Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “Turnabout Countdown” (Dual Destinies – Case 1)

We’ve entered a new era of Ace Attorney – Shu Takumi is no longer the creative force behind the games, and for better or for worse that led to a fresh take on the Ace Attorney canon with “Dual Destinies”. The first case, “Turnabout Countdown”, certainly kicks things off with a bang.

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

Athena Cykes, a new employee at the Wright Anything Agency, has to defend her dear friend Juniper Woods in court. The crime in question – a bomb went off in the middle of a Trial, and a detective was killed in the blast.

That’s about it for the Micro Story. There’s hints of a motive about black market bombs being sold, but that’s swept aside immediately.

Score: 5/10

Macro Story

“Turnabout Countdown” is a bit weirder to talk about in the Macro Story category than most other first cases – not only is it vaguer and more mysterious, not really setting up anything concrete just yet, but it chronologically happens during the finale cases so it functions as a flash forward.

Apollo acts all cool and mysterious but we don’t yet know why, but the most striking thing about this case is Athena’s sudden vision where she’s surrounded by blood. This ain’t no PG-13 stroll in the daisy fields anymore …

Sadly, much like Apollo in “Turnabout Trump”, Athena gets pushed aside within half an hour in order to give Phoenix his time in the spotlight. Her personality is strong and vibrant so at least we get a quick sense of her character, but more time was needed to give her the attention she deserved.

Score: 6/10

Mystery

OooooOOoooh why is Apollo in a bad mood and wearing an eyepatch? What’s up with Athena’s horrifying visions? And just who in the hecking heck would bomb a hecking courtroom?!?

There are some fun questions here that piqued my interest, but we know Ted Tonate is the killer from the opening cutscene. I hate when Ace Attorney does that.

Score: 5/10

Side Characters

I’ve already talked about Athena in the Macro Story section, and I hardly need to give time to the Judge, so that leaves two new Side Characters by my count. Neither of them are noteworthy.

Juniper Woods is the defendant of the case, and Athena’s friend. Oh boy does she sneeze and cough a lot. We don’t really talk to her outside of testimony, so I got nothing out of her character over the course of the case.

The prosecutor for Dual Destinies’ tutorial is a Payne, but not the one you’d expect – Gaspen Payne takes the prosecutor’s bench this time around, and he’s identical to Winston in almost every way. That is to say, he’s a pushover fraud who has no place in a court of law and I find his voice and mannerisms and attitude annoying.

Score: 5/10

Soundtrack

Okay, I know I’m biased towards Soundtrack scores and tend to be far more generous than in other categories, but you can’t deny that Dual Destinies has a banging soundtrack.

All of the updates are fantastic, like the Pursuit and Cross-Examination themes, and the new “Objection! 2013” variation with the full orchestra is one of my favourite arrangements in the whole series.

In terms of new songs, Athena’s theme is awesome. It doesn’t happen often, but I’m willing to give this category a perfect score!

Score: 10/10

“Investigations”

“Turnabout Countdown” is a tutorial case, which means the Investigations category is null and void and I yet again have egg on my face for sticking to such a rigid ten-category review system.

In lieu of an Investigation I tend to look at the merits of the crime scene decor – in this case, the exploded courtroom – but there actually is a tiny bit of investigating in between Trials.

Apollo knocked out and sprawled out on the floor is quite the shocking cliffhanger, so it’s annoying we can’t investigate the scene immediately and are instead dumped straight into Trial Day 2. Ace Attorney has to stick to its formula, I suppose …

Score: 4/10

Trials

In a strange subversion of Ace Attorney first case formula, “Turnabout Countdown” has two Trial days. That would be cool if it weren’t so completely unnecessary.

Ted Tonate goes down as easily as any other tutorial culprit, so the only positives for this category are the tension brought with the bombing and the introduction of the Mood Matrix – one of the better Trial gimmicks.

Score: 6/10

Case Logic

Nothing much happens in “Turnabout Countdown”, so for the most part the logic is pretty sound … looking past the maniacal courtroom bomber and the cast of wacky characters, of course.

The only thing off the top of my head is that this case is out of order chronologically, so even though Athena acts like a rookie she should’ve been through “Turnabout Academy” by this point. Same problem as Mia in “Turnabout Memories”, actually. I guess the Ace Attorney writers never learn.

Score: 6/10

Culprit

Ted Tonate is our culprit this time around, and I found him more annoying than the average tutorial culprit.

This bomb-defusal gimmick gets old fast, the way he talks is frustrating, and his trash-talking towards Wright should be funny but it comes across as kinda sad. One of the worst culprits in the series so far.

Score: 4/10

Charm

The new 3D models and soundtrack additions are a breath of fresh air, and there are some interesting teases for Apollo’s and Athena’s stories.

In terms of the case itself, however, “Turnabout Countdown” isn’t particularly charming. It’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but without the fresh coat of paint that came with Dual Destinies it would’ve scored above a five.

Score: 7/10

FINAL SCORE: 58/100

If it wasn’t for that perfect ten in the Soundtrack category and the general novelty of the 3D graphics, I would’ve been very bored by “Turnabout Countdown” and the score would’ve reflected that.

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