Thursday, July 21, 2016

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Development Discussion - Part 2 (2016)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 6 Development Discussion - Part 2 / 「第2回『逆転裁判6』開発座談会 」
Source: Gyakuten Tsūshin

Summary: The second part of an exclusive 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.Part 2 was first posted on July 21, 2016. Following up on part 1, the six staff members are asked about the scenes they liked best, what characters from the series they'd want to see return in future installments, what they'd like to see if they were going on a holiday to the Kingdom of Kurain and the music and sound effects they liked. Proper introduction of all the participants is done in part 1, so it is recommend to read that first.

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

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Discussion - Part 2

Interviewer: Could you tell us about the scenes you have fond memories of?

Yamazaki: I like the scene in episode 2 where they do the magic act. We used motion capturing there. It’s also part of the puzzle, so I think we did something quite challenging there.

Eshiro: I agree. I think the team made quite a lot of challenging scenes. Talking about that, I myself really thought you must have gone through some hardships when I first saw the footage of the Spirit Channeling Visions (Divination Séances). You needed to connect the footage on the screen with the mystery plot, so you couldn’t just have the players fill in the gaps in their mind. I thought you were hanging yourself up there. But because you worked that hard on that, it also became an impressive feature.

Fuse: I’m talking about the whole game now, but the most difficult scenes we have to come up with are always the break scenes, so I am quite fond of them. I think each of them makes great use of their design and backstory. And it’s not the murderers of each episode that have them, so I hope the users will enjoy them.

Daigo: I like the scene where the map is explained in 3D. The crime scene is shown in 3D, so when the camera suddenly pulls away and you get to see the structure and space in 3D. Especially in episode 2, where it makes the location of everything much easier to understand.

Eshiro: It’s a case where location is important, so you can’t have it hard to understand. When it becomes 3D, it becomes very easy to comprehend.

Interviewer: It’s surprising to see a flat map suddenly move. And Mr. Horiyama, what scene do you have in mind?

Horiyama: Last time, I said I liked Sāra, but I was very touched by the last scene where you get to see her feelings towards her husband.

Interviewer: That scene also hit me hard. And Mr. Noda, what about you?

Noda: There’s a scene where “a lot of mob characters” appear on the scene. We used to have bailiffs doing similar things in the courtroom, but they’d just be standing in the back and wouldn’t move around. But in this game we have “a lot of mob characters” suddenly appear, and have them flying around. That was pretty impressive.

Yamazaki: The game would always slow down there, so it was a difficult scene.

Noda: That was a problem too. At first, I thought: “What kind of horrible thing are they trying to create!” But it was a scene we had never seen before and it was very original. Also, in the animated part at the start of the game, there’s a scene where Reifa (Rayfa) looks down at Bokto (Ahlbi Ur'gaid) as he’s being arrested. The look in her eyes became a bit milder in the completed version, but in the storyboard she looked a lot a harsher. That was the best!

Eshiro: Some love younger women, some like widows… what’s up with this team….

Interviewer: Talking about favorite characters, Mayoi (Maya Fey) returned in Gyakuten Saiban 6, but are there other characters you’d like to see come back?

Eshiro: Mei (Franziska von Karma). If we’re going to make the next game, I really want to get her in the game… Where could she be now? She should’ve returned to the United States after Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 – Trials and Tribulations).

Daigo: She's one year younger than Mayoi, I think.

Yamazaki: Maybe she could appear in an episode about when Kokone (Athena Cykes) was still in the United States….

All: Aaah!

Eshiro: They might have just missed each other.

Fuse: What if Mei had been the prosecutor of the case where Naruhodo (Phoenix Wright) helped Kokone over there?

Yamazaki: Once you think about it, it does seem like that could have happened.

Eshiro: And would her clothes be different, more American? She might have changed her hairstyle. Or wear a mask.

Yamazaki: Not a mask, please (laugh);

Noda: I like the Mei of Gyakuten Kenji 1(Ace Attorrney Investigations)!

Eshiro: As expected from you (laugh). I think she was fourteen then?

Yamazaki: Thirteen. It was just before she skipped year and became a prosecutor.

Eshiro: Skipping years and a prosecutor at thirteen? The United States are a crazy place (laugh).

Noda: So Mr. Yamazaki, even if you have to play around with the time-space continuum, please have Mei appear.

Eshiro: Just like Obachan (Wendy Oldbag) did, right! (laugh)

Yamazaki: Going beyond time and space (laugh). From the Gyakuten Kenji series, I’d like to have Yumihiko back.

Eshiro: I think Yumihiko is doing really good now. But afraid of Chief Prosecutor Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth).

Yamazaki: By the way, it was Noda here who voiced Yumihiko. “Objection!”.  We still used our own staff for the voice work back then.

Interviewer: Really!

Fuse: But the man himself wants Mei back (laugh).

Daigo: I’d love to see Yumihiko VS Shizuya Rei (Hugh O'Connor).

Yamazaki:  And prosecutor Garyū (Klavier Gavin) too. The users sometimes get all excited talking about things like this, it appears. They are all characters who attended Themis Legal Academy, so they all just missed each other.

Eshiro: Then Chishio (Robin Newman) would also appear. Going “OOooooooh!” (laugh).

Yamazaki: But they’re of different periods (laugh).

Daigo: You’d have three prosecutors in court (laugh).

Fuse: Mr. Daigo, who’d you like to see come back.

Daigo: I’d want Detective Itonoko (Dick Gumshoe) back.

Yamazaki: Oh yeah, he’s one of the main characters who hasn’t come back yet.

Eshiro: What’s he up to now?

Daigo: He should be over forty now? Who knows, he might be like Detective Badō (Tyrell Badd) now.

Eshiro: Like a cool older man. We might give him a new subordinate then. Someone who looks up to Itonoko…

Daigo: And then his subordinate turns out to be the murderer (laugh).

Yamazaki: Hahahaha (laugh).

Interviewer: And Mr. Fuse?

Fuse: If I have to choose a character who wasn’t in Gyakuten 6, I’d say Gyakuten 5’s Ban Gōzō (Bobby Fulbright). I got quite attached to him, so I’d like him back.

Eshiro: There he is! Justice! We could have a Ban Gōji and a Ban Gōichi appear to (TN: -, -ji and –ichi mean ‘three’, ‘two’ and ‘one’) . A triplet. Like that sextuplet from that anime.

 Yamazaki: No… six of them would be too much…

Eshiro: Big brother Gōichi would be the bad one. He’s not about justice. He’d say “Guilty!”.

Yamazaki: Hahaha. Mr. Horiyama, what about you? What character do you want to see again?

Horiyama: Nobody, actually. I want to see new characters. Because I want to make a new Gyakuten Saiban.

All: Aaah, I see.

Interviewer: Changing topics, but if you could stay in the Kingdom of Kurain (Kingdom of Khura'in ), what would you want to do there?

Eshiro: In the Kingdom of Kurain? I’d want to try the food of course.  You know, I eat everything.

Yamazaki: I’d like to try gingil… (TN: a Kurainese dish).

Eshiro: Not so interested in gingil… I’m out with mint and garlic. Especially mint.

Yamazaki: I love coriander, so I think I could eat it.

Eshiro: Ah. It all depends on whether you think that’s delicious or not. As for food, there’s the “magataman”. I don’t think it has the vegetables they use for gingil.

Yamazaki: Magataman are for tourists, so it should be easy to eat.

Eshiro: I guess it’d be like a Chinese bun. I don’t think it’s sweet. It’s probably filled with minced pork and beef, or something else juicy.

Yamazaki: When we talked about what was inside the bun, I thought a bit about it and looked some things up, but there was nothing in it in the animated parts.

Eshiro: Aah! I’ve been had! So it’s just a steamed bun. I bet the dough is delicious.

Yamazaki: I think they have all kinds of flavor variations. But in the animated part it was just a plain one (laugh). There might be custard or cream flavors.

Eshiro: I want an anko (sweat bean jam) one.

Interviewer: They have anko in the Kingdom of Kurain?

Fuse: Anko is very Japanese.

Yamazaki: It didn’t feel very Kingdom of Kurain-ish from a while ago (laugh).

Eshiro: They’re for the tourists, so they might look Kurainese, but the fillings are all easy to eat, like Chinese fillings and so (laugh).

Yamazaki: I wouldn’t like that (laugh). If I were staying there, I’d look for something typical Kurainese, and go see the Dance of Devotion.

Fuse: There are few other events that would attract tourists (laugh).

Yamazaki: Nonononono, it’s the land of spirit channeling and mystery, you remember? (laugh).

Eshiro: Kurain is a country full of scenic beauty. It has all kinds of things, like cliffs and stuff (laugh).

Yamazaki: It’s pretty taxing to go to the Kingdom of Kurain. You’d probably need to transfer planes twice.

Eshiro: When you go from the airport to the city, is there like some strange animal that would pull the cart?

Daigo: Three to four hours rocked by the yaks.

Eshiro: Do they have cars there actually?

Daigo: There were no cars in the story. Perhaps they use Super Cubs.

Eshiro: They have a lot of hills there. Because it’s a place all the way up. They might have mountain bikes because the roads are bad. Bokto might be going wild on an off-road on his days off (laugh).

Yamazaki: Stop iiiiiiit! Don’t destroy his image!

Interviewer: You have quite the imagination. What about Mr. Fuse?

Fuse: I’ll be serious… When I go traveling, I like to look at folk costumes, so I’d go around and buy some of that.

Yamazaki: And go: “I was the one who designed this!” (laugh)

Eshiro: This are getting weird now (laugh). How about the others?

Yamazaki: Mr. Daigo, what about trying out that ceremony from episode 3, praying for three days and three nights?

Daigo: No. My back would die (laugh). I’d rather have my back hurt until I passed out than do that.

Eshiro: You can’t even drink or eat in those three days. You could lose weight?

Daigo: My build is my identity, so I’ll pass.

Interviewer: They also talked about how hard the ceremony was in the game. And you, Mr. Horiyama?

Horiyama: I’d want to do the Spirit Oracle myself, instead of Reifa. I’d be in the court, and be thinking: “Maybe I’m making a false accusation.”

Eshiro: : “Maybe I’m making a false accusation.”? (laugh). You don’t even have spiritual powers to start with. They might have a Oracle Demonstration Corner over there.

Noda; I’d be in the gallery, shouting: “Guilty! Guilty!” (laugh)

Yamazaki: The courts there aren’t that dark anymore! Thanks to Naruhodo (Phoenix Wright) and Odoroki (Apollo Justice)’s adventures, the trials in the Kingdom of Kurain are all clean now!

Eshiro: The Kingdom of Kurain has so much beautiful nature to see, so why won’t the people here from the development team go there? If there was like a Kingdom of Kurain tour, I bet there’d be a lot of tourists.

Noda: I’m bad with heights. Also, we made the backgrounds of Kurain to be very deep, so we had trouble with slow down (laugh).

Eshiro: That’s the reason!? You have no imagination…

Yamazaki: Mr. Horiyama, what if you went there to play the damaran.

Horiyama: Ah, the damaran, that instrument Potdīno plays.

Eshiro: I was fooled, you know. I really thought there was such an instrument.

Daigo: The damaran is a Yamazaki-original.

Yamazaki: Fuse thought of the design.

Interviewer: The damaran does look like it could be real. As we’re talking about music now, could you tell us about the music or sound effects you liked?

Yamazaki: I like the arranged verison of Akane (Ema Skye’s) theme. It sounds cool, and cute. But that’s just my preference. As for sound effects, we had a lot of interesting ones in episode 4. Oh, and I remember we had troubles doing the sound of when Nayuta claps his hands together…

Daigo: We had like dozens of retakes.

Yamazaki: It wasn’t really recorded, but when we had them create the sound, I’d clap my hands to explain what I wanted. I remember it well because we did that to create the sound effect.

Daigo: I like the Nayuta’s theme. I like how it sounds so grand. And there’s some Japanese music  in the latter half of the game, I like that.

Eshiro: The music in Japan has rearranged tracks from earlier games in the series that sound really cool. Of them I like Odoroki Hōsuke – Shinshō Kaitei! ~ 2016 (‘Odoroki  Hōsuke ~ Court Opens On A New Chapter! ~ 2016'). The tempo is exciting. In the promotion video we have that song midway, and it changes the mood and really gets you excited.

Fuse: As for BGM, I like the track that is used when you go investigate together with Reifa in the Investigation part. I can just keep listening to it without getting bored with it. I listened to it while working.

Noda: As for sound effects, I listened a loooot to the bip-bip-bip sounds when they talk. I am probably the one who has listened to them the most.

Daigo: We had several variations for them this time too.

Fuse: While singing.

Noda: Programming them was difficult.

Interviewer: Finally, I’d like to ask what Mr. Horiyama’s picks are!

Horiyama: If I had to choose a track, I’d go with a very unconspicious track. A track called Okashina Hitobito (‘Strange People’). It’s a track that is used when somewhat suspicious-looking people appear. In episode 2, it’s used when producer Yamashino first appears, and in episode 3 when Nanashīno Gonbei (Tentative) appears. That songs keeps going on in my head.

Yamazaki: And sound effects?

Eshiro: That one thing, right? Potdīno.

Horiyama: Ah, where he plays the damaran and sings.

Daigo: The bip-bip-bip sounds there aren’t just sound effects anymore…

Horiyama: It’s more part of the song.

Eshiro: I had to listen to it all the time while I was test playing the game…

Yamazaki: I’ll have to say sorry for that (laugh).

Horiyama: I’d go with that sound effect when the witness testimony, or cross examination starts in the Kingdom of Kurain. It’s different from the Japanese one, and has a ethnic feel to it.

Eshiro: Dendendedededeeen. It sounds a bit scary there.

Yamazaki: That also fits the mood of the foreign courtroom, I think.

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