.
Well, assuming there are three endings (not including bonus content,) that seems to be the whole case. So now, unstructured thoughts ahoy.
First off, I was dubious when you said this focused on an incompetent prosecutor, but you pulled it off way better than I could have expected. Easily the highlight of the case, having him drop papers and smudge prints... it all worked quite well. And while he was funny and, for the most part, probably smoking wacky tobaccy, it was nice that he still had some time to shine as an actual prosecutor at some points. Kudos for that music choice, too. I do wish he'd had some sort of role in the case itself, or a reason to be in the suit in the first place... a story of his own, of some sort, but as it stands, he's a good prosecutor for a lighthearted case like this.
I couldn't. I wanted to develop him as a character, I really did, but that would have killed his magic for me. As is, only very small hints remain.
Not many of the other characters were quite as well done, though, IMO. Bomber girl was a classic "case 1 villain" type person, but that didn't really matter so much, since that seems to be what she was designed for. She got a small tidbit at one of the ends when she's going to care for the 8 year old, and until the lategame, the characters don't seem quite as important as the contradictions. However, the 8-year-old and the father only appeared right at the end - more screentime for the latter two would probably have made the finalé a lot more effective, both when the father covers for her, and when it's revealed she had no clue what she had even done.
Perhaps if the girl had been introdcued earlier, and the motive foreshadowed, the climax might have been better. Or, if someone in court had to break it to her that what she'd done was wrong, and gotten her to understand (I feel like Stuffy might have been able to do something like that, showing his more competent side). At the moment, she has no breakdown or anything. Apollo just tells us what happens, and everything wraps up.
As for the father... there really seemed to be not much to him, either. He's got even less time in the game than Violeta, and the only thing he seems to do is cover for her and lead to a dud end if you believe him.
This is the kind of feedback I could have really done with, but alas. What's done is done.
I could decide to rewrite the final sections, which I know for a fact I rushed through... but that would only be in the future, probably. 10 months of working on this have driven me mad. I couldn't take it any more at one point.
Your suggestions are fantastic. I would have certainly done breakdowns and whatnot if the sprites permitted it, but since they didn't, I kept it relatively simple. That lead for a lack of explosively impactful moments.
Maybe I'm just salty because knox 1, i'unno.
Knox is irrelevant in Ace Attorney from my point of view. If you want to play detective and write a good mystery, then yes, it's important, but I didn't want to write a good mystery. I told you who the criminal was almost immediately after she showed up. The important parts in this case were the contradictions, Stuffy, and getting the message across that finding the truth isn't always pleasant. Preferably by making you feel for either Johnson, Dayna or Violeta at the end.
On the topic, what you call "Dud End" is my preferred ending, and the author's true ending. However, what I think is irrelevant. If you believe you got the "true ending" then you did.
So yes, the characters and story aren't too great, and could probably have used fleshing out if an ending like that was going to be used.
But the main focus of the case, Stuffy aside, looked to be the contradictions, and these fared a lot better.
Standouts include the mint smell one, and the fingerprint analysis stuff near the end that cemented Stuffy as both smart enough to figure out what he'd done, but stupid enough to have done it in the first place. The only testimony that seemed out of place was one of the beginning ones against Might. Using the bracelet to point out contradictory statements is a neat idea (BUT WHAT SORT OF MADMAN DOESN'T MAKE EXTRA MECHANICS PART OF PRESS CONVOS INSTEAD), but from what I can tell, it was used precisely once. If there were more of these later, it'd be a great idea, but... as it stands, it seems like this contradiction could have been rewritten to just use normal mechanics.
You know how I wrote this case? I came up with the idea of using Congenital Analgesia for a contradiction, and of having Stuffy for a prosecutor and just winged it from there. I didn't make any plans or scripts beforehand. I wrote it all in the editor itself and then later did a second pass to see if everything made sense. And this shows. I initially intended to have two witnesses simultaneously (like you can see in the bonus content) and whatnot, but a critical logic contradiction killed those plans, and the inspiration for that never returned.
And with this I mean to say: The bracelet was there because I was going to use it later, but then I didn't, and the contradiction itself is good as is, so I just let it be.
Nitpick section:
The general presentation was prety good, but there was some odd stuff. Wait timers in places they generally didn't need to be (whenever a close-up sprite is shown, for example), the gallery sprites disappearing before fades, and the Ema nametag were the things that stuck out the most. There were also a couple of times where the music seemed to change for only a few frames before changing back, which seemed a little odd. There's also a press convo. in which the defense bench isn't actually switched to, so the conversation takes place on the witness stand with floating lawyers.
I'm almost positive the wait timers are meant to be there. Like, I can't guarantee every last one of them is, but most are intended to be comedic pauses. What didn't work for you might be genius to someone else.
However, you telling me the close up sprites don't need to be timed is a blessing. It was very difficult to time them and I didn't even want to, but what convinced that was how the games did it.
The gallery sprites disappearing before the fad is because with both the fade and the sprites being pop-ups, I didn't know how to make it so the fades covered the sprites. I'll go mess around with that a bit. Maybe it'll get fixed.
Music changes are as whimsical as the case. I like it. If people (i.e. people other than you) find this to be an issue, I may change this decision.
That press only comes up in very specific circumstances, so I didn't go through that path during playtesting, but I've fixed it now.
I'm... not too sure what purpose the switching to random cross-examination themes served, either. Using the 2007 ones would have worked for the whole case, but two of Might's tesimonies use orchestrated music from other games, and it only makes it stick out as strange. (There was another case, The Bitter Turnabout, I think, that did this a lot more, and it didn't really make sense there, either.
Finally, just want to point out again that the credits spoil Johnson's confession, even if the player hadn't reached that ending yet.
(and if we really nitpick, a properly monochrome Stuffy sprite for the flashback would be nice)
...But y'know, I think the properly formatted timestamps forgive all.
To reiterate: Can't fix Stuffy, will probably remove. I like the orchestrated music better, sorry. I'll add a warning to the credits. It didn't even occur to me someone might willingly disregard the "go back in time" option to read the credits.
...Also, this might just be a personal thing, but... this case seemed to go by incredibly fast at some points, and the ever-changing music didn't help it seem like it wasn't rushing in a few places. A few more frames of dialogue in some spots, especially towards the ending contradictions, might have made things a bit easier to follow. Or maybe I just find cases in general hard to follow, who knows. Like I said, take this one with a grain of salt.
General feedback was that it's too long-winded... Sheesh, people. Make up your minds.
That said, did you know that there's a lot of extra content?
Did you get the instant bad end?
Did you get the special and unique Attorney's Badge Penalty?
There are also some different paths with extra dialogue unique to them, which is why I still haven't completed a walkthrough.
I'll make one so that people don't miss all that content if they like Stuffy. Because a lot of the penalties are somewhat funny, I'd like to think.
So I realise this might seem like a totally negative post and I'm just picking fault and being an asshole (let's face it, I probably am), but at the end of the day, I still honestly quite enjoyed this one. I don't know what it is, but Stuffy is one of the funniest OCs on the site. It's just a shame he wasn't fleshed out more - same with the other characters. If a bit more time had been spent with at least Violeta and the final confrontation, I think this whole case would definitely have been improved. As it stands, I'm... still not sure if I got the true ending. It seemed a little on the short side for that. Either way, I'm looking forward to whatever else you have lined up, because if this formula is perfected (and Stuffy is in it, because we NEED to see more of the guy) it could make for a brilliant trial.
Quick reminder that there's no true ending. You choose what's the true ending. Besides that...
Thank you for not holding back. This sort of feedback could have helped me make this case much better, but for now, I'm not coming back to do any major work on this one before finishing or getting bored of my next case (already in the works).
As you predicted, I absolutely intend to make another case with Stuffy, but not the next one. He's harder to write than you might think.
of course basically all of this could be totally invalidated if there IS another end i'm not seeing that addresses all of it. in which case, disregard this aaaall.