Celebrating the Release of Gyakuten Saiban 4 - A Discussion with 4 Members of the Team (2007)

Title: Celebrating the Release of Gyakuten Saiban 4 - A Discussion with 4 Members of the Team / 『逆転裁判４』発売記念　チーム４者対談

Source: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book 3

 

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book 3 was released in 2007 coinciding with the release of Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice), containing several pages on the development of the game. The longest article in the book is an interview with four members of the core development team of Gyakuten Saiban 4: the series supervisor and scenario writer of this game Takumi Shū, director Endō Mitsuru, producer Matsukawa Minae and planner Yamazaki Takeshi. The four discuss how the team structure changed for the development of this game, and the difficulties that arose from this transformation. Other topics discussed are about Takumi's drinking, things they'd argue about during development and changes made to the story. This interview is noteworthy for featuring director Endō Mitsuru, as he seldom appears in promotional material for this game.

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.

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.

 

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.

4 Isn’t A Change From The Old To The New, But A Fusion Between The Old And The New (2007)

Title: 4 Isn’t A Change From The Old To The New, But A Fusion Between The Old And The New /  「「４」は新旧交代ではなく、新旧融和なんじゃないか？と思うんです」
Source: Nintendo Dream, May Issue, 2007

Summary: In this 2007 interview published in Nintendo Dream, scenario writer Takumi Shū, producer Matsukawa Minae and character designer Nuri Kazuya talk about Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice). The three worked previously together on Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS). Gyakuten Saiban 4 was to be a new chapter in the series, featuring a new protagonist. In this interview, the three talk about the atmosphere in the game and the troubles they had with writing the story and designing the characters for this new, but familiar-looking entry of the series.

Turnabout Interview 2 – Development Staff Discussion (2005)

Title: Turnabout Interview 2 – Development Staff Discussion / 「逆転インタビュー②　開発スタッフ座談会」
Source: Turnabout Crossover

Summary: A discussion interview about the first DS release of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series with director Takumi Shū, producer Matsukawa Minae and character designer Nuri Kazuya. The interview was included in the booklet Turnabout Crossover (2005), which was part of the Limited Editon of the Nintendo DS release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS). This was the first game in the series to be released abroad, and the three talk about this new challenge for the series in the interview. Other topics include Takumi definitely not wanting to do anything for the DS port, looking back at the first game, the things they changed for the DS version, character design and more.

Yomigaeru Gyakuten Blog Entry 3: vs. Planner (2005)

Title: vs. Planner / 「vs. 企画マン」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten official site

Summary: This is the third entry in the official blog of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney (1) DS). It was posted on August 16, 2005 and written by Takumi Shū. The first part is a bit teasing an upcoming project, but the second part is an interesting mini-interview with Yamazaki Takeshi, a planner at the time, but also the person who'd become the head writer and director of the main series and the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) later. The last question Takumi asks Yamazaki is quite interesting, as this proposal sounds kinda familiar to a game Takumi himself made many years later! The entry ends with a little promotional talk by producer Matsukawa.