After Reverse Referee 123 Narubudo Collection, The Adventures and Awakenings of Ryunosuke Narubudo 1 & 2, and Reverse Referee 456 Wang Naiki Anthology, Capcom has finally brought the final instalment of the series canon – Reverse Prosecutor 1 & 2 Gokken Anthology – to the table! – The final instalment in the series – Reverse Prosecutor 1 & 2 Gokken Anthology – has been released.
It was announced in June and released in September, less than three months later, and we’ve already got a full review copy of the game from Capcom, so it’s clear that development was almost complete at the time of the announcement.
The Reverse Prosecutor titles originally came to NDS in 2009 and 2011, and to iOS and Android in 2017. Reverse Prosecutor features the series’ well-known character, genius prosecutor Reisuke Mikado, as the protagonist in another bizarre case that takes place in the worldview of Reverse Referee.
In terms of story relevance, Reverse Prosecutor complements the series‘ portrayal of some of the characters’ historical stories and relationships, such as why Mikado and Itosaw started working together, the first case Mikado was involved in after studying under Kagekoho, and what Mikado’s father went through as a lawyer, etc. This is equivalent to a significant completion of Mikado’s story, and the player will be able to see the loveliness of Mikado that was not present in Reverse Prosecution. From these two games, players can see a lot of adorable things about Goken that cannot be found in Reversal of Judgement.
Additionally, Reverse Prosecutor also has occasional tie-ins with the Reverse Judge series, such as shared characters, events (e.g., the Masked Bandit), and even in-game messing around with other characters, etc., which is something that will be relatable if you’ve played the first four Reverse Judge titles.
The biggest difference from the Reverse Judge series is that the main axis of Reverse Prosecutor focuses on on-scene investigation, which means that Mikado will be present at the scene at the first opportunity after a case occurs, surveying the scene with the police, collecting clues, disproving mistakes and pinpointing the real culprit through logic puzzles and logic chess.
It’s not really accurate to say that the real culprit is locked, after all, if there is no trial, it’s more of a case of giving the prosecution’s judgement and leaving it to the police to deal with. There’s basically no defence attorney in sight, much less the kind of person who trespasses on the scene of a case without moving, like Ryuichi Narubudo. However, given the special nature of the game itself, the real culprits will inevitably break the defence and confess to the crime before the search is over, and while the courtroom session after that is not playable, it’s also conceivable that it won’t have much of an impact on their confession to the crime.
Although the ‘reverse referee’ also has a scene investigation session, but the vast majority of them are in the case after the occurrence of a short period of time to the scene of the sketchy understanding, into the first day of the trial to turn the tide of battle, and then go to the scene to re-conduct the investigation of the scene, is considered to be very routine gameplay (in addition to the first chapter of the newcomer’s instruction in each work).
Reverse Prosecutor, on the other hand, puts the player directly into the confines of a multi-scenario and investigates all the visible objects and characters within that confines. As a simple example, while there is basically only one character to dialogue with per scene in Reverse Referee, there are even six or seven dialogue-able characters in a single scene in Reverse Prosecutor. Additionally, Reverse Prosecutor limits the scenes to the crime scene and its surroundings, rather than having to go around and find the relevant people to talk to like Reverse Referee, which is kind of a noticeable difference.
In addition, the scenes in Reverse Judge are all single-plane, equivalent to gathering clues from a single picture, whereas Reverse Prosecutor encompasses the entire scene, which is still presented in 2D, but with significantly more information.
So instead of just manipulating the cursor to click on props in the scene, the player has to operate the sword to move freely in the scene, and when they see interactive props, they have to go forward to investigate – as mentioned above, the main axis of Reversal Prosecutor is to experience the investigation scene.
The last time I played through these two games was ten years ago, and there were some gameplay issues that I hadn’t reacted to back then, but this time I replayed both games and realised what I had learnt – as Mikado carries out his investigations, he will be challenged by opponents, whether they are other prosecutors, eyewitnesses, or the police, and they will all go ‘crazy’ and identify the wrong killer just as they begin their investigations. Murderer. In the past, ‘Reverse Judge’ was at least a court of law, where any evidence was left until the very end, but ‘Reverse Prosecutor’ has everyone ‘fighting’ on the spot, giving evidence and rebuttals over and over again, more often than a courtroom trial with Ryuichi Narubudo present.
Of course, the court hearings in Reversal of Judgement are also hokey in terms of formality, and you can’t force reasonableness too much as a game; these are just some of my opinions on the presentation of the original itself, and have nothing to do with the quality of the ported version. But from the operation, the ported version of the harshness in the investigation of the decision to make me feel annoyed, often operating the sword against a prop, but can not trigger the investigation of the prompts, have to try again and again to try a different stance in order to succeed in the investigation.
In terms of visual effects, this port is significantly better than the 123 and 456 versions. Although it’s also an HD version of the NDS title, Reverse Prosecutor has a more detailed HD portrayal of the characters‘ dialogue than 4, which makes it more comfortable to look at, unlike the awkwardness of 123’s forcible sharpening.
As for the most significant change, it is the redrawing of characters and objects in the investigation scene. Due to functional reasons, the characters of the original NDS work are displayed in a bitmap-like form. The high-definition version adds images redrawn by the original character designer Tatsuro Iwamoto. More than 100 characters, including supporting NPCs, are richer. The movements and expressions of the game also support switching between the original version and the redrawn version in the main menu.
At first when the game was released, I was not impressed by the redrawn characters, thinking that it might destroy the hazy feeling of the original version. However, after actually playing it, I discovered the subtlety of the redrawn characters – for example, when Edgeworth expressed shock, he could only pass through You can feel those few pixels and his leaning back body, but the redrawn version can directly show the funny shocked expression on his face. It is difficult to find details in the small movements of many characters in the original version. The images can be enriched by redrawing the images. Even the shaking of the clothing when the characters make movements is depicted. The decoration on Yujian’s chest when running (regarded by Meiyun as paper) will sway with the wind, making the game suddenly different from a simple HD.
It is the completely different feeling brought by the redrawn pictures that allows me to re-watch this series that I had completed in the early years. At the same time, the guidance of trophies/achievements in this game is more intuitive, and even the chapters and specific props and characters required for each achievement are directly given in the achievement list of the main menu, for fear that players will miss it, which is really considerate.
Because it is a high-definition collection, this game has added art gallery elements as always, with built-in “albums” and “character illustrations” that collect special illustrations, “special information” and “music” similar to setting collections, allowing players to unlock them as the game progresses to enjoy the encyclopedia-like art gallery.
The “character illustrations” include all the characters that appear in the game, whether they are paper figures that have been redrawn or original during exploration, or characters with standing drawings during dialogue. All their actions and expression changes are included in the illustrations, especially those guys who break their defense when they are accused of being the real murderer. That moment will also be included in the illustrations and allowed players to watch it repeatedly.
In addition to the original soundtracks of the two games in the series, “Music” also brings more than 20 new versions of music that were re-composed from special programs such as concerts, which is truly rich.
Like Wang Nixi’s collection, this game still sets the language of dubbing and subtitles separately, allowing players to play with Chinese subtitles in Japanese dubbing. The Chinese dubbing is still OK as always, but the Chinese translation still has a design that gives me a headache. This has been the case since the official Chinese localization of the series, that is, the forced homophonic names.
If you are a fan familiar with the “Ace Attorney” series, you should know that the series uses homophonic puns to emphasize certain characteristics of the characters when localizing in English. Take the first generation of “Ace Attorney” as an example. The Japanese name of the flight attendant who appeared in the second chapter is “木路 いちる”, which is pronounced “Konomichi Ichiru”. The previous folk translation was “木路一缕”, and the official English localization name is “Rhoda Teneiro”, which is homophonic to “road to nowhere”.
This official Chinese version directly translates her name as “永往直千”, but in fact this has little to do with her own characteristics, but is more in line with the identity of a flight attendant. Similarly, the other flight attendant in this chapter was originally named “Shirone Wakana”, and the Chinese version is called “Shirata Sosa”, and the victim in the third chapter “Ogura Masumi” is translated as “Xingyin Maiming”…
The Chinese translation directly replaced the Japanese surnames that originally had Chinese characters with other inexplicable characters, completely destroying the consistency of Chinese. It also changed the homophonic words that originally required a detour to think of the characters to a person’s true identity or what he wanted to express as long as he read it once, losing the beauty and tactfulness of Chinese itself, destroying the Easter eggs buried in the names of the game.
It is also uncomfortable that this game is still the same as the Phoenix Wright collection, deleting Gumshoe’s idioms, and I always feel a knot in my heart when playing. At this time, the localization team will not forcibly piece together a familiar idiom for players to enrich Gumshoe’s personality. I really don’t understand the judgment criteria.
At least, as someone who has played the Chinese version of the game, I am not satisfied with the official localization of names and idioms. However, since there are no major problems with the overall translation of the game, it may not be a disadvantage for those who have just started to get in touch with the series from the official Chinese version of the Phoenix Wright Collection.
So far, the six works of “Ace Attorney”, the two works of “Great Ace Attorney” and the two works of “Ace Attorney” have all landed on the mainstream platforms of this generation, so there should be no regrets… Now we are looking forward to what new developments the series can have 8 years after the release of the last orthodox work in the series, “Ace Attorney 6”.
After all, there is no cold rice to reheat!
As for “Ace Attorney 1 & 2 Edgeworth Collection”, it can be regarded as the most conscientious work in the HD series. The redrawn characters are really surprising. The exploration design and rich additional elements that are different from previous works make this work, like other collections, an encyclopedia that fans must collect.
Advantages
The characters and objects are redrawn very conscientiously, adding a lot of details
The story guide, achievement trophy acquisition introduction and other contents are clear, lowering the threshold for playing
Includes a large number of settings, original paintings, and music, comparable to an encyclopedia
Disadvantages
The Chinese translation of the character names is a bit too clever
Evaluation results
“Ace Attorney 1 & 2 Sword Collection” is a perfect end to the HD series. Although the translation characteristics throughout the series are unlikely to satisfy everyone, the conscientious style redesign makes it not a burden to play it again.