Title: Looking Back At Episode 1 Turnabout Foreigner with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Director Yamazaki (2016) / 『逆転裁判６』山﨑ディレクターと振り返る第１話「逆転の異邦人」
Source: Nintendo Dream, August issue, 2016
Source: Nintendo Dream, August issue, 2016
Beware of spoilers for this episode.
Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.
Turnabout Foreigner
The Title Screen and Opening Animation
Interviewer: Thank you for being here. Let’s start from the title screen.
Yamazaki: I’ve never done something like this, so I’m excited. Oh, this may sound a bit boring, but this is actually the first time in the main series we have a background on the title screen. Up until Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice), it was Mr. Takumi who insisted on a black background with the logo. So when I worked on 5 (Ace Attorney 5 – Dual Destinies), I decided to follow that pattern, but I wanted to show off this was a brand-new game in a slightly different manner, so we gave the title screen a power up. There had also been suggestions to feature the court on the title screen, but we wanted to have the same background on both screens, so we went with a tapestry invoking the foreign setting.
Interviewer: Is there a reason why the logo of 6 is purple?
Yamazaki: Mr. Eshiro said he liked Mayoi (Maya)’s color. The 6 looks like a magatama, so I was a fan of green, but that was rejected (laugh).
Interviewer: Let’s start the game then. First is the opening animation that starts in Kurain (Khura’in).
Yamazaki:
It was really hard making getting the story right here. The short
prologue anime we published on the official site shows why Naruhodō
(Phoenix Wright) went to Kurain, but there will also be people who
haven’t watched that anime. So it was difficult making sure this opening
animation made sense for both the people who have watched the prologue,
and who haven’t.
Interviewer: Potdīno (Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin) appears at the end of the movie. Anything you paid extra attention to regarding his appearance?
Interviewer: Yes, we do think a lot about how we show the culprit. You make the players feel they want to beat him, so it’s important to show them off in an evil manner. For this animation we first used motion capture and then adjusted the animation to make it more fitting for the series. So he moves realistically, but still doesn’t feel out of place in the world of Gyakuten Saiban.
The Game Starts! Enter Bokto
Interviewer: And there we go. If you have seen the prologue anime first, it does feel a bit strange Naruhodo-kun is all ready to go sightseeing like a regular tourist.
Yamazaki: That’s the problem I mentioned about people who have seen the prologue and those who haven’t. That’s why the movie opens with Naruhodō getting a phone call just as he leaves the plane. The call is from Mayoi, so now knowing she’s safe, he can now just go sightseeing. You see him taking photographs of the bird too, that was inspired by the story I wrote for the previous issue of Nintendo Dream (*A short short story by Mr. Yamazaki was featured in Nintendo Dream July 2016 issue). I thought it’d be fun if that story would connect to the main game, so I wrote that in.
Interviewer: I suspected as much (laugh). And there we have Bokto (Ahlbi Ur'gaid). And our first “Hap'piraki” too.
Yamazaki: “Hap'piraki” is just a greeting that came up while I was writing.
Interviewer: So you wrote this part yourself?
Yamazaki: Yes, I wrote this part. I was also working on other episodes at the same time, but the first episode is of course the episode which decides the direction of the rest of the story.
Interviewer: Had it been decided from the start that the story would begin in the Kingdom of Kurain?
Yamazaki: Yes, that was decided from the start, because the setting of a foreign locale would have impact on the player. Up until now, the first episodes always started in court, but we wanted people to get to know this unknown setting first, so we added a short investigation segment to explain the situation. Oh, that reminds me. That pose of Bokto with his hat, it’s cute, right? But during development, staff members said it looked like he was asking for money like a beggar. They’d dub his voice, saying lines like “Please throw some money in my hat!”.
Interviewer: And there’s a magatah'man. He’s offering with the plate and all?
Yamazaki: Yes, with the plate. It got stuck to the plate inside his bag. I wonder how his bag looks inside, he keeps his dog there too (laugh).
Interviewer: Where did the idea of magatah'man come from?
Yamazaki: I don’t remember exactly anymore, but we were working on the scenario and the character designs simultaneously, so I think we were just throwing ideas back and forth. So he has a magatah'man too in his earliest sketches.
Interviewer: Mayoi was eating them too in the prologue anime. What’s inside them?
Yamazaki: Hmm… It could be something like red bean paste. Hmm, is it sweet, actually? I don’t know (laugh).
Interviewer: They are probably made by hand, right?
Yamazaki: I think so. They probably have to twist something small like to get the right shape. So the twist may be different depending on the magatah'man (laugh). The color is of course based on a magatama.
Interviewer: The green you wanted in the logo.
Yamazaki: Exactly! Oh, the food they are steaming in that shop in the background, those are magatah'man.
Interviewer: By the way, what can you tell me about their currency dahma?
Yamazaki: It’s just a word I came up with (laugh). I was just thinking of the yen.
Interviewer: A magatah'man is 20 dahma. How much would that be in yen?
Yamazaki: I haven’t decided on the exchange rate exactly, but they cost as much as you’d expect them to be in Japan.
Interviewer: And a peak at Mayoi!
Yamazaki: You juuuust can’t see her here. We made sure it was just right (laugh).
To Jīin Temple
Interviewer: Are those clouds in the back?
Yamazaki: Yes. The whole of Kurain is located at high altitude, and the temple is located even higher. So episode 3 is located even deeper in the mountains.
Interviewer: While this is still just the introduction of the game, there’s a lot of foreshadowing and clueing here.
Yamazaki: We can’t talk about that in detail here. But yes, that’s a reason why we started making this game from the first episode. But before we got really started, we had already decided on the core plot, so I am glad I was able to insert all the clues and foreshadowing right from the start. What’s hard about making the first episode, is always the matter of making players want to save the defendant. Like I mentioned earlier, we usually don’t have investigation parts in the first episode, so that makes it hard to give much information about the characters. So that was something we struggled with with Bokto too. So we presented him as a pure boy, and also pointed to his connection to Mayoi so the player could get attached to him. That would also make the player look forward to Mayoi, forming a helpful bridge to the episode where she first appears.
Interviewer: Just 10 dahma for his tour? That’s even cheaper than a magatah'man.
Yamazaki: No, no, that’s 10 dahma per explanation, so it quickly adds up (laugh). He’s working hard to feed his family.
Interviewer: Pretty amazing for someone living in the country himself to call it the country of mystery and spirit mediums.
Yamazaki: Like a line from a tourist guide. The local people probably too think it’s an odd catch phrase thought up by foreigners. But it attracts tourists. They even have a Japanese translation on the lyric cards of the ceremony, so as a country, Kurain is actually treating tourism quite seriously (laugh).
Observing The Ceremony at the Temple
Interviewer: And we know see Reifa (Rayfa) appear in the game in a movie. The ceremony is open to the public, right?
Yamazaki: Yes, the idea is that there are both tourists and guests who have been invited.
Interviewer: That’s quite a sizeable audience, considering she does the ceremony twice a day.
Yamazaki: There are probably a lot of repeating visitors (laugh). Most of them are probably religious believers. It’s probably thanks to tourism that the Kingdom of Kurain manages financially as a country (laugh).
Interviewer: Had it been decided in advance that you’d insert a movie here?
Yamazaki: We knew that if we’d insert an animated segment, this would be one of the spots. We also have real-time animations this time, so it was necessary to choose when to use what, but this was one of the scenes that lent itself well for drawn animation.
Interviewer: But then the police barge in. At least wait until the ceremony is done!
Yamazaki: (Bursts into laughter). Because it’s a sacred ceremony right? But they can’t let a murderer escape!
Interviewer: And then this face of Reifa.
Yamazaki: Her face tells the player she’s the counter-heroine of the game. For the animation of her
dancing, we first made a 3D demo and then had the animation made based on that. The song is sung by Haruka Shimotsuki, composed by Iwadare Noriyuki. When I said I wanted to have the song sung by someone, Mr. Iwadare suggested her. I was glad to have her of course.
Interviewer: Ms. Shimotsuki was last involved with the series as Lamiroir in Gyakuten Saiban 4, right?
Yamazaki: Yes. But she only performed at a concert, so this was the first time she’d be featured in the game.
Interviewer: So the animation was created with the length of the song in mind?
Yamazaki: Yes. And the animation also had to be timed with the 3D real time demo of Reifa dancing, so the director of the animation had a pretty hard time storyboarding the sequence
Bokto Arrested. The Trial Starts!
Interviewer: So one day has passed since Bokto’s arrest, right?
Yamazaki: Yes. At first there had been no plans to actually show the bailiff in front, he’d just be part of the background. But the bailiff’s presence was not only important here, but also in other episodes, so we decided to actually make a model. And doesn’t it have impact, holding a rifle like that. Makes you really think you’re in some dangerous foreign land. By the way, that salute-like pose he takes when a picture is taken was thought off by the whole team.
Interviewer: You sometimes do see guards like firearms in front of shops outside Japan, right?
Yamazaki: Yeah, like that. Of course, it’s open to discussion how exaggerated that may seem, but you do see security with rifles like that outside Japan, at stations and airports. It kinda makes you realize you’re really abroad. The lobby of the courtroom is the same as in Japan in terms of structure, but there’s a little altar to the right to give it a foreign vibe.
Interviewer: The altar has a mysterious feeling to it, with the sun shining and making the dust visible.
Yamazaki: The staff member who worked on the background did a great job at making the space feel real. Perhaps the defendant will pray here if they’re found guilty (laugh).
Interviewer: And with Naruhodo-kun opening the doors and entering the courtroom, we get a shot that shows off the whole room.
Yamazaki: We wanted to show off the courtroom in its entirety. And you also get a good feel of the cold pressure exuding from Reifa (laugh).
Interviewer: A shot like this helps you understand where everyone stands in the courtroom.
Yamazaki: It was pretty hard figuring out where Reifa would be in the courtroom, at the witness stand, or in front of it. So we wanted to make sure you’d understand where everybody would be standing each time.
Interviewer: And we have our first look at the judge. What can you tell me about his design?
Yamazaki: I guess all judges in all countries are kinda the same (laugh). We wanted to convey the idea of “Guilty = death”, so the keyword behind is design was Enma Daiō.
Interviewer: And there’s also Golden Auchi (Gaspen Payne).
Yamazaki: Notice the kanji “A” of “Auchi” on his sash.
Interviewer: The crowd is chanting “Ur dihara Khura'in!” What does the phrase mean?
Yamazaki: It’s like a chant from that one robot anime (laugh). There’s no Japanese translation, but it means something like “Kurain, banzai!”
Interviewer: And Naruhodo-kun takes position behind the defense’s bench. I’m surprised there’s still a bench, considering there haven’t been defense attorneys around for twenty years.
Yamazaki: True. In fact, we had discussed this. Should we make the bench all dirty, or not have it in the courtroom at all? But then we’d have to add a scene where they’d get the bench out. So we had considered it, but it’d be hard to then get the bench in the courtroom in a natural way, so we gave up on the idea.
Interviewer: So when there were no defense attorneys, the defendants would be declared guilty right after the Spirit Channeling Vision (Divination Séance)?
Yamazaki: Yes. It was basically “Yep, done, guilty!” right before Naruhodo-kun appeared. Each trial is over before you know it, so even the judge had things planned already.
Interviewer: So the people are just there to see the defendant being declared guilty.
Yamazaki: Yes. Perhaps it’s seen as a form of entertainment, seeing criminals being punished.
Interviewer: And Reifa wouldn’t know about defense attorneys as they haven’t been around in her lifetime.
Yamazaki: Yes. For Reifa, this is how things always were, the natural state. So her reaction to Naruhodo-kun is quite natural. I think this is why the first episode succeeds best at conveying the terror of a trial in a foreign country. That’s also why the people in the gallery talk so much out loud. It’s been twenty years, so plenty of people have never seen real defense attorneys and only know them of exaggerated stories.
Interviewer: By the way, what’s the smoke behind Reifa?
Yamazaki: Incense. It gives the room the right atmosphere. It made these parts heavier to run on the 3DS, but the programmers really did their best getting it to work.
Interviewer: I like the laugh of the judge.
Interviewer: I like the laugh of the judge.
Yamazaki: I’m glad we added that as his laugh. He acts mostly like the regular judge, but we wanted to add something new. So as I was writing, I just wanted him to laugh out loud. And it worked out great.
Interviewer: And he really wants to go to his classes.
Yamazaki: You’d really wonder what the big deal is with his classes (laugh). It was hard finding the right way to tell the story from this point. How are they going to hold a trial when they haven’t seen any defense attorneys in this country for twenty years? What are the proceedings? I had to rewrite this part a few times.
Interviewer: Auchi’s presence must have been a great help there.
Yamazaki: Yes, Auchi moved the trial forward hoping to set Naruhodo-kun up, so I was glad I came up with that idea. He tried to get Naruhodo-kun involved in a trial that could cost him his life, so he must have really hated Naruhodo-kun.
Bokto’s First Cross-Examination!
Interviewer: Anything you pay extra attention to with the first cross-examination section?
Yamazaki: It has to be easy to understand, and interesting. And I wanted to bring out the foreign vibe, which is why the episode featured the treasure box. It was an idea that wouldn’t work in Japan, but would work here. Oh, that reminds me we came up with many ideas about what to do with the design and the presentation of the phrases Witness Testimony and Cross Examination that appear on screen, because we wanted to make them feel foreign.
Interviewer: “Guilty” looks like foreign script, but you can actually read it as Japanese.
Yamazaki: Yes. It was pretty hard to make the word seems foreign despite only using kanji. We had several candidates, and we ultimately decided on this one.
Interviewer: There’s quite some time between the witness testimony and the cross-examination. What’s the reason for that?
Yamazaki: Everyone is dismissive of defense attorneys, so it’d be strange if the cross-examination would start right after the testimony. So it wouldn’t be convincing if we’d just smoothly move on to the cross-examination. And I was also having trouble figuring out how to work out the tutorial of the cross-examination mechanic, but things worked out, with the idea of the judge teaching the player. It’s different from the way we had done it before, but it worked now because of the new situation.
Conducting The Spirit Oracle
Interviewer: And there we have the first Spirit Oracle (Divination Séance) segment.
Yamazaki: It’s the first Spirit Oracle segment I came up with. We hadn’t decided on the details of the other visions yet, so we were working simultaneously on the game mechanics and how they’d be implemented in the story. We started thinking on how we’d use the mechanic in the other episodes as we finalized the vision in the first episode, so it’s really the prototype of the mechanic.
Interviewer: We start with the real time 3D animation of Reifa.
Yamazaki: This dance was hard to create (laugh). First we had the lyrics and the song itself, and we had the motion capture actor come up with a fitting dance. So we then used those motions as the base, but the waist-up model of Reifa you usually see in the game wouldn’t with those animations, so we’d have to adjust the model, and the movements of the cloth were done manually. And then we had to find the best camera angles for the dance, so it took quite some time. We also thought about the background, but in the end we decided to go with a dark background. But at first we also tried things out like having Naruhodo-kun or other people standing in the background.
Interviewer: There’s a blog post about the effects used in the presentation of the Spirit Oracle on the official site. Could you add to that?
Yamazaki: We played with various ideas, like having the vision projected in the smoke coming from the incense, or having a spirit channeled into a puppet which would re-enact the crime. But as a game, it was important to be easy to grasp.
Interviewer: Does Reifa actually see phrases like “a boy’s voice”?
Yamazaki: Everyone sees those phrases. The idea is that everyone will see the words in their own language.
Bokto in Trouble and Mitamaru’s Appearance
Interviewer: Reifa’s defeated.
Yamazaki: Which is followed by a very important scene. Our original concept was that the story’d start with Naruhodo-kun and his client not having a bond of trust. This is the scene where Naruhodo-kun regains Bokto’s trust and with that, he can turn the situation around.
Interviewer: So there’s a turnabout within Bokto himself too.
Yamazaki: Exactly. There’s basically a small revolution within him. This episode’s biggest task was setting things up so we could have a trial in a country where they have no defense attorneys. So first Auchi would suggest the idea, the judge would allow for it and slowly, Bokto starts to trust Naruhodo-kun.
Interviewer: The case comes first, but there’s much focus on the question on how Naruhodo-kun’s going to fare in these foreign trials.
Yamazaki: Yes. And another matter is that in this country, there’s the Defense Culpability Act, so the life of the defense attorney is also at stake. So we also had to focus on Naruhodo’s feelings on that matter and how he’d do his job. It was a difficult theme we had to think about.
Interviewer: And there we finally have Mitamaru (Shah'do). Why does he appear here?
Yamazaki: Mitamaru didn’t exist in the first draft of the scenario. He was only added later. So we figured he’d best appear when Bokto finds himself in the most desperate situation. So until that point, we only hinted at him through his name. Oh, by the way, he wasn’t called Mitamaru at first. When I worked on the scenario, I used the temporary name “Nui”.
Interviewer: The Japanese word for dog “Inu” in reverse (TN: I-Nu -> Nu-i) (laugh).
Yamazaki: In the series there’s also the tiger Rato (Regent), which is "tora" (tiger) in reverse (TN: To-ra -> Ra-to), so that’s why I used the name Nui. Surprisingly, a lot of people liked the name. But I always considered it just a temporary name and unlike Rato, the dog wouldn’t just be a profile picture, so I wanted to give the dog a proper name (laugh). There were a lot of people who wanted Nui though.
And Finally, Potdīno
Interviewer: And there we have Potdīno
Yamazaki: And we learn he’s the judge’s teacher (laugh). We wanted to have the judge be sided against you a bit more. He addresses Potdīno as his teacher, so it makes you feel like things are stacked against you.
Interviewer: Did you have the idea of having him sing with his speaking sound effects from the start?
Yamazaki: I did want him to sing, but we only decided on how far we’d go with that idea later. At first we wanted to use a simpler song, that we could use more easily, but that didn’t really work, so then we decided to go all the way.
Interviewer: You mentioned another time that it used up quite some memory.
Yamazaki: Yes. He sings during his testimony, so each testimony is a song. Almost made you cry out: “How many songs do we have to make for him!” (laugh)
Until This Point!
Interviewer: The episode will continue, but our article will stop here.
Yamazaki: Until here? Well, I hope your readers will enjoy the rest in the game! The second half will bring you turnabout upon turnabout.
Interviewer: We’re about halfway the first episode, I think?
Yamazaki: Yes. So you see the game’s quite packed right from the start.
Interviewer: And there’s foreshadowing and clueing relevant to the whole of Gyakuten Saiban 6.
Yamazaki: Yes. I’d be happy if people who have completed the game already, would play the game and pay extra attention to the foreshadowing.
Interviewer: Let’s wrap up this talk about the first episode. Is the creation process behind the first episode different from other episodes?
Yamazaki: It isn’t very much different. You start with thinking of turnabout points and use that as the base. Like how you first think of the gimmick of the treasure box, and then decide on the design. But if I had to name something specific, I’d say it’s important that the first episode works as a tutorial. It has to be easy to understand, but not boring. Getting that balance right s quite hard. Also, I try to keep things simple because you can still do that in the first episode. But if you compare it to how simple the first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) was, you can see that the series becoming more complex with each new entry.
Interviewer: Had the concept of Potdīno been decided upon from the start?
Yamazaki: Episode 1 had to introduce the player to the foreign setting, so the case had involve Reifa’s dance. That’s how we finally arrived at the idea of Potdīno, who’d perform at the ceremony. Bokto was made the defendant, because we needed a character who’d introduce the foreign setting. The first draft was actually even more serious, to really make the player feel like they were in an away game. But because this was still Gyakuten Saiban, I added more comedy, like having the judge wanting to end things soon because he had classes scheduled.
Interviewer: So you also reject your own work?
Yamazaki: Of course I discuss things with the team, hear what they have to say and then decide what to rewrite. There are serious parts to the story, but when it’s too serious, I’ll add some comedy. But finding the right balance is difficult. But figuring out how to do a trial in a foreign setting had been the most difficult issue. I’d like the players to see the dramatic build-up to Naruhodo-kun being cornered himself with the Defense Culpability Act, meaning his own life is at stake, but how he still arrives at the decision to protect Bokto and be his defense.
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