Keeping it Simple

Join in with competitions to make the best trials... with a twist!

Moderator: EN - Forum Moderators

User avatar
Blizdi
Posts: 388
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:39 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Blizdi »

Nice review you served up. It's set in stone the love that you poured into this review. It's sure to net a great competition. I bet you're having a ball. Serena Williams
Image
User avatar
Southern Corn
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:05 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Bad Jokes

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Southern Corn »

How the deuce did you outpun us like that?! You really aced it there, Blizdi. You have the advantage now! Roger Federer
Image
Image
User avatar
cesar26100
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English-Ingles,Español-Spanish

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by cesar26100 »

Stop causing a racket there, you two. Before any of you can think too deeply about that totally not stolen pun, it's time for another review:
Spoiler : A Clumsy Turnabout by Tiagofvarela :
Image
Because "simple" and "impossible" aren't mutually exclusive.
Premise: After a woman is murdered in her own home in a messy fashion, Phoenix finds himself once again defending a familiar face. With a familiar crew of characters, a strange abundance of murder weapons and a terrifying new court system in place, can he find the truth of this crime...or at least do his best to stumble upon it?

Story- The setup to this case sounds generic at first but it’s quite interesting. The method to the murder is certainly quite unique, and there is another twist involving the killer’s movements that I particularly like. Canon character interactions here are practically a highlight here, Tiago knows how to write very well, and there’s a lot of funny moments here. The trial flow itself is fine...the first half, anyway. The first 3 testimonies are actually solid, but then there’s a very strange segment afterwards which, in the current case feels very out of place. Of course, knowing what it’s supposed to be in the final version makes much more sense, but as it stands now it just feels strange. It feels very strange and clunky in comparison to the rest of the trial. The ending also feels very abrupt. Given the changes the final version will have it will most likely feel less out of place there, and the general idea behind it is not that bad so some people will certainly appreciate it, but as it currently stands it just felt weirdly unsatisfying.

Presentation- Presentation here is a tricky thing, because for whatever reason this case seems to have a few problems with it which was beyond Tiago’s control. The case itself took a long time to load for one of us which was worrying. But we were advised to keep saves throughout the case to avoid any major errors. And there are some weird error here. Fades are broken, the music randomly stops playing, sound effects disappear, and characters go invisible. So there’s a lot of weird stuff here, but little actual error on Tiago’s part (except a frame he forgot to merge). It’s certainly strange, but thankfully doesn’t get in the way too much.

Puzzles- Puzzles are generally fine in the first 3 testimonies. Good flow there and generally make sense, and some good optional contradictions too, some of which we actually got on our own. The case isn’t particularly difficult there, but it does get quite strange in the latter half. There’s a lot of arguments about theoreticals which get hard to follow after a while and there’s a strange rebuttal in the trial involving some stuff which never really come up again afterwards, which felt weird in terms of mystery. And then there’s a lot of stuff about the crime itself which only gets offhandedly resolved at the very end, so it doesn’t feel like you accomplish much by the end. There could definitely have been at least a couple more pieces of evidence here to make some things clearer.

Theme Relevance- Theme relevance is certainly present, there’s exactly 4 witnesses who take the stand and the evidence is indeed limited. The cast mostly consists of canon characters, sans the victim and the killer, obviously. The presentation (or at least the parts which worked) was kept simple too, which was nice to see. It fits the bill for the most part, though the latter half gets a tad too long winded and confusing for it to hold up as well.

Overall- A Clumsy Turnabout is a fun case with good character writing, a solid trial flow for the first half and a funny ending. It has its errors with some wonky presentation issues and some weird trial flow and logic in the latter half which may seem disconcerting. However, from what we’ve been told by Tiago, the final released trial will be much more different and will feature another layer of gameplay elements to make things more sensible and work better, so we’re sure it’ll be a trial worth checking out once it’s released.
Yep, that's the second review! Next up the un-disqualified judge Southern Corn(6065) will be reviewing The Artist's Turnabout! See you all then! (Except for SL who we will see before for the SoC and everyone on the discord who I guess I'll also see there and-)
♂ + ♂ = ♥
♀ + ♀ = ♥
♀ + ♂ = ♥
Love should be genderless.
If you agree, please add this to your signature.
User avatar
Blizdi
Posts: 388
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:39 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Blizdi »

Oh man, I can't wait to see Tiag's completed final version. Glad the comp entries are so strong so far
Image
User avatar
Blizdi
Posts: 388
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:39 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Blizdi »

And, just like an artist. South Kernel Cornish Game Hens is taking his time.
Image
User avatar
Southern Corn
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:05 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Bad Jokes

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Southern Corn »

Blizdi wrote:And, just like an artist. South Kernel Cornish Game Hens is taking his time.
No idea what you're talking about here, but it's time for the next review which we totally had prepared earlier. Let's go, boys!
Spoiler : The Artist's Turnabout by Super legenda :
Image
And here I thought a parrot was going too far.
Premise- Taking the definition of ‘abstract’ in an interesting direction, Super legenda brings us the Artist’s Turnabout, surprisingly the first non-murder case here! When a famed painting is stolen from a museum and an old friend of Phoenix is blamed, Phoenix does the only thing he knows how to do… have Apollo take the case instead. Is the defendant truly guilty or...has he been framed?

Story- Good. The setup generally makes sense and the story itself works well enough. The writing is pretty funny and all the characters, canon and non-canon are written extremely well. The trial flow is also generally good and never really felt off at any point. There are a lot of typos here, though, that too a large number of them. Thankfully, they’re mostly minor and never get in the way of understanding them for the most part. I have some qualms with the motive but other than that, the overall crime itself is fine.

Presentation- Alright. The aforementioned typos are there, but there’s also some weird usage of sound effects and some strange music usage. There’s also a part where you literally cannot progress due to a mistake in frame numbering, and a few frames without the appropriate BGs. Other than that though, it’s fine. Seeing DD sprites here certainly is quite interesting too.

Puzzles- Pretty good. No real complaints here. Testimonies are nice with good contradictions, and some even have optional contradictions which is cool to see. Even have some Mood Matrix segments here as well as a Thought Route. Definitely well done.

Theme Relevance- Fits to a T! Has a limited enough array of witnesses and has a low amount of evidence. Pacing generally is good and it’s also short enough to still be fun to play through. Evidence is also made good use of in multiple nice ways, and works as a little mini case.

Overall- The Artist’s Turnabout is a fun little case. It fits the theme well but it’s also nice and short and good to play through if you want a nice little mystery. It has its issues with presentation but overall, it’s definitely worth checking out once it releases, with all of the typos fixed, of course.
And there we are! Next time, join us for the final review, hosted by Cesar, and then, a little bit after that...the awards ceremony! Get hyped, everybody!
Image
Image
User avatar
Blizdi
Posts: 388
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:39 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Blizdi »

One more to go. I can't wait for the awards ceremony. i hope it's a subversion and it's just a 1 frame trial with the winners name
Image
User avatar
Enthalpy
Community Manager
Posts: 5169
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:40 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, limited Spanish

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Enthalpy »

I imagine "South Kernel Cornish Game Hens" is simply a half-joking way of saying "Southern Corn". Replace "kernel" -> "ern" and remove "ish Game Hens."

Anyways, looking forward to the last review.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
User avatar
Southern Corn
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:05 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Bad Jokes

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Southern Corn »

Yup, I was just joking there :P

And yes, the award ceremony will be crazy. Though sadly, we aren’t AceJakkidFan so there’ll probably be actual awards and everything here rather than any epic anticlimax. Sorry for the disappointment.
Image
Image
User avatar
clcman
Posts: 1361
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 3:40 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English
Location: Classified

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by clcman »

Southern Corn wrote: And yes, the award ceremony will be crazy. Though sadly, we aren’t AceJakkidFan so there’ll probably be actual awards and everything here rather than any epic anticlimax. Sorry for the disappointment.
I have high standards. You have been warned.
What do REAL, NON-BRIBED people have to say about HTB!?
"This really changed the way I thought about Phoenix as a character. ...Wow." - Reecer6
"HTB! contains truths that might be hard to stomach, but had to be unveiled nonetheless." - Blackrune
"This deserves a best plot twist award." - Evo
"It changed my life, and it can change yours too. For the better, I mean." - Calvinball
"I will never look at Phoenix Wright the same way again" - PhoenixRises123
"omg best thing on aao" - AceAttorneyMaster111
DISCOVER THE TRUTH YOU NEVER KNEW YOU DIDN'T KNOW IN HTB! PROLOGUE AND PART 1, AVAILABLE NOW!!


"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -Isaac Asimov
"For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." -H. L. Mencken
User avatar
Southern Corn
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:05 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Bad Jokes

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Southern Corn »

W-we’ll do our best coming up with our own awards and stealing a couple from you. You don’t mind that, right?
Image
Image
User avatar
Blizdi
Posts: 388
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:39 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Blizdi »

I hope there's way too many irrelevant awards like "Best shirt" and "best eyelashes"
Image
User avatar
Southern Corn
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:05 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Bad Jokes

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Southern Corn »

Oh, you have no idea, Blizdi. *maniacal laughter*

There's only like one which could like maybe count as that but y'know it's fun to imagine
Image
Image
User avatar
cesar26100
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English-Ingles,Español-Spanish

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by cesar26100 »

Speaking of eyelashes, you're all probably close to lashing out from the lack of review, so here.
Spoiler : For Turnabouts Past by bigwins :
Image
Quite the Turnabout indeed.
Premise- Up and coming defence attorney Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Bloom takes on her first murder case. It’s as simple as it gets- a stabbing in a casino, and the victim’s ex is the main suspect, seen there by a witness at the time of the crime. The problem? Her ex is also Cassie’s cousin. The evidence, decisive. The prosecutor? Shady as hell. But even besides that, there’s something dark about this case… Something Cassie can’t put her finger on. Will she be able to save her cousin from almost certain doom? Or, more importantly… can she?

Story- Definitely the highlight here. The crime itself is not too complex, but the characters (both canon and original) and dialogue are all pretty well written and feel like the focus of the case, and overall most of the story concepts were executed well. The pacing is mostly good except for the ending, which was pretty rushed due to a lack of time, unfortunately leaving some things not as finished as they should be. Still, for the most part it does wrap up everything at least moderately, and despite this the case’s narrative is overall a strong point. Testimonies are also all written well, which will be discussed in a bit.

Presentation- The case uses some custom graphics and a lot of custom music, but it all fits the case fine for the most part. No typos or graphical errors that we noticed, though some music changes are abrupt and a few feel weird. For example, there’s two Truth themes in the case for some reason, and they both play pretty early on which is strange. No pursuit theme either, though there is some very clever use of PLvsAA/DGS music, and even some themes from the AA anime! It feels AA-like but it’s different enough to make for a nice change of pace, both in characters and music. Custom art is also good, a few sprites made by bigwins himself and a few taken from some other places, like even locations from 999. Fades also worked very nicely for both of us (despite SC playing it in Chrome like a nerd).

Puzzles- Mostly pretty simple through the whole case. The contradictions make sense though, and there is some clever use of the limited evidence. So nothing too difficult or complex here, but it all makes sense and goes nicely with the story. One part would be more interesting with a bit more interactivity but even as it is, it still works fine.

Theme relevance- Mostly covered above, the case has a limited amount of witnesses and evidence, which it makes good use of, a not too complex crime and the puzzles are simple but effective. Pretty much everything you would expect from this theme, though even then there’s a surprising amount of depth put into the story and the characters.

Overall- For Turnabouts Past presents a pretty engaging story with enjoyable writing and fantastic presentation while fitting the theme of the comp. With the main issue being an ending which will be expanded on by the time it’s released, it’s an easy recommendation as a solid fancase with a good story that doesn’t take too long to go through.
And that's it for the reviews! Keep your eyes peeled for the award ceremony coming soon! (Not soon on AAO™!)

For now, since all 4 reviews are out: any winner predictions? Whoever guesses it right gets uh...to play the winning case early!* Yeah I'm like done here and stuff so see you then.

*It's up to the winner to enforce this, and they likely won't, it's adviced that you don't put much more effort into getting it right than using a paid online randomizer or something.
♂ + ♂ = ♥
♀ + ♀ = ♥
♀ + ♂ = ♥
Love should be genderless.
If you agree, please add this to your signature.
User avatar
Vagrant
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 10:21 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Italian, some French.

Re: Keeping it Simple

Post by Vagrant »

predictions for the leaderboard

tennis
past
artist
clumsy
coming soon

turnabout in the mist
Locked