Director Takumi and Producer Eshiro Were Also Present: A Report on A Store Signing and Handshake Event for The Nintendo 3DS Game Gyakuten Saiban 4 (2017)

Title: Director Takumi and Producer Eshiro Were Also Present: A Report on A Store Signing and Handshake Event for The Nintendo 3DS Game Gyakuten Saiban 4 / 「巧ディレクターと江城プロデューサーも来店した，ニンテンドー3DS「逆転裁判4」店頭サイン＆握手会をレポート」
Source: 4Gamer

Summary: On September 22, 2017, the Bic Camera Shinjuku West Exit Store held a special signing and handshake event to celebrate the release of the Nintendo 3DS version of Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice). The event started at 18:30 and lasted for an hour. 4Gamer reported on this event two days later, noting that despite the rain, there were many fans to see Takumi Shū, who supervised the original Nintendo DS game released in 2007, and Eshiro Motohide, who was an assistant-producer on the original title. 4Gamer also got do a very short interview with the two men to reminiscence about the development of the original 2007 game.

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[Mari-Detective] The order was to power up everything! Gyakuten Kenji 2 Interview (2011)

Title: [Mari-Detective] The order was to power up everything! Gyakuten Kenji 2 Interview /「【まり探】オーダーはすべてにおいてパワーアップ！ 『逆転検事2』インタビュー」

Source: Dengeki Online

Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit) was released on the Nintendo DS on February 3, 2011. About two months later, on March 29, 2011, Dengeki Online posted an interview with producer Eshiro Motohide, director Yamazaki Takeshi and character designer Iwamoto Tatsurō. The interview was held by Marizō, who writes about mystery and suspense adventure games for Dengeki in his Marizō Detective Agency corner. In this interview, Marizō asks the three men about when development on Gyakuten Kenji 2 first started, the aspects they focused on when making this sequel to the game starring Mitsurugi Reiji (Edgeworth), how characters were created, characters they liked, prospects of a sequel and about... the kind of underwear the characters wear.

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Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design (2006)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design / 「逆転裁判、デザインそのココロ」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book  was released in 2006, in the period between the release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS) and Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice). As a book aimed at fans of the series in this interim period, the book contains an interview with series writer/director Takumi, in which he looks back at the six years in which he has worked on the series until now. He talks about working on the first game and the difficulties they experienced during its development, from him not knowing how to write characters to the composer having to leave the project mid-way. He also talks about how it's almost miraculous how the three games formed one cohesive story, as he was always more concerned about making the next deadline and thus could not actually plan forward.

The Answer to Unfinished Matters - A Story Of Succession: Eshiro Motohide & Yamazaki Takeshi (2013)

Title: The Answer to Unfinished Matters - A Story Of Succession: Eshiro Motohide & Yamazaki Takeshi / 「やり残したことに答えが出せた、"継承”を描く物語 江城元秀X山崎剛」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban 5 Official Complete Guide + Special Episode Guide 

Summary: The official guide for Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies), released in 2013, contains a long interview with producer Eshiro Motohide and scenario director Yamazaki Takeshi, where they talk about a variety of topics concerning the game, ranging from the jump to 3D graphics, how some characters were originally conceived and how they differ from the end product, the ideas behind the change in user interface and adding consumer-friendly options, and also the themes of the game and the thoughts that went behind creating the stories of the main characters. The interview also contains several extra columns, where the developers talk about smaller subjects, like references and other fanservice points found in the game, they talk about the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series they worked on too, and about smaller bits of trivia concerning the game, like the connections between Themis Legal Academy and a certain Gyakuten Kenji character or for example script conventions.

Images are taken from the source. Copyrights belongs to the respective owners.

Surviban Planning Document (Capcom Town Excerpts) (2023)

Title: Surviban Planning Document (Capcom Town Excerpts) / サバイバン企画書

Source: Capcom Town Museums

Summary: On June 12, 2023, Capcom opened Capcom Town, a website to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the game company. In the museum part of the site, in the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) section, they also posted 10 pages from the planning document for Surviban, the prototype game which would eventually become the first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) game released in 2001. The document was originally written by series creator Takumi Shū in 2000 and is about forty pages long in complete form. The whole document has been put on display in real-life at a few events, but they have never reproduced the whole document in publications, physical or digital. Most of the 10 pages shown off in the Capcom Town Museum have been published before in guide books. Though you can recognize the final product in the pages shown off, same courtroom mystery adventure game at heart, Surviban also has a few distinctive differences from the final product, from the game title to the exact flow of the game in the trials and also in terms of presentation. For example, one of the pages emphasizes the real-time element of the trials, which is not existent in the final product.

Images are taken from the source. Copyright belongs to the respective owners.

Gyakuten Saiban 5 Blog Entry 17: Working on the Scenario (2013)

Title: Working on the Scenario /「シナリオのお仕事」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban 5 official site 

 

Summary: On August 12, 2013, the 17th post on the official Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies) developer blog was posted, written by Fukuda and Fuse of the Planning section of the game, which had released about three weeks earlier. Both these planners worked on the scenario of the game, and in this dual post, the two explained how the story of a Gyakuten Saiban game is plotted, and how they give life to the characters that inhabit each episode. Fukuda walks the reader through the process of brainstorming, creating a plot and finally writing the whole script with character dialogues, while Fuse, who is not to be confused with the art director of the game who shares the same name, explains how they bring out a characters personality in their text.

 

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Gyakuten Kenji 2 Blog Entry 13: Scenario Camp! (2010)

Title: Scenario Camp! / 「シナリオ合宿！」
Source: Gyakuten Kenji 2 official site

Summary: In the post published on November 26th, 2010 on the official Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit) developers blog, character designer Iwamoto Tatsurō writes a bit about the "writing camp" they held during the development of the game. The staff members that were involved with the scenario would stay for four nights at a company-owned resort, where they could concentrate on the scenario. As the character designer, Iwamoto was tasked with making rough sketches for the characters, which in turn would lead to changes or finetuning the scenario, like a feedback loop. While the trip turned out to be a lot more work than Iwamoto had initially expected, they also had time for some fun, like a character drawing contest, and the creative creations by producer Eshiro Motohide, director Yamazaki Takeshi and planner Furukawa Yuuki are revealed by Iwamoto here, together with sketches of those three men by Iwamoto.

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Producer Matsukawa and Director Takumi Shū talk about Gyakuten Saiban 4!! (2006)

Title: Producer Matsukawa and Director Takumi Shū talk about Gyakuten Saiban 4!! / 「『逆転裁判4』について松川プロデューサー＆巧舟ディレクターが語る!!」
Source: Famitsu

Summary: On June 23rd, 2006, Famitsu posted an interview on their site with producer Matsukawa and scenario writer Takumi Shū about Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice), which was still in development. The interview had originally been posted in June 30, 2006 issue of Famitsu, but the online version includes parts that had been cut from the paper version due to page constraints. At this point in time, the new protagonist Odoroki Hōsuke had been announced together with his assistant Minuki (Trucy), and it had also been revealed the game was set seven years after the finale of the previous game, but little more was known at that point about the game, as this interview was also set before the bigger Tokyo Game Show presentation several months later. A lot of the interview therefore focuses on how this project got started, about Odoroki and Minuki’s roles in the game and about how the story will turn out. Interestingly, the interview title refers to Takumi as the director, even though he isn’t the director of Gyakuten Saiban 4, whereas the introduction of this article (not translated here) refers to him as being responsible for the scenario of the game.  

 

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to the respective owners.

The Developers of Gyakuten Kenji Answer Questions from our Readers! How Does Prosecutor Mitsurugi Spend His Days Off!? (2009)

Title: The Developers of Gyakuten Kenji Answer Questions from our Readers! How Does Prosecutor Mitsurugi Spend His Day Off!?  /『逆転検事』開発者が読者の質問に回答！ 御剣検事の休日の過ごし方とは!?
Source: Dengeki Online

Summary: A few months after Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) was released, Dengeki Online arranged for a special Q&A with the developers, where readers could send in questions about the game and its characters, which the developers would answer. The article was posted on August 3rd, 2009 on the Dengeki Online website and had director Yamazaki, producer Eshiro and character designer Iwamoto answer a few questions including ones about how Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) spends his days off, who was inside the Proto Taiho-kun (Proto Badger) suit and who Mei (Franziska von Karma) tends to whip.
 

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to the respective owners.

Gyakuten Saiban 4 Blog Entry 13: Striking Poses (2007)

Title: Striking Poses / 「ポーズを決める」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 official site

Summary: The thirteenth post on the Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice) blog (originally posted on April 20, 2007) was posted about a week after the game was released, so director Endō Mitsuru first thanks everyone who bought the game and tells a story about witnessing someone nearby playing the game. He then moves on to explain how to create the animations of the characters, sometimes the development staff had to do the poses themselves in order to explain what they were looking for. They also made photographs of these poses, and in this post, he reveals two of these pictures that served as models for scenes used in the game itself.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to the respective owners.

Looking Back At Episode 1 Turnabout Foreigner with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Director Yamazaki (2016)

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

Summary: The August 2016 issue of Nintendo Dream featured an article starrring Yamazaki Takeshi, director of 2016’s Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice). Yamazaki played through the first half of the first episode, Turnabout Foreigner (The Foreign Turnabout), together with the people of Nintendo Dream and answered several questions regarding this particular episode. In this article, they talk about featuring a foreign setting and what makes the writing difficult, the use of animated cut-scenes, the animated prologue movie they posted on the official website, the things to think of when writing the first episode of a game and more.

Beware of spoilers for this episode.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

A Long Interview With the Developers: The Core Truth of the Gyakuten Saiban series (2007)

Title: A Long Interview With the Developers: The Core Truth of the Gyakuten Saiban series / 開発者ロングインタビュー『逆転裁判』シリーズの真理』

Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 Official Guidebook

 

Summary: The official guidebook for Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) includes a very long interview on the development of the game with three core staff members of the team: series supervisor Takumi Shū, art director Nuri Kazuya and producer Matsukawa Minae. Many questions are asked and answered, from topics regarding how the game was promoted to how characters were designed, how the story of the game was written, to Takumi's favorite mystery stories, how gameplay elements changed the way they had to work, and basically all aspects of the whole development cycle. The three are also asked about their favorite characters and stories in the series, as well as about when things didn't as initially planned. 

 

This article contains spoilers for the game.

 

Is Shin at Home a Softie for his Son? The Developers of Gyakuten Kenji 2 Answer Questions from our Readers (2011)

Title: Is Shin at Home a Softie for his Son? The Developers of Gyakuten Kenji 2 Answer Questions from our Readers / 「信さんは家では息子に甘いパパ？ 『逆転検事2』開発者が読者の質問に回答」
Source: Dengeki Online

 

Summary: In April 2011, Dengeki Online posted an article with a short Q&A with the developers of Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit), which had been released on the Nintendo DS about two months earlier. The questions submitted came from readers of Dengeki and are about various topics, ranging from questions about the writing process of the plots to asking about details regarding the character designs or how certain characters are portrayed in the game. 

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners. The article contains spoilers for the plot of the game.

Creator Interview - Takumi Shū (2012)

 Title: Creator Interview - Takumi Shū / 「クリエイター・インタビュー　巧舟」
Source: Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine, March 2012
 

Summary: The Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) special “No objection to Gyakuten Saiban” featured in the March 20212 issue of Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine had essays and in-depth looks at the Gyakuten Saiban series and legal mystery fiction in general, as well as special interviews with the two main writers of the series: Takumi Shū, director and writer of the main series, and Yamazaki Takeshi, director and main writer of the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigation) spin-off series. In the interview with Takumi, he talks about the mystery fiction that inspired him, how the plotting works in the Gyakuten Saiban series and what books he'd like to adapt as a game if given the opportunity.

Secret Footage – Final Episode: Become Stained In The Colors of Surprise (Odoroki)! (2007)

Title: Secret Footage – Final Episode: Become Stained In The Colors of Surprise (Odoroki)!/ 『極秘動画　最終話　オドロキ色に染めろ』
Source: Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 official website (not available anymore due to site renewal)

Summary: The official Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) website started posting “Secret Footage” late March 2007 in anticipation of the game’s release. These videos were dated October 2005 and were recordings of the earliest meetings of the development team. The third and final video is set a few months after the initial announcement. The design of the main character Odoroki Hōsuke is almost finished, but there are still some points that haven’t been decided on. Endō Mitsuru (Director), Nuri Kazuya (Designer) and Yamazaki Takeshi (Planning) are holding a meeting to decide on the basic colors of Odoroki’s clothes while Takumi Shū (Supervision) is in Tokyo for work. Nuri has prepared several color variations for them to pick from and it doesn’t take long for the three to decide on a color, but not everyone seems to be happy with their decision.

This article is a full transcript of the video. The video is not available here.

Secret Footage - Episode 2: The Night Before Odoroki Hōsuke‘s Birth (2007)

Title: Secret Footage - Episode 2: The Night Before Odoroki Hōsuke‘s Birth / 『極秘動画　第2回　王泥喜法介　誕生前夜』
Source: Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 official website (not available anymore due to site renewal)

Summary: The official Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) website started posting “Secret Footage” on March 30, 2007. These videos dated October 2005 were recordings of the very first meetings of the development team. In the first meeting, the team was told they had to have an illustration for the game ready by next week for use during the reveal. In the second part of the series, designer Nuri Kazuya shows off the sketches he worked all night on to the rest of the core members, being Endō Mitsuru (Director), Matsukawa Minae (Producer) Takumi Shū (Supervision) and Yamazaki Takeshi (Planning). Together they have to decide which sketch to use for the public announcement of the game on October 11, 2005.

This article is a full transcript of the video. The video is not available here.

Secret Footage - Episode 1: The First Face-to-face Meeting Was A Cruel Trap (2007)

Title: Secret Footage - Episode 1: The First Face-to-face Meeting Was A Cruel Trap / 『極秘動画　　第1回　初顔合わせは苦いワナ』
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 4 official website (not available anymore due to site renewal)

Summary: On March 30, 2007, “Secret Footage” was posted on the official Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) website. The video gave a very rare glimpse at how meetings go within the development team of the game and was the first in a series of three that would reveal how the protagonist of the game, Odoroki Hōsuke (Apollo Justice), was created. This first entry is dated October 2005 and shows the first very face-to-face meeting of the core members of the development team Endō Mitsuru (Director), Matsukawa Minae (Producer) Takumi Shū (Supervision), Nuri Kazuya (Designer) and Yamazaki Takeshi (Planning). They don’t have time for formalities however, as the producer has an assignment for them already: they have to decide on their protagonist for this by next week due to planned promotion events.

This article is a full transcript of the video. The video is not available here.

From Surviban to Gyakuten Saiban (2017)

Title: From Surviban to Gyakuten Saiban / 「『サバイバン』から『逆転裁判』へ」
Source: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016

Summary: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016 includes a small section about Surviban, the prototype game which would eventually become the first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) game released in 2001. While still the same courtroom mystery adventure game at heart, Surviban also has a few distinctive differences from the final product, including the game title, the cast of main characters and the stories themselves. The article quotes from the original game proposal for internal Capcom use, and includes the character descriptions for the original five cast members. Both protagonist Naruhodō Ryūichi (Phoenix Wright) and rival Mitsurugi Reiji (Miles Edgeworth) retained their original names, but the assistant, mentor and police detective have different names from their Gyakuten Saiban counterparts and all five characters feature completely different backstories. Includes are also three proposal pages where the use of the camera in the game is explained and what the concept behind the witnesses is.

Looking Back At Episode 3 The Rite of Turnabout with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Director Yamazaki (2016)

Title: Looking Back At Episode 3 The Rite of Turnabout 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３話「逆転の儀式」
Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2016

Summary: The October 2016 issue of Nintendo Dream featured an article starrring Yamazaki Takeshi, director of 2016’s Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice). Together with the people of Nintendo Dream, Yamazaki played through part of the third episode of the game, The Rite of Turnabout. He talks about early versions of the game, the reintroduction of Mayoi (Maya Fey) in the series, the difficulties that come with writing the third episode in a Gyakuten Saiban game in general and how Gyakuten Saiban 6 serves as the culmination for the whole series, paving the way for future titles.

Beware of spoilers for this episode.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Looking Back At Episode 2 Turnabout Magic Show with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Director Yamazaki (2016)

Title: Looking Back At Episode 2 Turnabout Magic Show with Gyakuten Saiban 6 Director Yamazaki /「『逆転裁判６』山﨑ディレクターと振り返る第２話「逆転マジックショー」」
Source: Nintendo Dream, September issue, 2016

Summary: The September 2016 issue of Nintendo Dream featured an article starrring Yamazaki Takeshi, director of 2016’s Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice). Together with the people of Nintendo Dream, Yamazaki played through part of Turnabout Magic Show (The Magical Turnabout) and answered all kinds of questions regarding this particular episode. He addresses issues like the use of animated movies in the game, exploring Minuki (Trucy Wright) in this episode, how to insert game mechanics in the story, why Akane (Ema Skye) was chosen as the police detective in this game and more.

Beware of spoilers for this episode.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.