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The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (27th July 2021)

Julius

By Julius
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Dcubed Proficient

Dcubed

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Finally!!! About damn time they announced this!! (This was in the Ransomware leak, for those that haven’t seen it).

At last! We’re finally getting these games in English!! :D 

And no, I’m not gonna stop gloating about being right about an official English localisation inevitably coming along eventually @Glen-i AAI2 WILL happen some day too ;) 

Edited by Dcubed
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Glen-i Proficient

Glen-i

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1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

And no, I’m not gonna stop gloating about being right about an official English localisation inevitably coming along eventually @Glen-i AAI2 WILL happen some day too ;) 

No, it won't, if it was gonna happen, it would've done so before this.

Jonnas Collaborator

Jonnas

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We live in a world where these games made it to the west. Amazing. Before AAI2, at that!

I know I was feeling some burnout from the series, but... these two games were helmed by Shu Takumi. If anything's gonna restore my passion for the series, it's his direction. Looking very forward to this.

One of the characters in the trailer had a genuine Japanese accent, which is... unusual. In works like these, they either ignore the language barrier, or treat it in a very unrealistic manner (see: Petra's broken grammar in an otherwise perfect American accent). It's rare these days to see someone actually attempt a legit broken accent when dealing with real world languages, so... I'm curious to see how that's handled in-game!

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

No, it won't, if it was gonna happen, it would've done so before this.

NotSoFast!.PNG

rou-point(f).gif

Almost a good point... However, in Europe, this is the series that released the 4th game before the 3rd. There's precedent for shenanigans! With such a history of haphazard and disorganized releases, I posit that anything is on the table, even an AAI collection!

Edited by Jonnas
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Julius Mentor

Julius

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Man, that box art looks really slick. 

11138922?$pdp$

Not as brightly coloured, but does the colour palette give anyone else a first impression of it looking a bit like Tokyo Mirage Sessions' cover? 

 

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Glen-i Proficient

Glen-i

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5 minutes ago, Julius said:

Man, that box art looks really slick. 

11138922?$pdp$

Not as brightly coloured, but does the colour palette give anyone else a first impression of it looking a bit like Tokyo Mirage Sessions' cover? 

 

Yes, thought that almost immediately, repaint the white background with the greenish one TMS used and it'll look very similar.

Edited by Glen-i
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Dcubed Proficient

Dcubed

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14 hours ago, Julius said:

Man, that box art looks really slick. 

11138922?$pdp$

Not as brightly coloured, but does the colour palette give anyone else a first impression of it looking a bit like Tokyo Mirage Sessions' cover? 

 

It's weird seeing an Ace Attorney cover eschew the series' standard Character Portrait format.

NGL, this box art feels a bit generic.  It's got that typical anime Collage Of A Bunch Of Seperate Pose Profile Art Assets Slapped Together feel about it.  Not a fan.

Edited by Dcubed
Dcubed Proficient

Dcubed

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12 minutes ago, Ike said:

Physical confirmed for EU? Guessing no...

The original leak said that JPN & US would get a physical version; while EU is digital only...

Seems to be panning out exactly as planned sadly :( 

Ike Enthusiast

Ike

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5 hours ago, Dcubed said:

The original leak said that JPN & US would get a physical version; while EU is digital only...

Seems to be panning out exactly as planned sadly :( 

Booooo. Can’t be bothered to import so digital it is.

  • 1 month later...
Dcubed Proficient

Dcubed

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New interview with series localisation director Janet Hsu

https://www.polygon.com/interviews/22519215/great-ace-attorney-chronicles-interview-translator-localization-japanese-western-audience

A few choice excerpts...

Quote

Have older localization choices for the series, such as changing the setting from Japan to Los Angeles, presented issues in other titles?

Not particularly. I don’t think that changing the setting has really created any issues that wouldn’t have been present in the course of localizing an Ace Attorney game. What I mean by that is, even if we had kept the setting as Japan, the dialogue would still have required some localization changes since the humor would still need to be conveyed, and the graphics would still have needed modifications for people to be able to solve the cases.

“I WAS SO THRILLED THE NIGHT THE GREAT ACE ATTORNEY CHRONICLES WAS ANNOUNCED THAT I COULDN’T SLEEP A WINK”

In the second game, Justice for All, I made the decision to keep certain elements Japanese which meant fewer localization changes were required for the tricks behind the mysteries. For example, the karuta cards in Spirit of Justice obviously had to be localized in order to solve the mystery, but the trick itself is still the same – a dying message spelled out in cards with a twist. Furthermore, the structure of the mysteries themselves works on a series of premises, none of which could be changed without causing a complete re-write from the ground up. So in terms of the story itself, I don’t think the localized setting has had that much of an impact. In fact, it helped make the localization less awkward in some situations while preserving the story. For example, it would’ve been odd to explain what rakugo is to a cast of Japanese characters, but since the characters were American, it became a far more natural way to deliver that bit of cultural information to the player. And that karuta trick certainly wouldn’t have worked if I couldn’t change certain things...

 

Van Zieks in The Great Ace AttorneyImage: Capcom

I think the two issues the location change does create, however, are the need to maintain an internally consistent world with each subsequent title, and a greater need for players to suspend their disbelief. The latter issue is more of a personal one, as each player decides for themselves if they want to accept the in-game world as presented. I do find it interesting that some people insist that the English localization is somehow less “real” simply because it’s Japanifornia, when the very fact that the world of Ace Attorney includes real spirit mediums makes it an alternate universe to ours.

By the way, the change in location didn’t impact The Great Ace Attorney at all, since this game is set so far back in time that there’s a few generations in there that fans can fill with headcanons.

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Polygon: What are the hurdles in localizing a game series that’s as full of Japanese culture as Ace Attorney?

Janet Hsu: The biggest hurdle for me is making sure that the puzzles and mysteries are solvable for a Western audience. That’s always my first and biggest concern at the start of each project. Unlike less interactive forms of entertainment like books and movies, you can’t finish a game that you can’t solve. A number of the puzzles in Ace Attorney rely on Japanese wordplay or some nugget of common cultural knowledge that would completely stump those not familiar with those traditions or conventions. So deciding how to localize something and then making sure the decision doesn’t impact anything major in the story or the series’ established lore, along with carrying that localization through to the end consistently, is probably the biggest hurdle.

The charm and humor of the series as conveyed in each character’s personality and lines is another key element, since what different cultures find funny is highly subjective. However, there are ways to craft jokes that don’t involve any specific cultural knowledge or even pop culture references. In The Great Ace Attorney, we primarily relied on the myriad of situations Ryunosuke finds himself in and styled the game’s humor around characteristically British dry witticisms, along with the usual absurdist and double-act comedy humor that are the hallmarks of Ace Attorney, in order to not make anything feel too anachronistic for the setting.

 

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darksnowman Enthusiast

darksnowman

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Reviews have been popping up. The overall gist is pretty positive. Here's eurogamers closing words:

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there is so much to love here: it tries some new things setting- and gameplay-wise, it makes enjoyable references and I just consistently enjoy Shu Takumi's writing no matter what he puts out. The historical setting could prove to be a bit of niche interest to many, but rather than contort myself and tell you that this is just like the Ace Attorney you know and love, or call it a prequel, or a great way to start with the series, which it isn't, I'd rather give it to you straight and say - do you love a good period drama? Have at it.

Recommended.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-07-26-the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-review-more-history-lesson-than-comedy

And a solid review from Siliconera too:

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The value proposition of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is honestly rather ludicrous. After all, these are packaged for Japan, where they’re years-old re-releases. In the West, they’re two full new games. And Ace Attorney games were already not short. Each case is a full adventure, with twists and turns. Doubling the number of them here is nice, for sure!

They don’t look dated, either. The visual treatment, combined with the stylized character designs, makes for a game that scales up well. Capcom is well-practiced in this from the previous Ace Attorney games, but it’s still welcome. Perhaps even more so, given these games’ period aesthetics! Look is important. The engine is robust, and all the save options and quality-of-life features are here. (You can even turn on Story Mode, letting you essentially watch the game and follow along like it’s an anime.)

Franchise fans should be psyched to get the two Great Ace Attorney games, and in a polished package. 

https://www.siliconera.com/review-the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-brings-tales-from-long-ago-across-oceans/

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darksnowman Enthusiast

darksnowman

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

For some reason I didn’t realise this wasn’t an exclusive. Think I’ll have to pick it up on Steam ready for the Steam Deck.

Just checked and it's for Switch, Windows PC and PS4 so there are some avenues to explore. 

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Dcubed Proficient

Dcubed

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I’ve picked it up, but ironically I’m actually still in the middle of a re-playthrough of Trials & Tribulations; so it’ll be a while before I get to dig into GAA1&2.

Edited by Dcubed
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