[M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

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Blackrune
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[M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by Blackrune »

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Made(totally by me) for the 'Never Trust the Narrator' competition.

This is a kinetic short story of about 1500 frames. No gameplay at all. It's a fangame in name only. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ace Attorney. Don't play without the music fully loaded.
Spoiler : Credits :
Credits are in the game, but forum members deserve the extra acknowledgment here too. Might add the soundtrack later.

Sprites:
Vincent Hawthorne - Ceres
Eva Hawthorne - Tear
Thane Butler - Lind

This trial was made using Catalysis, a tool made by Enthalpy.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by kwando1313 »

wtf rune stealing their trial and taking credit for it, how could you
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

Spoiler : pft, not fooled :
the ending credits clearly demonstrate philo has reality bending powers

quite obviously philo was always the killer to begin with and simply bent reality to pin the whole thing on roone- notice how he never actually admits to the crime, and even seems SURPRISED it turned out this way?

THE ONLY DECEIVED MEN ARE US, THE PLAYERS
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by Blackrune »

That's an interesting interpretation.
...
And even if I denied it you could just argue that's part of it because I'm unreliable. Damn, checkmated.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by NihilisticNinja »

SwagmaWampyr wrote:
Spoiler : pft, not fooled :
the ending credits clearly demonstrate philo has reality bending powers

quite obviously philo was always the killer to begin with and simply bent reality to pin the whole thing on roone- notice how he never actually admits to the crime, and even seems SURPRISED it turned out this way?

THE ONLY DECEIVED MEN ARE US, THE PLAYERS
Spoiler : OR WERE YOU FOOLED? :
I'm not sure how serious you're being but I honestly have a similar interpretation- Roone was telling the truth at the end, there never was a murder and this was just all a hypothetical story idea that he was testing out, but the real NARRATOR all along has been Philo, the narration is twisted to make Roone look guilty because that's what he truly believes.
Anyway fun game. Will do a full review-ish thing in the next couple days.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by kwando1313 »

guys you're all wrong
Spoiler : :
the real culprit is lira and philo just wants to cover for her

clearly
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

Admittedly...
Spoiler : deception :
I'm not sure how else to interpret the lines "I am the true narrator" and Philo suddenly taking credit for everything in the credits except for the half-joke theory I just proposed.

It almost feels like a sequel hook- but how are you supposed to combat someone who can literally alter reality? So it's probably a dumb one.

Oh, and before anyone corrects my claim that Roone DID in fact confess to the crime, he only did externally, and quite half-heartedly, probably just to try and shut Philo up- why would he admit to the crime externally, but not internally? It just doesn't make any sense- Just to throw something else onto the pile, the "memories" that drive Roone insane near the end that seem to suddenly come back to him are Philo's reality-bending powers taking effect, and slowly creating the memories of the new reality that was created. He wouldn't just suddenly remember the crime after it was completely broken down for him, that's a completely nonsensical explanation.

...I say after bringing reality-bending into the equation, but it makes a shocking amount of sense.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by DWaM »

This was fun.
Spoiler : :
The only part that I had a hard time buying, given how almost literally every other part of the crime was so carefully and neatly elaborated on is the "chopped up" part. I don't know, it just doesn't feel like Roone would've had the opportunity to just so happen to have a bonesaw and cut through all of the body parts in one go. The process, I imagine, would've taken much longer -- especially if you add in the time of wrapping the parts in clothing, throwing them out and lighting the fireplace.

Also, I was curious about Roone's "you noticed it too" part. (Implying there's evidence that it really WAS just a story, regardless of what Philo says.)

I'm not sure about it, but I feel like there is proof. But how much it's actual proof changes depending on how much you think Roone tampered with his narration.

Because only after Roone points out the difference in time (of course, there isn't any) does the scream actually happen. Highly convenient narrative-wise. And quite a gamble, since Roone had no way of knowing that Hawthorne would go directly to his office. And Roone pointing out the time problem before he knew for certain Hawthorne was probably dead... doesn't seem right. Sounds almost like plot convenience if I've ever heard it.

Still, as I said, fun. I enjoyed the mystery overall far more than the final "twist" personally. My interpretation was pretty much the same as the others'.

In the end, I guess Rune really didn't have an entry.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by Tear »

I didn't know about this competition but I have to say that this short was very well written. Great mystery. I liked it a lot !
Spoiler : :
The first twist was to be expected, but the second one really took me by surprise. The musics were perfectly chosen and helped to make the finale even more intense.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by Zohar the Shiny »

What can I say? Another fantastic Blackrune... piece, I suppose?
Spoiler : :
The level of care devoted to every Blackrune work shone yet again. In presentation, music selection, mystery, concept, the whole package came through as always. This one leaned closer to "mystery novel" than his others, and that's saying something. Then again, by the end of most of his trials I'm pretty much reading the walkthroughs and the dialogue like a book without any participation of my own anyway! Maybe I should work on that...

Especially impressive, and reminiscent of those fantastic Golden Age mysteries, was the incredible attention to detail. Such a meticulous approach, cutting away almost all of the extraneous information to deliver exactly the mystery he envisioned.

If I had to voice a criticism, it would probably be the characters - obviously they aren't the focus, but the cardboard cutouts might hit a little too close to "dull Golden Age suspect" for my liking, and it almost felt like they could have been erased altogether. A deliberate parallel to Ye Olde Writing Style isn't much use if it bores the reader, right? Although that might have been a bit of satirical commentary on the general quality of "Blake Roone's" writing, even if Blackrune would never stoop so low!

As for the larger scope mystery, I don't know if I have much to add that wasn't said above. Top 100 detective thinks he's got a mystery that'll astound his readers, but want to check it with number 1 before he pops it into the AAO editor puts it to print. Unfortunately for him, Philo is the world's number one detective, whose deductions can never be wrong. So all of a sudden, his deductions are right. And Mr. Roone is a murderer! Reality really has nothing on an undeceivable man, I guess.
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Re: [M][CE] The Deceived Man ●

Post by Enthalpy »

It took me long enough, but I finally played through this. It was a fun case overall, though I didn't read through it that carefully, since I wasn't sure what "type" of story this was. Clarifying this might have been a good idea.

Now that I know what I'm looking at, I may play this again later, with a bit more care and hopefully some more detailed commentary.
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