DNA

Ohman, Yuri with the stars flying everywhere and him spinning around. xD So goddamn excellent. A lot of the character animations/breakdowns were so well done in this, which definitely added to my enjoyment. Honourable mentions definitely go to: Means' breakdown with the chalkboard, Marlon's Popeye routine, Fulbright's srsface and spy gadgets, Aura and Clonko together, Filch stealing, and every face Athena makes ever.

3 was probably my favourite before this, too, just a nice culmination of everything with remarkable characters and well-done cases. I think that's really where the writers truly hit their stride in terms of strong plot and having fun. I do plan on playing all the other 5 games in order soon, and then sit around and wait (not so) patiently for the fan-translation of AAI:2 to finish.

Though I'll have to fight my husband for the carts. He had never played the series before but watching me play though the AA:5 tutorial case he had so much fun that he wanted to start playing, too. He's currently somewhere in AA:2 and is so engrossed he hasn't even started on the Link Between Worlds that I bought him for Sinterklaas...

I guess eventually at some point this stopped being a spoiler, so I guess I'll end my tag now.

Yeah, I've done a lot of thinking on the Fulbright thing, and more or less came to the same conclusion that you did about the Phantom killing him assuming his identity, since it actually makes the most sense, and is also comforting in a way. While not specifically stated, I think it's the most logical conclusion based on the given data.

I don't recall a lot of the specifics from the older games (memory issues, yay~), though I do plan on replaying all of the other games now that I've finished AA:5. I do kind of wonder, though, how much my memories of taking down some of the big baddies (speaking of which, you're right, Alba was excellent, even if memories of him did make me somewhat wary of Yuri at first, ahahahahaha) was either A) nostalgia, or 2) the difference in difficulty. I felt like this game was really hand-holdy at points (basically flat out telling you that you need to present X thing in a "thought bubble", argh), which may also have contributed to making it less satisfying. Doesn't really matter, though; I'm sure I'll have just as much fun taking them all down again.

The more days that go by, the more I miss Fulbright. ._.; Maybe it took seeing him in the Orla case again to make me realize how much I loved him as a character and how sad I am to see him go, to realize that I never actually knew him because by the time he appears in the game he's already dead.

It's funny, I couldn't help but thinking about what you said about how it wasn't as satisfying to take the Phantom down, and in the end, I think I have to agree with you. I think it's because there's less build up, if you compare taking him down to characters like Gant or Dahlia. In both of those cases, you're fighting against them for so long and then finally it breaks. Whereas so much of the "build up" against the Phantom was more about proving the innocence of Blackquill and Athena, so the part where you're actually going up against PhantomBobby is relatively shorter; by the time he takes the stand, he's done and everyone knows it.

I think I had more I was planning on saying, but I didn't sleep well and am tired, so I have no idea what it is. So.... yeah, I guess I should end this spoiler tag.