Ace Attorney Cases RANKED Worst To Best (Part 1: #40-21 - The Bottom Half)

hi i'm kempdog and welcome to the ranking of all the ace attorney cases from worst to best my brother and i have been huge ace attorney fans for years we love talking to each other and analyzing all these cases and i really wanted to be able to discuss this kind of stuff in more detail instead of going through comment sections so that's why this video exists the world can never have enough asatory discussion you know but this isn't just gonna be like any other countdown video i brought my brother along on this video so that way we can have some back and forth discussion hey i'm thewonkyangler256pi anywhere else on youtube he's voicing phoenix i'm voicing edgenorth and yeah we're just rolling with that so before we begin we should set some ground rules first of all this entire video is just an opinion none of this is set in stone it's just how we feel heck we don't even fully agree on it ourselves we went through a full year and a half of replaying every case and negotiating between each other to nail everything down it's worth noting that we tend to look at this entire series from the perspective of them being visual novels if some gameplay mechanics are annoying we'll bring it up but it usually won't be a make or break thing replay value is also a big factor that played into how we put it all together this comes from the perspective of people who've played every game in the series multiple times each we'll rate a case higher if we want to come back to it more or lower if we don't feel like coming back to it as much this will cover the original trilogy the second trilogy of apollo justice dual destinies and spirit of justice and both of the investigations games stirring edgeworth it does not include dgs or the great ace attorney because we haven't played it and it doesn't include professor layton vs phoenix wright which we have played but we didn't include it because it doesn't play into as much of an episodic format and didn't feel like it did also this should go without saying but spoiler warning for all of these cases we're basically going through these assuming you've played all the games we have if you haven't then just go do that now whatever we may say about these cases going forward we also believe that none of them are skippable and all of them are worth the effort of playing through this ranking is more about what cases most make us want to come back and replay over and over so let's not waste any more time let's get right into it number 40 1-1 the first turnabout come on what else could it be there's really nothing to say about this case you could say that this one is really important as the foundation upon which everything was built on but that's also kind of why it's at the bottom because all the subsequent cases improved upon it yeah there's no element of this case that isn't done better elsewhere larry has funnier appearances mia is alive but it's not better than when you actually play as her saw it throws it too pain in your face and you get to tell larry to lie like a dog and that's the full extent of interesting things that happen exclusive to this case you don't even find anything interesting if you press statements or answer questions wrong and even the toupee thing happens again in another case the first turnabout isn't skippable none of these cases are but one of the biggest things that decided our ranking was replay value and once you've gone through the whole series this one has literally nothing of interest to offer so it's at the bottom [Music] [Applause] 39 one the lost turnabout yeah most of the tutorial cases are down here at the bottom we're veteran players don't need to relearn how to replay the game you know if i were the only say in this ranking i'd personally have this one higher actually i think it's a funnier and all-around much more entertaining version of 1-1 the banana joke swellington the premise of why phoenix needs the tutorial again in the first place and all the other things still get a giggle out of me yeah but he always defends justice for all more than most people i think wellington is kind of annoying he's just pretentious old bag and like one one there's not as much of a reason to come back to it repeatedly it's just a tutorial case but with warhead bashing number 38 i won three the kidnap turned about okay first longer case got a lot more to say now this one may seem a lot lower than you'd expect we're not exactly giant fans of investigations one in general we both think it's the worst of the eight games we've played and most of the things we do like about it are done better in its sequel but it says something about the standards of the series when a case like this is this low because there is still a lot of good in it francis introduces k faraday who basically single-handedly saved the whole case from being unenjoyable yes k is absolutely fun enough to make it still worth playing through he has a lot of personality and is clearly enjoying herself in a way that's even kind of infectious and not annoying either he's the one big saving grace this case has i don't mind hulong lang's presence either even if at this point he's kind of a cliched rival character he's still got a fun design and theme song and he'd generally get more enjoyable later on but that's about all the nice things we have to say about this case quite frankly all the characters that exclusively appear in this case just flat out suck and this is especially inexcusable because the character writing in the series is the thing that we most enjoy about ace attorney in general i mean who are the characters in this case you got ernest amano who has some history with edgeworth's fest never explored and otherwise he's like oh i'm so sad i'm gonna count all my money so you don't feel bad for me and then he tries to backstab you last minute for shits and giggles i guess you got his son lance amano who is like the most disappointing killer ever he basically kidnapped himself to get more money out of his dad and his dad is totally okay with it for some reason and he's just a weak spoiled rich kid who you hate looking at and isn't even satisfying to take down on his breakdown as lane tune and then there's lauren pops which good god i think maybe the only character in this series ever where there's a straight disconnect between what the writers were going for and the actual effect she gives off she's basically a bad actress all over the top and melodramatic in a very fan-ficky way and worst of all all that overacting makes it hard to believe anything she actually says you don't give a single crap about her tragic backstory not just because it's boring and cliched and even far-fetched but also because she looks like she's only pretending to care this could theoretically work if he were the killer but no they just play her straight and think her weird acting is her endearing character traits but the worst part is probably just the setting i mean it's colorful and going from place to place is kind of interesting and that escape the room puzzle in the beginning is kind of fun but the rest gives off a really unpleasant vibe similar to turnabout big top except in that case it felt more intentional and that was part of the point of the case here you feel more sick just because the idea of an entire blue badger theme park to celebrate the police is so stupid and wrong on every level and even if that's on purpose it's totally incidental to the case and doesn't actually matter in a big way oh and i hope you really love the design of the blue badger because this case just smothers you with badgers the answer to nearly every puzzle is just badgers and more badgers and you get so damn sick of them i always found the blue badger to be more creepy than anything so you can imagine how i felt playing through this i don't know how even skye held it together during her 30-second appearance even the other recurrent characters aren't well utilized not just ema uh mike meekins is here and he's mike meekins kind of guy you love to be around right edgeworth even directly says he doesn't care about what happens to him which yeah wendy oldberg is there basically as a one-off joke that gets repeated in case 5 and would have been funnier if they held off on her until then this is a really hard case to talk about in brief because there's so much to rant about i mean it's not completely irredeemable or consistently an outright tour to get through but you can tell me that this is the best that ace attorney writers are capable of let's just leave it at that though we got 37 other cases to talk about [Music] number 37 3-4 turnabout beginnings this is one i actually wanted to have up higher because this case's ending is incredible you get treated to maybe the most disturbing image in the whole series one that just sticks with you and gives you nightmares it's one of the most impactful moments in the series and i also like how this lines up with 3-1 how mia knows what's going on in that case and we don't but it's the reverse in this one i thought that was really clever and of course it is one of the only two cases where you get to play as mia which is always a plus yeah but i wouldn't let this one go any higher because the rest of this case is just boring and not fun to play through younger edworth and gumshoe really aren't that different from how you know them elsewhere and are still done much better in investigations one getting through dalia hawthorne's various levels of [ __ ] is pretty damn tedious they make the setting of eagle river really visually boring and in terms of foreshadowing diego armando is about as subtle as a jackhammer to the head i mean aside from the last two minutes it's almost totally forgettable it's one of the least rewarding cases to come back to despite being as short as an intro case it unintentionally feels a lot longer than that you still need it there for setup for three five i'm still gonna stand by those last two minutes being amazing but it's still just two minutes i'm not convinced it makes up for the rest of the case being that blah well it makes up for it for me but yeah i agree it's really not one of the better cases here i let him have this one down this low number 36 i won one turnabout visitor it's another tutorial case and it's weirdly fun to come back to but it's not all that interesting they tell you who the killer is right at the beginning because of course and as a whole it's too quick to really stick with you that much maggie bird isn't it she's fun jacques portsmouth is entertaining and his breakdown is great it's fun to go around at his office with gumshoe and have him ask you what logic is it's fun there's just nothing amazing or noteworthy in it aside from being a fun introduction to new game mechanics it doesn't really start you the bang maybe all too fitting for investigations one which doesn't have much flash or flare in its later cases either number 35 6-1 foreign turnabouts well if you were complaining the last case was forgettable then 6-1 sure solves that problem doesn't it that's one hell of a way to start spirit of justice just right off the bat you get the stakes raised way higher than normal because you're now in a country that hates lawyers and you'll be put to death if you lose and the judge even threatens to have your tongue cut off several times it sure gets serious fast don't you think even if it gets unserious just as fast as heavy metal jesus shows up i mean that guy is more memorable than most other intro case witnesses he is pretty funny but i don't know if that's necessarily to the case's benefit he just throws off the tone and all the guitar noises get old really fast oh and speaking of things getting old fast they gave the gallery drawn out in fully voice acted segments for some reason those get old the millisecond they start and they seemingly never shut up yeah i'll give you that it was pretty annoying too but i like it when the gallery starts banging out we will rock you out of nowhere that your queen fandom talking maybe oh and not to mention this case introduces the divination seance i think that's a cool mechanic if a little convoluted at times whatever this is still higher than other intro cases since it's much more memorable than the last couple but the best parts of the case really lose their punch after you've played through the whole game and what's left isn't really that great [Music] number 34. five one turnabout countdown i've always been a huge dual destinies apologist so i think this is still one of the better intro cases it's your first exposure to this new upgraded 3d courtroom you get all this cool new music and animated cutscenes you meet athena for the first time she's great and get your first taste of mood matrix and you can't tell me that case about bombings doesn't leave an impact on you it doesn't leave an impact on me okay well then i mean ted tony is fun sure and gasp and pain is alright as a slightly more competent intro prosecutor but he's also obnoxious and i would argue much less enjoyable than his brother i can barely remember the details of how the case actually plays out and not to mention i think they [ __ ] up phoenix's reintroduction i mean it was great to see him back when i first played dual destiny since it's been so long since we had a game starring him at the time but the transition between this and where he left off at the end of apollo justice wasn't very well executed phoenix went down a pretty dark path in that game and when you see him back in this game it's like he's trying to pretend that none of that ever happened well i think that's mainly a result of this case weirdly taking place near the end of this game's actual timeline and seeing it out of chronological order i mean the real case order is supposed to go two six three first half of four one second half of four five yes really this case takes place in the middle of case four there was absolutely no need to make things so complicated but once you do actually sort that all out you can figure out it's actually not retconning anything you get to see him act a lot more like his apollo dust itself and other cases that happen before it and progress towards this state more naturally that's why the whole dark age thing is in the game too which i'm pretty sure is a direct reference to something that he said in fort one phoenix knows how dark the last game got now he wants to bring it to an end he's physically making the effort to get on the straight and narrow again now that he's officially put a close to the case that took his badge away would have been nice if they handled that in a less heavy-handed or on-the-nose way or didn't [ __ ] with the timeline so much yeah well whatever it's not bad for a tutorial case though it's still at the bottom with basically all these other tutorial cases i do fully plan on defending dual destiny's story as best as i can but i also kind of feel like a lot of people's problems with it stem from this case's placement and how unnecessarily confusing it makes things [Music] number 33 3-1 turn about memories the best case with mia still alive what i like the most about this case is all the foreshadowing for what's to come in the rest of trials and tribulations there's so many hints all over the place and it's great whenever you find them and the fact that you play as mia is also a plus owns kind of wish you'd get her own game i quite frankly would have this case much lower in my personal ranking and that's primarily just for marvin grossberg's non-stop complaining about his freaking hemorrhoids he's the absolute worst dude stop talking about your ass did it really ruin the case for you though came damn near close also we get to see phoenix as a teenager and it turns out he's significantly more of a dork somehow funny in theory but he can get grading if i'm not in the right mood whatever you're more of a justice for all fan i'm more of a trials and tribulations fan i still really like coming back to this one but yeah with two exceptions we'll get to these intro cases really don't give you much to work with and seriously pale in comparison with the longer cases number 32 six four turn about storyteller ah this case the one from spirit of justice that i'm fairly certain was a last minute edition and it shows athena sykes really got the short end of the stick throughout spirit of justice he was there in several cases but never played more than a passive role or did much more than standing by the side she really wasn't important at all to the game and to drive that point home we have the one case in spirit of justice where you actually play as her and it has about as much substance as an intro case this is your third run-in with nyuta sadmahi we'll get to him more when we talk about 63 but he goes through the exact same arc he goes through in the previous two cases but even more unfinished and even more unnecessarily mean-spirited and with an even more repetitive let it go and move on sequence where he says that like 11 times in succession as if i'm saying it so many times in the last two cases and gotten old enough already and you don't care about the defendant at all he's most memorable for vomiting multiple times and the killer okay not the worst we've ever seen but at this point in the series there's really nothing shocking about crazy clown lady okay come on let me talk this case isn't much but it's still enjoyable i like wendo and how absolutely nuts he is with his multiple personalities you spend a lot of time with him and he's never boring but the best part of this case is the reintroduction of simon blackwill who ends up on the defense side part way in which is awesome and he works off athena fantastically his presence alone saved the case and still made it a lot of fun i mean this case really isn't that bad i think it's more interesting and fun than most of the actual intro cases it's this obvious filler number 31 one two turn about sisters now here's one that was a lot better when we first played it than it was most other times we played it i mean it's still really good the stakes are built really well with your mentor already dead in the second case of the series and nobody wanting to take the case it's also our intro to edgeworth maya and gumshoe all of whom are like the best characters ever can't forget that yeah but we can't overlook the issues here first of all yeah all those characters are great but they're still being written for the first time and haven't truly been fleshed out yet at this point none of the characters have really progressed beyond plot device status yet we love edgworth mayan and gumshoe but not specifically because of how they're portrayed here maybe edgeworth but more because of how different he is here than everything afterwards they're kind of dull compared to what they're like later on in the series and there's plenty of other issues like i couldn't help but feel bothered that right off the bat you got maya accused of murdering your own sister and at no point throughout the case does anyone actually bring up what could possibly be her motive for doing that that feels kind of rushed and the ending where mia writes down a list of people who the killer drove to suicide has phoenix read out the list and threatens to turn it into the press boom instant confession yeah even i will have to admit that it's a total deus ex machina ending feels really cheap though i kind of get why it's there to establish that the whole spirit medium thing is 100 real and that helps set up cases in the later games that moment where you first realize that you're talking to mia beyond the grave was amazing at least when you first see it and the killer himself they give away who it is in the first couple of seconds of the case again so that tears out any possible element of suspense i hate it when they do that hey come on now let's not this red white too much i mean yeah he's ridiculously obvious but he's also a ton of fun you gotta love his insane vocabulary and asking you the title of his fantabulistic personage what about april may he really fun to you um more scary and she's been topped several times but it's also got the bell boy who should be really boring but instead you got this guy who obsessively loves writing affidavits and wants to rename the hotel after the murder that is something although let's not forget that this case is really short you can get through it in like two hours easy well well actually to be fair that makes one of the easier ones to come back to and replay so i guess i can give it a pass in that regard but still after you've played the full series this one's impact deflates significantly yeah even if it is one of the most important cases in the series when you compare it to pretty much any of the other ones later on this one comes up short [Music] [Applause] number 30 4-3 turnabout serenade apollo justice gets too much hate this case gets too much hate i think it has more good stuff in it than one too just by a little no hang on i got some writing to do of course you do let's get the biggest problem out of the way the guitar freaking serenade this is the part where my music reviewer site is going to come out because this track is a pretty mediocre ballad with bland lyrics i suppose translating such a song from japanese and having it work and so many elements of the case is a pretty difficult feat in itself that has to be commended but still having to delve into the lyrics into such detail and having to watch this performance over and over is really tedious still better than the blue badger theme and watching clavier gavin freak out over his exploding guitar i could watch that all day i guess but it's not enough for me and on top of that the places you investigate are boring i mean we've been backstage during a concert before it is accurate to what backstage areas look like but it's still kind of boring and the characters the defendant is one of the most uncooperative defendants we've ever met he lies to you a lot and gives you the silent treatment the whole time and the reason he's arrested in the first place is pretty flimsy and the victim has no personality and okay we get it fine what do you like about it the main thing i like about it is clavier gavin he's great through this whole case he's funny he's got a lot of great classic rock references he's openly helpful to you sometimes but is especially determined to get through the case since it gets so personal for him the defendant's not great but the other characters are all good lamrar is really likable and well-meaning and all the talk of her being blind and how she experienced it is interesting daddy anne is especially entertaining too and not just because of his hair he's a really fun killer valent gramati is way better in his next case but the magic trick stuff is interesting this case also has some of the all-time best judge moments weird thing to highlight sure but between his getting personal with his friend's dying son and mistaking an igniter for a phone it's well done too even apollo this is technically the case in this game where he accomplishes the most by himself isn't it the other ones he's just playing into phoenix's plans or being guided along by troosie i think the hate for this case is still kinda warranted not the worst the series has to offer but certainly not very fun to replay i might prefer one too a little because it's shorter and easier to come back to though i also feel like one two had a much sharper drop off on repeat visits in the greater context of the series and it's not my solo ranking anyway i like it i think there's just more good stuff to enjoy don't love it but i like it number 29 2-3 turn about big top we're gonna get a lot of [ __ ] for having this one up this high aren't we so many people say they hate this one and that it's the worst case in the series i'm not huge on it myself either but it's not that bad is it actually believe it or not he's the one who really wanted to put this one up higher not me i'll let him do most of the explaining for this one yeah i'm one of the biggest justice for all apologists i know and i will stand by this case not nearly deserving the hate it gets not that i don't get the hate to some degree i mean what does everyone say anyways music is grating the characters are annoying the case is tedious and mostly unpleasant and not fun to play through in spite of its setting which should be a lot more fun than it turned out being just to name a few things okay that's a lot to unpack the music i will admit is the one criticism that i believe is 100 percent merited the soundtrack of this case gets super grating and repetitive and is the main thing keeping this case from having as much replayability the characters being annoying well i don't think they're that bad i remember first coming across ben and trillo and thinking they were hilarious just how crude thrilla was and how he works off of ben the stick may get old after a while but the series has done worse there's also mo who again i get it but everyone else around him finds him just as annoying as you do which leads him to humiliate himself in court and at the very end showcase some actual character growth and maturity same with max galactica as full of himself as he is in the beginning it does become clear to him through all the toxicity surrounding the case that he needs to just swallow his pride and actually work together with the other people in the circus there's like actual character arcs here that make sense even acro he's interesting in that despite being the most outwardly nice character is also the one with by far the most toxic and reductive attitude and he gets what's coming to him and regina okay she does get on my nerves the marriage love triangle crap was absolutely cringe-worthy but even she gets a much-needed reality shoved in her face at the end that still doesn't make for great replay value does it you still have to deal with them being annoying and being dicks to each other on repeat visits it's not a very fun case all the locations you look through are gross too like i said before the whole case has this weird unpleasant vibe to it yeah and i'm not gonna argue that such an unpleasant 5 makes for great replay value because it doesn't really but i will argue that the unpleasant vibe is there 100 on purpose and i think works to the case's benefit it does create a coherent and tangible mood you think this case about the circus is going to be all flashy and colorful and fun and entertaining but once you play it you get disappointed by how gross the locations feel how unpleasant and over the top these characters are and how depressing the final effect is but that matches up with how all these characters you think are going to be all color and flash and fun but they resent each other they're dicks there's a lot of toxicity in the atmosphere they're socially awkward and have no idea how to deal with such horrible situation and default to love triangle [ __ ] that only they care about there's a big overarching theme of shiny exterior with gross interior that runs through so many little details in the case and something that actually did stick with me in the long term is really well done and perfectly fitting well with the circus too flashing on the outside gross and outdated on the inside yeah exactly it may not be the most fun case it's a definite downer but i don't see its depressing nature as a con it's all a matter of perspective if you ask me just better experienced on mute and playing other music that works for me i agree that this one is overhated not great by any stretch but not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be oh yeah and you get to make phoenix imitate a monkey can't hate a case with a moment like that number 28 [Music] 5-2 the monstrous turnabout this case is pretty weird and probably the weakest main case in dual destinies but it's not bad at all first of all is your introduction to simon blackwell and bobby fulbright both of which are amazing i'll never get sick of blackwell's constant trolling and manipulating everyone in court and fulbright it's way too easy to get caught up in this guy's insane enthusiasm and complete doofiness they really do a great job of making him really likable and the fact that we could still totally get caught up in his likability even knowing his big secret and in spite of his constantly spamming the word justice in every sense he says is no easy feat at all he's great and works off blackwell super well on top of that also you get more athena always great she suplexes the cop and you get to see the beginning of phoenix's transition from his apollo justice self back into his old self he may have put the suit back on and is marginally more supportive but he's still really cryptic and never tells apollo or athena what he's up to and you can still pick up little hints that apollo still kinda resents phoenix and phoenix doesn't fully respect apollo yet all over the place which is a really nice touch now of course we gotta talk about the case itself which is unfortunately where most of the problems lie the way everything plays out is just so massively complicated and super easy to forget key details though to be fair it's not confusing in such a way that it's massively difficult to figure out what you need to do next at any given point the game makes sure to guide you right along perhaps even getting you along a little too much it would be nice if you were given more freedom to do what you want in the investigation sequences it kind of feels like you're on a really linear path and there's many points at which you're even automatically transported to the next location you need to go without even pressing the move button it's a common criticism of dual destinies the game can be too hand-holdy and not really be much of a challenge and while i personally don't mind most of these aspects like for instance being given a to-do list is an all-around positive edition yeah it can be a little restrictive sometimes i'm personally more annoyed here that you don't actually care about the specific details of the case or most of the one-off characters that appear here despite all the unique visuals and setting which almost felt like the game designers challenging the localization team who still try to pass this series off as taking place in america most of this case is actually pretty forgettable yeah jinxy tanma isn't that interesting and even kind of irritating and how she is constantly mistaking anything and everything from monsters they try to get us to care more about her but it didn't work that well for example they make her friends with trucy but then trucey basically disappears from the case after the first five minutes phineas philt is certainly not low effort in terms of his design and he's able to steal fulbright's shoes right off his feet multiple times without him noticing which is amazing but otherwise he's kind of just a skeevy thief character who you don't like being around and florent labelle i mean on one hand his pure shamelessness is entertaining and of itself and a friend of mine and i used to do this over the top impression of rich conservative people that by pure coincidence happened to perfectly match lebel's dialogue what do you want me but on the other hand as hilarious as he is he's basically the single most obvious killer in the entire series right on par with even furio tigre already everything about the way he's designed and how he acts screams i'm the killer but they even pull the red white move of directly revealing him as the killer in the opening cutscene which is massively cheap and what's worse the case attempts to have a bunch of red herring dead ends that just feel like you're wasting time especially on replay runs i mean they sort of try to get you to suspect lingxie and filch with the weird sleepwalking stuff and tenmutaru costume wearing respectively but these don't work when the real killer is so blatantly obvious and you've even outright told us in the opening cut scene just ends up feeling like padding instead there's even a fake twist where they try to convince you that the victim in this case has a secret identity is the famous pro wrestler the amazing nine tails but it's later revealed that the victim has not actually said wrestler at all and when you replay the case knowing this you kind of realize the victim doesn't actually have any character of his own he's just an empty red herring plot device that doesn't matter there is one big bright spot in terms of the one-off characters here and that's your defendant damien tenma this guy is freaking great at first they just sort of play the will powers card of this guy being super loud and intimidating and scary but is actually really nice and caring and honestly there are a lot funnier about that whole aspect here than even in 1-3 but on top of that there's that whole demon possession act he puts on that somehow everyone falls for or at least plays along with even the guards at the detention center take the act seriously for some reason and he's clearly having so much fun pretending to be some evil demon lord and he's even the real amazing nine tales wrestler and boy that this guy is a pro wrestler makes a lot of sense he definitely acts way more like a wrestler than the mayor of a town or the typical politician some people try to make him out to be a little schwarzenegger asked maybe generally speaking this case is pretty enjoyable and we come out of it entertained but there's far too many issues with it that we can't fully overlook it's very messy and is just all around kind of sub far and weak by the standards of the series it's certainly fun but it's really not a top tier example of the most fun ace attorney can deliver number 27 [Music] i12 turnabout airline there's really not a lot to say about this one it's a pretty solid case the characters are all pretty good and interesting in their own ways even when you don't think they have much of a personality see rhoda taniro as you go on and get to know her she becomes a more likable presence i mean she designed some really ugly suitcases and felt the need to buy them all herself because no one else would which is just the kind of minor detail we always love this series for kimmy meal is a fun killer zinc leblanc and his broken english is very much entertaining one million cents and franziska comes back which is always fun here she is probably better in the finale it's also the most visually appealing case in all of investigations one which you know isn't saying much about the murder taking place on a plane and looking through the cabinet in the cargo hold and wherever else is still fun to do makes good use of its colors too at least better than i want three looking at the suitcases is still more pleasant than looking at the badgers this case is fairly forgettable in the big scheme of things in medley no elements of this case quite wreak his greatness or becomes anything really to write home about but when going through this game is the one that goes by the easiest and we have the least caveats or nitpicks with it's the one in this game that has the least wrong with it and it's nice and short and easy to replay you come out of it fulfilled which as a result had us nearly considering you bumping it above the next pick which how about we get to that number 26 [Music] i15 turnabout ablaze you know just as most of the intro cases were gathered at the bottom of this ranking most of the finale cases in this series are gathered at the top and there's exceptions to both so let's talk about what's easily the weakest finale case in the series i mean look there's a lot of good ideas here things that still prop it up higher than all these other cases it's still a finale case and delivers on the scope you'd want out of the ending to an ace attorney game and tons of awesome little moments throughout that we still love but it's very heavily flawed the main problem with this case is just its crushing length which you know all ace attorney finale cases are super long and they're nearly always the best parts of their respective games but in this case you just kind of have to think about what that length is going towards and what purpose does it serve i mean let's not beat around the bush the elephant in the room in this case's final killer quirkis alba they went way too freaking overboard on this guy easily the biggest pain in the ass killer to take down in the entire series bar none he never freaking gives up i could understand this decision if the writers were trying to make a point about how entire systems and countries are built to prop up elites and how if you're in a certain position of power you can practically get away with anything but there's a moment at which alba is even stripped of his position of power because the [ __ ] he was doing was just that freaking blatant and at that point you're about halfway done taking him down this case just has no business being as damn long as it is not to mention even before that a lot of the key details that go into the case just aren't that interesting having to go into all the minor things about the two countries and their flower and butterfly designs and treasure statues and ink that burns green and so many other things that make me want to poke my eyes out there's even a second mask to mask in this case and his presence matters so little you forget he's even there after like two seconds hell you could be forgiven for forgetting the name manny kochen basically the entire plot of investigations one centers around what this guy's done but you never meet him in person and his design is just generic evil [ __ ] in a suit you don't give a [ __ ] about anything to do with him and once the game's done he could just disappear from your mind entirely even the setting is really dull it takes place in this not really that fancy embassy you got two offices with beige balls and a red carpet theater in the middle that just wears out your eyes and that's basically it ninety percent of the case takes place there there is an admittedly pretty cool rose garden area with the fountains in it but not enough time is spent there there's even a whole dressing room location that's frequently talked about in the last segment and you never even get to properly investigate yourself it's called ace attorney investigations wouldn't it be nice to investigate there though going by the one screenshot you get even that's just a tiny little room with boring white walls too so maybe not that much nicer but whatever it's all such a shame because as much boring bullcrap as this case puts you through there's still a lot of great stuff too getting to reveal the true identity of the yatagarasu is amazing shilong lang's arc and him finally getting one over to your side and some actually awesomely clever moments like pretending to accuse franziska so he can investigate alba stuff like this makes the case still worth the trouble even the comic relief is pretty solid you get larry butts as the steel samurai which is just as emotionally conflicting for edgeworth as you'd think and when the old bag is the pink princess which okay yeah would have been a way funnier reveal if he wasn't already the pink badger two cases before but at least it leads to edgeworth saying objection go away and ambassador palliano and his endless coupons are pretty funny too i like how you get all these handering corporate villain vibes out of his sprites but he's really just the most innocent out of the loop guy and is consistently helpful and friendly to you and of course the final moments when you actually do get to take down elbow for good is one of the most satisfying things in the series just finally putting an end to this [ __ ] feels really freaking good but between the visually bland setting the extraneous details and the way to drawn out ending this stuff just tanks the replay value makes us look back up at this case and not want to come back to it again thinking all the parts of this case that just feel like a chore to get through yep good case but too much wasted space and way too drawn out i mean if you want a case that did world building for different countries right you got this next pick number 25 six three the right of turnabout we have so freaking many mixed thoughts on the right of turnabout so much stuff in this case that's freaking great and a lot of stuff that is the opposite of that very strong feelings in both directions on this one it's very much a mixed bag as i kind of hit it earlier the thing that got this case above turnabout ablaze is the world building for the kingdom of crying no boring old embassies here they clearly put a ton of effort into making this place feel like a real country that has its own unique culture all the locations you explore are absolutely stunning to look at and are super well designed they go into so much detail on the day-to-day rituals of the citizens here and how hyper-religious everyone is but also going into the specific politics of the country and the existence of the rebels and how they operate this place has a steel samurai rip-off show called the plume punisher they even talk about like the kind of food they have there and all the stuff plays directly into the case and it's so much more interesting than the ink lanterns and stuff from i-15 the atmosphere in this case is so freaking well done and of course they also do a much better job of getting you to care about the side characters both victims have a lot of history behind them and are basically behind everything in the case you have the grieving wife of the first victim who impersonates her husband that hits the right balance of being funny but also feeling for her and of course we can't forget datz one of the leaders of the rebel movement who hit his head and lost his memory and is absolutely hilarious every moment he's on screen oh yeah in this case marks the return of maya and as you would guess she's one of the biggest highlights of the case she's a little more mature and much more confident in her own abilities but still loves messing with phoenix and hasn't really fundamentally changed from her old personality would be nice if she wasn't the defendant yet again and we had more actual time with her but she's certainly enough of a presence to lift this case up that much further that said there are some major issues with the case that we can't just overlook we may generally care about the side characters but the actual localized names all these guys went with they just were not trying with any of these ace attorney may have no shortage of pun names but this case has to have like the single worst set of pun names in the whole series like taurus in me trust in me get it that's arbal that's a rebel believe in me are you [ __ ] serious crazy a lot praise a lot and his real name is real nebu get it i mean by the third playthrough i did eventually get desensitized towards how low effort all these names were but even for race attorney the puns are pretty inexcusable and as well written as these characters may be their names are so on the nose that it gets distracting and makes them difficult to fully take seriously and there's more pressing problems than just crappy name puns first of all we got nayuta sanmahi as the prosecutor and let's not mince words he is the worst main prosecutor in the series his dialogue is just tedious and repetitive he throws tons of childish insults at you and says the word putrid so many times the word loses all meaning his character doesn't even have any hint of progression from having lost to apollo in the previous case they do give hints at his backstory when you talk to dats and the rebel hideout but more than anything he's just an annoying pain in the butt you really don't care about him at this point in the game and on top of that there is the issue of rafa he herself is not the worst part of this case but certainly one of my least favorite parts i personally found her to be really annoying as your assistant in this case and her character is pretty uncreative not only just a tsundere archetype played completely straight just doing the whole pretending to hate you stick that definitely hasn't been done before in like 50 000 different animes but also the whole spoiled princess thing as well just feels like an old played out trope i thought she was a total pain in the ass i actually disagree with him on this point though i quite liked rafa's presence here first of all they do have really solid explanations on why she acts the way she does she is still just a teenager who doesn't fully know what she's doing and has pretty much never been questioned on any of her actions before and once she starts to realize how much of a problem this could be and thinks about how she may have been creating false charges this whole time she starts to get really depressed and conflicted and even eases up on you a tiny bit maybe your character types been played out but she definitely has an arc and some depth to her personality oh yeah the divination seance is a really fun mechanic once you get used to it you can get tripped up and forget that you both have to point out something in the vision and match it to one of rafa's statements both of us have gotten game overs thanks to forgetting to select a statement but still the whole concept of it and going through the whole process is still pretty fun and creative at the end of the day and one more thing i kind of felt like this case ran out of momentum in its final moments once we get the victim on the stand through spirit channeling that whole stretch and finding out the real truth behind everything that happened it feels weirdly disappointing in a way that's hard to articulate i don't know how they could have easily fixed this or done it better than they did maybe if they established that praise a lot was actually a villain earlier or something i don't know but it was just kind of an unsatisfying note to go out on and the last testimonies with tarus just aren't that fun to get through and that has nothing to do with those creepy animations as a whole this case is certainly not the worst this series has to offer but it's a giant mixed bag whenever i play through this case i tend to really love the investigation sequence but just don't really care for the actual trials there are some brilliant stuff here a ton of super creative ideas all over the place but too much stuff that we don't like that really gets in the way and brings it down to the lower half of this ranking number 24 i22 the imprisoned tournament at its core the biggest issues with this case are the same as our issues with turnabout ablaze too overstuffed not enough of it's really interesting just to a less extreme extent here you still spend too much time on minor details you don't care about that much especially thanks to the presence of judge courtney who is nothing but headaches in this case nitpicking everything not unlike alba also the way she constantly threatens to take away your badge for not following the law to the very letter and then turning around and hiding crucial evidence from you until the most inconvenient time for you to hear it she's just a massive pain in the ass oh come on she's not that bad at least given the case takes place in a prison and moving around that area so limited the constant nitpicking ends up feeling a lot more earned than it did with alba her counter arguments are always legit and make for better and more interesting puzzles maybe not a fan of her hypocritical attitude here but she does redeem herself in later cases and her theme song is badass yeah but she's not the only one introduced here that you need to wait until another case before they get good sebastian the best is pure dead weight and everyone knows it he wasn't even that funny here to be honest and ray shields is nothing but an excuse for edgworth to keep investigating and otherwise just sits in the background and doesn't do anything besides random creepy womanizing and being excessively salty and condescending to edgeworth and awkwardly referring to himself in the third person again they do get better later but they're not particularly great in this specific case also regina berry is back and at least is less cringeworthy than she used to be but isn't that notable otherwise and simon keys uh he sure is there they sure do try to get you to care about them [Music] yep at least the characters that exclusively appear here are good jay albert is fine and his escape plan was really cool and rocky the polar bear that hangs from his shirt is absolutely adorable patricia roland is a suitably off-putting presence that turns out to be a pretty satisfying villain also good as a device to make ratios immediately regret asking people for hugs sir hondogan is great he's a really creepy red herring villain and hearing about all the things he taught his dog to do to help him as an assassin was just something else he's one of the best parts of the case but of course the best appearance has to be the return of frank saw it of all freaking people and he actually turns out to be plot important and you have a full-on logic test with him and even throws the toupee in your face again i mean yeah it's pure fan service but he's so much more hilarious this time around than he was before yeah this case certainly isn't annoyingly drawn out like turnabout ablaze was and has a lot more flair and personality but it can still be kind of tiresome it's the weakest case from investigations to in our eyes which just goes to show how much better investigations 2 is than investigations one like really number 23 6-6 turnabout time traveler all right the wedding case i guess it's the time trouble one two but yeah the time truffle stuff doesn't matter that much it's the wedding case this case is another mixed bag some stuff that's done really well and other stuff that isn't admittedly a lot of this case is running on pure fan service seeing phoenix and edward and maya and larry all back together in the same case and working off each other again but even so that fan service is fantastic it's great to finally have a whole case where you investigate with maya when we didn't get that in the main bulk of spirit of justice she's exactly as enjoyable as she always is making all her usual snarky comments in court and eager to blast a fog machine in your face edward has lots of great moments like his absolute disgust at the idea of the power of love or emo fangirling for him and this has to be the single best appearance of larry butts in the whole series not just because of a sworn testimony titled nick is a jerk face but he's also the one to introduce you to the defendant by telling you he's getting married to her except not she was about to marry someone else and she's actually on the run from the cops for murder charges and she apparently experienced time travel and larry says he did too and then several dozen cops around the agency in order to try and dispose of a bomb that doesn't exist because they didn't because they pretend to have one in order to momentarily get them off this trail i can't i can't say this with a straight face i love it one of the best opening two minutes of any case in the series as well while i'm at it now once we actually get to the case and end up getting to know the actual one-off characters they are all generally pretty enjoyable and compellingly written the bride larry stole ellen wyatt may seem kind of bland in the opening scenes but quickly reveals herself to be super emotional and expressive once you actually meet her in the detention center her excessively stuck in his own head grooms or in sprocket has a really well done subplot regarding a memento-esque memory condition he's developed and there is a legit romantic chemistry between the two of them that they do get you to care about not an easy feat given i've never been a romance guy myself setting's pretty dang cool too taking place in that giant steampunk e airship and it is pretty fun to look around that said there are some definite issues first of all boy does this case really beat into your head how much athena got shafted in spirit of justice she keeps trying to pop in and offer you help at several different points and every time she's unable to because she promised trustee she would help her with her magic show without realizing how intense an experience that would actually be you keep wanting to let athena get a break and let her on board on the actual case but phoenix just keeps openly shutting her down i know it's just an excuse for maya to continue being your assistant but after some point it starts to feel like phoenix is just being a dick to athena which i guess is funny to see those little moments of passive-aggressive older phoenix treating her exactly like he treated apollo in his own game but it also would have been nice to see her get even a shred of respect but those are just quick little moments a bit more pressing concern is this case's final stretch with the revelation of the true killer and the ending pierce nickety prior to your grilling him for being the killer was actually pretty enjoyable as your stereotypical butler type character never mind the whole the butler did it cliche he is eerily competent but very polite and not outright unfriendly despite maybe a few edward-ish cold business-like tendencies and i did actually quite like him but when it's revealed that he's the real killer as well as the surgeon who operated on soren's dead sister and said sister's fiance he pulls a surgeon mask over his face and from that very second onwards this case proceeds to completely crash and burn and never recovers nikity's personality post heel turn is a borderline joke he has a testimony called right to remain silent where he says nothing in an attempt to not get tripped up in his own words and proceeds from there to never shut the [ __ ] up until the final breakdown at the end all that dignity and subtle and he's completely out the window in favor of just going all out on the nose same with the ending after his breakdown i found the whole thing with his pocket watch restarting in that whole scene with soren proposing to ellen again to just be massively corny and schmaltzy and similarly on the nose in a way that ended this case on a sour note for me well at least the anime cutscene at the very end is good we get to see larry get bum rushed by maya athena and emma all at the same time overall this case is a mixed bag and being chronologically last in the series this really does not have the feeling of a well closed up ending like turnabout revolution or even an epilogue it's just a one-off side story that doesn't matter too much and the kind of case that makes me think man capcom when's asa 27 coming out already but for all its faults we still remember this case more for its best moments than its worst there's still easily enough good stuff here and replay value to make up for the kind of disappointing ending i wouldn't want to live in a universe where we don't get the judge lecturing edgeworth on his lack of romantic life anyways number 22. one three turn about samurai i don't know what there is to say about a case like turnabout samurai this case basically established the norm for character writing in the whole series one one and one two were all set up and backstory and stuff like that like they were still figuring out what they wanted to do but this case is where they found their comfort zone and ran with it for the rest of the series it's a classic case this is one of my favorite cases to replay in the first game if there's criticisms i do have it's that the investigation sequences are very fetch questy especially in the second investigation there's a lot of time spent going from place to place and giving something to a person so that they can give you another thing to another person and so on and so forth i don't mind it too much personally though i kind of like the lower stakes of this case and how it mostly feels pretty relaxed in comparison with other cases in the series well besides when d vazquez decides to get all mobby on you well yeah it does heat up a lot in the last third but in a good way you get to see edward's development from evil corrupt prosecutor getting humiliated by old bag in the beginning and slowly convincing himself that he's in the wrong by chasing after a guilty verdict culminating in his turning on his own witness in the end and helping you win absolutely glorious moment there and the side characters are great too wendy old bag is really funny and especially how edward reacts to her will powers is as likeable as defendants come cody hackens and his obsession with the steel samurai is great salmonella as gross as he is is pretty funny with how he talks in really outdated leet speak and even penny nichols most find her forgettable but she's actually one of my personal favorites i like for instance how they just randomly made her obsessed with trading cards just that little detail that shows they went the extra mile my favorite part of this case though is definitely maya this case is the point at which she really gets to shine and show her true colors as the total weirdo that she is she's the one who's dragged you into this case in the first place she works fantastically off of every other character and her constant excitement and curiosity is practically contagious he is absolutely a 10 out of 10 in this case even though we're still technically in the bottom 20 here we're getting to the point where we're gonna be having a lot more gushing than complaining or nitpicking this is basically just the status quo for the series in terms of quality the baseline expectation at this point there's lots more cases that are just more interesting and top it again but it still delivers on basically everything we'd want out of an ace attorney case [Music] number 21 three two the stolen turnabout welcome to the top of the bottom half what's this a case that centers around a larceny and not a murder well no it's still got a murder but they wait until halfway through the case to reveal it this case has some big strengths and some big weaknesses this is one of the most frustrating ones to replay especially near the end when there are some really annoying testimonies where you have to press some random unrelated statements in order to allow phoenix to present the point you already had in mind beforehand and not in a way that particularly makes sense not the very last testimony where you have to press one statement and a string of like 12 is your last chance that's a good moment but there's a few before that you kind of need to present your point in an unnecessarily roundabout and convoluted way and there are several moments where you're forced into a short flashback of a scene you literally just saw 10 seconds ago i mean if you remember what i said before there are several moments where you're forced into a short flashback of a scene you literally just saw 10 seconds ago it's irritating the case as a whole is pretty convoluted and easy to forget key details i mean the victim kane bullard is one of the most forgettable victims and mai even says so herself though this case can also be comfortable in an entertaining way just say out loud that this is a murder dressed as a larceny carried out by a blackmailer who was being blackmailed that is what this case is and the character is appearing in this case you'll never forget any of them ace detective luke at me whose title and name puns speak for themselves total pretentious attention [ __ ] in every way there's the excessively awkward rhonda light who can't stop yelling about how he is master thief masked mask and wants to be arrested and his motorcycle speeder wife desiree delight who is weirdly okay with everything that happens in this case none of whom are particular favorites in the whole series but definitely fulfill the baseline expectations of ace attorney side characters as in they're all totally weird but still all feel like real people somehow also great to see adrian andrews again and in a much better place emotionally than where we saw her before oh yeah and larry's back he got punched and messed up security data but of course this case is also our introduction to godot you gotta love this guy his insane coffee addiction weird sayings and rules sarcastic jabs at everyone in the courtroom especially phoenix of course but never over the top about anything aside from the spit takes he's great this case can still be a mixed bag hence why it's still in the bottom half but it's still a pretty unforgettable case where the annoying parts can be forgotten and the best parts continually stick with you this is the definition of middle of the road for ace attorney i think that really speaks to the series baseline quality and consistency writing-wise and that's the end of this part of the video make sure to like share and subscribe and all the rest of it stay tuned for the second part of this video where we go through the top half of the ranking and break down our 20 favorite ace attorney cases [Music] you

Channel: Kaempfdog

Views: 80,502

Rating: 4.887023 out of 5

Keywords: phoenix wright

Id: SX9hQgdpnFk

Length: 58min 3sec (3483 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 15 2021