In case 5, if you examine near the traffic cones in the first investigation area, you can see Phoenix and Maya peering up at the Big Tower. Edgeworth doesn't call attention to them, though.

If I recall correctly, Penny appears in this case. What is she like? Is there any notable differences between her past and present self?

seeing as De Killer makes a comeback.. is there any mention of Matt Engarde? Whether he's alive or dead?

I'm a little confused about the SS-5 Incident. What exactly happened?

Penny is pretty much the same from what I remember of her. Her speech bubble, rather than having her name, just says "staff," like in the first game.

I'm right the point where Edgeworth chesses Mikagami into admitting that Shimon is her...son?? I'm not sure that math works out, lol.

What was Souta arguing about in his first testimony?

What kind of role is Will Powers playing in this Moozilla production? Given his previous bad luck in acting roles I'm going to guess he's playing the monster itself but I just wanted to make sure.

first he testifies about the balloon, he says he was flying the balloon around big tower for publicity a few days ago and then that he carried it around in the blue truck, Edgeworth had seen presented the truck because he had seen it that day parked in front of the tower, then Lang and Skye come with the balloon, which indeed was in the truck; Souta then asks for evidence it was there, so to prove it, he presented his own fingerprints because he touched the truck, thereby proving the truck was there that day
a balloon was spotted when Kay was kidnapped, then a blue truck when Shimon got kidnapped, and to tie these together he presented the hypnotic, both of them were drugged (the bottle being in the warehouse refrigerator and traces on Faraday's clohtes)
still needing more evidence to prove the identity of the mastermind, so he presented the paper chess communication - the mastermind served as a mediator in the chess between Naito and Ryoken and he was making his own secret moves; but there was no evidence, until Mirika interjected - that morning came a letter addressed to the circus (for Souta) from Manosuke, although he was already dead, it was sent on March 26, so the day before he died (letters often arrive late at the circus) - the letter was to be translated to braille and sent to Ryoken
so Souta was also behind the killing of Naito, Kay said she thought they were childhood friends so he talks about their relationships, said how he thought he was his friend until 18 years ago, he mentions how he was supposed to help his father with the taste but Naito (by his father's instruction) bound him and pushed him into a car where they almost froze to death, and that he lost his father (Isaku, the victim of IS7) because of it, being killed by Naito's father
Edgeworth realizes that there was a mistake - he presents the evidence that would show who Isaku's real son was - Naito's belongings; among them there was a ring marked "PH" - Paul Holic, Isaku's real name, and the ring was returned the original family after the incident - that being Manosuke - and the whole time he was wearing this ring
Souta was shocked by the truth, he says how he didn't want to be a weak person to get killed like his father and wanted to be like Ryoken, yet his father was actually the murderer... but then he just laughs it off and finally admits that indeed, he was the mastermind
he says how he witnessed the incident 12 years ago at the orphanage, how he was ever thereafter interrogated by Mari, he had to bear the harsh every day, until he eventually escaped and became a circus performer, he says how everything was manipulated, how the fake got to rule Zheng Fa, and Mari, the only suspect got away scot-free because of Bansai and the same would happene in court again that day, so he kidnapped Shimon to intimidate Mikagami, trying to get Mari pronounced guilty (but Bansai did the same and itimidated Mikagami to do otherwise, although his underlings kidnapped the wrong boy, Yumihiko), then how he manipulated Kagome with the letters, knowing that Bansai would kill her and then had Kay accused knowing that it would lead back to Bansai, also he says he suggested the assassination plan to Naito, which then got him into prison, and finally in there, he created a connection between Naito and Ryoken, knowing that it would get him killed (he put Ryoken's chisel into the chessboard, which then Marie foun) and Mari would get arrested
however,he concludes that he himself never killed anyone, and there's no evidence that ties him to the murder (cue second testimony)

SS-5 incident, as known to the public, refers to how the president of Zheng Fa got kidnapped, the kidnappers wanted 100 billion yen, they got it and the president got back unharmed and the death of a reporter who was at the place
however,in reality the president just went to the orphanage(same as the one where Souta was) to see a woman who worked there,Shimon's mother - him being the father, he wanted to see him and brought him a Borumosu doll (the first movie came out that year), the president's body double and his underlings, Bansai (a prosecutor) and Mari (the director of the orphanage at the time) knew about this, so they installed a listening device in the doll and hired an assassin (Ryoken) to kill the real president, who was supposed to be at the Zheng Fa embassy, so he had the double there instead (who then staged his own kidnapping)
real president got killed in front of the orphanage(never got to see his waifu, begged Ryoken to see his son at least but he just cut him up), then they wanted to betray Ryoken too but Souta saved him and lead him to safety (because Ryoken saved him in the freezing car back then in IS7), the double came to the orphanage himself as part of the 'kidnapping', there they removed the real president's body, some of the tracks were erased by the fire lit by Souta and a reporter witnessed the scene so Bansai hit his head from behind with a brick, then they placed his corpse where the president died (and gave him his shoes which were a number too big, but hey,can't have everything, right?), and they erased all the photos in his camera and Mari made a fake one from a different angle whith the double and Bansai in the trenchcoat pointing a gun at him, to take away suspicion that the kidnapping had something to do with the orphanage, and finally the double would pretend to be the real president, being released after the kidnappers got the money
later the casea was investigated by Lang's father (or grandfather, I don't remember), he knew there was something fishy about it and he found Souta's drawing of the incident
the only suspect was Mari but Bansai was the prosecutor in the charge of the case, he manipulated the president's blood with the reporter's, Mari got acquited and Bansai blamed Lang for it
so as a result the body double now was the president of a country, Mari became the director of the prison and jail and all three of them got lots of dosh from the kidnapping; on the other side Souta sworn that he would take revenge for what they did, he followed Ryoken's footsteps and the Lang name got ruined (oh and Tsubasa Kagome got suspicios of Bansai because the reported got bricked right in the middle of leaving a message to her recorder, he didn't know that the president got killed but he told her Bansai was involved in the kidnapping)

During the confrontation against Souta, there was a flashback with Souta talking to Naitou during his time in jail. What was that conversation about?

Manosuke thanks Souta for visiting him, showing that he thought the two of them were still friends (and was wrong...!). Souta told him that he put something "special" in the chess case he brought, which turns out to be the chisel that gets Manosuke killed.

The credits don't offer anything you couldn't have guessed... Lotta and Mikiko talk about going after their next big scoop, de Killer decides to keep selling ice cream between jobs, Yumihiko ponders a new nickname now that he's over his "first class" phase, etc. Then, back in Edgeworth's office, Edgeworth thinks some more about continuing as a prosecutor. Kay admits that after seeing Edgeworth's struggle she's no longer adamant about following in her father's footsteps. She wants to keep the name Yatagarasu, but just like Edgeworth, wants to become a "hero" in her own way, rather than simply living for the past. But then she goes back to talking about needing 3 people for her team, and Gumshoe points out that the three of them together can already solve any case.

The one thing that really caught my attention in the ending was Edgeworth saying that there are still limits and loopholes in the law, "contradictions" that need to be fixed, even if it means taking on the system. I can't help but think it's a reference to the jurist system, and Edgeworth's possible involvement. But that and the coliseum are pretty much the only references to AJ that I spotted in the game, so it's hard to be hopeful that they'll really go there.

Well, Eshiro has offered to work on a GS5 if Takumi said it was okay, so maybe he is trying to seed a little bit of AJ mythos in there for a possible future project. The only downside I see to that is that it probably means Edgeworth would play a decently large role in GS5 and drag us even further away from Apollo actually being the main character.

Still, one can hope. It's just a shame that the 10th anniversary site is all filled up with projects now, or I'd almost half-expect a GS5 tease or announcement at TGS this year. They've got to get around to it sometime, right? Right?

So there was this one aspect of case 3 I didn't really get...

At the beginning of the first section in the present, when Edgey and Shigaraki are talking about the case, Edgey mentions Tenkai's charge, and Shigaraki is like "...Huh? But he was charged as a accomplice/murderer." (I forget which one Edgey said and which one Shigaraki said.) They said something about von Karma changing it or something...?

Then in the final confrontation in that final present, I think there was a moral dilemma or something, cuz Edgey was like "Can I really do it...?" and there was an option to object or not (and then Edgey used the accomplice thing to take down Kazami)

And finally in the last scene in the detention center, after Tenkai leaves (iirc) Edgey apologizes to Shigaraki for using the file, and then Shigaraki apologizes to Edgey for... something.

And... I just didn't really get what was going on with all of that ^^'

Also why did Kazami try to open the Gemini statue again?

Do we ever get to see what Lang's father looks like? I hear he has a role in the game.

Yes, we see what he looks like in a screenshot near the end of the game.

Kazami tried to break into the statue so that he could get Hyoudou's body, which he assumed was still in there even after so many years.

I don't exactly remember how the accomplice thing worked... I think that in order to extend the statute of limitations far enough that they could get Kazami for the murder, they had to consider Tenkai an accomplice. So they were never really able to clear Tenkai's name entirely.

And what the hell's the deal with Ema? What's her role in this game? I just know she has a bigger role in GK2 than her pathetic cameo in AAI. And exactly how long is her spring break!?

Which case is Larry Butz in? And did he return to being Laurice Deauxnim?

So I read something on the wiki about how Franziska sympathized with Yumihiko or something when he found out that his father not only hated him, but was also a criminal. What exactly did she say...? I presume that she only talked about the "father being a criminal part" since the games still never really told us much about Franziska and Manfred's relationship, despite some interactions in AAI-4. But did this sympathizing thing tell us any more about how Franziska relates to Manfred? And this is also sort of the first time she talks about her dad's crimes, isn't it?

It's pretty brief, and she doesn't really go into it. I think it was along the lines of "I know how hard it is to oppose your father," when Yumihiko jumped up in court. Franziska's not in case 3 where they do the most talking about Manfred so unfortunately they don't expand much on their relationship.

Except that I don't know what underutilized means.

In case 5 he more or less betrays his client and helps to get her sent to prison. It's a special circumstance in that he KNOWS she's guilty, and he was kind of assigned to the case rather than chose it, but still, that kind of behavior would get you disbarred in the real world. I'm a little sick of this fantasy world where all defense attorneys are saints who only ever defend the innocent, or else are evil.

Shelly de Killer,
Frank Sawhit,
Regina Berry,
Gregory Edgeworth,
Tyrell Badd,
Manfred Von Karma,
Larry Butz,
Lotta Hart,
Penny Nichols,
and Will Powers.