ARGH WHY MUST YOU PEOPLE MAKE YOUR TRIALS MORE EPIC BY THE MINUTE? YOU'RE LEAVING ME BEHIND! I'm no match for all of you!

BECAUSE WE'RE SUPER AWESOME!!!!

Seriously though, I wouldn't underestimate myself if I were you.

HAHA DROWN IN THE EPICNESS!

Seriously, I don't see how adding some character and (extremely vague) case info would already make this overly epic...
(or has the term already lost that much of its original value?)

You're going to make all the sprites for this game by hand, right?

Well my plot-excuse is gone now

I will, probably. Let's see how far I can get.^^" I think meeting new characters is a big part of the fun in AA. You'll never know what kind of eccentric personality or breakdown awaits you.

That's just something reused sprites can't fuflfill. And I wouldn't be satsified with that kind of solution.

Well, I think you can do it. The maid you drew was pretty good.

Blackrune, I owe you an apology for how long this has taken me. I have been extremely depressed and practically torn apart recently, and this is the longest trial I've ever had to review. I enjoyed it very much, and so finally I'm glad to present you with...


Lately it seems like the line between nerds and hipsters is becoming less and less defined. A nerd can be cool now, but they don't care about it -- a hipster is never cool, but tries incredibly hard to be. Nerds and hipsters both dress in ironic graphic tees and have an inherent love for retro video games. Hipsters listen to music you've never heard of, like Electric President and Stray Kites. Nerds play games you've never heard of, like Ouendan and Mother 3. Hipsters and nerds are both considered to be acceptable targets for defamation, bullying, and snarky blog insults by other nerds/hipsters. They both have a tendency to wear glasses. But the important thing to remember is that as similar as the two are, nerds are still human, whereas hipsters are mystical spirits forced to tie themselves to this mortal world by wearing fedoras. It's proven. There are pictures.


So I've been listening to a lot of Dropkick Murphys lately. They're a band from my home state of Massachusetts and they do a lot of aggressive punk rock mixed with Irish folk music. This sounds incredibly hipster, but they're mainstream all the way. If you've ever seen the move The Departed, you've heard one of their songs. It's the one that makes you want to go to the nearest pub, get roaring drunk, and punch somebody in the face. All their music does that, by the way. It's awesome. My favorites are probably State of Massachusetts and Loyal to No-One. You'll notice a lot of their songs sound the same, but they don't care. You could tell them that yourself -- if you wanted to get your @!# kicked.

In other news, I recently got into some trouble when I went to a pub, got roaring drunk despite being underaged, and punched a guy in the face. If anyone can pay my bail, (or my medical bills,) it'd be greatly appreciated.

Your Style is the Style that will pierce the heavens!

• This trial is incredibly long. Thank god you released it after the save system was developed. *phew*
• The dialogue is good -- it's a little choppy, and not perfect, but your pacing is good and it keeps things moving along. I never felt like I was "dragging" through it.
• Trucy seems really flat. I don't mean you wrote her out-of-character, per se, but to put it bluntly... Her dialogue needs exclamation marks! Doesn't she shout like every other sentence? She's Trucy! XD
• It might just be me, but is that a slightly altered version of Eccentric when Lisa Basil appears? Sounds nice, and fitting.
• In most Talk sections, it seems you reveal each topic one-by-one. It's typically less linear feeling if you have two or three revealed from the start in each location.
• "Trucy. You have to be on your daddy's side." This is perhaps the creepiest sentence I have ever heard come out of Phoenix's mouth.
• You tend to stop music much earlier than it needs to be stopped. Best example is when the Dark Lawyer system is starting up, and it ends once Apollo talks. If the mood of the scene isn't changing, the music doesn't really need to... This is especially relevant in the trial portions, where it borderline ruins the mood in multiple parts.
• Good use of external content for backgrounds and such.
• "(This entrance just screams at you: Your entrance sucks compared to this.)" There were a few good funny moments in the dialogue, about as many as in one of the more serious AA cases. I like that you actually put details into the environment rather than leaving most of it blank.
• Excellent custom sprites. Who did them again...? Good custom music too -- I'm assuming that's from Higurashi, but that's just a guess on my part.
• WHY ON EARTH ARE WE NOT PLAYING THE FINALE OF PART 1?! WE SHOULD BE THE ONES MAKING ALL THESE AWESOME DEDUCTIONS! D: Still, it's a much-needed moment of awesome for Apollo, I guess.
• When you confront somebody outside of court, it's not a "Witness Testimony." Shouldn't you use the tags for AAI instead, call it a "Confrontation" or whatever term it was they used?
• I didn't think it could be possible to make a testimony easy in a way that's actually good trial writing, but I thought it was funny that Phoenix isn't particularly good at writing Gumshoe's cross-examinations (which you lampshaded with Apollo's ranting.)
• As I've said before, until we get the shaking sprites into the trial maker, the shake effect should be used on s since a flat, unmoving one just looks really weird.
• Godot's dialogue when he walks in for the first time in Part 3 is excellent, by the way. The conflicted nature of the Godot simulation is extra-delicious. I love it. So dark.
• Any scene that takes place in the simulation of Gant's office is excellent. Phoenix is so sinister there! It's a villain room through and through, even when occupied by a hero.

I am me as you are he as you are me and we are making Errors!

• In the first investigation room, the default screen resets to Phoenix's sprite. Big no-no when other characters are involved. The last sprite to talk needs to stay on-screen.
• "...anything I need to know beforehand about this new kind of game." should end with a question mark.
• "The controls are simple, if..." should be "The controls are simple: if..."
• "...conveyor belts in the floor." "...okay?!" If it's alone in the text box, it still needs capitalization.
• "(This sounds waaay too complicated.)"
• "I doubt this will sell good" should be "I doubt this will sell very well."
• "Please follow me into that dark room over there."
• "We've never tested it before."
• "Besides, Polly is like a brother to me."
• "Yeah, that should be me.(Actually, it's probably...)" Simple merge error. Remember to put a space before the text in a merged frame.
• Remember to capitalize after EVERY period.
• "The fact that you couldn't find it doesn't disprove the fact that it doesn't exists!"
• "The crime scene is probably the right choice place to check first"
• In part 3, whenever the background and character change at the same time, the character is on a black background for about a half-second. Somewhat annoying. Is this an error, or is it my computer acting up?
• "The murder victim is the rich and influential businessman, Mr.Doe," needs a space between Mr. and Doe.
• "He was killed in his room, which had been locked after the crime." This is awkward use of tenses, a grammatical error. Rather, why not, "He was killed in his room, which was then locked by the murderer?"
• Whenever "Daddy" is used as a proper noun (by Trucy, referring to Phoenix, specifically,) the first 'D' needs to be capitalized.
• In Godot's second line in Part 3, the text box claims that it's being said by "Judge." Fix it so it says ???, please.
• In Mrs. Doe's first testimony, the date is an important detail. Therefore, it should be included in the autopsy report.

Conclusion:

The review is complete. This trial has become a featured trial.

I write this having played only Parts 1-3. From that alone, I know this is enough to qualify. I will be doing a separate, errors-only review of Part 4 a little bit later, so don't worry.

Despite having more errors than my body is physically comfortable with, you crafted an incredibly complicated story filled with dramatic moments. And then, you used it primarily to allow Phoenix and Godot (and shockingly Larry) to exercise their evil mastermind muscles. It's a very enjoyable trial that suffers only from minor writing issues, and successfully uses its setting to escape the confines of a typical trial. Though it can be tough to get through due to the extreme length, it's worth the wait, and urges you to keep pressing on with several amazing moments that will stay in my head for a long time.

Yay, another review!

Note: Keep in mind that just because I have made it a Featured Trial personally does NOT mean you don't have to fix the errors! The errors are mandatory changes that have to be made to the trial to bring it up to feature standards. Meph doesn't even feature trials until they have their errors fixed, so make sure that you correct everything.

Yes, so I'll be on your tail, Blackrune. But yes, congratulations!

Thanks for doing the review, Hodou.

Congratulations, Blackrune. I knew this trial would pass- we all did.

And once again, we are treated to another excellent review. Thanks very much, Hodou. I do hope life starts treating you better.

YES IT GOT FEATURED!

Er... I mean... congrats. (Feels weird for being happy when... never mind. Can't reference in someone's victory, can I?)

CONGRATSO! I knew this had gold when I played it. I mean, come on... it had... ALL THE AWESOMENESS GODOT HAD...

Nice job, I really liked it.

LOL, love the emoticon

What? My trial got reviewed while I was away? Well I am no longer surprised that it got featured because everyone assured me it would.
Featured before having played the final part. Thanks... but... what's with those incomplete reviews recently!? It could have ended in a ridiculous way. xD

This really motivates me to move on to the next part, but I'll fix the errors before that, of course.

Edit: Fixed the issues you mentioned. Well, the ones I could find.