If you didn’t know, a new entry for the Ace Attorney series is due out next month in Japan, whose title translates roughly to The Great Ace Attorney. To mark the impending release, a launch trailer for the game has been revealed. If you’re sharp on your Japanese, take a look at it below.
Set in Meiji-era Japan, the game has you taking on the role of one of Phoenix Wright’s ace attorney ancestors to defend clients and prove their innocence to a jury. On the other side of the courtroom is a man who strikingly resembles Miles Edgeworth — right down to the cravat. Besides that, no other ancestors of series regulars have yet been revealed.
In a move that is equal parts strange and brilliant, Sherlock Holmes is introduced to the cast as the detective for each case. Parts of the game appear to take place in Edwardian England, providing a change of pace and a chance for a more straightforward localization. Whether Holmes meets our ancestral ace attorney in Japan before returning to England and Baker Street or not is unclear, but seems plausible.
Known as the “God of Tricks” for an as yet unrevealed reason, Holmes uses a revolver to investigate crime. This revolver fires various vials and when used in conjunction with his goggles filters a crime scene and reveals information to which his famous deductive reasoning is then applied. He’s assisted by Watson, as he always, who in this case is an eight-year-old girl with pink hair named Iris Watson because of course, thanks Japan.
Given the enduring popularity of the series, an English localization seems likely. Only one title in the series has not been released in the US: Gyakuten Kenji 2, the sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, and this was apparently due to plain old scheduling conflicts. With strong Dual Destinies sales behind them and no news of any other Ace Attorney games in development, nothing appears to stand in the way of the US, Europe and Australia seeing The Great Ace Attorney localized.
Great Ace Attorney will be released in Japan for 3DS on July 9, 2015. We want to believe it’s coming to the US.
