A little over two years ago, Level-5 held their annual games conference, Level-5 Vision. In the weeks leading up to it there'd been rumors and murmurs of something Ace Attorney in the works there, but nobody could say for certain. Were Capcom outsourcing the series? Was it a merchandising collaboration? Perhaps a new social game?
The answer was far beyond our wildest dreams. On October 19th, 2010, Level-5 and Capcom announced Professor Layton vs. Gyakuten Saiban. And it was beautiful.
What followed was a year of almost total radio silence before the game resurfaced at TGS 2011, and brought with it our first look at Phoenix in 3D. Some hailed the move; others doubted it. But one thing was for sure: the game couldn't get here fast enough.
...Which made the next year of almost total radio silence that much worse. It wasn't until TGS 2012 - just this past September - that we got another real look at the game in the form of a gorgeous new trailer. In the months since then we've been treated to a slow trickle of info that's brought us into the mystical world of Labyrinth City piece by piece. There's still plenty of puzzles we don't know the answer to - could Mahoney really be a witch? Can the Storyteller really rewrite reality? Is Jordolla really all she seems? Why did one of the Gavins' cousins dye his hair red and become a knight?
For those of us who can't speak Japanese, unfortunately, the answers to these mysteries will have to wait a little longer. We still don't have absolute official confirmation of a Western release, but with the consistent release of Professor Layton games and Capcom's commitment to bring Ace Attorney 5 overseas, the future looks bright.
We here at Court-Records will do our best to keep you updated with info about the game as we play through it (heavily marked with spoiler warnings, of course). In the meantime, the time-honored topic traditions of a new title are being observed once again; if you've got a burning question, check out the perennial "I just want to know one thing" thread, while those of you who can play the game or want some more general impressions can take a gander at the discussion thread; incidentally, while the 3DS doesn't let you capture direct feed screenshots, I'll be providing at least a few camera shots for the really interesting stuff as I go along.
Put on your top hats and dust off your attorney's badges, ladies and gentlemen. A very, very special court is in session.
EDIT: There's not much up yet, but as we get through the game the updates are going to trickle into this temporary page until we can finagle something more CR-like.
Can't wait to start it later today. The menu screen music is epic.
I'm in the middle of exams right now. I'll try and get chapter 6 up tonight or tomorrow, but I'm planning to replay the chapters after that since there were some points I didn't quite catch on the first runthrough.
