Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (レイトン教授 VS 逆転裁判, lit. "Professor Layton VS Turnabout Trial") is a crossover adventure puzzle video game jointly-developed by Level-5 and Capcom and published by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS.

The game is a crossover between the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton adventure series, and features scenario designs from Shu Takumi, series director for the first four games in the Ace Attorney series, though he was not in charge of the script. The game combines the trademark puzzle and trial themes from each respective series. The Capcom part of the development team was put in charge of the art.

The game was released in Japan on November 29, 2012, with a Western release date over a year later (March 28, 2014 for Europe and sometime during 2014 for North America).

Plot premise
Upon inspecting a suspicious-looking book, Hershel Layton, Phoenix Wright, Luke Triton, and Maya Fey all find themselves in Labyrinthia, a strange medieval-style city in a different world from their own that has recently been falling victim to a number of seemingly impossible occurrences. The town is controlled by sinister individual known only as "the Story Teller", and its shadows conceal witches. When a girl named Espella Cantabella is accused of witchcraft, Wright takes on her defense, which consists of "Witch Trials", where the familiar procedures of the Ace Attorney games are thrown out, and he must contend with an entire mob of conferring witnesses.

Development
The idea of a crossover between the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series was a corporate one. Shu Takumi had apparently not known much about the project until well after development had begun on it. Alhough Level-5 president Akihiro Hino was a fan of the Ace Attorney series, Professor Layton producer Jun Suzuki had never played any of the games before the crossover began development. The development team went through a trial-and-error process to see how best to merge aspects of the two series. The conflicting art styles of the two games was also a problem, which resulted in a compromise between the two (e.g., Wright is drawn more simply than in his games, while Layton is drawn in more detail).

The transition to 3D models was new to the Ace Attorney series, which previously only used brief instances of 3D imagery in Rise from the Ashes and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. While Takumi had stated his preference for 2D graphics in his games in the past, he accepted that the transition to the 3DS made 3D graphics inevitable, and that a 3D environment would add depth, character, and flexibility to the game's depictions of the courtroom.

Announcement
The game was officially announced at the Level-5 Vision 2010 press conference on October 19, 2010. The game was first teased as a crossover between Capcom and Level-5 by Keiji Inafune, then head of Capcom's R&D Management Group, who was talking to Japanese business magazine Diamond prior to the Tokyo Game Show 2010. He mentioned that he had great respect for Akihiro Hino. On September 25, 2010, the game was accidentally outed on Twitter when Jiro Ishii of Level-5 accidentally tweeted to Jin Fujisawa of Square Enix, "Huh? Oh, Gyakuten XX. I'm making it, with Mr. Takumi!" in Japanese, which led to rampant speculation of a new Ace Attorney game being developed by Level-5, similarly to how new Capcom games from established franchises are being developed externally. Jiro Ishii quickly covered up this leak by tweeting later that day, "A misunderstanding seems to be spreading, so let me say that I'm currently working only on Time Travelers." This evidently turned out to be false; Ishii was working on both titles. A Nintendo Dream magazine issue later featured the game and Gyakuten Kenji 2.

A year later, the game made a reappearance at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2011, as well as at the October 2011 Level-5 World event and the January 2012 Gyakuten Saiban Anniversary Event, all of which focused on the Phoenix Wright gameplay. It was then revealed that a 2012 Japanese release was planned. A year after that, the release date was revealed some time before another showing at Tokyo Game Show 2012.

The game made another appearance on Nintendo Direct, this time with an English logo and localized names for the characters "Mahoney Catalucia" and "Jeeken Barnrod" (Espella Cantabella and Zacharias Barnham, respectively).

Gameplay
The gameplay is a combination of gameplay elements from both series, featuring the trademark puzzles from the Professor Layton series as well as trials from the Ace Attorney series. Professor Hershel Layton has to solve the mysteries of the strange world he has found himself in, while Phoenix Wright participates in "Witch Trials", which are similar to the court trials in the Ace Attorney series, to prove the innocence of his client, who has been accused of witchcraft. The game also features fully-voiced anime style cutscenes that are common in the Professor Layton games, but were a first for the Ace Attorney series.

Gunshū Saiban
"Shu Takumi"

- When you try to imagine medieval court proceedings, you tend to picture these mob scenes with people shouting out accusations at the tops of their lungs. It's a crazy scene, and since this game's set in a medieval city, I wanted to present a court the likes of which we've never seen before.

Gunshū Saiban (lit. "Mob Judgment") is a gameplay feature that represents the chaotic Witch Trials in Labyrinthia. At times, Wright must "cross-examine" a group of several witnesses, who may freely confer with one another. Witnesses can also jump in or leave the group at any time.

Episodes

 * A Visitor in the Storm (嵐の夜の来訪者)
 * A Foreign Trial (異国の法廷)
 * The Labyrinth City (迷宮の町)
 * The Blazing Witch Trial (豪炎の魔女裁判)
 * In Pursuit of the Great Witch (大魔女のナゾを追え)
 * The Golden Witch Trial (黄金の魔女裁判)
 * In Despair's Wake (失意の後に)
 * The Secret of the Ruins (地下遺跡のヒミツ)
 * The Story's End (終わる物語)
 * The Final Witch Trial (最後の魔女裁判)
 * The Final Prosecutor (最後の検察士)
 * The First Story (はじまりの物語)

Ace Attorney series

 * Phoenix Wright is a renowned defense attorney who must defend a client accused of witchcraft.


 * Maya Fey is Wright's perky and upbeat assistant, as well as a spirit medium in training.

Professor Layton series

 * Professor Hershel Layton is a famous archaeology professor with a fascination for puzzles. This love of puzzles has solved numerous mysteries and put his name in the papers many times.


 * Luke Triton is the self-proclaimed apprentice of Professor Layton and follows him everywhere to assist him with his investigations.


 * Inspector Chelmey is a rather gruff police inspector working for Scotland Yard whom Layton has encountered many times in the past.


 * Barton is a constable from Scotland Yard working under Inspector Chelmey.

London characters

 * Olive Ardente is a chef appearing as a witness.


 * Johnny Smiles is a security guard who appears as a witness.


 * Flynch the prosecutor for Espella Cantabella's London trial; he bears a striking resemblance to Winston Payne from the Ace Attorney series.


 * The English judge presiding over the London trial.

Labyrinthia characters

 * The Story Teller is the sinister ruler of Labyrinthia. Whatever story he writes comes to pass as events in the real world.


 * Espella Cantabella is a young woman accused of witchcraft who becomes Wright's client.


 * Zacharias Barnham is a local prosecutor. A red-haired man in a suit of plate armor, he wields a sword that he points at his courtroom opponents in a similar manner to the iconic finger points of various lawyers in the Ace Attorney games.


 * Jordalla is a prosecutor and Zacharias Barnham's superior.


 * A hooded judge similar in appearance to the man who normally oversees Wright's trials.


 * Madalla Bogen is a flower girl who is one of the witnesses in Espella's witch trial.


 * Knights is a young man striving to be a knight who is a witness in the witch trial.


 * Bertha is an old woman who sells milk. She is one of the witnesses in the witch trial.


 * Kyke is an old man who is one of the witnesses in the witch trial.


 * Emil Sandbag is another witness in the witch trial.


 * Croix is the head of a local bakery who is usually nice, but strict when it comes to bread. Wright and Fey end up working for her.


 * Nazomi is a librarian who refuses to allow Layton to access the library's "Complete Works on Witches" before answering her puzzles.


 * Giovanni Jecole is a former student of Professor Layton. He contacts his former teacher to beg his help in saving Espella Cantabella and solving the mysteries of Labyrinthia.


 * Kurone is a black cat.

Official websites

 * Japanese (includes TGS trailer)
 * English (includes trailer)
 * French (includes trailer)
 * German (includes trailer)
 * Spanish (includes trailer)
 * Italian (includes trailer)

Trailers

 * Japanese
 * Announcement trailer (w/ English subtitles)
 * TGS 2011 trailer (w/ English subtitles)
 * TGS 2012 trailer (w/ English subtitles)
 * English
 * August 2013 Nintendo Direct trailer
 * Teaser trailer
 * Trailer from Official Nintendo website

Other wikis

 * Wikipedia page
 * Layton Wiki page