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.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Collaboration between Gyakuten Saiban 4 (3DS ver.) and Wanzhuji, Running Now! Takumi (Director) and Eshiro (Producer) Review the Food!! And We Ask About The Future of the Gyakuten Series (2018)

Title: A Collaboration between Gyakuten Saiban 4 (3DS ver.) and Wanzhuji, Running Now! Takumi (Director) and Eshiro (Producer) Review the Food!! And We Ask About The Future of the Gyakuten Series / 「3DS版『逆転裁判4』×万豚記コラボ実施中！　巧D＆江城Pが食レポ!!　『逆転』シリーズの展開も訊く」

Source: Famitsu 

 

Summary: Following the release of the 3DS port of Gyakuten Saiban 4 ("Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice") in December 2017, the Chinese-style restaurant chain Wanzhuji, with restaurants all across Japan, featured a special collaboration with that game, with special sets recommended by Gyakuten Saiban 4 characters Odoroki Hōsuke (Apollo Justice), Garyū Kyōya (Klavier Gavin) and Minuki (Trucy), which also came with special stickers for each time you ordered one of these sets. Editors of Famitsu interviewed the producer Eshiro Motohide and director Takumi Shū in Feburary 2018 as they tried the food, but also asked them about special memories they have of Gyakuten Saiban 4 as well as about the future of the series.

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

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.

[Mari-Detective] Brimming with memory-filled stories the fans had longed to hear! A report of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Special Court, where the new title Gyakuten Saiban 5 was also announced! (2012)

Title: [Mari-Detective] Brimming with memory-filled stories the fans had longed to hear! A report of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Special Court, where the new title Gyakuten Saiban 5 was also announced!  / 「【まり探】『逆転』ファン垂涎の思い出話がてんこ盛り！ 最新作『逆転裁判5』も発表された“逆転裁判10周年特別法廷”レポート」
Source: Dengeki Online 

 

Summary: The special event “Gyakuten Saiban Tenth Anniversary Special Court” to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) franchise was held on Sunday January 29, 2012. Marizō writes about mystery and suspense adventure games in the Marizō Detective Agency corner of Dengeki Online and has interviewed the developers of the Gyakuten Saiban franchise multiple times, so he was present at the event too, reporting from the scene. At the venue, senior staff members Takumi Shū, director of the Gyakuten Saiban series), Yamazaki Takeshi, director of Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series, Eshiro Motohide, producer of Gyakuten Kenji series and more guests appeared on stage to talk look back together at the franchise together with the audience. They talked about the development of the original GBA games, but also about cut content for the Gyakuten Kenji games. They also looked at upcoming projects like the crossover game with Professor Layton on the 3DS and the live-action film which was going to premiere in a few weeks. There were also live band performances of familiar songs and the event ended with the reveal Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 – Dual Destinies) was in development. The translated article below is a report on the event written by Marizō for Dengeki Online’s Marizō Detective Agency corner.

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

Capcom Sound Sphere 005: Gyakuten Saiban – Takumi Shū Special vol. 2 (2007)

Title: #005: Gyakuten Saiban – Takumi Shū Special vol. 2 / #005:「「逆転裁判」 巧舟スペシャル vol.2」/ 
Source: Capcom Sound Sphere (down)

Capcom Sound Sphere was an official Capcom podcast recorded by the sound teams of Capcom. In episodes 004 until 007, originally broadcast between October and November 2007, Capcom sound engineers and show hosts Sandō Yoshiki and Yamamoto Ryōji welcomed Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) creator Takumi Shū in the studio for a four part special on Gyakuten Saiban, with an emphasis on Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice), which was released earlier that year. In the second episode of this series, which was released on 26 October 2007, Sandō asks about the three men who joined Takumi this time on the planning team of Gyakuten Saiban 4. Up until Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 – Trials & Tribulabations), Takumi had done the planning of each game all alone, but now the planning team had been expanded with a director and two planners. Takumi tells about his merry band of comrades Endō Mitsuru, director of Gyakuten Saiban 4, and the two planners Yamazaki Takeshi and Yamakawa Keisuke and also about how their unique personalities also influenced the game in more ways than one.

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

Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 1: Greetings (2004)

Title: Greetings / 「ごあいさつ」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the first column written for the official Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) greet the readers and explain that Takumi Shū, the director and writer of the game, has left for his vacation, so they decide to show off the writing diary Takumi kept during the development process of the game. They comment on the little notes scribbled by Takumi in this diary. In this first column, we see how Takumi came up with the plot of the game’s first episode Turnabout Memories.

Turnabout Anecdotes and Memoirs of Two Decades (2021)

Title: Turnabout Anecdotes and Memoirs of Two Decades / 『逆転の逸話と20年の回想』
Source:  Famitsu, November 4 issue, 2021
 

Summary: Famitsu celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) franchise with a special counting over thirty pages, with retrospectives on the whole franchise, from games to spin-off material and also several interviews with key staff members who have worked on the various games in these twenty years. In this article, Famitsu interviews series creator Takumi Shū, addressing points like how it was working on the original game twenty years ago, how the writing process goes, people he worked with and the way the series has grown into a multimedia franchise that is much more than just one single GameBoy Advance game. 

 

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.

 

Objection to Takumi Shū from the Developers!! (2007)

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

 

Summary: The official guidebook for Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) features a short segment where various members of the development team finally got a chance to object to all the work Takumi Shū (as general supervisor of the game) made them do. From programmers to graphics artists, sound engineers and even the director of the game, they all have something to say to their boss who sometimes seemed only to be “bullying” his team with detailed directions regarding their work. Of course, it was all worth it to create the game. The funny segment gives a unique look into the various things the team members had to do under Takumi’s directions.

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.

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 1 (2017)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 1  / 「『大逆転裁判２』開発スタッフと回想する冒險浪漫談 Vol.1」
Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2017

Summary: The October 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream featured a long multi-part interview with the development staff of the 2017 title Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 (The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve). In Volume 1 of this feature director/scenario writer Takumi Shū, art director Nuri Kazuya and producer Eshiro Motohide discuss the game in general. They explain how the game had to be produced under very limited circumstances, but that everyone was eager to get the game out to provide the players with the answers to lingering mysteries from the first game. They also talk about Takumi’s understanding of the characters had changed and how the main visual art was conceived. In the second part of the article, the interviewer showed Eshiro and Nuri columns Takumi had written for Nintendo Dream when the first Dai Gyakuten Saiban  (The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures) was released in 2015 and asked them about the same topics like how they first gotten interested in games and what their hobbies are.

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

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 4 (2017)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 4 - Episode 3: The Return of the Great Departed Soul / 「『大逆転裁判２』開発スタッフと回想する冒險浪漫談 Vol.4　第3話「未来科学と亡霊の帰還」」
Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2017

Summary: A long multi-part feature starring the development staff of the 2017 game Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 (The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve) was published in the October 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream. In the fourth part of this series, director/scenario writer Takumi Shū, art director Nuri Kazuya and producer Eshiro Motohide look back at the third episode of the game, The Return of the Great Departed Soul. They discuss how the characters were designed and what the concepts behind them were, how the story was written and other tidbits. The article features slight spoilers for this episode.

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

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 3 (2017)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 3 - Episode 2: The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro / 「『大逆転裁判２』開発スタッフと回想する冒險浪漫談 Vol.3　第2話「吾輩と霧の夜の回想」」
Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2017

Summary: The October 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream featured a long multi-part feature with the development staff of the 2017 game Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 (The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve). In the third part of this unique feature, director/scenario writer Takumi Shū and art director Nuri Kazuya talk in-depth about the second episode in the game, The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro. The duo discusses how the characters were designed, what the original concepts behind this episode were and how things changed over the course of the development process. The article features slight spoilers for this episode and the fourth episode of the first Dai Gyakuten Saiban.

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

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 2 (2017)

Title: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 - A Romantic Adventure Of Reminiscence With The Development Staff Vol. 2 - Episode 1: The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney / 「『大逆転裁判２』開発スタッフと回想する冒險浪漫談 Vol.２　第1話「弁護少女の覚醒と冒險」」
 Source: Nintendo Dream, October issue, 2017

Summary: The October 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream featured a long multi-part feature with interviews with the development staff of Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 (The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve). In this unique series, director/scenario writer Takumi Shū, art director Nuri Kazuya and producer Eshiro Motohide sit down together to talk about in-depth about specific episodes of the game. In this second installment, the team talks about the first episode of the game, The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney and talk about how this episode came to be, how the characters appearing in this episode were designed and how things changed along the way. The article features slight spoilers for this episode.

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