Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “Turnabout Big Top” (Justice For All – Case 3)

Urgh … well I suppose I had to reach this case eventually.

“Turnabout Big Top”, the third case in “Justice For All”, is widely hated by everyone … except, weirdly, Shu Takami himself (Ace Attorney’s creator and lead writer). He called this case “basically perfect”, which is incorrect for a plethora of reasons that I’m about to spell out.

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

Max Galactica is accused of murdering Berry Big Circus’s ringmaster Russell Berry, and then – just wait until you hear this – he flew away?!?!?!? Yeah, I’m already not a fan of where this case is going.

There are accusations of mutiny, a love triangle, some past vengeances coming back to the forefront … it’s all either very tacky or very underdeveloped, and I found myself caring less and less about the plot the more I played.

Score: 4/10

Macro Story

If you came into “Turnabout Big Top” expecting intricate character work that furthers the main cast’s arcs, you’ll be disappointed. Phoenix and Maya do their job, but there’s no moral lesson to be learnt and they don’t change as people as a result of the case’s outcome. It’s also one of the least personal plotlines in ages, so you don’t feel much urgency on Phoenix’s behalf.

The saving grace is easily the brief conversation you have with Franziska during the Investigations. Not only do you glean a bit more of her backstory, but it’s implied that Edgeworth passed away – while this ends up being a red herring, it was certainly a shock on a first playthrough.

Score: 5/10

Mystery

If I had to pick the one thing about “Turnabout Big Top” that was least bad, it would be the Mystery. There are lots of suspects with serviceable motives, for starters, so it’s not immediately obvious who the culprit is.

There’s a tragic backstory with a smiling lion that piqued my interest, and there’s a love triangle to spice things up (albeit a very icky one for reasons I’ll dive into later), but once you meet Acro you kinda know it was him. The ‘how’ and the ‘why’ need more investigating, but the mystery dwindles beyond the halfway mark.

Score: 6/10

Side Characters

There are four new side characters in “Turnabout Big Top”, plus two half characters (that’ll make more sense in a bit) … So five characters in total, I guess?

Regina Berry is the ringmaster’s (underage) daughter, and she has an affinity for animals. A backstory with a sneezing lion will come into play during the final trial, but the only other notable thing about her is the love triangle she shares with two pedos.

Next on the chopping block is Lawrence “Moe” Curls, an unfunny clown whose unfunny-ness isn’t nearly as funny as the writers think. His Trial section with the harsh penalties is infamous, but when the comedic facade is removed he becomes a somewhat three-dimensional character. Oh my god … is Moe my favourite side character in this case?

And now we’ve reached the two pedos. Max Galactica is the defendant in this case, and the main attraction at Berry Big Circus. His helplessness isn’t endearing since we’ve already seen it but better with characters like Will Powers, his magic tricks and THREE SIGNATURE SYMBOLS get old fast, and his devotion to the underage Regina is beyond creepy. Even though Phoenix exonerates him from the murder of Russell Berry, can Max at least stay behind bars for the noncing?

As if it couldn’t get worse than a pedo, we get a pedo with an excruciatingly annoying puppet. Benjamin Woodman and his puppet Trilo Quist are probably my pick for least favourite character(s) in “Turnabout Big Top” for their incessant arguments as well as Ben’s aforementioned affection towards a minor.

Oh, and there’s also Acro’s insufferable pet monkey Money that steals your badge during one of the Investigations. That goddamn monkey …

If we ever get a cast as bad as “Turnabout Big Top” again, I may unalive myself.

Score: 2/10

Soundtrack

They got the soundtrack wrong. How could they even get the bloody soundtrack wrong?!?

“More Happy People” is just as tacky as the other generic side character themes, “Reminiscence – True Pain” is one of the most boring reminiscence themes, and “Berry Big Circus” gets really grating really quickly.

None of these tracks are travesties (although “Berry Big Circus” gets bad if you suck at investigations, like me) but they’re a far cry from the quality we’ve heard in other case’s soundtracks.

Score: 5/10

Investigations

The only thing the Investigations of “Turnabout Big Top” has going for them is the fact that they’re predominantly set in a circus, quite a unique location for the Ace Attorney series. And I guess the snowy aesthetic is cool. The positives run dry there.

The aforementioned circus theme gets really annoying the longer you spend investigating dead ends and railroaded crime scenes, and the segment where Money the Monkey steals your badge and you have to waste time finding it is a low point of any Ace Attorney Investigation.

Score: 4/10

Trials

Alright, so maybe the Investigations were a dud, but that’s probably because the writers were saving all the best moments for the Trials. Right?

Wrong. The big reveal moments come across as insane logical leaps and contrivances, Max’s three signature symbols – the cloak, silk hat and white roses – are jammed into your eardrums over and over again, and Moe’s testimony where incorrect / irrelevant pressing leads to penalties is exactly how not to do a Trial gimmick.

At the very least, I can give the Trials in “Turnabout Big Top” credit for being more entertaining than the Investigations. Although that was a low bar to clear.

Score: 5/10

Case Logic

Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for I’m about to explain some logical pitfalls that’ll make your head spin.

Firstly, Acro’s villainous plan was really foolish. He tried to lure Regina to a spot underneath his window in order to drop a really heavy bust of Max onto her, and then rope the bust back in … but how was he going to dispose of that evidence? What would he have done if Max wasn’t accused of being the culprit by a stroke of incredible luck? He picked a location close to his room AND he didn’t think the aftermath of the crime through properly, making him one of the dumbest culprits so far.

But Regina wasn’t the one who took the bait – Russell Berry did. He disguises himself as Max (which is a whole can of worms in itself) and the cloak ends up snagging on the bust, making it seem like Max flew away. It’s a ridiculous contrivance to say that the cloak would lift up, move sideways and perfectly catch on the bust, but it’s even more ridiculous to suggest the bust’s impact made the cloak fly off of Russell’s corpse in the first place!

There are some actually good bits of logic like Phoenix working out the bust is hidden behind Acro’s wheelchair blanket, but it’s overshadowed by the worst, most immersion-shattering contrivances in the series.

Score: 3/10

Culprit

Weirdly, Ken “Acro” Dingling ended up being one of the most sympathetic villains in the series. You can completely understand his anger from his brother’s freak accident, and how he irrationally blames Regina for it.

This is also the first time a character with a disability ended up being the culprit, which is good both for inclusivity and to throw players off his trail – even though you might suspect him of wrongdoing, it’s hard at first to conceive of a murder plan that accommodates his lack of mobility.

Sadly, as I’ve mentioned before in the Case Logic section, his plan was narrow-minded and poorly thought through. He won’t go down as a great Ace Attorney culprit, but I suppose he did the job.

Score: 5/10

Charm

Everything I loathe about the Ace Attorney series is present in “Turnabout Big Top”.

Awful characters that you just want to punch, a repetitive soundtrack that gets on your nerves in record time, boring Investigations and unfair / illogical Trials, and a murder plot so nonsensical and unserious that you wonder why you even bothered playing the case in the first place.

Other than the conversation with Franziska about Edgeworth, you can safely skip this case and miss nothing of value.

Score: 2/10

FINAL SCORE: 41/100

Amazingly, “Turnabout Big Top” didn’t receive the worst Deep Dive score so far … but it was close. Good news is the next case should lift my spirits back up.

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