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.