shu-takumi
Latest
The next Ace Attorney is first in 'The Great Ace Attorney' series
The next Ace Attorney game from Capcom is apparently called The Great Ace Attorney, and is the start of a new series, according to a Famitsu interview with the game's producers translated by Siliconera. The game is in development for 3DS and is currently exclusive to Japan. Producer Shintaro Kojima says that while the next game is "not a main-numbered Ace Attorney title, it's the start of a new series called The Great Ace Attorney" and that "it's not simply just a derivative title." Series creator and director Shu Takumi also noted that "the image and feel behind its play will be quite different from all the other Ace Attorney games up until now." The Great Ace Attorney was revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu this week, and is set in Japan's Meiji period. The game's protagonist is Ryuichi Naruhodo, an ancestor of the series primary hero Phoenix Wright. Capcom's first trailer for the game introduces Naruhodo and a new heroine, Susato Mikotoba, who Kojima says is "pretty much a graceful Japanese woman, a proper girl who does everything the proper way." [Image: Capcom]
Next Ace Attorney delivers justice to 19th century Japan
A scan, reportedly lifted from the latest issue of Famitsu, reveals that the next entry in the fan-favorite Ace Attorney series will leave our modern era in favor of Japan's Meiji period. Not much is known of the new game, though according to a tweet from Ace Attorney fan site Court-Records.net, it will bear the title "Dai Gyakuten Saiban - Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken," which translates to "Grand Turnabout Trial - The Adventures of Naruhodou Ryuunosuke." From this, we can deduce that the game stars an ancestor of Ace Attorney protagonist Phoenix Wright (who is known as Ryuichi Naruhodo in his native Japan). The character portrayed in the scan does indeed resemble Mr. Wright, though the latter never wore a katana into the courtroom. Finally, Court-Records reveals that long-time Ace Attorney developer Shu Takumi is once again leading this project and that it is currently in development for the 3DS handheld. It's currently unknown if the game will make its way to Western shores, or if it will remain exclusive to Japan. [Image: Famitsu]
Phoenix Wright creator objected to sequels after Ace Attorney 3
Shu Takumi is not one to pump out game after game in a series just because it's popular. After finishing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials & Tribulations, or Gyakuten Saiban 3 for purists, Takumi firmly told Capcom, "Hold it!" "I felt that Phoenix's story had been told, and that the series should not continue", Takumi told Official Nintendo Magazine in a recent interview. "Knowing when to end a story is very important and I wanted to avoid dragging it out and having it become a shadow of its former self." Trials and Tribulations provided a nice cap on the story of Phoenix Wright, a young lawyer with a penchant for bluffing his way into proving clients' innocence, that started on the Game Boy Advance in 2001. That's why when Capcom decided it would push the series forward with or without Takumi, the designer came up with a new ace attorney.
Capcom launches Ace Attorney 10th anniversary website on 9th anniversary
Capcom must be planning something big for the 10th anniversary of the Ace Attorney series, as it's opened an anniversary website exactly one year early. Either that or someone thought this year was the 10th anniversary, and Capcom just decided to roll with it. The anniversary site features commentary by series composers, staff, and even the actress who played Phoenix Wright in the Takarazuka Revue musicals. There's also an interview with creator Shu Takumi, who started work on the first Phoenix Wright as a summer project after Dino Crisis 2. Meanwhile, Andriasang reports that a "???x???" link at the official site displays a book with the words "Majo Saiban" ("Witch Judgment") on it, suggesting a collaboration between the TV drama by that name and the Ace Attorney series. Curiously, the book is blank when we look at it.
Level-5's Jiro Ishii working 'with Takumi-san' on Ace Attorney project
Jiro Ishii directed the "sound novel" 428 for Chunsoft, and is now at Level-5 working on Time Travelers. He's also working with Capcom, on one of the Level-5/Capcom collaborations teased by Keiji Inafune -- a new Ace Attorney game. "Huh? Ah, Gyakuten ○○. I'm working on it with Takumi-san," Ishii tweeted, as translated by Siliconera. "Gyakuten" ("Turnabout") is present in each game's title so far: "Gyakuten Saiban" (Turnabout Judgment) for the original Ace Attorney games, and "Gyakuten Kenji" (Turnabout Prosecutor) for the Investigations series. While it's interesting enough that an adventure game expert from Level-5 and Chunsoft would be working on an Ace Attorney game, there are two more parts of that tweet that we want to press. Ishii obscured the last half of the title, suggesting that it's not Ace Attorney Investigations 2, but rather something unannounced, with a new title. Furthermore, he said he's working with "Takumi-san," likely series creator Shu Takumi, who hasn't been directly involved with the games since Apollo Justice. Which also suggests it's a new game. We'll be in our office reviewing the case files until more evidence comes to light.
Ghost Trick's Shu Takumi on finding humor in a murder-mystery
We'd happily take any opportunity to talk about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective -- to our readers, our coworkers, our friends, people we meet in elevators, etc. So we happily jumped at the chance to talk with Capcom's Shu Takumi, the person responsible for creating the supernatural puzzle-adventure game. In a brief TGS interview, we spoke with Takumi about the unique humor in Ghost Trick and the Ace Attorney series -- and the relative uniqueness of any humor in a video game. Your games tend to have a certain tone, they tend to be funny. Most video games don't even attempt humor. Why do you think it's so rare, and how is it that you can continue doing funny games? I don't really know why people don't attempt to put humor in games. That's something I would actually love to know. I'd love to ask people why they don't try it. As for me, why I put humor in my games, and why I'm able to continue doing that: I like funny things. I like humor. I like writing mysteries, and mysteries have to be fun to read. They have to be something entertaining where you want to continue reading it. It can't be boring or dry. For me, what makes it interesting is adding a little humor here and there, using that to my advantage. Basically, I just write what is funny to me, whatever I'm interested in for other people to read. And that's how I'm able to continue in this manner that I do. It's important what I write, but what I write is in Japanese, and part of that humor and part of what makes it unique is the translation. (Note: Takumi's interpreter in this interview was Capcom's Janet Hsu, who actually works on localization for the Ace Attorney games. She reported her embarrassment about translating praise for herself.)
Come get slimed by Ghost Trick footage
We talked about it around the office and decided today's the day you have to get excited about Shu Takumi's Ghost Trick. It's all here in this Gamescom footage -- the amazing animation, the funky premise, the unique gameplay -- all you need to do is open your heart. Go ahead. Open it. We'll wait.
Shu Takumi shares wonderful Ghost Trick, Phoenix Wright sketches
Ghost Trick and Phoenix Wright cross over! ... in these sketches by Shu Takumi, creator of both series. Capcom shared a series of Ghost Trick-related drawings made by the producer, featuring Sissel as a shadow and a Christmas tree, as well as various slices of (after-) life from the other characters. The one here even features a bonus literary reference. The caption above is a quote from a haiku by Matsuo Basho, which translates to something like "I wonder how my neighbor lives?" And now that we've taken a brief detour into seventeenth-century Japanese poetry, you can find a video of Takumi drawing after the break.
Interview: Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney director Shu Takumi
After publishing our E3 2010 preview of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, we worried that we hadn't adequately captured and conveyed the game's bizarre concept. We're not the only ones left a bit speechless by the amazing Ghost in the Rube Goldberg Machine adventure -- ooh, that's a good way to put it! -- as even the game's director, Shu Takumi, thought it a challenge to explain his new mystery game to the "bigwigs" at Capcom. Joystiq: When you first had the idea for Ghost Trick, you had to go to someone and say, "Hey, we should make this game." I want to hear what that first day was like, and what their reaction was. Shu Takumi: Since I made the Ace Attorney series for so long, I was like, "Please let me do something new!" So I went up to the bigwigs and said this, and they said, "You go ahead and do what you want, we'll see what happens." The concept was really difficult to explain, so they were like, "Okay okay, why don't you make something and we'll see how it goes." So, that's what happened when I first presented the idea to make a new mystery game.
Preview: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Ghost Trick begins where most games come to an abrupt end -- with your death. It's of the intriguing, unexplained and very undignified variety, and leaves your spirit separated from your sharply dressed body. As Sissel, a sarcastic smooth talker who's cool enough to wear sunglasses even after death, you interact with the living world as a ghostly apparition in the hopes of preventing others from sharing your fate. Coming from Phoenix Wright designer Shu Takumi, Ghost Trick is almost as fun to describe as it is to play. Youthful and witty dialogue is the obvious commonality between Takumi's new adventure and the Ace Attorney series, but there's a more subtle connection too: both are traditional adventure games that reconsider the role of inventory objects. In the case of Ghost Trick, the inventory becomes the entire stage.
'Elegant' new trailer for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
The latest trailer for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective takes us out of the junkyard venue we've seen previously, including in the demo, and into the home of an "Elegant Lady," who seems to have great skill in the art of drunkenly dodging ghost-manipulated "naughty chandeliers." In addition to demonstrating the extremely odd scenarios possible in Capcom's upcoming DS puzzle-adventure, this new trailer features long stretches of gameplay, showing how the dead protagonist Sissel can move from object to object, manipulating certain items to interact with (or hit) the living. Ghost Trick will be out sometime next year. %Gallery-93388%
Spiritual successor to Ace Attorney: Capcom's 'Ghost Trick'
With Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi directing and a look that evokes a futuristic Lupin the 3rd, Capcom's new Ghost Trick has immediately attracted our attention. The concept, a mystery with shades of Time Hollow and D3's The Saibanin, is equally gripping. The game stars a man named Sisal who has just been shot dead. Now a ghost with no memories, he attempts to solve his own murder and put together the details of his own life before his soul dissipates. To carry out his investigation, Sisel can travel back and forth in time to see the events surrounding his death. He can also possess objects and use them to change history. Takumi told Famitsu (as translated by 1UP) that he came up with the idea for Ghost Trick during the production of Gyakuten Saiban 3 five years ago, in an effort to make "a new type of mystery, something different in style from Ace Attorney." The style might be different, but the involvement of dead people's spirits in murder cases is basically an Ace Attorney staple.
