@RogerRoger I played this back in the day when it was on the DS. Reading your thoughts it’s reminded me just nuts this game is. I’m going to have to pick it up sometime to relive the craziness. It’s really the epitome of Japanese games.
@RogerRoger Everyone expects you to stake out the unpopular position on the case, but you subvert expectations by agreeing with the majority of the fanbase. Good work, Rian Johnson.
Perfectly awful, that is. For starters, let's not skip over the fact that Regina Berry is sixteen, and yet everybody with a pulse (including Phoenix?!) drools whenever they A: talk about her, or B: talk directly to her. Why isn't that the focus of the trial? Why aren't all these creepy circus performers and perverts being hauled in front of the judge for trying to marry a minor?
Regina is legally able to consent at 16, and I believe she's even able to marry with a guardian's permission in most of the developed world, so I don't think the judge would be able to do much, even if the interest in her hadn't been limited to flirtation and talk of marriage.
And, speaking of who should really be on trial, let's not skip over the prosecution, either. Why isn't that lunatic German dominatrix in prison? She openly admits to coaching a witness to lie and present false testimony on the stand. I know that the Ace Attorney universe has a... let's say, a flexible relationship with the actual rule of law, and I've gone along with it before, but this crossed a line for me. She is caught breaking the law, in open court. Her subsequent excuse for witness tampering and conspiracy to commit perjury is both nonsensical and irrelevant; that should've been an instant mis-trial, and she should've been arrested and disbarred. And yet, what happens? She receives some mild disapproval from the bench, she arrogantly whips the judge anyway, and we continue like nothing's happened.
Pretty sure her father got away with witness intimidation tactics openly in court, so Franziska getting away with this seems pretty par for the course. Also, she violently assaults people with her whip without any repercussions. Remember, the justice system in this game is corrupt (or particularly susceptible to abuses of power, at least), and you're cursed with possibly the worst judge in the world.
All the while, I'm being threatened with contempt of court if a clown happens to crack a joke during my cross-examination. I know that Phoenix is the protagonist, and we're supposed to feel the pressure as we help him pull the most ludicrous bluffs out of his backside, but this case became artificially unfair in multiple places. Which wasn't necessary because, as an example of a murder mystery whodunnit, it was just badly written, and was therefore impenetrable anyway. When the gravity-defying cloak floated up and got snagged on the bust, I howled.
Can't really defend the case's honor here. I love Moe, but the sequence where the judge penalizes you if you press him for information sucks! Just poor, infuriating game design.
The cloak thing is... unlikely... but not impossible. The problem is that, while Phoenix insinuates the cloak gets "snagged" on the bust, the in-game animation, yeah, shows it awkwardly hovering onto the bust.
The hat was on the bust as well, right? The hat bothers me more than the cloak. My pants get snagged on stuff all the time, so I could see that, but the hat landing nicely on top of the bust's head is another thing entirely.
BTW, there's a fun little secret in this case. If you accuse the judge of hiding the murder weapon, he gets furious and double-penalizes you, which drops your HP bar down to almost nothing!
Oh, and another thing, why isn't my Mystic Green Comma of Truth working properly? It went nuts when Acro didn't want to disclose trivial details about a mishap six months prior, but then fell silent when he straight-up lied about his alibi for the murder. Seems like it's only interested in gossip; must be every tabloid journalist's dream tool. I should give it to Lotta.
Question: did the former incident trigger during an investigation, and the latter during a trial?
Nevertheless, I quite liked the circus setting and, despite the unbelievable technicalities of the murder, I thought that the eventual heart of the matter was compelling enough. I also perked up whenever hints were dropped about Edgeworth, and the post-trial teaser for the next case meant I didn't walk away angry, but this was otherwise a definite low point for the trilogy thusfar. Some previous cases have been a little off-the-wall, but this one was off its face. It wasn't riddled with plot holes so much as plot canyons, far too wide for any leaps of logic. I needed a logic jetpack to traverse them.
What were the plot holes besides the questionable bit with the cloak and hat getting snagged on the bust? I've heard debate about Acro's motives, but his actions never seemed that odd to me.
And I hate Franziska von Karma, so freakin' much. She needs to go away.
I'll pick up this part of the conversation after you beat the next trial, but I can't bring myself to dislike Franziska.
Even if I'm in the awkward position of not disliking this case, I can indeed agree with @nessisonett that it's all uphill from here. The next trial (and last in JFA) is one of the better cases in the series, and T&T arguably doesn't have any low points (I'm not a huge fan of 3-2, but it's still better than Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Big Top).
Uncharted 3. Finished Mass Effect 2 quicker than I expected, so figured I can probably squeeze that in before Kena comes out on Tuesday. It was my least favorite Uncharted game (not counting the PSP game I've never played) when I originally played the series, so it'll be interesting if I end up liking this one better this time around via the Nathan Drake Collection.
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@RogerRoger Yeah that's true. I think we did discuss about that aspect maybe a year or so ago when I finished Lego Batman 2. And I barely touched upon the open world of that game at all. However, I've done some exploring in Marvel Super Heroes and the open world here is fantastic. First of all, I absolutely love car races because the handling for cars in this game is so tight. Not to mention the phenomenal music that plays during these parts:
I'm genuinely surprised at how much I enjoy the races in this game. I also like doing the side missions for getting gold bricks, such as solving puzzles or helping out characters by e.g. bringing one of them back their lost monkey or a pizza van that was supposed to have arrived earlier. The open world aspect in this game is definitely more enjoyable than in Lego Batman 2. However, I'm definitely not going to go for 100% in this game considering how much menial stuff there is to do. Like I'm fine with doing some side missions here and there because they're fun variety in between story missions, but there's just way too much side content here that I'm not going to bother with. Not to mention that there are dozens of Lego games and all of them have tons of content as well, so if I want to experience as many as I can then I'll have to use my time wisely.
Other games I have in my backlog are City Undercover, Batman 3, Marvel Super Heroes 2 and DC Super Villains. After I've gotten through most of them, I'm considering buying more Lego games and the ones I'm interested in getting now are Marvel Avengers and Star Wars The Force Awakens. I know that they're releasing the Skywalker Saga, but I doubt that that game will have the same amount of content as The Force Awakens in terms of that particular movie. Not to mention that I honestly don't like the original and prequel trilogies as much as the sequel trilogy simply because that one is more modern. So I'd rather just play The Force Awakens for now and it does seem like a good Lego game overall.
Part of it was probably the hype for the game at the time, as I had just bought a PS3 a couple of years before that and was experiencing a lot of the big Sony exclusives of that time for the first time. I've owned every single PlayStation console, but I had moved to Xbox at the time until buying a PS3 changed everything. Anyways, coming off playing the first two Uncharted games and others, I guess I was still in the "honeymoon phase" in a sense and was a bit let down after Uncharted 2.
Completely different time now obviously, so I do expect to like it better this time around. I'll definitely post my thoughts whenever I'm done in the "Games you've recently beat" thread.
PSN ID/Xbox Live Gamertag: KilloWertz
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@colonelkilgore@Jimmer-jammer KoA:R-R is an enjoyable but very easy romp, I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for Souls-like gameplay - you can't even fall off the edge of cliffs in this game, the game just prevents that from happenning! Combat is simplistic - like Fable, even, if either of you have played that, but there's plenty of loot and it definitely is fun, just depends on what you're looking for from your gaming experience. How are your games going?
"(Music is) a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life" (paraphrased) - John Cage
I’ve finished Tales of Arise and I’m now playing through Lost Judgment and Kena: Bridge of Spirits. I was a bit concerned how the PS4 version of Kena would turn out, but it looks and plays great.
@Bentleyma- Looks good! My understanding is that other than resolution/framerate, the PS4 version also limits how many of the rot creatures are displayed simultaneously - but it looks like they handled the port well. I haven't seen anyone talk about any bugs/issues yet either.
@TheBrandedSwordsman yeah I'm not sure what I'm expecting from KoA really. I do love fantasy RPG's though, so I'm hoping I connect with it (when I eventually play it).
I'm still playing MGS2. I finished my first playthrough yesterday but I'll need at least another 4 (maybe more depending on how I do in terms of collectibles etc). Then there's 10 snake-tales, 150 alternate missions and 350 VR missions... Good job that I'm really enjoying it I guess 😅
@TheBrandedSwordsman sounds cool. I’m not too particular with game-types or anything. I guess I just either enjoy it or I don’t 🤷♂️ Think I’m nearing the end of Psychonauts 2. Man, I’ve really enjoyed it. Feels like a blast from the past.
“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” C.S. Lewis
@TheBrandedSwordsman@Jimmer-jammer@colonelkilgore It’s been a while, but I recall the KoA:R combat to feel a little bit like old-school God of War, although with more ranged and magic options. It’s pretty kinetic, but there is a ton of weapon and armor options. I quite liked the game and spent a lot of time in it. It scratches the fantasy itch but is more action oriented than a lot of fantasy RPGs, at least compared to its contemporaries. The story was okay. I think it was written by R.A. Salvatore. I’ve not read any of his novels, but he’s a well-published fantasy author.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution yeah that sounds interesting. I seem to remember having something of a choice between KoA and Dragons Dogma when they came out. You know the type, like choosing between Deep Blue Sea or Lake Placid - similar genres released at similar times. For whatever reason I settled on DD and just never got back to give KoA a try.
“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” C.S. Lewis
@Th3solution I like the fact that you’ve said it’s more action-oriented than a lot of fantasy RPG’s. I do love fantasy RPG’s but I think the Dark Souls series has kind of scratched that itch for the last generation or so (albeit in a slightly skewed ‘style’).
As a result I have KoA, Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen, Dragon Age: Inquisition and the three Darksiders games (though not quite sure if they qualify as fantasy RPG’s or not) in the backlog to clear. I also want to playthrough (& finish this time) The Witcher 3. My usual plan of one per year probably ain’t gonna cut it if I’m honest 😅.
@colonelkilgore Haven’t played the Darksiders games. I guess they look like a type of dark fantasy rpg. I’ve heard them described as 3D Metroidvania and Zelda-like before. KoA, DD, and DA:I are all open world time sinks. Also all three start off with a character creator and a ‘blank slate’ type of protagonist. All three are also heavy on the weapon and equipment modification and stat management. KoA is probably the most whimsical of the bunch, per my recollection of playing them all. It’s more colorful and the characters more… not sure the best way to describe, but ‘cartoony’ is all that comes to mind, but makes it sound juvenile, which it’s not. It’s a great art style and it has an edge to it if it’s own, but DD is more grim and DA:I is more grounded and epic feeling. All three have extensive lore and world building, like any good fantasy rpg. I like them each in their own way. KoA is probably the most iterative in its gameplay though, and feels more quick paced because of the GoW inspired combat. It’s been a few years for each of them though, so my memory could be cloudy.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I’m sure I’ll enjoy them all in their own way. As you implied though… pretty much all of them are major time-sinks, so there is no way im gonna play them all consecutively just to clear them from the backlog.
@RogerRoger I think Uncharted 3 suffers from Dark Knight Rises syndrome to be fair. On it's own it's an awesome game and better than most games but because it didn't quite reach the heights of Uncharted 2 (and while U2 hype was still big) for some reason some people deemed it disappointing.
@colonelkilgore Ya know as I was thinking about these 3 games and describing them, I guess I came to a conclusion that I must like the ‘blank slate’ protagonist better than the concrete character in most rpg cases. For some reason when I spend the time creating my character and making him or her look just the way I want and in some cases choosing their background, race, gender, and personality in addition to their physical features, it makes me more invested in their plight.
The 3 games mentioned all had some character creator of varying degrees of intricacy; I contrast it with Witcher 3 which by all accounts should be a vastly superior version of the open world fantasy genre these belong to, and yet I had trouble sticking with it past the opening few hours. Now some of that has to do with the gargantuan number of question marks dotting the land and the sheer overwhelming nature of that, but some of it has to do with just not caring for Geralt very much. I hadn’t played the first two games nor read the books (nor watched the TV series which didn’t exist at the time but I still haven’t watched anyways) so to me he was just a grumpy guy with laryngitis and cat eyes. 😅 I’m certain if I stuck with it long enough then Geralt would grow on me. But as of yet I can’t bring myself to go back. Like you say, maybe the PS5 port will lure me to try again, because I like the fantasy rpg genre, clearly, as evidenced by my having played all these other games.
Anyways, sorry for the monologue there, but it became clear to me something about myself I hadn’t fully realized. But I’m still not sure how I feel fully, as somehow I really love open world games like Red Dead Redemption 1/2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, etc where the main character is a very specific person.
I recall there was a discussion at some point in the last few years on the forums about this topic and I can’t remember what my thoughts were at the time, but maybe they’ve changed.
Ah well, I don’t know but I’m just rambling at this point. 😅
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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