[T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

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Gizmological
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Gizmological »

DarthWiader wrote:It just freezes. I managed to get a bit later on during the case.
Spoiler : Case 4 :
Specifically the moment where Athena and Trucy go to the prosecution's office. But when Apollo says it's a long story, the background goes dark, Apollo just keeps blinking and... nothing happens.
That's... very strange. Again, I'm not having any issue with it. You're definitely playing with firefox, aren't you? There's nothing else I can think of that might be breaking stuff.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by DarthWiader »

Either it's on my end or AAO is somehow acting up, since I also had the same problem with The Dragon's Turnabout. And yes, I am using Firefox.

EDIT: OK, it's working fine right now. The fade-ins and fade-outs didn't seem to work properly.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Blizdi »

It's finally out? What a quick 2 years it's been
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by risefromtheashes »

@Gizmological
Spoiler : YES :
Miles's "I'm the prosecutor replacement" scene is so perfect in case 4, God bless. The objection music is so much better than Great Revival for it.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Parafin »

Spoiler : :
Ford was hilarious with his British slang. I'm British myself so I had fun putting on an accent for him... :P of course as a villain, villains are never my favourite characters, but this guy was actually, in some sort of way, sympathetic, so I liked that. And I liked the twist of his true identity. Ms Dilly didn't have quite as much going for her, but I loved her constant phone calls and her being Wesley's boss was utter comedic genius.

The whole mystery, contradictions, and twists and turns like with the kidnapping kept me playing. I liked how it brought everything together. OG-4, Fuzz and the file, the mystery behind Shay, Crooke... Oh, and Pearl. Brilliant choice including her there!

What shocked me was the victim and the defendant. Let's just say those things were... not what I saw coming. But I loved how you brought all those returning characters from past cases in for one last reunion. Gard, Brooke, Shay, all good characters. And in some tiny, twisted little way... you made me somewhat enjoy Mags. SOMEWHAT

The best part of this series is how in-character the canon characters are. They literally feel straight out of the games and they all have plots and development. Franziska though, she knocked it outta the park. She is even better than canon, full stop.

Finally, that whole epilogue on the roof. That was touching. That was beautifully brilliant. I could not have imagined a better epilogue. AND THANK GOD YOU GOT PHOENIX TO REVEAL THEY ARE SIBLINGS!!! Also, Crooke's epilogue. Let's hope that he found and reconciled with Faith one day. I really hope so.

This series, what a blast from start to finish. Sadly, all good things come to an end. I really hope we haven't seen the last of you here because this has been one of the best Ace Attorney fanworks I've ever seen.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by butterflyeffect »

I am not sure if I should put this next part into the spoiler tag, but I will just in case.
Spoiler : :
In the co-counsel of Gard's second testimony, Phoenix uses his old sir name, Roll, instead of either of his current names.
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Gizmological
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Gizmological »

@the.armenator
Spoiler : :
You know, I would have liked to use the 2011 version at that part, but I think AAI2 music has a tendency to scare people away.
@Parafin
Spoiler : :
Wow, that's a glowing review if I ever saw one. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it.

And yes, I plan to stick around for a while. I've been playing around with some ideas, I might save them until a comp here catches my interest.
@butterflyeffect
Spoiler : :
Whoops, I'll fix that. Nice catch.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by butterflyeffect »

@Gizmological
You are welcome. If I happen to notice anything else, I will be sure to let you know.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by drvonkitty »

I'm a little late to the party, but I finally played Case 1!
Spoiler : SoC :
Turnabout Recovery - SoC

Okay, so this is a finished trial series. That's already rare enough. I'm ngl, I'm super hype to play this! Let's gooooo!
Evidence room?
Uh oh. Don't tell me a MURDER is gonna happen. /s
Murder? In my Ace Attorney? It's more likely than you think.
Nice checklist, ya dork. (same tho)
Uh oh. Ema's the defendant?
Hm. I think your pauses are on the wrong side of the punctuation. Usually, the pause is after.
You seem to have done line breaks and that's good. I love line breaks. Have I mentioned I love line breaks before? Because I do.
Aaaand the line breaks stopped. "...the police didn't want us snooping around too much." </3 why u do dis
Background fade out. Nice.
I like this summation of the crime. Very first case-esque
"We should head into court." should be "into the courtroom."
Also, the timestamp should be on the black screen, followed by the gallery speaking.
Oh... no gallery speaking? Huh.
Ew. "Honour." Gross. (real english speakers don't use unnecessary u's fite me irl)
LMAO at Payne seeing Wright as his arch-nemesis. I love it.
"Prosecutor Gaspen Payne chooses death"
Your comma pauses are a bit long, imo. I use [#100] personally. ([#200] for full stops, and [#500] for ellipses)
"Ho Ho.Looks like I've still got it." should be "Hoh hoh" imo. or at least "Ho ho."
I like this guy.
lmao @ his name being "fuzz"
Hm. I wonder if her prints on the weapon are because it's the same knife as from RftA?
I feel like the floor plan should be "Submitted by Winston Payne" as its metadata since he presented it.
Looks like somebody took some old evidence.
Oop. Looks like a "victim died instantly" contradiction to me.
Awww. We hurt his feelings.
(I've forgive you for an instant death contradiction since it's a first case. But those just are too obvious at this point.)
Poor judge. He's not used to being called "baby"
Contradiction part 2, electric boogaloo
Hm. The only issue with that testimony is it doesn't feel like we accomplished much. I guess that's by design, but usually the contradictions should reveal new information.
"(If I can find just one contradiction, I can at least by us some time.)" "by" should be "buy"
Stolen file, huh? Well, we've got a motive.
Ooo, a secret file? Now that's interesting. Based on what everyone else has said about your series, it sounds like this file might be important.
Mm, food. Food sounds good.
So Fuzz left before the murder? Huh. Maybe this guy is colluding with Fuzz, because Fuzz staying in the room until after the murder seems like the only likely possibility atm
Damn dude. Not even a potty break?
Hmm... that looks like a left hand print to me.
Aww, but I can't present it? That sucks.
OH. Duh. You saw the victim enter. God, how did I miss that?
Oh shoot, clicked the wrong profile. I'm just blundering this up real bad, aren't I?
No glasses? Sounds like a contradiction to me.
Ah. I see. He wasn't at his desk at all.
Lmao, you got hungry and let a murder happen? Talk about bad luck.
"It's... sort of what I do." tru dat
So he never did see Fuzz leave.
Fuzz got REALLY lucky that Gard left his post, though.
So the inconsistencies in the first testimony were to frame Ema? It makes sense, but still. If this was well plotted, he wouldn't want any lies so as to not seem suspicious, no?
I love the music cutting off sound. That's great.
"Oh, and let's not forget that the loveley lady's prints are also on the murder weapon." "loveley" should be "lovely"
Hmm. This CE has me stumped, ngl.
Ohh, I see. I was confused. They ARE right prints, but that's because they were holding the flashlight the other way around. So it's not the contradiction I thought. Fair enough.
Awwww. We're going for him planting her fingerprints on the knife? But I liked my theory. :(
(How long do fingerprints even last, anyway? I mean, it is a records room, so I guess it's not implausible that they'd be kept so as to not fade or disappear? Do fingerprints fade? I have no clue.)
"(I'll admit, I haven't thought about Fuzz's reasons for killing the victim...)" Phoenix is talking here and should be silent.
"Detective, don't you find it odd that the cuplrit decided to commit murder at a police station?" "cuplrit" should be "culprit"
Testifying to an edited version of his song? Nice.
Ahhhhh. How does he know it's for a murder? I'm guessing that's it.
Yeeeeep.
Good. I'm glad that's not the end. That's hardly decisive proof he committed the crime, after all. Still, it's clever.
Oooo, a case number. "OG-4." Interesting.
Blood?!
Nice breakdown. I like it.
(I think the file could've been used in an more interesting way to prove he committed the murder, though. It being covered in blood just... feels sort of underwhelming. No final present or anything like that.)
It's not a horrible conclusion by any means, though. Sometimes you just can't make a single present work.
The victory scene should be on a timer of 4500 ms, btw.
Also, for the lobby scene, characters shouldn't show up until after the timestamp.
Poor Apollo. You're just chopped liver here, bud.
Oh Ema. I don't think he's trying to pick you up.
Nice mysterious ends. I like cases that end with the implication that there's a lot to be learned about it in future cases.
Oh god, that picture of Ema is so awkwardly stretched tho.
(Btw, you should add a "End" graphic. Those are easy, and improve presentation imo.)
Wow, a post-credits scene? How Marvel-esque.
I like it though. The mystery is real!
Spoiler : Thoughts :
So, you've obviously progressed a lot as an author since releasing the first case. I mean, you're 5 cases into this thing, something like two years on from Case 1's release. So obviously, I'm grading the quality of your writing from a while ago, as opposed to now. Still though, I think this case holds up. I'd say it works well as a generic Case 1 that introduces some overarching plot points. The characters were good (I liked Fuzz, Gard was fine but didn't really do much), the writing was pretty solid throughout, and most of the case logic made sense. There were a couple places where I feel like I got thrown off or misunderstood something, but that might just be me. None of the contradictions or anything were super notable, but that's to be expected from a Case 1. Of course, the real killer was kind of obvious since he was the only other one with an opportunity. Even so, it worked out alright. Could use a bit more polish, but overall I think you have a very strong start to this series. The main criticism I have is that we don't really spend much time with Ema. I feel like we could've gotten some more interactions with her before the trial and during the recesses. Build up her rapport with Phoenix/Apollo, get a sense for how she feels being defended? You did this a bit, but I usually find that fangames don't spend enough time having us talk with the defendant, particularly in trial only parts. That's about it, though, and even that isn't major. I'm excited to play the rest of the series!
Overall, I'd give this case a 7/10, roughly as high as I could see a generic Case 1 getting. You're clearly a good writer, so I can't wait to see where the other cases are headed!
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ned63
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by ned63 »

I loved playing through this series!
I honestly feel sad that it's over.
I'm pretty sure I went over my thoughts on the previous cases before, so I'll go over what I thought about case 5:
Spoiler : Finish the series first! :
I loved all the characters- canon ones always felt in character as usual, and all the new ones felt believable as part of the series. I enjoyed Jennifer Dilly's minor arc, Shay was an excellent defendant (I loved his development, particularly in his Psyche Locks sequence. I never expected him to be responsible for Fuzz stealing the OG-4 file. Just interacting with him in general was fun throughout the case to be honest.), and Waters was an excellent villain. The facade he kept up before being revealed was a fun character as well. I thought all the twists were pretty good and gave you good chance to predict them (not in a bad way, I don't mean they were obvious. They were fair.). Apollo's development was good (Phoenix spilling the beans about Apollo and Trucy at the end was good) and Phoenix's interaction with Franziska when they're kidnapped was excellent she's way overdue giving phoenix that card
I also love how there's an "alternate ending" if you go back to part 2 after finding the code to the safe in part 4 even if it's a bit short, that was the first thing I did once I got the code and I was impressed by the detail- that kind of quality is what the whole series exceeded in!

I could go on, but long story short, this was a fantastic series, and the finale lived up to all the cases before it!
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Gizmological
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Gizmological »

drvonkitty wrote:I'm a little late to the party, but I finally played Case 1!
Spoiler : SoC :
Ew. "Honour." Gross. (real english speakers don't use unnecessary u's fite me irl)
I've had this discussion too many times to care at this point.
Hm. I wonder if her prints on the weapon are because it's the same knife as from RftA?
I would hope that Ema would realise that getting her fingerprints all over the evidence was a bad idea, even when she was younger. Besides, I never explicitly stated that it was the same knife. It could just be a popular make.
Oh shoot, clicked the wrong profile. I'm just blundering this up real bad, aren't I?
Darn. Maybe I should have made the victim's name more obvious.
Nice mysterious ends. I like cases that end with the implication that there's a lot to be learned about it in future cases.
Probably a good thing, 'cause there's a lot of that here.
Spoiler : Thoughts :
So, you've obviously progressed a lot as an author since releasing the first case. I mean, you're 5 cases into this thing, something like two years on from Case 1's release. So obviously, I'm grading the quality of your writing from a while ago, as opposed to now.

And therein lies my biggest problem with this whole thing. I mean, I'm not embarrassed by this case in the same way I am about my much earlier ones, but I still think it's weak compared to the rest of my stuff. I had much less experience and the Case 1 format certainly doesn't do it any favours. But I can't exactly go making really heavy changes at this point. All I can do is keep polishing it up (thanks for noting those typos and stuff, btw) and hope that there's at least enough there to encourage people to see it through to the next case. But, yeah, anyone playing through the series can expect to see a general increase in quality as the cases go on, at least in my opinion. I guess that's only natural, though. idk, I'm rambling.
Overall, I'd give this case a 7/10, roughly as high as I could see a generic Case 1 getting. You're clearly a good writer, so I can't wait to see where the other cases are headed!
I'm happy that you think so. Hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

ned63 wrote:
Spoiler : :
I also love how there's an "alternate ending" if you go back to part 2 after finding the code to the safe in part 4 even if it's a bit short, that was the first thing I did once I got the code and I was impressed by the detail- that kind of quality is what the whole series exceeded in!
Haha, you should thank Southern Corn for that little easter egg. I didn't want to put it in because I didn't think anyone would bother going back, but he managed to change my mind during playtesting. Of course, I had to make a Zero Escape reference at that point.

Anyways, I'm glad that you had fun playing the series.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by butterflyeffect »

I had a question about the end of case three.
Spoiler : :
I was wondering why Tristan was explaining the crime in his thoughts and not saying it out loud?
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Gizmological
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Gizmological »

butterflyeffect wrote:I had a question about the end of case three.
Spoiler : :
I was wondering why Tristan was explaining the crime in his thoughts and not saying it out loud?
Spoiler : :
I'm not really a fan of the "villain tearfully confesses" trope because it rarely makes any sense for them to do so before they've actually been convicted of anything. Still, there were a few smaller points that still needed explaining, so I threw in that quick inner monologue.
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by butterflyeffect »

Thanks for explaining that part to me Gizmological. I was also wondering if
Spoiler : :
the bailiffs not showing up in the background of the talk you have with matt before the trial in regrets was a bug or not.
There was also a spelling error before the second testimony in Before the Dawn part 3, where you forgot to add are after you.
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Gizmological
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Re: [T] AA: Beyond the Shadows ●●●●●

Post by Gizmological »

butterflyeffect wrote:Thanks for explaining that part to me Gizmological. I was also wondering if
Spoiler : :
the bailiffs not showing up in the background of the talk you have with matt before the trial in regrets was a bug or not.
There was also a spelling error before the second testimony in Before the Dawn part 3, where you forgot to add are after you.
Spoiler : :
Thanks for pointing out the typo. I'll fix that when I get the chance.
And yes, the lack of bailiffs was intentional. Felt necessary due to the conversation that happens there after the trial.
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