Ace Attorney Creator: Franchise Inspired Many Players to Become Lawyers

At the end of July, the western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a spin—off of The Ace Attorney detective game series, took place. In honor of this, director and screenwriter Shu Takumi told how he came up with the concept of the franchise and how the court in his game differs from the real one.

Xiu Takumi talked about this with journalist Jason Schreier from Bloomberg. We chose the main thing from the interview:

• Takumi started working at Capcom in the 1990s. Before coming up with Ace Attorney, he dealt with Resident Evil and Dino Crisis. The first game about lawyer Phoenix Wright — Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — was released in 2001;
• initially, the game designer wanted to make a game in which there is an opportunity to analyze the riddle in his head and only then confirm his theory by directly interacting with the game. After much thought, Takumi came to the conclusion that the player should use evidence to bring the villains to the surface;
• “I created the Ace Attorney series, believing that a “court battle”—style narrative is an ideal option to bring to life a game based on logic and reflection. I continue to believe it to this day,” Takumi said.;
• to make Ace Attorney credible, Takumi, along with the development team, attended court sessions and watched what was happening;
• nevertheless, the trial in this series of games is very different from how things really happen;
• “In real life, Japanese judges do not knock with a giant wooden hammer, people in the gallery do not whisper during the hearing, lawyers do not shout “I object”, and confetti does not pour when “innocent” sounds,” Takumi said.;
• According to Takumi, he has never been interested and is still in no hurry to find out what people who have been working as lawyers think about Ace Attorney for a long time. But he received letters from players who were inspired by the franchise to take up law.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles dilogy was released on July 27. It combines the last two parts of the series The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve. The events in them unfold in Japan and the UK at the turn of the twentieth century. The plot centers on detective Hurlock Sholms and lawyer Renosuke Naruhodo, the ancestor of the hero of most games in the Phoenix Wright series.