2021 marks the series’ 20th anniversary. After the remastered multiplatform trilogy, it’s time to get that name back through the big door.
Capcom is in a state of grace. The Japanese company has closed the 2020 course with an unbeatable outlook for the imminent end of the fiscal year; all this weighed up by licenses like Monster Hunter and Resident Evil. It is at this time, when they find a forecast of 890 million dollars in turnover and 294.9 million dollars in operating profits, it is time to take risks and recover licenses that, in another scenario, would remain in the background.
Ace Attorney is one of those secondary agents. The saga originally created by Shu Takumi has an undeniable prestige, but its sales do not exceed 8 million units sold since its original premiere in Japan back in 2001 on the Game Boy Advance. There is a halo of hope, however, and that is that probe balloon called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch has shipped no less than a million copies worldwide, counting the markets of both digital and physical distribution (unpublished in Europe).
- It may interest you: Ace Attorney: how to get started in the saga and not fail in the attempt and Ace Attorney: how and where to play the second trilogy of the saga
Is a million units enough for the long-awaited Ace Attorney 7? We do not know. Many variables come in here and it all depends on factors strictly linked to Capcom. Commercial estimates, market demand, creative aspirations of the study … If we had to respond to the latter, we would eliminate from the dilemma whether or not there should be more iterations of the lawyer: the saga can continue to give much of itself, both in the plot as, above all, in the playable.
Being a license closely linked to portable hardware since its inception, limitations have accompanied each delivery; but now things change. If tools, budget and sufficient time are offered, it would be possible to produce a first-class visual novel, with innovations in the mechanical plane and a greater number of cinematic scenes, characters, cases, scenarios …
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
There is another aspect that we cannot ignore, and that is that we have almost five years without a new delivery; The last in the main series is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice for Nintendo 3DS, the sixth in the numbered line. Being exclusive to a single console (like Dual Destinies, the fifth), there is a huge plot gap between the latest that newcomers to the saga have known, those who have discovered for the first time Ace Attorney 1, 2 and 3 with the trilogy, and everything that happened afterwards.
It happened a lot, luckily, you just need to let everyone know about it.
The original trilogy is not enough; there are many stories to rescue
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice is the fourth, a soft reboot for Nintendo DS that we can now also play on 3DS and mobile devices. Similar case for the fifth and sixth, brilliant as a whole, with some of the best cases of the saga, but without a presence in the place where there are more potential players: the current consoles. Only 3DS and mobiles.
Surely you will understand where we are going: a release of Ace Attorney 4-5-6 in the form of a trilogy, second collection, before that long-awaited and desired seventh episode that gives continuity to the adventures of Phoenix, Apollo and company, has all the logic.
Promotional image of the saga (1-4) Ace Attorney in its version adapted to Wii | Nintendo
Dai Gyakuten Saiban, 19th Century Lawyer
We don’t end here, since the advocacy saga as a visual novel features spin-off installments that never saw the light beyond the land of the Rising Sun. Starting with Dai Gyakuten Saiban (The Great Ace Attorney) and its continuation, two prequels published in 2015 and 2017 for Nintendo 3DS with a strong emphasis on narrative and theory of knowledge from the 19th century in Japan, during the Meiji period. They are two extremely unique titles, starring Phoenix Wright’s great-grandfather, Ryunosuke Naruhodo. This aspiring lawyer has to solve cases, but the adventure unfolds in a different way, adapted to the times of the moment, thus offering a different point of view of the concept of justice; two works that enriched the saga through their investigations and trials, also cared for in the audiovisual field plus an incentive with a certain commercial hook: the presence of Sherlock Holmes.
The Great Ace Attorney
For some reason, both deliveries were relegated to the Japanese market, thus preventing their enjoyment in the West and limiting their access in other languages; not even english. It is the ideal opportunity to try both, give it a try, given their self-concluding and independent nature of the main series: you don’t need to know anything about Ace Attorney to get started, you don’t need anything to enjoy them. The fan who has followed the series closely since its inception in western lands would celebrate this location more than five years later.
A missing prosecutor, an unfinished story
Last but not least, although with a much lower probability of return, we have the two iterations starring Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor who has been accompanying the Ace Attorney saga since its inception. These are truly experimental and different, with freedom of movement and a little more effort when interacting with the stage. They are investigations, but with interrogations: intelligence solves everything. If there is a culprit, it must be proven. It is a pity that Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (2010; NDS) only arrived in English, although it was distributed in Europe and in physical format – then it would also come out on mobile devices, not 3DS-. The community of fans already sensed that something was not going well, since none of the main European markets (Germany, France, Italy, Spain) had localization to their native language, it was only adapted for English speakers.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Investigations
Its sequel, Gyakuten Kenji 2 (2011, NDS), is possibly one of the best titles in the series… at all levels. It stayed in Japan, it had no distribution in the United States, thus beginning a void that would last until 2013, when Dual Destinies returned through the back door by including – again – only English among its confirmed languages for Europe, whose distribution was made only through digital format via eShop. 2014 is the exception that confirms the rule, Nintendo’s sole responsibility, when they edited and localized with excellent results the crossover Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which not only had texts in Spanish but also a first-rate dubbing.
Since 2016, when we had the closing quotation marks of the second trilogy, the saga has been dragged into the background; In fact, it is Capcom who has been editing the series since the fifth installment in 2013, therefore the remastered multiplatform trilogy did not include Spanish, which was carried out by Nintendo in its day.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney deserves to return in some way, but for a possible release of Ace Attorney 7 whenever it happens, if at all, it would be wise to look back first and take back what sadly fell by the wayside. 2021 marks the twentieth anniversary; maybe it’s time to regain the badge of the video game’s quintessential lawyer.
References | Capcom Financial Results (Q3 / FY2021); Game Series Sales
