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.

Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (3)

This is the last time I’ll write about the team.  This time it’s the general supervisor, Division Chief Mikami and producer Inaba. I don’t think I’ll have to explain that it was these two people who made it possible for this game to be made. “Make whatever you want.” They put a team together, and gave me almost one year.

Mr. Mikami really helped out a lot, like always, until we finally got a grasp on the game mechanics. The first trial part, the revision, the revision of the revision, all the way to the mechanic of presenting evidence… He was really patient with me throughout.

Mr. Mikami was not completely convinced about the catchiness of the game until the very end, but I think I have somehow addressed his wish to have the game be simple to understand.

And finally, Inaba. His job is making sure as many people as possible will have fun with Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA). Whether that’s concerning the characters, or the story… There are rumors that he would sometimes coax with sweet words a certain scenario writer who has a tendency to write maniacal stories, and that he sometimes would swallow his own emotions and taught him a lesson with his iron fists.

His biggest achievement is putting a demo on the official website. Breaking down the “somewhat serious image” the title invoked with the demo was really a fantastic idea.

Gyakuten Saiban was a really small project. That is why there were quite a lot of limits to what the producer could do. But despite that, he still came up with all kinds of marketing and promotion activities. That is the man that is Mr. Inaba.

And so the story of the formation and the disbandment of the Gyakuten Saiban team ends. The column will still continue for a while.

The one thing that always caused troubles for me during the development process: the scenario. I hope to talk about this troublesome thing. Please stay around for a little longer.