Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Top 5 Things I Want From Ace Attorney 7

 Video games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 262024
 

Ace Attorney 7 is still only a dream, but I’m optimistic.

Between Ace Attorney’s recent success, the full series (except for the crossover) being available on modern platforms, and Capcom’s assurance that the series will continue, I think we’ll see a new entry sooner rather than later.

In fact, with the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection coming out in September instead of being spaced farther out from the Apollo Justice Trilogy, I’ve still got hopes for a Tokyo Game Show Announcement.

Now, as much as I’d be even happier with a new Great Ace Attorney, it’s probably best for the series if we get a new mainline game first. So with that in mind, here are my top 5 hopes for Ace Attorney 7.

(Note: I will touch on Spirit of Justice ending spoilers in points #3 and #4, so skip those ones if you haven’t played Spirit of Justice yet.)

5. More than 5 cases

Ace Attorney has had a pretty standard structure since the beginning. Every game has either 4 or 5 cases, with 5 being more common now. But The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles bundling together two games with a single overarching story made me realize how great (no pun intended) an Ace Attorney game with more than 5 cases would be. Having room to carefully set up its world and characters is one of the things that makes the story in The Great Ace Attorney work so well, so I’d love to see them do that again in a single game.

Of course, I’d still be happy with a 5-case Ace Attorney game. Actually, even a 4-case game would be fine.

More than anything, I don’t want them to feel so constrained by the 5-case structure. The last few Ace Attorney games have felt like they were forced to have 5 cases when they should have had 4 or 6, so I want the next game to have as many cases as it needs for its story, whether that’s more or less.

4. Let Phoenix step into the background

Phoenix Wright has been the main protagonist for most of the main series. Even two of the three games in the “Apollo Justice Trilogy” are Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney titles. For a long time, it was assumed that Capcom believed the series wouldn’t sell without Phoenix Wright in the title, but it looks like that has finally changed.

Therefore, I’d like to see Phoenix step back into more of a mentor role, with either Athena or a new protagonist taking the lead.

Back when Spirit of Justice was fresh and we all assumed Ace Attorney 7 was right around the corner, I remember speculating about how they would handle Apollo. Rather than split the whole game across two countries again, I’d like to see the main story focus on the home office, with a filler or DLC case to show us how Apollo is doing in Khura’in.

Speaking of Khura’in, part of the reason it exists is because they’d run out of threats for Phoenix to believably be challenged by at home, which is another reason to let him step out of the spotlight. That brings me to my next wish…

3. Lower-stakes story

As Ace Attorney has moved toward more focused overarching plots, the scope has crept up as well. Overcoming corrupt officials is one thing, but how about widespread conspiracies and threats from enemy nations? They seemed to feel a need to make the stakes higher in each new game, which culminated in Spirit of Justice where we helped a revolution overthrow a tyrannical queen (and the head revolutionary was a defense attorney, going up against a government that specifically hates defense attorneys, for maximum stakes).

We can’t get any higher than this without it feeling ridiculous. Even Spirit of Justice was pushing it. We don’t need Ace Attorney 7 to try to top the scope of overthrowing a tyrant.

So I hope Ace Attorney 7 scales it back. The emotional stakes are highest when they’re personal, when it’s something that will affect characters we care about regardless of the impact on the world at large. That’s what I’d like to see in the next game.

2. Normal Ace Attorney gameplay

This one feels too obvious to be this high on the list, but you don’t know how many times I’ve seen people hoping the next Ace Attorney game fundamentally changes the structure or gameplay. Being able to choose which protagonist to play as, timed investigations, multiple outcomes to each case with branching story paths, an episodic release structure with a new case every few months… There are a lot of ideas out there that could be fun in another game, but wouldn’t feel like Ace Attorney.

So it’s my greatest hope that Ace Attorney 7 is still an Ace Attorney game at its core. A new gimmick mechanic here or there is fine, as long as the core progression stays the same.

In fact, I want that more than any of these other things. They could have a game starring Phoenix Wright with 4 cases stretched into 5 as he defends clients in Galactic Court (Phoenix Wright: SPACE ATTORNEY!) to save the world from being destroyed and I’d probably still like that better than if they fundamentally changed the core gameplay too much.

(While I’m at it, I hope they never return to the streamlined investigations from Dual Destinies. Let me freely investigate every area for funny dialogue, please.)

1. It to exist

Please just announce a new Ace Attorney game, Capcom. Please.

…

…You know, I kind of want Phoenix Wright: Space Attorney as a spin-off now. But let’s get a real Ace Attorney 7 out there first.

Anyway, if and when Capcom finally announces Ace Attorney 7, what are your hopes for it?

Could Ace Attorney 7 Be Coming Soon?

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 242024
 

I know what you’re thinking.

Another Ace Attorney post? The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection was just announced last week, with an Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization after all this time, and I’m already speculating about Ace Attorney 7 again?

Yes, it would be logical to assume that with the Investigations duology on the horizon, we shouldn’t expect any other Ace Attorney news for quite a while.

But I’m not convinced.

In fact, the timing makes me wonder if Ace Attorney 7 might be closer than we think.

When you have a series like this, spacing out your releases makes sense. You want to give people time to buy and play the first one before you dangle another in front of them. So with the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy having come out at the end of January, I would have expected the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection to come out early next year at best.

But it’s coming out this September. Less than 8 months after the previous Ace Attorney collection, the Investigations Collection will be available.

I’m not complaining; I’m delighted that it’s so close, but why do it that way? Spacing them out more would make more sense… unless there’s a new game on the horizon. Because you know what else is happening in September? The 2024 Tokyo Game Show, a prime candidate for where a new Ace Attorney game might be announced.

When I think of it like that, everything fits. They are building off the momentum from re-releasing games 4-6, with Ace Attorney 7 to be announced at TGS… but they want the whole series (except the crossover) on modern platforms first, so they’ve slotted Investigations into early September ahead of TGS. Heck, maybe Ace Attorney 7 will include Investigations characters, and so they specifically want it out first.

Either way, while the announcement of the Investigations Collection would normally make me temper my Ace Attorney 7 hopes for a while, its release date being so close has had the opposite effect instead.

We’re getting two Ace Attorney collections in the same year. That’s crazy! And what better reason to do that than if 2025 is set for the long-awaited return of the series with a brand-new game?

(On the other hand, my predictions of Capcom’s Ace Attorney behavior – “Capcom will localize Great Ace Attorney in 2023 when Sherlock Holmes enters public domain;” no, they called him Sholmes and released it in 2021; “Capcom won’t announce any Ace Attorney games until the Ghost Trick remaster is out;” no, they announced the Apollo Justice Trilogy a couple weeks before Ghost Trick’s release date; “Capcom will announce Ace Attorney 7 before an Investigations collection to build off the momentum from 4-6;” no, here we are with the Investigations Collection announced first – have pretty much all been wrong, so I might be entirely off-base again.)

What do you think? Will we get an Ace Attorney 7 announcement this year?

Every New Ace Attorney Investigations 2 Name We Know So Far

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jun 192024
 

Yesterday, our hopes and dreams for the past 13 years came true when the Nintendo Direct included the announcement of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection.

This means that when that collection comes out on September 6, we’ll finally have an official localization of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit.

And with an official localization… comes official names, which has been causing no end of both amusement and arguments among fans who got used to the names from the popular fan translation.

I spoke about this briefly in yesterday’s blog post, but now let’s take a look at all the names currently revealed from the official Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization.

The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection website gives us two right off the bat, listed under the main characters for Investigations 2.

Hakari Mikagami, whom the fan translation called Justine Courtney, now has the official localized name of Verity Gavèlle. I like this one a lot. It’s an elegant-sounding name, and it plays on the same court meanings without being as overt.

Tateyuki Shigaraki, dubbed Raymond Shields by the fan translation, is now Eddie Fender. This is the one I’m having the hardest time getting used to. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because the “a defender” pun is so blatant. Maybe it’s because I keep thinking of Freddy Fender. But like it or not, Eddie Fender is what we’ve got.

Moving away from the the list of characters, the gallery section provides us with one more, the name change that’s received the most attention from fans. Yumihiko Ichiyanagi, who was called Sebastian Debeste in the fan translation, is now officially known as Eustace Winner. And honestly… it’s growing on me. “Winner” feels a bit too on-the-nose, but it turns out it’s actually a real surname, and I can see him being a Eustace. It’s an adjustment, but it’s growing on me.

Next we need to take a look at the reveal trailer. At 1:12, a demonstration of the dialogue history shows a line in which Edgeworth mentions Di-Jun Wang. That character’s Japanese name is Teikun Ō, and the fan translation called him Di-Jun Huang. According to the wiki, Di-Jun Wang is the Mandarin Chinese reading of his Japanese name, while the fan translation then changed “Wang” to “Huang” to add an additional play on the word for “emperor.” This explains why the official name for him is so similar to the fan translation name, compared to the others.

Those are the only four new names we currently know in full. However, we have pieces of three more.

The reveal trailer also includes a scene at 2:02 in which Edgeworth is talking to a character named Knight and mentions two other characters, Ms. Lloyd and Mr. Rook.

Knight is Manosuke Naitou, who was called Horace Knightly in the fan translation. We have no clue what they’ve gone with for his first name yet, but it’s interesting that they simply went with the surname “Knight.”

Similarly, Rook is Gai Tojiro, who was Ethan Rooke in the fan translation. From Rooke to Rook, another choice that’s so close it almost seems like they didn’t have to change it at all.

And the character referenced as Ms. Lloyd matches up with the young journalist Mikiko Hayami, called Nicole Swift in the fan translation. While we haven’t seen her first name yet, the popular theory is that it will be Tabitha or Tabby to make her full name a play on “tabloid.” If that’s true, that’s a brilliant choice. I love it.

Those are all the new names I’ve been able to find. If you’ve spotted one that I missed – from an official source, not just people editing the wiki – let me know. It’s certainly going to feel strange seeing these new names after I played the fan translation just last year, but I’m so, so excited that this is even a conversation we’re having at all.

After all these years, Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is being localized. How do you feels about the character names revealed so far?

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