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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Title: Lecture on Law / 「法律談義」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 18: The First Turnabout (2001)

Title: The First Turnabout / 「初めての逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the eighteenth blog entry for the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney 1 GBA), Takumi Shū looks back at the first episode of the game: The First Turnabout. As we learned in previous blog entries, the first episode Takumi actually wrote was the second episode, Turnabout Sisters, but that episode was considered unfit as the introduction of the game, because it needed to explain too much and it was simply too long as the start of the game. The First Turnabout was written after Turnabout Sisters and its only goal was to provide a quick tutorial to the players, something Takumi knew was vital, because the prototype version of the game was also very harshly critized for simply being incomprehensible (see blog entry 7)

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Blog Entry 13: Working on Event Cuts (2016)

Title: Working on Event Cuts / 「イベントカットのお仕事」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 official site

Summary: Artist Fujii Norihide is the host in the thirteenth blog post on the Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) website, originally posted on July 4, 2016. He writes about how the characteristic "event cuts" are made for this game: the 2D illustrations often used in the series to not only show off dramatic scenes, but also in more mundane ways like in photographs. Fujii walks the reader through the process of creating a crime scene photograph.

Portraying Mitsurugi Reiji's Conflict and Various Parents & Children (2011)

Title: Portraying of Mitsurugi Reiji's Conflict and Various Parents & Children. We Asked Producer Eshiro and Director Yamazaki About The Secret Stories Behind Gyakuten Kenji 2 / 「描いたのは“御剣怜侍の葛藤”やさまざまな“親子”の姿。「逆転検事2」に秘められた思いを，江城プロデューサーと山﨑ディレクターに聞いた」
Source: 4Gamer

Summary: In this very long interview originally posted on March 1, 2011, producer Eshiro and director Yamazaki talk about Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit), which was released just a few weeks earlier. Basically everything about the game is discussed: from the early stages of development, to how the story was written, how they came up with the new game mechanics, how they thought of new characters, and decided to use old characters and the music design. They also talk about topics outside of the game, for example about how Eshiro organized the marketing campaign for this game, with many elements from this game's promotion also being used later for Gyakuten Saiban 5 and 6 (Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice). All in all, this is probably the deepest interview regarding making and promoting the game.

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