Hi everyone! Welcome to the first of four blog entries I’ll be doing for the upcoming release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo 3DS on November 21 st in North America, and November 23 rd in Europe! This is Janet Hsu, coming at you from Osaka, Japan!
I realize that a lot of new folk have been joining our ever-growing community, and this may be the first time they’re playing AJ:AA , so I’m going to try to remain as spoiler-free as possible.
Now, I know it seems like we just had the smartphone releases of AJ:AA , but I wanted to share with you today some of the nifty things we’ve done to modernize and streamline the gameplay for this Nintendo 3DS version. Many of the new features are similar to the ones we implemented in the more recent titles like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, so hopefully, they will make your experience go a little smoother.
And now, without further ado, here are Trucy and Apollo who will take us on a tour of all the new features!
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Apollo: APOLLO JUSTICE IS FINE!!!
Trucy: Polly! I think you just scared our poor audience…
Apollo: Whoops. Sorry about that! I was just warming up my voice with some Chords of Steel exercises. Anyway, I’m Apollo Justice, and today, Trucy and I will be taking you on a tour of the newest version of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney .
Trucy: Here’s a fun fact for you, Polly: did you know that it’s been almost ten years since our debut on Nintendo DS?
Apollo: Wow. A lot sure has change in ten years, huh.
Trucy: You said it! Games have gotten so much more user-friendly, and the Nintendo 3DS system even has features and functions that didn’t exist on Nintendo DS.
Apollo: Right. You all ready to get started on our tour?
Trucy: Ooh, you bet!
Trucy: Here we are at the title screen.
Apollo: It looks just like the original version to me.
Trucy: Looks like somebody isn’t very observant. “You can get away with being unobservant some of the time, but you should definitely call a step-ladder a step-ladder all of the time.” That’s what Daddy always says.
Apollo: (That’s an oddly specific object to reference…)
Trucy: And in this case, there are definitely two shiny new buttons here: the “Japanese” and the “Skip All Text” buttons!
Apollo: Let me guess: the “Japanese” button takes you to the Japanese version of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, also known as Gyakuten Saiban 4, and the “Skip All Text” button allows you to fast-forward through pretty much all of the dialogue from the very start with the B Button?
Trucy: *gasp!* How did you know?! Did you take a sneak peek at the game without me, Polly!
Apollo: N-No! It’s just — they’re kinda self-explanatory?
Trucy: Yeah, I guess so. But I bet you didn’t know this: Even if the skip text feature is set to “off”, the game will automatically keep on going to the next piece of dialogue as long as you hold the A Button down!
Apollo: Huh. Why do all the hard work of pressing a button when a heavy book can do it for you, right?
Trucy: Polly! Is that any way to experience such an interactive medium as games?
Apollo: Hey, I’m not the one who put this autoplay feature in! …Look, let’s just move on to the courtroom now, all right?
Trucy: Wow, Polly! Listen to that crystal clear, uncompressed music, and look at how smooth you look! No more jaggy lines! Other than your horns, I mean.
Apollo: Hey, you leave my hair out of this. Do you have any idea how early I get up every day just to get it to look this good?
Trucy: No… but I heard that the localization director was unreasonably harsh on the dev team and asked them to change a bunch of graphics just for this remaster.
Apollo: Now, now, let’s not start rumors. I’m sure she was just trying to make sure that things matched up properly now that things that weren’t visible on a Nintendo DS screen suddenly are.
Trucy: Hmm… maybe. I guess they didn’t think that someday, screen resolutions would get better.
Apollo: Somehow, I doubt they were that shortsighted… though I am willing to believe that they never imagined the day would come when they’d have to re-master the game in 3D.
Hint: the larger this pic is on your screen, the farther back you have to be from it to see it in 3D. It’s easiest to do this on a cell phone.
Trucy: …I’m not sure how that picture’s going to help convey your point, Polly.
Apollo: Look, all you have to do is stare through the center of it like you do with those Magic Eye things and a 3D version will pop out at you from the middle.
Trucy: You mean you want me to make my eyes bug out — like when you Perceive your opponents?
Apollo: They’re witnesses, Trucy, and no — I mean, yes, my eyes do do that when I Perceive, but that’s not what I’m asking you to do…
Trucy: I wonder if this is what Daddy means when he says, “A good lawyer will always find a way to make themself stand out from the crowd?”
Apollo: Ugh… And who exactly is your father again?
Trucy: A magician never reveals her secrets, so you’ll just have to play to find out for yourself!
Apollo: I should’ve seen that coming.
Trucy: Speaking of seeing things, I’ve been staring at that pic, but it’s a lot harder to pull off than you made it sound…
Apollo: That’s why you’re really supposed to experience it on a Nintendo 3DS… But there’s at least one thing I know for sure: it looks like it’s never been easier to solve a case in court. Not only will I never have to wonder where in a testimony I am anymore, I’ll also know when I’ve reached the last statement.
Trucy: *gasp* You mean, you don’t enjoy our witty after-testimony banter?
Apollo: Of course I do! …Just, not every single time I flip too quickly through a witness’s testimony.
Trucy: Oh! It looks like there’s a handy-dandy Save button on the touch screen now, too! Let’s try it out!
Apollo: I sense that I’ll be seeing a lot of this screen in the near future…
Trucy: Better than the game over screen, though, right? Although, it looks like they added a nifty Retry button — just in case you didn’t save.
Trucy: Daddy said that since you’re just a rookie, you’ll probably make a ton of mistakes. In fact, as I left the house this morning, he said, “Tell him he’d better get used to the sight of a set of courtroom doors slamming in his face.”
Apollo: …Your daddy is beginning to sound like a real jerk.
Trucy: I never knew you were so judgmental, Polly! He was just being realistic.
Apollo: Heh, maybe you’re the one who needs to play the game to learn more about me . Anyway, I think that about covers everyth–
???: Ahem. How dare you leave out the most important new features!
Apollo: E-Ema! What are you doing here?!
Ema: Picking up the slack, apparently, since you can’t be bothered to cover the best features yourself.
Trucy: But I thought we got them all…?
Ema: Not quite. Now, strap on your splash goggles and let’s go through the last two, scientifically!
Ema: You know how you could only use the touch screen to rotate the evidence before? Well, now you can also use the Circle Pad, too! It’s perfect for when you don’t want to sully the evidence with your fingerprints!
Ema: And when you do want to investigate for fingerprints, you don’t have to keep blowing into the mic anymore — you can simply press the A Button to blow any excess fingerprinting powder away. Neat, huh!
Apollo: …Wait, that’s it?
Ema: What do you mean “that’s it”?! It’s a big deal to be able to handle your evidence as your situation demands! Not everyone can blow off excess dust in public with confidence like me, you know.
Apollo: If you say so…
Apollo: Maybe now’s a good time to make a break for it, Trucy…
*Apollo and Trucy quietly slip away from the stress-snacking detective*
Apollo: Talk about a close call.
Trucy: Yeah, but now I think we’ve finally covered everything!
Apollo: Yup. That about does it for us today. Hope you enjoyed this tour, and maybe we’ll see you around again!
Trucy: And in the game, even!
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Thanks, guys! (And thanks, Ema!) I knew I could count on you to keep things lively!
And there you have it — all of the new features we’ve added to this version.
Next week, I’ll be back with tales from the localization trenches! It may have been ten years since we made the original version, but I still remember all of the decisions and debates we had back then.
Until then!
