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There's just been some big news for English Ace Attorney fans!
The Great Ace Attorney has now had a fan translation released by a fan group called Scarlet Study.
With this you can patch the Japanese version of the game and play the game fully translated
in English.
The team have translated both the 3DS and Android versions of the game and, furthermore,
are also working on translating the game's sequel The Great Ace Attorney 2.
The Great Ace Attorney, which is a spin-off in the Ace Attorney series set in the late
eighteen hundreds, was originally released for Nintendo 3DS in 2015.
Neither it or its sequel have ever been officially released outside of Japan.
Not too much has been said by Capcom about this lack of a Western release, but there
was a comment from the game's producer back in 2016, stating that they are aware of overseas
demand however unfortunately there are a "number of circumstances" preventing a Western release
from happening.
Further details on what these circumstances are have never been given, but it's speculated
that it could be to do with a few things.
To understand what could possibly be getting in the way of an English release, first we
need to take a look at the game's setting, which takes a stark departure from previous
games.
The Great Ace Attorney moves back from the present day to Japan's Meiji period, which
was around the years 1868 to 1912.
This period of time is notable for seeing Japan move away from being an isolated feudal
society and becoming more open to the West and modernised.
In the game though, despite Japan being a big theme within the game, only the first
case of the game actually takes place in the country.
For all of the other cases the game sees you take a trip to the other side of the world
to Victorian England.
The series original creator had actually had this idea in mind ever since the first game.
But that's not all, he also imagined fusing the game with various elements from Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.
These ideas came to fruition in the final game and The Great Ace Attorney features many
themes from Sherlock Holmes - including having Holmes himself as one of the main characters.
This setting however could pose various challenges when bringing the game overseas.
Firstly there's the infamous issue regarding copyright issues with the Sherlock Holmes
stories.
The Doyle Estate has a notorious history of claiming copyright infringement for using
elements from the stories.
Due to Sherlock Holmes' age though, it is actually in the public domain in most places
around the world.
This isn't completely the case in the US however, where the last 10 stories written are still
under copyright.
Furthermore, The Great Ace Attorney actually includes elements from these last 10 stories,
which means it's in a difficult position.
Alongside this, until a court ruling from only very recently, The Doyle Estate was well
known for claiming copyright infringement on all Sherlock Holmes content no matter whether
it was based on the last 10 stories or not.
They claimed that due to the last 10 stories still having themes found in previous ones,
that all uses of things like the Holmes character should be taken down or be forced to pay large
licensing fees.
So due to the game's heavy use of Sherlock Holmes themes, Capcom would likely have to
cut a deal with The Doyle Estate, which would also be very costly.
That's not the only possible reason though.
The Ace Attorney games are pretty well known for the changes made during the translation
process when bringing the games over from Japan to Western countries.
Capcom have gone to great lengths to change the universe from one based on Japanese characters
and themes to one being set in the United States.
However, The Great Ace Attorney is much more steeped in Japanese culture than previous
games and it also plays a big role in the story.
This would pose a much bigger challenge to localize it like previous games and there's
also the issues of keeping with the previous games' continuity.
Then there's also just that perhaps Capcom didn't have the time or resources to reasonably
work on the game.
They were already working on bringing over the 6th mainline entry in the series, Ace
Attorney - Spirit of Justice, for the following year for example.
Then there are all of the other games the studio is involved with.
And then lastly, it is also possible that there was some concern over the title's sales.
It didn't sell that well even in Japan and some of previous games have sold poorly in
the West, such as 2010's Ace Attorney Investigations, another spin-off game and something that Capcom
said sold, to quote, "poorly at best".
The Great Ace Attorney also actually leaves many plot points unresolved and it is basically
only one half of a story, which led to the sequel being released in Japan in 2017.
This means that Capcom would likely feel like they would have to bring over both parts and
when you combine that with the risks involved over sales, limited resources, challenges
posed by its localization and then the legal issues, it becomes a somewhat difficult position.
What do you think about The Great Ace Attorney's lack of a Western release and how do you feel
about the new fan translation?
As always, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and consider subscribing
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Until next time, thank you for watching!