Phoenix's confronting the Bellboy with the evidence of the counterfeiting ring by himself. Confronting a criminal with evidence of their criminal activities always got Phoenix in trouble in the first Ace Attorney game, and after Manfred von Karma used that 'stun gun' on him, Phoenix seemed to learn his lesson and stop doing such things. One would think he wouldn't forget that lesson in the eight or nine years since then.

Still, the reappearance of Vasquez's enforcers, and Ema coming to the rescue, was great. And I loved the 'Night' portion overall. It was a wonderful WHAM episode. Phoenix finding an unlikely assistant in Shelly de Killer, the discovery of the counterfeiting ring, the possible motives for Thalassa being targeted ... the realization that we and Phoenix don't know the Bellboy or the Gatewater as well as we thought we did ... all great stuff!

And I can see why he didn't apologize to Apollo until after the trial was over. He couldn't until he was sure Apollo was not the guilty party. It sure would have been awkward to apologize to someone then declare them guilty an hour later. And Ballard wisely avoids such things.

Mysterious Sirens and Turnabouts Pt. 2:

3790 frames. Very nice.
“You know everything that you need to know.” Funny, Phoenix. Real funny…
Don’t worry, Phoenix says, I’m here if you need me. How many times did they say in the last part that his hints were vague or cryptic?
Frame 62, comma between “case” and “but”.
Sixth case? What was the fifth? On an unrelated note, is anybody else disappointed that the games are now four cases with two-day trials? Five cases with three-day trials would have been so much better, especially with the complexity of the new cases compared to the original ones.
Frame 64, comma after “prosecuting”.
And somebody forgot to tell Apollo about Edgeworth. Start panicking.
Frame 70 and 71 merge has an extra line.
Frame 76, comma after detention.
I wonder who wrote that cover story on the case. On the bright side, I know that the fifth case definitely wasn’t New Year’s Turnabout.
Which case is Phoenix referencing when he remarks on "similairities"? The Corrida murder?
“We don't know enough yet to figure out what exactly happened.” So, we don’t know enough to deduce the truth, but we know everything we need to know. Phoenix=/=Edgeworth
Right, lots of unanswered questions… The big one is how to break that locked room. I’ll have to use some special methods after the last Investigation.
Frame 137 and 138 merge has an extra line.
Frame 159, comma before “and”.
Frame 160, comma before “but”.
I’m hazy on how Edgeworth handled the opening of the case, but I think that Apollo’s confidence is going to be breaking soon.
Judge Ballard. I remember him. Dragon of the West, and in line for a Supreme Court nomination, as I recall? Thalassa’s godfather.
Edgeworth is calm?! NO WAI
Judge Chambers. TSub.
Oh, Northern Fury and next-in-line for Chief Justice. This is nothing like the real judicial system, but oh well.
Frame 200, comma before but.
Frame 204, comma before yet. FANBOYS, anyone?
I actually don’t think the judge’s contempt of court threat was that extreme, but then again, different judicial system.
Miles Edgeworth: Ace Suck-Up
I take back what I said about the judge. I don’t remember him as well as I thought.
Frame 233, comma before or.
Edgeworth seems more obnoxious than normal.
Decisive evidence coming to light? What are the odds of that?
Frame 249, comma before and.
Frame 250, change the period to an ellipsis.
Frame 251, remove the comma.
Oh, right, he also makes an opening statement. I forgot about that one.
Frame 285, “act our responsibilities” sounds awkward.
What you did with Ballard’s opening statement was genius. You simultaneously established him as assertive, eloquent, and concerned about the truth. Because all we saw earlier was the assertiveness, that’s still the dominant feature of his personality. You have created an antagonist who
Frame 347, replace the comma with an ellipsis.
Edgeworth sure is taking a while to get to the point.
Frame 350, change “A defense” to “Defense”.
Random thought, but when do they use green text in the games? I know timestamps and logic, but is there anything else?
Finally, Ballard notices the length.
Frame 368, comma before “but”.
Edgeworth’s extreme lawyer training! Either take a one-year trip around the world or defend yourself from accusations of matricide! (Miles Edgeworth is not liable for any injuries, harm or verdicts resulting from this training.)
Now we get to the opening statement…
Frame 408 and 409 merge is a four-liner.
Gumshoe is the Chief of Police?! And there are no grammar mistakes! The redo of the report is quite appreciated, by the way.
The knife came from outside the hotel… Interesting.
Gumshoe getting a commendation?!
And they found the connection. Not good for the case, but it is the truth.
Frame 451, remove “of”.
Frame 452, comma before “but”.
Confess the Truth 2009 and Gallery Speaking… Quite the combination.
“He can’t be Lamiror’s son! Look at him! He’s ugly! Ugly I tell you!” That was a great line.
Does nobody look at the evidence anymore? Blood testing.
No relevance to the connection? Phoenix, did you forget that Edgeworth said it went to show motive?
Yep.
Also, I think this holds the record for longest opening.
Random thought: How would Judge Ballard have reacted to a trial with Manfred von Karma?
Frame 559, comma before staff.
Ema versus Ballard. This should be funny.
Frame 585, comma after “force”.
Ema just now realizes who the prosecutor is…
Judge Ballard. Definitely not amused.
Frame 620, remove the comma after “night”.
Frames 634 and 662, comma after “blazing”.
And now for the old standby of pressing everything.
Frame 743, comma after mobilise.
And if you haven’t noticed by now, I stopped correcting line breaks.
Frame 747, comma after later.
Frame 809 just doesn’t seem right, grammatically…
Frame 820, comma after later.
Frame 847, comma after Wright.
Frame 671, comma after testimony.
Frame 689, pick either “request” or “behest”, not both.
Frame 702, comma after “late”.
That’s odd. I could have sworn that Apollo remarked in Part One that his ticket was free. I think it was during the conversation with Gavin.
Frame 713, change “pass” to “past” and add a comma after “me”.
The first cross-examination was glitchy. I don’t know what happened, but I was unable to present the contradiction, even though I pressed both routes on “stabbed and bashed” and presented the knife at “decisive evidence.” I reloaded the page and went through everything again, and that seemed to fix the problem.
Ooh, updated reports. Gotta hate those.
Frame 931, comma after prints.
Frame 939, change “sin” to “skin”.
You shouldn’t have said that, Apollo.
I love Apollo’s logic. The killer must have his or her fingerprints on the murder weapon. If he used that in his other cases, things would have been bad.
Frame 973, remove “so” or add “as” after “so”.
Frame 978 needs an opening ellipsis.
Faulty logic by Edgeworth. If prints on a weapon make a killer then by his logic, he killed Robert Hammond.
Good old chess metaphors…
Ah, that door. I knew it would turn up sooner or later.
Frame 1025, comma after “ago” and turn “its” into “it’s”.
Look at 1035 and 1036 again. There’s a blank frame you click through between 1034 and 1037.
You need a space in the 1041 and 1042 merge.
Frame 1075, comma after “once”.
Frame 1142, comma after “so”.
The forensic contradictions were great. (I remember these were a massive pain for me last time.) The world of Ace Attorney forensics is a bit wacky, and some cases specifically omit certain tests because it would make the case a lot less challenging. For instance, testing on the atroquinine on 4-4 would have shown that it was several years old. That isn’t as major as DNA testing, but still, it can blend right in.
Frame 1163, the comma needs to be on the other side of “however”.
Frame 1201, remove the first instance of the word “the”.
Frame 1214, make “man power” one word.
Frame 1218, comma after “law”.
Frame 1223, coma after “guess”.
Frame 1228, comma after “longer”.
Frame 1292, comma after “know”.
Frame 1252, comma after “around”.
Frame 1260, put the comma on the other side of “however”.
Frame 1279, remove the comma after “Oh”.
Edgeworth can never get away from Oldbag and Larry, can he?
Frame 1290, comma after “by”.
Frame 1293, comma after “no” in addition to the one in front of it.
Unless there’s an issue with Firefox, Oldbag’s raving is way too slow.
Oldbag witnessed something?! OK, I can’t remember anything after this point except there’s an ordered press, which I believe is removed. Everything is new to me from here on out.
Spiky von Spiky!
Frame 1326, comma after “that”.
Frame 1331, separate “apart”.
That timeline I constructed was actually useful. She should have seen SDMWMH with the wine. I’m not sure if she qualifies as a “whippers” though, so I’ll draw it out via presses.
Guy in a suit looking for secrets of the hotel… Oddly specific denial.
1408, comma after “do”.
Oldbag? Fans?
The Edgeworth fanbase… Interesting.
Again, interesting co-counsel dialogue. Captain Phoenix Wright, commander of the S.S Lawyerboat, now sailing to Hoboken!
Oldbag’s dialogue after you choose not to press needs timers or ellipses.
Gotcha, Oldbag.
Frame 1550, you need to change the background to the witness stand.
I’m a bit confused by the contradiction in Oldbag’s first testimony. I get that she should have seen Scarlet-Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Hall, not the bellboy, but why didn’t this contradiction appear when she said that the detective was the only other person she saw?
Confused Judge is confused.
Oldbag confirms the list is “legit”!
“Mr. Justice, why is the prosecution bent over and breathing heavily?” Another great Ballard quote.
Angry Oldbag is angry.
1674, comma after “already”.
Ballard sure is being called old a lot.
1684 is worded awkwardly.
1705, comma after “before”.
Oldbag is oddly insistent on what she saw. Maybe she was telling the truth this whole time? If so, then that begs the question of why she saw the Bellboy instead of Scarlet.
Great. A fourth piece of decisive evidence.
1713 and 1714 merger has a double space.
Extended fishing metaphors… OK…
Edgeworth had a trap?! Impossible!
A recording of the attack?! It gets worse and worse…
1749, insert a comma after “know”.
OK, only audio. It’s listening, not watching, but better than if this was video. If there were… I have no clue how the defense would be able to continue.
Oh, subtitles. That explains the watching part.
Illegal evidence? Nice try, Apollo, but I know it isn’t going to work.
Admissible in any court? Oh, really? Is your evidence admissible in a basketball court, Mr. Edgeworth? I think not!
Frame 1766… Just look at this one yourself.
1787, comma before but.
There’s usually some subtle incongruity in video evidence, so I played it again. The song skips at 0:56. Interesting…
Edgeworth must be out of it if he didn’t react to becoming a member of the Oldbag family.
Oh right, the analysis on the box. I had forgotten about that. Now just to stall a bit…
Bracelet reaction? Perfect way to stall.
Now Edgeworth reacts. Anyways, it looks like Edgeworth has another trap in store. Well, there’s no way to get around it except to risk charging right in.
Two whole statements… Now I see. Edgeworth just isn’t going to give me much to work with.
1872, comma after “do”.
Wendy Oldbag-Edgeworth. That would be interesting.
1990, comma after “with”.
Poor Wendy…
Perceive on statement two has a broken color tag. It also leads into the press conversation.
1948, comma after fan.
1953, comma after “out”.
Oldbag sure does fight to keep us from knowing the song was the Guitar’s Serenade.
Phoenix, King of Useless Evidence.
1963, comma after the first “it”.
I love how they’re arguing before Apollo has even pointed out what specifically the problem is.
Frame 2116, change “sprouting” to “spouting”.
2119, add a comma after “thing”.
2120 needs a question mark.
Nice music for this part, by the way.
2139, set speaking off.
2143, comma after time.
2144, comma after “subtle” and “there”.
Challenge accepted, Edgeworth.
2158, remove the comma.
2159, remove the first comma.
2165, comma after “now”.
2179, comma after “before”.
2184, comma after “again”.
Huh? I just checked the video three times. The change is definitely at 0:56, not 0:57. Why does the game say it’s at 0:57, then?
Sing-along with Edgey. It sounds like something Larry or Oldbag would do.
The lip-sync is a bit off because of the Firefox window size bug.
Epic Serenade Battles of Ace Attorney! Apollo Justice! Versus! Miles Edgeworth!
Alright, I prove that the evidence has been tampered with. Now to beat back whatever theory Edgeworth has as to why.
And, of course, what we proved is irrelevant to the Door Argument.
2342, comma after “right”.
Huh. Proven and proved are both the past participles of “to prove”. I did not know this.
Oldbag investigating tampered evidence… Oh no.
Oh. Edgeworth just wants her off the stand, and fast. That makes sense.
That must be Ema with the report on the box.
I laughed at Ema thinking Ballard had Phoenix’s cell phone.
Wasn’t Skye supposed to tell us over the phone? Why do I have the bad feeling that she isn’t going to be making it…?
2421, change “now” to “no”.
2441, comma after “knew”.
Him? Maybe this is related to Apollo’s five Psyche-locks.
Well, Ballard is a bit penalty-happy. Threatening a penalty just for suggesting that name and occupation are skipped?
Apollo’s blood! For the defense, it’s proof that Apollo was assaulted. I’m not sure how Edgeworth will handle this, though.
2516, remove the comma.
Same of 2525.
2530, you’re missing a verb.
2537 and 2538 merge have a double space.
Oh, Edgeworth is going to begin his explanation? Let’s hear it. If he’s claiming Thalassa tried to defend herself, like I think, I think I can get the momentum I need.
2550 and 2551 merge is a four-liner.
2556, comma after “everything”.
Right… Back to the issue of proving the presence of a third person.
Right here, right now? Wasn’t that von Karma’s catchphrase?
I just noticed this, but where is the background music?
Edgeworth didn’t even present a theory on how Apollo’s blood got on the box? Disappointing.
Looking at the frame count, I can’t tell if we have one or two testimonies coming up next.
Finally, SDMWMH is going to testify. Her testimony is another one of those things that I can’t fit into the big picture. How could she possibly have witnessed anything?
SDMWMH is going to give a sarcastic answer. I know it.
Oh, she knows Ballard. Maybe no for the sarcasm.
2621, comma after today.
Well, there’s the Scarlet-Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Hall we all know and… well, not exactly love…
Antennas and Spiky! Good nicknames… Maybe?
Phoenix seriously did hide under the bench!
And then Phoenix tried to deny it. I found that to be the funniest moment of this whole trial, up to this point.
I’d hardly call SDMWMH innocent. Although why does she have to leap to conclusions like that? First Rydia, now SDMWMH…
The witness says she’s a maid at Gatewater… OBJECTION! I FOUND A CONTRADICTION!
Wait a minute… She says that the wine wasn’t there until after the door was barged down? That definitely does not sound right. The Bellboy said the wine got there at 7:25, the tape starts at 7:30 and as I recall, the door was barged down at 7:52 at the earliest. A six minutes gap I can understand, but 33?! Why in the world would she lie about when the wine got there?
2689 and 2713, comma before “as”.
I suppose now, the question is which way to attack this testimony…
2749, “notch”.
Scarlet-Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Hall is a living thesaurus!
Heh heh heh… You brought it to her pronto?
And now that I look at it, I think I see another contradiction. A big foundation problem… How could Scarlet have known about the blood connection?
2794, comma after “saw”.
2802, comma after “didn’t”.
2808, comma after “room”.
2819, comma after “friend”.
2716, comma after “anything”.
2734, comma after “out”.
2844, comma after “self”.
What in the world?! How can Edgeworth and the judge expect me to answer how the witness knew about Thalassa and Apollo? The only thing that’s even possible is that she somehow overheard the conversation where Thalassa told Apollo, but that brings with it several new problems.
2904 needs to be reworded.
There we go. Thank you, Your Honor.
2912, comma after “it”.
2920, comma after “son”.
2926, break up “apart”.
Hmm… She intends to claim that she knew because she reviewed the security tapes. That means she could access the tapes, which means she could have edited them. Regardless, why would she have viewed the tapes?
Oh, that makes sense.
OK, the foundation contradiction is checked off.
I love Edgeworth’s logic that Apollo is bluffing. If there was a contradiction, Edgeworth would have seen it. Yeah. Right…
3008, comma after “eye”.
3017, comma after “does”.
3056, comma after “court”.
A typing error? Come on. The prosecution is forced to believe that the tape was not tampered with, placing the time of the attack at 7:30 to 7:31. (This is outside the timeframe of the police’s own report, but I digress.) The order had to have come before the attack, so the order was at 7:30 at the absolute latest. That’s still a gap of over 22 minutes, according to the statement by Phoenix, Trucy, Ema and even Hall. How do you like that proof of negation, Edgeworth? Oh, and Apollo… WHY DON’T YOU SAY THIS?!
3091, comma after “twice”.
Based on the frame count, there’s still one last cross-examination.
3101, remove the comma.
Come on, Apollo! Object!
Yeah, Apollo, what are you doing? Object!
3115, comma after “don’t”.
3122, comma after “established”.
3128, comma after “least”.
Great, one last piece of evidence. There are so many avenues I could take for this one… There’s the matter of Oldbag seeing the Bellboy.
Nope, that wasn’t it. The prosecution still hasn’t explained the blood on the box. Trying that…
No. Well, the Card Key doesn’t make any sense.
But that wasn’t it either. The Hotel Menu is the key to breaking the typing error theory, so I’ll try that…
And, no. The Crime Report and CD Recording contradict each other, so trying those…
Neither of those do it. Wow, I’m running out of evidence. The fact that the fingerprints on the knife were wiped was suspicious. I demonstrated this earlier, but Phoenix told me I might have to return to an old point.
No… Wow, I’m running out of evidence. Uh, the door, maybe. Thalassa’s prints aren’t there.
I hate you now. Well, Attorney’s Badge and Lyrics Sheet don’t make much sense. Room Service Records seem like the better option.
FINALLY!
… It was as simple as pressing harder on the Room Service contradiction?! I feel like an idiot.
3155, remove comma.
It’s impossible that the gap was a computer error. Even assuming the most disruptive error that doesn’t directly break the prosecution’s theory, the contradiction is there.
No basis in factual evidence?! Just let me use the argument I’ve been ranting about, Edgeworth!
Like I said last time, this is why evidence law matters.
3194, comma after “evidence”.
Just call the bellboy to testify… Or that.
Asking a question is being a “bully”? … No further comment.
There we go… SDMWMH admits it.
3228, comma after shocked.
Alright, now it’s time to end this. The frame counts will only allow for one more cross-examination. There has to be a hole in there somewhere!
3247 and 3277, comma after “there”.
3291, comma after “embarrassing”.
3292, comma after “notice”.
3302, comma after “chef”.
3303, comma after “quickly”.
Let’s see, 10 minutes later… Constructing my timeline again, this would mean that she left at 7:29… And according to that tape, Apollo and Thalassa entered at about 7:30… Factoring for travel time, I would place her time of arrival 7:30-7:35.
3327, comma after “there”.
3329, commas after “locked” and “answer”.
She places the attack at time of arrival… Very possible, but the crime report would have to be inaccurate. That’s possible, I guess. That report was made with the assumption that Apollo had never been knocked out.
3336, comma after “would’ve”.
3338, comma after “room”.
The Bellboy is the one who can use the key… Gah! Oldbag’s accursed testimony! She placed the departure of the Bellboy within the time of arrival… That would mean Oldbag was on to something.
And now, Scarlet-Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Hall says that Making Sense is her middle name… What to do, what to do…
Going through the rest of these presses, she makes it sound like the Bellboy hadn’t used the Master Key for a while. Especially with that paperwork statement. I really am reluctant to use that evidence, but I may not have another choice.
It wasn’t on the statement that I thought, but the same contradiction.
Edgeworth’s face when Oldbag was mentioned…
3436, you need a verb.
There’s still the problem that Oldbag is totally unreliable.
Heh heh… Edgeworth, I can answer you that!
Or I get cut off.
Third man?
On the gavel after the “third man”, there needs to be a timer.
3526 and 3527 merger has a superfluous space.
3531, change “testimony” to “testify”.
I just noticed this, but why is the life bar flashing?
Silly Apollo. There isn’t enough time for another cross.
Or not? I was not expecting this.
Yay, pointless testimony.
Err… What is happening?
3694, change “Mr. Wright” to “Ms. Hall”.
… How does Ms. Hall forget something like this? Seriously.
3701, transpose “it” and “is”.
The card of De Killer. On the bright side, I get Oldbag’s joke about a man in a suit now.
The de Killer card is covering Phoenix’s face.
Eleven years ago… Wasn’t that the number Apollo said earlier about what I suspected pertained to his black psyche-locks?
3714 and 3715 merger has extra spaces.

Thoughts:

Once again, very well done.

The characters were wondrous. Edgeworth was a bit more vicious than I would have expected. It seemed like he really was more concerned with a win than the truth. Canon characters were in-character, especially Oldbag. I did love her inclusion. Scarlet-Don’t-Mess-With-Me-When-I’m-Making-Sense-Hall AKA SDMWMWIMSH, was also entertaining. I am a bit surprised at how forgetful she was, and how easily she admitted to not delivering the drink on time. Ballard was magnificent.

The story didn’t advance all that much towards the end. I didn’t notice this until Ballard said it, but the testimonies were fairly repetitive. There wasn’t that much new information until the last testimony. When we did get to that last one though, I was shocked. De Killer was certainly not who I would have expected.

Looking over at the contradictions, there were no definite logic errors. Like I said, I think the time is a second off on the video contradiction. I’m uncertain as to why the testimony two contradiction didn’t apply to both statements you got during pressing. Most contradictions were exceedingly well done. The video, forensic, master key and wine delivery ones come to mind in particular. Difficult but doable.

That just leaves presentation. There were a lot of comma problems. In the beginning, you used green text a lot, and I’m not sure if you should have. There were some miscellaneous errors. Overall though, presentation was good. For a trial this long, the number of errors isn’t bad at all. The presentation made it stand out in a good way.

Now for my theory on what happened… I don’t have a complete theory yet. This de Killer business is bothersome, I still can’t break the locked room, and there are a sizable number of Psyche-locks to break. I can't get a good grasp of Hall's movements either. If Hall is telling us the truth, then she never delivered that wine. How did it get in Thalassa's suite? Possibly the "creepy bellboy", but from where would he have gotten it? Then there's the question of what Hall did after meeting the "creepy bellboy"... So many mysteries. So little time.