Take That! an Ace Attorney retrospective

Last month I had the pleasure of completing Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and in doing so completing all the Ace Attorney games thus far. Ever since a friend let me borrow his copy of the first game in the series back in 07 the Ace Attorney series has been one of my favourites off all time! I love everything about these games the memorable characters, the suspense, the stories everything it's just so great. I eagerly await the next installment in the series but, for now I cant stop thinking of all the other games so I've resolved to write about them, share my experiences with the game and maybe interest some new players. So let's start off with the first game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

As I've already mentioned I borrowed this game from a friend after he'd beaten it because I watched him play and was intrigued. I had never been to into courtroom drama but the way it blended with the fun cartoony characters, humor and the reward of out thinking the prosecution really appealed to me. Giggling at the name Larry Butz  is still a guilty pleasure for me. The game is very enthralling with each new case bringing new levels of challenge, intrigue and excitement, I would love to talk in great detail of every case but I don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say this games story rocks. I remember taking on Miles for the first time and being legitimately intimidated, *minor spoilers ahead* needless to say I was extremely happy when I saved Maya from being put away by his "perfect" prosecution. *minor spoilers end here* The characters from this game are varied and interesting and it shows as almost every character returns in future installments of the game, a trend that doesn't stop with the first game. Admittedly I have the least memories surrounding this game only because it's the first game and the other games are filled with bigger twists and crazier cases.

The second game follows a vary similar formula to the first game but it still is a great experience. When I rented this game from the store I brought it home expecting to breeze through it because I didn't think it would differ too much from the first game. Needless to say I was wrong, Justice for All added the Magatama a mystical gem that allows Phoenix to see the psyche locks protecting someones lies and break them with evidence. This brings me to another thing about that Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton have in common, rewarding clever thinking. It's refreshing to come across a game where instead of the solution to every problem being shoot dudes in the end the solution is quite basically, think. The core of the Phoenix Wright games are these supposedly impossible cases your given that you have to think your way through to overcome the odds and come out successful. This formula leads to one of my favourite moments in a game culminating in the climax of Justice for All. Justice for All once again gives you a thrill ride from start too finish with diverse characters from the accident prone Maggey Byrde to the female friendly Director Hotti. This time around we are also treated to a new prosecutor Franziska von Karma daughter of the revered Manfred von Karma, and not too mention a lady I wouldn't mind getting a lashing from.

The next game Trials and Tribulations is the culmination of story lines from all the games, stories from different times of amazing cases and fantastic story twists. In short like all the others games in the PW series, a masterpiece. You may have noticed I have haven't been to descriptive of events in each game, this is because like I stated the stories are just fantastic and you need to see them for yourself, that makes this game the hardest one too talk about. There are so many things that had me as a fan and a player at a loss for words. You just have to play it. However I don't think you can just play this one as it is part of a trilogy. In order to receive all of the Ace Attorney splender go play the other two.

Now we reach the new kid, we've completed the Phoenix Wright trilogy now it's time for Apollo's turn. Apollo Justice while still being a fantastic game with a great story isn't the best successor to Phoenix's legacy and is probably my least favourite in the series if only because the games before it are so hard too top. This one was the first too be made for DS and as such it makes use of the stylus and touch screen controls quite well. Even tough they feel a little gimmicky the don't feel forced, it just works. And it once again culminates in the final case in an amazing court battle ending in a great climax and closure to the Apollo Justice story, that being said it also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger which makes me want to use money to buy another Apollo Justice game. Just as Capcom wanted probably.

The final game I played is, I feel the successor Phoenix Wright should've had. We've been the Ace Attorney now it's time to play the other side. Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth. Now you aren't necessarily playing the prosecutor in the cases in this game as most of the cases you take part in Edgeworth kind of stumbles into each case and it does the video game thing of, they all just so happen to tie in to each other. While is this a little gimmicky it works pretty well and helps raise the intrigue of, "I wonder how this all fits together". Once again this game features an amazing cast of both memorable Ace Attorney veterans it also manages to introduce some very cool newbies that don't feel forced.

I reiterate I would love to go into more depth on the details of these games but I don't want to spoil it for anybody. Overall this series games excels in all aspects the biggest problem I had with the series is the traveling from place too place but, that's only a minor nuisance. If you would like to know more about these games I highly recommend them too anyone unless you're the kind of person who can't go five minutes in a game without shooting someone in the face.

Persona 3 FES part 17

Three endurance run updates in 3 days, aren't you a lucky internet. So you might think some persona things happened, well they did! They weren't as cool as part 16 but some awesome stuff happened. For instance we were hanging out with Stoner Man turns out hes dying and likes us. Fuuka likes too make us food even though it's terrible, a theme that carries over into P4. What is it with Persona users and terrible cooking? Chihiro also spent some time with us, turns out she still is afraid of men but not as much. But one really important S.Link happened.

We got to 10 with Yukari, if you know what I mean. We went to her room and sat on some pillows, if you know what I mean. She said she loved  us and gave us her "Strap" if you know what I mean. Apparantly it was one her cell phone but I know what it's really for, if you know what I mean. Then we totally did it, if you know what I mean. Speaking of Yukari it turns out her dad loves her. She watched a tape that wasn't edited by the chairman that basically said. "Hey you know those 12 shadows DONT KILL THEM". A few hours ago would've been appreciated game. It also said "I love you" then her Persona evolved, but that's beside the point.

But that's beside the point, with a newly reborn persona it was time to return to Tartarus. Yes that's right Tartarus remember that place that we got to the top of? apparently its still around. When we went in there and found new steps we were shocked to discover that the new block IS A CRAZY DISCO BLOCK. It was awesome it had rainbow steps and everything. After running around briefly we reached 52 at which point we left and fused Surt the ultimate magician he totally rocks and is awesome. We also fused Dionysus who proved to be useful on the electric sword boss man it would've gone pretty well if two of our bitches weren't weak to electric so we died a few times.

We decided that since we would never beat this guy with our two current people we decided to swap them for a level 23 Akihiko and a level 37 or so Doggmund. doubled Grind ensued and we nearly doubled Akihikos level and Doggmund is almost high enough to fight the boss with us. We probably shouldn't have left them behind but, live and learn I suppose. Speaking of Tartarus and the dark hour Igor called us to him in a dream and was all, yo remember that thing you signed at the begging? well it actually means something. Apparently a big choice is comming up.

Members of our party are also going through some personal turmoil. Junpei went to visit Chidori again and she had some words for him. She was all yo this aint fun no more and he was all huh? Then she was all NEVER COME HERE AGAIN!!! and he was all awwwwwwww. Then back at school a new kid showed up and started hitting on our would be robot girlfriend. No need to say but, she was not pleased with him saying such  hurtful things as. "You are dangerous" I'm quite happy that Aigis was having none of his flirts. So that's what happened and as more happens I will keep you guys informed.

Persona 3 part 15&16

Hey internet remember how I left for a bit? well I'm back now. Some serious stuff has happened since i've been gone but there are two parts one of them isn't too fantastic and the other one is pretty god damned awesome. Guess which one i'm going to talk about first? YOU'RE ABSOLUTLEY RIGHT, unless you picked the second one in which case s'wrong with you? never start the show with a show stopper. You've probably figured out that we are comming at this game with a battering ram approach rather than a tactical one and as a result we die a lot. Well that ended pretty recently as we thought through an encounter with Hulk Hogan and didn't die on him. This being our first Tartarus floor boss that we've made it through without dying. As if that wasn't enough Aigis used SP for the first time EVER, ussualy she will just use her physical spells but since hogan was having none of that she decided to debuff the debuffs on us. then some S. links happened which quite honestly I can not remember any of them.

Onto the next and more interesting part!!! After the fall of  Hogan we  had roughly 2 ingame weeks to S.link which we used wisely. We hung out with Yukari a lot because she takes FOREVER to get to 10, we also discovered something interesting, apparently those crazy hot pyjamas I mentioned? aren't pyjamas! here is a  photo of her wearing it in a restaraunt!
                                                    http://co110w.col110.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=0&messageId=c04918a6-d345-11df-a3a8-001e0bcc060c&Aux=54|0|8CD3569A7534B40||0|0|0||&maxwidth=220&maxheight=160&size=Att


Now I don't know if you can see that picture or not but its pretty awesome, I have resolved to go to Japan and visit a restaraunt. She also said something weird that caught me and mikes attention something along the lines of. "I want to know what you say to Fuuka." Now I don't know if this is scripted or if it had something to do with us hanging out with Fuuka recently. OH by the way this is my new backround on my phone... if you can see the picture.
file:///c:/Users/Levi/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Recent/Fuuka.lnk
I hope you can see that, I also hope the quality isn't shit. We then hung out with Yukari like 5 times with out getting to 10 DUDE WTF. We also talked to/hung out with the stoner man and it turns out he has death inside him. He wasn't too interesting too me and neither is Drunk Monk. Then we went to the shops and made some prudent purchases.

We then embarked on the final ordeal I mean, there literaly cannot be anything else I mean the game said DUDE THIS IS THE END OF THE GAME. Why would persona lie to us?Then we fought Takaya and Jin the died how they lived, falling off bridges. I thought it was hilarious Jin's last we're almost "Son of a bitch" but then weren't because he decided to live after the fight and just as Takaya was about too shoot himself he pulled him off a bridge, I MEAN WHAT!!! After reading those last few sentences back I realize this whole thing has me flabbergasted and I'm not even close to done this post!

We then fought the creepiest shadow ever, a floaty dude who was attached to a flying cross, ATTACHED BY HIS SKIN. My skin literaly crawled at the site of him. He refused to be hurt unless we broke three statues so we did. He wasn't very hard to beat considering our two attack mirrors did 3-5 hundred damage to him at a time. He went down and our SEES s.link went up. Game over.

OH WAIT THE GAME IS STILL GOING. Pharos showed up in the daytime and said thanks for the chitty chats and see again next NEVER and promptly left. So later that day we had a sushi party and everyone in SEES was there, Mitsuru's pirate dad even showed up. but where's Aigis and the chairman? WHO CARES SUSHI. We then ate sushi if you couldn't figure that one out. So the day went on and out of nowhere FMV animated slapstick happened for about 3 seconds when we took a big group photo everything was great! Wait a minute Aigis still isn't here, could this mean there is more game? nah. Once again time passed until until 11:59 what could happen next? it's not like the midnight hour is gonna happen or anyth.. oh wait it totally is. Everyone freaked the eff out and they finally decided to ask the question WHERE IS AIGIS AND THE CHAIRMEN.


We rushed to Tartaruss only too find the chairmen and a slightly "different" Aigis. We had along chat about how Mitsuru's grandad and the chairmen want the apocalypse to happen so they can be in power under the king "Death" (in green letters, I wonder who that could be) Aigis then kicked our ass and tied us all to crucifixes somewhere in Tartarus. Shuji (the chairmen) then went on some more about his experiments only this time he was animated by which I mean like an anime not like a polygonal person. he then ordered Aigis too sarcifce us all but she couldn't because she wants us. Then Shuji was all okay fine I'll do it at which point a Pirate showed up too save us. He shot Shuji and then got shot himself and died, much too Mitsuru's dismay. All the while I was thinking, "So when are the credits gonna roll?" because I mean come on this has to be the end right? right??


Then we saved it, I think something else probably happened that I can't remember. More Persona 3 as it happens. Until then bye bye internetz

Persona 3 Part 14

Im back with more things on persona. So today qasn't too interesting it was mostly fighting and the little S. Linking we did was for the sake of a third party who shall remain un-named. That being said some interesting stuff happened today i.e. Fuuka's persona morphed which means A) now it has butterfly wings and B) i am now under the assumption that party member Personae evolve at certain points in the game not by S. linking. bummer.

Things with Yukari also happened. We did some S. Linking with her and found out her mom wants to forgive her. Things also got serious dude. and then at one point she decided to call us up on the cell phone telephone even though she lives literraly not even 30 seconds away, but thats not the point. the point is that when she called us she was wearing the sexiest pyjamas EVAR. Needless to say I know what im thinking about when im alone for the next EVER. Oh and then Kazushi called us and was all yo wanna hang and we were all no at which point he made a silly face.

Some not so important S. linking also happened. For instance our relationship with Mamoru and Mutatsu may be come closer soon. Also Chihiro is becoming less afraid of men. Also since we're smart we are able to hang out with the stoner in the park on sundays. Well we would be able to if our albino dog didn't steal the pen filled with his blood!!!! Did I mention Yukari's underwear? IT WAS SO TOTALY HAWT.

 We also died alot more. We are at a bit in the game where grinding with monsters instead of Yukari/Yuko/Chihiro/Fuuka/Mitsuru is becoming more neccessary and since we haven't really been doing that three Hell Knights kicked our ass alot. We then grinded up the floors and threw in Mitsuru instead of Yukari because Yukari was weak to lightning, this did not work too well. After a while of trial and error we got some magic mirrors and one attack mirror and fought them again. We also pulled out Raja Naga a snake man who is immune to Lighting and strong against peirce attacks. This went over much better due to our immunities Mitsuru's succesful charming, Aigis' attacks and Ken's being dead. We won the day and proceeded to play badminton in the rain.

More P3:FES as it happens, still working on the phoenix wright thing.

Persona 3 part 13

As stated before I am not going to start from the beginning with this FES thing, I am going to write as we go from where we are now.

 What happened most recently was fighting and a few S.link things, for the most part. Some interesting story things also happened, in our last session Shinji died and it was all Ken's fault so he ran away. Akihiko found him and calmed him down at which point Ken accepted his mothers death and Shinji's sacrifice and decided he would not let it stop him from trying to help us. Then his Persona went from a black tower shaped man with a buzz saw for a chest to a big red robit with wrecking balls for armpits, Mike thought this was a bit of a down step from his previous form but I was psyched.

Some S. Links also happens, we hung out with Mamoru the most and hey guess what HE HAS PARENTAL ISSUES he is also seeking a true challenge (I think it may be us). We then chilled with Yukari and nothing to memorable happened. The most important S. Link we did was with MMO lady which we are convinced is our homeroom teacher. We logged in to the MMO and she teleported us to her and told us she was no longer going send our chat log to the MMO runners because she was embarassed about the subject matter of our online chat she then told us that she will never see us again (BS) and wrote i luv you in the game at which point Phillip took a screen shot and saved it on his phone. BOOM RANK 10

Pharos also showed up to talk to us about the end and said something really cryptic. Something along the lines of "Don't you remember me?" needless to say we think he may be our dead brother or us from the past. He also said that he sees life and death differently now because he has a friend <3. And also something about "The Fall" being the end.


Speaking of  the end Akihiko said something about there being only one ordeal left which can't be true we're not even 8 with SEES yet. If it is really close to the end we have some serious S linking to do with our team were 7 with Yukari, 1 with Fuuka and we're hoping our test score will allow us to chill with Mitsuru. Speaking of S Links our rank 10 buddy Tanaka sold some R/C gets what the eff are those?!? and why do they come with 5 instant Ramens?!?! Also while im asking questions why does going to the bathroom make us GREAT?!? i'm not complaining but why?

Also fighting happened. We made it to the mid boss in the next section of tartarus and were pretty confident with our selves so we fought the 3 knights. we got our asses kicked at which point we decided to leave and come back to grind.

More persona 3 as it happens and maybe some Ace Attorney later this week.

Video Games: a personal history

Hello internetz quite recently a friend of mine, Mike (maybe you've heard of him) was talking to me via facebook about why he likes video games then wrote and posted about and I, being the completely original individual that I am decided to steal his idea. Now my history starts out pretty typically, a small boy falling victim to Japanese cartoons yes I speak of the clever marketing build of pokemon. I instantly fell in love with the colorful monsters and the zany antics so naturally when I found out of the existence of a way of being a pokemon trainer myself via Pokemon Red I had to have it. I never beat red only goofed around with my pokemons and then started a new game but for quite a while I was content with the situation, eventually my eyes were opened to the world of polygonal pokemon games via Pokemon Stadium for the N64 and once again I had to have it I loved pokemon so much I think I at one point owned every N64 pokemon game out there with the acception of hey you pikachu. Eventually my mom took me to a video rental store and i took note of the ability to rent video games which is when my eyes were opened to two of my favourite N64 games Star Fox64 and Legend of Zelda the Ocarina of time. I fell in love again with the space shooterness of Star Fox and the open world/puzzle solving of zelda although I never played much further than the temple of time (I usually started there on a save file from a previous renter) and didnt ussually do much fighting.

A little while down the road I heard word of a game where all of these characters where together beating the crap out of eachother and so was exposed to my first real example of VIOLENCE my mom was reluctant getting the game due  to its T rating but I still played the hell out of that game. For a while I stuck with nintendo playing classic Game Cube games such as Harvest Moon, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Custom Robo but then when at a friends house I was exposed to something that would change the course of my taste in games FOREVER I refer to of course, Halo: Combat Evolved the blood the competition the physics everything appealed to my 7 year old mind so once again I had to have but alas I had to wait 2 years to get my own Halo game 2 years that is when I got an xbox and halo 2 this practically set the standard for FPS games for me. A year later I picked up a copy of Fable the lost chapters which was my first western RPG and once again set my standard for the genre.

I then slowly shifted from Nintendo to Microsoft for the most part exclusively playing the Xbox so far my tastes for all of the major genres had be set with the exception of two the RTS which came much later and the JRPG. Now many people will argue that pokemon set my standard for the JRPG but I refer to Final Fantasyass JRPGs, long games with deep story lines now the same year that changed when my sister recieved a PS2 and the cross over classic Kingdom Hearts a punishingly dificult Disney/Final Fantasy cross over with cartoony characters weird storyline and a somewhat confusing narrative (for a ten year old atleast) and I have cherished the series ever since. Therefore I have never truly picked a side in the console wars but i've always leaned more towards the xbox. The rest is not too important to the story not for the next 5ish years.

I've never really cared for the politics, process or even developers of video games up until last year when my buddy Mike after much coercing convinced me to go too GiantBomb.com and have been a user ever since. Now Mike's (the person I stole this idea from (maybe you've heard of him)) post was about why he liked games and this has been more how I came to be the gamer I am today. As for why I like games it comes down to a factor of what genre it is, with shooters I love the friendly competition the satisfaction of winning and the variety of weapons. Western RPGs I like story visual flare and the multiple choice systems that make it a more personal experience. JRPGs the over the topness of the characters and story lines that distinct asthetic that indeed I am playing a JRPG and of course the ridiculous names for simple things like calling lighting spells Thunadaga. with RTSs two words StarCraft.

For those who read this I am truly sorry you had nothing betteer to do than read my ramblings but thanks for sticking with me. next, some persona.

I cant write things.

So too all the people reading what I have to say and honestly i cant believe that anyone even considered reading it, evidently I haven't been very active mainly because even with all the things I do I rarely feel I have enough thoughts to write something about it. Although in recent history I have felt more and more inclined to write things but once again have had nothing to say other than ironically writing about how i cant write about things but trust there are things a brewin in the old melon. For instance I have felt like writing about the on going P3FES ER im doing with Mike but i dont feel cappable of writing things we did a while ago so i will start writing after the next session. I have also had many thoughts on games i've been playing and on ones yet to come. So if you guys are willing to bear with me I swear that my blog will become more active.