#tanlerst

Dear tanlerst,

You can keep it.  I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.

Dear ellipis-ultima,

As much as I like the joke of Phoenix joining Smash, it’s the same thing of everybody in the PL fandom want’s Professor Layton to be in the game. They have the same possibility, but the majority of people either don’t know the characters, don’t know the capability of the characters, or don’t care about either. Now, about the game as it is...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kumatora Kumatora Kumatora! Ku-ma-to-ra!! I’ve always been a Lucas main, but I’m DEFINITELY going to main Lucas, JUST so I can see Kumatora in his final smash. And the Inklings! I wanna play them so badly!! I’m SO hyped!

Dear ellipsis-ultima,

It’s funny you should ask -- I already made a comment about it using one of Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” comics on my other blog:

Needless to say, I’m quite excited at the prospects of a Smash Bros. game that includes every flippin’ fighter from previous games.  It does make me wonder how much content we’ll get in terms of the music, stages, and storyline (if there is one), but it’s still an intriguing thought.

And if, by some miracle, Phoenix appeared on the roster, my reaction would probably be the same as the one I had when they announced the new Ace Attorney game for the Switch:

Dear Afool Ishdud,

Fixed it.  Mind if I borrow your name for a little while?

Dear Inferno,

...Whelp, that’s a book to add to my reading list. If we’re giving out legal book recommendations, I recommend to everybody “Black Jack Justice” by Gregg Taylor. It’s based on the podcast of the same name, and it’s about an old-timey detective and his... perky girl detective partner, and how they first met.

Dear Inferno,

I’ve only read his first book, A Time to Kill (and seen the movie adaptation), and from what I remember, it was pretty great in terms of plot buildup and suspense.  I’m admittedly not much of a book-reader, but if his other books are as good as that one, I’ll definitely check it out sometime soon.

(Referenced News Report)

Dear Tanlerst,

Unsurprising.

Dear Tanlerst,

Word.

(Previous Letter)

Yikes...  Thank you very much for finding that for us, as well as finding a better link (and another link after that one).  Considering how many other links are on this blog, it might be a good idea for us to hire a quality control person.  Do you know anyone with a palindromic name?

(Previous Letter)

Dear Guquis,

Possibly, but I'd say it was worth it.  It isn’t the first time Athena has made a generalization about men, plus, as a member of that group myself, I wouldn’t say she’s too far off.

Dear Laura,

I’m so sorry I missed your birthday! Happy Birthday anyways! Sorry, I was so caught up with my own things. My friends and I are working on numerous things IRL, plus I’m waiting for a job application to go through, and a lot of other IRL nonsense. :(

Dear askaccurateaceattorney,

Dear Fulbright,

I haven’t been following Pokemon very much lately, so let me just take a quick look at it...

Hmm.  Gameplay-wise, it seems like it’s playing the nostalgia card for the sake of older Pokemon fans, but even so, I like how the music sounds, how the multiplayer system works, and how much more real they’re attempting to make raising Pokemon.  If I had one of those real-life Pokeballs, I’d probably be petting it all day.  As someone who isn’t a hardcore Pokefan, I’ll withhold judgment of it until I see more, but I’m guessing its popularity will mostly depend on which features the developers decide to focus on (hardware, gameplay, graphics, etc.).  Who knows?  It might end up being great.

I’m also waiting for the Switch’s price to go down a little before I buy one.  It looks pretty entertaining from what I’ve seen, but I’ll probably keep clinging to my Wii U until the Switch is within my grasp budget-wise.  I’ve also been a fan of the 3DS for a long time (true, I stopped using the 3D feature a while ago, but it’s still amazing), so I hope it retains its popularity for at least a little while longer.  The funny thing is, I was lucky enough to find a used one pretty cheap, but I still think it was worth way more than I paid for it.  Sorry for ripping you off there, Nintendo!

Dear Pinky the Artist,

I LOVE fan art! It’s, in my personal opinion, one of the best things about any fandom!

Dear Pinky the artist,

Do I?  DO I!?  I wouldn’t make fan art myself and not accept it from others.  Send it on in!  (Assuming it’s tasteful, of course.)

And while I’ve already explained this over on my blog, I might as well explain it here so everyone can see it:

This blog was created by someone who called herself Ace Admin (a very clever name, in my opinion).  She later handed it off to a guy who called himself the Mod (short for “Moderator”), who ran it up until about a year ago.  At that point, he held an audition to pick a new moderator, and the winner was my good friend, who goes by The Modthorne, and she later allowed me to join her as the Co-Mod.  (We both picked those names for ourselves, by the way.)  The Mod said he was planning to stop by every now and then to answer a few letters, but we haven’t seen him in quite a while, so the blog is now run by the two of us.

However, as I mentioned before, it’s really the writers who provide “fuel” for the blog.  We’re just the pilots.  We hope you’re enjoying the ride so far!

Dear...The Mod!?

Seriously, though, if this is for real, could you provide proof by sending one or both of us an email?  Otherwise, great comedic timing.

Dear Modot,

You haven’t forgotten my email address have you? Here, lean in close and I’ll whisper it in your ear.

Dear tanlerst,

My favorite is the Edgeworth facepalm.

It’s very useful for letters that call for an “overwhelmed” response, plus I imagine Edgeworth feels that way all too often while dealing with Kay, Edgeworth, Larry, and all the other goofballs he's forced to work with.

I also love the corresponding Franziska facepalm.

If Edgeworth gets overwhelmed, I’d imagine she gets thoroughly disgusted.

I should also mention a couple of close seconds, both of which are fainting animations:

Pure genius, Mod.

Dear tanlerst, 

First of all, waddup you got both mods to answer like you wanted.

Secondly, I’m just in love with them all really. They’re all really good. Though I think my personal favourite is Shih-na balancing a bottle on her nose. Pretty simple, and it’s my favourite AAI character, which makes it better.

Dear sytch,

Most of the 2D sprites can be found at court-records.net, in the “Animations” section of the “Media” link.  The ones for Ace Attorney Investigations 2 were found at the Ace Attorney Wiki.  Why they still haven’t added those into the court records pages, I don’t know.

The 3D sprites with backgrounds were made using gooncam, a free tool for making gifs from part of your computer screen, with gameplay videos on Youtube.  The ones without backgrounds were ripped by No Comment and Meme?.  How they managed to create those, I also don’t know, but we greatly appreciate it nonetheless.

I also use GIMP 2 to create custom gifs and pictures whenever it seems like the right opportunity for it.  There are just some things you can’t convey without tweaking the sprites a little.

Dear angry-blonde-ish,

That long, huh?  Sorry to hear that.  That shouldn’t be the case unless those letters went against the rules of this blog, or if they were sent to the Mod himself (he stopped answering letters a while back).  I see three of your letters in the inbox right now, and they’re getting close to the bottom, but feel free to re-send them you think they’re not the same ones.  And thanks!

Dear angry-blonde-ish,

There’s like 2.5k submissions in the inbox daily, and we’re only human. It takes a long time for answers to come. Sorry for the inconvenience...

Dear jnv11,

They’d both have to play air guitars in that scenario, since Pees’lubn already destroyed his.  Even better, we’d get to see him attempt to destroy an air guitar after being found guilty.

Dear jnv11,

I can feel the permanent hearing damage calling the jury’s names... Oh Juuuudie... Martiiiin... Apooollooooo...

(Previous Letter)

(Link in Letter)

Dear Anonymous and JoJo Fan,

We don’t really have a way to protect ourselves from a whip-happy prosecutor, so it looks like we’ll have to respect her wishes and shred them and give them to Trucy to reassemble.  Sorry.

Thanks for sharing this soundtrack.  I’ve mentioned before that I love video game music, and these songs create a very nice atmosphere for a dark, spooky, melancholy setting.  I can’t say whether the game itself is as enjoyable as the music since I haven’t played it, but I always enjoy listening to something new.

Dear SC,

Indeed.

Dear SC again,

I figured as much.  We’ll probably never know the real meaning of those numbers, will we?

I’m about halfway through watching Hotel Dusk, and so far, it’s still intriguing.  My favorite side character so far is Louis, since he just seems like a fun, laidback sort of guy who isn’t phased by much, but still knows how to be helpful if he gets to do it his way.  I guess I should say he’s my favorite adult side character, though.  The one I’ve really grown attached to is young Melissa.

The reason for my attachment should be obvious.  In case it isn’t, though, she’s flippin’ adorable.

Here are my current speculations about the overall mystery.  Semi-spoilers ahead:

Alan Parker is still alive and seeking revenge for what happened to him.

Mila is able to talk, but afraid to discuss her past.

Dunning isn’t on the up and up.

Melissa will continue being adorable throughout the rest of the game.

I’m not 100% sure about any of them (except the last one), but we’ll see soon enough.  Good day, and I’ll let you know--

Oh, right!  The Rayfa essay.  I’ll have to save that for later because, as it turns out, it takes a lot of time and effort to crank one of those out, but I’ll try to have it posted within a week.  I’ll say this much for now: Rayfa happens to be one of my favorite SoJ characters due to her charm, courage, and overall cheekiness.

Dear tanlerst,

If kids think they can do my job, they’re welcome to try.  I just hope they know how to pack their own lunches.

(Link in Letter)

Dear tanlerst,

*SNRRK*

Sorry, but...I’m still getting over the “ginger arms and ginger legs” part.  I’ll *pfft* let you know as soon as I get that out of my head...

(Which is never.)

Dear tanlerst,

I’d have to say former Queen Ga’ran.  Even after we brought her crimes to light, she had an entire militia to protect her from legal retribution.  Doing your job at gunpoint is scarier than you might think.

Apollo might have done most of the work, but I'm sure we both left a substantial amount of sweat behind in that temple.

Dear Asher Wright,

No need to be embarrassed or apologize.  In fact, this probably won’t be the last one of these letters we answer.  This news still hasn’t spread to everyone yet.

To be clear, the Mod isn’t technically gone so much as on vacation, but as far as we know, he isn’t answering letters addressed to him right now.  I hope his two new proteges will suffice for now.

Dear tanlerst,

That’s true, isn’t it?  I’m surprised he didn’t at least have a few bruises after his breakdown.

...Come to think of it, where did he even get that statue?

(Song in Letter)

Dear carlcatron,

First of all, thank you for sharing your new song on this blog.  It was very gracious of you, and I appreciate it both as a fan of Ace Attorney and a lover of quality music.

Secondly, this is a pretty sweet remix, to say the least.  I love how subtle yet strong it is musically, and your saxophone playing really gave it a nice overall “flavor.”  In fact, I’d say it all sounded jazzy enough to be a “Layton Brothers version” of that song.  If they ever made a crossover between those two games (which would be awesome), I imagine that’s what it would sound like.

Of course, I’m no musical expert, but I’ve heard quite a few remixes of video game tunes, and I’m happy to say this is one of the better ones out there.  This might not mean a lot for now, but I’ll give this song the Co-Mod Seal of Approval.

(Link in Letter)

Dear jumpingjaxx13,

I’m guessing you wanted us to add this to our list of other ask blogs, so I went ahead and added it.  Let us know if that wasn’t the case.

Dear Southern Corn,

Again, I went ahead and blacked out the plot-revealing parts of your letter, since I enjoyed the game enough to want to avoid spoiling it for others.

The sixth case had a very interesting setup, but, like you said, it was very confusing.  I still don’t get how that “kiss of death” was supposed to have worked, and why it was necessary if Sassina was just going to be stabbed anyway.  The music also seemed out of place, unless they were trying to give that case more of a “spooky” feel than a “mysterious” one, which would just be a weird change to make so suddenly, in my opinion.  I did, however, like most of the pun names, and I can’t help but wonder if Uttar is a distant relative of a certain deceased magician...

The seventh case was indeed short, but I thought it was a nice change of pace to give the player a case that’s not only much easier than the previous ones, but also has a completely different goal, plus you get to visit the actual location instead of using Alfendi’s machine.  It might not have changed much for the player, but it was sure fun to see Lucy and the Prof. do some actual work “out in t’ wild.”

The eighth case was basically a continuation of the cliffhanger in the seventh case, similar to Turnabout for Tomorrow’s continuation of The Cosmic Turnabout in Dual Destinies.  I especially liked the unexpected twist that occurred -- you’re locked in a room, and the only way to get out and discover what’s going on is to solve a fictitious case (based on a real one) without help from the Prof.  I do have to wonder exactly what the point of it was, and why Alfendi’s kidnapper was so certain that he couldn’t be trusted, but I enjoyed how suspenseful the story got, as well as the humorous dialogue between Lucy and the kidnapper.

And the final case, like many of the previous ones, threw me for a loop on more than one occasion.  For one thing, I didn’t expect to see Lucy's happy, trusting demeanor suddenly change.  She’d already come to trust the Prof. in practically everything they’d done together, which was no small amount, even knowing about his behavioral condition, and now she was starting to entertain doubts about him.  Then there was the enormity of the castle, which required an insane amount of searching.  Then we learn the truth about “Potty Prof.,” which I can safely say I never would’ve guessed.  And finally, there’s the culprit, who was probably the last person I expected it to be.  You never know what people do when no one’s looking, do you?  The way he did it, on the other hand, wasn’t that hard for me to deduce, but I’ve still got to hand it to Level-5 for their masterful misdirection.  Good on you!

All in all, I’d say it’s a very fun adventure for anyone who likes interactive novel games and/or the Professor Layton series, and I’d recommend watching it (or going ahead and buying the cases if you love the series that much) to any fan of Ace Attorney, due to how similar the two of them are.  However, if you do decide to watch it, I would not advise watching the videos with voice-overs.  I’m sure those guys are nice people, but when you give a South American a high-pitched, Italian-sounding accent, you’re just messing things up for the viewers.

One last thing -- I’ve started watching 999 and, to be honest, it's been impressing me a lot less than I'd hoped it would (and that’s putting it politely), but it’s still somewhat intriguing, so I’ll reserve judgment until after I finish it.

Dear Southern Corn,

....Oh my gosh, it’s come back to haunt me after all this time...

Dear tanlerst,

That isn’t your fault.  There are currently over 2,000 letters in the inbox, and there hasn’t been a day yet that we didn’t get more, so the sad truth is that it usually takes 4 to 5 months for a letter to an AA character to reach the bottom of the queue and get an answer.  I wish it wasn’t that way, but as long as your letters are coherent and follow the rules, we’ll make every effort we can to answer them.

Letters to the Mods come in much less frequently, which is why I’ve been posting them on a weekly basis.  I’d love it if we could speed up the answer rate of every letter, but that’s an idea we’ll have to wait on for now.  I blame the Mod for making this blog so darn popular.

Dear Anonymous,

First of all, I’ve never heard a name pun I didn’t like.  In fact, I’ve always liked the names people came up with for the Mod -- Modfred von Karmod, Modot, Holy Moder, etc., although I never came up with one myself for some reason.

Secondly, those comparisons sound very appropriate and well thought-out, but Larry strikes me more as a Chewbacca kind of guy -- the one who has his talents but who’s mostly just there for comedy relief.

And on the topic of Ace Star Attorney Wars...

(Art by TinkBellQ)

(Video in Letter)

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for compiling all of those statistics -- they might come in handy somewhere down the road.

[Statistics added to Court Record]

Interesting how Dahlia’s preferred method of murder never seemed to work out for her...unless her goal was to poison her own moral standards, which she did quite well.  Apparently, even the murderers can’t tell how things are going to happen.  For some of them, that’s their entire motive -- killing out of fear of what will happen if they don’t.

I’m about ready to see Athena come into her own as a defense attorney, too.  She’s definitely shown that she can stand at the defense’s bench on her own without panicking.  All she needs now is the self-confidence to figure things out without someone by her side (physically, at least), and I bet she’d take off on her own saga of cases the same way Phoenix and Apollo did.  Given, he had a co-counsel during most of it, but he at least did most of the critical thinking on his own.

There’s one notable prosecutor you didn’t mention, and that’s Godot.  Sure, he only prosecuted 3 different cases, and it was mostly for his own selfish reasons, but his smooth style, his personality, and his jazzy theme music made him stand out as an adversary in the courtroom.

And while replacing Maya as a co-counsel is like replacing Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune, I feel like Athena fits the position pretty well, especially with her emotion-detecting talents.  It sure beats turning into your colleague’s deceased mentor without anyone else noticing somehow.  Sorry, Maya, but that’s just cheating in my book.

Oh yeah, and...Grossberg might not be the most pleasant co-counsel to have, but at least he doesn’t sing in the courtroom.

Dear SC,

:D to you too!

So, Ghost Trick takes place in an unknown country in the Ace Attorney universe, huh?  I’m sure glad Dahlia never discovered that meteor...  (Dang it, why do I keep bringing her up?)

I haven’t been able to see 999 yet, but I have started watching a playthrough of Layton Brothers: Mystery Room.  It’s very intriguing from what I’ve seen so far, and the jazzed-up music helps to make it even more engaging, much like in an Ace Attorney game.  I can’t help but wonder, though...  Why would anyone order a sandwich with fried fish, pickles, egg, lettuce, pineapple, and smoked salmon?

I’m still planning on exploring the Layton series, but so far the only game I’ve played that includes the professor is the Ace Attorney/Professor Layton crossover.  I wouldn’t exactly call that game great, though.  I’d call it a masterpiece.

To start off, the introductory music and gradual illumination of the courtroom (to the beat of the music, no less) is one of the most creative things I’ve seen at the beginning of any game.  Then there’s the story, which carefully mixes the styles (including the gameplay styles) of the two different series, and the amazing plot, which keeps you guessing until the very end.  The music and visual art experienced throughout the game were pushed to an amazing level, especially when compared to those of the previous games in each series, and the voice acting was remarkably good in my opinion.  It was our first time hearing Maya, after all, and I think they did a great job of bringing out her character through it.

The ending wasn’t quite the same as an Ace Attorney ending, but it still left me satisfied for the most part.  The mysteries and conflicts of Labyrinthia were solved, the sins of the past were forgiven, and two of the most famous video game detectives got to work together in one of their wildest cases yet.

I can understand why some might be uneasy about such a big government project being kept a secret even after everything that happened, but we can at least rest assured that Labrelum, Inc. will use its resources for more reasonable purposes, rather than just to convince a young lady that she isn’t a Great Witch.

Speaking of witch which, they really had me going with the whole “witchcraft” thing for most of the game.  Either I’m really that gullible, or Capcom and Level-5 are just that good at storytelling.  In any case, I can tell they poured a lot of effort into this game, and I genuinely appreciate it as a gamer.

Dear aceattorneyfanforever789,

What the--!?

My identity’s been compromised!  MAYDAY!  MAYDAY!

Just joking.  I guess it’s my own fault for not changing everything that shows my actual name on my blog.  Fortunately, that’s all been remedied now, so hopefully I can keep that a secret for a little longer.

Anyway, to answer your question, I haven’t reached your letter yet for the same reason I mentioned earlier -- it takes 4 to 5 months for us to get to a letter and answer it, simply because of the sheer number of them.  But as long as it follows the rules and makes sense, it should eventually make its way to us and receive an answer.  Believe me, I’m as eager to see them all get answered as everyone else is.