Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2016
Beware of spoilers for this episode.
Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.
The Rite of Turnabout
The Title and Opening Animation
Interviewer: Could you decide on the title right away?
Yamazaki: No, we had all sorts of ideas, like Turnabout Torisaman (TN: Torisaman is The Plumed Punisher). Episode 3 has a lot of elements to it, so we had trouble deciding what part we’d pick up to focus on. But the working title was “Rite,” so in the end we just returned to that.
Interviewer: I understand the rule of episode titles featuring “Turnabout” but is there some reason why some titles have the Japanese possessive particle “no” and some don’t? (TN: The Japanese title of this episode Gyakuten no Gishiki)
Yamazaki: It’s basically comes down to the feel of the title. It doesn’t sound right when all the titles feature that, so sometimes we decide to remove it (laugh).
Interviewer: Anyway, we’re on our way in the game. You talked about it in the previous issue, but I assume that the opening animation for this episode was also produced with the idea to have impact, so the players would for a second forget they were even playing Gyakuten Saiban?
Yamazaki: Exactly. The focus lies on bringing a captivating piece of animation.
Interviewer: It’s rather suspenseful.
Yamazaki: These amazing moves by Torihime-sama (Lady Kee'ra) would make you think this was some kind of action game (Laugh).
Interviewer: It’s almost as if Torihime-sama comes flying in.
Yamazaki: Well, she’s a legendary warrior (Laugh). She’d probably know something like the Kurain (Khura’in) variant of Baritsu.
Interviewer: Kurain-style martial arts.
Yamazaki: Yeah. She must know some martial arts, she’s taking down revolutionaries like they’re nothing.
Naruhodō’s Stay at Jīin Temple
Yamazaki: So we wondered where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) would be staying in the Kingdom of Kurain. We had talks with the team where the equivalent would be to his offices in Japan. We had all kinds of ideas, like having him stay in a nearby hotel.
Interviewer: What kind of hotels do they have there?
Yamazaki: Probably some inn with lots of nature (Laugh). In the end, we decided to have him stay in a temple, as it was easy and iconic. The temple has probably been built so it can have all kinds of guests stay.
Interviewer: Can normal people also stay in a temple?
Yamazaki: A good question. But Naruhodō is the guest of Mayoi (Maya Fey), who will fulfill an important role in the ritual, so he can probably stay also because he’s connected to her.
Interviewer: So he came rushing here after Mayoi’s call, but couldn’t meet her for two weeks…
Yamazaki: That’s why he went sightseeing these two weeks (Laugh).
Interviewer: With two weeks, he would’ve had enough time to see Minuki’s (Trucy) performance and return! (Laugh)
Yamazaki: Hahaha! That’s right. But after he learned that Minuki was alright thanks to Odoroki (Apollo Justice), he wanted to relax a bit. Also, it turned out he had to wait for two weeks, but he never knew how long Mayoi’s training would take.
Reunion With Mayoi At The Plaza of Devotion
Interviewer: Now we have the animated sequence of them reuniting at the Plaza of Devotion.
Yamazaki: Mayoi is wearing a hood here because we wanted to give her a different vibe. By the way, Mayoi only wears this hood during this animated sequence in the game, but initially, her 3D model also wore this hood.
Interviewer: So she’d be wearing that hood outside of this animated sequence?
Yamazaki: Yeah. Well, at least during her first appearance. But then we compared the 3D model and the animation, and decided to go with the animated sequence alone, and we canned the 3D model.
Interviewer: When she takes off the hood, Mayoi’s hair wiggles.
Yamazaki: Actually, at first her bun wiggled even more than that. It was almost as if it had a will of its own, so we had the animators constrain it (Laugh). By the way, her clothes and hand coves are designed after the robes of Hazakura Temple in Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations). They probably all wear clothes like these when training.
Interviewer: Once the movie is over, we have the first lines of dialogue of Mayoi in the text boxes. Around what period of the development process did you to write this part?
Yamazaki: This was the first we wrote for Mayoi. This holds for any character, but the scenes of their first appearance is very important to decide what direction you want to go with them.
Interviewer: How did you handle writing Mayoi’s way of talking? For example, she’d be seeing the gang for the first time in a while, right?
Yamazaki: You mean like how much distance there would be between her and the others?
Interviewer: Yes. We saw how she’d talk on the phone with Naruhodō, but that’s not true for the others, right?
Yamazaki: Well, Mayoi is the type to go her own way, so I figured we didn’t have to consider her acting all shy or anything like that. But in the original trilogy, she did change her way of speech depending on who she was talking to. She’d have no hesitations with the people close to her, but she’d speak polite to those she wasn’t close to. So we did consider that, but she’d know the others a little via Naruhodō, so it wouldn’t really be like the first they met. And Odoroki and the others are younger than her, so we thought she wouldn’t have to act all polite and be close to them from the start. That was also a way to show how she had grown up.
Interviewer: Were there any difficulties making the transition with her from 2D to a 3D model?
Yamazaki: Preserving the feel of the 2D motions was difficult for all of them, but if I had to pick, I’d
say this one. The original one was pretty much a big lie, something that only worked in 2D. It’s a pretty weird pose in 3D (Laugh).
Yamazaki: And in the original 2D motion, they jump between sprites, but in 3D you have to chain these animations. The animators had it pretty difficult making these animations look natural, while preserving the feel of the older games.
The Incident Occurs. Mayoi’s Arrest
Interviewer: And there went Naruhodō’s back. Did he always have back problems?
Yamazaki: Naruhodō’s grown older too, so we thought it’d fit him. We also mentioned it when he climbs a high place later.
Interviewer: And you also had to fade out Naruhodō here because the incident needed to happen?
Yamazaki: That is of course also a reason.
Interviewer: And now Mayoi gets arrested again. Had this been decided on from the start?
Yamazaki: Yes, that was all set in stone. Having to save Mayoi just makes the story more exciting, doesn’t it? Also, Reifa (Rayfa) fulfills an important role in the story, so in Episode 3, we had to give both Reifa and Mayoi significant parts, so in a way, we had to divide roles.
Interviewer: And the police investigation in Kurain is also done by Akane (Ema Skye).
Yamazaki: She came here after the murder in Episode 2 was solved. Nayuta (Nahyuta) is probably working her to the bone, with no time to sightsee. That’s why she’s so on edge.
Interviewer: With the Inner Sanctum so high up, it’s no wonder Mayoi became a suspect.
Yamazaki: Those are definitely unique circumstances.
Interviewer: Had it been decided from the start to feature such a case?
Yamazaki: Broadly speaking, yes. There was a ritual, and the incident would happen in the Inner Sanctum. It was in a way a locked room, where ordinary people could not go. Something like that.
Interviewer: And you didn’t stray from it.
Yamazaki: But really early on, the Inner Sanctum was located in a different spot. At first, the idea was to have the Inner Sanctum on top of the head of a gigantic stone statue of the Holy Mother. And people would see the giant statue move in the night, the first versions went.
Interviewer: So Nanashīno (A'nohn Ihmus (TBD)) wasn’t there?
Yamazaki: He was (Laugh). I think he was the witness who said the statue moved. So the case was about how in heavens a statue could move (Laugh). But even with trial and error, the plot wouldn’t really come together, so it was canned. This is true for all cases, but at first you focus on catchiness, something that has impact. So eventually we arrived at the story with Torihime-sama and the prison escape. Also, the fact this was the third episode was also important. Episode 3 in this series have been about things like Tonosaman (The Steel Samurai) or circuses, stories with surprising settings. So we wanted to have a story that makes you cry out “No way!” as the third episode.
Interviewer: Oh, Naruhodō doesn’t know Nayuta yet, right?
Yamazaki: Yeah. Only heard about him.
Interviewer: There it is! Pohlkunka! Hap'piraki comes from ‘opening ones heart’ (kokoro wo hiraku), but I believe Pohlkunka has no particular meaning?
Yamazaki: No, it’s just the feeling of the word (Laugh). It just came out like that, wasn’t even difficult.
Interviewer: By the way, how do you read that word here?
Yamazaki: Pohlkun-sha, not Pohlkun-mono.
Interviewer: And we move on. The first time Akane calls Nayuta the Floaty Prosecutor (His Ephemeral Holiness).
Yamazaki: We wanted some nickname. She always used words like jurajura (jingle-jangle) and hirahira (fluttery) (TN: she uses these words to describe Kyōya/Klavier Gavin and Mitsurugi Reiji/Miles Edgeworth respectively). And Nayuta wears floaty clothes, so that was it! We wanted to have that jingle-jangle prosecutor appear too, but I’m sorry to say we couldn’t find any time for that.
Commencing Investigation At Inner Sanctum
Interviewer: The Inner Sanctum is shown through a 3D scene.
Yamazaki: The background staff really did their best. By the way, you can read the Kurain text in the background of the Inner Sanctum.
Interviewer: Wasn’t it “Beware Falling Rocks?”
Yamazaki: Yep (Laugh).
Interviewer: It’s all been deciphered on the internet (Laugh).
Yamazaki: I heard.
Interviewer: In general, the things written are fairly serious.
Yamazaki: Because we figured someone would manage to decipher the text (Laugh). I even checked to be sure nobody wrote anything strange.
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nterviewer: After climbing that gigantic staircase, Naruhodō arrives at the Sanctum and meets with Reifa. Isn’t she cold?
Yamazaki: With that short skirt? (Laugh) Anyway, an important part of the story is that Naruhodō and Reifa work together.
I
nterviewer: The first time I played the game, I was surprised she’d become an ally so soon. But I hadn’t foreseen that it would build up episode by episode to that conclusion. I guess that it all started here.
Yamazaki: I had discussed this with the other members in the scenario team, to figure how we could best handle this. To what degree she’d open up to Naruhodō at this stage.
Interviewer: You did a great job at timing the process of them growing closer.
Yamazaki: Thank you. In a way, it’s connected to the theme of revolution of this. In the end, this is just a game about trials, with each of the cases as the main focus. So we can’t directly show how the revolution is going. So we made sure to portray the emotions and thoughts of the characters you do see. The joint investigation between Naruhodō and Reifa isn’t just so Reifa will open up, but also an important element to the revolution.
Interviewer: Compared to the first episode, you learn a lot more about the internal politics of the Kingdom of Kuain.
Yamazaki: There’s a reason for that. We wanted to make Episode 3 to be about a case that could only have been committed there. So a case that could only occur because of the religious side to it. Episode 1 is only an introduction, so you can’t go too far there.
Interviewer: I think that this is a case that could only occur in the Kingdom of Kurain not only because of its religious side, but also of the people there behave and think differently compared to Japan.
Yamazaki: Yes. The revolutionary hunter Torihime is almost like Batman, a vigilante hero protecting the people in the city. But that’s something that doesn’t really work if Japan were the setting. Each country works in its own way, and some ideas only work abroad.
Interviewer: By the way, the dialogues between Naruhodō and Reifa are funny.
Yamazaki: Reifa can be pretty clumsy (Laugh). We made sure it didn’t show too much in the first episode, but those who have played it will notice it. That last line of hers in Episode 1, it’s so childish (Laugh).
Interviewer: Yeah. Like the dialogue that follows after that. Hadn’t expected she’d use the phrase again during the trial.
Yamazaki: She’s so cute.
Interviewer: She probably studied the phrase after this.
Yamazaki: Once she learns something new, she wants to try it out right away (Laugh). Really like a child.
Interviewer: And now we have a cut scene with Druk. Could you tell us where his name comes from?
Yamazaki: It comes from the word “Druk” “Dug” or “Duk” which means “Dragon” in Tibetan. That dragon is also the symbol on the flag. Oh, by the way, Inga has a turtle as his symbol as a counterpart to Druk’s dragon. It’s on his armband and on his buttons.
Interviewer: The turtle is a symbol for Genbu, one of the four divine beasts, right?
Yamazaki: Yes.
Nanashīno, and Mayoi in the Detention Center
Interviewer: And here Nanashīno Gonbe (Tentative).
Yamazaki: He’s sooooo suspicious (Laugh). And look at that lizard.
Interviewer: Why a lizard?
Yamazaki: Makes him feel like a survival expert (Laugh). And having something appear limitlessly is a secret art of Gyakuten Saiban. What was once an endless supply of glasses continues on here!
Interviewer: On to the detention center. Compared to the one in Japan, the space between the iron bars is far too wide! You can just get out between them!
Yamazaki: Haha. Actually, the space was originally smaller. But the bars overlapped with the characters’ faces, so we made the space wider (Laugh). The detention center was designed with the idea that the country isn’t fully developed yet. The layout is similar to that of Japan, but it feels like it has been used since forever. For example, you still ring a bell to call out for someone.
Interviewer: Mayoi talks about a lot here, but in the end, she ends up with the same worry she had in the past.
Yamazaki: Yes. What happens if some evil spirit takes over when she’s unconscious. This was written with Episode 2 of the second game in mind. Sometimes parts are unconsciously influenced by the earlier games, but sometimes we also intentionally do callbacks.
Interviewer: And now she tells him to keep it a secret to Reifa that she can channel spirits.
Yamazaki: Yes.
Interviewer: Turns out that the woman who’s still in training was actually the most powerful medium (Laugh).
Yamazaki: Exactly (Laugh). You know those stories where someone who looks like nothing turns out to be a master in some kind of art? I really like the surprise of those reveals, so that was I was going for here.
Yamazaki: “Keep it real, Naruhodo-kun” (Laugh) And now we have the traditional discussion about ladders and stepladders. This time, these two don’t move around together, so you have no optional dialogue between them when examining things. So I had to think about when to put the joke in, and settled on this part.
Interviewer: Because you had to include it.
Yamazaki: I knew everyone was waiting for it!
Interviewer: It was also in the DLC.
Yamazaki: There it was included in the text boxes when you examine the backgrounds
Sāra’s Testimony and Investigation
Interviewer: We’re back at the abbot’s home. Sāra (Beh'leeb Inmee) is a great character.
Yamazaki: It took us so long to finally arrive at that joke of her holding the abbot’s photograph. She’s a widow, so she had to be grieving and we couldn’t go too far.
Yamazaki: But we thought along the lines of her loving her husband, and finally arrived at something funny. The hidden theme of Episode 3 is the love of a married couple, and this act of her was also done out of love. This photograph is lined up exactly with the abbot’s face and shoulders.
Interviewer: Even her voices sounds alike, right?
Yamazaki: Yeah, she’s playing the part perfectly. But she’s a widow, and it was difficult making her appear truly like a widow. Her face is hidden by the veil, but that’s actually a Western custom. So we had to give it an Asian touch. It was difficult portraying a widow in the Kingdom of Kurain with a design with both Western and Asian influences.
Interviewer: The abbot’s home is also a treasure cove of interesting things.
Yamazaki: Yes. For example, the spiked cushion in front is a special seat of the abbot. Basically, he always trains by sitting on that cushion. Even when he’s having dinner, he’s training. And if you look closely, you’ll see something that will appear again the second half of this episode.
Interviewer: Eeeeeh! I hadn’t noticed that!
Yamazaki: You wouldn’t normally (Laugh). This is also where Torisaman (The Plumed Punisher) and Tonosaman (The Steel Samurai) appear.
Yamazaki: We had some troubles when making the illustration of Tonosaman this time. In general, it’s a remade version of the illustration that appeared in the very first game, but one day, the designer came to me with a question. “What should I do with the circle on the fan?” So I checked. This illustration of Tonosaman has appeared several times in this series, but each time, the design of the circle on the fan had been different. There were three patterns, with the circle being white, red and or having “Tono” written on it (Laugh). I decided to have “Tono” on the fan.
Interviewer: Now we have a Psyche Lock. An unmissable part of the Investigation Parts of Naruhodō.
Yamazaki: Yes. It was always the intention to include Psyche Locks. Odoroki’s parts have Perceive as a gameplay mechanic during the Investigation Parts, so Naruhodō naturally needed to have Psyche Locks.
Interviewer: And why here?
Yamazaki: It basically didn’t fit the characters who appeared earlier in this episode.
Interviewer: Aha. Mayoi wouldn’t be hiding anything from Naruhodō now.
Yamazaki: Yeah, like with Perceive in Episode 2, it’s a tool that allows you to move the story forward, but you need to have characters who are hiding something.
Spirit Channeling Visions and Questioning Nanashīno
Interviewer: The trial starts. First we have the Oracle of Spirits. People said this part was tough (Laugh).
Yamazaki: It was. But I do think that out of the whole game, this Spirit Channeling Vision (Divination Séance) section was the one we tried to make the most challenging. That’s because this is a case that could only occur because there’s spirit channeling, because this was Gyakuten Saiban 6. The Spirit Channeling Vision segment in Episode 1 was the first one we thought off, and the basic contents were simple to think off. But Episode 3 was basically like a school test to see if we could apply the mechanic also practically, so we added new elements like having more keen senses during the vision. It was a necessary element to show how one and the same vision could hold multiple truths. And we also wanted something extra, so it wasn’t only Reifa who could update the vision. Testimonies and evidence also get updated, so that should also hold for the visions. And that gave the mechanic depth.
Interviewer: We got past this segment. Now we’re questioning Nanashīno. Is he actually saying (Tentative)?
Yamazaki: Actually, Uzai (Sal Manella) did the same in the first game. Hahaha. There was a precedent, so we did it here too. There are some rules to what you can do in the text boxes, and this still adhered to previously established rules.
Interviewer: Wat was difficult about working in Nanashīno?
Yaazaki: Of course having him testify even though he had amnesia (Laugh).
Interviewer: Naruhodō mentions the same.
Yamazaki: This is always the intention, but that’s a line you add in the hopes Naruhodō and the players have the exact same reaction at the same time.
Interviewer: Did you decide to have Nanashīno testify despite his amnesia because the case asked for it, or did you always want such a weird character to appear.
Yamazaki: It was the case. There were also few suspects, so we needed some more characters in the cast. So he became a character like Yahari (Larry Butz), adding chaos.
Interviewer: And that’s it for today. Would you tell us about Episode 3 in general?
Yamazaki: There’s a lot of things you need to do in Episode 3 of these games. And in relation to the overall story about the Kingdom of Kurain, this Episode 3 was the last episode in which we could prepare for the final episode. So it was difficult adding the necessary hints and foreshadowing to the finale to the core case of the episode.
Interviewer: Does that mean that when you were done with the final episode, you still had to make adjustments to the third episode?
Yamazaki: That’s exactly what happened. This is actually the last episode we finished. Episode 2 was relatively independent. Episode 1 was done first. So after the final episode was done, we made some adjustments to the third episode. So it was a pretty difficult episode to work on.
A Final Message
Interviewer: The best of Episode 3 is still to come…
Yamazaki: Ah, you mean, the channeling..
Interviewer: But people will have to enjoy the game for themselves to find out what happens next. I am sure that everyone who plays it will agree with us once they’re done.
Yamazaki: I sure hope so.
Interviewer: This is the last installment of our series of articles. Do you have some final message for our readers?
Yamazaki: Yes. This game we’ve told the story of Odoroki's development over the course of Gyakuten Saiban 4, 5 and 6, using the spirit channeling from Gyakuten Saiban 1, 2 and 3. Thinking about the future of this series, my own, personal stance regarding Gyakuten Saiban 6 was to create it a title that could function as a breakpoint. 2016 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the series, and Gyakuten Saiban will continue on in the future. That is why I am of the opinion that now was the time there needed to be a game where everything came together, to provide an anchor for whatever may follow. Thanks to this series of articles, I remembered a lot of small details I had forgotten, and it made me realize again how much we did in this game (Laugh).
Interviewer: You had forgotten things?
Yamazaki: Yes. That is why I hope people can enjoy this game not only as a kind of a culmination of the whole series, but also as a way to imagine how the future of this series will look like. I also mentioned this on the developer’s blog for this game, but the future of the Gyakuten Saiban series has limitless possibilities. It’s up to the players’ wishes to see what kind of Gyakuten Saiban will be made next. So please us know what kind of Gyakuten Saiban you will want to play!
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