Ace Attorney Wiki:Prosecutor's Path

This policy mainly concerns how to deal with content from Ace Attorney games that have not been released outside of Japan. In particular, this policy deals with situations such as that created by the Nintendo DS game Gyakuten Kenji 2, which is unlikely to see a release outside of Japan unless the game is ported to a different medium like the iOS or Nintendo 3DS. Because the Ace Attorney games are heavily localized, with characters receiving mostly English names and the setting purportedly being Los Angeles rather than a nameless town in Japan, a clash occurs when content from Japan-only games mixes with other content. Due to the lack of an official release outside of Japan, fans have taken the matter in their own hands and released an unofficial localization patch as well as a translated playthrough on YouTube.

Possible solutions
Different video game wikis have taken different approaches to this problem. The Aselia Wiki uses Japanese terms in paragraphs and sections discussing Japanese-only games and Japanese-only releases of games. In contrast, WikiBound fully uses the English terms used by the fan translation patch of Mother 3. Different people will have different attitudes toward fan translations and how to treat them with regard to mixing information about them with information from official content. The appropriate action to take can be based on the probability of an official localization, or the developers' awareness and/or approval of the fan work, or the continuity of the franchise canon itself, or other factors. Hard stances that do not sway under any nuances do not help very much because it is difficult to get every possible editor to agree on such positions.

The Ace Attorney Wiki attempted an approach similar to the Aselia Wiki's, at least for episode articles. The main problem is that the Ace Attorney series deals with a single continuity, making the switch between English and Japanese terms violate the in-universe perspective that pages are supposed to have. At the same time, unlike Mother 3, none of the stances of Capcom or the developers of Gyakuten Kenji 2 are known concerning fan translations. Moreover, even if Gyakuten Kenji 2 does not have a official localization, localizations of future games may localize some currently non-localized elements of Gyakuten Kenji 2, potentially in conflict with fan translations.

Character names: the placeholder treatment
As a compromise, the Ace Attorney Wiki is adopting a "placeholder treatment" of non-localized character names. In short, the Japanese names are used as placeholders for hypothetical localized English names. The Japanese names are referred to in content pages the same way as they would be if localized English names existed. As an example of the implications of this treatment, here is an example sentence:


 * Ami Aizawa was a diplomat working for the American embassy in Zheng Fa.

This is an example of the clash between localized canon and original Japanese canon that results from this treatment. As awkward and "wrong" as this sentence looks, in the context of the placeholder treatment it is completely correct. One could imagine "Amy Marsh" being where "Ami Aizawa" is.

The Ace Attorney Wiki does not turn a blind eye to reality. Even if the fan translations are not official, they are the only ones out there. Trying not to acknowledge them at all will in all likelihood be a failed and pointless gesture. As such, mentions of names from completed fan translations will be permitted in name sections and possibly the character information box.

Other non-localized content
While names of characters are not meant to be "translated", names of other things, such as places and collectives, can be. For consistency's sake, translations of names that can be translated should be derived from the localization patch. Quotes can be translated in any manner, but use of the localization patch or the YouTube translation is preferred. The main things to watch out for are names that cannot be translated. For example, the name of the Big Tower in Japanese is literally "biggu tawa" written in katakana, indicating that it is supposed to be the English words "big tower".