Spirits, Justice, etc
Mar. 21st, 2019 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabinetzinSo, Spirit of Justice.
Let's be up front about this: the race/ethnicity issues in this game are buck. fucking. wild. Half the game is set in a thinly-veiled Tibet-analogue, where Phoenix and Co. basically back insurgents to overthrow the crown.
I'm as confused as you are.
What makes this weirder is the localization problem. Depending on whether you play the Japanese release or the NA one, it takes place in either Japan or America. And friends, there is a BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE when we're talking about overthrowing a government in what we are given assume is Asia.
Like, I feel like the facts speak for themselves on this one. You're all smart, I don't have to explain to you why all this is problematic. Even Miles, who's got these knuckleheads in loco parentis, seems to be excited about the prospect instead of, like, realizing they should prob go home and not destabilize another country's government.
While we're talking about problematic elements, Turnabout Storyteller was maybe my favorite part (because you were playing as my girl Athena and her boyfriend Simon) but lord, the mental health issues. It was a nice change that the mentally ill person wasn't the killer and ultimately wasn't penalized or vilified for their issues, but could we maybe not, actually.
In non-*ist elements that didn't work, the whole thing felt very disjointed. There was just a whole lot going on, and the pieces didn't quite fit together. It felt like they had a bunch of boxes to tick off, and they ticked them off to the detriment of the story hanging together.
The game introduced new stuff that was interesting (though the Divination Seance was kinda fiddly as a mechanic) but its bones felt formulaic. You had to defend your assistants. Somebody got kidnapped. You had to redeem the prosecutor with the warm fuzzy secret heart. And maybe it's because I played Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice back-to-back after not having played the series in a long time, but Dual Destinies had some of these elements but still felt fresh.
There were some genuine surprises and twists, however, and I didn't see the ending coming. And I didn't hate defending Trucy or Maya; I love Trucy and Maya. I just mentally compare it to the other games and find it a bit lacking (though I still liked it better than AJ or AAI). I found myself racing for the end, trying to finish the story just so I would know how it ended, rather than enjoying playing it.
I wrote most of this before playing Turnabout Time Traveler, and it was a sheer delight. It had everything I needed in a throwback case, and bless Miles's heart, the judge stepped on a landmine that launched a thousand fics with Miles's way too emphatic pronouncement that he never wants to get married (it's bc he's secretly upset that Phoenix won't propose despite Miles giving him every chance, Wright).
So in all, not my favorite of the series, but I still liked it better than AJ. My personal leaderboard stands at:
1.Trials and Tribulations
2. Justice for All
3. Dual Destinies
4. Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton
5. Ace Attorney
6. Spirit of Justice
7. Ace Attorney Investigations
8. Apollo Justice
.. damn, I have spent a lot of time with these good good attorneys. NO REGRETS
Let's be up front about this: the race/ethnicity issues in this game are buck. fucking. wild. Half the game is set in a thinly-veiled Tibet-analogue, where Phoenix and Co. basically back insurgents to overthrow the crown.
I'm as confused as you are.
What makes this weirder is the localization problem. Depending on whether you play the Japanese release or the NA one, it takes place in either Japan or America. And friends, there is a BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE when we're talking about overthrowing a government in what we are given assume is Asia.
Like, I feel like the facts speak for themselves on this one. You're all smart, I don't have to explain to you why all this is problematic. Even Miles, who's got these knuckleheads in loco parentis, seems to be excited about the prospect instead of, like, realizing they should prob go home and not destabilize another country's government.
While we're talking about problematic elements, Turnabout Storyteller was maybe my favorite part (because you were playing as my girl Athena and her boyfriend Simon) but lord, the mental health issues. It was a nice change that the mentally ill person wasn't the killer and ultimately wasn't penalized or vilified for their issues, but could we maybe not, actually.
In non-*ist elements that didn't work, the whole thing felt very disjointed. There was just a whole lot going on, and the pieces didn't quite fit together. It felt like they had a bunch of boxes to tick off, and they ticked them off to the detriment of the story hanging together.
The game introduced new stuff that was interesting (though the Divination Seance was kinda fiddly as a mechanic) but its bones felt formulaic. You had to defend your assistants. Somebody got kidnapped. You had to redeem the prosecutor with the warm fuzzy secret heart. And maybe it's because I played Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice back-to-back after not having played the series in a long time, but Dual Destinies had some of these elements but still felt fresh.
There were some genuine surprises and twists, however, and I didn't see the ending coming. And I didn't hate defending Trucy or Maya; I love Trucy and Maya. I just mentally compare it to the other games and find it a bit lacking (though I still liked it better than AJ or AAI). I found myself racing for the end, trying to finish the story just so I would know how it ended, rather than enjoying playing it.
I wrote most of this before playing Turnabout Time Traveler, and it was a sheer delight. It had everything I needed in a throwback case, and bless Miles's heart, the judge stepped on a landmine that launched a thousand fics with Miles's way too emphatic pronouncement that he never wants to get married (it's bc he's secretly upset that Phoenix won't propose despite Miles giving him every chance, Wright).
So in all, not my favorite of the series, but I still liked it better than AJ. My personal leaderboard stands at:
1.Trials and Tribulations
2. Justice for All
3. Dual Destinies
4. Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton
5. Ace Attorney
6. Spirit of Justice
7. Ace Attorney Investigations
8. Apollo Justice
.. damn, I have spent a lot of time with these good good attorneys. NO REGRETS
