As Nintendo fans, we can be sure that the majority of you love Mario, Zelda and Metroid. Yet there are some, perhaps more unlikely heroes, which you have a lot of love for as well. One such hero is Phoenix Wright. Since Ace Attorney launched on DS in 2006, many Nintendo fans on our forum have been hooked on the quirky courtroom series. The latest game in the series - Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is out today - so what better time for Capcom to answer your questions about their Ace series.
A few weeks ago we asked you to ask any question you like about the Ace Attorney series and we put them to Shu Takumi, Creative Director of the Ace Attorney series and Motohide Eshiro, Producer of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. We asked some too! Hope you don't mind! Anyway, read on and find out what they had to say about the possibility of Phoenix Wright returning, whether Mia Fey or Dick Gumshoe will get their own games and how long it takes to write each episode. Did your question get answered?
How did you come up with the concept of a courtroom game? And did you expect it to be as successful as it has been? -hooeylewissukz
Takumi: I love classic mystery novels and the Ace Attorney franchise is a materialised form of my ideals of the mystery genre. I think a good mystery game should allow the player to feel the sensation of solving the veiled mystery little by little, with a dramatic build-up of logic and evidence.
I felt that this would be extremely befitting in a court with an attorney and a witness testifying. I'm also a big fan of courtroom drama so I knew the first Ace Attorney would be a good game but I wasn't expecting it to be this popular - I didn't even dream of a day Phoenix Wright went abroad!
There's a fairly wide range of characters in the games. Are any of them inspired by particular people? - Apollo Justice
Takumi: The trouble with mystery novels is that so many characters put in an appearance that you tend to lose track of who is who. So my logical approach to this was to make individuals as unique as possible so they wouldn't be forgotten.
I do often use real people as models due to the abundance of eccentrics here at Capcom but they never realise there are characters based on them in game, even when they play it themselves. It's quite funny looking at them like that.
When you started making the games, did you have the stories all worked out? - ONM
Takumi: At the start we had no plans for a sequel we just went along with the flow for later instalments. I would use up all the ideas as they came so I was constantly on the lookout for more inspirations. I'm actually surprised to see how the story eventually turned out.
Why did you decide to make Miles Edgeworth the star of this game? - ONM
Eshiro: We picked him because of his charismatic nature. A good looking genius prosecutor who is also cool and smooth? You're in.
You can actually move Miles Edgeworth around the crime scene in this game. Do you think the series needed a change in direction to keep it fresh? - ONM
Eshiro: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth was created in the hope of bringing a totally new style of adventure game experience for our fans! I'm very confident you will love every minute of the game.
How long does it take to create the story for each episode? - Leontendo
Takumi: This obviously varies but I'd say around three to four months per episode. First I write the script then list up all the animation for characters and backgrounds that are needed. We then combine the created assets then start adding in effects. Timings for dialogues, effects and sounds need careful balancing and we go over it again and again so it has a good flow when it is actually played. It is very time consuming to make an episode.
What happened to Maya Fey at the end of Phoenix Wright 3? And are there any plans to bring these old characters back in an Apollo Justice 2 game? - darKnight
Takumi: Personally, I would like to leave the conclusion to you. By me telling you what may happen limits the infinite possibility to one and I don't want that. I do think it is a difficult issue of how much to tell you. In terms of a sequel I'm afraid I can't comment on that at the moment.
At the end of Apollo Justice, it was implied that Phoenix may consider becoming a Lawyer again. So does that mean we'll see him in his blue suit in the next game? Please say yes!! - Ks1990
Eshiro: Sorry, nothing has been decided as of yet so I couldn't possibly say!
Would you ever like to base games on characters other then Phoenix, Edgeworth and Apollo? I'd personally love to see a game where you play as Mia Fey and examine her past cases. - Blue Toad
Takumi: Mia is popular amongst us Capcom developers as well! Also, I agree and I want to see the expanded story of how Mia the Rookie Attorney we saw a bit of in Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations eventually becomes Phoenix's mentor.
Will Dick Gumshoe ever get his own game? - darkman2300
Takumi: Well you know what, now we have a game with Miles as the main star, I certainly wouldn't deny the possibility of Dick Gumshoe's game and it is wonderful for people to love him so much. But... if this does happen it may be the first mystery game in history where the mystery is not solved at the end. It is our beloved Mr Gumshoe after all...
Do you plan on making more Ace Attorney Investigations games after Miles Edgeworth? I think it would be pretty cool to have it as a sort of spin-off or companion to the main series. - Amthedude
Eshiro: The main series and the AA Investigations have a totally different approach and the concepts differ, so we don't have one planned for the moment.
Has an Ace Attorney anime series ever been considered? - Exodist
Eshiro: Not that I know of, I'm afraid.
If you could choose a Nintendo character to appear in the series who would it be? Defending Mario for crimes against the Goombas? Bowser for constant kidnapping? - dajoca83
Takumi: This is difficult in all sorts of ways. Perhaps Nintendo would be kind enough to allow Full Masked Prosecutor: Samus Aran or Mysterious Adventurer Mr Link looking for the Heart Piece in the court or even Judge Mario whose verdict is always 'Mamma mia!'?! How about at the end of the story Samus's power suit slowly opens up and...Wynston Payne appears to your surprise! I bet we'd really get sued then. I'll have to get Phoenix to help me out!
That's all from Shu Takumi and Motohide Eshiro. Hope you enjoyed reading their responses. We hope that this is the first in a series of ONM Asks interviews. The next one will be with the developers of Sonic the Hedgehog 4. So if you have a question for them , put it in this forum thread.
