She who was once full of pride is now anguished inside.
- The final case of Investigations 2: Sebastian spends the last case and this case in a huge Heroic BSoD due to finding out that his father is a killer who didn't care for him, paid off his school to let him become a prosecutor, and then ends up being kidnapped by him (although to his credit that wasn't actually his intention, his henchmen were just idiots and grabbed the wrong kid). After Edgeworth snaps him out of it, Sebastian confronts his father in court, but Blaise continues to insult him. At the very end, it's Sebastian that ends up sending his father into prison and humiliating him in the process, but Sebastian tells him that even though Blaise did all those terrible things, he still thanks him for helping him get this far in life.Sebastian: You may have hated me to the very end, Pops... but I ... I've always looked up to you. Thank you for everything up until now. ...And goodbye.
- His fully crying animation
that only starts being used around this part of the game is... really depressing. Poor kid.- On a similar note is Justine's "terrified for her son" animation, where she clutches at her own face and hyperventilates. The fact that it shows up very suddenly during Logic Chess with her, and she's been pretty much The Stoic the entire rest of the game, makes it hit even harder.
- The sheer extent of Blaise's mistreatment of Sebastian and how deeply broken his verbal beatdown leaves the poor kid. The entire game, while he gets a few lines showing he is really trying and is distressed at his constant error, Sebastian's relative incompetence is Played for Laughs and he remains thoroughly as the Butt-Monkey. But in only a few lines, his "idiocy" is contextualized as the result of growing up under a horrific excuse of a man who fed him nothing but lies and insults, never even affording him the chance to grow or learn. Sebastian isn't even just emotionally devastated from being more or less disowned (as if that wasn't enough reason), but everything the kid knew is publicly revealed to be a lie. His accomplishments, his title, and his likely only living parentnote are all shown to be empty. In the end, Edgeworth thankfully provides some much needed reassurance and helps the boy keep walking, and he even manages to put Blaise down himself in court, but the fact all that even had to happen, let alone at 17... that's rough.
- Sebastian's story and especially the state of him in this case can hit especially hard to anyone who knows just what it's like to be around or past his age and yet feel woefully underprepared or incapable of surviving. Throughout Logic Chess, Sebastian tearfully laments that he has no idea what to do when Blaise pretty much gave him everything he's had, constantly puts himself down, and compares his own "phoney" status against Edgeworth's while highlighting him as someone who actually knows how to be a prosecutor and earned it. Things do turn around for the better eventually and Edgeworth assures and helps Sebastian come to prove that he is far more capable on his own than he or Blaise himself have realized, but even if he does have adults like Edgeworth and Courtney in his life who'll look out for him, that dread of being an unprepared older teenager or adult without a caring parent and believing you truly have nothing in terms of skill or experience to help you - especially with (and doubly so if you've had to depend on) people like Blaise who only reinforce such an idea - is one that is very real.
- His fully crying animation
- Also from the final case is, surprisingly enough, the real killer's breakdown. The first half of it, at least. The second... not so much.
- Even on subsequent playthroughs, where you know what they did to earn that treatment, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for the killer due to just how paranoid and fearful she's become thanks to Dogen.
- The Foregone Conclusion nature of the IS-7 Incident of AAI2 from the moment you meet the defendant, if not from the moment Shields begins to talk about the incident. The only truly happy part of the case is that the defendant might finally be released from prison after over 18 years' wrongful imprisonment. The downside? The real killer cannot be charged with the murder. It makes you really understand the pressure and power of the Statute of Limitations, and how damned problematic it is. You can actually feel the increasing desperation and mortification the defense team is going through as each and every out they come up with is crushed by the smallest of things, and the Bittersweet Ending is no help.
- Of course, all this serves to make Edgeworth's eventual resolution of the incident even more awesome. Statute of limitations? What statute of limitations?
- Leading up to the additional conclusion that will lead to DL-6, one of the last shots of Gregory Edgeworth is his main sprite graying out as he prepares for the IS-7 trial soon, and eventually his death. He never finds out that his son closes his last, unsolved case.
- As an additional sad note, while Jeff is likely to be released from prison and be cleared of his charges, his adoptive daughter will likely spend some time behind bars herself due to her attempt to take the life of the real culprit. While Ray does promise to defend her case, it's still sad to know it may take even longer for Jeff and Kate to be reunited.
- For all his joking and light-hearted nature, Raymond Shields can be quite a tragic character when you consider his situation. As Gregory Edgeworth's former apprentice he too suffered from the senior Edgeworth's death, arguably taking it harder than Miles, and up until this game he likely felt alone in his grief due to thinking Miles had forgotten all about his father after von Karma took him in. Ray also makes a habit of speaking to Gregory's picture in the office when alone, has held onto Gregory's hat and coat (the former of which he wears all the time and the latter he's implied to wear in court), and even refuses to change the office's name to reflect the change in ownership (unlike Phoenix after Mia's death), evidently clinging to his mentor's ghost. Plus he is constantly putting himself down while comparing himself to Gregory in terms of his skills as an attorney even in casual conversation, as if he can't seem to go one moment of his job without thinking about his predecessor and kicking himself for not being there when his mentor died. One has to wonder how much of his behavior is just his usual quirks and how much might be a coping mechanism for as-of-yet unresolved grief and understated self-loathing.
- During Investigations 2, everything about Franziska and her father. When Manfred is brought up by Justine, Franziska's clearly horrified to learn that the thing that got him a black mark on his record was forged evidence (even though moments later it's clarified that he didn't have the autopsy forged, there's still the fact that she's probably realized he really did forge evidence in other cases). The fact that she never knew what caused her father the black mark on his record is pretty heartbreaking itself; this means that neither Miles nor her father ever told her. She knew there was one, but not what caused it. She's also the one who offers the gradually distraught Sebastian advice, however indirectly, by talking about her own experience with a father who did a lot of wrong things in the only time she actually calls her beloved "Papa" "father":Kay: That person... he really loves his father, doesn't he...?Franziska: However... one must be able to accept the mistakes of their father... However much they may look up to them...
- Kay gains a new Leitmotif when she's met in AAI2 Case 4 that's singularly depressing. She's lost her memory.
- Midway through the final case, John, having just learned that he's the illegitimate son of the president of Zheng Fa, comes to the conclusion that he accidentally murdered his father.
- Di-Jun Huang's (the real one) personality sounded much more honorable than his double-crossing body double's. Even when he knew what was going to happen to him, he didn't plead for his own life but only asked to see his son one time before being assassinated.
- During Simon Keyes' final interrogation after he's revealed to be the Big Bad, he has a tendency to swing between Faux Affably Evil Black Comedy and this. It begins when it's revealed that his motive for orchestrating Knightley's death is his feelings of betrayal (a betrayal that led to him very nearly dying of hypothermia) and the fact that he thinks the murderer in IS-7 was Knightley's father and not his own, since he couldn't believe that his own would willingly abandon him. But Gustavia did, and Knightley died for no reason. He's geniunely shocked and upset by this, although he quickly regains his composure and mocking personality, bringing up that he had other reasons to want Knightley dead.
- Simon in general is an absolutely heart-wrenching Tragic Villain. The man was betrayed by his closest friend, disowned by his jerk of a father, nearly froze to death until Dogen saved him, lost his memories, traumatically witnessed his savior assassinate someone, then covered for him to prevent his clients from killing him, before basically being on the run from the conspirators, unable to trust anyone to keep him safe but himself and Dogen. All of that trauma basically destroyed any chance of Simon being able to trust anyone and made him cold, bitter, and exploitative.
- Knightley is also rather tragic in his own way. His father, who was apparently so abusive Knightley was terrified of him, forced him to betray his best friend, and he nearly froze to death alongside Simon. He lost his memories, and genuinely believed that Simon forgave him and that he was still his friend until Simon manipulated him into killing Rooke, and manipulated Roland into killing Knightley.
- The fact that despite the game ending on a high note, only six days will pass after Edgeworth's new pledge to reform the legal system, when a certain magician will be found dead inside his hospital room and Phoenix Wright will not only get framed for presenting false evidence and getting disbarred, he accidentally helps kickstart The Dark Age of the Law. Sure, he'll eventually get to make good on that pledge, but it's one hell of a tragic setback.
