Great Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The Adventure of the Great Departure” (Case 1-1)

Not too long ago I finished my “Ace Attorney Deep Dive” series for the main entries, but recently I’ve found myself wanting to dive back into one of my favourite gaming franchises. I don’t think there’s a better duology to look at than the fantastic “Great Ace Attorney” spin-off games!

If you’re unfamiliar with my Deep Dives up until this point, I explain my grading system and the meaning behind the various categories in “The First Turnabout“. In a nutshell, I’ll be looking at the good and bad of each case … but it’s all for a bit of fun!

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:

Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The First Turnabout” (Phoenix Wright – Case 1)

EVERY Ace Attorney Case Ranked

Every Ace Attorney Culprit Ranked

Ace Attorney – Top 50 Tracks

Micro Story

The “Great Ace Attorney” games take place in the 19th Century, long before Phoenix, Maya and Edgeworth would ever meet. These two spin-off games follow Ryunosuke Naruhodo – an ancestor of Phoenix Wright and a budding defence attorney in his own right, this time directly from Japan and not … Japanifornia? Is that still the canon name nowadays?

At the start of “The Adventure of the Great Departure”, however, Ryunosuke doesn’t yet have dreams of becoming a great lawyer. His one and only goal for this case is the acquittal of the defendant. Who’s the defendant of the case, you may ask? None other than Ryunosuke himself. I’m surprised it took the series so long to have the protagonist defend themselves in an opening case!

Ryunosuke is framed for the murder of an English doctor – Dr. Wilson – and since a British man was murdered on Japanese soil (during an era of tense political peace) the government want to wrap the case up quickly and quietly behind closed doors. Basically, the odds are stacked against Ryunosuke before he even sets foot in the courtroom.

At the end of the day, this is just a tutorial case. The murder in the fancy restaurant makes for a decent setting with some funny evidence but it’s nothing crazy just yet. The fact that Ryunosuke defends himself in court gives this score an extra point or two.

Score: 7/10

Macro Story

For my Macro Story sections I always talk about either the overarching narrative or the main characters. Since the main plot in England hasn’t started yet (an omission which will hurt this category’s overall score), I’ll talk about the new cast and our first impressions of them.

I’ll start with the father-daughter duo Professor Mikotoba and Susato, as they’re the ones from the main cast who I thought were the least impressionable in this opening case. Professor Mikotoba presents as the classic mentor figure, but he’s sidelined pretty quickly by the other, more interesting mentor figure. He’s confident and clearly knowledgeable but we don’t know much else yet. As for his daughter Susato, her appearance is a mere cameo in this first case. It won’t be until the second case where we finally see her personality.

Surprisingly, the silver medalist for “characters I found most interesting” is our new protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo. He’s the classic fish-out-of-water attorney who flounders in his first real case. It’s a charming trope which always does the job … but I can’t say I found him and his nervous mannerisms engaging just yet.

But the clear stand-out in this first case is your courtroom assistant and your best friend, Kazuma Asogi. Kazuma is everything Ryunosuke wishes he could be – confident, well-spoken and confrontational when needed. Every time Kazuma speaks (and every time that glorious bandana flaps in the wind …) the courtroom hangs onto every word. I can’t wait to spend lots of time with him as our sidekick!

All in all, this was a solid albeit by-the-book introduction for our main cast. I would’ve liked an overarching narrative to sink my teeth into but I can also appreciate a story which takes its time setting up the foundations.

Score: 6/10

Mystery

“The Adventure of the Great Departure” is a rare first case where you aren’t told the Culprit and the means of murder outright … but it’s still fairly obvious.

The main Mystery here, like in all first cases, is how the Culprit managed to pull the crime off. I appreciate how it’s not immediately obvious how Dr. Wilson died, but it doesn’t take much thought to piece together the crime.

I hold nothing against first / tutorial cases for having a thin Mystery – they’re supposed to ease the player into the game’s style, after all. It just means that these first cases won’t score that highly across the board.

Score: 5/10

Side Characters

By my count, there were five new Side Characters in “The Adventure of the Great Departure” – far more than the average opening case. Which just goes to show how long and oftentimes bloated this case was.

My favourite of the side cast was also a character I was suspicious of for a long time – Detective Hosonaga. The court doesn’t realise he’s an undercover detective at first, of course, and I was very sus of all the translations he gave on behalf of Jezaille Brett (as well as the fact he concealed evidence … but more on that in a later section). His bloody lip ended up being a red herring, which is both a funny and an odd writing decision.

Two more witnesses take the stand in this case, which is a lot for an opening case, but luckily the writers decided to put Iyesa Nosa and Kyurio Korekuta on the stand at the same time. Iyesa is an army sargeant type who brings his baby to the court. Kyurio is an old man who steals stuff. Cool. Both of them are weird and ultimately forgettable.

It wouldn’t be an Ace Attorney opening case without a Payne on the prosecutor’s bench … except this prosecutor is an ancestor of the Paynes and he’s called Auchi. He acts exactly like the Paynes, which is to say he’s a pushover and he’s quite annoying. I like the running gag in this game and the next where he cuts his hair in shame. That’s all I remember about him, really.

And finally, for some reason, Judge Jigoku seems to know Professor Mikotoba personally. I’m sure that won’t be important later.

Score: 6/10

Soundtrack

The way I grade the Soundtrack sections in these Deep Dives is that I mostly take the case’s new songs into consideration, i.e. tracks which haven’t been played in the series before, whilst also appreciating the use of old tracks in hype moments. As “The Great Ace Attorney” is a new spin-off series with a fresh sound – an amazing, orchestral sound on a scale we’d never heard before – its first case will have a huge advantage in this category.

There are some great scene-setters with “Defendant’s Antechamber”and “Court Begins 2015”, some fantastic Trial songs like “Cross-Examination 2015”, “Suspense”, “Machinations and Deductions”, “Objection 2015”, “Confess the Truth” and “Complications in Proceedings”, and some amazing character themes for Kazuma, Susato and Jezaille Brett.

I can’t pick a favourite from them – there are too many flawless tracks. One of the easiest perfect scores I’ll ever give out.

Score: 10/10

“Investigation”

This category is always a weird one to do for first cases. There obviously aren’t any Investigation segments in an intro / tutorial case, so a wiser man would probably swap this category out temporarily for something else … but I’m a stubborn guy. And I’d also argue that a “full” Ace Attorney case should boast the complete Investigation-Trial experience (and therefore these Trial-only cases get points docked for their one-dimensional gameplay).

My workaround for opening cases is to treat the locations as the “Investigation”, and since this is the first case of a spin-off game there are plenty of new Japanese court backgrounds to enjoy. Yippee. At least they’re more interesting than their Japanifornia counterparts.

The fancy restaurant is also a solid location for a murder to take place, but it’s hardly anything inspiring. Sorry, “The Adventure of the Great Departure”. Your status as an intro case will hinder your chances of ever getting a perfect score … not that it was likely in the first place.

Score: 3/10

Trial

I’d say “The Adventure of the Great Departure” is a decent first case – at the very least, it does everything it needs to do – apart from one glaring issue. It’s far too long.

I mentioned it briefly in the Side Characters section but there are just too many witnesses to get through and too many filler testimonies. This case is our first taste of the multiple witnesses mechanics (which I’ve sometimes seen called the “Witness Reactions” mechanic) where you can press a witness who reacts to someone else’s statement, which is interesting but not nearly as interesting as the developers thought. It certainly isn’t engaging enough to carry this case on its own.

The best parts about this Trial are the main cast and the eventual Culprit breakdown, but these fun moments are scarce in a stretched runtime. Cut out the beefsteak fiasco or the Iyeso / Kyurio testimonies and you’d get a much more streamlined introductory Trial.

Score: 5/10

Case Logic

First cases hardly ever stumble in the Case Logic department as there’s usually not enough time for the plot to have many holes. But since “The Adventure of the Great Departure” is twice as long as the average opening case, that gives it twice as much time to make mistakes.

A couple of contrivances I can look past are Ryunosuke picking up the murder weapon like an idiot (it’s a trope I don’t like … but I imagine it could happen in real life if somebody was really stressed) and Dr. Wilson conveniently getting a tooth extraction before his meal. That being said, it’s quite funny how someone’s dental note is what gets the Culprit caught.

There are two plot points which genuinely irk me, however. The first is the fact that Jezaille Brett can destroy crucial evidence in the courtroom – in broad daylight – and almost get away with it. That’s got to be illegal in its own right, surely? And also, I still don’t understand why Hosanaga didn’t submit the beefsteak evidence straight away. It would’ve made the case far simpler if we’d had that from the start – it’s a lazy writing choice which drags the case on for far longer than needed.

“The Adventure of the Great Departure” isn’t the tightest case in the series by any means, but these logic pitfalls lean more towards nitpicks than outright plot holes.

Score: 6/10

Culprit

Excluding Kristoph Gavin (who’s a bit of an anomaly), first case Culprits have one very simple job – be as detestable as possible in as short an amount of time as possible so that their inevitable takedown is a fun indicator of the Trials to come. I think Jezaille Brett succeeds in this premise.

The writers embody the posh, racist aristocrat of the era in a cliché yet evocative way. It’s the little things like her treatment of the court and how she pretends not to speak Japanese at first which slowly turn you against her.

Though her murder motive won’t be fully explored until the second game, the murder itself is a little boring. I wasn’t expecting huge things from an opening case but the restaurant murder is quite mundane by Ace Attorney standards.

Also, it would be remiss of me not to mention Brett’s amazing breakdown – her hat turns out to be a living swan and she flies away. Perfect. No notes.

Score: 7/10

Charm

To be honest, I could see why someone – especially a new player of the series – might drop this game after the first case. The Trial goes on for far too long and it doesn’t do anything shocking or exciting.

On top of that, there’s no real hook for series veterans, either. The main story doesn’t get started until either the second or third case (depending on what you think the “inciting incident” is) and there are no new mechanics aside from the multiple witnesses gimmick. I remember thinking to myself, “Is this all this game’s gonna be? How is this game distinct from the rest of the series?” – a question which won’t be answered for a case or two.

The main Charm of the case definitely comes from its crop of core characters. They’re all either intriguing or somewhat likeable, and it’s fun to see Ryunosuke become more confident as the Trial goes on. And Jezaille Brett’s breakdown is the icing on the cake.

Score: 6/10

FINAL SCORE: 61/100

A perfect ten for the Soundtrack category definitely helped this case’s overall score. “The Adventure of the Great Departure” is pretty average as opening cases go, but it leans towards sub-par as the Trial drags on. Luckily, this is one of the weakest cases of the duology … alongside its follow-up.

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