Contradiction

[rickgriffin]

That just sounds like the Japanese justice system in general - they have a 99% conviction rate - why? partly because the police can and will do anything and everything to get you to confess to the crime regardless of circumstances and there are incentives in place to make it a better option than fighting the charge. If you do fight the charge you basically need to have the evidence to prove your innocence.

There are a whole mess of other reasons for it too - prosecutors only trying the most obviously guilty - corruption forcing the hands of judges when things get political... it's an absolute mess.

Oh there's no doubt a lot of the AA justice system is based off the worst aspects of the Japanese system. Like, whenever you go to the detention center and the person you want to talk to isn't there for whatever reason, they're ALWAYS "in for questioning". There's only a judge and no jury. And there is the implication that being convicted of a killing--even in self-defense--is socially heinous enough to warrant a cover-up.

[ScreamingDoom]

I can't help but mentally compare this to the Ace Attorney games...


3) The game is VERY upfront that the justice system in the AA world is quite broken and heavily in favor of the prosecutors, in order to explain away why you can't get an innocent ruling simply based on reasonable doubt

It really is astounding how broken the criminal justice system in Ace Attorney is; it's just one step away from being Cardassian.

Though I do believe it is noted in the earlier games that these quick trials that the player participates in are actually preliminary. There is a "real" trial sometime down the line that has proper procedure and a jury. Of course, it's also noted that, in the time that the new system has been operating, those "real" trials have become nothing more than rubber stamps to the "preliminary" trial. It's vanishingly rare that the later court trial will overturn a conviction of the prior one.

And the results of the two trials are thereby used to prevent any appeals; after all, a criminal already had their appeal in the later jury trial.

And in the later games, things get even worse, as the whole later jury trial is simply eliminated.

And in the most recent game, the judicial system of the different country a lot of the game takes place in is even worse than that. Trials are decided based on supernatural visions as the only evidence. Evidence that is only allowed to be interpreted by the Prosecution.

Really, the whole Ace Attorney franchise is a jaw-dropping smorgasbord of increasing injustices.

[J!!]

That just sounds like the Japanese justice system in general - they have a 99% conviction rate - why? partly because the police can and will do anything and everything to get you to confess to the crime regardless of circumstances and there are incentives in place to make it a better option than fighting the charge. If you do fight the charge you basically need to have the evidence to prove your innocence.

There are a whole mess of other reasons for it too - prosecutors only trying the most obviously guilty - corruption forcing the hands of judges when things get political... it's an absolute mess.

there's a pretty good movie called I Just Didn't Do It which goes deeply into this.

[TheNewTeddy]

I was really concerned to see a 30 min video game review; and REALLY concerned to hear chuck talk about the issues with making such a review. So much so that I stopped the vid at 10 mins and bookmarked it to watch again later, and watched another vid.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised when I returned to find out chuck did an excellent job with the review despite the seemingly impossible restrictions, and want to offer him a congrats on pulling off what I did not think he could.

[FaxModem1]

I think the game would have worked a bit better storywise if Jinks was a PI, thus explaining his lack of resources and less than scrupulous methods. It's already a noir story, might as well make him a private detective.

[HighPriest]

The first time I saw a hand throwing devil horns carved into a tree, Jenks staring at it with this goofily serious expression, I laughed so hard soda sprayed out of my nose. Totally worth the admission price to the game for that alone.

The fact that you can then go around, having Jenks throw the horns to every suspect, asking "Does.... THIS mean anything to you?" was just a delightful bonus.

[Rasp]

The first time I saw a hand throwing devil horns carved into a tree, Jenks staring at it with this goofily serious expression, I laughed so hard soda sprayed out of my nose. Totally worth the admission price to the game for that alone.

The fact that you can then go around, having Jenks throw the horns to every suspect, asking "Does.... THIS mean anything to you?" was just a delightful bonus.

Yeah this thing gets cheeseball but that's why I loved it enough to request it

[Petike]

Hope I'm not too late to the party, I've only just finished watching the review a few minutes ago.

I wasn't expecting this review at all. Nice surprise ! Not sure I've heard of this adventure game before, but I'm glad it's contributing to the resurrection of the 90s FMV concept, in a technologically more mature package. Availability of good equipment and software has come a long way in twenty years. Any half-competent indie devs can make a professional product these days, even ambitious (if spatially limited) interactive films like this. I also like the fact they went multi-platform, even with all the cutting corners they had to do, given the tight schedule.

I like the premise of the central gameplay mechanic. While it doesn't make the whole game, it's good to see the author(s) put some thought and care into the design process, rather than making a generic point-and-click whose only uniqueness would be the FMV. It's not a super-deep mechanic, at any rate, but I can easily imagine it gets the job done when you want to branch the investigation into new directions (including potential misleading ones).

That said, even without Chuck pointing it out, I can see the narrative and design flaws of the whole thing. A lot of these flawed decisions feel completely avoidable, with a more competent script. Aside from chalking it up purely to dev inexperience, I get the impression Follin and his co-creators couldn't decide whether they want the DI character to be a homage to old-fashioned sleuths, or a proper, modern day plaintclothes police detective. He's neither this or that and it really is distracting and violates suspension of disbelief. I get they wanted to invoke an "golden age of British detective lit" vibe, or perhaps a Midsomer Murders style vibe, but even MM and similar series have modern tech. The absence of a mobile phone, or a pocket torch/flashlight really stretches the believability of this guy as a professional detective. He seems totally unprepared. If I was designing this, I'd also include at least a pen knife or Swiss Army knife in his starting inventory (if he needed a multi-purpose tool), and some basic set of tools for taking fingerprints and other tiny evidence. Maybe he could even have a small camera in the bag, to take evidence snapshots, if needed (though I suppose the phone could fill in for that). Jenks picking up the screwdriver and other small items so randomly and early on really does feel more like a holdover of well-worn adventure game tropes that were tolerable 20 or 30 odd years ago, but stick out in a contemporary interactive FMV film. All of these weirdly persistent missteps make Chuck's amusing-yet-sad theory about DI Jenks being a madman who's suffered personal tragedy and only wants to play detective all the more appealing...

Also, is it just me... Ryan, Atlas, Rosenbaum... Is it just me, or is this another game that references Rand and Objectivism ? Because if not, it's an odd choice of names for the characters and the placenames, to say the least.

Man, I'll probably have to watch a Let's Play of this to make more sense of the overall story and how much it can branch. Though I'm worried it's going to be a somewhat boring experience, I wonder how things will be slotting into each other (or not) as the story progresses. Rasp has already mentioned that the game does indeed have a few unintentionally hilarious moments (beyond the footage seen in the review), so if nothing else, I might also get a few laughs or puzzled frowns out of watching an LP.

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Speaking of detective games and how hard it is to make a truly good, well-rounded one that feels innovative, I think this fairly recent release managed to get it right:


youtu.be/BJm-xPCz9iw

The devs of this 2014 title really did the concept of piecing together clues and forming ideas for further investigation justice. Rather than tedious busywork, it all comes together very organically. You feel like you're genuinely solving an unpredictable case, instead of sighing over spotting painfully obvious stuff the interface artificially restricts you from studying up close. While I don't think the framework they've used should be imitated by every detective adventure game from now on, there's a lot of good ideas on display there, worth learning from.

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P.S. A Mitchell and Webb excerpt, when I least expected it ! Awesome. My knowledge of British sketch shows pays off once again. I miss Sir Digby Chicken Caesar and co. Much of the show, really.