Ace Attorney: SoJ Episode Discussion 2 [Spoilers]

This Episode Discussion of Spirit of Justice covers Episodes 4 to 5.

Spoilers are everywhere here. So if you haven’t played the game yet and you don’t want to be spoiled, run away far from here, now!
… Okay then. Let’s go!

Episode 4: Turnabout Storyteller:
So now we’re getting to the really pointless parts of the game. We’re back in the US and now in control of Athena, in a Trial-only case.
However, I have oddly fond memories with this case though. It doesn’t have a very good villain if you ask me, and I don’t think Athena gets enough spotlight still. But maybe it’s the characters here and because it’s this Episode isn’t very long to begin with.

So Taifu Toneido was suffocated to death by something, but we don’t know, and nothing’s found in his lungs. Bucky Whet is the one on trial. Some person who works at Whet Soba. A Noodles/Ramen guy, thing.
He also seems to always be drunk and sick. I don’t even know how he gets his job done so well. We do see him do it in court after all.

Oh by the way, we’re in Courtroom No. 4. Spoilers for Dual Destinies, but this is the courtroom that got bombed to hell in the previous game. Good to see it’s good as new.
Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is back… for some reason. Seriously, it must be annoying travelling from just two countries just to be a prosecutor in a case there. I’d probably be singing a different story if his personality improved at all since when we first met him, but…

Simon Blackquill actually aids Ms. Cykes in this case as the co-counsel, much to my surprise, but it’s interesting. But not before taking the stand to give his side of the story as he was actually there at the scene of the crime… sorta. He was actually outside it, alongside Geiru Toneido. A balloon gal.
She wasn’t there 100% of the time so she witnessed even less actually. Hmm…

After, Blackquill joins the defence as he does actually want to save Bucky from a Guilty verdict. Hey, it’s not the end of the world, you know. What about Eldoon’s?
And also a new witness takes the stand: Uendo Toneido. So many Toneidos, but anyway…
Uendo here? He’s my favourite case-exclusive character in this game. He has my favourite personality gimmick… or well, he’s actually got Split Personality Disorder, which is found out not too long during the case.
When he switches personalities, his hair and a couple of other things change too. The strangest thing to me, is his courtesan persona makes him sorta female. Not only through appearance, but listen to the beeps from the dialogue. It’s the pitch for a female.
I don’t know an awful lot about SPD in real life. Do some personalities make you much more feminine or something sometimes?
I also question why Athena was so mean to them at first. Maybe the bad jokes they made…?

Anyway, he at first testifies about his knowledge of the crime and soon after via Mood Matrix, we find out he has SPD. That’s when he introduces his other sides. Uendo is the Rakugo performer, Patches is the jester, and Kisegawa is the female courtesan (female!? How does this work?).
But with a little bit of evidence digging, they find out by using cards, they spelt out Whet No. 4… or so we thought. Stains on the cards say otherwise and it turns out to say Owen 4th. How coincidental if you ask me, but anyway.

With a bit of logic thinking, they turn to Uendo, thinking that maybe Owen is part of him, but the three personalities attempt to hide him. It’s futile.
They actually don’t share memories with this Owen however and the reason why they try to hide him I actually like.
Since they barely know anything about Owen, they feared that Owen would be the killer. So they tried to bring him out, but they couldn’t do it in this state.
So what did they do? They gave him Sake. It’s how Owen appeared in the first place. But he wouldn’t drink it normally. It came in the form of a bun, without knowing.
Okay, okay now. I know some people are weaker to alcohol than others, but is it actually possible to have someone fall drunk AND become unconscious with not even a shot worth of Sake? It’s strong sure, but… not that strong. Right…?

After a short break, they fed him a bun with Sake in it and Uendo and the other personalities fall unconscious. Leaving Owen to appear.
Now the only thing I find confusing here is that… they all share the same body. I kind of struggle to see how Owen also wasn’t affected by the Sake when he came up.
Anyway, it turns out Owen is actually… 5 years old… 5.
Makes sense when you consider the fact that the other personalities are normally out and not Owen, but he couldn’t have committed murder, but we had to cross examine him as he was an important witness.

So what if Owen was the killer? How would it work. After all, he’s doesn’t share the same memories or even personality as the others. What? Do their absolute best to make sure Owen doesn’t come out?

We find out someone suffocated Taifu with something. Giving light details such as a cut on their head, but he got too scared and fell unconscious. Goodness, not good for the Uendo personalities…
After his testimony though, Owen falls unconscious… for some reason. God knows what happened to him after. Break down or something, I guess, but we never see him again in this case, which made me a bit upset. Who knows what actually happened to him.
By the way, I love that Athena calls herself ‘Auntie Athena’ towards Owen, just to make him feel better. It’s kinda weird… but cute.

After a bit more speculation, Geiru comes back out to testify and as it seems, she cad a cut on her fore-head. Making her a match to what Owen said.
Oookay, so Geiru is allergic to Soba Dough. So she used Udon Dough to suffocate Taifu and kill him. The Soba was already made, but what to do with the Udon? She hid it outside. Gives more insight during Blackquill’s testimony from the start, but Taifu’s actually been dead for a while. He was making Udon Noodles for Geiru to cheer her up and stuff, but uh… yeah.
The reason for her murder was simple jealousy. Uendo Toneido getting the Uendo name and not Geiru.
… Well that was a thing.
After she was found out, her balloons popped. Including her balloon breasts. Hmm, they did seem abnormally anime-levels of bouncy…

And that’s it. Woo…
I’d probably bitch less about the motive if the one she hates was a character that we were all familiar with. A bit like Episode 2, but I think the motive there even then, was a bit better. And hey, his hate was also towards Trucy, who we all know by now.
I’ll also say that yes, we have had other villains with similar motives and reasons for murder, but I feel this one’s… not very interesting by comparison.

Gotta say though, I think Blackquill steals the show in this case. I feel like we get another angle of him when he’s helping the defence and to be honest, because Athena is still a bit incompetent by herself (no offence), he kinda has to constantly help her keep on track. At one point even shaking her (and getting close to the camera) to keep her on track.
The next best thing was the Prosecutor banter. I thought it was funny how they’d make fun of each other. Blackquill must’ve been so happy when he and Athena defeated Prosecutor Sad Monk.
And the only reason why I probably rank this higher than the next episode is probably because of Uendo Toneido. It’s a very simple reason, but his reason for this part of the case is very interesting to me.

Like I said, rather fond memories, but this Episode really wasn’t that long. Especially with no investigations. In a sense, I feel like they shoe-horned this case and Athena into the game.
But anyway, we’re done in the US. Let’s go back to the Kingdom of Khura’in and see how the revolution’s turning out.

Episode 5: Turnabout Revolution:
Alright! Welcome to ‘Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice’.
Here, we’re still NOT in Khura’in, and we have basically two cases to complete in this one episode. Not only that, we’re not playing as the titular character. It’s a very minor complaint, I understand, but the game’s called Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. The fact that the end game is completely based on Apollo (except for one moment), it bugs me.
But I’m just nitpicking for the most part there.

Let’s start with the first case.
Meet Dhurke Sahdmadhi. Now, I like this guy. Firstly, awesome theme song, but he also leads the revolution called the Defiant Dragons, as you’ll hear many times throughout the game, but he’s not evil. He’s just doing what he think’s right… which really, it is. But he’s not in Khura’in right now. We’re in the US still and he decides to visit Apollo. Why? Because he’s apparently he was Apollo’s foster father. His previous father died in a fire after all.

Am I really only being told this now? I didn’t feel like there was enough build up to it, to be honest. Not like the original Ace Attorney, learning more about Edgeworth before going through to Von Karma… I feel like anyway, but I may have had different thoughts if we had more development between Apollo and Nahyuta.
As a result of this, I actually found this to be quite unbelievable. I mean… it’s the truth, but I had a hard time buying it. I guess as long as it doesn’t contradict anything in the Ace Attorney franchise, it should be fine.
I may be the only one who thinks this, though…

Dhurke’s also looking for the Founder’s Orb. Something actually muttered about in Episode 1, but wasn’t much of importance then. Now it’s an item they’re gravely looking for, which apparently is in the Kurain Village.
Ah, the place doesn’t look like it’s changed at all… just much less pixelated. We don’t get to explore much however. We enter Archie Buff’s studies to find out he died while he was researching the Founder’s Orb. At first thought to be a pile of books fallen on him which soon turned into, killed by Datz Are’bal.
How do these things even get around- ugh, anyway.
It was to be given back to the Defiant Dragons as long as Mr. Buff wasn’t harmed. Well… he was, but not by the Defiant Dragons.

Later some dick called Paul Ashiton. My god, this guy annoys me. I mean he’s not only annoying to me, but he’s annoying to everyone too. He’s a politician and tries to be a part of the local assemblymen of the Kurain Village, but the way he does it just makes me roll an eyebrow and I’m just cringing at his dialogue. I’m sure it was on purpose, sorta, but he’s definitely not the kind of character I enjoy reading about.
Then there’s his theme. Not exactly bad… but it fits him too well. Adds to his personality I guess, so they did something right here. ‘Wheee!’

But anyway, we go into Mr. Buff’s study and find some clues. Also bumping into Sarge. A drone controlled by… who we assume is a young boy. He never comes out of his room, so… But we get more info out of him. Even relating to him. Mainly by loss of parents. Sarge’s mother also died for the record.

Later on, they find the location of the Founder’s Orb based on where Mr. Buff went at one point. The mountains. To adventure!
This was a pretty long moment of this story. Apollo and Dhurke walk through long caves until they find a place deep down where the Founder’s Orb lays. They get it, but struggle to get out. After some water-rising… for some reason, Dhurke manages to swim with Apollo out to safety.
Suddenly we’re back in the entrance to the Kurain Village.

There we meet Ashiton again, but along side Mr. Wright. Turns out, Mr. Wright believes the Founder’s Orb is the Crystal of Ami Fey… I forgot there was even a crystal. But the Founder’s Orb doesn’t look like it fits the Ami urn.
So as a result of this debate, we now have a civil trial against Mr. Wright! I was… moderately interested by this when we first saw a hint of it in the trailers.

So now we’re here. Fighting against Mr. Wright to prove that the Founder’s Orb is what it is.
And… We did, with a bit of logic thinking and evidence. I mean… I can’t muster much about this portion of the trail. Though by the time we essentially proved it, Mr. Wright would say no it’s not still.
Out of desperation obviously, but not like a normal Turnabout. Seemingly enough we’re going through a similar situation to ‘Justice for All’ except we’re not playing as Mr. Wright right now… and ultimately less interesting, I think.
But Maya’s being held hostage by Inga Karkhull Khura’in if they don’t get the Founder’s Orb back, basically.

In a second portion of the trial, it moves from a proving it’s the Founder’s Orb, to who killed Archie Buff.
One of the witnesses, Sarge, was there with his drone to witness the crime. Man, this thing must have insane amount of battery life… Yes, that’s the only thing I questioned at first glance.
We learn a few things. He has a fear of fire due to the loss of his mother, he saw something appear out of the Founder’s Orb. Some faceless woman that we’ve definitely seems before. And then the big shock… Sarge, real name: Armie Buff, is actually… female. A young female in a wheelchair at that. The shock wasn’t too big to me as other gender situations we’ve gotten in the past on Ace Attorney games. Not like I saw it coming though.
By the way, this was found through the Mood Matrix. Uh yeah, Athena’s here. She certainly is…

A little detail was that she was pushed. So someone was behind her, and only after she left did Mr. Buff get killed by Ahiston. Something heavy pushed down from the second floor and hitting Mr. Buff on the head. This way, Ashiton could get the Founder’s Orb back, but he couldn’t find it.

I’m kinda skimming through this because this was kinda my mindset throughout this first case. Really, I wanted to get back to Khura’in for the final part of the plot to take place, but this part of the Episode was so boring to me.
I swear, this was going to be Episode 4, but we needed a case with Athena in control. So they made Episode 4 the way it was and then combined the would-be Episode 4 with 5. That’s how I saw it.

The Founder’s Orb has been given back to Dhurke with 3 quarters of the secret revealed, and we’re going to Khura’in now.
But not before seeing Armie get off the wheelchair to embrace her future… as she was scarred before, and getting a phone call from Inga. Maya is someone who could channel the person in the Founder’s Orb, but she’s not the only one who could potentially do it. But with a deal, they settle to go back to Khura’in, meet in a certain area, and do a trade.

Now things get confusing. Let’s see…
They get back and go to the Royal Residence, where Amara’s Tomb is, where the trade will happen.
Guards appear and Dhurke goes in as he’s allowed, but nothing happens for around 20 minutes. So they go in, only to find Dhurke with a dagger in his hand, Inga dead, and Maya falling unconscious.
Sounds clear for now, but with so many details, my head sometimes can’t so easily wrap everything around here.

For the record as I didn’t feel that I needed to talk about it at all previously, but Inga is Rayfa’s… ‘father’.
And also, I didn’t know how to say this, but uh, Edgeworth is with us. May I ask, why? There’s not real reason for him to be here.

We do a bit of investigating in the tomb, Inga’s Private Quarters, and all that. That’s split between Apollo and Mr. Wright as later on Apollo is tasked with taking care of the Founder’s Orb.
Small thing, on Mr Wright’s side of things, he bumps into Rayfa again. Upset not only by her father’s death, but also Nayna’s gone missing.
Now hidden in the old Sahdmadhi Law Offices.

When it comes to the Khura’in Detention Centre to question Dhurke, it turns out he fell unconscious the moment he went in the Tomb. Wonderful, and we don’t know the reason why.
This case is also doubling as the case that’ll bring truth to the assassination of Queen Amara from 23 years ago, and stuff.
Though we kinda find out that Amara’s still alive. Through a photo that was taken within the 23 years everyone thought she was dead.
And why would Dhurke do the assassination anyway? He apparently loves his wife, Amara. Yeesh, so much added to my head… Also getting L.A. Noire out of this, but I don’t know why.
The last thing he says though is that there’ll be a difficult truth Apollo will find out throughout the trial.

Anyway, after tons of info, we’re about to go to the courtroom, but not before seeing he Revolution already taking place.
Anyway, to the courtroom with Apollo and Mr. Wright. The start of the Revolution doesn’t do anything here. They’re just in the gallery along with Athena.
We’re not exactly facing off against Nahyuta now though. That’s where Ga’ran Sigatar Khura’in comes in. Obviously the main villain here because of her design. Not a big fan of her, but she does her job well I guess.

She kinda reminds me of Kristoph Gavin in a sense, where he think’s the Law is absolute, but Ga’ran in this case is ‘the personification of the law’. She can even change the law whenever and however she sees fit. Just a way to make the defence more likely lose. Jesus, at that point you put in a law saying the defence will always lose.
Sounds like Space Jam.
Her design in her Queen outfit, I couldn’t care about. Same goes for her prosecutor outfit. Though I would prefer it if she didn’t transform into her prosecutor outfit immediately. Like maybe after a light break down, then she’d reveal her true colours, but oh well.

Last thing is a nitpick, but hate being around Ga’ran because sometimes, she has her men with her on certain occasions… which slow the game down to what I swear is 12 frames per second!

So firstly, proving Dhurke’s innocence.
That didn’t go very well. Rayfa took quite a bit of time to finally have the confidence to face her father’s death.
She did eventually and we find out that Inga was killed way earlier than thought. 2pm, but Rayfa had still seen him at around 2:30 amongst others.

It’s speculated that Ga’ran channeled him, but that’s false as she was busy doing that elsewhere. So Maya’s the only other option, though it was really a stretch. So the last option is Nayna, who was theorised to be Amara. After all, we know she isn’t dead based on a certain piece of photo evidence.

During the break, Dhurke runs away for some reason and after a break, Nayna comes on, soon to reveal she’s Amara. That’s one hell of a disguise.
But the rabbit hole gets deeper. We soon find out that there were two murders in this case. One is Inga as we all know. The other is… Dhurke. Killed off by Inga while he was still alive.
This upsets Apollo and Nahyuta, but they couldn’t disappoint him, and pressed on to find the truth.
I felt upset for the loss of Dhurke, but Apollo I honestly couldn’t entirely… feel for. I mean as far as I’m aware, they barely knew each other. The only thing they ever reminisce over is the time where Dhurke risked his life to save Apollo and Nahyuta from a river current.

If I may add a bit more though, I did like that not only Apollo and Nahyuta seemed to get more and more shocked from the revelations, but also Rayfa as she soon finds out that Dhurke is her biological father.
It was slightly strange seeing her crying like the way she did. Kinda like Franziska von Karma from Justice for All’s ending.

But oookay, Maya channeled Dhurke as his dying wish, and that’s when they went back to the US for the first half of this case.
Meanwhile, Inga was stabbed in the back at some point and died in the Tomb as the Divination Seance showed us. Amara at some point, then channeled Inga from within his Private Quarters and went out to the Tomb fearing he’d be late for the agreement with Dhurke. That’s how she got inside the Tomb unsuspected.
When Dhurke came back, he went into the Tomb and he lost consciousness as his spirit was dragged out of Maya. Letting Maya go back to the chair she was meant to be caught up in.
The Dhurke we had with us was actually Amara, and his body is within the Tomb of Amara’s Tomb. I guess it’s now Dhurke’s Tomb… right?

Amara still didn’t know that Dhurke loved her, but the proof was wit the necklaces they had.
So she confesses that she killed Inga, which was needed to prevent anymore corrupted to come to Khura’in, really. He really wanted the Founder’s Orb for spiritual power.
She was still hiding something and her burn mark by her chest told us that the person in a certain photo was actually Amara. Not Ga’ran. So she couldn’t kill him at the time.
Before Amara could continue though, she was shot in the stomach by one of Ga’ran’s men. That bitch!

After a recess, Nahyuta at the witness stand then confesses his guilt to killing Inga. Alright, now this is just getting dumb.
Anyway, from here it’s revealed that the baby in a certain photo is actually Rayfa. And being held by Amara, and soon revealed that Rayfa’s mother is… Amara. Not Ga’ran.
Nahyuta was trying to protect Rayfa. But that doesn’t help much as they still need to prove that Dhurke had nothing to do with the assassination from 23 years ago.

With a photo of Jove Justice given to us by Dhurke, we could use the Divination Seance to determine the real killer that links to this case.
Now this was pretty cool to me. I don’t know why, but I suppose it’s got backgrounds and we can see the place burning down… sorta. It’s more or less red, but still. There was a lot more to see and stuff. There were a lot of senses, but don’t be intimidated. It’s pretty easy, if you know what to look for, which fortunately for me, I did within my second look at the vision.
Oh by the way, baby Justice. Isn’t that cute?
Even as a baby, he has horned hair. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already born with hair at this point…

So it turns out by looking in a conveniently placed mirror, we found out the killer wore gloves, keeping Dhurke’s fingerprints on it. Bracelets around the person’s wrist seemed to belong to Inga- no wait, Ga’ran.
With enough proof Nahyuta takes back his confession and Ga’ran’s all on her own. Taking off the glove on his right hand, revealing the mark of the Defiant Dragons. It looked pretty awesome though.

Proof that Ga’ran was the killer of both cases. Well through clothing, we found out the killer of Jove was Ga’ran, and then for this case, she wore Dhurke’s clothes. Taken from the man himself while he was dead in the Tomb. Okay, now that’s weird…
Knowing of Inga’s disorder, she could hide that it was actually her who killed him.

It didn’t matter though, she could still rewrite the law. What’s next? Even if the queen’s guilty, she goes free?
But I guess the last thing to dethrone her because she actually can’t channel spirits or do anything worthy of the throne.
With some Revisualisation, and Turnabout Mode, Apollo uses his standing Heavy on not only Ga’ran, but some of her men too. “It’s time to pay for your crimes!” (He didn’t say that…) Hyper Combo KO!
*ahem*

So that’s over.
I skimmed a lot and I probably even missed out quite a number of important things. There was tons to take in and I didn’t want to write everything that happened in this… But this is a final case for you, though I don’t recall it ever getting this insanely confusing.
Actually to make the case slightly more interesting to me, I literally played Pursuit Cornered 2004 (and Variation) when I knew we were about to catch the real killer. Now that I think about it, they should’ve played Pursuit~ Cornered (Apollo Justice) to end it off. Let’s be real, Apollo’s the main star of the end of the game. There wasn’t even the trio finger pointing that Dual Destinies had because Athena wasn’t with us… and Mr. Wright doesn’t do enough in this Episode as a whole.

My favourite parts were the bits with Dhurke because I thought was such a good character. Even though we only knew him for a short amount of time. It’s a shame when we eventually found out he died.
I’d like it if we could see more interactions between Dhurke and Nahyuta though since they’ve been together longer than Apollo was with him, but I guess with the position Nahyuta was in, they couldn’t really… do that.

With that said though, the group celebrated with Mr. Wright commenting that he feels like he learnt quite a bit from him. Just like Mia to Mr. Wright, but now a question arose. Will Apollo Justice stay and aid with the revolution amongst other things, or go back to the US to continue his work there.
Ultimately, he decided stay in Khura’in. Half-bugged me, but that’s partly because I still didn’t really buy it that he at first lived in this Kingdom. Not like it’s untrue. It’s just… eh. I don’t see it. I’m sorry.

Rayfa is crowned the new princess, looking even more cheerful and cuter than before. I didn’t think that was possible.
… And that’s the end.

After the Credits, Mr. Wright talks to someone we can’t see. It didn’t take me very long to figure out who it was.
If you couldn’t figure it out for whatever reason, well it’s Thalassa Gramarye (Lamiroir). Seeing how far Apollo’s come and all.

Final Thoughts:
And these are probably going to change some time. Who knows.
I thought the beginning of the game was pretty solid. Episode 1 introduced us to this Kingdom. Episode 2 we went into filler territory, and there’s always going to be one dumb or otherwise. And then Episode 3 I think showed Khura’in it’s most interesting case.
Episode 4 was just… there, however since it was short and had its moments. I thought it was good at least, it’s just that it’s not a part of the main plot. Episode 5 was half-boring to me. The case in Khura’in was where I thought the Episode shined. Not my favourite case, but it did the job well enough.

You know what, apart from the needed build up, I think that if the title was more accurate, then I think I’d be bitching less about Apollo and… the title. I don’t know. Name it Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney & Apollo Justice…
Featuring Athena Cykes from the Ace Attorney series.
Wait, never mind.

Though I still stand by Athena Cykes should’ve gotten much more screen time. She has no reason to be in this game except for the occasional Mood Matrix.
It took 3 games for Apollo to become on line with Mr. Wright. Athena better be on par with Mr. Wright by the end of the next game. Hell, make the next game Athena Cykes: Ace Attorney!
God forbid if they introduce ANOTHER Ace Attorney character to the Wright Anything Agency…
You know what though, I think Apollo might get his own game again. He’s staying in Khura’in and Rayfa’s there with a gimmick that can’t be taken out of the place. And I feel like the developers like to reuse gimmicks whenever possible.

Maya Fey, the returning character after around 2 mainstream games, disappointed me. While I was kinda glad to see Maya mature, she didn’t get enough screen time and was just there to have the plot moving. After Maya was arrested in the 3rd Episode I didn’t expect to get abducted soon after!

End of Part 2
We don't have much now. It's just the Special DLC Episode released recently, which I'm nearly done with at the time of this journal.

Please tell me your thoughts of each case (Episodes 4 to 5) in the comments. Just interested.

Part 3

- GamefreakDX