How Great Ace Attorney uses Outside Information to Strenghen Twists (Big spoilers for both Great Ace Attorney games)
One of the reasons why Great Ace Attorney is my favourite title out of all the Ace Attorney series titles is because it manages to feel so unique while also still having that typical AA charm. Not just with the different period and setting, but also with its game mechanics and most definitely its story. I felt like the story took a massive leap away from how Ace Attorney stories usually play out and it resulted in an amazing story that I fell in love with. But that also got me thinking about how some twists impacted me more because I assumed things would play out a certain way because that's how those things played out before outside of GAA, but it didn't. It never was going to play out that way, we just thought it would. In this post, I'll be talking about 3 events in particular, in the order they occur in and how outside knowledge strenghen the impact of these twists: Case 1-3, Kazuma Asogi and Herlock Sholme's partner.
Case 1-3: Anyone familiar with the trials of Ace Attorney knows that each case will end with some kind of a happy ending. The truth is revealed, the murderer is punished somehow and there's hope of a brighter future for those affected. This case... doesn't do that. They set up this case's importance with the risk of being deported if Ryu's defendant got a guilty verdict and the first half of the trial goes the normal route of a typical Ace Attonery case trying to teach you the mechanics of the British trial system. But then things get murky after Gina fills the courtroom with smoke.
The trial goes on normally until you return to the carraige and notice things are different. There's now blood on the floor, the area under the seats is now empty and the skylight on top can now open. You swear this stuff wasn't there before, but maybe you didn't look down enough to see the blood at first? Maybe you had to click the skylight twice to try and open it? The game tries to gaslight you into thinking that these changes were always there because why would these changes even happen in the first place? These new points were proving the client's innocence! If he's innocent, nothing needed to be altered, right...? Wrong. Because as you play, a realisation slowly dawns on you. You're defending a guilty man.
This is a massive gut punch when you first experience it because nothing like this ever happens. The closest thing was the Engarde case but that was a final case, a story ender. This is case 3! What makes it even worse is the fact that McGilded, the murderer, is found Not Guilty by the end of the trial. For the first time, the murderer gets away with it. We also don't figure out the full truth until case 1-5 and Gina is still in a bad place until that case happens. This case sets the mood for what both Britian and GAA is going to be like. It's early enough that you believe the same formula will be followed and don't expect it to break the 3 major rules that's been established. Breaking this trend helps to strenghen the impact of this case and shape how GAA will go forward.
Kazuma Asogi: Let me try describing someone for you. At the start of the game, this person serves as a mentor, helping us to navigate the courtroom. They stand by our side and guide us through our first trial as a reliable figure while also stepping back when we get our footing. At the end of the trial, they're impressed by how well we do and can't wait to see us get even better. Move to the next case and they're dead. If you're thinking I'm describing Kazuma, you're wrong. I'm describing Mia Fey, and that's the point.
Kazuma shares so much energy with Mia at the start of the game that if you've played the first Ace Attorney game, you already know he won't live past the start of case 2 and are just waiting for the ball to drop, which it does. You also know that Ryu will carry on Kazuma's legacy and become a defence attorney and for Kazuma to become a sort of goal-post, a level of skill Ryu wants to reach, and these two events do occur. What I'm sure you didn't know was that Kazuma comes back.
Unlike the main trilogy, GAA doesn't have spirit mediums so there was no chance of a Mia-like possession happening to bring Kazuma back. But he does come back and he plays a much different role than what we thought he'd play. He changes from a legacy to a rival, making Ryu want to improve so he can face off against him as a fair foe. This change of course in Kazuma's character is made much more impactful because it deviates so much from the role we put him in when he was never supposed to be Ryu's Mia. He became Ryu's Edgeworth.
Herlock Sholme's Partner: Finally, the twist I'm sure no one even anticipated was even a possibility. A twist that doesn't even play with your knowledge of Ace Attorney at all. It relies purely on your knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes franchise. More specifically, it relies on the simple fact that you know his partner's name, John Watson, and who doesn't? They're an iconic duo! Partners who are together through and through. Not here though, as in the universe of GAA, I don't even think Herlock Sholmes and John Wilson have ever met.
When playing the game, you can obviously see by their names that they're based off Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, the Japanese version even uses their actual names. And if that wasn't enough, Herlock is raising a girl named Iris Wilson so you already know it as fact that Herlock's mysterious partner is John, even if it's never said. However, when you think about it, there's barely any in-game evidence to support this claim.
Iris only believes that John is Herlock's partner because the handwriting of the stories that Herlock's partner wrote matched the autopsy report signed as John and Herlock never really looked sad when he should know that his "partner" was dead, along with more subtle things I can't remember off the top of my head. Because we take it at face-value that, naturally, Watson would be Holme's partner, the twist of Yujin Mikotoba being Holme's partner hits so much harder. All because we believed such an obvious rule would be followed.
Great Ace Attorney is such a wonderful game to play with diverse characters, complex mysteries and a wonderful story that kept me engaged until the very end. The twists that I mentioned, even without the added context, work so well and there's many more in the story that are executed wonderfully. If you read this but haven't played GAA, there's still so much story left that I didn't even mention and I haven't even touched the over-arching plot here so I heavily recommend you play the game yourself if you haven't. Trust me, it's worth your time.
