[T][PyWright]Ace Attorney: Prisoners of Fate ~ CASE 2 PART 1 RELEASED

[Grounder]

Rolling in to say that I like the UI overhaul, and am interested to see the story develop. I did notice the music audio cutting out at certain points, which was fixed by increasing and then decreasing it. Not sure what was up with that.

Spoiler : Since you specifically asked for criticism, :

I will say that I sincerely hope that Apollo's fake bracelet being gray is purely a visual thing for the player and not diegetic, because it's really, really silly that he hasn't noticed that it's been swapped multiple times otherwise.

[risefromtheashes]

(Sunny, they/she)
Played the case 2 demo. I don't think I shared my thoughts on case 1 publicly after I played it, but as the creator of "Fugitive from Justice", I thoroughly enjoyed being psychologically tormented, and I bestow to AshuraMage the Mindcastle-certified stamp of approval. Me and my homies still hate [those two jerks from case 1]. I also laughed a ton at some of the gags in case 1, and I remember the mystery being pretty clean (though it has been, like, six months).

I haven't been disappointed from the expectations set up by case 1, and I have some fun theories as to what's going on here. Case 2 isn't as funny as case 1 (as you'd expect - shit's getting real), but it still has some absolute bangers. Special shoutout to Apollo being tormented for anything related to his forehead, the subtle flirting between him and the prosecution, and that one co-counsel conversation where Trucy literally just made shit up. EXTRA special shoutout to that one detective testimony, I died laughing while I was pressing those statements. Those bits all cheered me up on a bad day. I also really enjoyed the mystery setup, and although I was a bit confused by some of the key players' positioning during the crime, I realized later on that that was my own mistake - despite that, I got through the case smoothly, so props to Ashura for a clean job!

I think I'm a bit more neutral on the "characters" side of things - and unfortunately, those are one of my favorite parts of any story, so I'm a bit disappointed, but I also don't have any serious complaints. I think part of this comes from having seen SO MUCH post-AA4 fic already that not much surprises me (not PoF's fault), but on the other hand, I guess I'm still waiting for everyone to really "shine" emotionally. Maybe once we learn more about what the hell is going on here, there'll be a few chances for that to happen. Though, that said, I do enjoy Phoenix's dynamic with Trucy and Apollo ("I didn't want you to worry, and also I don't want Apollo here to know where I live" LMFAO), and special shoutout to Trucy's court appearance in case 2. Having Trucy as an actively involved co-counsel is something I wish people did more, considering how she acts in Turnabout Corner - both by catching issues on her own, and by pulling her little Mr. Hat trick.

There was one specific scene that I have some criticism of:

Spoiler : Reminiscence :

So, I realize the importance of rehashing everything that happened to Klavier in 4-3 and 4-4 before this all also happened, but the recap is done in a ham-fisted way that makes it feel like Trucy and Apollo are just REALLY rubbing it in unintentionally. I think having them keep it shorter and be a little less direct, with more details elaborated on in Apollo's monologue, would really help that not feel so much like, "hey Klavier, remember all the trauma you've been through, such as ABC?". There's probably something to be said here about Apollo and Trucy being a bit awkward about this all - but even with that in mind, they were, uh... seriously in his face with it all.

On a technical level, I continue to love PoF's UI and art direction. The theatrical cold-open text boxes and the investigation themes (especially the "core", Reiji's Theme from Persona the Parasite Eve theme, though also Reiji's theme for similar reasons) are really memorable, and they make this game stand out in my mind. I also didn't come across any glitches or bugs, though it should be said that I was playing pretty linearly, and I didn't stop to present evidence or anything.

Some mild technical criticism:

Spoiler : Technical :

I caught onto a trend of like, repeating new info a couple too many times (and usually phrased similarly) to establish it. It's definitely good to be clear about something new when you want the player to catch on, but there were a few times I was like, "alright, got it, let's move on". Other than that and some phrasing quirks that were a bit awkward but didn't really bother me, I only noticed a few typos (such as using "being" twice in a row by accident, and I think one sentence near the end was missing a "to" or something similar - wasn't paying close attention, forgot specifics).

There were a couple things in the credits that had issues (lowercase "j" rephrase: "j" SHOULD be lowercase in SuperAj3 and isn't, and one song was mentioned twice for some reason?), and I think Ashura forgot to credit himself and me for making those colorful speech bubbles. Pointing these out so they can be corrected for the full case.

Looking forward to the rest of case 2 in 2030! As a reward for reading through this, here are my main theories:

Spoiler : MAJOR CASE 1 & 2 SPOILERS :

Avril Lavigne - whose name is absolutely hilarious - is, unfortunately, too good to be real. While I could absolutely see Ashura just naming her that for the bit, the second I saw her, I thought, "huh, she looks like Hayley". So I think she's either related to, or literally Hayley Williams. The latter would explain where she disappears to, and why another detective was present for case 1. ($#%! DAVE GROHL ME AND MY HOMIES HATE DAVE GROHL) Either option would also explain her beef with Apollo - as silly as it is for her to be calling Apollo "stupid" so much, it really does seem personal, and surely it wouldn't be a surprise if the duo of idiots that gaslit an entire court proceeding and stole a guy's magic bracelet hate said guy.

Also, Klavier and Phoenix are doing a Hayley/Grohl with Apollo. Plot parallels! I don't know whose machination this all was - hell, it could even be "Avril Lavigne" directing both of them for some reason, though that's not my guess - but it does seem almost like Klavier intentionally played a bit poorly in court. My guess is that Phoenix caught onto things being weird early on (if not also Klavier, but Phoenix was there when the shot was fired). Between that and the gun not being found despite the murder occurring in the detention center with only a minute before witnesses arrived (plus this all happening right after Apollo's Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Trial Day, while Phoenix is visiting Kristoph), I think Phoenix caught on that something weird was going on - which is why he arranged for Apollo to be Pemberton's defense, and possibly Klavier to be the prosecution. While I don't see anything wrong with hanging your head in disappointment after confronting a guy you hate and not getting anywhere, the amount of focus that's gotten so far tells me that it could be more important than it seems - what if Phoenix's "I was disappointed and looking down" thing was an act? What if he saw what happened, and is pretending to not have to avoid the killer's attention?

I'm not really sure what the deal is with fake Pemberton - my immediate thought would be to pin that on Grohl, with Lavigne being Hayley, Grohl's body type doesn't really match Pemberton's. Though, I guess his facial features are a bit closer - with some contour and colored contacts, he could pull that much off, at least. ("Grohl" could be more of a costume - with a wig and some padding for the body - where "Pemberton" could be closer to how the man looks. Though I am TOTALLY reaching here.) It would be interesting (and funny) if whatever the hell is happening here is all the work of two unnecessarily committed thespians.

[AshuraMage]

Replies in RED

(Sunny, they/she)
Played the case 2 demo. I don't think I shared my thoughts on case 1 publicly after I played it, but as the creator of "Fugitive from Justice", I thoroughly enjoyed being psychologically tormented, and I bestow to AshuraMage the Mindcastle-certified stamp of approval. Me and my homies still hate [those two jerks from case 1]. I also laughed a ton at some of the gags in case 1, and I remember the mystery being pretty clean (though it has been, like, six months).
I remember your SOC lol, it was awesome some of the funniest messages ever. Thank you for playing the game!

I haven't been disappointed from the expectations set up by case 1, and I have some fun theories as to what's going on here. Case 2 isn't as funny as case 1 (as you'd expect - shit's getting real), but it still has some absolute bangers. Special shoutout to Apollo being tormented for anything related to his forehead, the subtle flirting between him and the prosecution, and that one co-counsel conversation where Trucy literally just made shit up. EXTRA special shoutout to that one detective testimony, I died laughing while I was pressing those statements. Those bits all cheered me up on a bad day. I also really enjoyed the mystery setup, and although I was a bit confused by some of the key players' positioning during the crime, I realized later on that that was my own mistake - despite that, I got through the case smoothly, so props to Ashura for a clean job!
That testimony was hellish to code, but I am glad it turned out to be as good as it did, considering it's been some of the most commented things about the case lol.

I think I'm a bit more neutral on the "characters" side of things - and unfortunately, those are one of my favorite parts of any story, so I'm a bit disappointed, but I also don't have any serious complaints. I think part of this comes from having seen SO MUCH post-AA4 fic already that not much surprises me (not PoF's fault), but on the other hand, I guess I'm still waiting for everyone to really "shine" emotionally. Maybe once we learn more about what the hell is going on here, there'll be a few chances for that to happen. Though, that said, I do enjoy Phoenix's dynamic with Trucy and Apollo ("I didn't want you to worry, and also I don't want Apollo here to know where I live" LMFAO), and special shoutout to Trucy's court appearance in case 2. Having Trucy as an actively involved co-counsel is something I wish people did more, considering how she acts in Turnabout Corner - both by catching issues on her own, and by pulling her little Mr. Hat trick.
YES YES YES I love Trucy as an assistant and I dislike how she's always pushed to the side, both in canon cases and in some fancases/fangames. I love her and her character and writing her has also been a joy, I am glad you like my version of her! Also, I never read AA fics, sowwy if I repeated a bunch of stuff that other authors already did ;-;

There was one specific scene that I have some criticism of:

Spoiler : Reminiscence :

So, I realize the importance of rehashing everything that happened to Klavier in 4-3 and 4-4 before this all also happened, but the recap is done in a ham-fisted way that makes it feel like Trucy and Apollo are just REALLY rubbing it in unintentionally. I think having them keep it shorter and be a little less direct, with more details elaborated on in Apollo's monologue, would really help that not feel so much like, "hey Klavier, remember all the trauma you've been through, such as ABC?". There's probably something to be said here about Apollo and Trucy being a bit awkward about this all - but even with that in mind, they were, uh... seriously in his face with it all.
Ok that's very fair criticism. That was my first time writing a "sad" scene and I'm sure I didn't handle it well. The recap thing was more to the players to catch on to what the characters are talking about, but yeah, I see how it could be interpreted as AJ and Trucy unintentionally rubbing on Klavier that his life is garbage lol. I am sorry that the scene turned out the way it did, but it's important for the case I promise.

On a technical level, I continue to love PoF's UI and art direction. The theatrical cold-open text boxes and the investigation themes (especially the "core", Reiji's Theme from Persona) are really memorable, and they make this game stand out in my mind. I also didn't come across any glitches or bugs, though it should be said that I was playing pretty linearly, and I didn't stop to present evidence or anything.
The UI was the biggest reason why this update took so long to come out lol. I think part 2 will come out faster since it doesn't need to focus on UI anymore, but still, you never know. Also, the "Core" theme is "Urban Noise" from Parasite Eve lol. "Reiji's Theme" is logic theme 1(kinda like how AAI games had two logic themes, this is what PoF does kinda)

Some mild technical criticism:

Spoiler : Technical :

I caught onto a trend of like, repeating new info a couple too many times (and usually phrased similarly) to establish it. It's definitely good to be clear about something new when you want the player to catch on, but there were a few times I was like, "alright, got it, let's move on". Other than that and some phrasing quirks that were a bit awkward but didn't really bother me, I only noticed a few typos (such as using "being" twice in a row by accident, and I think one sentence near the end was missing a "to" or something similar - wasn't paying close attention, forgot specifics).
Sowwy for the info thing, I didn't notice it during playtesting and nobody mentioned it to me, so I thought it was fine, sowwy. About the typos, if you could, please tell me where they were so I can fix them plsssssss.

There were a couple things in the credits that had issues (lowercase "j" in SuperAj3, and one song was mentioned twice for some reason?), and I think Ashura forgot to credit himself and me for making those colorful speech bubbles. Pointing these out so they can be corrected for the full case.
SuperAj3's username has a lowercase "j", that's why I wrote it that way in the credits. Also, about the song, I DON'T KNOW HOW I DIDN'T NOTICE THAT I HATE MYSELF THIS GAME SUCKS. Also, I credited you and DBA in the case 1 credits, case 2 credits is more for stuff introduced in case 2 rather than an overall credits(that's reserved for the final case)

Looking forward to the rest of case 2 in 2030! As a reward for reading through this, here are my main theories:

Spoiler : MAJOR CASE 1 & 2 SPOILERS :

Avril Lavigne - whose name is absolutely hilarious - is, unfortunately, too good to be real. While I could absolutely see Ashura just naming her that for the bit, the second I saw her, I thought, "huh, she looks like Hayley". So I think she's either related to, or literally Hayley Williams. The latter would explain where she disappears to, and why another detective was present for case 1. ($#%! DAVE GROHL ME AND MY HOMIES HATE DAVE GROHL) Either option would also explain her beef with Apollo - as silly as it is for her to be calling Apollo "stupid" so much, it really does seem personal, and surely it wouldn't be a surprise if the duo of idiots that gaslit an entire court proceeding and stole a guy's magic bracelet hate said guy.

Also, Klavier and Phoenix are doing a Hayley/Grohl with Apollo. Plot parallels! I don't know whose machination this all was - hell, it could even be "Avril Lavigne" directing both of them for some reason, though that's not my guess - but it does seem almost like Klavier intentionally played a bit poorly in court. My guess is that Phoenix caught onto things being weird early on (if not also Klavier, but Phoenix was there when the shot was fired). Between that and the gun not being found despite the murder occurring in the detention center with only a minute before witnesses arrived (plus this all happening right after Apollo's Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Trial Day, while Phoenix is visiting Kristoph), I think Phoenix caught on that something weird was going on - which is why he arranged for Apollo to be Pemberton's defense, and possibly Klavier to be the prosecution. While I don't see anything wrong with hanging your head in disappointment after confronting a guy you hate and not getting anywhere, the amount of focus that's gotten so far tells me that it could be more important than it seems - what if Phoenix's "I was disappointed and looking down" thing was an act? What if he saw what happened, and is pretending to not have to avoid the killer's attention?

I'm not really sure what the deal is with fake Pemberton - my immediate thought would be to pin that on Grohl, with Lavigne being Hayley, Grohl's body type doesn't really match Pemberton's. Though, I guess his facial features are a bit closer - with some contour and colored contacts, he could pull that much off, at least. ("Grohl" could be more of a costume - with a wig and some padding for the body - where "Pemberton" could be closer to how the man looks. Though I am TOTALLY reaching here.) It would be interesting (and funny) if whatever the hell is happening here is all the work of two unnecessarily committed thespians.
stop doing crack

[risefromtheashes]

Replies in RED

(Sunny, they/she)
--snip--
I remember your SOC lol, it was awesome some of the funniest messages ever. Thank you for playing the game!

--snip--
That testimony was hellish to code, but I am glad it turned out to be as good as it did, considering it's been some of the most commented things about the case lol.

--snip--
YES YES YES I love Trucy as an assistant and I dislike how she's always pushed to the side, both in canon cases and in some fancases/fangames. I love her and her character and writing her has also been a joy, I am glad you like my version of her! Also, I never read AA fics, sowwy if I repeated a bunch of stuff that other authors already did ;-;

There was one specific scene that I have some criticism of:

Spoiler : Reminiscence :

So, I realize the importance of rehashing everything that happened to Klavier in 4-3 and 4-4 before this all also happened, but the recap is done in a ham-fisted way that makes it feel like Trucy and Apollo are just REALLY rubbing it in unintentionally. I think having them keep it shorter and be a little less direct, with more details elaborated on in Apollo's monologue, would really help that not feel so much like, "hey Klavier, remember all the trauma you've been through, such as ABC?". There's probably something to be said here about Apollo and Trucy being a bit awkward about this all - but even with that in mind, they were, uh... seriously in his face with it all.
Ok that's very fair criticism. That was my first time writing a "sad" scene and I'm sure I didn't handle it well. The recap thing was more to the players to catch on to what the characters are talking about, but yeah, I see how it could be interpreted as AJ and Trucy unintentionally rubbing on Klavier that his life is garbage lol. I am sorry that the scene turned out the way it did, but it's important for the case I promise.

--snip--
The UI was the biggest reason why this update took so long to come out lol. I think part 2 will come out faster since it doesn't need to focus on UI anymore, but still, you never know. Also, the "Core" theme is "Urban Noise" from Parasite Eve lol. "Reiji's Theme" is logic theme 1(kinda like how AAI games had two logic themes, this is what PoF does kinda)

Some mild technical criticism:

Spoiler : Technical :

I caught onto a trend of like, repeating new info a couple too many times (and usually phrased similarly) to establish it. It's definitely good to be clear about something new when you want the player to catch on, but there were a few times I was like, "alright, got it, let's move on". Other than that and some phrasing quirks that were a bit awkward but didn't really bother me, I only noticed a few typos (such as using "being" twice in a row by accident, and I think one sentence near the end was missing a "to" or something similar - wasn't paying close attention, forgot specifics).
Sowwy for the info thing, I didn't notice it during playtesting and nobody mentioned it to me, so I thought it was fine, sowwy. About the typos, if you could, please tell me where they were so I can fix them plsssssss.

There were a couple things in the credits that had issues (lowercase "j" in SuperAj3, and one song was mentioned twice for some reason?), and I think Ashura forgot to credit himself and me for making those colorful speech bubbles. Pointing these out so they can be corrected for the full case.
SuperAj3's username has a lowercase "j", that's why I wrote it that way in the credits. Also, about the song, I DON'T KNOW HOW I DIDN'T NOTICE THAT I HATE MYSELF THIS GAME SUCKS. Also, I credited you and DBA in the case 1 credits, case 2 credits is more for stuff introduced in case 2 rather than an overall credits(that's reserved for the final case)

Looking forward to the rest of case 2 in 2030! As a reward for reading through this, here are my main theories:

Spoiler : MAJOR CASE 1 & 2 SPOILERS :

Avril Lavigne - whose name is absolutely hilarious - is, unfortunately, too good to be real. While I could absolutely see Ashura just naming her that for the bit, the second I saw her, I thought, "huh, she looks like Hayley". So I think she's either related to, or literally Hayley Williams. The latter would explain where she disappears to, and why another detective was present for case 1. ($#%! DAVE GROHL ME AND MY HOMIES HATE DAVE GROHL) Either option would also explain her beef with Apollo - as silly as it is for her to be calling Apollo "stupid" so much, it really does seem personal, and surely it wouldn't be a surprise if the duo of idiots that gaslit an entire court proceeding and stole a guy's magic bracelet hate said guy.

Also, Klavier and Phoenix are doing a Hayley/Grohl with Apollo. Plot parallels! I don't know whose machination this all was - hell, it could even be "Avril Lavigne" directing both of them for some reason, though that's not my guess - but it does seem almost like Klavier intentionally played a bit poorly in court. My guess is that Phoenix caught onto things being weird early on (if not also Klavier, but Phoenix was there when the shot was fired). Between that and the gun not being found despite the murder occurring in the detention center with only a minute before witnesses arrived (plus this all happening right after Apollo's Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Trial Day, while Phoenix is visiting Kristoph), I think Phoenix caught on that something weird was going on - which is why he arranged for Apollo to be Pemberton's defense, and possibly Klavier to be the prosecution. While I don't see anything wrong with hanging your head in disappointment after confronting a guy you hate and not getting anywhere, the amount of focus that's gotten so far tells me that it could be more important than it seems - what if Phoenix's "I was disappointed and looking down" thing was an act? What if he saw what happened, and is pretending to not have to avoid the killer's attention?

I'm not really sure what the deal is with fake Pemberton - my immediate thought would be to pin that on Grohl, with Lavigne being Hayley, Grohl's body type doesn't really match Pemberton's. Though, I guess his facial features are a bit closer - with some contour and colored contacts, he could pull that much off, at least. ("Grohl" could be more of a costume - with a wig and some padding for the body - where "Pemberton" could be closer to how the man looks. Though I am TOTALLY reaching here.) It would be interesting (and funny) if whatever the hell is happening here is all the work of two unnecessarily committed thespians.
stop doing crack

Replying publicly: I edited a couple things in my post (song referenced and one of the music things) for clarity. And no worries, you didn't do anything I thought was unoriginal, I meant it's just hard to surprise me since I've seen so many post-AA4 Succession fallout cases. Also, I'm glad you liked Basil's "Apollo mewing" edit. :3

[AshuraMage]

yo yo yooooooooooo
hello fellow kids, it's almost christmas day! and to celebrate this special occasion, here, have a special PoF update that upgrades EVEN MORE the UI, and by that I mean that the case select menu has cool animations and new options to look more in-line with canon games, and the penalty system is now based on tokens instead of the bar*.


The update is available to download on the main post right now!

*the reason for that change is because the tokens give me more liberty to mess around with and can animate in-game, while the bar can't.

[Grounder]

Gee Apollo! How come your bar association lets you wear six badges?

[AshuraMage]

funny thing, but the update received an update cuz i am stupid and forgot to add/fix stuff, like the updates for case 2 incredible bravo ashuramage master of game dev

Rolling in to say that I like the UI overhaul, and am interested to see the story develop. I did notice the music audio cutting out at certain points, which was fixed by increasing and then decreasing it. Not sure what was up with that.

Spoiler : Since you specifically asked for criticism, :

I will say that I sincerely hope that Apollo's fake bracelet being gray is purely a visual thing for the player and not diegetic, because it's really, really silly that he hasn't noticed that it's been swapped multiple times otherwise.

I don't really get what you mean by that, I'm sorry

Gee Apollo! How come your bar association lets you wear six badges?

He's THAT cool and awesome and incredible, the bar association had no choice in this matter