Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The Monstrous Turnabout” (Dual Destinies – Case 2)

Case 2 of Dual Destinies – “The Monstrous Turnabout” – takes us back in time chronologically to when Apollo first met Athena. Their meeting, however, comes in the middle of a small town locked room murder mystery investigation … because of course it does.

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!

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Micro Story

The alderman of Nine Tails Vale and mayor of Tenma Town meet up in private to discuss a possible merger between towns, except the alderman turns up dead in a locked room mystery.

This murder comes in the middle of an annual Nine Tails Vale festival that honours some of the famous yokai of Tenma and Nine Tails lore. The catch? The villagers all think it was Tenma Taro, a fearsome yokai, who killed the beloved alderman.

The police point the finger to the only other man in the locked room, however – Damien Tenma. There’s also a subplot about pro wrestlers if that tickles anyone’s pickle. In all honesty, the yokai and wrestling stuff was lost on me by the end … but a locked room mystery is always welcome!

Score: 6/10

Macro Story

If we’re talking about Dual Destinies’ Macro Story in terms of overarching plot, I’m disappointed to say the “Dark age of the law” subplot doesn’t yet have its footing. The new major characters, however, make an immediate impression.

Bobby Fulbright is this game’s version of Dick Gumshoe, and while Fulbright could never fill the gigantic shadow left behind by everyone’s favourite goofball he certainly brings a loveable persona to the table. He’s a headstrong airhead with a laser-focus on justice, and his big personality is a welcome addition.

But by far the best addition to the cast is the new prosecutor, Simon Blackquill – the twisted, incarcerated samurai-wannabe. Everything from his condescending attitude to his bird / blade outbursts are so much fun, and it’s amazing to see him take command of the courtroom and the Judge in particular.

Score: 7/10

Mystery

I’ll cut to the chase – Florent L’Belle is revealed to be the killer in the opening cutscene. The last time a Case 2 did that was with Redd White in “Turnabout Sisters”. Needless to say, the Mystery score will take a hefty knock as a result.

The characters also know it’s L’Belle before the final Trial, so I can’t even say the protagonists are experiencing the Mystery in the player’s place. The only thing working in this category’s favour is the Forbidden Chamber, which is a locked room inside a locked room. How exciting.

Score: 4/10

Side Characters

There are three new Side Characters in “The Monstrous Turnabout”. Four if you count Trucy, who gets sidelined for this case and game.

Phineas Filch is the pilfering groundskeeper who steals everyone’s belongings. His thievery can get a little annoying, but it’s not overbearing. The backstory of his grandfather being a master thief was a nice touch, I’ll give the writers that.

Damien Tenma is one of the weirdest defendants in the series, and his daughter Jinxie Tenma is one of the strangest suspects. The former is a secret pro wrestler who poses as a yokai to throw people off, whilst the latter is a drowsy, ditsy, yokai-hating girl with annoying tendencies. Quite the father-daughter pairing.

On the one hand, “The Monstrous Turnabout” has one of the weakest casts yet with characters I don’t care for at all. On the other, they don’t make an impression – in other words, they’re not so offensive that I remember them for the wrong reasons (looking at you, cast of “Turnabout Big Top”).

Score: 5/10

Soundtrack

I gave the first case of Dual Destinies a perfect ten in the Soundtrack category for all the new updates and additions. “The Monstrous Turnabout” can’t ride that high, however, so the score drops off slightly.

The new Investigation themes are nice, and Fulbright and Blackquill get some fun songs too, but none of them are truly stand-out. The best new track is a bit of a wildcard – the Thought Route theme “Synaptic Resonance” is hectic as heck, and I love how dramatic it makes those particular courtroom segments.

Score: 7/10

Investigations

Whoa, look at that! The Investigations are now in 3D! Whoa, you can move around a 3D space and interact with objects on multiple 2D planes instead of just one! Isn’t that such a technological improvement!?!

The sheen of the 3D Investigations gets old fast, and the places we explore – like foyers and hallways – are all very boring (other than the Forbidden Chamber, which looks dope).

There’s a brief puzzle minigame during the second Investigation where Apollo and Athena unlock the Forbidden Chamber, but it’s easy and passes by in a flash.

Score: 5/10

Trials

In all honesty, nothing really happens in the first Trial. It’s more of a showcase of Blackquill’s personality, and the scenes were he escapes his shackles and suddenly gets shocked were highlights.

Things pick up in the second and final Trial, where twists pile upon twists: Tenma Taro is a treasure, Mayor Tenma was the Amazing Nine Tails, Filch dressed up as a yokai, and L’Belle staged the whole thing. This is also the first time we see the Thought Route minigame – one of my favourite Trial gimmicks in the series.

Twists aside, these were some pretty boring Trials in the grand scheme of things.

Score: 6/10

Case Logic

This is an Ace Attorney case at the end of the day, so I shouldn’t be surprised that a yokai was allowed to testify. Or that an incarcerated man was allowed to take the prosecutor’s bench and wave his katana in the courtroom. Or that his bird was allowed to terrorize witnesses and lawmen alike.

One genuine pitfall of the Case Logic in “The Monstrous Turnabout” is Florent L’Belle’s scheme. It’s way too convoluted for its own good, involving bringing down two mayors simultaneously while dressing up as one to fool a witness and stealing a hidden treasure amidst the chaos. Just steal the treasure, dude. If Filch can find a way into the Forbidden Chamber, so can you.

Score: 6/10

Culprit

We know Florent L’Belle is the killer from the opening cutscene, and he acts like a douche across the whole case. No prizes for guessing who the Culprit is this time.

He has an annoying, condenscending personality and an overly-complicated scheme, but at least his motive of “stealing a valuable treasure” is more to-the-point than many motives in the series.

His breakdown is pretty entertaining, too.

Score: 5/10

Charm

Florent L’Belle isn’t a charming killer, and the yokai / wrestling subplots are completely lost on me, but “The Monstrous Turnabout” is nowhere near the travesty I remember it as.

The new 3D investigations are interesting albeit hardly worth writing home about, and Simon Blackquill makes a great first impression in the courtroom.

… But around halfway through I stopped playing this case for about a month whilst revisiting it for this retrospective, which goes to show how engrossing it actually is.

Score: 5/10

FINAL SCORE: 56/100

I used to rank “The Monstrous Turnabout” as my second least favourite case behind “Turnabout Big Top” – while it is still forgettable, it had more merits than I gave it credit for. Maybe if I ever rank the Ace Attorney cases again it’ll escape the bottom five worst cases. Maybe.

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