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Ace Attorney producer: big announcement at orchestral concert
Minae Matsukawa's final Apollo Justice developer blog entry has once again lifted the curtain on the development of our favorite DS lawyer-adventure series. Without going into too much detail, Matsukawa described the creation of the first video for the series to use motion capture, for which a male research-and-development team performed a female character's movements, and was a "natural" at it. What wasn't natural: Apollo's name. Apparently it took 22 meetings to come up with "Apollo Justice!"In case you're in Tokyo, you like game music, and for some reason you weren't planning to go, Capcom will also make an "exciting announcement" at the Gyakuten Meets Orchestra orchestral concert in Tokyo this April. Matsukawa didn't say what the announcement would be, but come on -- it's Gyakuten Saiban 5.[Via Capcom Blog]
Minae Matsukawa: Ace Producer blogs
Minae Matsukawa, Ace Attorney series producer, has started a developer blog on the official Ace Attorney website. In the first entry, she discusses the early planning of the U.S. version (and therefore the DS port in general) of the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. According to Matsukawa, the idea to yell into the microphone came from American Capcom staffers who thought it was an obvious must-have. "'So, do we get to do some yelling?' an American staff member asked me. 'E-excuse me?'"The Japanese staff weren't keen on the idea of adding a bunch of unnecessary features, but creator/writer Shu Takumi recognized the importance of making the American audience happy. The rest, as they say, is an optional feature in a video game.Speaking of American Ace Attorney staff, the post mentions an interesting bit of trivia that we've been looking for an excuse to share. Ben Judd, who was part of the localization team, provided the American voice of Phoenix Wright. He's now the producer on the new Bionic Commando games.
Phoenix Wright producer Matsukawa on being a woman in the Japanese game industry
Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield spoke with Ace Attorney series producer Minae Matsukawa, mostly on the subject of being a female producer in the Japanese game industry. It's a situation that is about as rare as a US-localized visual novel series about lawyers.As unusual as it is in Japan to be a female producer (she is the only one at Capcom), Matsukawa makes it sound as if she had little difficulty attaining the position. "I worked at a security company... I worked at Nintendo, and in the IT and online game distribution department. That's when I started to get into trying to do mobile phone games and applied at Capcom." From there, she started as an assistant producer, and graduated to producer status on the PSP Darkstalkers Chronicles. She eased into original game development by producing the new case for the DS port of the first Phoenix Wright game, under the supervision of Atsushi Inaba and Shinji Mikami. And now she's in charge of the Ace Attorney series!
Law school prof recommends Ace Attorney games to students
Enjoyable and quirky as they are, we'd never seriously claim that the Ace Attorney titles are representative of courtroom life in the real world -- that's what Judge Judy's for, right? Which shows how much we know, because Capcom producer Minae Matsukawa says one professor at a Japanese law school advocates his students using the games to assist them in their studies.Speaking about an encounter at this year's Comic-Con to MTV's Multiplayer blog, Matsukawa recalled how "A gentleman came up to me and said that he was a professor at a law school. He told me that as an educator of lawyers-to-be, he highly recommended the Ace Attorney games to his students."According to Matsukawa, while Phoenix Wright and friends may not be much use for teaching the finer details of the law system itself, they are pretty handy at relaying "the basic ideas that a lawyer should trust their client, and to expose lies to find the truth."Nice! So not only is Nintendo's versatile handheld able to instruct us how to tend bar, firm our faces, and generally become acceptable human beings, it can now make ace attorneys of us all.[Via Kotaku]
Ace Attorney producer testifies
GayGamer's Tiny Dancer conducted a brief interview with Ace Attorney series producer Minae Matsukawa, presumably while she was on a break from staring at dozens of identical blue suits. Matsukawa answered a few questions about everyone's favorite GBA/DS courtroom adventure series, including a question about the release of the DS-exclusive fourth game, which, she said, will be announced sometime after the US release of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. And, of course, Matsukawa deployed the requisite implied threat of ending the series if you don't buy the next game and promote it as hard as you can: "Yes, we would like to [release Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney] very much, and we're working to make sure that happens. But it's kind of pointless if number three doesn't do very well, so we want to make sure people know about that, buy it, and tell their friends!"
