While we’re pretty sure no one is going to pass the bar exam just by playing Ace Attorney, curiosity still often begs the question of just where Ace Attorney’s legal system and inspirations come from. MTV finally put this, and other questions in front of Minae Matsukawa, the producer of Ace Attorney, so that we can obtain some inner peace.

MTV: The “Phoenix Wright” games are very funny, but as far as I know are not at all accurate to the way the legal system works. How did you decide upon the legal system in “Phoenix Wright”? Is it based on any real-world legal system? Or is it just designed to be one that simply works well as a game? Matsukawa: Well, going back to how the game system was conceived, the team didn’t think of the court idea first, and instead was focused on the idea of uncovering lies and contradictions. Actually, what‒s funny is when the Japanese press asks us about this same issue, they usually think we based the game‒s system off of the American judicial system! But if we really had based the game off of a real court system, it might not be quite as interesting as a game, simply because court proceedings usually aren‒t interesting, right? I think that more than the setting, the game itself has to be interesting. The system in the game is really, at its core, about chasing down witnesses and trying to catch them in the act of lying, so keeping this as the most important aspect of the game and gameplay in mind, we didn’t base the judicial system in “Ace Attorney” off of any real systems, but instead created something unique to the “Ace Attorney” world.

You can read the whole interview on MTV Multiplayer .