October 2013
Lind
*grumble*
This is the Member of the Month; an interview that I do at the end of each month. It's a fun way of finding out about respected members of the community.
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
Lind: Hi. About time you all recognized my undeniable godlike godly greatness (of the gods). Frankly, you should be ashamed. Bow before me, and you may yet be pardoned, oh foolish mortal.
Lind: Well, as I recall, I was actually invited here by FenrirDarkWolf on my (now basically dead) forum, The Otaku 2.0, which is where I called home on the internet after the nasty business with Court Records went down.
Lind: Oh. Ohhhh, man, KG:AA. That takes me back. Really, the sprite comic just began because I was a fan of Kristoph at the time, and I just sort of have this thing where if I see any kind of creative expression, I want to be a part of it - so I just rushed right the heck in with KG:AA. It's kind of obvious now, but KG:AA wasn't very thought-out and most of it just happened on impulse. I like some of the ideas I had in the process, though.
The comic itself is... well, basically dead. I had plans to work it into a game... I have no idea if I'll actually go through with it or not though. At the very least it's low-priority.
Tap: Time for some bragging rights. How did it feel when Greeny announced Francis Equitas was officially over given the intense rivalry between the two series'?
Lind: Not much of anything, honestly, save for a bit of nostalgia. By that point I suppose we'd both grown tired of it. Damn, I feel old now.
Tap: One of your most memorable characters was Principal Badcock... as I recall, an actual Principal from one of your schools in real life. Did the same reaction happen IRL as well?
Lind: Yeah, that was pretty much how it went down - though my original concept turned out rather different to the person himself, I kept the name aspect. Every time his name was mentioned people tried not to laugh. Eventually he just stopped saying it.
Lind: Well, Turnabout Twofold and The Tricky Turnabout are my current projects - Athena Justice has been put slightly on the backburner for now. On that note, I should mention that Athena Justice has been renamed to Artemis Justice for canon-based reasons.
Athena Justice was just sort of proof of concept, my first real foray into using the editor, and similarly to KG:AA it wasn't all that thought through. Of course, having not actually set that much up with part 1 it's much easier to make something of if I choose to continue it.
The Tricky Turnabout is something I'm really proud of in what we have so far. When I entered the competition I had the framework of a case lined up already, so I had more time to focus on ironing everything else out. Real life, of course, intervened, and only one part was out in time for the comp, but we've since gotten part 2 out and I think it's fantastic. I agonized over that one quite a bit, fixing up every line of writing I possibly could until it flowed perfectly. I'm also quite happy to be the first person to functionally implement Perceive, though and improved version of said feature is in the works since Fileden closing has caused me to give it mild revamps anyway.
Finally, Twofold. This is by far the most ambitious project I have. It's to weigh in at 11 parts when finished, and... well, I have all the rough ideas down, but I don't have an exact chronology of events arranged so it is very much a work in progress, whereas Tricky is much more solid in concept. If all goes well, though, I think it'll be something impressive.
Tap: What makes a good 'game' in your opinion?
Lind: Any number of things. I'm not sure if you're talking about just AAO games or games in general, but I'll run with the assumption that it's AAO games to save time.
Personally, what I look for in an AAO game is original flavour - the idea that it could actually fit in, from a writing standpoint, into the actual games. I mean, let's face it, there are definitely some interesting ideas that have come of AAO users' innovations, but I came here because I'm a fan of Ace Attorney and that is, first and foremost, what I expect.
So I'll admit, I've been turned off of many AAO games solely because they've gone so hard against the tone of the actual series - especially in the case of those with overly-dramatic writing. Properly-executed drama is difficult even in the case of professional writers, and amateur writers are just begging for failure when they overdo it with the drama. This is exactly why I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the previous case competition, "The Most Despair-Inducing Turnabout in the History of AAO". It begged for exactly what I often consider the worst aspect of AAO trials, whilst ignoring the comic wit and levity that the games balanced in so well.
Most of all, though, I find the best aspect of the AA games is the logical progression you go through to solve each case. After all, that's the point, isn't it?
Effectively, I enjoy just about any fangame that can get that much right, to some degree - though that doesn't mean I will consider it good overall if it screws everything else up. Only real problem here is that most cases here are incomplete which means that isn't an option - and yes, I'm guilty of this too (though I think Tricky part 2 has enough of this to still be solid even if it hasn't truly concluded yet). The opposite case of this is something like Burial of the Turnabout, which despite having a solid script took painful leaps of logic to actually play.
I have nothing against difficulty - to use another Blackrune example, Turnabout Pairs was painfully difficult, but still logically functional. I think. There may have been a logic skip or two, it's been a while.
(Yes, I'm a harsh critic. Not trying to be mean, just brutally honest.)
Lind: And now I don't have to feel bad for singling out Blackrune! The Virtual Turnabout was the first trial I played on AAO and yet it very easily still ranks amongst the best. However he may well have topped that achievement with Turnabout of Courage, which is not only a very good trial overall with a strong premise, but has an amazing ending and some wonderful execution. It's everything I love about Blackrune's style with nothing I hate.
(okay maybe the breakdown was a little goofily overdone but I can live with that in the face of everything else)
I also really need to give some credit to ZetaAzuel's "A Turnabout Through Time" here, which I absolutely loved but never got around to finishing because it was so long between the release of each part that I had basically forgotten the specifics and didn't want to play the next part until I redid the first which I still haven't gotten around to and BLARGH
Lind: Let's not. Honestly, kind of a touchy subject.
Lind: Depressingly tedious.
Tap: Have you and Shadow [ShadowEdgeworth] met up IRL? I remember Shadow mentioning to me once via PM years ago that he sent you a text message, but I can't really remember... ^^'
Lind: He never sent me a text message, I rarely have a functioning phone and I prefer to keep all my contact online rather than via phone anyway - my phone contact details rarely go to anyone other than close friends or potential employers.
And, uh, no, I never did meet ShadowEdgeworth. Not really sure why, actually. We live in the same city, after all. Maybe we should look into arranging that?
Lind:
Lind: She ain't no human being! There is no future in England's dreaming!
Lind: It's an extremely close race, and I guess my opinion on this matter changes regularly. If I had to choose a "favourite", it'd be AAI. Not the same thing as it being the best, though - I consider AAI my favourite on the strength of the most blue-ball inducingly high-octane hotbloodedness of Turnabout Ablaze, easily my favourite case ever, alone. It also features perhaps my most hated case, The Kidnapped Turnabout, as well, so I guess this isn't really a reasonable game to call the best. The "best" is probably Trials and Tribulations, if only for being the only game without a single bad case (and Bridge to the Turnabout is a fantastic case). But AAI is my favourite. Because it is.
Tap: What other games do you really like?
Lind: I actually did a top ten on the forum, on this page: http://aceattorney.sparklin.org/forum/v ... &start=225
It's kind of out of date though. Shaln't bother to resconstruct it, but I will say that Psychonauts is amazing and you should feel bad about yourself as a person if you haven't played it AND paid money to do so. Tim Schafer deserves your money.
Also I'm really liking Pokemon X & Y at the moment but I will reserve full judgement for after I finish it.
Tap: What was the first video game you ever played?
Lind: Pokey manz red. Recently replayed it. loved it again. Obviously has some issues but I still consider it to be better than generations IV or V.
Tap: Last question, now. Do you have any other interests?
Lind: Yes.
Tap:
Tap: Before we conclude this interview, do you have anything else you'd like to say?
Lind: Jun Maeda is a terrible writer and should be poked with a pointy stick.