Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 11: Farewell, My Turnabout (2002)

Title: Farewell, My Turnabout  / 「さらば、逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the penultimate column for the Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) website, Takumi writes about the final episode of the game, Farewell, My Turnabout. Because of the problems described in the column titled The Meteorite Brothers, Takumi had to do a lot more in this episode than he had originally planned and he also forced use an idea for a story he wanted to sit on a bit longer. Because of the total chaos while working on this final episode, he made a lot of mistakes in the scenario and he didn't even manage to clean all of them up. In the Backstage part, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) have their usual commentary on Takumi's comments, talking about how Obachan (Oldbag)'s design was made, showng some examples of the mistakes Takumi made in the initial version of the story and they even reveal The Seven Mysteries of the Courthouse.

Farewell, My Turnabout

I came up with the idea of the main theme of this episode while I was writing the last episode of the previous game. It was an important theme that could shake the very foundations of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney), so I had planned to use it for the conclusion of the whole series, for the true final episode.

“Use every idea you have.” That is my own personal rule. I don’t know whether I get to create Gyakuten Saiban 3, and I might die tonight getting a piece of rice cake stuck in my throat. So even if that piece of rice cake gets stuck there, I plan to spew out all the ideas I have. And also… the deadline was already right in front of me. I didn’t have the time to think of something different.

To me, this episode is where the whole of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) comes together. And at the same time, it’s where all the agony I experienced during the development came together.

First of all, there was the plot that is supposed to give life to the main theme in the best possible way. I went through about three versions until I finally arrived at the current form. Also, I had to have two different cases happening side by side because of the plot, and this was the first time I tried something like that, so that was giving me headaches too. But the real distress came when the “original” version of the scenario had been completed.

Do you remembered the Meteorite Brothers I wrote about in an earlier column? Two gigantic meteorites had left craters in the original version of Gyakuten Saiban 2, which led to two big changes.

• The new prosecutor Karuma Mei was born because of “The Case of Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth)’s Popularity.”
• A complete episode was cut because of “The Case Of  Having Way Too Little Storage Space.”

We had these two big changes. I had not worked on these problems until I got to the last episode, so that impressive force had grown out to something like a black hole. The light of hope was nowhere to be seen. The twisting and turning waves finally turned into a surging and raging tsunami, which swallowed my little boat which was lost on the great sea…. I am not exaggerating here.

I had to compress two episodes worth of Mitsurugi’s story into one, and give an “answer” to Karuma Mei… And as I was struggling with that, another problem popped up.

I had been in a hurry to write the first version of the scenario… and that scenario had secretly been the breeding ground for contradictions the author himself had not planned. The waving black hole had been followed by a nuclear minefield of contradictions. I couldn’t count the number of contradictions on my two hands, and even adding my feet wasn't enough….  I had to correct 22 contradictions in the end.

I burned up everything I had for this episode. Actually, everything burned down to a crisp. I have not a single regret…. No, I just don’t want to look back at it for now. Just writing this column has me sweating bullets.

And so…. I wanted to tell you about what happens in this episode, but I think you all have enough just by this quick look. I’ll leave the rest up to the two backstage.

Farewell, My Turnabout (Backstage)

It was an important theme that could shake the very foundations of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney), so I had planned to use it as the conclusion of the whole series, as the true final episode.

Mayoi: But I’m glad!
Naruhodō: About what?
Mayoi: You know. The Hero of Heroes Grand Prix. Tonosaman Hei (The Nickel Samurai) won the prize.
Naruhodō: …Who could’ve guessed it would turn into such a heavy case.
Mayoi: I know almost nothing about this case, but you met again, right? Someone we know.
Naruhodō: An alien pointed her ray gun at me.
Mayoi: You know people in the strangest places.
Naruhodō: I heard that that design of Obachan (Oldbag) took quite a lot of time.
Mayoi: Eh! But it’s just a circle!
Naruhodō: The designer wanted to do something extra.

Iwamoto: How about this? I came up with this design.
Takumi:  …Who is this space cop?
Iwamoto: It’s Obachan.
Takumi: …Nope. It looks kinda too cool for her.
Iwamoto: What’s wrong with looking cool!?
Takumi: Listen Miyamoto. Things lik professional conscience and kindness, you can throw all of that away in the gutter.
Iwamoto: …Who are you calling Miyamoto….
Takumi: Just put a fishbowl on her head. Like this.

Naruhodō: Tell him to do that right from the start, I’d say.
Mayoi:  Mr. Miyamoto sure has a tough job.
Naruhodō: Don’t give in to TakuShū's shenanigans, Mr. Miyamoto. Do your best.

I couldn’t count the number of contradictions on my two hands, and even adding my feet wouldn’t be enough….  I had to correct 22 contradictions in the end.

Mayoi: That’s pretty amazing, 22 of them! What kind of contradictions?
Naruhodō: “Ōtorō (Matt Engarde) is supposed to be a big star, but isn’t treated like one.” and
“You can’t have Ōtorō doing ○○○○ during recess.”
“You can’t have Niboshi (Will Powers) testify about ○○○○.”
“You can’t have the player get their hands on evidence ○○○○ at this point of the story.”
“You can’t have ○○○○ not know that ○○○○ was stolen.”
“It’s str○nge that ○○○○ is ○○○○, and that ○○○○ is on ○○○○.”
22 of these.
Mayoi: I have no idea what any of that means because of the censoring.
Naruhodō: I’d be spoiling the game if I told you.
Mayoi: I have the feeling some of them were not corrected after all…
Naruhodō: TakuShū probably didn’t have the energy anymore and missed a couple of them.

I burned up everything I have for this episode. Actually, everything burned down to a crisp. I have not a single regret…. No, I just don’t want to look back at it for now.

Mayoi: TakuShū looks pretty dead.
Naruhodō: It was panic until the very end with this episode. Especially……ah, no, forget it.
Mayoi: Eh! Nosirree! You started saying it, you finish saying it!
Naruhodō:….. I can’t. I can’t tell you.
Mayoi: Why!?
Naruhodō: See, there are people who’ll go play Gyakuten Saiban 2, right? If they read this first, it'd be spoiled for them.
Mayoi: Hmmm. I guess so. But, you know. But if you’re acting like that, there's nothing left we can say about this episode.
Naruhodō: You’re right there… But it’s the last episode. Everything is a spoiler.
Mayoi: I guss so. Let’s just say something random and fill out this column.
Naruhodō: Something random… I can’t just come up with something on the spot you know.
Mayoi: Well then, what about the Seven Mysteries of the Courthouse?
Naruhodō: What’s that?
Mayoi: Naruhodo-kun, you’re always going to that courthouse. I bet you know seven ghost stories about the courthouse.
Naruhodō: I guess… Ah! I remember. I always thought this was mysterious…
Mayoi: Oh! What, what?
Naruhodō: Why is it Seven Mysteries? Why does it always have to be seven?
Mayoi: …You’re starting from there?
Naruhodō: Suppose you have only three of them, and then you need to stretch them out…
Mayoi: Forget about that. Tell me about the courthouse. Ah, for example, you know. When you present evidence, you cry out “Take that!”, right? Do you really throw those words at people?
Naruhodō: Of course not. That’s just imagery.
Mayoi: I guess so. Or else you'd always be hitting the judge on his head.
Naruhodō: It’d kill him…Actually, that judge is the biggest mystery of all.
Mayoi: We don’t his name nor his age… we don’t know anything about him.
Naruhodō: A while back, in the lobby, I saw him take off his beard.
Mayoi: Eh! That’s a fake beard!?
Naruhodō: And then he took out his teeth. Like this.
Mayoi: He has fake teeth too!?
Naruhodō: He then took out both his eyes and took a piece of cloth and softly polished them.
Mayoi: ….Eeeeeh…….
Naruhodō: And finally, he opened his head and put some batteries in.
Mayoi: You're pulling my leg!
Naruhodō: That judge is really a mystery.
Mayoi: Don’t make up your own mysteries! Err… how many mysteries do we have now?
Naruhodō: That’s seven already.
Mayoi: What?
Naruhodō: “Take that!” and the judge’s name and age.
Mayoi: And the other four?
Naruhodō: The beard, the fake teeth, the eyes and the batteries.
Mayoi:… Just forget it.