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

It’s time for the second game in the Great Ace Attorney duology – “Resolve”! I, like many other Ace Attorney fans, consider this to be one of the series’ masterpieces … but let’s take it one case at a time and start with the first case, “The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney”.

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 Major Character Ranked

Danganronpa – Every Chapter Ranked

Which Zero Escape Game Is Best?

Micro Story

“The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney” takes us back to Japan, where Susato is currently residing. She was summoned back to Japan during the events of “The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story” … but we aren’t initially told why she was forced to return. At least, not the specifics.

Before she can go back to Great Britain, however, a good friend of hers is suspected of murder. With her newfound legal experience, Susato – under the guise of “Ryutaro Naruhodo” – vows to defend her friend in court. If you can see the parallels to the very first case with Kazuma and Ryunosuke, then gold star for you!

There are a couple of spanners in the work, however. First of all, female lawyers simply weren’t permitted back then, which is why Susato is posing as the male “Ryutaro”. It adds an element of tension to the Trial, as she both has to get the Not Guilty verdict and protect her identity from the sexist court.

But the much more shocking twist comes right at the start when it’s revealed that Jezaille Brett – the Culprit of the previous game’s first case – is the one to have been murdered. I can only think of one other case (in the “Investigations” spin-offs) when a previous Culprit has returned as the victim. Cool!

This plot has a solid hook, decent tension, and above all else it’s a perfectly fine start to an Ace Attorney game.

Score: 7/10

Macro Story

Normally, a first case’s Macro Story is either disconnected from the rest of the game or it’ll have subtle hints / plot threads to be explored later. In “The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney”, however, the Japanese-British conspiracy is laid front and centre – and there are plot developments here which will be crucial in the cases to come.

The main meat of the case has to do with Jezaille Brett – specifically the conspiracy surrounding why she was allowed to (almost) walk free. Menimemo nearly spills the beans about Brett and Kazuma after the Trial but Judge Jigoku shuts him up quickly. Oh yeah, Seishiro Jigoku is going to become very important moving fowards. I’m glad the writers laid the groundwork here.

Elsewhere, we have the lingering mystery of why Mikotoba forced Susato to return home early, and apparently this is Soseki’s third time in court. “But haven’t we only seen him twice?” I asked myself on my first playthrough. Oh sweet, innocent Matt. All of your questions will be answered in due time.

The Macro Story section also pertains to the main characters, and Susato is obviously the star of the show this time. She gets the chance to stand on her own two feet, and she uses all of the lessons from Ryunosuke and her father to give a confident court performance. Cool. So do we ever see this confident lawyer persona for Susato again? Nope. It gets dropped once she goes back to Great Britain and she assumes the guise of the helpful yet secondary assistant once again. If there’s ever a third game, I’d want Susato to conduct another Trial of her own.

This is also the first time an Ace Attorney first case doesn’t feature the protagonist, I think? Even when Mia took charge in “Turnabout Memories” Phoenix was the defendant. I’m not saying that Ryunosuke had to be there … but his absence is felt.

Score: 8/10

Mystery

Neither of the opening cases in the Great Ace Attorney duology spoil who the Culprit is in the first cutscene – a storytelling direction I’m glad this series has taken. What’s even better is that the Culprit this time around is slightly harder to sus out.

After the Culprit becomes a shoe-in, the main crux of this case’s Mystery is how the victim was killed. At first you think Brett was stabbed, but it’s soon revealed that an experimental new poison is in play. So what came first – the stabbing or the poisoning?

It’s an intriguing question which spans pretty much the whole Trial, and the obvious question then becomes how the poison was administered. These all have easy answers, but I appreciated the effort in making a tutorial case that wasn’t a push-over.

Score: 6/10

Side Characters

As we’re in the Japanese courtroom rather than the British one, that means I won’t have to talk about the six random members of a jury. That being said, I still have four Side Characters I want to talk about … even if only one of them is new.

If you read my “The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro” review, then you can imagine my heart sank when Soseki Natsume returned. He’s not too bad here, mainly because you don’t spend long with him, but I still maintain that he’s an overstimulated eyesore. Him getting harassed mid-Trial by Menimemo is admittedly quite funny.

Another returning character on the witness stand is detective Satoru Hosanaga, and I was much happier to see him cameo than Soseki. He sadly doesn’t get much to do, but his beach outfit and turtle hat got a chuckle out of me.

And of course, since we’re back in the Japanese courtroom, Prosecutor Auchi is our legal opponent. I’ve never liked the Auchis or the Paynes. They’re designed to be pitiful and annoying, and in that regard they succeed with flying colours. The scene where he cuts off his hair is his highlight from the duology.

The only new character is Rei Membani, the defendant of this case. She was one of Professor Wilson’s students (which gives her valid reason to kill Brett, Wilson’s murderer) and she’s apparently one of Susato’s best friends. Sure. She was never mentioned before, but I’ll roll with it. The worst part about Rei’s character is her wasted potential – she never comes back after this case, and her blossoming feelings for Susato never get explored. Presumably because Japan weren’t allowed to put queer representation in their games a decade ago.

So yeah. This cast had some funny individual moments, but none of them came close to shining.

Score: 6/10

Soundtrack

When listening through the second game’s entire OST, I was stunned by how few new songs there were in this (and the following) case. It seems the developers saved their Soundtrack budget for the third case onwards.

This means that the vast majority of songs are reused from the first game. I didn’t mind, because the first game’s Soundtrack was so good, but for this category I tend to give a score based on the new tracks.

The couple that stood out to me were “Ryutaro Naruhodo – Objection! 2017” and Menimemo’s theme … but neither of those stand out compared to other incredible songs this series has to offer.

Score: 6/10

“Investigations”

As this is an opening / tutorial case, there are no Investigations. So this score isn’t going to be high.

To make matters worse, I normally default to the locations / backdrops in lieu of any Investigation … but we’ve already seen the Japanese courtroom before. I guess a beach – the crime scene – is a unique setting for Ace Attorney. That’ll be worth a couple of bonus points, if anything.

Score: 4/10

Trial

The highest praise I can give this Trial is that it’s more concise and more memorable than “The Adventure of the Great Departure”.

This Trial about a stabbing soon evolves into a Trial about a poisoning, and there are plenty of questions to unpack. How was the poison stolen? How was it administered? Why did the real Culprit have it out for Brett so much?

There are also lots of fun smaller moments, like Auchi cutting off his hair or the “Ryutaro Takedown”. On the whole, it’s a solid Trial to kickstart the game. A noticeable improvement from the first game’s opening case.

Score: 7/10

Case Logic

I assumed that the fact this is a short case meant I wouldn’t have much to talk about in the Case Logic section. I was wrong.

First off, let’s start with some positives. These “tutorial” cases are always tricky to justify in-universe, especially when it’s a sequel to an established protagonist (looking at you, “The Lost Turnabout …), but having Susato be the first-time lawyer means that the various tutorials are justified. Also, I like how one of the contradictions involves spotting the emblem on Menimemo’s armband. It’s a good tease for the next case when the player will have to spot that Olive Green is wearing the key – in other words, I like how the game is training the player to look at the character models for evidence.

Both of my main issues to do with this case have to do with the murder itself. To start with, I found it lazy when the writers made a “miracle, untraceable poison!” their murder weapon. It’s too simple and convenient. The poison becomes much more tangible later in the case once the police work out how to analyze it, but for a lot of this whodunnit’s runtime you have to deal with a make-belief problem you literally can’t solve. I don’t think that makes for good writing.

But the plot point that really grinds my gears is when Menimemo pleads to stabbing “the dead body”. Once it’s revealed that Brett died of poisoning, Menimemo tries to convince everyone that he’s free of all blame … because he stabbed the corpse after it was already dead. I’m sorry, WHAT? In what universe would that not be a crime in itself – either attempted murder (because he “didn’t know” Brett was poisoned) or desecration of a body? How was Menimemo going to walk away from this courtroom scot-free? The legal system in these games is always baffling, but sometimes it’s painfully wrong.

The stabbing then poisoning plot was interesting on paper, but I think it ended up doing more harm than good. It was perhaps too convoluted for a first case – where the runtime isn’t long enough to flesh everything out.

Score: 5/10

Culprit

The Culprit of this case is Raiten Menimemo, a field reporter who uses his “Menimemoisms” to get the scoop.

He’s actually quite a unique first Culprit because he doesn’t come out of nowhere at the mid-point. Across the first half of the Trial, Soseki gets harassed by a reporter in the background – and as it turns out, this reporter ends up being very important. I assumed it was a throwaway joke on my first playthrough. Well played, Great Ace Attorney.

I find Menimemo to be a hard Culprit to review … because we don’t learn all that much about him in the short time we see him. He has a strong sense of justice, that much is clear, and it’s apparently enough to justify a murder. Not a bad motive (especially when we, the player, know Brett deserved it), but not a particularly personal or fleshed-out one either.

The most interesting thing he does happens after the Trial has concluded, when he teases the Japanese-British cover-up of Brett and Kazuma. Unfortunately, since he disappears from the narrative after this, it’s easy to forget about him. We never know how he came across this top secret information to begin with, but to be fair it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

So yeah. Menimemo is a tricky Culprit to place. His quick and easy motive worked for this opening case, and his heightened / loud persona made him a worthwhile tutorial Culprit, but he’s just not that memorable in the long run.

Score: 6/10

Charm

If nothing else, an opening case of an Ace Attorney game should be charming. It might be the player’s first ever Ace Attorney case (it would be weird in this particular instance, but it’s a possibility) and so it needs to make a harmless, entertaining first impression.

I think “The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney” clears this bar. It’s wacky in all the ways it needs to be, but it lays the groundwork for the more serious narratives to come.

I for one was blown away when a previous case’s Culprit was revealed to be the victim here, and there are lots of individual moments – like Auchi’s impromptu haircut and the Ryutaro Takedown – which put a smile on my face. Long story short, I enjoyed this opening case far more than the previous game’s.

Score: 7/10

FINAL SCORE: 62/100

That final score puts this case about on par with “The Adventure of the Great Departure”, which I think isn’t true. That case’s perfect ten for the Soundtrack did some heavy lifting. Don’t let this middling score fool you – “The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney” is an enjoyable case, let down mainly by the fact it’s a first case.

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