to seed hints as to who the true culprit is and what their motivations are. And often, it comes from small details that players are unlikely to pick up on during their first read.

It makes replaying a game like this worthwhile even after you’ve solved the case. Knowing who the culprit is ahead of time gives one the freedom to appreciate the artistry that goes into the construction of the full package. Once again, I find myself praising the dev and localization team for their efforts.

This fancy party for the rich is famous is nice, but honestly it’s so boring without a crime to invest- OH THANK GOD SOMEBODY GOT KILLED!

I have always been a staunch supporter of asset reuse where it makes sense, and this case shows off how it can be done creatively. Each of the returning characters, Lotta Hart, Will Powers, and Wendy Oldbag, all have valid reasons for being a part of this scenario, and having them here gives us a chance to catch up on what’s happened in their lives since we last met them in our previous cases. Additionally, it allows us as players to mentally rule them out as suspects. Given that we already know so much about them, including that they don’t have it in them to commit murder, the fact they’re here means we can focus on other characters more central to the mystery as viable suspects.

And even then, it’s somewhat unfair to call this pure asset reuse. Another outfit had to be drawn up for Will Powers to reuse all of his poses, and Wendy Oldbag gets a brand new costume with a few new poses to add to the character. These are new assets that had to be designed for these characters, and that’s worth at last acknowledging.

It’s impressive artistry all the same.

We have established a motive, a means, and an opportunity for our prime suspect. Now all we need is decisive evidence, and with it we’ll at last close out Turnabout Big Top and begin the final case of Justice For All.

Now, I know that the scene with Edgeworth between Case 3 and 4 basically states that Edgeworth was the one who seeded the idea that Franziska should order the surprise search, but I still believe in my heart that she wouldn’t have if she wasn’t already receptive to it. We’ll get more into it in later games in the series, but she does have a strong sense of justice and doesn’t like leaving any stone unturned. She probably already picked up on the feeling that Acro was hiding something. I doubt Gumshoe would’ve needed much to convince her.

And as for the next, thank god no one’s been killed. It would be a shame to have murder ruin to festivities.

We’re so close to the end of Turnabout Big Top. We have proven the means and the opportunity for our primary suspect, Acro, to commit the crime. All we need now is to pin down his motivation.

And there we have it: Our motive has been established. It was, in fact, as someone in my chat put it, “a comedy of errors” that led to the deepest tragedy. As is often the case in murder mystery fiction, misinterpretations and miscommunications lead to irrevocable consequences.

I’ve seen objections to the way Acro titled his note “To The Murderer” and not “To Regina”, chiefly because as someone who has lived with Regina and the other circus performers for most of his life, he should know that she would probably think it wasn’t her the note was referring to.

I don’t disagree that if he was a logical actor if the real world, that point would have merit. However, as a fictional entity in a murder mystery, this is an excellent story beat. It gives us something to mull over as we investigate the crime and his motive for committing it. Additionally, the argument assumes he is acting rationally, when he is about to murder someone in cold blood that he knew wasn’t hostile or threatening when talking would’ve easily solved this problem. Merely resorting to murder in this situation with such low stakes implies extremely irrational thinking, something Acro would no doubt agree with since he later regrets his decisions.

While we’ve spent far longer on Turnabout Big Top than I ever intended to, I don’t think it’s as bad a case as people make it out to be. Next time, we’ll truly wrap it up with decisive evidence, and move on to the final case of Justice For All.