Video Game / The Torrential Turnabout

TTT (aka The Torrential Turnabout) is an Ace Attorney-style fangame originally made by ¿Acid Rain? using the Ace Attorney Online trial editor for the "Never Trust the Narrator" competition which ran all the way back in 2016. The game takes heavy inspiration from various mystery visual novels from the late 2000s and early 2010s such Zero Escape, Danganronpa, and Umineko: When They Cry and celebrates what it was like to grow up with these stories.

TTT does not hide the fact that it is heavily inspired by Danganronpa, Zero Escape, and the like, but you do not need to have played these games to understand or enjoy it (though it will likely enhance your experience). And while it is recommended to have played all the Ace Attorney games, TTT only spoils AA1, AA3, and AAI1.

This fan case provides examples of:

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Zero hijacks the trial of Donald Graves and forces seven people to uncover Sheol's indentity if they want to leave the courtroom alive.
• Asshole Victim: Judge Harper, who was murdered by Murdoch in between chapters 3 and 4, is revealed near the end of the game to have been a member of Sheol.
• Back from the Dead: Roland, being presumed dead for five years. In reality, he miraculously escaped from the Room and Board after the game officially ended, and was in hiding due to his mistaken belief that he'd murdered a police officer shortly thereafter.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The game at first has the player believe it is set in the Ace Attorney universe. However, when the trial begins, Mia and Edgeworth are finally shown to be taking on the appearance of Shih-na and Raymond Shields respectively. It's then explained in the next chapter that Ace Attorney is a work of fiction in this world, and the three seemingly-canon characters are fans of the series, cosplaying as its characters and using their names as pseudonyms to protect their identities.
  • Detective Charlie Klein's initial profile doesn't show his face, but upon learning he's one of the survivors of the Room and Board, the likely assumption is that he's Ace, who's stated to be a cop. Nope. Ace died during the Room and Board (and was, in fact, retired) while Klein turns out to be Fireman.
• Big Bad: Miles Murdoch is the game's main antagonist, being behind NX-0, the murder of Bishop, a constant obstacle in uncovering the truth and the main figure behind Sheol.
• Big Word Shout:
  • Early in chapter 7, while Tower's the POV, Mia shouts out "Take That" when presenting evidence despite the player not making any input. Tower internally comments on how weird it is when she just randomly shouts like that.
  • During a cross-examination in chapter 8, Damara tries shouting "objection" when pressing a statement. Tower and Murdoch make fun of her for not using "hold it," to her confusion.
• A Bloody Mess: It's unclear if the numbers on the cupboard are actually written in blood or something else.
• Caught Monologuing: The entire reason Sheol was unmasked was because Murdoch felt the need to give an unconscious Casey a speech about his plans, unaware that he was on camera.
• Character Name Alias: What Mia Fey, Diego Armando, and Miles Edgeworth all turn out to be.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Roland's key in the Room and Board is a literal one. While we're told he put it to good use during the game, he did eventually fire it at someone after his escape. This action directly leads Casey to deducing Harper's involvement in the incident five years later.
  • The ninth bedroom's a big one. The participants assume it must be assigned to Eric, but he's been locked out of it for some reason and nobody can get inside. But surely there must be some greater significance to it? Its significance is huge. Not only does it contain a tenth victim who died before the game began, but it also has a tenth key which makes it possible for a fifth person to have escaped the bunker.
• Collective Identity: Sheol's true identity is that of multiple people. Miles Murdoch is the mastermind behind everything, but Judge Harper and Mr. Lincoln also assisted him with Sheol's Room and Board and are thusly equally as much as Sheol as Murdoch is.
• Defeating the Cheating Opponent: Mia against Edgeworth during chapter 3, given the latter is in league with the judge, who agrees to rule in his favor despite his case being paper thin.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Sheol turns out to have been the judge, at least in part, who was barely an entity during the trial segment and has been dead ever since.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Bishop's murderer has been revealed to be Charlie Klein, but just that isn't enough for Zero to end the trial, as it doesn't bring them any closer to learning Sheol's true identity.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During a brief section in chapter 7, Zero becomes the POV character and a model space shuttle is added to the Court Record. This is the tenth key from the Room and Board that Roland used to escape.
  • There's a lot of little hints regarding the livestream, contrary to what Murdoch believes.
    • The description for the Attorney's Badge in the court record just says "Enjoy the show."
    • One of the few times Tower is addressed by his usual name is during a phone call in the middle of the investigation. Mia expresses some slight discomfort talking to him before he assures her that "it's muted." "It" being the livestream audio.
    • Presenting the badge to Tower during Chapter 4 makes him flex his muscles for the sake of "fan service". Makes more sense when you learn the badge is a camera.
    • Diego occasionally makes seemingly incomprehensible, Fourth-Wall-breaking remarks during the investigation sections. In reality, there actually is an audience for him to address: the Room and Board fans watching their livestream.
  Diego: Yo. Google "Danganronpa" if you don't know what's goin' on. Peace.
• Fourth Wall Psych: An odd example, since the 'psych' part comes substantially later. At the beginning of part 4, Diego seemingly tells the player to 'google Danganronpa' if they don't understand the Monokuma plushie. As it turns out, he's actually addressing the livestream audience.
• Grand Finale: Murdoch insists the case doesn't end without a proper showdown and delivers a final, desperate argument despite nobody in the room believing a word he says.
• History Repeats Itself: Zero's trial resembles Sheol's game in a number of ways.
  • Several people are confined together for an extended period of time, and there are three common participants.
  • The hosts of both incidents were inspired by Zero Escape to some extent. Sheol's game made use of the number 9 motif from 999, while Zero obviously calls himself Zero and wears a gas mask just like the character from that game. He even quotes its third entry a few times just to drive the point home. This parallel is fully intended on Zero's part, as he was hoping for Sheol to react in a manner that would give his identity away.
  • One of the intended players of each game is inadvertently killed before they begin: the unnamed tenth victim in Sheol's case, and Judge Harper in Zero's.
  • Both incidents were being livestreamed to the same audience, unbeknownst to all participants (except Casey and Tower in Zero's trial).
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When calling Damara out on one of her lies, Mia tells her that the pipe Montclair was struck with was actually red. Once she backpedals and claims the pipe she saw was red, Mia admits the pipe's actually gray. It then becomes apparent Damara's whole testimony was a lie.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Occurs between the police and the FBI when the latter take over the Room and Board investigation.
• Lampshade Hanging: Murdoch is especially fond of this.
  Murdoch: You can't be satisfied with this... this contrived plot twist! This ass pull!
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Salem rambling about her interests causes the textbox to literally expand and take up the entire screen, leading her to comment on how dark the room had gotten.
  • Murdoch likes to work Ace Attorney meta terminology into conversations, making it seem like he knows the world is a game. While he's certainly deluded himself into expecting the world to follow video game logic, he's not literally aware that he's a fictional character, he's just that much of a weird nerd.
• Never Found the Body: The corpses of the five victims who did not escape the Room and Board were removed from the bunker after the game and were never found. Significant, because unbeknownst to everyone but Sheol, Roland miraculously managed to escape with his life after the game ended.
• "Open!" Says Me: Diego kicks open a locked door to get into the hospice.
• Promoted to Playable: Almost everyone gets to present evidence at one point during the debates in chapter 7.
• Stress-Induced Mental Voices: Just as the trial's finally about to end, Mia subconsciously starts panicking that they might have missed something big, then proceeds to hallucinate herself in the Ace Attorney courtroom, where the prosecutors from the first four games guide her towards the full truth.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The Room and Board game ends in a rather underwhelming days-long stalemate until the final minutes, rather than being continually exciting like its inspirations.
  • The final testimony is completely nonsensical, and so 'failing' to beat it doesn't actually do anything, since everyone is convinced of Murdoch's guilt anyways.
• Symbol Swearing: Plenty of instances of "shit" and "fuck," but they all have to be censored due to AAO's administrator disallowing it.
  Diego: Nah, I'll tell you who it is - it's this Murdoch $#%&*#@%&$@&#$*!
  Murdoch: Well. I've certainly never heard those two words put together before.
• They Died Because of You: Though they were fighting for their freedom, the Room and Board survivors still feel guilt over the deaths that occurred at their hands.
  Montclair: That game was a tragedy! Those people had families! Futures! Aspirations! And all of that was stripped away...! By us!! It was our doing!
• Tomato Surprise: Because of how Ace Attorney displays its characters, it's not until the Trial segment that it becomes apparent that Mia looks absolutely nothing like Mia Fey, and is in fact a different person.
• Trailers Always Lie: The promotional image shows lines from an argument in court between Mia and Edgeworth. While those lines do appear in the game, the sprites are wrong, since neither 'Mia Fey' nor 'Miles Edgeworth' are who they say they are.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 4 is the point where the game gets completely turned on its head. It opens with Mia waking up after somebody seemingly hijacked the trial, then it confirms three of the survivors of the Room and Board to be Teddy, Poppet and Fireman, and then there's the whole conversation with Edgeworth in which they all but confirm that Ace Attorney is a work of fiction in this universe and that they're just fans of the games cosplaying as its characters.
• Wham Line:
  • While Mia searches Winters' office, she discovers a photograph of Doc and recognizes her.
  Mia: (I'm not supposed to know who this is! I'm supposed to be an unrelated third party!)
  • In case the player has any doubts or didn't understand the implications made during the conversation between Mia and Edgeworth in chapter 4, Zero makes them perfectly clear in the following chapter.
  Zero: "Mia Fey," "Diego Armando," and "Miles Edgeworth" are all names of fictional characters.
  • Another would be the first statement of Zero's testimony, in which he explains the reason for his years in hiding.
  Zero: The first thing I did after escaping the Room and Board was murder a police officer.
• Wham Shot: When the trial begins at the start of chapter 3 and the prosecutor is finally introduced, and it's Tateyuki Shigaraki, a defense attorney from Gyakuten Kenji 2, except he calls himself Miles Edgeworth. Then shortly after, Mia herself is shown on-screen for the first time, but she's taken on the appearance of Shih-na from Ace Attorney Investigations.