DGS2 and KnS3: So Similar yet so Different

Having completed the second game in the Great Ace attorney duology, I find myself realizing the many similarities it shares with Kara no Shoujo 3; and yet, a heavy discrepancy arises when comparing my thoughts between each game. And here I am left to ponder as to how these two kindred stories can produce two distinctly opposing reactions from me. So, I will try to detail my thought process the best I can, trying to pinpoint how and why this discrepancy can even exist in the first place.

Their similarities are evident. Both narratives feature episodic mysteries, tied together with an overarching plot thread hanging over the head of the characters. Through the actions of either protagonist, the whole truth is slowly revealed, leading to the ultimate catharsis of the story’s main ideas. The finale ties all of the loose knots together and answers all of the questions. Both stories use its main core theme as a way for each protagonist to move through with each plot point, pushing them forward to the inevitable conclusion. Both protagonists also embody that core theme and use that drive themselves and other characters towards that finale. However, that is where the similarities between DGS2 and KnS3 end.

The first major difference that comes to mind for me is the soul of each series. Essentially, the core feelings and how either narrative goes about treating each micro and macro element of its story and plot. DGS2 takes a more light-hearted and spirited approach to the development of the story. KnS3 on the other hand is much more subdued and sombre in its presentation. While the overt goofiness of DGS2 is overbearing and heavy handed at times, KnS3’s refusal to expand on its tonal mood ends up making the story feel too methodical and rigid, sapping a lot of the emotional potential it could have had. With DGS2’s more free-flowing nature, the story was like a pendulum, shifting between its more serious and comedic moments without restraint, allowing for a more open discourse to occur. In that sense, the soul of DGS2 is much more centered on the highs and lows, with the inherent silliness being the other side of the same coin when contrasted with the more grounded moments. KnS3, while keeping to a tone I usually prefer most of the time in my experiences, does nothing to elevate itself with the material it has, thus making the core feeling and presentation fall flat.

The core theme for each story and how they go about dealing with it also presents a stark contrast. Many a time, KnS3 is overly blunt with its messaging, often mentioning something along the lines of “so-and-so character is inflicted with paranoia” in too many of its scenes. DGS2, on the other hand, while a bit ham-fisted at times, has genuine attempts of integrating its core idea of belief through the gameplay and through Ryunosuke’s actions instead of stating the obvious in the text, as KnS3 does. Ryunosuke is shown to fight in his head over the best course and each time, his resolve slowly accumulates into finally being able to fight for the truth. It is a slow thematic climb that feels rewarding and natural. In KnS3, every time any character acts out of line, the narration describes said character as suffering from paranoia. This makes the main theme of the story feel extremely rigid and allows itself no wiggle room to explore its core theme further. So much of what KnS3 wants to say about paranoia was already iterated in KnS1 and KnS2, so KnS3 is left to hammer away those same ideas ad nauseum, making each case feel like a rehash in terms of the thematic resonance. Reiji does not learn or gain anything from these new cases, nor does it do anything to further develop the themes of the story. DGS2, on the other hand, does not exhaust itself of ways to handle its theme early on, instead only building off it with each subsequent case, the finale being the ultimate clash, showing how far Ryunosuke has come.

Going on with the story, is how it handles the episodic nature of the story. For KnS3, there is very little connecting each story, with the actual overarching plot having already been established before in KnS1 and KnS2 and playing no major role until near the end of KnS3. For DGS2, on the other hand, that overarching narrative is built upon with each episode, adding more to the overall tension and mystery. It makes the world and setting feel much more interconnected, and giving a purpose to each arc, something KnS3 flubs to a tee. In no way does the murders from Sae feel relevant at all, as her killing spree has no ramifications on Rokushiki’s escape or her child being trapped with Touko’s daughter, but whereas seeing how Enoch Drebber’s plan ties in with the Professor’s case gives it the added purpose it needed. Even the connection of the collar in Natsume’s room that seems insignificant, ends up playing a part in how the mystery plays out. None of this interconnected to bring all the arcs together happens in KnS3. While it is revealed that Sae is related to one of the children stuck in the underground, that plays no part in the story or mystery, making it feel like flavour text at best.

The way the side characters and various villains are treated is indicative of how KnS3 pales in comparison and how short-sighted its goals ultimately were. While both series have throwaway characters that do not amount to anything in the grand scheme of things, DGS2 attempts to make these characters memorable, even if they are not dynamic or organic in any way. William Shamspeare and his theatrics, the Skulkin brothers and their routine plus so many more overshadow KnS3 and its cast such as the Naruko, Saegusa and Tamura families, on top of seemingly relevant characters like Kaeda Watanuki and Chie Kuboi that do not amount to much in the grand scheme of things. What ends up happening is that DGS2’s world and setting feels so much more fleshed out and colorful. There are so many different characters from so many different backgrounds that fill the world. Many of the one-off characters bring vibrancy to DGS2’s London and show what kind of world Ryunosuke is fighting to protect. Whereas with KnS3, only the characters that are strictly relevant to the story arc are given prominent roles. Many fan favorites from previous entries are given a major backseat and the majority of the new characters are only there to fill their role and do nothing for themselves as a character nor help expand the story’s setting. In the end, even the character on the box art and menu, Stella, ends up playing a very insignificant role in the story, her role in KnS1 being much more prominent than here.

Yaginuma and Asogi are both characters that have a heel turn in their respective stories. They are made out to be allies of the protagonist, but circumstances within the story cause them to act contrary to the protagonist's actions. Asogi’s heel turn was handled with much more tact than Yaginuma’s, both in regards to treating the character with respect and tying it to the core idea of the story. Whereas Yaginuma was wasted potential and a good character turned sour, Asogi shows how to expand on a character and make him a proper foil to the protagonist, something that Reiji and Yaginuma’s relationship never exemplifies in the slightest.

Asgoi’s character is one with bountiful resolve, always steadfast towards what he personally believes in. His resolve is shown in spades in the very first case of DGS1, where he swears to defend Ryunosuke from a guilty verdict and will stop at nothing to do so. When he is shown again, his true intentions of coming to England are made clear, his resolve to find the truth of the Professor case and the truth of his Father pushing him forward. It is then he and Ryunosuke face off, each character’s individual resolve pushing them into this contest. Asogi’s heel turn felt inevitable and made sense for his character. In the end, his character does not fundamentally shift, just that we the readers see a different facet of his resolve in action. And it also ties directly into the main ideas of finding the truth and having the resolve to do that are so prevalent in DGS2. His resolve is contrasted with Ryunosuke’s in their final showdown to find Gregson’s murder and eventually the truth behind the Professor Case.

On the other hand, Yaginuma is shown to be snarky and arrogant with a bit of a dark past from KnS1 and KnS2. In KnS3, Yaginuma’s primary heel turn consists of him releasing Rokushiki, the criminal he, Reiji and many others have worked so hard to catch after so many years, in order for Rokushiki to somehow treat his sister, who is currently in a coma. After Yaginuma is caught, in the true end path, he comes back alive and is instead demoted and works in a separate department, far removed from the rest of the cast of characters. Not only do Yaginuma’s actions make no sense in the context of his character, the ramifications and effects of his betrayal are never really a topic of conversation or discussion between the characters afterwards, making his betrayal feel like another plot point rather than an organic piece of character development. Contrast that with Asogi, with Asogi’s heel turn not coming as a complete betrayal of his character and where Asogi and Ryunosuke discuss their conflict after that fact and how it changed them as people. From that, it is easy to see how failed Yaginuma was handled. In terms of integrating Yaginuma’s actions to the story’s core ideas, it is chalked up to “paranoia”, with nothing else to expand on that. Because of how Yaginuma and other characters in KnS3 are handled, the idea of “paranoia” feels like a blanket term the story wants to use whenever any character does any irrational action instead of trying to justify it in any other way or even try to make sense of it from a character perspective. In that sense the core theme is not really explored, but rather used as an excuse for shoddy plotting. DGS2 on the other hand, marries its character growth with its core ideas in a pretty seamless way, making it feel that more natural.

In terms of emotional weight, despite the sometimes overdone wackiness of DGS2, it usually knows when to rein in the humour and present its idea in a grounded and subdued fashion. In that way, the full impact can be fully felt without being weighed down by any interjections of its traditional wackiness. Ashley Graydon’s confession was one of the best scenes of the story, with it being a great climax to the story and also delivering it in a powerful manner that rewards the reader. Enoch Drebber’s confession is also of a similar stance. KnS3, on the other hand, is much more subdued in nature and logically should lead to a better handle on the emotions. However, the bleak reality of its emptiness is starkly different from the proposed emotions from the onset. The presentation of the narrative is too objective for its own good, taking a step back from the characters we came to love and not allowing the seeds of these emotional scenes to truly take fruitaiton and germinate into the emotional marvels that the previous two entries succeeded in accomplishing. In no way does KnS3 try to push the envelope, instead opting to play it safe through the majority of its course. And when it does veer off the intended path, the expected emotions are in complete contrast to the actual emotions that are felt when they play out. Yaginuma’s betrayal and the reveal of Iroha’s true identity both should have been heavy hitting scenes, but rather they feel tacky and exhaustive respectively. Yaginuma’s betrayal I went into much detail above, but as for Iroha’s reveal, the entire last arc lacked any tension or reason to care, so there was no emotional investment for there to be any payoff when Iroha’s true mother was revealed. The arc itself had no hints leading up to the reveal either, making it seem like a rather convenient reveal for the story itself, and not something that was built up by the story. Trying in some way to make Iroha and her plight feel important would have done wonders to make this whole arc feel not wasted. Instead, the best scene in KnS3 outside of the true end is an ephemeral dream with a certain beloved, harkening itself back to the glory days of the first KnS that it could never recapture with its main story.

Funnily enough, the finale for KnS3 was the best part of the story, whereas DGS2 faltered quite a bit by the end. DGS2 had an epic leadup with no payoff, but KnS3 failed to deliver on any promise until the very end. However, this is more of a sin on KnS3, as it shows more wasted potential and left me constantly asking, what if? The true end felt very far removed from the rest of the story, which was to Kn3’s benefit. DGS2 had too many ideas and concepts that trying to tie it all together in the same classic “Ace Attorney” fashion was not going to cut it one bit. And yet, when it is all said and done, none of the cross-examinations or investigations had a sense of finality in them, instead playing out as usual. And when Mael Stronghart was revealed as the main villain, there was too much time between the reveal and the climax for it to have the proper impact, as it felt too drawn out. The final scenes after the trial put a nice bow on everything but did not feel a strong impact nor did it feel like a proper send off to ten cases worth of events. KnS3’s true end, however, is the final culmination of two game’s worth of narrative, finally bringing closure to the questions that have been haunting me since KnS1 and KnS2. By bringing the ending full circle, KnS3 is able to conclude holistically and wrap up the whole narrative in a way that completes it, something DGS2 only does on the surface level.

In the end, DGS2 and KnS3 are practically inverses of each other in my eyes, and while it is DGS2 that gave me the more fulfilling and compelling story, it is KnS3 that remains forever imprinted in my head, as the story that could have been and the story that left an impression that will last a lifetime. Just as Ryunosuke before me, I too one day hope I will have the resolve to break from the cycle of paranoia trapping me inside my demons.