Ace Attorney 5

(Please note that I will be using the reasonably assumed English names not the Japanese names for the games that have yet to come out.  This way everyone will know what I'm talking about.  Also: a few spoilers ahead)


So, out of semi nowhere, yesterday Capcom announced Ace Attorney 5.  While this is the Ace Attorney Franchise's 11th anniversary (Wow)  we haven't had a main game in about five years.  The first three games debuted on the GBA.

  Ace Attorney 1 came out in October 2001, but only in Japan.  After a surprisingly large number of imports, the game was localized and released as a DS game in 2005.  The DS version has an extra case that does some set up of AA2 and AA3.

  Ace Attoney 2 (Justice for All) was released in 2002 for the GBA and 2006 (Japan)/2007 (US/Europe) for the DS.  This version had no extra cases for the DS.

Ace Attorney 3 came out in 2004 for the GBA and 2007 for Japan/US (Europe got it in 2008) DS versions.  This one also had no special features, but did have five cases.

While it has been five years for the US, it's been around 8 years in Japan and Phoenix did not quite appear... well, not as himself.

Apollo Justice came out in 2008.  (please note some parts of Europe received Apollo Justice before Trials and Tribulations)  While Phoenix is in the game, he is the mentor character.   Originally he was not to be in the game at all, but Capcom wanted him in.

After that, Miles Edgeworth took over.  And it wasn't purely Ace Attorney.

His DS game debuted in 2009 for Japan and 2010 everywhere else.  It deviated from the normal "point and click/Visual Novel" style games in that Miles, and other characters, could actually walk around the scene to examine evidence.  As it was a more "Investigation" style game, it took the investigations subtitle.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 was not localized outside of Japan (unfortunately)  but was released in 2011 in Japan.  (I would like to say that, this actually makes sense.  While I would like to play it, the Ace Attorney games are known for their VERY good localization that takes a lot of time.  By the time the localization came out, the DS would be mostly dead.  I hope they do eventually localize it.  It could get new life as a 3DS port or something similar.  What I've found of the story hints it was VERY good.  Plus we find out more about Gregory Edgeworth! That's always a plus.)

In the mean time, two side projects with the Ace Attorney squad appeared.

Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney.  We know pretty much nothing, but the conference yesterday showed a video. The video showed Maya and Phoenix on a plane heading to London, but nothing else is known at this time.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 came out in 2011.  In a spot of hope, Phoenix Wright made the cast list due to pure fan demand.  While a character from the AA franchise (either Franziska or Phoenix) has been considered for a 'Vs' fighting game before (Namely Tatsunoko vs Capcom)  it was scrapped due to localization difficulties.  ('OBJECTION!" is longer then "IRIJI" (I hope I spelled that right)).  If Phoenix made it into Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 due to fan demand, maybe AAI 2 could make it over too.


Well, still no word on that, but now we have Ace Attorney 5 officially announced!

We also know nothing else.  Normally, the "Ace Attorney" in question is shown pointing over the title (Yes, Miles counts. He's still an Attorney) However, the title is blank.  We could be getting a new one, the Attorney could be new, or an old attorney could be getting redesigned. That still means we know nothing.  But it is interesting to see where the franchise has gone, and where it could go.