Three of our members left the team shortly before last week as well, so most of the team had to take on additional roles. We were definitely set back, and that last week was the only one during which we practiced with our reduced team.
It definitely came as a huge surprise when my team ended up qualifying for the tournament after the American Mock Trial Association’s Regional Tournaments, known as the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS). We were the last team to qualify, but it was nonetheless very unexpected. The whole time at Regionals, my team’s motto had been “be less bad.”
It’s definitely an honor to be able to move on beyond Regionals in my first year of mock trial in spite of the fact that I only tried out in the first place because I really enjoy the Ace Attorney video game series.
Most of the Ace Attorney games are all about a rookie defense attorney who takes up some seriously crazy murder cases.
The games themselves aren’t particularly hard to complete; They’re known for compelling storytelling and characters. Most cases are divided into investigation periods and trial periods. While investigating, the story doesn’t usually advance all that much; You mostly just talk to witnesses (many of whom are initially very reluctant to give out any information) and gather evidence before the start of the trial.
I definitely find the investigation periods less interesting. You usually have to look into every nook and cranny before you can proceed, but they’re necessary and worth it for the upcoming trial.
Gameplay during trial just mostly involves selecting the right piece of evidence to present or choosing the right argument out of the given options. In my experience, there was usually just the right amount of thinking required to stay immersed but not too much to frustrate me. There have been a few times where I had to stop playing to look up a guide in order to continue but not often enough to detract from the experience.
Though what I’ve described so far may not sound that interesting, there are some very unforgettable moments in the series, including bringing in a parrot as a witness, breaking down a lying witness so hard during a cross-examination that they claw at their face until it bleeds and summoning attorney ghosts to be your co-counsels in trial. The heavily referenced image of attorneys shouting “OBJECTION!” and pointing at the opposing counsel is quite tame compared to the rest of what happens in an Ace Attorney courtroom.
So if you couldn’t tell already, there are a lot of differences between mock trial and Ace Attorney. First, in mock trial we stick with the same case all year. This year’s mock trial case is about age discrimination as opposed to Ace Attorney cases, which are all about murder.
Second, there are long documents with courtroom rules that prevent crazy stuff from happening. Third, there’s no trying to solve a mystery in mock trial. You don’t care about finding the real truth, you just argue for the side you’re given.
In Ace Attorney, the identity of the murderer is always one of the biggest driving forces in the case. In mock trial, it’s swaying your judges. I don’t really know why I expected what I did; Many students who do mock trial are pre-law with genuine intentions to become attorneys down the line.
So what I discovered was that Ace Attorney is really just a fictional game series; Who knew?
