New Gyakuten Not Game / Ace Attorney Musical

Capcom announced at the fall AA Concert that the newest project for the franchise is a musical, being put on by the famous Takarazuka Revue.  It will show in February by Troupe Cosmos, with actress Tomu Ranju as the lead.  Yes, Takarazuka uses entirely female actresses in its shows!  Visit their official site for pictures of the actresses in costume.

The story of the musical, as described on the site, centers around Phoenix Wright practicing law in New York City.  They've tweaked his backstory somewhat so that instead of Edgeworth and Larry being the childhood friends that convinced Phoenix to become a defense attorney, it was Edgeworth and the musical-only original character, Leona Clyde (who was also Phoenix's childhood sweetheart).  Leona is now on trial for murder, with Edgeworth (still the "Demon Prosecutor" who will do anything for a guilty verdict) on the case.  Will Phoenix be able to save his childhood love?  Will Edgeworth have it in him to convict an old friend?  And more importantly, what will Gumshoe look like with makeup?  These questions and more, answered in February...!

Current Cast:

Phoenix Wright: Tomu Ranju
Miles Edgeworth: Hikaru Nanaho
Leona Clyde (original character): Asahi Miwa

For ticketing information please visit this thread on the forum.

Gyakuten Kenji / Ace Attorney Investigations

Coming out May 28th 2009 is the new Gyakuten Kenji (Turnabout Prosecutor) game, a spin off of the main series staring Miles Edgeworth.  Rather than trying cases in court the player will control Edgeworth around the screen in a "point and click adventure" type style as he solves crimes.  There will be no court phases of any kind, but there are a bunch of new gameplay elements to replace them.  Make sure to check out the official Japanese site!

According to sources at this year's Captivate event, the game is being localized as Ace Attorney Investigations and will be released outside Japan January 2010.

The gameplay is split up into 3 different phases/types:

Investigation Phase

Investigating the crime scene (and other areas) for clues, taking evidence into the court record.  Unlike in the normal AA games, if you find a contradiction in the evidence you can present it immediately and proceed to the game's other modes rather than wait for the phase to be over.

Logic Mode

Once you think you have enough pieces of "information" you proceed to Logic Mode, where you combine evidence and info to try and solve how the crime was committed.  First, you walk around the crime scene looking for information.  You press the A button to investigate a suspicious looking spot.  The information you get from this is put on the "logic panel" on the bottom screen.  For example, searching around Edgeworth's office gets you a bubble asking "Why was the murder committed in my office?  What was the criminal after?"  This is stored as a little logic nugget on your panel. 

When you have enough information you go to Logic Mode, where you click on two different pieces of information (or information and evidence, or two pieces of evidence etc) and then choose "combine."  If the combination is successful, you see a little scene and the investigation is able to progress.  In the scanned example "The criminal's motive" is combined with "the murder weapon" which prompts Edgeworth to talk to Gumshoe and move the case along.

If you try to combine two pieces of evidence/information that are not meant to go together, you take damage from a "truth meter" that just happens to look exactly like the green life bar from court.  Deplete the entire bar and you get game over.

Confrontation

Confront people related to the cases by listening to their story and presenting evidence when they contradict themselves.  The article describes this as being almost exactly the same as the cross examination phases in any other AA game.

Other things we can infer from various scans and interviews:

-There appear to be at least 4 specific crime scenes so far, indicating at least 4 cases (unless one case has more than one dead body).  One in Edgeworth's office, one on an airplane, one in a back alley, and one outside an abandoned funhouse.  There is also a water park and a music venue shown, but they may be connected to the other cases.

-Phoenix is not going to appear in anything more than a cameo, so they say.

Mikumo's Gaget

Mikumo has some kind of "crime scene reconstruction tool" that she can use to make mock-ups of the crime they're investigating, which will change as you add new information.

Special Edition
 

Like past game releases, Gyakuten Kenji will have a limited edition (which you can reserve at E-capcom, but they don't ship internationally).  It will include:

-The game (of course)

-A pamphlet from the spring concert

-A few character illustrations

-A card case

-An orchestra "mini album" (4 of the tracks plus a bonus)

-A DVD of promotional trailers

Famitsu Scans

April 11 2008

Sept 19 2008

Jan 16 2009

 
Feb 17 2009

April 10 2009

May 13 2009

Confirmed Characters

Confirmed Cameos

Gyakuten Saiban 5

If you have any new news to report, feel free to send it along to Croik at courtrecord @ gmail.com.