Great Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” (Case 1-5)

It’s mid-point finale time!

The Great Ace Attorney duology is two games in one, and “The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” is the last case of that first game. It doesn’t really feel like a finale as a result … but it was still lots of fun, so I’m not complaining.

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)

Great Ace Attorney Deep Dive: “The Adventure of the Runaway Room” (Case 1-3)

EVERY Ace Attorney Case Ranked

Every “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” Area Ranked

Micro Story

The main plot of “The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” revolves around Windibank’s Pawnbrokery – temporary storage place of Holmes’s viola, Iris’s secret manuscript, some peculiar music discs … and murder!

The plot kickstarts when a team of thieves descend upon the Pawnbrokery, shooting both Holmes and the owner Pop Windibank. Only one of those men die, however. I guess Holmes is just built different.

As if the theft, murder and attempted murder weren’t enough, the poor street urchin Gina – who we met in the McGilded case – is wrongly suspected of the crime. It’s down to Ryunosuke to both save Gina as well as shed some light on what happened in that omnibus case.

There’s also another main plot throughout all of this – an international conspiracy which will rock the British court to its core. What is that conspiracy, you may ask? Well, we don’t know. We aren’t given all the details just yet, so we’ll have to wait for the second game to get the full picture.

The stakes are high but not outrageous, which I can appreciate for this “finale” case.

Score: 9/10

Macro Story

As this is a “finale” case, you can be sure that the Macro Story has something to say – both the overarching plots and the main characters fire on (almost) all cylinders.

All of the ties back to the McGilded Trial gives this game a sense of interconnectivity which I love, and the international conspiracy will be resolved in … well, “Resolve”. Iris’s manuscript, which has something to do with the “Baskervilles”, will also be more important in the future. I would’ve liked it more if the focus of this case was on itself rather than the past and future, but I loved having these loose threads to follow in the next game.

The main characters also get some major development. Gina becomes much more sympathetic and likeable as the defendant, Gregson is harboring a dirty secret, Iris shines as the temporary sidekick, Sholmes saves the day with his blood analysis and caramel (that makes sense in context, trust me!) and van Zieks farms some major aura by going against Scotland Yard’s demands in order to pursue the truth.

One main character who gets swept under the rug, sadly, is Susato. She’s told by Stronghart that she needs to return to Japan on account of her father falling ill, and that means she isn’t your court assistant for this case. While I do appreciate the growth that Ryunosuke has to endure as a result, it’s a shame to have such an important character missing from a good chunk of the finale case.

In summary – the overarching plots are fantastic but they steal the spotlight from this case, and the main characters are all fantastic but Susato loses out as a result.

Score: 9/10

Mystery

No prizes for guessing who the Culprit is this time around. There’s one character who turns up and is the most suspicious person by far – and lo and behold they end up being the killer. So the Mystery falls flat in that regard.

Though the Culprit may be obvious, the motive behind and the context surrounding the murder are complex and intriguing. The more you learn about the international conspiracy, and the more you realize how compromised Scotland Yard is, the more thrilling the Trial becomes. I was on the edge of my seat trying to work out how the Culprit, McGilded and Windibank’s Pawnbrokery were all connected.

There’s also a mysterious manuscript in play, written by Iris and hunted by Gina. It supposedly has something to do with “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, a case Sholmes worked on – it’s a smart idea to reference a real Sherlock Holmes story, because fans of the Great Detective like myself were on edge as soon as it was mentioned.

As I said in the Macro Story section, however, this Baskerville plotline won’t get fully resolved until the next game – the climactic part of the climactic Trial, in fact. It’s a fun tease, but I would’ve liked to have seen more answers here.

Score: 8/10

Side Characters

There were four new side characters by my count – three plus the jury. That’s not as many as I was expecting, but I suppose it’s the main characters who do most of the heavy lifting in this case.

This jury is definitely my favourite one so far. John Garrideb and the maid from the McGilded case return, the forgetful and hilarious old man is now a surgeon, the escaped Russian revolutionary from the second case is back for some reason, and the stereoscope man and morse code woman are a huge help in the Trial. No matter how heavy and conspiratorial this Trial got, the six jurors grounded it with insights and humour.

“The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” also marks a rare case where we get to spend time with a victim before their demise. Pop Windibank is the eccentric owner of Windibank’s Pawnbrokery, and his defining character trait is that he keeps putting a loaded gun to his head. Funny and shocking the first time, but each subsequent threat – and, in hindsight, the first one too – isn’t as funny.

The stars of the show are without a doubt Nash and Ringo Skulkin, known as the formidable “Skulkin Brothers”. Any character design of tall-thin and short-fat is always a winning combo, and these two goofballs add some much needed levity to courtroom proceedings. Whenever they tried to recruit Gregson or Graydon as the third Skulkin Brother I always had a big, beaming smile on my face.

Score: 8/10

Soundtrack

There weren’t that many new Soundtrack additions which stuck out to me, but the returning music also made its mark.

My favourites of the new tracks were “Adjudication”, “Reminiscence – An Ashen Waltz” and the credits song “Curtain Call Suite”. Great stuff all round.

Score: 8/10

Investigations

I’m of two minds when it comes to this case’s Investigations. For this Deep Dive series I look at all the non-Trial sections – pre-murder and post-murder – as the “Investigations”. The problem with this case is that the pre-murder is incredible … but the post-murder, the actual Investigation, was a bit bland.

Windibank’s Pawnbrokery is the location of the vast majority of the Investigations, and it makes a great first impression. The details are all vibrant and the shop feels lived-in. There’s even a fun dance of deduction all about “Eggert Benedict” and his supposed heist. Chaos quickly unfolds with the theft and the shootings, and the whole time you’re wondering how the hell Gina even knows about Iris’s manuscript hidden in the back room. Scintillating stuff.

The excitement quickly takes a nosedive, however, because there’s not much variation in the actual Investigations. You explore Windibank’s main shop area as well as the back room. That’s pretty much it. To make matters worse, there’s no dance of deduction once the real Investigations begin because Sholmes is recovering in hospital. Those were by far the best parts of this game’s Investigations!

It’s not all duds, in fairness, because these Investigations are where Gina finally sheds some light on the McGilded case. It’s nice to have a lingering plot thread resolved, and I’ll admit I was very excited to get the Trial underway.

Score: 8/10

Trial

“The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” has one of the best Trials of the Great Ace Attorney duology. Not a perfect Trial, but it was blood-pumping and revelatory.

The developers made use of the 3D interface with the stereoscope section, I love how van Zieks was constantly butting heads with Gregson and Scotland Yard over the secrecy of the discs, and Sholmes saves the day in one of the most euphoric moments of the duology. His plan to “interrupt” the cross examination is one of the smartest things a character does in these games. Even if leaving his hospital bed wasn’t so smart …

One of my favourite moments of testimony in any Ace Attorney game is when Gregson and Graydon conspire on the witness stand. You have to catch them in the act – unprompted – and even then they don’t tell the court the whole truth. It kept me on my toes for the rest of the Trial, because I never knew who was lying or who was partaking in underhand dealings right before my eyes.

It could get a little frustrating, however, when van Zieks and the court constantly undermined Sholmes’s blood analysis – something which would’ve been extremely helpful and saved a lot of arguments – and I did find myself missing Susato as the legal assistant. Oh, and I’m on the fence about the “cat-flapomat” being the climactic piece of evidence. On the one hand it’s a silly twist right at home in this series, but on the other hand it was almost too immersion-breaking.

On the whole, this was a fantastic Trial – one that wrapped up plotlines, introduced new ones and furthered every characters’ arcs.

Score: 9/10

Case Logic

This case has gotten some excellent scores across the board, but I’m afraid that trend won’t continue for its Case Logic. It has too many logical leaps for me to look past.

“The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” has one of the funniest plot holes in the series – because the designers didn’t make more character models for Gina, she has her gun with her in prison. It’s a hilarious oversight that this young street urchin was allowed to keep her weapon when she got put behind bars.

The jury is also a mess. There’s an escaped Russian revolutionary who was in all the papers and so should be recognizable to the public (and I thought it was only British citizens who were allowed to be summoned to jury duty?), and the fact there are stereoscope and morse code experts – two crucial techniques for this specific Trial – is one helluva convenience. Oh, and it’s quite the stretch to say that the morse code expert also knows Graydon personally from work and so recognises / names him.

And we’re also expected to look the other way when Sholmes invents a revolutionary blood analysis technique in Victorian Britain. And he can walk around mere hours after a serious gunshot wound, apparently. What a madlad.

Score: 6/10

Culprit

If nothing else, I have a huge respect for Ashley Graydon’s fake name – “Eggert Benedict”. It’s era-appropriate, it’s condescending and it’s very funny. Well done, Ace Attorney localization team.

From the moment Graydon walks in, you know he’s the killer. He strikes that perfect balance of pompous and bratty which makes him so easy to hate, and he doesn’t lose any of his villainous luster until well after he’s behind bars.

The most interesting thing about him is his backstory – specifically, his ties to the McGilded case. It turns out that it was Graydon’s father who was killed in the omnibus case, all because McGilded made Graydon some grand promises of vast riches. As a result, it was Graydon who burned McGilded alive in the omnibus as an act of revenge. It’s great to have closure on that lingering mystery.

Sadly, that does mean Graydon only ever comes across as a pawn – both in relation to McGilded and to the international conspiracy plot. While it’s fun to follow a tragic villain who got themselves in too deep in the criminal underworld, it does mean he’s not as intimidating as, say, the heads of the operation. They’ll get their comeuppance in the next game.

Score: 8/10

Charm

This was exactly the pick-me-up I needed after the underwhelming fourth case. “The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” has smart writing, high stakes and great character development for all the major players.

There’s a conspiracy for me to sink my teeth into, Sholmes being shot ups the stakes, Gina becomes a really endearing character during her time as defendant, and there’s plenty of humour to break up the drama.

Alongside “The Adventure of the Runaway Room”, this is far and away a highlight of the first Great Ace Attorney game.

Score: 9/10

FINAL SCORE: 82/100

This was a great mid-point finale to the duology – one that answers some important questions whilst also posing whole new ones. While it was a bit too “transitional” for a finale, it was still very enjoyable.

As is tradition whenever I review the finale case of an Ace Attorney game, here are the five cases’ scores from best to worst:

1 – The Adventure of the Runaway Room (Case 3) [83]

2 – The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story (Case 5) [82]

3 – The Adventure of the Great Departure (Case 1) [61]

4 – The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro (Case 4) [52]

5 – The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band (Case 2) [50]

The average score of 65.6 is one of the weakest of the series. People complain about the pacing of this first game, and rightfully so – there are only two worthwhile cases, and the other three are pretty forgettable. Still, it’s all worth it when you know what’s coming in the second game!

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