Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2017
Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.
Episode 3: The Return of the Great Departed Soul
Episode 3: Behind the Scenes
Interviewer: The way in which all the different incidents finally come together in Episode 3 is really satisfying. What was the thing you first thought of for this case? Was it the World Fair?
Takumi: Yes. I have mentioned this elsewhere too, but when I first started discussing the setting for the game with Nuri, it was he who suggested the World Fair.
Interviewer: Mr. Nuri did?
Nuri: I figured, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of London in that time.
Takumi: So I started with that setting. Episode 2 had a really plain crime scene, so it worked well in terms of balance too.
Interviewer: True, one is likely to think of the Fair.
Takumi: But I did have problems figuring out what the case should be about. The World Fair was such a grand setting, I didn’t know what to pick. It had to be something that could only occur at the Fair.
Interviewer: Yet you chose it as a setting.
Takumi: If I’d write the story all by myself, I’m likely to just write cases that are easy for me to do. But as I had been presented with the Fair as a setting, I thought I should take on the challenge.
Interviewer: Could you explain how you started writing this case?
Takumi: It started with the experimental device. The idea was to have a completely different concept than Episode 2, with an almost fantasy-like angle. So I first thought of the trick, and like I mentioned right now, I started connecting it to other incidents happening parallel to that.
Eshiro: I like how the opening scene at the Fair was so over-the-top. We didn’t use animated footage this time, but that allowed us to have a type of presentation unique to Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2.
Interviewer: Now you mention it, there are no animated scenes this time.
Eshiro: Yes. We have used them in previous games, but we got feedback from players who said they felt out-of-place, because the colors change when you have animated scenes. And we had been using so much motion capture this time anyway, so we decided to make these opening scenes using only in-game models. Thanks to that, the opening scene of this episode really managed to draw in players immediately.
Takumi: You can really see the true power of motion capture in this scene. But you need to be careful when using that technique. You can create all kinds of animations through motion capture, but in order to make those animations actually feel like the moves made by a character from Gyakuten Saiban (“Ace Attorney”), the adjustments made by the animation staff are absolutely vital.
Interviewer: Like with William Petenshy.
Nuri: Exactly. It shouldn’t feel too real.
Takumi: Yes. Realistic motions aren’t Gyakuten Saiban-esque motions. There was a character in the first game with moves out of Takarazuka, which gave them a real intense touch, so it really depends on how you use motion capture.
Interviewer: Whom I really wanted to talk about was the victim, Meningen. His name shocked me as much as Giovanni Jicole (Carmine Accidenti) in Professor Layton VS. Gyakuten Saiban. (TN: Giovanni Jicole is a pun on joban ni jikoru “to have an accident at the start of the tale”)
All: (Laugh)
Takumi: Elyder Meningen. You know, some will understand the pun, and some won’t. I think people will notice it when they speak it out loud though. (TN: Elyder Meningen is a pun on erai dame ningen “a really awful/useless person”)
Eshiro: I really didn’t notice the pun. I thought it came from maningen (a straight, just person). I was sure it was that!
Takumi: That’s the complete opposite! (laugh) There’s actually a person called Meningen in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. So I figured, well then, that’s just asking to become dame ningen!
Interviewer: Err, sure, I guess.
All: (Laugh)
Takumi: So then I had to think of a name that would end with a da.
Eshiro: So that became Elyder (Eraida).
Takumi: You know, it’s pretty embarrassing presenting these pun names to the team. I was all red in the face, but nobody said anything.
Interviewer: Mr. Nuri, didn’t you notice the pun then?
Nuri: His name was changed at the end of the development process. When I designed him, he was still called Ricchinande (TN: Rich nande means ‘’Cause I’m rich”). I’m still not used to hearing his new name (laugh).
Takumi: I seem to developed the habit with Dai Gyakuten Saiban to give characters names related to money.
Nuri: Cosney Megundal for example (TN: from koseni megundayaru, meaning “I’ll spare you some change”)
Takumi: And Dobinbough (TN: dobinbō means ‘incredibly poor’). I may have some subconscious fixation on money.
All: (Laugh)
Takumi: So I changed his name near the end when I noticed that tendency.
Nuri: Various characters changed names at the end, so I think that I, and the other staff members, didn’t gave the names themselves much thought, and only concentrated on how those changed names would influence our own tasks. We didn’t have the time! (Laugh) I only heard the name Meningen, so I guess the only thought I had was: "Eye Person?" (TN: Me means ‘eye’, ningen means ‘person’).
Takumi: And I was too embarrassed to explain the pun to you.
All: (Laugh)
Takumi: I still had a stock of unused names from the previous game, and Meningen was on that list. But there was nobody to give the name too (Laugh). The name kinda implies spoilers about the character, so I wasn’t completely sure about it, but I thought it was a good name too, so I just gave it to the man.
Eshiro: About his clothes.
Nuri: Mr. Takumi told me wanted him to wear something like an iron mask, but I was afraid it wouldn’t really fit the time setting. Taken seriously, an iron mask in those days would’ve been a tool to restrain someone and it would make you wonder why he’d be wearing that mask.
Eshiro: Whether he had decided to wear the mask himself, or someone else had given him that mask.
Nuri: Would you just put on a heavy, oppressing mask on your own head? So we had a discussion if there wouldn’t be some other way to hide the face. I suggested hiding half of his face with a hood, but Mr. Takumi wasn’t really a fan of that idea.
Takumi: With just a hood, someone could just look at him from a lower angle and see the whole face.
Nuri: So eventually we decided to hide most of his face with a hood and a mask for his eyes. The rest was designed in a simple, yet mysterious manner that looked good and hid most of his body, to strengthen the impact when his identity is revealed.
Takumi: It speaks for itself that the team paid special attention handling this character. We made small adjustments all the time to make sure everyone was content with it.
Interviewer: I think it was exactly right. Even though I suspected who he was, I could feel goosebumps when it was finally revealed. I was really impressed.
Takumi: Thank you. Gyakuten Saiban is a piece of mystery fiction, so surprises are essential to the experience, but I also think it’s important to just follow the expected story pattern. Betraying expectations isn’t everything, sometimes things should happen the way you want. It’s important to strike a balance there.
Episode 3: The Secret Story Behind the Characters
Benjamin Dobinbough
Nuri: Early on when we talked about the World Fair, Dobinbough was imagined to be even younger, almost a boy, but essentially, he’s remained the same all the time. But we changed him bits and pieces of his background story when Mr. Takumi rewrote the script again.Takumi: He only became a friend of Van Zieks then.
Nuri: His expressions and animations are the same as I had first imagined him, but his friendship with Van Zieks also demanded more depth as it had to be convincing and sincere, so I adjusted his physique and expressions to fit his age.
Interviewer: So they wouldn’t look out of place together?
Nuri: If there’s no balance between the attitude of the two characters and they look just too different, it’s just not convincing. So I added more serious facial expressions and made other adjustments so the player could imagine him speaking with Van Zieks without it feeling off.
Takumi: His friendship with Van Zieks created a not-before-seen side to the characters, so I think it worked really well. The two of them have a great bond.
Interviewer: It’s not clear at once, but yes. I’m sure that the readers too will be nodding.
Nuri: They don’t look like friends at first.
Takumi: That’s what makes it good.
Nuri: Yeah. It gave more depth to both of them, some hidden part to them that isn’t clear from just one look.
Interviewer: What can you tell me about his animations?
Takumi: When we make animations, there’s a “connection” animation that connects one animation to the next. By coincidence, we hadn’t such an animation prepared for Dobinbough. So we decided to not give him one on purpose, to make him a character with very snappy motions, accompanied by a sound effect like a sharp gust of wind. It really gave him more character. He’s become a personal favorite after Petenshy.
Young Gotts
Interviewer: His real name is Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond Ormstein…Takumi: This name too is from the original Sherlock Holmes stories, from the King of Bohemia. The mask of Gotts is a homage to that.
Nuri: I had pretty detailed directions about the mask.
Interviewer: About that mask?
Takumi: It’s from the illustration that belongs to the original story.
Nuri: It’s an illustration with a portly, suspicious-looking middle-aged man with a mask. I was told to use that mask.
Takumi: The only other I said was probably that he needed to be a boy.
Interviewer: Do you have other things to say about his design?
Nuri: He was of royalty, a noble, so I designed so you could tell that at once. I also kept that illustration of that middle-aged man I told you about as a reference. And this is also what I did with Petenshy, but I also wanted to give him the vibe of a rich boy with his dress. But the part I focused the most, his face, was covered by his mask.
Takumi: But he takes his mask off?
Nuri: Sure, but the illustration used as marketing material is with the mask on… I worked so hard on the face of that little rich boy, I was a bit disappointed.
Takumi: Well, people can check for themselves in the game.
Connette Rozaic
Takumi: She’s part of a Joint Reasoning section, so there were all kinds of elements to her design already decided story-wise.Nuri: Something had to be hidden and she needed to wear a cape. So I made sure I covered those points as I tried to find a good-looking design and I finally decided on a witch-esque design.
Interviewer: Why?
Nuri: First of all, she’d appear in a Joint Reasoning section, so she needed to be a character with presence. And I figured that a witch-like appearance would fit perfectly with a character who makes realistic wax figures amidst the creepy atmosphere of the building. She might stand out a bit amidst the rest of the game world, but I knew she had to be like this from the start, so her concept designs were all on the same track.
Takumi: She’s 26 years old, but her age changed a few times too.
Nuri: Yeah. Mr. Takumi imagined her to be highly skilled, so I think he saw her more like an experienced adult woman. But like I mentioned earlier with Haori, I thought it better to have a younger woman here so it'd look better if all the characters were gathered together, so I made her younger. But we had to go with an age for her that would still be convincing considering the details of the story as revealed later on.
Courtney Sithe & Doctor Goulloyne
Interviewer: Let’s start with Doctor Sithe.Takumi: Her role was decided upon right from the start, so I left the design up to Nuri.
Nuri: Her role in the story made it easy to imagine how she’d be, so my main concern for her design was how she’d look together with the main cast. In that period, the snake was the symbol for the study of medicine, so I used that in several places. And then I added some more specific medical motifs to her design, like adding her syringes like a snake’s fangs. I designed her to look serious.
Interviewer: The syringes are in the art book.
Nuri: She keeps them in a holder hanging from her waist. We actually had a fancy animation with her using her syringes in the game, but it didn’t fit with the story so it was canned eventually.
Takumi: It wasn’t really the mood for her to use her syringes story-wise.
Interviewer: So was Guilloyne made after Doctor Sithe?Nuri: Yes. Doctor Sithe was supposed to have a daughter from the start and the slightly eccentric character trait of “loves autopsies’ that had been there from the very first draft, so designed to go with a design very different from the rest of the world. I like her design, both with her mask and her own face.
Takumi: The mask was Nuri’s idea.
Nuri: Yes. They had masks like these back then, so I rearranged them a bit. It gives off a mood that fits the time period. In the first game there was the scene where Iris appears for the first time, with her goggles. I wanted to have something similar now, the impact of the first meeting with a genius who seems a bit out of there. It does mean more work with the models, but she leaves much more of an impression.
Interviewer: I also like it when she takes the mask off.
Eshiro: She’s cute, isn’t she? Please check her out in the game!
Toby
Nuri : We wanted Geena to have a dog in the first game already, but we didn’t manage to give her one then. But this time we were able to give her one in a natural manner, by giving her a police dog. And the dog’s from the original stories too, so it worked out perfectly. But when I looked up the dog from the original stories, it wasn’t really cute, so I made it into a cute puppy.
Takumi: It was a mixed breed in the original stories.
Nuri: Geena’s design has some typical London motifs, so I designed Toby after a teddy bear, so the two of them would give of a classical British ambiance. But Toby’s a police dog, so I gave him a bit of a sharp look with his eyebrows. Mr. Takumi had suggested a breed.
Takumi: A Pomeranian.
Nuri: You have one as a pet, right? But I thought a Pomeranian would be too cute for Geena. It wouldn’t fit the atmosphere of the game, so I said no (laugh). And then Mr. Eshiro came suggesting a Corgi.
Eshiro: I have a Corgi at home.
All: (Laugh)
Takumi: I had a reason for my suggestion. Pomeranians were super popular back then, because Queen Elizabeth had them as pets too.
Eshiro: Corgis come from Great Britain too!
All: (Laugh)
Jurors
Interviewer: The jurors in Episode 3 are all new.
Nuri: I had all kinds of instructions about their occupations. Like with Episode 2, Juror No. 1 had to be someone who could organize the lot, but while he’s similiarly a leader-type character, I did make him different from Episode 2’s No. 1. No. 2’s design was originally for a different role, but you couldn’t have one character stand out and mess up the balance, so I made adjustments so they’d all fit together. It’s because of No.2 that the jurors in Episode 3 are slightly more realistic compared to the ones from Episode 2.
Interviewer: And No. 5’s corn?
Takumi: Both the idea and the animation are mine (laugh).
Interviewer: To think that even the jurors would make me laugh!
Nuri: Ideas like that make the jurors as memorable as the witnesses.
Eshiro: Even though they don’t even names.
All: (Laugh)
It is quite suprising how much directorial influence Nuri has in Takumi's AA games. He does not just help to determine how characters look and behave, but also creates completely new characters and decides the settings of the different episodes. Takumi is a great writer, but the people around him seem to be just as important. If it weren't for Suekane and Sugimori, the original AA wouldn't have Edgeworth as your rival or a story connecting all the episodes. Reading these translations really makes me appreciate the work that goes into these games, and reminds me how flawed the Takumi VS Yamazaki comparisons can be.
ReplyDeleteSide note: I find it hilarious that Takumi does everything he can do to get his pets in his games. At least he managed to give this black pet a red scarf...
The connecting episodes thing was by Mori (SE guy), not Sugimori (composer) ;)
DeleteSomething I noticed while going through these sources though is that the Yamazaki-directed games show off a lot more of the dev. staff and how these games are made compared to how it's done with the Takumi-directed games, where you usually only see Takumi, occasionally joined by the art director/producer. The blogs for the Yamazaki-directed games often feature articles written by people from various positions (planners, artists, sound engineers) and they provide a completely different look on how these games were made, something I find really interesting. In the early blog articles by Takumi for the first game, he does mention names, but it's always through his eyes, as opposed to giving these people their own voice.