This case did not pass the QA inspection, and I don't believe the case could pass QA inspection without fundamentally changing what it is. Although you've billed this case as an "attempt of a REAL AA case," the case's approach to comedy is miles away from the AA approach to comedy. In my judgment, this comedic style is
incompatible with AA story-telling and mysteries. For me, the comedy made it much harder to enjoy the rest of the story.
Let's start off with how AA handles Gumshoe comedy. Here's an excerpt from T&T:
Edgeworth examines the ski equipment.
Gumshoe: Ah! I just love skiing!
Edgeworth: Really? You don't um... seem like the type.
Edgeworth: Well, what about sleds?
Gumshoe: Sleds? Nah. They're a little too kiddy, you know? Messes with my "hard boiled" image.
Edgeworth: ...
Gumshoe: ...What's with the silence, Mr. Edgeworth?
Edgeworth: (I...Is the world starting to go mad?)
Edgeworth plays the straight man to Gumshoe's eccentricities. The joke comes both from the surprise of Gumshoe not realizing that he is "kiddy" rather than "hard boiled," and Edgeworth's shocked response. Furthermore, Gumshoe hasn't put anybody in danger. Talking about evidence at the scene is a perfectly reasonable reaction to what Edgeworth did. The Gumshoe jokes are balanced by actual investigation, which provides a tone change so the Gumshoe jokes don't become overwhelming. The conversation is relatively short.
Here's an excerpt where Phoenix talks to him in JfA:
Phoenix presents Gumshoe's profile to Gumshoe.
Gumshoe: I look good! I think I've lost some weight, pal!
Phoenix: It's only wishful thinking.
Gumshoe: Wishful thinking, huh?
Gumshoe: ...
Gumshoe: In that case, I wishfully think I've lost some weight!
Phoenix: (I wishfully think he might face the facts one day...)
Gumshoe: Lately, I've been on the instant noodles only diet, pal!
We have the same pattern as before, but now Phoenix plays the comedic straight man rather than Edgeworth.
Here's how you handle Gumshoe comedy:
Ayeam: Gumshoe!!! I'm innocent! please, help meeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
Ayeam is forcibly removed from the scene and is now under arrest.
Gumshoe: (W-What just happened, pal...? Everything happened so quickly...)
Gumshoe: (I think I'll deal with all of this... right after I take a small quality nap... gnite, pals...)
Gumshoe: *Snores...*
Gumshoe drifts off into a dream.
Gumshoe: Ugh... Please honey bees... save me.
A giant honey bee appears on-screen. Only the face of the bee fits on-screen.
Gumshoe: Don't worry, Gumshoe! I'm here!
Gumshoe: Ah Mr. Honey Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I missed ya so much, pal!!!
Gumshoe: I got some honey for ya! Here ya go!
Gumshoe: Woah! fresh honey right from the source, thanks pal! I owe ya one. Mmm! tasty!
Gumshoe: Just one more thing. This is only a dream, sadly. Goodbye
.
Gumshoe: No wait! come back! don't leave me, honey beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
Gumshoe: Well, now Honey B is gone... What do I do now...?
Gumshoe: You know what, I kinda miss Ayeam pal. I think it's time I wake up and save him, yeah!
Gumshoe wakes up and encounters Dr. Doofenshchmirtz in an obviously fake beard.
All the points I mentioned above have changed. There is nobody to balance Gumshoe's eccentricities. Gumshoe is ignoring Ayeam's request for help. Taking a nap is not a reasonable reaction to seeing your friend arrested. We go from a very serious scene straight to an absurd joke, and then into another absurd joke. The joke goes on for a relatively long time.
Having a different comedic style than the canon games is not necessarily bad. But because your case has so many comedy moments like the ones I just quoted, we should ask how they affect the player's experience playing. I can only speak for myself. Because Gumshoe's responses are so unusual, I was confused for much of part one. Eventually, I found the surreal comedy funny but knew that it could become grating. By the end of part one, the constant jokes had grown old. Although you wanted a very emotional story in parts two and three, I wasn't able to take the story very seriously because all the jokes with story consequences tell me that I am not supposed to take it seriously. If you take the story seriously, then Gumshoe constantly putting himself in danger isn't funny: it's dangerous. Making matters even worse, I had stopped finding the jokes funny by that point. I tried to play the case in smaller chunks instead of "binging" it, but that only delayed my frustration with the case. You may have tried to write Gumshoe as "cute, comical, and serious," but the comedy drowned the rest out for me.
Some people may like this style of comedy, and some people may still get invested in the story even with the comedy. You've gotten positive reviews on the case for a reason. But I think there are enough AA fans who will be
very turned off by these kinds of jokes that I can't approve this for QA.
There are a few other issues I want to bring your attention to:
- This game has many frames that are just confusing if you don't understand the pop culture reference being made. A character from a young children's show, Sofia the First, sings a song. There's a joke where Big Place repeatedly asks "Watcha doin?", prompting Isabella (a character from Phineas and Ferb) to scream and faint. If I didn't remember that show, I would be left confused. The worst part of this is the confrontation against Axel in Part Three. I've never played Kingdom Hearts, so I had to look up the answers to most of the questions.
- Early parts of the game play Seth/Prophesy as a joke. He's introduced as "King of the Losers", lives in a dumpster, his job is a Zelda-CDI joke, his name is "The Prophesy", and the game frequently prompts us to be disgusted by the man's obesity. I thought that his return from beyond the grave was also a joke until I got to Part Three and saw the backstory reveal. You are sending confused messages about how we are supposed to regard him.
- There are quite a few plot points that don't seem plausible to me. Blaise could not be released from jail and give orders to arrest people because some convention organizer died. A man who is married with kids would definitely know if his wife was a robot. I still don't understand how Diana escaped from the box, or what hole in the box her passport fell out of. I don't understand why a convention center has a massive lava pit. This made me even more confused about how serious versus joke-y your case was supposed to be.
While I could go through an analysis of the gameplay elements if you want, I don't think fixing those will improve the player's experience much, as long as the other issues remain.