Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 14: The Magnificent Turnabout Pt. 2 (2004)

Title: The Magnificent Turnabout - Part 2 / 「華麗なる逆転・後編」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down) 

Summary: In the fourteenth column for the official Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website, Takumi explains how he managed to solve a fatal problem in the original script for the final episode of the game, The Magnificent Turnabout  (Bridge to the Turnabout). After three years, Takumi decided to take the advice he had written so often in the games and use it himself, and that led to a surprising result.

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 13: The Magnificent Turnabout Pt. 1 (2004)

Title: The Magnificent Turnabout - Part 1 / 「華麗なる逆転・前編」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the thirteenth column for the official Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website, director Takumi starts his two-part series on the final episode in the game: The Magnificent Turnabout (Bridge to the Turnabout). As seen in previous columns, the last episode of each game usually proves to be the most difficult, and this was no exception. Even though he already had a rough outline finished for the first part of the game, that version had actually been abandoned earlier because it contained a fatal flaw he didn't manage to fix. But with little time left, Takumi was forced to use that version anyway, and hope he'd come up with a solution to his problem anyway.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 5: Psyche Locks (2002)

Title: Psyche Locks / 「サイコ・ロック」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the fifth column posted on the official Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All) website, director Takumi talks about the new mechanic introduced in this game, the Psyche Locks. He explains why they were added, how he came up with them and the difficulties they had actually creating the system. As usual with the columns of this game, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) have fun 'backstage', looking back at Takumi's column and commenting on that.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 16: Finale (2004)

Title: Finale / 「大団円」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the final column written for the Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website, Takumi looks back at the release of the game, as well as the whole series. At the time, this was supposed to be the last game in the series, so Takumi takes the time to look back at all that has happened inside the courtroom, and says farewell to his characters and the players who have supported the series these three years.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 15: Advertising Campaign (2001)

Title: Advertising Campaign / 「宣伝活動」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the fifteenth column for the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), director Takumi talks about another 'contradiction' in his project. To sell the game, he needs people to know about it. But as it's a mystery game, he doesn't want people to know about it, so they can be genuinely surprised by what the game has to offer. The pros and cons of the advertising campaign is always a problem for this series, as many years later, the director and producer for Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) would also have frequent fights about what they could say and could not say as part of the marketing.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 14: Excursion (2001)

Title: Excursion / 「えんそく」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: Many fans of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series like the games because of their writing, but obviously, plotting and writing a story is not a simple job. In the fourteenth column for the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban, Takumi explains about all the moods he goes through during the writing process. 

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 10: Run With Everything You Have (2001)

Title: Run With Everything You Have / 「全力疾走」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: With the team had finally settled on how the game should be after stumbling and getting up again, it was basically a race against the clock to finish the game, as director Takumi and his team were only given a few months to create their game in the first place. In this tenth column originally published on the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) website, Takumi explains some of the minor troubles they had as they headed towards the goal.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 9: Restructuring (2001)

Title: Restructuring / 「リストラ」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the previous columns on the official website of the GBA version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney), director Takumi explained how the project had almost been cancelled because of a lack of team members, and how the initial demo of their game met with harsh criticism within his department, as it was not hard to understand and simply not fun as a game. With little time left, Takumi had address those problems quickly and start on the actual creation of the episodes of the game. In this ninth column, Takumi explains how the original demo was rebuilt to become the game we know now.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 15: Infinity Born From "Restrictions" (2004)

Title: Infinity Born From “Restrictions” / 「“制限”が生む、無限大」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: The fifteenth column for Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3: Trials & Tribulations) has director Takumi talking about what the limited storage space on a Game Boy Advance cartridge means for the development of these games. While you would think that restrictions would be a bad influence on that, Takumi points out that being forced to come up with ideas is not a bad thing per se, and indeed, many of the elements thought "typical" of this series, were simply results of the team having to cope with storage restrictions.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 10: Turnabout Circus (2002)

Title: Turnabout Circus / 「逆転サーカス」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the tenth column for the Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) website, director Takumi writes about the third episode in the game: Turnabout Circus (Turnabout Big Top). The story features many personal elements, like a character with a love for (bad) jokes, as well as trick magic (Takumi has always claimed that his performance during his job interview with Capcom got him hired). But he also notes that this was an episode with more focus on drama: many years later, when he was working on the anime adaptation of this very episode, he still remained firm in his opinion that this was one of the most touching episodes he had created. In the backstage part of this column, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) talk a bit about some scrapped ideas for this episode.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Takumi Shū X Madoy Van Discussion (2017)

Title: Commemorating The Start Of the Serialization of The Novelization Gyakuten Saiban - Turnabout of the Time Traveler. Takumi Shū X Madoy Van Discussion / 「ノヴェライズ「逆転裁判 時間旅行者の逆転」連載開始記念 巧舟x円居挽 対談」
Source: Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine, January 2017

Summary: An interview between Takumi Shū and mystery writer Madoy Van (Madoi Ban) was published in the January 2017 issue of Hayakawa’s Mystery Magazine. Madoy Van is the writer of the original story Gyakuten Saiban Jikanryokōsha no Gyakuten (‘Turnabout Trial - Turnabout of the Time Traveler’), which will be serialized in Mystery Magazine starting with the March 2016 issue to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series. In this interview, the two men talk about their love for mystery fiction, their experience with Gyakuten Saiban (both as creator and user) and about the series growing into a media franchise.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Discussion Interview Between The Producers of Gyakuten Saiban and Danganronpa (2016)

Title: Discussion Interview Between The Producers of Gyakuten Saiban and Danganronpa. Revealing Secret Development Tales and How To Train People / 「『逆転裁判』と『ダンガンロンパ』プロデューサー対談。開発秘話や人の育て方を赤裸々に公開」
Source: Dengeki Online

Summary: On November 17th, 2016, Dengeki Online posted an interview with producer Eshiro of Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series, and producer Terasawa of Spike-Chunsoft's Danganronpa series. Both series celebrate an anniversary this year and the two producers talk about how the two first met, the way they produce their games, about how they think about fan reaction and ask each other questions on their respective franchises.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 12: Turnabout Beginnings (2004)

Title: Turnabout Beginnings / 「始まりの逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down) 

The twelfth column of the Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials and Tribulations) website has Takumi writing about the fourth episode in the game: Turnabout Beginnings. Takumi talks about how he had considered making this the first episode in the game, because it is chronologically the first trial to happen. He also explains how Mitsurugi (Edgeworth) came to have a role in this episode.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 9: Turnabout Memories (2004)

Title: Turnabout Memories / 「思い出の逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the ninth column director Takumi wrote for the official website of Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials and Tribulations), he talks about the first episode of the game: Turnabout Memories. Like he explained in the previous column, little happenings (which he dubs irregularities) often result in big changes in this series and he points out two of them that occured during the development of this opening episode, which would have ramifications for the whole game. As always, these columns on specific episodes do contain spoilers.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 10: The Stolen Turnabout (2004)

Title: The Stolen Turnabout / 「盗まれた逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the tenth entry of the Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) blog, Takumi talks about writing the second episode in the game: The Stolen Turnabout. As he mentions in the eleventh entry of the blog, he considers the second episode in his games as the second-most important episodes after the first one, because they are usually the first full case in a game. For 3, he decided to use a story based on the works of Edogawa Rampo, the author of the short story that got Takumi interested in mystery fiction in the first place. Takumi also talks about the new prosecutor Godot.

Monday, October 3, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 22: The Final Episode (2) (2001)

Title: The Final Episode (2) / 「最終話 (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the last blog entry about the individual episodes in the original Game Boy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi talks about that last final spurt, where he needed to wrap up Turnabout Goodbyes. He explains where the idea for Sayuri (Polly) came from, but also reminds us that his work was long from over even after writing the final episode: testing and the optional dialogues had to be done too after all of that.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 21: The Final Episode (1) (2001)

Title: The Final Episode (1) / 「最終話 (1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the twentieth blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi talks about the final episode in the game: Turnabout Goodbyes. Earlier in the development process, he hit upon the idea to make the episodes interconnected (thanks to advice by a certain team member), but now he actually had to write the final episode that would get everything together. The problem was that he had no ideas whatsover left for this final murder mystery. A somewhat lucky news item however would turn into one of the defining moments ot eh game.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 20: Tonosaman (2) (2001)

Title: Tonosaman (2) / 「トノサマン (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: Contuining on from the previous blog post for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), director Takumi talks about writing Turnabout Tonosaman (Turnabout Samurai). He mentions how the murderer of this episode actually swapped genders during development and how he came up with the idea of having a child appear in the story too. He finishes off talking about how absolutely difficult it was writing this story and about the important lesson he learned from this experience.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 19: Tonosaman (1) (2001)

Title: Tonosaman (1) / 「トノサマン(1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the nineteenth blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi Shū talks about the third episode of the game, Turnabout Tonosaman (Turnabout Samurai). It is revealed that this was actually the first story he worked on for the game, some time before the Gyakuten Saiban development team was actually formed and while he still had to finish work on Dino Crisis. The original plans for this story however were very different from the final product.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Voice Recording Episodes (2004)

Title: Voice Recording Episodes / 「ボイス収録エピソード」
Source: Dreamaga, Issue 21, May-July, 2004

Summary: An interview with all six original voice actors in the first three Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) games was featured in a 2004 issue of Dreamaga, following the Game Boy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations). While nowadays professional voice actors are hired to voice the characters in these games, the original three games featured Capcom staff members, some of them even people who hadn't worked directly on the game series. In this short interview, the actors explain how they got their roles and talk about what went on during the recording sessions.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Dai Gyakuten Saiban - The Adventure of Designing (2015)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban - The Adventure of Designing / 「大逆転裁判 デザインの冒險!」
Source: Capcom

Summary: In the 35th entry in the Capcom Legends column on the Capcom site, where they interview Capcom staff members, designer Nuri Kazuya is invited to talk about his career and about Dai Gyakuten Saiban (The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures), where he worked as the character designer and art director. In this interview, dated July 2015, Nuri talks about the games he worked on before he came to work on the Gyakuten Saiban series, about his favorite characters and about the thought process behind the designs of the main characters in Dai Gyakuten Saiban.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 7: Combing for Bugs (2002)

Title: Combing for Bugs / 「しらみつぶし」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: Story, character and art design are by the topics most often discussed on the Gyakuten Saiban developer's blogs and some parts of the development cycle are practically never mentioned. In the seventh blog post for Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All, director Takumi decided to write about a group of unsung heroes: the bug checkers. The people who have to play the game again and again in search for bugs. And that's not just programming bugs: they also need to look out for story bugs: contradictions that would mess up the story. Takumi explains why these people are so important, especially when he's working on a game. As always with the Gyakuten Saiban 2 blog, the post is followed by a section where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) add their own comments to Takumi's post.

Monday, September 12, 2016

3DS Gyakuten Saiban 5 Special Long Interview (2013)

Title: 3DS Gyakuten Saiban 5 Special Long Interview / 「3DS「逆転裁判5」特別ロングインタビュー」
Source: Game Watch

Summary: In this interview by Game Watch with producer Eshiro and scenario director Yamazaki, the two talk about Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies), the first new Gyakuten Saiban game in six years. The two had previously worked on the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series, but this time they'd be working in a game in the main series, and one fans had been waiting for a long, long time. The interview was published on July 27, 2013, a few days after the release of the game, but done a few days before the release. In this interview, Eshiro and Yamazaki talk about how they came to work on Gyakuten Saiban 5, about the characters, about working on a new game in a beloved series, on getting the look of the game just right, and much, much more.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Developer Interview (2016)

Title: Developer Interview / 「開発者インタビュー」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 Official Visual Book

Summary: This is an interview included with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Official Visual Book, released in August 2016. In it, director Yamazaki Takeshi and art director Fuse Takurō first talk about the early stages of the development process and then proceed to focus on each of the five episodes (+ special episode) and the characters that appear there. They have something to say about basically all of the characters, and explain how they came up with both their visual design and their story background. The interview is full of spoilers, obviously, as it is intended for people who have played the game and have gone through the artbook (which again, obviously, is full of spoilers).

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 8: In Short, "Irregularities" (2004)

Title: In Short, "Irregularities" / 「つまりそれは、“不測の事態”」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the eight blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations), series director Takumi talks about 'irregularities': little happenings that Takumi tries to bend into positive energy for the development process. He talks about how certain restraints, like the amount of space available on a Game Boy Advance cartridge, can have all kinds of effects on the final product. He also explains a bit about how they selected the voice actors for the voice clips in the game, and how they also have an influence on the story.

Monday, September 5, 2016

4 Isn’t A Change From The Old To The New, But A Fusion Between The Old And The New (2007)

Title: 4 Isn’t A Change From The Old To The New, But A Fusion Between The Old And The New /  「「4」は新旧交代ではなく、新旧融和なんじゃないか?と思うんです」
Source: Nintendo Dream, May Issue, 2007

Summary: In this 2007 interview published in Nintendo Dream, scenario writer Takumi Shū, producer Matsukawa Minae and character designer Nuri Kazuya talk about Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice). The three worked previously together on Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS). Gyakuten Saiban 4 was to be a new chapter in the series, featuring a new protagonist. In this interview, the three talk about the atmosphere in the game and the troubles they had with writing the story and designing the characters for this new, but familiar-looking entry of the series.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 17: Turnabout Sisters (2) (2001)

Title: Turnabout Sisters (2) / 「逆転姉妹 (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the seventeenth blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi Shū talks about he rewrote the prototype of the second episode, Turnabout Sisters, after it was bashed inside Capcom.Takumi had a lot of homework to do, but he somehow managed to rewrite it to the version we now know today, with a little help from the heavens. What many consider to be the core story of the game, actually came to Takumi in a spark of inspiration.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 16: Turnabout Sisters (1) (2001)

Title: Turnabout Sisters (1) / 「逆転姉妹(1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the sixteenth blog entry for the Game Boy Advance version of the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi Shū talks about how he first came up with Turnabout Sisters, the second episode in the game and the episode which would introduce two more characters of the main cast. He also mentions some of the early names of the characters featured in this early prototype version, but also points out why this early version didn't actually work: he had already mentioned in an earlier blog entry that this version was actually very badly received by his superiors.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Dai Gyakuten Saiban - Special Discussion With The Developers To Celebrate Completion & Release (2015)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban - Special Discussion With The Developers To Celebrate Completion & Release / 「大逆転裁判 完成&発売記念 開発人特別鼎談」
Source: Dengeki Nintendo, September Issue, 2015

Summary: In this long post-release interview published in the September 2015 issue of Dengeki Nintendo, producer Kojima, director Takumi and art director Nuri talk about their recently released Dai Gyakuten Saiban (The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures). Now the game is ready, the team is free to talk about all kinds of things, like how smooth development actually went. They talk about the earlier days of the project, about the length of the original scenario of the game, about voice acting, about overall art design, motion capturing and character modeling and even the marketing campaigns in Japan.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Capcom's Takumi Shū X Storytelling Ishii Jirō - Discussion on Creating Adventure Games (2015)

Title: Capcom's Takumi Shū X Storytelling Ishii Jirō - Discussion on Creating Adventure Games / 「カプコン 巧舟氏×ストーリーテリング イシイジロウ氏 アドベンチャーゲーム制作者対談」
Source: Famitsu

Summary: In this discussion interview (dated July 31, 2015) about adventure games, Takumi Shū is joined by Ishii Jirō, a former Chunsoft director and producer for games like 428 ~ Fūsa Sareta Shibuya De ('428 ~ In a Sealed Shibuya') Kyokugen Dasshutsu 9 Jikan 9 Nin 9 no Tobira (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors), but now a freelance scenario writer. Both men specialize in writing and designing adventure games, but as they discover in the interview, their way of working is quite different, with different styles and responsibilities. Ishii also analyzes the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) games in terms of storytelling and game grammar.

Images are taken from the source article. Copryight belongs to the respective owners.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 11: Farewell, My Turnabout (2002)

Title: Farewell, My Turnabout  / 「さらば、逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the penultimate column for the Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) website, Takumi writes about the final episode of the game, Farewell, My Turnabout. Because of the problems described in the column titled The Meteorite Brothers, Takumi had to do a lot more in this episode than he had originally planned and he also forced use an idea for a story he wanted to sit on a bit longer. Because of the total chaos while working on this final episode, he made a lot of mistakes in the scenario and he didn't even manage to clean all of them up. In the Backstage part, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) have their usual commentary on Takumi's comments, talking about how Obachan (Oldbag)'s design was made, showng some examples of the mistakes Takumi made in the initial version of the story and they even reveal The Seven Mysteries of the Courthouse.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite Lyrics (2014)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite Lyrics
Source: Famitsu

Summary: The music of Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies) was featured in 2014's Okinawa Game Tact Special Gala Concert. Iwadare Noriyuki, who composed the music for the game, also composed the Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite, an orchestral piece of music that combined several tracks used during the court sections of the game. The tracks used are:
  • Kaitei ('Court Opens')
  • Jinmon (Moderato) ('Cross Examination (Moderato))
  • Jinmon (Allegro) ('Cross Examination (Allegro))
  • Naruhodō Ryūichi ~ Igiari! ('Naruhodō Ryūichi ~ Objection!')
  • Tsuikyū ~ Oitsumemakure ('Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On')
As an extra special treat, scenario writer Yamazaki Takeshi wrote lyrics for the suite, which a chorus sang on the melody of the final part, Tsuikyū ~ Oitsumemakure. While Takumi Shū is a bit of an amateur musician and has written lyrics for music used in the games in the past, this is the first time Yamazaki did something of the sort. In an interview with the Cosmosky Orchestra website, Iwadare reveals that Yamazaki used his day off to write the lyrics for him. A romanized and translated version of the lyrics follow after the break.

Note: The original article uses "PHENIX", but it is more than likely this is a typo, so it's "PHOENIX" below.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 13: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (3) (2001)

Title: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (3) / 「一期一会 (3)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: Concluding his series of posts on the staff members of the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi talks about the management: the producer Inaba Atsushi, and the head of Capcom's Production Studio 4, Mikami Shinji, who both were a big support for Takumi's experiment. Both managers had a long history 'in the field' by the way, with Mikami originally being a planner and Inaba a programmer, before they became producers. Mikami and Inaba would eventually move out to form Clover Studio, and after that also Platinum Games.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 12: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (2) (2001)

Title: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (2) / 「一期一会 (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In his second post introducing all the staff members who worked on the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi looks at the rest of the development team he hadn't mentioned yet: Ōtani and Endō of Programming, and Sugimori and Mori of Sound Design. Sugimori Masukazu is probably the best known of these four, as he composed the iconic soundtrack of the first game. Sugimori would leave Capcom, but Takumi and Sugimori would team-up again for 2010's Ghost Trick. Mori is perhaps not very well known by name, but he was actually the person who "saved" the game. He was the person who had been added to the Gyakuten Saiban team when the game was about to be canceled because it didn't have enough staff members. The poor guy had to work on both the Biohazard (Resident Evil) team and the Gyakuten Saiban team (see blog entry 8).

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 11: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (1) (2001)

Title: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (1) / 「一期一会 (1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the eleventh blog post for the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA) for the Game Boy Advance, Takumi looks back at the official disbandment of the Gyakuten Saiban development team and decides to take a look at all of the members in the team who contributed to the game. Which he can do, because it was a very, very small team. He first starts off with the graphics team, consisting of Suekane Kumiko and Iwamoto Tatsurō. Suekane left Capcom some time after this game, but is still known for having a big influence on the characters in the game, not just visually, but also in terms of their story background. Iwamoto would stay on as a designer for both the Gyakuten Saiban series and the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series. This interview with Suekane is definitely also recommend material to read with this blog entry.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

The People of Capcom: Inaba Atsushi (2001)

Title: The People of Capcom: Inaba Atsushi / 「カプコン人間模様   稲葉敦志」
Source: Capcom official site (down)

Summary:While most producers of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series have actually been very active in the marketing campaigns lately, appearing in interviews and at other related events and have often talked openly about their influence on the development of the games, the very first producer, Inaba Atsushi, has never been as much in the spotlight as the people after him. While he was responsible for Gyakuten Saiban 1 ~ 3 (Ace Attorney 1, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations), the number of interview with him on the game is fairly small compared to the people after him. In the column The People of Capcom for Capcom's site (and the mail magazine) however, there is a rare interview with Inaba, held just before the very first game was released. While the interview is not about Gyakuten Saiban specifically, he does talk about it and he talks about how he influenced how the game would turn out.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Blog Entry 7: What's a Script? (2016)

Title: What's a Script? / 「スクリプトってなに?」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 official site

Summary: On June 13, 2016, the seventh blog post for Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) was published, written by programmer Hirata Momoko. She was introduced by Eshiro in the previous post as the only woman in the programming team and in this post, she also reveals she's actually the youngest staff member. She explains about "scripts", tools that decides what appears when and how on the Nintendo 3DS screen. Everything from the characters and text to backgrounds and music is governed by a script and they have been a big part of the Gyakuten Saiban series since the first game.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Blog Entry 9: The Faraway Kingdom of Kurain (2016)

Title: The Faraway Kingdom of Kurain / 「遙かなるクライン王国」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 official site

Summary: In the ninth blog post on the Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) website, posted on June 20, 2016, background artist Ishikawa tells about how the Kingdom of Kurain (Kingdom of Khu'rain), the new setting in the game, was designed. Ishikawa had previously worked on Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies), but because the Kingdom of Kurain was a completely new setting, it was almost like starting from scratch all over again. Included are some of the earlier designs of the kingdom.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to the respective owners.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Blog Entry 4: Working on Game Effects (2016)

Title: Working on Game Effects / 「エフェクトのお仕事」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 official site

Summary: The sixth blog entry for Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) was posted on June 2, 2016 and was written by Akitsuki Chieko, who worked on effects in the game. Ever since the first game, the Gyakuten Saiban series has been praised for its attention to lively presentation, and effects are of course an important part of that. Akitsuki first runs us through her other task in the team (keeping the snack table stocked), and then explains about how effects are used in the water mirror for the Spirit Channeling Vision (Divination Séance) system. She also discusses (and shows images of) a few of the rejected design ideas for spirit channeling, which were quite different than the one we got in the final product.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 11: Turnabout Recipe (2004)

Title: Turnabout Recipe / 「逆転のレシピ」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the eleventh blog entry for Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations), series director continues with his series of stories about how each of the episodes was created. Turnabout Recipe is a special case, because it was originally written for Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All). In a blog entry for Gyakuten Saiban 2, Takumi did mention they had to cut a whole episode away because they didn't have enough space. He eventually got to use the story for this game. He also explains the origin of the rather memorable lunchbox seen in this episode.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 6: The Meteorite Brothers (2002)

Title: The Meteorite Brothers / 「メテオ兄弟」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the sixth blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All), Takumi talks about two big problems they encountered during the development. One was a character-related problem. The popularity of Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) had consequences for the way in which Takumi could use him in the game. Another problem was one of space: they didn't have enough on the cartridge to do all five episodes they had initially planned. In the Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) blog, it is eventually revealed that the cut story was in fact Turnabout Recipe (Recipe for Turnabout), which was used as the third episode in that game.

As always with the Gyakuten Saiban 2 blog, Takumi's own article is followed by a 'backstage' skit, where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) add their own comments to Takumi's story.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 6: Lecture on Law (2001)

Title: Lecture on Law / 「法律談義」

Summary: In the sixth blog post for the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA) for the Game Boy Advance, Takumi talks about the role of the actual legal system and trials in Japan in his own game. While few would ever believe the legal system in the game is realistic, there's an unfounded belief that the game was designed to be a parody of some sorts on the actual Japanese legal system. As Takumi himself already explained over the course of the developer's blog however, that never was the intention: he just gathered all kind of stereotypical images of the courtroom to make a mystery game.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Project X Zone 2: Brave New World. Cross Talk Interview With Developers From Different Companies Part 3 (2015)

Title: Project X Zone 2: Brave New World. Cross Talk Interview With Developers From Different Companies Part 3 / 「『PROJECT X ZONE 2:BRAVE NEW WORLD』メーカーの垣根を越えた開発者クロストークインタビューを公開【第三回】」
Source: Famitsū

Summary: Project X Zone is a crossover strategy RPG featuring series from three different game companies (+ one extra). Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) too joined the crossover in 2015's Project X Zone 2: Brave New World. In this Famitsū interview, originally posted on November 6, 2015, PXZ2 director Morizumi Souichirō and producer Tsukanaka Kensuke are joined by Capcom's Eshiro Motohide to talk about how they got Gyakuten Saiban in the game and the things they had to look out for. Topics include scrapped ideas, how the Gyakuten Saiban characters were included in the story, what is difficult about working on a crossover title and sprite art.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 4: Court Observation (2) (2001)

Title: Court Observation (2) / 「裁判傍聴 (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: The fourth blog post of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA) is a direct continuation of the previous post, about the team's little field trip to the courthouse. Takumi notices that some of the ideas he had about the courthouse were in fact not correct, but he still uses them in the game, because like he points out in a later post: the game isn't about realism or about portraying the Japanese court system. It's just a mystery game that just happens be set in a fictional courtroom.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 3: Court Observation (1) (2001)

Title: Court Observation (1) / 「裁判傍聴 (1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: Most people only know the courtroom from TV, so Takumi decided to have a little field trip to the courthouse with the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA) team, so they could learn more about each other, and see a bit of the courtroom. Luckily, the courthouse was very near the Capcom headquarters, but the experience at the courtroom was perhaps not exactly what Takumi first had in mind.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 2: The Dancing Meeting Room (2001)

Title: The Dancing Meeting Room / 「会議は踊る」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the second blog post for the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA), director Takumi Shū talks about the very first period in the development process of the game, when the small team of seven had gathered for the first time and they went through Takumi's proposal together. As we learn in the course of the developer's blog, Takumi's proposal definitely wasn't without its faults, so it was not wonder that the team was kinda confused about what the director was trying to create.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Interviewing Gyakuten Saiban 123 Designer Iwamoto Tatsurō (2014)

Title: His Favorite is Godot! Asking About The Memories Of How the Characters Were Created And Development Back Then. Interviewing Gyakuten Saiban 123 Designer Iwamoto Tatsurō / 「お気に入りはゴドー検事!キャラ誕生の経緯や開発当時の思い出に迫った「逆転裁判 123」デザイナー・岩元辰郎氏へインタビュー」
Source: Gamer

Summary: In this interview published on May 3, 2014 about Gyakuten Saiban 123 (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy), Iwamoto Tatsurō tells about the work he has done on the original three Gyakuten Saiban games. While he was the secondary character designer (and all-round graphics artist) for the first game, he became the main character designer from the second game on after Suekane Kumiko left Capcom. He talks about desiging characters, about how the development went on the first games and about his favorite character and even about how he voiced Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth).

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to the respective owners

Has The Deduction Battle Started? Ayatsuji Yukito X Takumi Shū Discussion (2016)

Title: Has The Deduction Battle Started? Ayatsuji Yukito X Takumi Shū Discussion / 「推理バトルは始まっている? 『謎解きLIVE』で綾辻行人×巧舟対談」
Source: NHK (2016, down)

Summary: Nazotoki Live ('Mystery Solving Live') is a program where both viewers and studio guest are challenged to solve a murder mystery live. A murder mystery drama is occassionally interrupted by questions aimed at the studio guests and viewers back home, that serve as a hint to identifying who the murderer is. The program is broadcast on two consecutive nights. Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series creator Takumi Shū was one of the three studio guest of the episode broadcast in January, 2016. The interview translated below was held between him and mystery writer Ayatsuji Yukito, who wrote the episode. The discussion also touches lightly on the creation process of both writers.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Twitter: The Starting Year of Gyakuten Saiban (2016)

Title: The Starting Year of Gyakuten Saiban
Source: Takumi Shū 's Twitter

Summary: On August 5, 2016, Takumi started tweeting about how two days earlier, August 3, 2016, was in fact the date of the very first case in the first game, Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA). The game was made fifteen years ago, but never could he have guessed at that time that the game would eventually grow out to be one of Capcom's bigger franchises. But he then explains how he actually came up with the idea of setting this game in 2016, and the answer might be bit surprising to some, as it appears Takumi really, really didn't like putting a year in the game in the first place.

In the translation below, each paragraph is a seperate tweet.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Development Discussion - Final Part (2016)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 6 Development Discussion - Final Part / 「最終回『逆転裁判6』開発座談会 」
Source: Gyakuten Tsūshin

Summary: The final part of an exclusive fourt-part interview with the development staff of Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 – Spirit of Justice) for the official fan website for the series: Gyakuten Tsūshin. This part was first posted on August 4, 2016. In the final part, the staff members are asked about things they experienced for the first time while working on the game. In the second half, the staff members are asking each other questions. The question asked by producer Eshiro to all members is perhaps the big one: whether they want to work on a hypothetical future Gyakuten Saiban game and what they think that game could be.