Titles Edit

Common elements Edit

Development Edit

(left); starting with Investigations, it has been handled by producer Motohide Eshiro (pictured, right) and director Takeshi Yamazaki. The series was created by Shu Takumi ; starting with, it has been handled by producer Motohide Eshiroand director Takeshi Yamazaki. The series was created by Shu Takumi, who wrote and directed the first three games.[97] The first game was conceived in 2000 when Takumi's boss at the time, Shinji Mikami, gave him six months to create any type of game he wanted to; Takumi had originally joined Capcom wanting to make mystery and adventure games, and felt that this was a big chance for him to make a mark as a creator.[98] The game was designed to be simple, as Takumi wanted it to be easy enough for even his mother to play.[91] It was originally going to be a detective game, with Phoenix being a private investigator, but at one point Takumi realized that finding and taking apart contradictions was not related to detective work, and felt that the main setting of the game should be courtrooms.[99] Takumi felt that the best way to write a mystery with a good climax is to reveal various clues, and then pull them together into one conclusion, and not have multiple possible endings. He said that the biggest challenge with that was to make the gameplay and story work together; the goal was to make the player feel like they have driven the story forward themselves, with their own choices, even though the game is linear.[100] He only spent little time on writing a backstory for Phoenix before writing the first game's story, and instead made up dialogue and developed Phoenix's personality as he went along.[100] He came up with the partner character Maya because he thought it would be more fun for players to have another character with them, giving them advice, than investigating on their own.[100] After the first game's development was finished, Mikami told Takumi that they should make an Ace Attorney trilogy, with a grand finale in the third game's last case.[101] Takumi had originally planned to let Edgeworth be the prosecutor in all episodes in the second game,[102] but during the production the development team learned that the character had become popular. This led to Takumi feeling that he had to use the character more carefully and sparingly; he created the new prosecutor character Franziska von Karma, to save Edgeworth for the game's last case, and avoid a situation where he – a supposed prodigy – loses every case.[91] As Takumi wanted the three first Ace Attorney games to be parts of a larger work, he avoided making a lot of changes between games: art from the first game for main characters such as Phoenix, Maya and Edgeworth was reused, to avoid having the previous games look outdated in comparison to newer games in the series; and no new gameplay mechanics were added for Trials and Tribulations, as Takumi was happy with the gameplay after having added the psyche-lock mechanic for Justice for All.[102] For the fourth game, Takumi wrote the scenario and took on a supervisory role.[53][103] He had wanted the series to end with the third game, as he felt Phoenix had been fully explored and that his story had been told; he said that it is important to know when to end a story, that he did not want the series to become a shadow of its former self, and that he did not see any reason to continue it.[104] Despite this, the spin-off series Ace Attorney Investigations was created, being directed by Takeshi Yamazaki and produced by Motohide Eshiro;[105][106] Takumi returned to the series to write the crossover Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.[107] He also directed and wrote Dai Gyakuten Saiban, which was described as being the first entry in a new Ace Attorney series.[47] He said that he has mixed feelings about the series being developed by other Capcom staff, comparing it to a parent sending their child to their first day in school.[108] Yamazaki and Eshiro went on to direct and produce the main series entries Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice.[i] Due to exhaustion after working on Dual Destinies, Yamazaki split direction responsibilities with Takuro Fuse for Spirit of Justice, with Yamazaki working on the scenario, and Fuse on the art and gameplay.[111]

Localization Edit

The localization of the first game was outsourced to Bowne Global, and was handled by the writer Alexander O. Smith and the editor Steve Anderson. While the Japanese version takes place in Japan, the localized version is set in the United States: because one of the episodes involves time zones, they had to specify where the game takes place, and chose the United States without thinking a lot about it.[112] The Japanese justice system of the original still remained intact in the localization, as changing it would have altered the entire game structure.[113] The change in the series' setting became an issue in later games, where the Japanese setting was more obvious.[112] Starting with the second game, the series localization direction has been handled by Janet Hsu;[91] One of the first decisions she had to make was how to localize Maya's hometown and the mysticism of the Fey clan. She came up with the idea that the localized versions of the Ace Attorney games take place in Los Angeles in an alternative universe where anti-Japanese laws like the California Alien Land Law of 1913 were not passed, anti-Japanese sentiments were not powerful, and where Japanese culture flourished. This dictated what should be localized and what should be kept Japanese; things relating to the Fey clan and the Kurain channeling technique were kept Japanese, as that was Maya's heritage, while Japanese foods that were not widely known in the West were changed, such as changing Maya's favorite food from ramen to burgers. That particular change was mocked by players as the dish later became more well known in the West, and was lampshaded in the English release of Spirit of Justice, where Maya is described as liking both ramen and burgers.[91][114] Character names were also localized to use double meanings similarly to the Japanese names;[113] the name puns were based on the characters' personalities or backgrounds, or were visual gags.[115] Several English names were based on their Japanese counterparts, but for some characters the names had to be altered heavily compared to the Japanese versions.[113] Smith and Anderson had a lot of freedom when localizing the names of minor characters in the first game, but discussed the names of the main cast with Capcom. Phoenix's English surname, "Wright", was chosen as his Japanese name, "Naruhodō" – meaning "I see" or "I understand" – was frequently used as a joke in the script.[112] Dual Destinies was given a digital-only release in the West. This was partially because of the game's tight development schedule: by releasing it digitally, Capcom was able to release the English version close to the Japanese release date.[35] Although Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has not been officially localized, it has received a full fan translation.[45]

Reception Edit

Related media and other appearances Edit