Apollo knows Nayuta from before. The conversation went pretty much exactly like how Phoenix and Edgeworth had done back in 1-2. Did they really need to pull off this character plot again? Even if they did, they didn't need to rip off the same ambiance of that conversation.

He even has a hilarious breakdown. And to top it all off, he gave Apollo the Sun Wukong treatment. Apollo confirmed to be a shapeshifting monkey. I can rest easy now.

Say, did we ever see Apollo starring in Trucy's magic acts in official art before? I don't remember, but the sight of Apollo in a box seems really familiar. Or perhaps I'm just thinking of fanart? It's been mentioned several times in past games that Trucy wanted an assistant out of Apollo, so that's no surprise.

Ah, that reminds me. The fact that he was the one who constructed the dragon set killed me. He toiled so much, and it came to a pile of clutter after some naughty twins pulled a prank.

While there's that, to me it felt more like pulling Aoi out of nowhere in DD

KIKI. IS. A. BITCH.

being tsundere does that to her. Besides, of all the things in this case you could have called a "bitch", you chose her?

Kiki is a bitch!

Means is a jerk?

Damn, I enjoyed this case much more than I thought I would. Honestly, the pacing wasn't that bad. I actually think this case was better paced than TFT. The contradictions felt well designed, the characters were great, and taking down the villain was extremely satisfying.

To those who watched the prologue, we know that Phoenix went to Khura'in because of Maya screaming and shit. But to those who haven't seen the prologue, Phoenix is just there for a vacation to visit her. Which means that, to those who didn't see the prologue, Phoenix went on vacation at the same time his daughter was being live broadcasted across the nationfor the first time. What a great dad.

The mystery. Why does Trucy even stab the box? In the act Bonny is the foe and Trucy is trying to defeat her, she gets shoved into the box, then gets out via magic replacing Mr Hat with its sword, and then she stabs the box... Why? If this is not explained it is a crippling contrivance that makes the entire mystery seem completely forced.

Another thing is Mr. Reus. Is this really the best they could do in bringing up a plot point from AJAA? Retconning in another member into the Troupe? How come we never even heard about this guy in AJAA then, given how central the Gramarye back story was to that game?

Finally, the writing sucks in this case so far. When Trucy suddenly goes "I'm nervous", Apollo introduces his over saturated use of the word "fine" for the first time in the game and she INSTANTLY goes "Wow, I feel much better! Thank you so much!". What the fuck was that for an emotional kindergarten slide? Then we have Bonny and Retinz. Bonny's ominous monologue in the dressing room was god awful. If she is the villain I already hate this case. Retinz, strikes me as a typical DD character. Everything he says boils down to the same trait being repeated ad nauseum in a really boring way. I loved Andastandin in case 1 because the writers or localizers were super creative with his language talking in flamboyant thrash metal lyrics and really hilariously grotesque rhymes. Retinz is also intended to be a "funny evil character" but his dialogue so far does not cut it. He's fucking boring like your average Yamazaki character, that has the most striking design in the world and the most flat dialogue ever.

The Good things:
-Trucy's and Ema's characterisations are on point. I really like both of them. Trucy is no longer a panty joke with legs like in Dual Destinies and shows a lot of traits from her appearance in Apollo Justice; and Ema is a mix between the lovable Ema we got to know in AA1 and Edgeworth's games and the grumpy Ema that appeared in Apollo Justice.

-The idea for this case. I like that we got a case centered around magic, it's something that we've never seen before in Ace Attorney (well, not this kind of magic, I mean). We got the circus case in Justice for All, but the magic part was not the focus in that one.

-The return of the option to examine every place you are in. It was something that I reeeaaaally missed in Dual Destinies. We got really funny conversations in this game, I have to say... But not all the dialogues are interesting and/or funny and some of them come as cringey or narmy.

The Bad things:

-The retcon with the Gramaryes. Hey, remember this new guy? He was a member of the Troupe, don't you recall? It's stupid, because they could introduce this new character making him connected to the Gramaryes without making him an old member who just vanished after getting injured or whatever. Maybe he could be a magician who greatly admired the Troupe, or maybe he could be a rival magician who hated their guts, I dunno. This retcon is plainly stupid.

-Bonny and the producer feel like Dual Destinies characters, yep. The producer guy was kinda funny at first, but he got boring after repeating the same jokes over and over. And I suppose that Bonny will get a chance to develop her character during the trial, because so far she has been quite dull.

and I think even if it's shortlived this is actually a bit of development for Trucy and Apollo and it doesn't feel forced to me. I remember I commented earlier that I thought it would be lame if Trucy was crying and super emotional now if it meant they had forgotten what Phoenix said about her in 4-4 being brave and all, but you can tell Yamazaki knows all of this because they address it well. I'm also surprised at how good some of the commentary is when you investigate. Apollo says something about how he helped set up the dragon prop with Trucy, being her assistant and that he didn't mind because she smiles in a way that feels special to him. That's sweet and it also makes you know that they have sort of an inner caring for each other as (unknowing) siblings.

Dunno how much further the addressing of AJAA stuff goes in this game, but I like that it's subtle but it's still not shy of directly referencing the Gramaryes or Lamiroir even. That said, I still don't understand why the writers haven't dared to delve into them being half-siblings yet.

"Hey look, a poster of the Gramaryes! That's Magnifi, Trucy's grandfather... That's Zak, Trucy's father... And that's all the important ones!"

I loved this case much more than imagined I would, the investigation was never boring, the characters were all very original and fun, the villain was awesome and extremely satisfying to take down, the retcon can easily be explained if you simply say that he wasn't with the Gramaryes long enough and boom, you explain why Apollo never heard of him back in AJ:AA, I feel like hating on the retcon is just nitpicking, and seriously, I loved the villain, his design, his persona, his theme, like damn that was a really good theme, and his break down, he was surprisingly well written.

I'm more concerned with how they bring the Gramarye name up so heavily and reference it but then the only thing they DO with it is retcon a new "Gramarye" into their ranks we hadn't heard about and... lol, one that obviously sticks out from the AA4 art of all members, except Magnifi who was also redrawn. And another really annoying thing... of all things why can't I examine the Magnifi portrait in the WAA? It seems like the most obvious one to be able to get comments on in this case :/

I got to the part of Trucy getting her notebook back and I get deja vu. Didn't Yamazaki just reuse and apply Kay getting a notebook from her dad that tells her how to be? It's the same. Moreover the creed that "A true entertainer always keeps a smile on their face" is the same as "Lawyers are people that smile no matter how bad it gets". I mean, c'mon! Why is Yamazaki so immodest about blatantly reusing key elements from earlier plotline like this? It's not a mystery prop or a little thing, it's important story details that completely mimic ideas that have already been applied before, and using them a second time on other characters in slight variations does not have the same impact.

Her smiling and being brave while she's fragile underneath is something that was so sweetly communicated in AJAA that I empathised with because you understand what she has gone through losing her dad like that as a little kid. Oh, no-no-no you don't Capcom. Don't give her a backstory that "explains" it or you're misinterpreting her character. Lol

Now that I think about it, I don't think it was done for the purpose of showing the box was empty. If it was just an empty box, then there would be no need to do the sword switch. IIRC, Mr. Reus was supposed to be brought back to life in act two, so my guess is that he was supposed to be in the coffin when Trucy stabbed it.

Actually they explain in the case that Mr Reus is supposed to appear in the backstage coffin, not the front one.

I liked Trucy's characterization in this case. It's definitely a step up from DD, and it feels they tried to put more in then what they did in AJ. The Detention Center part was the highlight of the case for me. The little reference, I guess you could say, to Trucy's 8 year old sprite from AJ was neat, and the crying moment was sweet. :,)

Bonny's character was, to me, cute and didn't ever get on my nerves. Her animations were pretty cute as well, I was never bothered when she was on screen.

I was a fan of Betty too. The bat motif was quite nice, and the little show the twins put on for the reveal was an excellent touch. Their testimony and model animations were pretty good too.

I would've put his last name in the Spoiler tag, but these darned Khura'inese people have such weird names! Anyways, not the best part of the case (In fact, he's the last noteworthy thing I have for TMT), but he's certainly a great part of this case, he's not quite on the level of antagonizing the Defense like previous prosecutors, but he's still rude either way. Quite like his role in this case, and his character so far.

(Plus, the breaking beads scene was a perfect addition. Serves him right after chucking them at Apollo and them... somehow getting around his head and managing to tighten up.... Khura'in... logic?

1: The Gramarye Poster. Like, okay, let's remind everyone of Magnifi and Zak, but let's not touch on Valant and Thalassa, because they OBVIOUSLY don't matter!

2: Retinz. Ugh. I mean, I liked him, but geez. Could anyone be more annoying? But I guess that's what they were going for.

The problem with the magic act is that we don't really know how the entire magic show's supposed to go so certain aspects seem random. For all we know, there was a part of the act that immediately needed a fake sword after the part we saw and Trucy stabbed the coffin to make it seem like it wasn't switched in order not to break immersion.