Why Ace Attorney's Localization Is One of the Best of All Time

Entertainment
Written By Sammi Wong

This article was originally posted on Excuse My Thoughts; I wanted to publish it here with all of the beautiful (and official) Ace Attorney artwork I included in my submission. For brief commentary on the character design of Ace Attorney, check out Fashion Feature Friday: Video Games In Style.

Video game localization is the process of adapting a game for audiences in a different region. It goes beyond just word-for-word translation, accounting for differences in cultural understanding and common knowledge. Some famous examples of localized video game franchises include Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. However, one of the best examples of localization done right is Capcom's Ace Attorney. The series, spanning six mainline games and four spin-offs, follows the lives of defense attorneys Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes. The franchise is known for its quirky humour, endearing characters, and compelling storylines. For Western audiences, this is all thanks to the localization team's efforts. What makes Ace Attorney's localization one of its strongest assets?

PUNNY NAMES AND WORDPLAY

Puns and wordplay are a staple of Ace Attorney's humourous writing. For example, many character names are puns in both Japanese and English. Phoenix Wright's Japanese surname, Naruhodo, translates to "I understand" or "I see". His English surname, Wright, also sounds like "right", as in "that's right". His daughter's Japanese name, Minuki, comes from the Japanese word minuku, "to see through", referring to her ability to spot people's nervous habits. Her English name is Trucy - "true see", or alternatively, "see the truth". Winston Payne ("winced in pain") and Gaspen Payne ("gasp in pain"), the series' tutorial prosecutors, have the Japanese surname Auchi. Lastly, other examples of English pun names include Cammy Meele ("chamomile"), Candace Arme ("can disarm"), and Pal Meraktis ("malpractice").

The groan-inducing puns don't stop at just names, however. One of the best examples of localized wordplay takes place in the third game. In the final case, a character receives a letter in which the last line in Japanese translates to, "send the Master off with a glorious last rite". Being a young child, she mistakes the word "glorious" (karei) for the word "curry" (karee). However, while she was eating curry in the Japanese version, the localization team changed it to pot roast in the English version. From there, the last line of the letter became "gravely roast the Master in the fires of Hades" - or, to the young girl, "gravy roast".

The localization team also constantly includes references to Western pop culture, such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Spider-Man. Some lines of dialogue are even shout-outs to songs, including Kelis's Milkshake ("We know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..."), The Police's Roxanne ("They don't have to turn on the red light."), and Grease ("I've got chills, and they're multiplying...").

TURNABOUT JAPANIFORNIA

Ace Attorney's plot, characters, and dialogue heavily rely on its Japanese setting. There are several characters who are spirit mediums, while others talk about soba, yokai, and rakugo. The series itself is both a parody and a criticism of Japan's legal system. So, how did the localization team make it work for Western audiences? To start, they changed the setting from Japan to California, likely because of the importance of mountains and earthquakes throughout the series. The prominence of Japanese culture is explained by the presence of Japanese immigrants and the absence of "anti-Japanese sentiments and anti-immigrant laws". While the localization may seem forced at times (the "eat your hamburgers, Apollo" meme exists for a reason), fans tend to find "Japanifornia" and its cultural quirks especially charming.

Additionally, even some characters' ethnic and cultural backgrounds changed to fit the Americanized narrative. This is best demonstrated by the games' main prosecutors. For example, Miles Edgeworth is Japanese in the original and British in the localization. In the original Japanese, Klavier Gavin occasionally speaks English. In the localization, he occasionally speaks German. Lastly, Simon Blackquill dresses and acts like a traditional Japanese samurai. In the localization, he is a British man with a fondness for Japanese culture.

Ace Attorney: Fan Translations

Ace Attorney's localization team is clearly one of its biggest strengths, making the games as sharp and witty in English as they were in the original Japanese. Without them, the franchise likely wouldn't be as popular as it is today. However, what about the games that were never officially localized? Up until recently, three spin-off games remained untranslated: Gyakuten Kenji 2 and the Dai Gyakuten Saiban duology. Because of their lack of localization, frustrated fans decided to translate the games to make them accessible to everyone.

Many consider Gyakuten Kenji 2, or Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path, to be the best game in the series. Capcom never officially localized it, having moved on to the next game. So, fans took it upon themselves to translate the game and add English voice acting. The localization of the Dai Gyakuten Saiban duology, however, is a more complicated story. One of the main reasons for the delay is the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes and his stories. Arthur Conan Doyle's estate is well-known for having legal battles over the beloved character. The other main reason is the duology's reliance on Japanese culture and history. Since it takes place in the Meiji/Victorian era, much of the plot revolves around sociopolitical tensions between Japan and Britain.

The fan translation team, Scarlet Study, has translated the first game and the first three cases of the second. However, they were recently interrupted by the announcement of the official localization, The Great Ace AttorneyChronicles, coming later this month, six years after the original Japanese release. To avoid Holmes' copyright issues, the localization team changed his name to Herlock Sholmes. And unlike the other games, they kept the characters and locations explicitly Japanese. The franchise's localization director attributes this new direction to the world's "greater familiarity with Japanese [pop] culture".

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Sammi Wong
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