Great Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” (Case 1-2)

After successfully defending himself in Japanese court, Ryunosuke joins Kazuma and Susato on their trip to Great Britain. I’m sure nothing will go horribly wrong … the worst possible scenario would be if “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” didn’t have a Trial! How crazy would that be?!?

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:

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

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles – Every Case Ranked

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles – Every Major Character Ranked

Every Ace Attorney Culprit Ranked

Micro Story

When I said Ryunosuke “joined” Kazuma and Susato on the SS Burya’s trip to Great Britain, that was a half-truth. He was actually smuggled on board by his best friend Kazuma. As a result, he’s hidden inside a wardrobe during the ship’s voyage … and it makes this “stowaway” the initial prime suspect when a murder occurs in their cabin.

In one of the duology’s greatest shocks, you find Kazuma dead in the cabin. He was apparently murdered in a locked room mystery, which means that Ryunosuke – the man hiding in the cabin’s wardrobe – was surely the only person who could’ve done it.

There’s also a sub-plot of a Russian ballet dancer on the run, which of course ends up tying into the main murder plot. “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” certainly has that shock factor to begin with but the rest of the story slows down considerably.

As the events of the “Great Ace Attorney” duology unfold, we realise that the Micro Story doesn’t quite play out as we thought it did. But for the sake of this category I’ll keep it simple.

Score: 6/10

Macro Story

Little did we know it at the time, but “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” ended up being crucial to the duology’s overarching plot. Both Kazuma’s death itself and the repurcussions it had would come to define Ryunosuke and Susato’s journey.

Due to Kazuma’s untimely death, both Ryunosuke and Susato are thrust together (almost against their will). Their relationship is initially hostile and untrusting but they soon learn to live with each other. By the end of the case, Ryunosuke vows to take Kazuma’s place as the lawyer studying in Great Britain and Susato agrees to be his assistant. The main plot has finally begun after two meandering cases!

The other major addition to the overarching narrative is one of its most important characters, Herlock Sholmes. Yes, that’s supposed to be a legally distinct Sherlock Holmes. He’s immediately an erratic bundle of joy and he’ll soon evolve into a top three character in the entire series. His aloof and often wayward deductions could maybe be considered a “bad characterization” for literature’s most iconic detective, but I didn’t mind it – and it would be justified by the duology’s end.

Score: 8/10

Mystery

This case has one of the classic tropes of Mystery fiction – a locked room murder. The sliding lock isn’t necessarily a mind-blowing or particularly interesting solution, but I appreciate that it was an answer which made sense. I find that other locked room solutions sometimes go a bit overboard (looking at you, “Danganronpa”).

Due to the nature of the crime, I did wonder during my playthrough whether it was somehow an accident (i.e. Kazuma somehow tripped and fell of his own accord) … which was half right. It’s usually a bit anticlimactic when an Ace Attorney case’s resolution involves an accident in some form – I prefer my murders to be cold-hearted and deliberate.

My main complaint is that there just weren’t enough suspects to begin with. The best Ace Attorney Mysteries involve a large cast with lots of red herrings, but you only meet a handful of people during the Investigations. Neither Hosanaga nor Bif Stroganov seemed like killers, so that narrowed it down to Nikolina or a nameless sailor. I’m at least glad that the writers didn’t go down the latter route.

Score: 4/10

Side Characters

Due to the reduced scope of this case, the cast size is also quite small. There are two noteworthy Side Characters I want to talk about … and only one of them is completely new.

Detective Hosanaga returns for some reason, and he’s undercover yet again – this time as a sailor. It was nice to see a recognizable face during Investigations but he’s not on the same level as, say, a Dick Gumshoe. His astuteness / stiffness could be a bit of a buzzkill at points.

The other noteworthy character is Bif Stroganov – a meathead sailor with a heart of gold. I liked how much he cared about Nikolina but the lengths he was willing to go to for a relative stranger got a bit ridiculous. Oh, and his name is one of the most immersion-breaking puns the localization team have ever come up with.

And that’s it. The other character introduced is Sholmes, but I counted him towards the Macro Story score. Which means this score will be very Meh without him carrying the team.

Score: 5/10

Soundtrack

“The Adventure of the Great Departure” had a huge advantage in this category because it introduced a plethora of new songs. “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” has less new songs on offer, but it does introduce us to all the Investigation-based tracks.

“Investigation Opening”, “Investigation Core” and especially the “Dance of Deduction” are fantastic soundtrack additions, and I really like the slower version of Kazuma’s theme labelled “Nocturne”.

The rest of the songs, however – such as the ship’s theme or the “Reminiscences” – are pretty forgettable in the grand scheme of things.

Score: 8/10

Investigations

As this case is Investigations-only, you’d expect the Investigations in question to be some of the series’ best. They aren’t.

The only locations you visit are the cabin you wake up in, the neighboring cabin and their connecting corridor. What about the ship’s deck? Other passenger cabins? Why aren’t we going to interrogate the captain?!?

I have to give the Investigations in “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” some credit, however, as this was the first time we saw the best mechanic in any Ace Attorney game outside of courtroom – the Dance of Deduction. It’s such a great way of sprucing up the otherwise lacklustre Investigations, and I hope the mainline series does something similar moving forwards.

Score: 6/10

“Trial”

While playing “The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band” for the first time, I was trying to figure out how they could feasibly have a Trial segment on this ship. It seemed impossible … and I was right.

This case is now infamous for being Investigation-only, something we hadn’t seen in the series thus far (apart from the Edgeworth spin-offs, obviously). I imagine the writers did this because the following case would be Trial-only, but it hurts the pacing of the game considerably.

It’s not acceptable to have no Trial in an Ace Attorney case. That’s the main reason why we buy these games. I unfortunately have to give the lowest score possible as a punishment.

Score: 0/10

Case Logic

I have one major complaint about this case which will end up spoiling the whole duology, so brace yourself for that. For now, however, I want to look at a couple of the sillier plot holes / contrivances.

Sholmes popping in and out of rooms at will is funny … but this decision to prioritize comedy ends up confusing a lot of players. If this is supposed to be a locked room mystery, how is a character appearing and disappearing from the cabin? Is there another entrance we don’t know about? This ends up not being the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of players were thrown off.

The other smaller issue I have is to do with the ship-wide sleeping drug. The sailors conspire to drug all of the passengers in order to help Nikolina, but surely this plan was both extreme and highly-dependent on luck? What if someone ate a bit of their food but not enough of it? It’s a helluva stretch to suggest a group of sailors got the dosages all right – or a stockpile of an expensive drug to begin with.

Alright, now for the big one – Kazuma’s not dead. It’s revealed in the second game that Kazuma actually survived this ordeal on the SS Burya, albeit with amnesia after the hefty head blow. The can of worms this opens is monumental. How did neither Ryunosuke nor Susato realise that the body in front of them was still alive and breathing? How on earth did Sholmes manage to convince the detectives to drop the charges against Nikolina whilst also smuggling Kazuma’s “body” off the ship?

The more you think about it, the less it works. I’d bet my bottom dollar that Shu Takumi had fully intended for Kazuma to die here, but retconned it in the second game. It was ultimately a worthwhile writing decision but it makes this initial case stick out like a sore thumb.

Score: 4/10

Culprit

I brought up the spoilers surrounding Kazuma’s death during the previous category, so I’ll continue to talk about them here. It’s hard, after all, to talk about a “Culprit” who didn’t actually kill anyone, but I’ll do my best.

Nikolina is a ballet dancer on the run, and in her desperation to remain hidden she ends up shoving and ultimately killing an innocent man. At least, that’s what we’re supposed to think by the end of the case (and I imagine that’s what the writers had in mind, as they hadn’t written the second game yet).

I get what they were going for. Nikolina is a victim of happenstance and her crime is an accidental tragedy … but at the same time, nobody died? So why should I care? You’re a pretty rubbish Ace Attorney Culprit if you can’t even kill your victim.

Score: 5/10

Charm

If it wasn’t for Sholmes – his general aloofness, the humour he injects and his new Dance of Deduction mechanic – I might’ve dropped “The Great Ace Attorney” during this case. That’s how slow and uninspired it is.

Investigations are almost always the worst part of an Ace Attorney case, so the decision to make an entire case be Investigation-only is baffling. It results in some very stale gameplay, but at least it acts as a bridge to the better cases to come.

Score: 4/10

FINAL SCORE: 50/100

This is one of the lowest scores I’ve given to an Ace Attorney case, which makes sense. Having no Trial really hurt this case’s prospects – it’s on the fringe of being Bad and is only saved by Sholmes. At least it’s all uphill from here.

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