[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.

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

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.

Gyakuten Kenji Planning Document (Capcom Town Excerpts) (2023)

Title: Gyakuten Kenji Planning Document (Capcom Town Excerpts) / 逆転検事企画書
Source: Capcom Town Museums

Summary: On June 12, 2023, Capcom opened Capcom Town, a website to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the game company. On August 21, a few pages from the original planning proposal for Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth) were posted in the Museum section of Capcom Town. These were the official documents for internal use to explain what the game was going to be about. In the four pages posted, we see what they wanted to bring over from the main series, but also how they tried to differentiate the game from the main series in terms of gameplay. While in other interviews, director Yamazaki has told about a time when they were contemplating making a game featuring Akane (Ema Skye), the pages shown here are from the time when they had firmly decided on using Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) as the playable character in the planned game.

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

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.

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.

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

Gyakuten Kenji 2 Blog Entry 27: Thank you for your hard work! (2011)

Title: Thank you for your hard work! /「お疲れさまでした！」
Source: Gyakuten Kenji 2 official site

Summary: In the one of the last posts published on the official Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit) developers blog, dated February 24th 2011, assistant producer Shiozawa Natsuki looks back at the development of the game that was released just a few weeks earlier. She reminiscences about the summer, when director and lead writer Yamazaki realized they weren't going to meet the scenario deadlines at this rate, and decided to lock himself up in a meeting room for months with just a computer to make sure he'd finish the scenario in time. And time flies when you're cooped up all day in a small room, and sometimes, even things like birthdays come second to work.

Images are taken from the source article. Copyrights 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.

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.

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, The Meaning of Design (2007)

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 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) and therefore contains some pages about the development of that game. One of the segments includes is an interview with Yamazaki Takeshi, who worked as planner on Gyakuten Saiban 4 and the previously released Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS). This is a unique interview, because it is a rare interview with Yamazaki in his role as a planner on a game directed by someone else, before he went on to become the director of the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series and later on the director of the mainline games. In this interview, he explains about the work of a planner. In his case, he was deeply involved with the English localization of the Nintendo DS port of the first Gyakuten Saiban, while he had more responsibilities for Gyakuten Saiban 4. He is also asked about working in the Gyakuten Saiban team and about how own future plans.

Gyakuten Kenji 2 Blog Entry 2: Gyakuten Kenji Returns!

 Title: Gyakuten Kenji Returns! /「逆転検事、ふたたび！」
Source: Gyakuten Kenji 2 official site

Summary: In this blog post published on September 16, 2010 on the Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit) blog, director Yamazaki talks about the special demo they made for the Capcom booth at the Tokyo Game Show, which was going on at the time this article was posted. He then decides to talk a bit more about the contents of that demo, which is a slightly altered version of the first episode of the upcoming game. Yamazaki explains how he came up with the idea of the story of this first episode and even reveals an alternate idea he had, but which ultimately got discarded.

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.

Creator Interview - Yamazaki Takeshi (2012)

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

Summary: The March 20212 issue of Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine had a Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) special titled “No objection to Gyakuten Saiban”, featuring essays and in-depth looks at the Gyakuten Saiban series and legal mystery fiction in general, a preview of the live-action film adaptation and 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 Yamazaki, he talks about the mystery fiction that inspired him, his first encounter with the series and how his first tasks at Capcom, working on the Gyakuten Kenji series and about what kind of mystery games he’d like to work on.

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.

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.

15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Special Talk Session: Gyakuten Saiban 5, 6 - Yamazaki Takeshi X Fuse Takurō (2017)

Title: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Special Talk Session: Gyakuten Saiban 5, 6 - Yamazaki Takeshi X Fuse Takurō / 「逆転裁判15周年記念トーク　逆転裁判「５」「６」　山崎剛 X 布施拓郎」
Source: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016

Summary:  In this interview published in 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016, director, scenario writer Yamazaki Takeshi and character designer Fuse Takurō discuss Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies) and Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice). They first discuss how it was to work as the new team on the mainline series in their different roles as (scenario) director and art director. A great art of the discussion is about creating new characters, and also bringing old characters back for the new stories, and the two also go in-depth in story elements of both games. 

Gyakuten Saiban 5 - Sound Staff Interview To Commemorate Its Release! (2013)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 5 - Sound Staff Interview To Commemorate Its Release! / 「逆転裁判５ 発売記念サウンドスタッフインタビュー!」
Source: CAP'STONE

Summary: CAP'STONE is the website of the sound division of Capcom, which often features interviews with staff members about the sound design of Capcom games. In this interview to commemorate the release of Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies) posted on August 6, 2013, Capcom's sound designer Sandou Yoshiki (using his name DJ Sandou) interviews the sound director (Horiyama Toshihiko) and the sound engineer (Amagishi Shinji) about working on the sound design for the game. They talk about recreating the sound effects for the new 3DS hardware and getting it all sound like classic Gyakuten Saiban, but also to give the sound effects a new, refreshing feel. Sandou Yoshiki himself has also worked on the Gyakuten Saiban series by the way, as he himself worked on sound effects for both Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) and Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Gambit). Yamazaki Takeshi, the scenario director of the game, also has something to comment on the importance on background music and sound effects at the end of the interview.