Perhaps it\'s just me, but I always felt that for a case that opens with your long standing mentor getting murdered, there would be more weight to it. But it feels like it gets brushed aside pretty quickly to make way for the quirky legal and detective work, not to mention that Mia got killed off after only getting to know her for one case.
Opinions are worthless if they're unbendable over time.
I had Rose tinted memories of this case, but basically all your criticisms were things I had to confront during my own replay. I agree it’s not a fundamentally bad case, just one with a weak ending.
That said, the thing I remember most about April May, aside from her transformation sequence, is her refusing to read out her Boston prison, explicitly because she is loyal to him, in her own words, the same way you are loyal to Mia.
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Turnabout Sisters: Doesn't Quite Live Up to its Potential
The second case of the game starts with a bang. Your mentor is dead, her sister is being framed for the deed, and no one seems willing to help you find the real killer. That's a compelling set-up, and it changes the underdog dynamic from the previous case in an interesting way. Rather than being on the backfoot because of inexperience, now you're taking on a system that's stacked against you. Phoenix is not exactly an 'Ace Attorney' yet, but it's clear that even if he was this won't be easy.
The first day of the case starts with the first investigation segment of the game. These sections function like point-and-click adventure games. You step into a more detective-like role here as you look for clues, talk with witnesses, and try to piece together what really happened. Once you've gotten far enough, the game shifts over to the trial segments. These progress back and forth until you reach the final trial segment and win the case.
Getting back to the case at hand, it introduces several important characters for both the game and the trilogy as a whole. Defendant and spirit medium in-training Maya Fey, Detective Dick Gumshoe, and Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth all find their start in this case. It's not the most impressive introduction, but it does establish a baseline for the characters that later cases will expand upon. Edgeworth fares the best, as its clear that while he is more than willing to resort to underhanded methods in court (and believe me, I *will* be touching on Ace Attorney's nightmare of a legal system eventually), there's more to him than meets the eye.
The one-off characters of this case sadly don't fare as well. Redd White isn't a bad villain, but once you get him to the witness stand his lies are fairly easy to catch. In theory he's more dangerous than Frank Sawhit, but in practice he's about the same. April May isn't a particularly memorable accomplice either. But to end things on a compliment, the nameless bellboy actually turns out to be a fun addition to the cast. His obsession with turning the hotel White and May stayed at the night of the crime into an attraction for macabre enthusiasts is as strange as it is amusing. He provides some good levity without feeling like a caricature.
But now we have to get into the mystery itself. Once again we see the villain commit the crime in the opening, so there's still no whodunnit element. Like last time I don't think that's necessarily a flaw, especially since once Phoenix meets Redd White it would've been obvious pretty quickly. It's more important to catch him, although in that regard the end of the case is a letdown. He's not a difficult witness, but the end features him somehow managing to worm his way out of your trap only for Mia to blackmail him into admitting his guilt. From a dramatic standpoint it is nice that Mia got to take down her own killer and by using his own methods, but from a player perspective it makes the work you did feel meaningless. I just can't shake the feeling that the game yanked victory away from me to give it to an NPC. It doesn't help that Mia first shows up in order to tell us to turn a piece of paper over and look at the other side. That feels like something Phoenix really should've been able to figure out on his own.
In conclusion, Turnabout Sisters is alright. It starts off well, but it loses momentum as it goes on and finishes on a bit of a sour note. Still, the game has been enjoyable enough so far that I'm willing to give it some slack for that. I'm growing attached to Phoenix, and I want to see his journey continue.