Obviously they would need to shuffle around some plot stuff, but the core reveals - the Professor was a Japanese man, Asougi is alive, Dr. Sithe is the killer - all feel like stuff that would've been the conclusion to a middle chapter focused on the World's Fair.

Dr. Sithe in particular is a little odd in 2-3 as it stands today, because catching her is an electric moment [god when the pursuit overture kicks in for the first time], but everything about her character screams that she was supposed to have more to do before going off to jail. She seems set up to be an ongoing rival throughout a game whose loyalties and morality could remain somewhat in doubt, but here they had to fast-forward to her being the killer.

Asougi's reveal here would also set up a potential DGS3 better. One of my main issues with DGS2's character writing is how quickly Ryuu and Susato get over Asougi's revival - if the plan was originally for him to return at the end of game 2 and be around for all of game 3, then Takumi would have had much more time to work through this character dynamic. Instead, his reveal feels a little off today ("oh I guess he's amnesiac, we won't pursue this at all" followed by "oh Asougi said he had something to do, guess we'll wait without trying to contact him for nine days."

My first reaction to seeing the spoilers was "Wait, they made Courtney Sithe the murder in her first appearance? Really?!"

I had her pegged as a potential villain from the moment I saw her, but pre-release material built her up to be a major recurring character. I was thinking Case 4 killer at the very least, maybe even overall Big Bad. I can definitely see her role being rushed when the trilogy got squashed down to a duology. "Main coroner at Scotland Yard who's pushing for innovation in forensic science" deserves way better than being a one-off "killer of the week".

The "sadistic choice" of "You either prove your client's life's work is a lie, or he goes to jail for murder". Ryunosuke can't make the choice because "either way, he's betraying his client", and then...

"It's not about what you're betraying. It's about what you're protecting."

SUSATO!!! And she Susato-drops some sense into him!!

And then namedropping Enoch Drebber, who I noticed didn't appear in the first day of investigation at all.

You go to his cell in the during the Day 2 investigation and saw that he covered the wall of the cell in equations. Related: I can't imagine Benjamin hanging around Barok in university. That mental image is just too much for me.

I'm pretty sure Enoch is a steampunk android, with how he's always creaking. Also: What in the flying hell was that second Joint Reasoning? Since when can Sherlock Holmes control gravity? XD And the end of the investigation... wow,
that was a real shock.

I love how Barok is like "You. Leave country. Boat. Germany. NOW." after the trial, he's gotten pretty paranoid of that death curse.

Nothing in Benjamin's personal backstory per-say is relevant to the mystery, apart from working with Drebber.

I LOVED how this actually played into the final twist, that everything seems wrapped up and the Judge is about to declare the defendant Not Guilty... but something feels off, and Ryunosuke objects and demands the trial continue because they don't yet know the full truth of the case. And Sithe REALLY wants that Not Guilty verdict... obviously she's still hiding something. And what could be worth confessing to being an accomplice to hide? She's the actual murderer!

It's kind of like an inverted Turnabout Reclaimed. The lawyer postpones the verdict because there's still one unanswered question, but the final result is proving someone GUILTY rather than innocent.

s. First Drebber. Drebber is a pretty fun "love to hate", "blatantly evil from the moment you first see them" character. I liked how a big part of the case was just FINDING the guy, slowly finding out his connections to the Professor case, that Joint Reasoning, and is reveal, complete with AWESOME theme song. Seriously, this might be in my top 10 character themes in the series. The shock when he reveals you only stopped "that" time bomb... and explosion. (Did those police officers at the crime scene actually die?) Really made me want to see him go down in the trial.
Speaking of the trial, his testimonies were pretty decent, finding some clever, non-typical ways to try and weasel his way out of suspicion, though in the end it was really Madame Rozaik who enabled us to get him. And then the whole accomplice thing with Courtney Sithe.

I thought his backstory was well done, tying into his reasons for committing the crime in a plausible way. However... the fact that he blames Meningen for ruining his life due to his article exposing him as a grave robber and getting him expelled from university I feel is a little hard to sympathize with, since while Meningen is certainly a bad person, Drebber wouldn't have been expelled if he wasn't grave robbing in the first place. He really brought it upon himself. It's like a bank robber blaming the police who caught them for ruining their life. That may be the point though, as Ryunosuke calls him out on his hypocrisy at the end of the trial, pointing out that in getting revenge for his own stolen future, he didn't care that he was stealing Dobinbough's future.

As said earlier, I REALLY feel like Sithe was supposed to be a recurring character who doesn't get revealed as a killer until late into the game. It's a bit disappointing that she ended up being a one-off "killer of the week". But even then, I thought she was a good villain. She reminded me of Dee Vasquez a bit: very subdued, cold and grounded, up to having a not very over-the-top breakdown. That plan of confessing everything in order to end the trial early, as I said before, was great, and the big reveal that she was more than just an accomplice was an amazing moment. Though granted, Drebber was so blatantly, obviously evil that him not being the actual killer was almost expected.

However, I felt like proving her motive could've been done better. They did something that's usually considered a big no-no in the AA series: requiring you to remember a throwaway line of dialogue in the investigation that isn't in the Court Record. Admittedly it's a multiple choice question so you'll probably hit on the answer by trial and error anyway, but when I first saw "Which of these words points to Sithe's motive: Iron Mask, Lancet (Scalpel), Screwdriver" my reaction was "HUH?!". It felt like a very weird way to present that. I'm assuming they avoided giving you the ledger in her lab as evidence because it'd be a giant "she's the killer" red flag, something I hate it when AA cases do. But there... just feels like there had to have been a better way to convey it. When the flashback happened everything made sense to me, but still... it was kind of a sour point in an otherwise epic finale.

Runba Marmarch and Gotts were just kind of... there. I think this sub-series and the Layton crossovers are the only games in the series to have trial-only characters (excluding trial-only cases, of course), so it felt kind of weird seeing two full characters with animations show up out of nowhere in the first trial day, then disappear forever afterwards. I know this case was packed with characters to begin with, but I feel like you should've at least met them briefly in the investigation. Their testimonies advanced the plot well, but their appearance still felt very sudden, and their exit just as much. I thought Gotts was hilarious though. "Don't blame me, blame whoever made the camera" was great.

Conette Rozaik... or however you spell it. I ended up liking her more than I expected. She never testified in the first trial and didn't play a big role in the first Joint Reasoning, so I was worried that they'd "waste" a character with a cool design and theme song on being only there to introduce the concept of wax figures to the plot. But then she got called to the stand in Day 2, and proved instrumental in getting Drebber. I do find it a BIT convenient that she remembers so much about that night 10 years ago though. Also, her description of rigor mortis was creepy.

Though that leads me to something. This doesn't have much to do with her exactly, but... if the Professor's identity is supposed to be a secret, why did they sculpt his face on the wax figure? They handwave it as a "rule" of Madame Rozaik's Waxworks that they have to capture a person's EXACT likeness or something but... it feels like a very dangerous thing to do, considering the Professor's face is a national secret. Surely the British government wouldn't want to risk some random person breaking open the wax figure's helmet and finding out the Professor's identity. I know Madame Rozaik has the only key, but this still feels a bit handwavy just so they can have a dramatic reveal at the end of the trial.

"Inspector" Lestrade was great, and Toby is pretty cute. I feel like we'll be seeing more of her later though, so I can't give full thoughts on her now.

I agree that this feels like it was meant to be Case 5 of a second game, and a lead-in to a third. EVERYTHING about this last segment just screams "cliffhanger for the next game". I can easily imaging the game ending on Asougi's "We will meet again. [Bang, cut to black]".

The reveal scene was pretty good though, voice acting was well done (Susato is certainly very emotional to see Asougi again though, dare I say it felt kind of shippy) and it worked well as a cutscene despite being in-engine rather than anime. The info-dump on the sword kinda took me out of the moment a lot though, especially since I'm pretty sure they already explained the sword before. (Though this is Ace Attorney we're talking about, they love their redundant flashbacks)

Ryunosuke: This is... the Professor's true identity!
Barok: As I thought...
Ryunosuke: I never thought about it before. That the true identity of the worst serial killer in Great Britain would be.. Japanese! (kinda paraphrased)
Susato: W-wait! This face... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before.
[bottle smash]
Masked Disciple: "[Significantly-louder-than-normal screaming]"
[Dramatically removes his cloak]
Masked Disciple: F-father!
Ryunosuke: "....! F-father...?
[He takes off his mask. Ryunosuke and Susato both gasp]
Ryunosuke: Asougi!
Ryunosuke's Internal Monologue: (My best friend. Kazuma Asougi. ...I remember everything. From one year ago, until now... He's standing right before me...)
Asougi: Naruhodo?
Ryunosuke: It's been a long time.... my friend.
Susato: "Kazuma-sama!"
Asougi: Legal assistant Mikotoba. ...It must have been difficult. Thank you, for guiding my friend this far in my stead.
Susato: K-kazuma-sama...
Ryunosuke: You're.... really alive.... Asougi!
Asougi: I hid myself while I tried to repair myself. I must thank you as well. After all, you protected that for me.
Ryunosuke: Eh? Ah... (The sword that's been handed down though generations in Asougi's family: Karuma. He carried it when he departed Japan. He always carried it with him as his "Japanese spirit". ...Then, when that "case" occured... I received that Katana from Susato. Along with your lingering ideals.) I felt like while I had this, you were always watching over and protecting me.
Asougi: We've finally arrived at this. Father.
Ryunosuke: Father? Don't tell me, you know...! (That face.... I don't want to believe it... but the homicidal maniac's true identity is... Asougi's father!)
[Asougi slices wax figure in half]
Susato: K-kazuma-sama...
Asougi: Naruhodo. I have a lot more to tell you, but there's no time now. Let's meet again.
Ryunosuke: (Asougi left us and exited the courtroom)

You know, I find it both creepy and hilarious that Rozaic somehow got permission to remove the mask of the Professor and copy his face- which was also a national secret, might I add- and somehow manage to keep it there at the age of 16. Hot dang.

Also Sithe is such an idiot. If she didn’t elaborate on stabbing Meningen she would’ve gotten away with everything. Her breakdown was also kind of underwhelming. Drebber too was disappointing, his design was practically screaming over the top breakdown but he nevertheless really got that in the end. Disappointing.

Gotta agree with the others here, it does feel like a lot was condensed to make room for what was gonna be DGS 3. Ah well, I liked what we got anyway. I'll admit Sithe felt a bit underutilized, but understandable all things considered. The investigations were also sooo long, probably because they had to squeeze in a lot more than originally planned.

Case is definitely the best one so far. Pulling that final twist in the end to show that Drebber didn't actually kill, and all the backstory reveals were very good. Van Zieks is becoming one of my favorite prosecutors. Usually I get a bit tired of each prosecutor by the end of the game, but Van Zieks seems to be the only exception. Oh, and reuniting with Gina is always great. Not as interesting as in DGS 1, but still great nonetheless.

The jury is feeling more and more like a gimmick at this point. Heck, the judge seems to outright ignore them at times too. At least this bunch doesn't seem as stupid as the ones in the last trial, but I tended to forget them more as a result.

I don't remember if this was mentioned in trial, but were we given a reason to why Sithe didn't have the Professor executed 10 years ago? If not, I assume we'll find out why later. Maybe it was at risk of international conflict or something, but he was still buried...

Happy to see Asougi still alive too, although his reveal was a bit... awkward. 'This guy's gonna be my assistant in court.' 'He's an amnesiac Asougi.' Proceeds to never say a word in court, and gets revealed as... Asougi post-trial. Yeah, feels tacked on, for the usual reasons.

Agreed on your thoughts for the most part. This case does things so well for what it is it definitely feels like a perfect DGS2 finale. Investigations could definitely go on for far longer than necessary but the Joint Reasonings (especially that last one, holy heck) are very fun. Sithe was definitely underutilised especially considering she was advertised as a main character, so it would've been more interesting to talk to her more and such and have her be the epic final killer rather than just someone you meet, then defeat and move on. We barely even talked to her before we accused her of being an accomplice, honestly. Though I'll agree that Drebber not being the killer was a very good move considering how much of an obvious AA-like killer he seems. The Prelude to Pursuit when you realise the huge twist and the misdirection is absolutely genius as is the contradiction of the blood dripping. Honestly the real highlight of the case for me.

I'll also admit while I liked the reveal initially, it's kind of meh looking back and I don't feel any strong emotion towards it. Maybe it's because I spoiled myself on that plot point but looking at the signs, it's really so obvious that it feels a little silly. And yeah, it definitely would've worked more as the epic reveal at the finale rather than in the third case. Peaks surprisingly early, though I'm still fine with what it is.

Also was disappointed with the lack of jury stuff especially considering I really liked a lot of the concepts this time around. Magician Waluigi barely even did much, sadly, and so did the head juror. They focused too much on the science guy which I think was a little dumb considering he's the blandest of the lot imo. But yeah, no Closing Arguments in the first trial felt
a little abrupt.

It started out as not the most interesting, especially since the attention got split between the actual case and everything else going on, but once things started coming together it got a lot more interesting and the different settings were cool. I'm so glad Ryunosuke had his suspicions right when he saw Kazuma, and even more so when he learned his body had disappeared. It was a bit odd with him being Barok's judicial assistant boiling down to him pretty much just standing there, but I enjoyed the animations of him cutting off the cork to the bottle, and ducking out of the way when the hallowed chalice was thrown into the fire.

Sans attempted murder, everything about Enoch Drebber absolutely rules. I was gonna say "and blackmail" but honestly, though it's a shame it mostly targetted one individual rather than the whole system or the person ultimately responsible, blackmailing a corrupt organisation and getting them to "eat out of my hand" as revenge for said corruption ruining his life rules, too. And his character design and animations are fantastic.