Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken

Unreleased
 * This article is about the game. You may be looking for the character Ryūnosuke Naruhodō.

Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken (大逆転裁判 -成歩堂龍ノ介の冒險-; lit. "Great Turnabout Trial: The Adventures of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō") is an upcoming Ace Attorney prequel game for the Nintendo 3DS, published by Capcom, directed by Shu Takumi, and produced by Shintaro Kojima. It is the ninth title overall in the Ace Attorney series of text adventure video games. Ace Attorney veteran Kazuya Nuri returns for official art, and the soundtrack is composed by Yasumasa Kitagawa (of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) and Hiromitsu Maeba.

Story

 * Many names in this section are non-Japanese and written out in katakana. English transliterations for these names are provided; names in italics are unofficial/speculative, while other names are official.

Unlike previous canonical games in the series, which were set in the near future and featured somewhat futuristic technology, Dai Gyakuten Saiban will be set near the end of Japan's Meiji period, when the profession of "defense attorney" was still a fairly new concept in Japanese society. The game will star Phoenix Wright's ancestor Ryūnosuke Naruhodō, and a female judicial assistant named Susato Mikotoba. Although the game initially takes place in Japan, the two later travel to the United Kingdom and work cases alongside the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes.

Episodes

 * The Adventure of the Great Departure (大いなる旅立ちの冒險) - On November 19, college student Ryūnosuke Naruhodō finds himself accused of murdering Professor John H. Watson in the restaurant La Quantos. Three days later, he ends up in a special trial organized by the government. Naruhodō's close friend Kazuma Asōgi comes to represent him as his defense attorney. However, not wanting to jeopardize Asōgi's trip to England, Naruhodō decides to represent himself instead. Asōgi stands by his side to help him learn the ways of the courtroom.
 * The Adventure of the Friend and the Speckled Band (友とまだらの紐の冒險) - Ryūnosuke Naruhodō travels to England with Susato Mikotoba on the steamship Alaclair (アラクレイ), but during the trip he is accused in another incident involving a locked room and an adder. The mystery attracts the attention of fellow passenger Sherlock Holmes. The title is a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
 * The Adventure of the Speeding Locked Room (疾走する密室の冒険) - Upon his arrival in London, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō is assigned to a trial involving a murder in a horse-drawn carriage. Although the young lawyer is told that this will be a simple case, Naruhodō soon finds out why nobody else would take the case: his opponent is the legendary prosecutor Barok van Zieks. The trial is further complicated when a fire breaks out in the courtroom. Before the coverage of this episode by Famitsu, the carriage murder was alluded to in the trailer released after the April 1, 2015 Nintendo Direct.
 * Randst Magazine Special Edition - DLC available for free from July 9 to July 19. The title is a reference to The Strand Magazine, where Arthur Conan Doyle first published his Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Main characters

 * Ryūnosuke Naruhodō (成歩堂 龍ノ介)
 * Voiced by: Hiro Shimono
 * A second-year student at Teito Yūmei University (帝都勇盟大学). He has a strong sense of justice and is prone to putting himself in dangerous situations. An ancestor to Ryūichi Naruhodō.
 * Susato Mikotoba (御琴羽 寿沙都)
 * Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa
 * Age: 16
 * A judicial assistant working alongside Naruhodō. A "yamato nadeshiko" with a progressive frame of mind and a love for books on law and foreign mystery novels. She also has something of a sweet tooth.
 * Kazuma Asōgi (亜双義 一真)
 * Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura
 * Age: 23
 * A close friend of Ryūnosuke's and fellow student at Teito Yūmei University. He is studying to become a defense attorney, but supporters say that he is more than qualified to become one. He seeks to travel to Britain to continue his studies. Asōgi is calm and confident compared to the inexperienced Naruhodō, and stands alongside him in Episode 1.
 * Sherlock Holmes (シャーロック・ホームズ)
 * Voiced by: Shinji Kawada
 * Age: 34
 * The legendary English detective famous for his talent for rapid-fire abductive reasoning. He teams up with Naruhodō for criminal investigations.
 * Iris Watson (アイリス・ワトソン)
 * Voiced by: Misaki Kuno
 * Age: 8
 * Holmes's assistant. A genius inventor with a medical doctorate. In this continuity, she is the author of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Takumi's familiarity with Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories, and their various theories and parodies in particular, led him to create the Iris Watson character.
 * Barok van Zieks (バロック・バンジークス)
 * Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda
 * A legendary English prosecutor with a perfect win record, earning him the nickname of the "Death God of the Old Bailey". He has returned to the courtroom after a five-year absence.
 * Narrator
 * Voiced by: Takayuki Sugō

Other characters
Episode 1:
 * Yūjin Mikotoba (御琴羽悠仁) (Age: 42) - Professor at Teito Yūmei University. Kazuma Asōgi's mentor and Susato's father.
 * John H. Watson (ジョン・H・ワトソン) (Age: 47) - The victim. An English professor from London who has taught at Teito Yūmei University for the past three years. Based on Dr. John Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame.
 * A judge (Japan).
 * Taketsuchi Auchi (亜内武土) (Age: 51) - Takefumi Auchi's ancestor.
 * Satoru Hosonaga (細長悟) - A waiter with a bad cough. The first witness.
 * Taizou Uzukumaru (渦久丸 泰三) - A soldier who appears as a witness.
 * Sanmon Sonohigurashi (園日暮 三文) - An old man who appears as a witness alongside Uzukumaru.
 * Jezail Brett (ジェゼール・ブレット) - A woman in a blue dress and hat whom Naruhodō claims to have seen at the scene of the crime. Her name is a pun on "jezail bullet", the weapon that wounded the John Watson of the Sherlock Holmes stories during his military service in Afghanistan.

Episode 2:
 * Nikomina Borschevic (ニコミナ・ボルシビッチ) - A 15-year-old ballet dancer who is running away from Novavic Ballet (ノバビッチ・バレエ), her ballet group.
 * While searching for her, Holmes encounters a bearded man calling himself Roylott (ロイロット). The detective goes on to accuse Roylott of being a Russian revolutionary named Dmitri Demiglaski (デミトリ・デミグラスキー) and trying to break open a trunk with Nikomina Borschevic inside. The name "Roylott" may be a reference to Dr. Grimesby Roylott, a character from "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
 * Mitrov Stroganov (ミトロフ・ストロガノフ) - A sailor who was on patrol at the time of the incident.
 * At least one other sailor.

Episode 3:
 * Hart Vortex (ハート・ヴォルテックス) - The Chief Justice in England. He is a strict adherent to science with a focus on time. He assigns Naruhodō to an allegedly simple case. He was first seen in the box art for Dai Gyakuten Saiban.
 * Cosney Megundal (コーゼニ・メグンダル) - The defendant. Although he is well-liked, nobody wants to take his case due to the prosecution being handled by the legendary Barok van Zieks.
 * Gina Lestrade (ジーナ・レストレード) - A pickpocket who witnessed the murder. Her surname may be a reference to Inspector Greg Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Other characters:
 * A judge (United Kingdom).
 * Beppo (ベッポ) - An elderly man wearing a green suit and top hat.
 * Fairplay (フェアプレイ) - A tall, dark-haired man in a suit and top hat. His name is a pun on the phrase "fair play".
 * Redifast (レディファスト) - A blonde-haired man in a black suit and top hat. His name may be a pun on the phrase "ladies first".
 * Six jurors, identified only by numbers.
 * Two other men seen in the box art have yet to be named.

Gameplay
The game incorporates the basic investigation/trial formula used in previous Ace Attorney titles, with some changes especially to the trial portions. Like the other 3DS titles, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, the game features 3D character models and backgrounds. Special care was made to the animations, particularly camera work and eye movements. Additionally, the game uses English translations alongside or in place of some of the Japanese terms, such as "cross-examination" and episode titles.

Investigations
"Ryūnosuke Naruhodō"

- Hold it, Mr. Holmes!

Dai Gyakuten Saiban introduces a new element to investigations, known as "joint reasoning" (共同推理 kyōdō suiri). This feature involves Sherlock Holmes using his rapid-fire reasoning to come to a conclusion based on various details that he notices. Naruhodō then has a chance to rebut this train of logic by pointing out flaws and contradictions. One way of doing so is to inspect an individual from various angles to find hidden clues that have escaped Holmes's notice, possibly leading to an entirely different conclusion. Investigations in Dai Gyakuten Saiban also allow for more in-depth background exploration.

Trials
The trial system has undergone an overhaul, with many elements similar to the witch trials from Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This includes the five-strike penalty system from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and cross-examining multiple witnesses at once. Also like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, pressing a witness results in a dialogue that can be interrupted if the player catches one witness thinking. When pressing a witness, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō says, "Hai!" ("はいッ!") instead of "Hold it!" ("待った!")

The English courts use a jury system involving six jurors and a judge. The jurors vote by launching flaming knives in a firework-like manner onto a set of scales, one side representing a guilty vote and the other representing a not guilty vote. The jurors can change their votes as the trial progresses. If all six jurors vote "guilty", the defense has the right to a "jury examination" to try to convince them to overturn their guilty votes. The jury examination works much like cross-examinations, with each juror having his or her own ideas about the case at hand. Like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the defense can point out a contradiction between two jurors' statements, though in this game there is a button dedicated to this feature, allowing the player to choose any two statements instead of having one already picked out. If a majority of jurors reverse their decision, the jury examination ends in the defense's favor.

The court record appears similar to the one used in Dual Destinies, with five evidence icons fully visible at a time, though two other evidence slots are visible, partially obscured by the arrow buttons used to scroll through the evidence.

Development
Development began a few months after the November 2012 Japanese release of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, when Takumi was asked to start work on a new Ace Attorney game. Because the series had become so long, spanning eight text adventure titles up to that point, a more accessible title was desired. Takumi thought that it would be fun to combine the Ace Attorney formula with an earlier idea that he had had for a game. The overall game concept really came together with the introduction of the Sherlock Holmes character. He did not actually expect Capcom to accept it.

Announcement
On December 27, 2013, Capcom announced that Takumi was working on a new game that was planned to be presented in 2014. A February 13, 2014 Nintendo Direct event revealed the game was a "totally different" Ace Attorney game for the Nintendo 3DS.

In April 2014, the game was finally given a title and was featured in Famitsu. An interview with director Takumi and producer Kojima described the basic details of the game, including the protagonists Ryūnosuke Naruhodō and Susato Mikotoba, and the Meiji period setting. Takumi said that he had not gotten to know the characters very well yet, but that he learned more about them as he wrote more of the script. He also mentioned the challenge of writing dialogue appropriate to the Meiji period, when Japan was focused on becoming part of "the new world" and becoming more Western, which included the Western court system complete with defense attorneys. Kojima revealed that the game is planned to be the first in a series, and that they would show players that the game was capable of being more than just a spin-off.

The Famitsu feature was followed by a teaser trailer for the game. According to Takumi, development of the game had only begun recently. He described this situation as chaotic and was not certain of how the game would turn out, but also said that it was always like this in the beginning of his projects, which was both scary and fun.

Tokyo Game Show and Jump Festa
In September 2014, the game was featured again on Famitsu, and introduced Sherlock Holmes and Iris Watson. On September 18, another trailer for the game was released. In December, ahead of Jump Festa, the official site updated with a profile of a new character, Kazuma Asōgi (亜双義 一真). A Famitsu feature of the game around the same time showed some details about the first trial. The Jump Festa event itself featured a playable demo of the game.

Subsequent promotions
Dai Gyakuten Saiban enjoyed promotions on a regular basis starting on April 1, 2015 local time, when a trailer was released shortly after a Nintendo Direct. The promotions involved features of the first three episodes in Famitsu each month, as well as demos of the first and second episodes, shown on Capcom TV by producer Kojima. Near the end of April, details on the official soundtrack were revealed, and Dai Gyakuten Saiban was one of the games shown at NicoNico Chou Kaigi. A playable demo became available on the eShop for Japanese Nintendo 3DS systems on June 2.

Soundtrack
The Dai Gyakuten Saiban soundtrack contains 67 tracks on 2 CDs. It is set to be released on July 15, 2015.

Ken Gyakuten Saiban
On April 1, 2015 local time, the official Japanese site for Dai Gyakuten Saiban celebrated April Fools' Day by renaming the game Ken Gyakuten Saiban: Inuhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken (犬逆転裁判 -戌歩堂龍ノ介の冒險-; lit. "Dog Turnabout Trial: The Adventures of Ryūnosuke Inuhodō") and showing dog-like versions of the main characters. The first kanji of the title was changed from 大 (meaning "big"/"great"/"large") to the slightly different-looking 犬 (meaning "dog"). Similarly, the first kanji of the Naruhodō surname was changed from 成 (meaning "to accomplish/finish/become") to the slightly different-looking 戌 (the Earthly Branch for the dog). The other characters' names each had a kanji or syllable replaced with ワン (wan, the sound of a dog barking) (Kazuwan Asougi, Susato Mikotowan, Iris Wantson) except Sherlock Holmes, whose name stayed intact. A trailer was also shown, based on the Tokyo Game Show trailer of Dai Gyakuten Saiban.

Trailers

 * Announcement teaser trailer (English subtitles)
 * Tokyo Game Show 2014 trailer (English subtitles) (with extra scene) (April Fools' version)
 * Nintendo Direct trailer
 * Gameplay trailer

Other videos

 * Tokyo Game Show 2014 stage show and developer interview
 * NicoNico Chou Kaigi
 * Stage show
 * Developer Q&A
 * Joint reasoning demo
 * Episode 1 demo
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3
 * Episode 2 joint reasoning demo (available on eShop in Japan)