Set after Spirit of Justice, Game sees Phoenix and Athena invited to the home of millionaire Arkus Strater. Strater is hosting a party, though the guest list is pretty small: Phoenix and Athena, Strater’s business partner Paul Barre, said partner’s wife, Grace (née Gilding) employee Conner Irving, and Strater’s daughter’s boyfriend Ken Forza. Strater announces that they’re going to play a murder mystery game. “No need to be alarmed. Nobody here is going to die.” The guests are all given roles with certain objectives to complete before the end of the night. All harmless-sounding fun, but the guests seem very, very nervous about this. And the game is based off a real unsolved murder from three years ago that took place with this same group of people.
One guess who’s found stabbed to death upstairs at the end of the game.
Unfortunately for Phoenix, he’s the only one upstairs at the time of the murder, and so Athena has to defend him from (literal) rockstar prosecutor Klavier Gavin. (“Don’t worry boss, I won’t lose this case, no matter how dreamy the prosecution is!”) But don’t get hasty, this isn’t a lost gem of an impossible crime. The explanation is obvious and no effort is made to disguise it. The trial doesn’t revolve around, “How was this crime committed?” but instead around, “Who could have used this method?” And the mystery overall is pretty solid. The contradictions are pretty good, though most are pretty easy. The exception is one near the beginning of the trial. This is the third(!) time I’ve played this and it tripped me up twice. But the later ones are better; very subtle and tricky. Gizmological has a real knack for re-using the evidence in unexpected ways, or taking evidence that you think is just to set up the background and making it part of the mystery. There’s a clever and understated twist with the rules for the game that I especially liked.
The characters are all pretty memorable, though I wish we’d seen more of some of them during the investigation portion. I really liked what this case did with the killer. They’re not sympathetic in the Conan or Kindaichi sense, where they’re avenging some lost family member, but just someone stuck in a bad position who lashes out, with fatal consequences. Their portrayal—combined with a final twist about one of the characters—gives the case a somber tone without plunging into full darkness.
All in all, this is similar to Turnabout Idol, in that it’s a fun Ace Attorney pastiche that tries to emulate playing the original games. And it succeeds! It’s a good, solid mystery. And while you will obviously get much more out of it if you’ve played the games, you can even enjoy it without that (since the spoilers for the main games are very light until the post-credits). Recommended. I plan to look at more fan cases in the future.
You can play the case here.
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