Best Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 1 Case

[Nate Jacobs]

Self-explanatory. My favorite case so far was Turnabout Goodbyes mainly because of its building of Edgeworth's character, but I'm still on RIse From The Ashes but so far would put it a bit below Turnabout Goodbyes because the fingerprint mic parts were kind of annoying. But it feels like a very new and interesting case so far.

WARNING: Don't overly spoiler

 

[Raiko Horikawa]

why the fuck would i ban anyone for spoilers lmao

 

[Nate Jacobs]

why the fuck would i ban anyone for spoilers lmao

Well I would support if you did assuming it's not put in a spoiler box, but I should have worded that much better to be fair, LOL. It says "without a spoiler box" now.

 

[Raiko Horikawa]

why would i ban anyone for spoiling things at all??? that's an overreaction

at most i'd just bap someone with a "don't do that"

anyhow 1-4

 

[fantanoice]

Always vote Ema

 

[Mario4Ever]

Well, I'm glad I took the time to look at the case names, since I almost mentioned one from the third game (playing the trilogy made me think of them as one long one, I guess). I found 1-4 to be the most compelling.

 

[Bob Craples]

I would say turnabout sisters since it kills a character that Phoenix had just interacted with and was friends with, which imo makes the death more impactful (although not every death needs to be impactful, of course).

 

[Koops]

I like case 5 it has Lana and I like Lana I think Lana is very cool and awesome I like Lana

 

[Nate Jacobs]

After finishing Rise From The Ashes, I'm going to change my vote to that: even with an occasional uneven moment here and there, it felt bigger than Turnabout Goodbyes, and with not as many characters I found annoying (I found Lotta Hart to some extent as well as Larry Butz's getting dumped again in Case 4 to be a bit repetitive), and it's not vastly weaker compared to Turnabout Goodbyes about giving Edgeworth an arc like I was worried it would be. Everything about RFTA felt separated from the first four cases, so it felt a bit more new and epic.

 

[JC.]

Turnabout Goodbyes, no question

 

[supermariofan]

One thing about Turnabout Goodbyes that turned me off is in real life, no one would ever just show up to court AFTER the verdict is given.

 

[I'm the lil bro.]

Turnabout Goodbyes for sure. There's some emphasis given here about what it does for Edgeworth's character, but not enough focus is being brought to the fact that of any case, it's the one that fleshes out our protagonist, Wright, the most. You learn his entire motivation for becoming a defense attorney and get a really strong impression for the kind of guy he is in a way that you don't with other cases, as it really rounds him out and humanizes him. Before he came across as this put-upon everyman, but it's with this case that you learn that he is a bit of a bleeding heart but loyal as a dog, and very sentimental to boot. This sentiment is exactly why he makes for the defense attorney he is and is at the core of Ace Attorney's message — the satire, the heart, all of it.

Spoiler

It says a lot about how much that class trial would've been traumatizing for him, doubly so had Edgeworth not stood up for him in class. It makes complete sense that he would take that experience and decide he would help others in the way that Edgeworth helped him. That he would do that for Edgeworth, that he would adamantly believe in him when he shaped his world view like that so radically. Wright showed no interest in law before then; Wright became a defense attorney because of Edgeworth. He was motivated not only by how that experience shaped how he saw others in the same position as him, but how Edgeworth reached out to him.

There's a lot of emphasis on bonds in Ace Attorney, about reaching out to people to help them and be there for them, about the purity of being a lawyer not for a perfect record, but to be sure that justice is served for the right people.

It's only natural for living creatures to fight to protect their own lives. But what makes us human is that we fight for others. But who do you fight for? How hard must you fight...? That's the true measure of what human life is worth. We defense attorneys are warriors who are constantly challenged by that question. Even when the battle is over, and the bonds that connect us are severed... We always return... Time and time again.

Spoken by the man himself. That one is in Bridge to the Turnabout, but it applies here. This trial really cements Wright as the character who embodies that idea. He revisits what it means to be a defense attorney for him multiple times throughout the series, and it all comes back to this: someone helped him when he thought he had no one, when he thought nobody would believe him, and he wants to pass that on to others around him, to save them from the isolating, crushing feeling that comes from feeling like no one will ever hear you out. This lack of hearing people out properly is a recurring theme throughout Ace Attorney and is indeed a part of why trials exist in the first place, to give all parties their chance to make their case rather than just acting hastily upon an accusation.

Ace Attorney was always a commentary (a parody or satire, whichever you'd refer to it as) on the Japanese legal system, which is heavily flawed and weighted in prosecutors' favor and often has a presumption of guilty until proven innocent, which explains a lot of the whacky logic that is used throughout Ace Attorney, because it's an exaggerated version of those existing courts. The commentary, then, is to state that there is value in a proper defense and that the over-emphasis on punishing the guilty is leading to voices being silenced, innocent voices who are tossed to the wayside in favor of money and notoriety.

Edgeworth had nothing to gain from defending Wright in that class trial. He was the one whose lunch money was stolen, after all. But he did it, because it was the right thing to do. And that was why Edgeworth was so passionate about being a defense attorney originally.

It's also an incredibly important case for Maya, too, as she gets development within it that influences future bits of her arc with being the spirit medium who's the heir to the Fey clan. It's often overlooked in analyses, unfortunately, but there's been a build up until case four about the kind of person that Maya is, too, and what kind of insecurities she struggles with that aren't just centered around her sister, and they get full focus there. She also gets one of her coolest character moments that isn't related to spirit channeling.

Spoiler

There's something incredible about the way that Maya aggressively speaks out in court when Wright can't bring himself to, getting herself held in contempt of court, and her dogged persistence in making sure Wright's goals are seen through, and it's exactly why she makes for the good assistant she is despite what she thinks. Wright needs that, he needs people who believe full-heartedly that he has somewhere to go, people who are as dedicated to his cause as he is. And she does this for Wright; she has no personal connection to Edgeworth and honestly, he's been mean to her up to that point, but it shows just how much of a good friend she is that despite that she's one of the few people who is never a naysayer, and instantly believes in Wright's passion for saving Edgeworth to the point she places herself in trouble not once, but twice to help him. She believes Edgeworth is innocent because Wright does. She trusts his judgment. It's a way of repaying him after he refused to leave her out to dry in Turnabout Sisters.

Rise from the Ashes was pretty cool, too. I don't think the first game had a bad case. I just see Turnabout Goodbyes as the penultimate case of Ace Attorney and the only case to truly top it in the original trilogy was Bridge to the Turnabout.