The Ace Attorney Topic (DS, 3DS, iOS) - News in OP

[Radiant Hero Ike]

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

It’s about $30 dollars, according to Reddit from the Yen price. Granted, that could be lowered when the cost conversions are properly done for other regions.

Oh, okay. I've got $20 in the eshop so hopefully it's around that much. My dad can give me the extra $10 if it ends up being 30 bucks. Hope your theory of it releasing next week is correct!

[Teoskaven]

Checked the trophy list and gotta say, i really like it:
 

Spoiler

It's a bit of a shame it's just one list and not one per game, and it's relatively easy, but it still has a couple of trophies tied to do silly things or as references to the community, like getting all the ladder vs. stepladder jokes. It reminds me of the one of the Castlevania duology put not too long ago.
Definetly gonna get the PS4 version at this point.

 

[Tornado]

That's pretty neat for Capcom to do, I think.

 

 

Instead of "FINISHED CASE 1-1. FINISHED CASE 1-2. FINISHED CASE 1-3"

[Teoskaven]

13 minutes ago, Tornado said:

That's pretty neat for Capcom to do, I think.

 

 

Instead of "FINISHED CASE 1-1. FINISHED CASE 1-2. FINISHED CASE 1-3"

Spoiler

Those are there too. But at the very least it's not just them.

What i was fearing the most was having stupid trophies like "raise an objection for the first time", and while there's a "start the game for the first time" kind, it's only that.
Here's the list btw: https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8765-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-trilogy

 

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Looks like we're getting the release date next week!

 

[Tornado]

Frank Sawhit is also a pathological liar and a convicted murderer, so I guess we'll never know when the inferior US release will come out.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nintendosoup.com/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-trilogy-appears-to-be-heading-to-the-west-on-april-9/amp/?espv=1

It would appear that we have a western release date (accidentally) revealed to be April 9th.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I picked up the PS4 version and my first impressions are actually kind of strong, I've been waiting for a console release of the AA series for a long while, since I never bothered with the Wii ports since not only did they gate off Rise from the Ashes, but they were overpriced when you had the IOS release sitting there with all three games for a vastly lower cost. I'm only up to the first part of Turnabout Sisters so far, but I'm already enjoying this a lot more than the mobile, or 3DS ports.

I think a problem with me - and this is in general with Visual Novels, as I had the same experience with Danganronpa - is I don't like playing massively long story driven games on mobile, because not only is the issue of recharges a thing, but in general, it's just the smaller screen and everything. It's tolerable, and even with the Switch release - a bit better since that has a bigger screen that delivers a more console like experience, even if charging remains an issue, but personally, if it's going to be a long story driven game like Ace Attorney, I vastly prefer playing on a TV with a controller in hand. Already, the game had a plus over the different versions because of this.

But I think this is probably the most refined that these games are going to get. It looks incredibly similar to the 3DS and IOS versions from first glance, and yeah - it's still the trilogy on consoles, but you can tell the effort exceeded past just slap-dashing a 3DS game onto consoles for the hell of it.

The graphics have been refined a bit, obviously because if you tried to throw the assets of an IOS/3DS game onto a PS4 game, it will look horrendously ugly. From what I see, they've been remastered again to cover a 4K display, and especially during the court pan-outs, the sprites seemed to have been refined a bit. It's still not amazing, if you disliked the IOS/3DS art style, then you'll probably still dislike it here, especially if you believe the sprites are vastly more charming, like I do. That said, I personally feel like you can get through that for what is very easily the most accessible remastering of these three games.

I was honestly surprised just how many user-friendly and quality of life changes they made to the game, stupid, simple things that just make the overall experience better. First things first - there is now more than one save slot, and you can save/load whenever you choose to do so. You can hit options at any time to save the game, and it won't quit you out. You can choose to load the game as you see fit. What this means is that if you game over, you can immediately reload your game back to where it was.

Such a simple thing, hell - something that was present for emulators for years - and I am so happy it's here. It's weird to see it because Capcom/AA writers are infamous for despising save scumming, to the point they even created a save scum trap in Ace Attorney Investigations which basically bricks the save and forces you to start a case over again. But here, you can do it to your heart's content.

I know some will likely disagree with me, but this is a most welcome change for me. One of the things I really hated about later AA games is how fucking bullshit the game can get with the meter. Oh, you've been doing well up until now? Well, guess this one objection in a long list of statements or else you will immediately fail the game and start the case from the last "beginning". IMO, this is totally infuriating and completely hinders experimentation because if you aren't careful, well you're going to instantly lose and have to restart a sizeable chunk, so this is just a great change IMO.

Secondly - You can now choose how quickly you can skip scenes. This means that you are never forced to watch stuff like in the mobile ports of AA. You can hold circle and immediately auto skip a ton of stuff, or you can tap circle to get the dialogue to appear instantly if you're a fast reader and don't want to wait for the game to load all of the dialogue slowly. 

Thirdly - Investigations have gotten one of the best overhauls. It now plays like a point and click adventure game, and it has been made so much more user-friendly with one simple addition - your cursor is a magnifying glass. If you hover over an item you can examine, it will highlight yellow. Better yet, it will then mark that item with a red tick next to the icon the next time you hover over said item, allowing you to see exactly what you've already examined, and what you haven't.

As someone who got stuck a good few times because I couldn't find a specific item, and just clicked wherever or whenever I could in the vain hopes I'll find something that will progress things, this is a complete god-send. I am so very happy about this.

There's a few other things - the tick system in PW:AA has been replaced with the bar system from JFA and T&T, as well as all three games have a standardised U.I now. Every game now plays like the DS originals, where you had to complete each case in order to unlock the next case, unlike the IOS/3DS ports where every case was unlocked at once (That said - you can choose to start on your game of choice, so you can go right to JFA or T&T if you want). 

The trophies use a updated and refined version of the IOS achievements, adding a few new ones, which is also pretty fun. There's other simple stuff as well like being able to adjust the text box size and density, and disabling the screen shaking if you don't like that thing.

I've also heard on Reddit that the game is sporting a further refined localisation, cleaning up any typos or issues from previous releases. Not 100% sure if that means it's reusing the 3DS script, which in of itself was fixed, or if they're using a further refined version of the 3DS script.

So in short, while I can't really answer if it's a good decision for someone to pick this up if you're already fine with the 3DS/IOS/DS versions (Unless you're like me, and really wanted to play Ace Attorney on an actual console with an actual TV), but if you're a newcomer, who's curious about the series, this trilogy release on consoles is a complete and total no brainer.

It fixes a lot of the annoying flaws with the Ace Attorney series that could send you on circles for a long time, and make you nervous about making mistakes, as well as making it a lot less frustrating when the game pigeon holes you on the evidence you can use to prove a point, despite the sound logic, and it revealing later that you were right. It's quality of life updates are just the right amount of updating to get rid of a good few of the inherit Ace Attorney flaws IMO and that makes it perfect for newcomers, or even someone who wants to replay the series.

[Shade Vortex]

I've been playing the finally-fully-finished fan translation of The Great Ace Attorney 1, I'm now on case 5.

So far, I have been thoroughly enjoying the game. It reminds me the most of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, so if you like that game, then (minus the Layton parts) you'll feel right at home playing this one. It's even got the same mechanic for cross-examining/arguing with multiple witnesses/jurors at the same time.

In terms of structure, I'd say it's more straight-forward and segmented than most of the games. It's also quite different in feel to the regular ace attorney games, due to defying expectations that were set by the series. But there's enough familiarity and nods/references to aspects from the regular series that fans of it should be able to enjoy it thoroughly.

Do keep in mind, as I already have had to accept myself, that unlike the regular AA games, this one was made with a sequel in mind (which I'll have to wait forever for a translation of that, too), and isn't written in a stand-alone way like most of the AA games were. So not everything is resolved in the first game, as mysteries were intentionally left for the sequel to answer. That's the most spoiler-free and vague way I can possibly explain it.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

In other news, there have been keen reports of the progress of DGS2's fan translation.

[Salamander]

That's something, I suppose.  I think we're in one of the longest official dry spells for new releases at present, and I hope Capcom are just taking their time on development.

[Blue Blood]

With both DD and SoJ feeling like they were focused more on fan service and creating increasingly more epic plots with higher stakes than ever before, and with the actual roles of the characters playing second fiddle as they felt forced and spurious, Cap on can take as long as they like.

DD and SoJ both established Key parts is Apollo's backstory that just got plucked out of thin air for specific cases. He was raised in Khura'in and this was never mentioned before? Maya came back just to the defendant once again? The "dark age of the law" got the courtroom bombed and Khura'in is so corrupt that Phoenix and Apollo had to tear down its monarchy? Oh and a fourth Gramarye member who was never even slightly alluded to in AJ? Piss off. The best case in SoJ was by far the filler case with Athena (and Blackquill). The next was The Magical Turnabout, which was full of fun developments in itself but was let down by creating a character that should have been mentioned in a previous game. Everything dealing with Apollo's backstory just hurt to read through. It was pure shock value, with no coherence or reason.

I really wish that Capcom had the balls to start a new Ace Attorney Trilogy with a (mostly) new cast of characters. AJ was so almost this, but they forced Phoenix into the lead role. I absolutely loved the Gavin brothers, regardless of other issues AJ had. It was a fresh story that was entirely character driven. I just want that again. 

[Salamander]

I personally quite enjoyed DD and SoJ, but nonetheless I agree; probably their best option for the next game would be a soft reboot, maybe even a hard one.  The metastories of both DD and SoJ were to some extent a course-correction from Apollo Justice, but in neither case do I think they've been especially successful at working with pre-existing canon, and I just want to see them start afresh with lower stakes.  That would also cut down on the steadily accumulating list of gimmicks that they're having to try and work their way into each case.  I'd say that also makes sense for their first wholly new title for main and non-Nintendo consoles; compilations and ports aside, it's logical to go for something accessible to newcomers.

...With that said, what I'm actually expecting is for them to do that "underground court for cases between criminals" idea that they came very close to doing for AA6.

[Sean]

I liked 5 and 6 pretty well, but I'm miffed that Capcom readily abandoned the direction 4 tried (half-heartedly in the final product, admittedly) to take the series in. The recent games have done wonders for Apollo to the point where he's now one of my all-time favorite characters, but I wish it weren't at the expense of his name in the title of the games, as well as (AA6 spoilers):

Spoiler

his possible removal as a series mainstay as of 6's ending.

I get why people didn't like him, but to me AA4 shared a lot of similarities with Devil May Cry 4. Both introduced new main characters (Nero, in DMC's case) who weren't fleshed out properly in their debut titles - for Apollo, it was the story and character development, and for Nero it was mechanically, since he was nowhere near as deep or fun to use as Dante. And both characters were usurped from their roles by the previous protagonists partway into both games. It took DMC5 for Nero to finally gain an interesting playstyle to rival Dante's, and Apollo got a lot of good screentime and development in AA6, so at least in these particular cases, Capcom didn't just totally abandon the new guys just because of their debut's mixed reception, but I think Apollo really got the short end of the stick compared to Nero, because whereas DMC5 was all about reconciling his long-speculated relationship with Vergil due to the minor breadcrumbs that DMC4 dropped us, later AA games ignore all of 4 entirely aside from Apollo and Trucy existing as characters.

A popular claim by the fanbase that I really don't like is that AA4, 5, and 6 make up a "trilogy" for Apollo the way the first three games did for Phoenix. That is nowhere near close to the truth, because the last three games have been entirely disconnected from each other story-wise and thematically. The one thing they have in common is that they all feature Apollo, who only sometimes is the main character even in 4, but there is no logical progression in his growth as an attorney and character between these titles. 6 doesn't even reference his best friend in 5 (who apparently was super duper important to his character, or something), neither which reference his mother or the fact that he or Trucy are siblings. Capcom somehow manages to make up entirely new backstory for Apollo for every game that comes out without ever bringing up the old stuff, and it feels very dissonant - there's no thread that ties all of this information together to form a bigger picture for Apollo as a person. This is my biggest problem with the three latest games, and why I wanted so much better for Apollo despite him having so much potential for being the next "Phoenix Wright" (having his own games that form a cohesive arc for his character growth).

And now after AA6's ending so long since that game came out, I don't know what to expect from Ace Attorney anymore. Normally dry spells don't concern me with video games, but with AA it has been really stressful as someone who wishes the series would stop using Phoenix as a crutch to sell itself to players who cared about the original trilogy more than AA4. Which I'm not saying is wrong because AA4 is a fucking bad game with terrible writing, haphazard handling of most of its new characters, and the biggest anti-climax the series has known to date, a resolution so disastrous that AA5 immediately made clear from its first minute alone that it was not gonna touch shit with a ten-foot pole. But the "badness" (if you want to call it that - as I mentioned before, I still enjoy the newer games and the franchise as a whole) didn't have to start with 4 even if it released as is; if Capcom had remained committed to doing new things with AA rather than quaking in their boots over the idea of Phoenix not showing up in one mainline game for five minutes, I think 4 could have led to bigger and better things, and Apollo still could have received a similar kind of development that he did in 5 and 6 that still managed to tie each game together and make everything feel like it was planned out the way AA123 clearly were. But now I just don't know what I want from AA7 that can feasibly happen.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

On 1/29/2020 at 1:03 PM, Sean said:

dry spells don't concern me with video games

Unfortunately, with a company like Capcom, you can never be too careful.

They're notorious for running a lot with series, and then for whatever reason, even if they have sold well, not really following up.

It's frustrating too, given their terrible quality of communication to fans.

 

 

Speaking of which, there was recently a massive leak from Capcom.

Pertaining to Ace Attorney, there was this:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

That's right.  Mass physical collections of AA1-3 and the DGS games (RIP 4-6).

Now, unfortunately, there's no confirmation of this set being localized, and given how Capcom can be well....Capcom, it's best not to hold your breaths either.

[Salamander]

Oh, I don't know.  I've long thought that a DGS Switch compilation is our best chance at getting the games in the west.  It means they're not stranded on an abandoned console the way the 3DS originals were; it answers one of the major criticisms of the original games (i.e. that they aren't self-contained); and with any luck the time interval means the problematic Sherlock Holmes stories should finally be out of copyright.  I did a little background reading on the latter; the last major reference is to a story which comes out of copyright at the start of 2021 (the timing here is not a coincidence), and then the only references in the game to still-copyrighted stories (which don't expire until 2022/23) are apparently visual ones which an HD remaster could simply eliminate.

[Salamander]

Update: Leaked slides appear to confirm a localisation... with Sherlock Holmes renamed to "Herlock Sholmes".  (Not as outlandish as it sounds - that's exactly what the Arsène Lupin stories called him to get around the Conan Doyle estate a hundred years ago!)

Though they could still just call him plain old Sherlock Holmes in Europe, where the character is completely out of copyright, of course; this would be a U.S.-only change.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Apparently it mentions calling him "Herlock Sholmes" to loophole under the copyright. 

Also, apparently Ace Attorney is coming to Netflix too.

[Salamander]

Actually, in retrospect, if they're recording new English voice-acting (in a U.K. studio, I think it says somewhere), then he'll definitely be Herlock Sholmes in all English-speaking regions, even if he doesn't need to be.  Just means they don't have to make two separate scripts and voice tracks for every single time his name gets mentioned.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So, considering how this wouldn't be the first time that the name "Herlock Sholmes" was used to dodge copyright involving the brand, this might actually be happening. 

[Salamander]

I'm actually reading Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes right now.  The irony is, when they brought that to the U.K., the name changed again to "Holmlock Shears"!

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So, "Herlock Sholmes" is actually trending now.

I can only imagine the fallout if this turns out to be for nothing.

[Dr. Detective]

I might get a chance to play The Great Ace Attorney then. 

Been obsessed with Ace Attorney and its music lately. I just binged through all the games this year. The Court of Resignation is a fantastic track, my God. As well as that hyper theme for the Mood Matrix. Oh and Gavin's theme. Everything sounds so good. 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

This just in. Apparently,  Ace Attorney 7 is also on the way, and the second trilogy is also getting a re-release.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

This just in. Apparently,  Ace Attorney 7 is also on the way, and the second trilogy is also getting a re-release.

It's time for Edgeworth Investigations 2 to get a localisation Capcom, come on.