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inevitableentresol: a Victorian gentleman with the body of a carrot (Default)
[personal profile] inevitableentresol

It's been confirmed that the sixth game in the Ace Attorney series is going to be localised in the West. The game is still in development and not even released in Japan, so I'm guessing that means 2017.

AA6 gameplay will apparently be all about dead people and ghosts, which is something I hate in my entertainment and go out of my way to avoid.

Meanwhile, they don't seem to be localising The Great Ace Attorney, which looks much more my style. It's set in Victorian London and has steampunk Sherlock Holmes. Out of the two of them, I'd much rather play that one. I'd been avoiding spoilers for it, and now I just feel stupid for having bothered.

I'm grumpy about the whole thing. I hated most of AA5, the last main game in the series, but the release at nearly the same time of the side game Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright more than made up for that.

But now in 2017, whether I like it or not, I'm going to be pushed out of the fandom if the next main game truly revolves around dead people. I felt really happy in this fandom. I've got a couple more years in it anyway, but this news coincides with me not being able to write much fanfic at the moment for stupid RL reasons, so that just adds to it all.

It really is good news, just not for this particular fan of the series. That background artwork does look nice. Seems to be Tibet-inspired, or in that region. (Edit: apparently it's set in a country where they have prosecutors but no defending attorneys, and the art indicates Chinese-occupied Tibet, so that's quite strong social commentary for a video game.)

But here's another thing that's been happening - I love that Hot Ryu from Street Fighter 5 is a thing that is being widely reported. He has a hot beard! Hot yet gentle eyes! He astounds local sheep with his hot, manly nipples! This is important hot information!


They do have a point, though. Hot beards are good news.

Date: 2015-09-01 08:02 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
Dunno, feels more like an attempt to bring the whole spirit channeling and by extension Maya and Kurain back one way or another (maybe she went to Tibet for her famous rigorous training?), the tease about her eventually being back in AA5 wasn't exactly subtle after all. The biggest complaint Japanese fans had about AA4 was that Maya and Edgeworth were nowhere to be seen, and since Miles already had his glorified cameo it's her time too. For the game itself I'm going to wait at least until the demo, trying to avoid other spoilers: Capcom tends to be a bit trolly with its reveals, so in the next future it might turn out to actually be a red herring, or just something related to only one case while the rest of the game takes place in glorious Japanfornia as usual.

As for Great Ace Attorney, despite what they're saying I'm sure they'll localize it sooner or later, it and Gyakuten Kenji 2 (although for this one I think they'll wait until they can get out a 3D remake and as a compilation with Investigations, like they did with Trilogy), despite the sales having slowed down in the 3DS era they're still cash cows, smaller than Street Fighter or Resident Evil but still good enough to bring back more than they cost to localize. Probably they're going to do like with AA5 and the Layton crossover, localize the main title first and the spinoff later even if in Japan they came out the other way around.

What I'm actually afraid of is that the franchise won't have other crossovers, PLvsPW sold so poorly for a Layton game it probably killed any other companies' interest. And that was a Takumi game, which usually brings back all the hardcore fans of the franchise. Also, what will happen after the 6th game: Takumi is clearly not interested into the main story any longer and just works on spinoffs and Yamazaki has been almost literally churning out a game almost every year, sooner or later he's going to get tired, and who is he going to pass the baton to?

That Ryu looks so buff he scares me. Like, if he flexes a muscle it's going to explode, horror movie style, or something like that.
Edited Date: 2015-09-01 08:51 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-01 11:02 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
The supernatural element being so prominent is what makes the series stand out from other investigative games, at least among those that don't have a horror twist, so I don't think it's going to be dropped in forthcoming games. Also, we need to have some closure about Apollo's powers (and possibly about Thalassa's backstory), so I think this element isn't going to be dropped. So maybe that Tibetan-style place is Borginia or somewhere around it? Uhm...

But I do partially agree with you: as well inserted into the plot the whole channeling thing was in the first game, in the second and third it felt either tacked on or plot convenient, with Pearl having the power to channel whoever she wants but having a dozen different reasons for not being around when the plot demanded so. Also, as much as I personally think that the story of the Feys is the real protagonist of the first three games, the way it was wrapped up in 3-5 is terrible under many different aspects. Most fans think that case is the highest point of the franchise though, so I'm definitely in the minority there.

Takumi seems to be in love with that mumbo jumbo mixed with investigation: the other game he wrote, 'Ghost Trick', is about the spirit of someone being killed trying to find out its murderer before its time on Earth runs out.

Yeah, sales figures aren't really the best indicator of popularity (AA4 is the best selling game in the series but also the most divisive), but they do give an idea about whether a game will be localized or not and what the future of a franchise might be. Which is why while I'm afraid about future crossovers I can see the localization of DGS happen (160,000 copies in the last two weeks of July, the same as PLvsPW - the data for August sale isn't available yet, but they'll get out in a few weeks), just not immediately.

Actually if they're going to be released outside Asia at all, I think Europe is most likely to get them, Nintendo Europe seems to be pretty on the ball when it comes to this: remember that North Americans had to wait about six months for PLvsPW to be released there, despite the game already being translated and dubbed in English for the European and Australian release. Compared to the two days we had to wait for Trilogy to hit the Nintendo eshop is a much better situation.

I still have this thing about either loving or hating Takumi's games, or at least loving a few parts or cases of a certain game and utterly hating all the rest, so I usually rather suspend my judgement on his stuff until I see myself.

Here in Italy the wait is also made longer by the fact movies need to be translated and dubbed (as I said, most of the population isn't bilingual and subtitles put off a lot of people). We're still used to waiting for that stuff, no problem.

I don't mind localization, at all, even if some changes can be funny or baffling at times (and, for someone bilingual like me, it's fun to spot them and try to understand why they went with certain choices). The only thing you'll hear me say against it is that using less pop culture references that often are dated as soon as the game is out wouldn't be a bad idea, all the opposite.
Edited Date: 2015-09-01 11:54 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-02 10:58 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
Say what you will, but I still don't trust them on that: they had "no plans" of releasing PLvsPW either, and even if it took two years eventually they did. And nothing it taking off my mind the idea that the main reason why GK2 wasn't localized was because it was a DS game that would have come out during the launch of the 3DS, call me a conspirationist if you will. It's just that Capcom isn't the kind of company that hates money, even if it's just a quick buck. The only thing they seem to have problems with are new games that don't have an established franchise behind themselves, and AA definitely isn't.

Still, the supernatural element is an integral part of the series, whether people like it or not. What I don't get is the whole getting upset about this forthcoming game and treating it as if it's the franchise jumping the shark, when Trilogy has established that spirit channeling is a thing that exists and works, that there's a mystical object charged with the spiritual power of a 9-years-old medium that gets used several times during the second and third game to find out whether someone's lying, and that somewhere in the courtroom records of that world there's a report about a trial during which the spirit of a criminal that had already been executed for her crimes possessed a medium and carried out other crimes in revenge. Among the other things, that is. I can understand fans being afraid that Yamazaki might end giving a lame explanation to the Fey's powers and/or retcon some things about how spirit channeling worked so far for the sake of building up the world he's creating in his take on the story, but saying that "it doesn't belong in an AA game" or is a departure from the original concept feels like fanboyism (and this comes from somebody that has about as many problems with Yamazaki's writing as with Takumi's).

You don't even need to go look for historical stuff, in most of today's bookshops in Japan there is a section for supernatural detective novels alone, whether it involves ghosts, reincarnation or just folklore monsters. I've always been curious about this, but never really read many essays or research on the matter.

Personally I like of this kind of stories (although of course I don't take them as masterpieces of the genre) because of how different from the Western way of depicting it is. Also because due to the supernatural element they end focussing less on the investigation itself and more on development, thinking things outside of the box and so forth, which is an interesting approach to it, even if in the end the resolution makes no sense. In a way the Layton series is kind of a response to it, since all games seem to have a supernatural event which in the end turns out to be perfectly explainable scientifically (even if, like in the novels I mentioned above, the explanation and resolution in the end make no sense).

Well, people into female breasts and legs did get their fill with this picture of Cammy and Chun Li (looking damn good indeed), gotta give other fans their share too. This however makes me kinda curious about how Vega will be portrayed in this version for those who are into prettier men, he's already over-the-top and flamboyant as it is.
Edited Date: 2015-09-02 03:56 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-03 11:28 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
See how many fighting games have plots nowadays amuses me, especially those where in the story mode some characters are best friends/lovers/related/allies with others while in the free fighting mode they just beat the crap out of each other.

I've always had a thing for Chun Li, even as a kid. Like Cammy is strange to see her with a different hairdo, gonna miss those hair buns.

By the way, I found out that the voice actor that plays Ryu in the localization of SF also played Edgeworth in AA5, and since I'm a 12-years-old at heart I like to imagine Hot Ryu with a cravat now. It would enhance biceps and diaphragm so he can spam Hadouken and loudly object at the same time. Even against kiwis, as you proposed below.

Me and my cousin have been talking about the possibility of DGS not being localized (not that he cares, since he's a fan of the series he's going to buy it anyway, then make me play it and explain it to him), and he joked about the reason being that the version of Sherlock was too faithful to the original to the point of having him offer Ryuunosuke some cocaine at some point. I'm a bit ashamed I thought that I'd actually like to see that.

Well, now I'm also glad I'm not into Animal Crossing, or that any of the series I like don't have amiibos. Yet. Although this weekend I went to a mall and found some of those amiibo that are listed as rare in that article (especially Luigi, they had enough to sell them at 10 euro instead of 15). I guess certain zones had different shipments, or certain figurines sold more in some regions than in others, and since amiibos aren't region locked the work of certain scalpers is less difficult than others.
Edited Date: 2015-09-04 12:16 am (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-04 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
Didn't see them before, thanks for linking them. That woman had a Fey-ish thing to her, I could see her being introduced as one of Maya's cousins or something (that hairdo reminds me of Pearl and the jewel on her scepter is clearly a magatama), but those bright green eyes make me think she's not Maya. Unless she's gotten possessed or something, but for what it's worth it's definitely a sign we'll see Maya, and maybe some Fey family feud, again.

Not really a PLvsPW fan myself, and not just because of the ending. While it's not bad it's definitely one of the weakest games in my opinion, story and gameplay-wise, so much that by the end it felt like I had gone through an expensive overlong demo instead of an actual game, even if I have put more than twenty hours in it. I wanted to love it, but I just didn't get into it. Maybe when I'll replay it I'll be able to see why.

Well, in my post about the demo I said that he felt a bit like a mix of Klavier and Gumshoe. I like to imagine he's actually the result of some scientific experiment Ema did, or maybe something Gumshoe himself did while trying to fix his home-made metal detector or something, accidentally created Detective Fop and sent him back in time.

Yes, I like it. Now you'll have to rip this headcanon off my cold dead fingers.
Edited Date: 2015-09-04 09:03 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-04 11:29 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
Oh boy, this sounds like yet another OC coming straight from the kink meme, right next to Hannah Fright and Paul the Cravat. I'm tempted to start planning fics about him.

DD had way too much pointless hand holding, but some points in the cases were still challenging enough, while PLvsPW felt like I had accidentally put the difficulty on easy. And jokes aside, there seriously should have been an option to switch the bubbles with the exclamation points off during the multiple interrogations.

Investigations 2 really throws too much stuff at you at once. For me the slow pace helped taking things in (even if I really didn't like the game I have to admit that playing it was strangely relaxing), but I can see people getting bored or lost.

Date: 2015-09-05 09:57 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] dagbok
That's actually been almost the same for me: Ray is actually the only somewhat memorable character in that game for me, even if his change of mind about Miles feels too out of the blue and just to make the plot go on and while Nicole/Mikiko was okay during the first case, when later on she appears again next to Lotta she ends feeling just like yet another typical sidekick. Every other new character was just too bland or stock, and whatever sympathy I could have had for Kay completely disappeared with that pity grab that was the fourth case (although, still not as bad as the pure hatred I had for Larry at the end of Trials and Tribulations. If anything I have to thank the Investigations games for making me like him again).

AA games for me got really enjoyable as games only around the second half of Justice for All, when I had learned to embrace their logic (or, more appropriately, lack thereof) and went along with them, if one tries to apply normal logic to them they're either too easy or too frustrating. During the first three games I've found myself at least three times having already understood who did what and why around halfway through the last day of trial and felt like I could have ended the case there by presenting the incriminating piece of evidence I already had, but instead I had to go through every other single loose end first, even ones not really relevant to the case itself, and present all the evidence I have about it, and only then present the final evidence to corner the real culprit. Pretty sure that's not how anyone's priorities in a case like that would be.

And about Bravely Default, you're welcome. I really liked that game, even started New Game+ despite having already spent more than a hundred hours on it, so if you need tips or anything else about it feel free to ask.
Edited Date: 2015-09-05 10:13 am (UTC)

Date: 2015-09-02 05:02 am (UTC)
morbane: pohutukawa blossom and leaves (Default)
From: [personal profile] morbane
*squints*

Is there a reason Hot Ryu is apparently standing in front of a takahe?

(google image search results of takahe)

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