Dual Destinies art director details character design and Phoenix Wright's transition to 3D
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies will be the first installment of the Ace Attorney series to use full 3D graphics, a change Art Director Takuro Fuse has detailed at length on the Capcom-Unity blog.
Fuse described the team's first attempt to bring Phoenix into the third dimension as "cringe-worthy," but by refining character aesthetics and utilizing "slick camera work," Fuse and his team were able to show off a "new, hybrid Phoenix" that successfully merged 2D and 3D art. "I hope when you get the chance to play the game that you'll play it with the 3D volume all the way up," Fuse wrote. "Nothing would make me happier than to have you experience it in all its glory!"
Phoenix wasn't the only character to go through several designs, however.
Fuse wrote that the new rival prosecutor, Simon Blackquill, also took some time to nail down. In the game, Blackquill is not only a persecutor, but also a criminal serving a sentence for murder. Fuse's first design was approached "almost solely from the convict angle," while the second design swung too far in the direction of prosecutor.
In the end, Blackquill's design blended the black-and-white color scheme of stereotypical jail garb with the fashion sense of a ronin samurai. "There was an answer to be found at the junction of the black and white Japanese and prosecutorial Western styles of clothes, and that was the Westernization of Japan during the Meiji era," Fuse wrote.
Several tweaks later, and Fuse finally had no objections. Dual Destinies will make its case via the 3DS eShop on October 24.
