Title: Objection to Takumi Shū from the Developers!! /「開発者から巧舟へ異議あり！！」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 Official Guidebook
Witnesses
Endō Mitsuru: I’m the director, actually. I direct this and that.
Nishiyama Naomi: Programmer. I mainly worked on setting up the scenario on the actual hardware.
Honda Toshihiko: Programmer. I worked on overall management and on the various mechanics. The most visible mechanic I worked on is the Mason System.
Horiyama Toshihiko: I worked on the BGM.
Sandō Yoshiki: I worked on the sound effects.
Fujii Periko: Characters, sprite animation and more.
Yamamoto Yūsuke: I worked on the sprite animation of the characters.
Defendant
Takumi Shū: General supervisor who had jobs like writing the scenario.
Objection to Mr. Takumi’s computer! Chapter: Incidents That Left an Impression
1
Honda: Mr. Takumi had troubles with the development tools, so I went up to his computer, but I was shocked at what I encountered there. The keys on his keyboard were worn down completely! Like, they were completely smooth and slippery! And he uses a trackball instead of a normal mouse, and he has swapped left and right for his click buttons in the configuration, so when I tried to use his computer, my fingers got instantly cramp.
Takumi: It was the keyboard I had used to type out all the scenarios ever since the first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA). “My fingers can even melt plastic!” You never know what hidden powers people might have. After Mr. Honda solved my problem and returned to his seat, I quickly returned the button layout back to normal (Just kidding).
Objection to Mr. Takumi’s orders and requests! Chapter: The Troubles We Endured
1
Endō: Basically, he's very obsessed with the quality of the game, which made making this game a battle against the available time we actually had. “If you spend too much time on that part, we won’t have time for the rest…” So many times I had to hold in and not speak that line. Sometimes I failed at that and just blurted it out to him.
Takumi: We had a different team structure this time, so I myself had trouble adapting too. Personally I thought I was just covering the bare necessary elements… but maybe I’m crazy. Because of me, Endō had to reschedule everything more than a few times. Sorry!
2
Nishiyama: This happened early on, when we were going over the game plans.
Me: Sorry, could you explain the details of how the life gauge works?
Takumi: Oh, please use Gyakuten Saiban 2 and 3 as a reference!
Me: !
Yamazaki: Oh, when characters appear to replace someone else? Please use 3 as the base.
Me: !!
Endō: Oh, For the Psyche Locks, use the Nintendo DS version of 2 as your reference.
Me: !!!
I had to replay all of them during the development process. Hahaha. I keep getting stuck in 2, even after all those times. It’s so haaaard.
Takumi: 2 is really difficult, isn’t it!? The stories I could tell you… Anyway, I’m sorry! I’m a planner who doesn’t actually write out his game plans…
3
Honda:
Takumi: Do this like this.
Takumi: A bit faster.
Takumi: Three pixels to the left.
Takumi: No, do it the way it was first. Etc.
Me: Like this? I don’t get it anymore (><)
Mr. Takumi has a unique way to be picky about things, changing things until he’s absolutely content with something. It was like experiencing the pain of giving birth. Well, it makes for a good memory now.
Takumi: That last line is a magic spell that can turn any feelings of resentment into something nice. I always use it myself too. I’m sorry!
4
Horiyama: On one hand, it felt like a series of hardships, with big and small orders about everything, but now that’s all behind us and we managed to bring the game to the public, all of the pain has been transformed into a beautiful memory.
Takumi: Written like some literary figure. I have to remember that! Yeah, creating the music was difficult. Thank you!
5
Sandō: What made an impression on me was how fixated he was on the charumera of Yatabuki (Eldoon) in Episode 2. The animation and the tune had to synchronize perfectly or else it wouldn’t look nice, so I assume the animator must have struggled with this too.
Takumi: Sorry, I must have been out of my mind then. Just kidding of course. I think that the Chief Takumi living inside of me told me that I had to be very fuzzy about the charumera.
6
Fujii: When Mr. Takumi was checking the animation of the witness falling at the very end of Episode 1, he said it looked too plain so he told me to make the pot Masaka (Olga Orly) had dropped earlier levitate. I replied: “Did nobody clean that up during the break!?” But it looked funny on the screen, so I guess that was okay.
Takumi: When people comment on my ideas, I have a tendency to be mean and just go with it anyway. And that’s why that pot is floating at the end of Episode 1. Perhaps I should have made that pot levitate in the final chapter too.
7
Yamamoto: In the team, we referred to the Minuki (Trucy) of seven years ago as Kid Minuki, When Kid Minuki uses Mr. Hat, I had her move her mouth, but because the animation was so tiny, he told me to give up on that because it was too hard to make out. So now she doesn’t move her mouth.
Takumi: Actually, it was because the idea of someone moving his mouth while using a ventriloquist dummy had already been used in the series before… Sorry…
Objection To Our Tasks! Chapter: Incidents That Left An Impression
1
Nishiyama: We don’t have all the characters until the very end of the development cycle. So we use temporary characters while we’re working on the game until the actual characters are done. And that leads to funny moments. Take Minuki for example. Her stand-in was of course Mayoi (Maya Fey). Sakai Masaka (Olga Orly) had the producer Sakurahime (Dee Vasquez). And for prosecutor Garyū (Klavier Gavin), we had Auchi (Payne) earlon on. Just imagine Auchi saying those cool lines of Garyū…. Heheheh. Try casting other people in the roles for yourself, it might lead to very different kind of Gyakuten Saiban to enjoy!
A way of enjoying the game “for experts.” Wouldn’t it be fun if after completing the game the first time, there’d be an extra bonus option to shuffle the characters around? Well, Ms. Nishiyama, get working on that!
2
Horiyama: Let’s talk about the theme music of Lamiroir, which was composed by Mr. Takumi. To be honest, the first time I heard it, I thought “?” but listening to it over and over again while working on the data, I grew to like it. I kept hearing it in my mind even on my way to work.
Takumi: We had a fight over the song. Even before I started writing the scenario of Episode 3, I already had an idea of what song I’d wanted, so I composed the whole song on my own in secret without telling Mr. Horiyama. Thank you for giving in to my selfishness and adding the song to the game… I won’t do that again!
3
Sandō: During the live act of Lamiroir in Episode 3, there’s a scene where Garyū falls while holding his acoustic guitar. I still remember how we made the sound effect of him falling.
He reminded me of Beat Takeshi in a certain film.
“And now you’ll have to fall down for me while holding the guitar.”
I stepped inside the recording booth and I had to keep falling on the floor with a guitar hanging from my shoulder.
“No, that’s not quite right. What if we knock the guitar down?”
So then I kept knocking the guitar down on the floor.
“Well, let’s throw the guitar around.”
So I kept throwing the guitar around. And after thirty minutes…
“Yes, that’s it!”
Takumi: That is a nice memory. I was watching in suspense, wondering when you would finally give up.
Sandō: P.S. I think you know, but the guitar we trashed was my own.
Takumi: Hmmm… Given we had gone so far, we might as well have recorded the sound of your guitar on fire…
4
Fujii: In general, I like weird characters, so I had a lot of fun adding animations to Kawazu Kyōsaku (Wesley Stickler). My one regret was that I didn’t manage to beat the creepiness of Hamigaki (Spark Brushel).
Takumi: When it comes to character creation, things really go fast once you get in the later phases. The way I was pumped up by the time we got started on Hamigaki was insane. But it was Kawazu’s creation that made it possible for the other characters to go their own (crazy), I think.
5
Yamamoto: I think that giving me the job of having to create the sprites for characters like Kid Minuki 8 Year Old, Makoto (Vera Misham) 12 Years Old (Seven Years Ago), Machi 14 Years Old is just bullying a 38 year old middle-aged man.
Takumi: I just thought that you’d definitely come up with cute girls, while thinking of your little child waiting at home for her father who won’t be coming home tonight again because of work.
EXTRA: When Mr. Takumi Got Me Out Of A Slump or Trouble!!
1
Endō: As a mystery fan, being able to work with Mr. Takumi (another mystery fan) on a detective game is a reward on its own.
Takumi: Ten years ago, when we joined the company, we worked on something together. We made a promise that one day we’d work on a new detective game together and now we finally made it come true. Thanks!
Endō: As for getting me out of trouble. There was that time when I had made a mistake and was in big trouble, when Mr. Takumi, who was sitting next to me, made an ever bigger mistake so he got me out of my trouble.
Takumi: Big trouble? There’s nothing particular I recall. But perhaps my mistakes are all “Big Mistakes.” But if my mistakes can help someone else out, I guess it’s not bad to make a mistake sometimes (No, I shouldn’t).
2
Nishiyama: When I first read the original scenario for Gyakuten Saiban 4, I was surprised by it. And then things got adjusted again and by the time the scenario actually transformed into a game, I was shocked by it again. If you could listen to my one wish? The next time you rewrite a scenario, try to make less writing mistakes…
Takumi: Sweet-talk them before you attack them. The carrot and the stick. You’re good. As expected of the woman who was given the title Iron Lady Who Points Out 100 Mistakes In 1 Day (“Iron” is my invention). Who made all those mistakes? …. Sorry…
3
Sandō: He did this for other sound effects too, but the clear manner in which Mr. Takumi explained in words the kind of sound he wanted when a Perceive segment was successfully cleared, was a life saver. Like “It’s like the sound of something bursting inside of you. Ah, like when a shell cracks.”
Takumi: It’s really hard to describe a sound in words. To be honest, I think people will disagree on whether that explanation above is clear or not. You can really sense how kind Mr. Sandō is…
4
Fujii: That sketch in Makoto’s sketchbook is drawn by Mr. Takumi himself.
Takumi: The smiley in the sketchbook, right? Sorry for meddling with your work! But I have the confidence now I could draw even more! (Doesn’t learn a bit).
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