Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “Rise from the Ashes” (Phoenix Wright – Case 5)

Originally a bonus case added to mark the Nintendo DS release of the first game, “Rise from the Ashes” sees Phoenix and Edgeworth battle in the courtroom once more to take on their toughest challenge yet. I have a thing or two to say about this one … so it’s time for a comprehensive Deep Dive!

I’ll be deconstructing the case in ten distinct categories and giving a score out of ten for each. This will give a definitive score out of a hundred, if the maths checks out!

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

Micro Story

From the moment “Rise from the Ashes” began with that slick animated intro, I knew I was in good hands.

Bruce Goodman being murdered in both the police parking lot and the department’s evidence room at the same time is the best set-up in the entire original trilogy, and the conspiracy that unravels within the police force is the icing on the cake.

The story explores past misdeeds, tragedies, a serial killer, sisterly love, corruption on the highest level … what more do you want from an Ace Attorney case?

Score: 10/10

Macro Story

Before I delve into the Macro Story, I want to give a bit of extra context to “Rise from the Ashes” – it was a case written and released after the main trilogy had concluded. In other words, the writers had already completed each characters’ arcs before going back and writing a prequel case of sorts (or at least one that fit near the start of the trilogy’s timeline). You might be able to work out the problems this ended up causing.

Phoenix Wright acts like a confident pro in the courtroom, which is a little odd considering this is only his fifth case canonically. It’s fine in isolation, but the fact he reverts to an insecure attorney for the majority of the next two games makes this part of his character arc stick out like a sore thumb.

But the worst offender by far has to be Miles Edgeworth – after renouncing his prosecutor ways in “Turnabout Goodbyes”, he’s back for one more case before retirement. For shits and giggles? For one last hurrah against his buddy Phoenix? Either way, Edgeworth should be gone by this point in his arc and it feels like a different man is masquerading as the iconic prosecutor.

Technically speaking, “Rise from the Ashes” is part of the first game’s story and should be treated as such … so the lack of ties to DL-6 hurts its Macro Story. I tend to treat this as a DLC case, however, so the character problems are what docked this score by so much.

Score: 6/10

Mystery

Alright, I admit, it doesn’t take much to work out the culprit in this one. Hell, Gant is the most suspicious person in “Rise from the Ashes” by a country mile, but it’s the path you take to get there that I appreciated most.

It’s a very murky murder with all the details clouded and classified, and it’s intentionally unclear what happened in the SL-9 Incident at first. There’s a point in the story where Ema is implicated for the murder of Neil Marshall – and I genuinely believed she did it for a hot minute!

I would’ve maybe liked the culprit to be a little less obvious, but the mysteries presented in the writing are top notch.

Score: 8/10

Side Characters

Believe it or not, there are five new side characters introduced in “Rise from the Ashes”:

Mike Meekins is the black sheep of the bunch, so let’s get him out the way first. He’s a rookie cop with some annoying mannerisms and takes centre stage in the most aggravating Trial segment in the game, so my opinion of him was always going to be low. He’s not a catastrophe of a character, however, and I actually found his naiveté to be endearing at points.

Angel Starr is probably the most underrated character in “Rise from the Ashes”. She seems a bit ditsy and manipulative at first, but when it’s revealed that she was a disgraced detective on the SL-9 case that puts her character in a whole new perspective.

Jake Marshall is another disgraced SL-9 detective, except he’s a lot more notable than Angel Starr and has a lot more agency on the case’s plot. His Wild West outfit, music and dialogue is amazing, and I can sympathise with his motive of breaking into the evidence room to avenge his brother Neil’s murder.

Lana Skye is the defendant of this case, and also the Chief Prosecutor. It’s a great plot hook when she whole-heartedly takes the blame for the murder, and as the mystery is unveiled – and as her affection for her sister becomes more apparent – she starts to become an MVP of “Rise from the Ashes”.

Ema Skye is Lana’s younger sister, a crime scene analysis enthusiastic, an Edgeworth fangirl, and Phoenix’s plucky assistant for the case. Her humour and enthusiasm are amazing, her new evidence analysis techniques bring some much needed variety to the investigations, and the plot leads to some really dark places for her character.

Other than Mike Meekins being a bit hit-or-miss, this is one of the strongest cast of side characters I can think of in the series.

Score: 9/10

Soundtrack

We get lots of new tracks in “Rise from the Ashes”, and almost all of them are sublime.

The SL-9 Reminiscence is haunting, Ema Skye’s theme is bubbly, Jake Marshall’s theme “Detective from the Wild West” is just as ridiculous as I could have wanted, and Damon Gant’s theme “Swimming, Anyone?” is easily one of my favourite villain songs in the series.

I really wanted to give this category a perfect ten, but the Blue Badger theme stops this from achieving top marks. It’s not a bad song, per se, but it’s the kind of earworm that’s more of a curse than a blessing.

Score: 9/10

Investigations

The writers and developers had the tough job of moulding the investigations in “Rise from the Ashes” into the original game’s format – in other words, they had to go back to three investigations and three trial days to fit the original style. This leads to the same sort of problems as before.

Let’s get the positives out the way first – I like the various locations you visit around the police department (especially Gant’s office), and the better tools at your disposal due to the DS’s updated hardware made for some really effective minigames.

Unfortunately, “Rise from the Ashes” has the longest investigation drag in the series. It’s not as railroaded and petty as the previous few cases, but my god does it just go on and on. It has a bum-numbing run-time that feels like the previous four cases combined, and a lot of hatred for this case comes from its sheer length alone.

Thank goodness Ema Skye and her investigative tools were there to help you, otherwise I may not have bothered finishing this case. Granted, the writers actually made use of the three trials and investigations by plotting a longer story, so at least the content was vaguely worthwhile.

Score: 7/10

Trials

The three trials in “Rise from the Ashes” vary wildly in quality, so I’d be best off talking about each one in turn.

The first trial focuses mostly on the parking lot “crime”, with Angel Starr giving a typically wishy-washy witness testimony. It’s all fairly standard stuff, but the reveal that Bruce Goodman was also killed in the evidence room is a great cliff-hanger to end the day on.

The second trial, however, loses all of that good will. The story content is actually pretty good – Jake Marshall impersonating Goodman to try and steal SL-9 evidence is a sympathetic motivation, and his misunderstanding of modern technology is pretty funny. That doesn’t matter, however, when the Blue Badger video ends up being so goddamn tedious. You have to crawl through the footage at a snail’s pace multiple times, and it really hurts the gameplay experience for this part of the case.

But I forgave all of the second trial’s shortcomings after playing the third trial. Phoenix and Edgeworth’s showdown with Gant might just be the best final trial in the series, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The reveal that Ema killed and then didn’t kill Neil Marshall was a roller-coaster of emotions and a half, and Gant’s ultimate defeat is unbelievably satisfying.

“Rise from the Ashes” had a set of trials comprised of the highest highs and the lowest lows, but I’ll always fondly remember those final few hours spent tussling with Gant at the eleventh hour.

Score: 9/10

Case Logic

I could think of three flaws within this case’s logic, but they’re all a bit wishy-washy and I’m sure they could be explained away by someone smarter than me.

The big one, I think, is the introduction and reliance on Evidence Law. It’s a cool concept for this case alone, but its machinations and stipulations end up raising more questions than answers for the series at large – you mean to tell me neither Phoenix nor a prosecutor breaks these specific laws in the other forty-nine cases?

The two smaller nitpicks are that luminol doesn’t reveal anything on Gant’s side of the office (which doesn’t make sense considering the eventual reveal), and that I have no idea how Gant stuffed a dead body into Edgeworth’s car after passing through a busy police station. That last one might be possible, however, since we don’t know enough information about that aspect of the crime.

So yeah, those are three vague things that I could think of, but none of them broke immersion. The logic is remarkably solid in all other departments, so I commend the writing team for that.

Score: 8/10

Culprit

A great whodunnit needs a captivating culprit, and Damon Gant is one of the series’ very best.

He’s an intimidating figure both when playful and when pressed, and his position as Chief Of Police makes the prospect of taking him down daunting for the whole of “Rise from the Ashes”.

What makes him stand out other than his personality, I think, is the deviousness of his plan. He orchestrated the entire SL-9 Incident to get Lana Skye indebted to him, and through that manipulation he effectively runs two departments. I also really like how Bruce Goodman’s death was an impulsive accident – Gant had no plans to revive this cold case, but Goodman’s curiosity forced his hand.

The only things holding him back are that he can sometimes be a bit too peppy and boisterous to interact with, and that he’s not a multi-case culprit like some of the classic Ace Attorney baddies. He’ll still receive a really high score though!

Score: 9/10

Charm

With endearing characters, an intriguing plot, a great soundtrack and some exciting new DS interface augments, “Rise from the Ashes” has gone down as a truly epic chapter in Phoenix Wright’s story.

It’s a shame about the ungodly length and how the Blue Badger continues to haunt my nightmares, but otherwise this was a really charming case across the board.

Score: 8/10

FINAL SCORE: 83/100

Despite the numerous shortcomings that I and many fans in the past have mentioned, “Rise from the Ashes” remains a triumph of a case for its story content and characters alone.

That’s the end of “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney”! Here are the scores from the first five cases, ordered from worst to best:

5 – The First Turnabout (50)

4 – Turnabout Sisters (60)

3 – Turnabout Samurai (63)

2 – Rise from the Ashes (83)

1 – Turnabout Goodbyes (86)

Aaaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: