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Chronologically takes place before case one. Phoenix is reunited with Maya, only to have to defend her in another murder. And this time, it's in her own home village. Phoenix takes on another von Karma, Franziska, and it's going to be painful.
Date: June 16th to 22nd,
2017 Day 1: Phoenix is paid a visit in his office by surgeon Turner Grey. A year ago his clinic's reputation was all but ruined due to a scandal. 14 of the clinic's patients died one night due to malpractice, and the blame was placed on a young nurse working there. That same nurse died herself a year ago in a horrible car accident, and rumors quickly spread that Grey himself had killed her. Even now the hospital has trouble attracting patients. Grey wants to summon the spirit of that nurse to find out what really happened and have his name cleared, but Maya is still in training, and would only agree to do it if Phoenix came along. So Phoenix takes a trip to Maya's home village, Kurain. There he meets Morgan Fey, Maya's aunt, who is the leader of the Fey branch family (her sister, Misty, heads the main family). He also runs into familiar scoop photographer Lotta Hart, and a young girl who runs away before he can speak to her. He learns from Maya that the girl is Pearl, Morgan's daughter (Maya's cousin). Maya and Grey enter the meeting room, to which Maya holds the only key. They're locked inside for some time until suddenly the people outside hear two gun shots, one a few seconds after the first. Phoenix displays his macho and busts the door down, and immediately Lotta starts snapping photos. Grey is dead, and Maya (looking possessed) is covered in blood. Morgan orders Phoenix and Lotta out of the room so that she can purge the spirit out of Maya. Phoenix and Lotta leave and call the police, but when Gumshoe shows up he has no choice but to arrest Maya for the murder. Phoenix of course decides to take the case and takes a look around the village for evidence. He meets the spacey Ini Miney in the temple's spare room, who apparently slept through the whole thing. Phoenix spends the night in the village and in the morning goes to visit Maya. Day 2: Maya doesn't have much information, but she does tell Phoenix that she had a dream shortly after falling unconscious in the meeting room. She gives Phoenix her magatama jewel and tells him that Pearl will help him if he shows it to her. Phoenix returns to the village to collect evidence. He learns that the magatama jewel is used to open up people's "Psycho Locks," which represent the secrets they keep. With a spiritually charged magatama you can tell when people are lying and pry it out of them (aka a new gameplay element that lets you "cross examine" people outside of court). Pearl charges up the magatama and now Phoenix is his own lie detector. Phoenix continues to gather evidence, and finally uses his new magatama skills on Ini. He uncovers that she's actually the sister of Mimi Miney, the nurse from the hospital scandal. There's also a large box in the room that wasn't there before. He then returns to the detention area, only to find Mia there in Maya's body. He's shocked to see three psycho locks pop up when he asks her about the case. But she does give him a clue--spirit mediums don't dream when they're channeling. Day 3: The first day of the trial begins. Phoenix meets Franziska von Karma, the newest prosecutor, having arrived from America. She promises to get revenge on him, not for her father, but for the sake of the Von Karma name. Gumshoe takes the stand first to testify on the circumstances, but of course there are contradictions. Grey was stabbed first, and then shot in the head. But the evidence shows that Maya was also shot at (there is a bullet hole in her clothing), and that the shot came from far away. There was no reason for her to be that far away from him if she was the one doing the killing. Lotta is called to the stand next. After some pressing she reveals two pictures she took at the scene (one of which Franziska tried to have squashed. Silly Franziska, just like her dad). The second shows that the person in the room was clearly not Maya, which Franziska fights by proving that when a spirit medium channels a spirit, they take on that spirit's physical appearance to an extent. (This is the part that got to me a little. Franziska argues that Maya was channeling a spirit when she committed the crime, and yet still tries to hold Maya accountable for the murder. Doesn't make much sense to me but hey, PW justice is a fickle mistress) Phoenix points out that the picture of possessed Maya does not have a bullet hole in the clothing, and therefore the person they met in the meeting room could not have been Maya. The Judge determines that he can't hand down a verdict yet and the trial is held over to the next day. Meanwhile, Phoenix returns to Kurain for more investigation. He finds out that during the time of the crime, Pearl was playing with a ball in the hallway between the meeting room and the spare room. She accidentally broke a priceless family heirloom (a pot) and spent the time pasting it back together. He also finds out that until a year ago Ini was hospitalized in Hotti Clinic. Phoenix gets the address and goes for a visit. The "doctor" Phoenix meets tells him that Ini was a patient there for half a year, just after a terrible car crash. She was horribly burnt and they had to reconstruct her face with plastic surgery, using her old driver's license as a reference. Phoenix confronts Ini with this new information and learns that Ini was asleep in the car with her sister when she crashed (when Mimi was killed). Phoenix returns to the detention cell and talks to Mia again, unlocking her psycho locks. It seems that Morgan is still bitter about having not been chosen as the head of the main Fey family, especially since she was older than her sister. In four years Misty will be declared "dead" as far as the village is concerned, and her daughter Maya will be named the new head of the family. If nothing is done before then, Morgan's family will never have a chance to lead the clan. Day 4: The next day in court, Morgan takes the stand, but Phoenix is unable to find anything wrong with her testimony. Then it's Ini's turn. Phoenix uncovers several contradictions, the most serious of these being that she didn't see anyone in the hall when she moved between the meeting room and spare room the day of the incident. Since Pearl was there for a long time repairing her family's precious pot, that's simply not possible. Phoenix deduces that the reason Ini didn't see Pearl was because she was inside the large wardrobe box. The box has a bullet hole in it that had to have been caused in the room with Grey and Maya, so the box was hiding in that room at some point. Ini must have hidden the box, dressed like Maya, and when she was alone with the pair knocked Maya unconscious and killed Grey. When Phoenix broke the door down it was Ini he and Lotta saw covered in blood, because she had already hidden Maya inside the box. Then when Morgan showed up, she was able to move both Ini and Maya out of the room without anyone suspecting. Phoenix asks that Ini testify about the car accident a year ago, which she does. Through the testimony Phoenix is able to prove that not only was Ini the one actually driving the car that night when it crashed, but that Ini is actually Mimi, her sister! It was the younger sister Ini that died in the crash, but Mimi, wanting to get away from being blamed for the dead patients, gave the plastic surgeons her sister's driver's license to use in reconstructing her face. She intended to start a new life. But when she heard that Grey was going to try and call "Mimi" from the dead she knew she had to stop it, or else Maya would realize the person she was trying to call wasn't dead. With Morgan's help, she was able to kill Grey, getting revenge for her sister and protecting her own identity. Franziska gets pissed off and whips Phoenix unconscious, but the Judge is ready to pass down his verdict: Maya is not guilty. Phoenix explains to Maya later that the reason Morgan was so intent on framing her own niece for murder was because with Maya gone, Pearl could be named heir to the clan. Morgan is sent to prison but she doesn't give up her plans for revenge. |
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