Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “Turnabout Sisters” (Phoenix Wright – Case 2)

After a fairly standard tutorial case, I was ready for Ace Attorney to truly wow me. While it didn’t accomplish that (for reasons I’ll explain shortly), it was certainly a step in the right direction – albeit a small one.

Like with how I reviewed The First Turnabout, I’ll be evaluating the merits of “Turnabout Sisters” in ten distinct categories and rating each out of ten, eventually reaching a definitive overall score out of a hundred.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Micro Story

One of my biggest complaints about “The First Turnabout” was that its Micro Story was too limited in scale, and that its plot had nothing of substance for the player to latch onto. “Turnabout Sisters” has no such problems.

Mia Fey, Phoenix’s mentor, is murdered by a mass-blackmailer, and it’s up to him to let Mia’s sister – Maya Fey – off the hook while taking down one of the scummiest villains in the series.

This is a really intriguing story to have so early on, and the mass-blackmail angle allows for some interesting character dynamics as well as some important plot revelations down the line.

Score: 8/10

Macro Story

Before I delve into the Macro aspects of this case’s story, I want to first talk about the three major characters we meet for the first time:

Maya Fey – Mia’s little sister is the defendant for this case, and as such she acts quite traumatised / reserved for most of the run-time. We find out she’s a spirit medium in training, and that she has quite a peppy personality for the most part – although we’ll have to wait until the next case to have her tagging along as investigation assistant.

Dick Gumshoe – a hardboiled detective, except not really. He’s suspicious of Phoenix at first, of course, but eventually you win him over and you start to see his goofball persona. His theme slaps, and his silly sprites are super charming.

Miles Edgeworth – I’ve saved the best for last. We get a new prosecutor for this case and the trials moving forward, and he’s delightfully cocky and smug. In these early stages he’s just your typical, one-track-mind antagonist in the courtroom, but once it’s revealed that Phoenix knew Edgeworth from his past things start to get more complicated.

On top of these series regulars being introduced, we’re drip-fed information about one of Ace Attorney’s great backstories – the DL-6 Incident. Grossberg reveals the inter-connectedness of the Fey family and how Redd White ended up orchestrating their downfall, and it’s all intriguing stuff that’ll only be expanded upon later.

This Macro section ended up being quite large, so I’ll give a quick summary – the groundwork for major characters and the DL-6 Incident is there, but still in the early stages. Things can only get better from here.

Score: 7/10

Mystery

I can understand why “The First Turnabout” showed us the culprit, as it was supposed to be a tutorial case that eased the players into the mechanics rather than the mystery, but “Turnabout Sisters” has no excuse for letting the cat out of the bag so early.

We know Redd White is the murderer straight out the gate, which is such a let-down. I suppose his motive and the circumstances of the murder are a bit more mysterious this time, but I’m still craving a classic whodunnit!

Score: 4/10

Side Characters

Like with the Macro Story section, there are three distinct side characters to talk about. Unlike the major characters, however, these side characters end up being quite forgettable and one-note.

April May – Ace Attorney’s first miss in the character department. She’s a misogynistic take on a damsel in distress, who acts purely as Redd White’s play-thing and to scream at people while jiggle physics take full effect.

Bellboy – A nothing character. He’s got a crush on April May, I think, and lets slip a few details that eventually implicates Redd White for the murder. His astuteness and stiff upper lip are kinda funny, I suppose?

Marvin Grossberg – I was tempted to put Mia’s mentor in the Macro Story section, but I don’t think of him as anything more than a side player. He’s not joking about haemorrhoids yet (thank god), but he’s barely got a personality and serves mostly as a story device to deliver exposition or showcase Redd White’s blackmailing power.

So yeah, a pretty shallow cast for this case.

Score: 5/10

Soundtrack

“Turnabout Sisters” may not have the best overall soundtrack in the series, but some of the individual songs are outstanding.

We hear the Investigation and Detention Centre themes for the first time, and the “Turnabout Sisters Theme” itself is delightful. I also want to shout out Gumshoe’s theme – it didn’t have to slap so hard!

Score: 8/10

Investigations

For the first time in the series, we’re introduced to some mechanics that would consistently make up half of the gameplay moving forwards – the crime scene investigations. Unfortunately for “Turnabout Sisters”, it doesn’t get this new status quo off to a good start.

All of the locations – namely the Fey Law Offices, the Watergate Hotel, Bluecorp and Grossberg’s Office – are pretty bland and uninspired. You bounce from dreary diorama to another while interacting with forgettable characters and learning the bare-minimum information possible, and it gets stale quickly. It’s no wonder my younger self hated the investigations and longed to get back to the courtroom.

Another crucial aspect that’s missing from these first investigations is Maya. Since she’s locked up in Detention as the suspect for the murder, she obviously can’t tag along with Phoenix – this leads to monotonous investigations without a peppy assistant bringing levity and a new perspective, and is yet another reason why these particular investigations are so boring to play.

Score: 5/10

Trials

“Turnabout Sisters” is the first case in the series to be spread over multiple trials, and the resulting gameplay feels a bit thin.

The first trial involves proving Maya innocent, and there are hardly any stand-out moments other than Phoenix clutching victory from the jaws of defeat when asking the Bellboy a seemingly innocuous question. The real charm of the first trial comes from Miles Edgeworth – his “updated autopsy report” tactic has gone down in Ace Attorney folklore.

The second trial shifts gears and instead focuses on proving Phoenix’s innocence as well as taking down Redd White for good. This whole trial feels redundant for multiple reasons: Phoenix already knows the culprit by this point, a lot of the contradictions are just re-hashes of when you defended Maya, and the Mia-Ex-Machina is stupid (more on that later).

The trials don’t stretch out for too long, thankfully, and “Turnabout Sisters” doesn’t fall into the trap of three trial days like the later cases do.

Score: 6/10

Case Logic

“Turnabout Sisters” has more contradictions and slightly harder deductive reasoning than “The First Turnabout”, and as a result I feel the case logic is a little thinner across the board.

The testimonies are generally fine, but I don’t like how obvious some of the contradictions are. I know the developers aren’t trying to make it too hard, but why do none of the witnesses seem to know their lefts from their rights?

The biggest lapse of reasoning, I think, comes at the climax. The conclusive evidence that Phoenix uses to take down Redd White is on the back of the blood-written note – Mia has to come back from the dead to point out to him how the receipt can be turned over. How did Phoenix not notice that in the first place? Having Mia save the player removes all sense of agency, and the fact it instantly leads to White’s downfall is anticlimactic.

Score: 6/10

Culprit

In the grand scheme of things, Redd White is one of the most important culprits in Ace Attorney history. His mass-blackmailing directly led to Misty Fey’s downfall (and DL-6 remaining unresolved as a result) and Mia Fey’s death, two of the most pivotal moments in the game’s lore. Considering the effect his character has on the plot, you’d expect him to be more of an intimidating presence.

I hated Redd White, but not in the fun way. He was way too smarmy and arrogant to the point of ridicule, and he lacked the bravado or intelligence of a mass-blackmailer. When you put him side by side with other towering culprits, like Manfred von Karma and Damon Gant, White seems like a small fry in comparison. And he’s supposed to be more powerful than those two combined!

Score: 5/10

Charm

“Turnabout Sisters” has a lot of firsts for the Ace Attorney franchise, so it was important for the writers and developers to give a good first impression. They did alright.

The first investigation is an interesting concept, but it’s a bit bland at first. The side characters are forgettable. The trials don’t pop like they will in later cases. What they did succeed in, however, was the main characters.

Phoenix’s personality is starting to shine, Maya and Gumshoe are great additions to the cast, and Edgeworth has one of the best first impressions of any prosecutor in the series. “Turnabout Sisters” doesn’t always work, but you can tell a lot of care and attention went into making it a fun time.

Score: 6/10

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

“Turnabout Sisters” is definitely an all-round improvement from the first case, but not by much. It’s fascinating to revisit this case and pinpoint where a lot of my favourite Ace Attorney aspects began, but the core case itself isn’t a fun one to replay.

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