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Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trailers and Tribulations
We were just coming down from our adrenaline-fueled reverie over Contra 4 when this came along and OBJECTED its way into our lives. TAKE THAT!, normal heart rate! It's a trailer for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations! What's more, Capcom USA bloggers promise frequent updates on the official blog and in the forums! It's so nice when a company thinks about all of us non-E3-goers who just want to see some cartoon arguing. [Via NeoGAF]
Take that! Presenting official Phoenix Wright manga
Sometimes the Internet randomly drops some delightful content on our laps. Depending on our mood, we feel that either the forces of the Intertron love us and are giving us wonderful gifts, or that they're conspiring to keep us from working.Case in point: we knew about Court Records and all of the good works they do for those of us afflicted with Gyakutendonitis. But until GoNintendo pointed it out, we hadn't realized that there were fan translations of official Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright manga available on the site right now. We'll, uh, try to keep posting while we read.[Via GoNintendo]
Japanese Phoenix Wright 3 gets boring bonus
If you buy the Japanese Best Price release of Gyakuten Saiban 3-- cue the chorus of "don't buy it or Capcom won't localize the next one"-- you may be entitled to a set of reversible box covers for the whole series of DS releases. It looks like they're designed so you can store 2 games to a case. However, the Gyakuten Saiban series already uses a consistent boxart design in Japan, meaning that all four of the DS games already match. And on top of that, the design for these bonuses is significantly less interesting than the original boxart. Of course, we're still getting this thing.We wish it was nicer-looking, but it's lovely of Capcom to hand out bonus stuff in general. We hope these get included with import orders (that's right, we're ordering the import!)
Gyakuten Saiban 4 soundtrack in Japan on 6/27
Anyone care to join us in a mournful, dejected "OBJECTION!"? We don't necessarily object to the release of a soundtrack CD for Gyakuten Saiban 4-- quite the opposite! We object to the Japan-only status of the release, and the similar lack of availability of its counterpart game. We haven't even heard the music from the game to know if it's worth buying, but the two US-released games have had great music. We just ... need more stuff with cartoon lawyers on it, because we love the cartoon lawyer games so much!While we're throwing useless objections out, we'd like to register our disgust with the prices of Japanese CD's. 3150 yen ($26) is actually on the low end of CD prices.
Gyakuten Saiban timeline
We still get occasional comments from confused readers who can't decipher which Gyakuten Saiban games correlate to which Ace Attorney games. This has been especially confusing recently, as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (based on Gyakuten Saiban 3) was announced for the US at the same time as Gyakuten Saiban 4 was being released in Japan. 4cr must have gotten similar confused comments, but, unlike us, they decided to do something about it. Well, we're doing something about it now, but it's just linking their article, which is much easier. They've written a history of the series, detailing exactly which games were ported from the GBA, and the US and Japanese titles of each game. If this is too academic, you can always buy every lawyery-looking game you see, and figure it out when you get home.
Capcom registers "Apollo Justice" trademark
Don't object to our speculation, but Capcom has registered a trademark that sounds like it may have relevance in our daily lives. "Apollo Justice" ... hmm. The first name is taken from a mythological figure, one associated with law and truth, and the last name is also legal-themed. Oh, we got it-- this is the name of the next Resident Evil game.Oh, or Ace Attorney. "Apollo Justice" would be a pretty good name for Odoroki Housuke, the protagonist of Gyakuten Saiban 4. And if that's what the trademark is for, then it's a good sign for those of us hoping for a localized version.[Via NeoGAF]
Phoenix Wright TV drama to air this week in Japan
Insert Credit reports that a Phoenix Wright TV drama will air in Japan sometime this week to promote the release of Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban 4. No news about the plot, but be sure to bank on "OBJECTION!" being yelled many, many times. As corny as this sounds, we're betting it won't be half bad. Hopefully some day a channel like G4 will have video game based comedies and drama airing on it. The Phoenix Wright piece is only five or ten minutes long, and viewers can solve the crime here ... if they speak and read Japanese.
Take that! Ace Attorney overrules Mario in Japan
A text-heavy and fundamentally unhinged lawyer adventure game? You must be kidding.Actually, no. A few years ago, the very suggestion of such a game would have garnered an uncaring shrug and a disbelieving, "Only in Japan." But now, the thought of the Phoenix Wright series being available "only in Japan" is one that generates a seething anger, the kind that results in bricks being flung through Capcom office windows. It's just as well they've already announced the English release of Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations -- or more accurately, Ace Attorney 3.Even with our man Phoenix replaced as protagonist by Housuke Odoroki in Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4), the game has managed to break into the Japanese sales charts with aplomb. Hitting the top spot with over 250,000 copies sold in one week, the crazy courtroom sim comfortably beats out fellow DS game, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, which sold just over 92,000 copies. Third place in the DS-dominated list goes to supreme waggle champ, Wii Sports, with 41,035 sold.
New Gyakuten Saiban 4 screens
We're having a pretty hard time coping with our Gyakuten Saiban withdrawals. Ever since we learned that we wouldn't be able to play the Japanese release in English, we've had to turn to alternate means to get our daily allowance of fake Japanese law. We refresh the GS4 website obsessively, play the translated demo until it hits question-mark land, and shout "OBJECTION" at every opportunity that is even a little appropriate.We found some screens on Famitsu to torture ourselves with. They show the intro to the second case, a witness in Chapter 1, and Chapter 2's defendant. If you want to make yourself feel bad about the lack of Ace Attorney in your life, then by all means, have a look. If you can't handle the wait, we suggest trying to put the whole thing out of your mind.
Laws in translation: Playable, English Wright demo
English-speaking fans of the Phoenix Wright series got a bit of bad news when they heard the Japanese version of the upcoming fourth installment would not feature native English-language support, as previous releases have. Capcom added insult to injury with a tantalizing web demo of the game that is similarly Japanese-only. Oh, how those foreigners love to taunt us and our lack of multilingual skills!Fear not, though -- a band of intrepid Wright fans over at court-records.net have taken the case, translating the demo bit by bit and posting the results for the English-speaking world to play. The translation only goes a few minutes deep so far, but you can follow along with the progress on the project blog. This is probably as close as most of us will get to enjoying more Wright until the likely localization is released months from now, so enjoy it while it lasts.[Via DSFanboy]
Gyakuten Saiban 4 demo translation is a heroic effort
DS Fanboy pal Zachary Hinchliffe is powerfully awesome, and you can quote us on that. He's working with Croik of the Phoenix Wright fansite Court Records to translate the Japanese Gyakuten Saiban 4 Flash demo, which actually consists of part of the first case.It's in a very early stage right now-- essentially, once you get past the intro and into gameplay, the text switches over to question-mark speak that is even less useful than the original Japanese dialogue, but you can at least watch the introduction. And you can set your bookmark now to play more as more gets translated, because we're sure you'll get to play this demo to completion in English before the game gets an English release.
Friday Video: Everyone's favorite attorney
Since we never cover anything Phoenix Wright-related, we thought we might relent for once and put him in this week's video spotlight. Don't start expecting it. You know we can't stand those silly games. Rubbish, all of them!We're practicing for April Fools. Did it work? Hit the jump for a special Gyakuten Saiban 4 trailer while you ponder.
Capcom blogger interviews Phoenix Wright localization staff
We just found out about the employee blogs that Capcom USA has on their website. One in particular, belonging to "Scarlett," is especially cool because it features an interview with a member of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice For All localization staff, Janet Hsu!The interview provides some fairly interesting information about working at Capcom Japan, and about trying to make something as Japanese as Gyakuten Saiban make sense to American audiences. There's also the incredible statement from Ms. Hsu that she only took Japanese classes for about 2 years before coming to Japan. Certain members of the DS Fanboy Blogging Squad have taken much more Japanese than that and can't translate their way out of a paper bag. It's official: Janet Hsu is our new hero, and so are her colleagues JP Kellams and Brandon Gay.[Via GameSetWatch]
Japan gets a Gyakuten Saiban 4 calendar and we don't? OBJECTION!
Capcom put this gorgeous "school calendar" (it starts at April) up for sale in their Japanese store today, and we're dying over here. Look at that cover! That is better than most posters, there. There's Ema Skye, and Phoenix Wright, and the whole group is surrounded by new guy Odoroki Housuke's bracelet thing.And there's six pages of official art inside. This is too much. We don't really have anything clever to say about it. Look at it. It's a thing we want, a lot, and probably won't be able to purchase.Oh, man, we feel so inadequate. How can we be Phoenix Wright fans if we can't look at some Gyakuten Saiban characters when we want to see what day it is? We're going to have to look into placing an order for this thing. 1,260 yen turns out to be ... $10.45.Oh, and while you're at the e-Capcom store, check out these other just-out-of-reach Gyakuten goods!Sample calendar page after the break. You could resize it and make a very blurry, artifacty wallpaper out of it!
Ema Skye returning for Gyakuten Saiban 4
Ema Skye, the science-obsessed, Luminol-toting teen sidekick from Case 5 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten) is making a return appearance in the new DS sequel, pink goggles and all. Her new character art portrays her as a little more grown-up, so maybe she'll be less annoying. Even if not, we really started to feel sympathetic to Phoenix's junior-detective friend in that case (Don't know what we're talking about? PLAY THE GAME!).Speaking of return appearances, you know who else will be returning when this comes out? Us. Our frothing demand for this game increases. You might as well call us "Phoenix Wright Fanboy." Click past the post break to scientifically investigate a few screenshots.
Hold it! Capcom now accepting pleas for the next Phoenix Wright
If you make your way to Capcom's official Phoenix Wright forums, you'll note that they've just started up a cool little contest involving the third and as yet unlocalized game in the series, Gyakuten Saiban 3. The task is simple: use the provided comic and speech bubbles to create a convincing and preferably hilarious argument for Capcom to bring Gyakuten Saiban 3 to the US as Ace Attorney 3. The allure of winning adorable Phoenix Wright figures is no easy thing to resist.That being said, is Capcom's ultimate decision really going to be influenced by a forum contest? Considering their recent approach to marketing within the gaming community, we'd suggest that we already have the confirmation of Ace Attorney 3 right here -- unless they were planning to pick some winners and then promptly deny them a localization. Further evidence can be found in the recently released (and utterly superb) Justice for All, which made the Phoenix Wright name less prominent and placed the focus on Ace Attorney. This is likely in preparation for an English version of Gyakuten Saiban 4, the forthcoming built-for-DS sequel that stars a new protagonist. (Just in case we're completely wrong though, keep in mind that the contest comes to a close on February 28!)[Via DS Fanboy]
Capcom demos playable Flash version of Phoenix Wright 4
Capcom has come up with a great lunchtime distraction for the bored-at-work: a playable preview version of Gyakuten Saiban 4 in Flash. The DS version of what we'd call Phoenix Wright 4 is still a couple of months away from its Japanese release, so we can only applaud Capcom's generosity here. GUILTY: the dialogue in this demo will be largely incomprehensible to most Western players, as its script is written entirely in Japanese. NOT GUILTY: the music is sublime and manages to convey (without lyrics) how the trial is progressing; this is also the first time we've seen Odoroki-kun (captured here) at the bar. Cheers!
No objection to more Phoenix Wright in Japan
Capcom has begun work on a new Japanese installment of the popular courtroom adventure series, Phoenix Wright (known as Gyakuten Saiban in Japan). The game will star a new hero lawyer, Housuke Odoroki, and, being specifically designed for DS, will feature a revamped stylus-friendly interface. This new Phoenix Wright title is not a remake of Gyakuten Saiban 3 (GBA).Outside of Japan, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (a remake of GBA's Gyakuten Saiban) -- now in its third printing -- is a rare, cult classic and has prompted a sequel, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (a remake of GBA's Gyakuten Saiban 2), which is scheduled for release early next year.
Nintendo losing their Touch (Generations)?
If Nintendo's desires are realized, it won't be too long before the image of Grandpa hunching furiously over his DS Lite and murderously screaming "Blue" joins that of the bespectacled nerd in the ranks of uninformed gamer stereotypes. In an effort to reach out to those who would normally shy away from electronic devices and their confusing beeps and boops, several forthcoming and readily available DS games have recently been shoved under the Touch Generations banner. The range highlights Nintendo's popular "non-games", titles that are meant to be approachable by any person, regardless of their previous gaming experience.In North America, games like Nintendogs, Brain Age and Sudoku Gridmaster seem to gravitate towards the label quite naturally, but it seems that the selection differs significantly from that of other regions. Anthropomorphic neighbour sim, Animal Crossing: Wild World, slots right in with Electroplankton in Europe, but the choices of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Trauma Center: Under the Knife seem to fit in less comfortably. The latter two titles are far more traditional, with linear stories, clear conditions for success and failure and, in the case of Trauma Center especially, a more pronounced difficulty level that requires intricate stylus strokes--lest your patient's internal organs become reduced to a bloody mush (technical term). In other words, all the stuff that the mythical casual gamer doesn't want.The Japanese selection is almost the exact opposite, filled with English trainers, dictionaries and travel guidebooks. If you looked up "game" in one of those dictionaries, you'd likely find a description far removed from most of these titles. It raises an interesting question, then: What constitutes a game that, according to Nintendo's mantra, anyone can pick up and play? Is it a game that almost exclusively relies on intuitive touch screen controls? Or is it something with simplistic gameplay mechanics? Perhaps it's not even a game at all. Nintendo's pretty clear about the kind of people they're chasing with the DS and the Wii, but things seem less vivid when it comes to matching specific games with specific audiences. With games being such unique and often personal experiences, it's doubtful that the line between hardcore and casual will ever become especially obvious.
Anime homage to Phoenix Wright
In this episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the characters find themselves at a turnabout dinner table, trying to get to the bottom of a mystery. If you've played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (and you really, really should have), you may spot some awfully familiar mannerisms that give the homage away.[Thanks BPM!]
