falcon6

[falcon6]

HOW DO I GET OFF THIS TRAIN

#count bleck #super paper mario #found you crump

[falcon6]

Anyway.

[falcon6]

Oh no.

[falcon6]

Learning to Create

It’s really difficult for me to admit that I’m an artist of any capacity. A lot of times, I consider that sort of term to be dedicated only to the working artist. You know, the ones who actually get paid for their work. The ones who end up creating things for everyone. The ones I admire greatly, to the point that I consider them to be living on Mt. Olympus while I’m stuck at a temple waiting for a chariot up a very steep road.

The place I work at now is a place where I don’t get to really create for myself. I create for other people. When I’m done there, I seldom get to make things for myself at home. There is an effort, of course, when I’m able to do so, but it’s hard to be that focused after toiling a retail job for 7 hours a day. You end up taking the opportunity to decompress and that ends up becoming an 8-hour decompress and you need to go to bed. That’s how it is for an adult, I guess. Don’t recommend growing up.

And that “9-5 Job, Now Do Nothing For Hours” mindset is something I need to work on, to be sure. In my mind, I see myself as someone who needs to be able to do something. I can’t make art to decompress, because art is supposed to be something important. I toil and toil, thinking about the process I need to decide on doing. “How do I become an artist like my favorite artists?” “What is the correct methods of learning it?”

How do I climb the mountain and join the greats?

Keep reading

[falcon6]

Learning to Create

It’s really difficult for me to admit that I’m an artist of any capacity. A lot of times, I consider that sort of term to be dedicated only to the working artist. You know, the ones who actually get paid for their work. The ones who end up creating things for everyone. The ones I admire greatly, to the point that I consider them to be living on Mt. Olympus while I’m stuck at a temple waiting for a chariot up a very steep road.

The place I work at now is a place where I don’t get to really create for myself. I create for other people. When I’m done there, I seldom get to make things for myself at home. There is an effort, of course, when I’m able to do so, but it’s hard to be that focused after toiling a retail job for 7 hours a day. You end up taking the opportunity to decompress and that ends up becoming an 8-hour decompress and you need to go to bed. That’s how it is for an adult, I guess. Don’t recommend growing up.

And that “9-5 Job, Now Do Nothing For Hours” mindset is something I need to work on, to be sure. In my mind, I see myself as someone who needs to be able to do something. I can’t make art to decompress, because art is supposed to be something important. I toil and toil, thinking about the process I need to decide on doing. “How do I become an artist like my favorite artists?” “What is the correct methods of learning it?”

How do I climb the mountain and join the greats?

In my monthly stint of introspection, I was watching a friend play Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. To this day, it may still be my favorite game. Watching it again brings back a lot of genuinely good memories, both inside and outside of the game. The charm that filled the game’s varied and interesting world and cast has still yet to be matched for my personal tastes. And for years, it was the game I played whenever I needed a good pick-me-up.

Watching him play it for the first time and getting to hear the same sort of reactions I had to it 14 years ago ended up bringing an...odd memory back to me. And it involves this image.

Low-Quality Vivian For The Low-Quality Needs

Perhaps not this specific image in particular - the internet could have phased out that one- but something similar to it.

See, back in 2004 I was just getting in on the whole Internet thing. This was back when people used what was called an “internet forum”. This was a place where people can post their thoughts on a wide range of topics, such as: “How do you jump in Metroid?”, “This game sucks”, and “Do you think Kingdom Hearts 2 will be on Gamecube?”.

I was part of one forum for a good part of my teenage life. I started at around January of 2004, in fact. I suppose I consider that a turning point in my life if I remember it to that degree.

I was fairly active in that forum. And as I began to make my posts, I began to notice something. At the bottom of every post was what you called a signature.

Copyright Falcon 2018, filed under the Trademark of Best Girl 2004

They were a cute little way to signify that you were the one who was making the post. It was one of the small creative outlets this particular forum had given users, though you still needed it to be both 45-ish pixels tall and kept at a low file size to help those with 56k modems.

Typing that out makes me feel really old.

There were people who were making these small images underneath their posts and the cool, hip guy I was as a teenager was like “OH BOY I WANNA DO THAT TOO!”. Of course, in order to create this sort of stuff I had to be...sneaky.

Back then, I found a pirated copy of Paint Shop Pro 7. It worked decently enough for me, but as I was a young lad with strong moral values - I didn’t even curse until well into my later teens, the frickin’ twit - I felt extremely guilty doing this. So for my birthday that year, I ended up getting a legit copy of Paint Shop Pro 8. It was at that point, I suppose, that my desire to create stuff was ignited. I was thrown into the wide world of graphic design, making sigs for myself and others.

I eventually upgraded to Photoshop 7 - after throwing away all of those moral values and growing the confidence to say the fuck-word - walking even further into this new world for me. I started making signatures for people in flashier ways, abused lens flare to the point of blinding half of Nintendo fanboys, and even dabbled in creating wallpapers for people to use. This was back when 1024x768 was the norm, if you can believe that.

I talk about this because when my friend was playing TTYD, I decided to look up art of some characters again, and found Vivian - one of the party members in the game - once more. Only, this time, in a way higher fidelity than I had 14 years ago.

Best Girl in A Good Resolution.

In general, I’d consider TTYD as the game that first got me encroaching into graphic design. This was not due to the game’s art, which is still fantastic, but because of so many people suddenly wanting signatures of their favorite new party members in that restrictive 48 pixel height.

I would get private messages in the forum asking for sigs with Mario, Goombella, Koops, Yoshi, Vivian, Bobbery, the X-Nauts, Bowser, Peach...Rawk Hawk a few times...even had Zess T. the cook in there. It was wild.

So imagine my surprise going through Google Image Search for a post about Vivian and finding an image of her that was extremely close to the kind of art I had to work with back then. I worked for a long time trying to figure out how to deal with the blur of the pisspoor scan with its low resolution and JPEG artifacts. Back then, finding official art was pretty difficult alone, and official art that actually looked like it was scanned with proper care? You were basically stuck with what you had and needed to figure out how to hide it. The people who could find clean concept art became our dealer providing the good shit while we provided our services to others.

Otherwise, you just worked with what you had. This was problem solving. Back then, you didn’t have access to as many tutorials as you do now. You absolutely didn’t have as much access to tablets. Those were from Wacom only and they were expensive. So you were essentially on your own, only getting help from the occasional artist who decided to make small tutorials on the forum.

Thankfully most of the people for signature requests were also teenagers as well, who just thought you were amazing for doing this for them.

I suppose all this reminiscing got me thinking about that mountain again. The paths up the mountain are long but they’re rarely ever getting longer or shorter, just easier to traverse. Nowadays, tablets are so much easier to acquire and art programs have gotten a lot more manageable. Art you want to look at or study or even use for your small projects are readily available, with services that makes buying personalized art easy and supporting artists even easier.

The knowledge about art programs and processes is nigh-infinite at this point. You can get a young artist’s commentary about their own virtues of art in a single tweet at lunch and get an experienced artist’s commentary at dinner. You can get atelier-level art lessons for free on Youtube.

Almost anything you want to learn is feasible now. Climbing the mountain is easier than ever.

So naturally, with my inferiority complex in full swing, I always have to ask myself why I haven’t started climbing the mountain yet. Why haven’t I just started the trek up the mountain pass already towards becoming a technically-skilled artist?

And the answer is, I am.

It’s just at my pace.

When I was a kid playing make-believe with others in the playground, I was making steps. Throughout all my teenage years of making signatures for people, making wallpapers for others, and even making a properly-awful sprite comic, I was making steps. When I was getting people stealing my sketchbook and making marks over my drawing of a Sonic character at lunch in high school, I was still making steps. When I was being critiqued by people for my skills in ways I felt were unfair or spiteful, I was still making steps. Every time I open Photoshop or SAI and stare at a blank canvas and will myself into making a mark on there, I’m still making a step.

Every step further from the start point, which is far and away from where I am now.

In my mind, I still can’t help but feel like where I should be is as some sort of master of art, but it’s really not fair to me. In hindsight, if I had drawn something every single day with intent, I could be a technical genius with knowledge of all the principles of design lodged firmly in my mind. It sounds amazing, but that’s not something I did.

Considering “what could have been” ignores what I am now. I am someone with knowledge in these various programs for over 14 years. I’ve dabbled in multiple projects, some in my own design. I can consider those things invariably shit, but the stuff I did there was stuff I did on my own terms, which I learned from. I wrote fanfics, did signatures for people, made wallpapers and webcomics, designed websites, did roleplaying, made a storyline based on friends’ characters in an MMO, and played tabletop games creating characters that became some of my favorite creations in my lifetime.

I would never want to trade that away for some sort of technical skill level-up. I’ve made too many great friends because of all of this. I am who I am because of how I’ve gotten here.

Learning how to create is all about taking the opportunities as they come along. Even this post is, essentially, me seeing one image online after a game session with friends and getting a nostalgia blast for something completely unrelated to the game itself.

The act of creating is simply doing. If you do, you create. If you create, you create art.

If you create art, you are an artist.

Don’t let your inner thoughts dissuade you from that fact, ever.

Thanks for reading.

#falcon's inner ramblings #text post #art talk #bobbery is also pretty cool too

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Shaping Up a Detective and a Child

Hello, and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look at character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am waiting about as long as you are for Gumshoe to pop up in Ace Attorney 7 or whatever, I’ll even take Dai Gyakuten Saiban where it’s revealed he’s a time-traveler, just. Anything......and let us begin. This time, I will NOT spoil much in terms of plotlines for cases or anything involving the two characters I talk about.

So previously, I jumped ahead into Justice for All and Franziska von Karma. While doing so, I failed to bring up a pretty big character from the first game. One of my favorites, in fact. The scruffy detective himself, Detective Dick Gumshoe.

It was at that time I was considering what I could discuss for each post that would be relevant to the actual subject at hand, instead of using half of the post to describe how much I love the design and character like some sort of fanboy. If you read my posts, you probably noticed how I did with that.

Eheh.

So I kind of put the detective off, much like he puts off a good meal of noodles in his cardboard home.

Still, I thought up a pretty decent subject matter to discuss, and I thought “Why not combine two characters into one post to get the point across?” So I had another character come along. The lovable semi-assistant to Wright and spirit medium prodigy, Pearl Fey.

Two fairly different characters, aside from a specific trait I’ll talk about later. However, they provide a fairly important example of character design that I can discuss at length. I knew I liked these characters for a reason!

Shapes

From our earliest development as human beings, we have been a shape. When we walk into our work or school location, we are surrounded by other people of various shapes, all carrying their own shapes. We eat shapes, drive shapes, walk on shapes, stare at shapes, yearn to ask shapes out but can’t gather the shape of courage...you’re reading this on a shape right now. Shapes are very crucial to both design and art in general.

Artists use shapes to construct the form of a piece. They look at forms and try to break them down into simple, geometric shapes so they can be easier to digest. It’s why you see a lot of artists start with very basic shapes for “blueprints”. It is a lot easier to piece together a drawing in form than it is to try and create the entire picture at once.

Character design, however, seeks to push those elements further. The shapes you use to form a character may very well define the character as well. 

Let’s take Detective Gumshoe.

Specifically, let’s look at how you can simplify his shape as a square.

Shapes, like colors as I mentioned before, can detail a lot about a character’s personality and can be dependent on the artist’s own point of view. Those can usually coincide with the viewer, but not always. As this series has always been opinion-based, I’ll discuss my thoughts on what I think square means.

A square, much like a rock, is dependable. It’s sturdy and a bit intimidating. A square implies weight. When a character is big and muscular, a round shape doesn’t really cut it for describing them. They almost seem like a wall.

For Gumshoe, we know he is reliable to a fault. He is steadfast in wanting to do the right thing and very rarely goes against the lead prosecutor of the case unless he truly believes that they are incorrect in their judgements. He’s an ally to Phoenix and Maya, but is still a loyal friend and confidant to Edgeworth. The working relationship with Edgeworth and Gumshoe is stable, regardless of how many pay cuts the poor detective gains. Even in times of great turmoil and potential harm to his person, he gives his all to try and secure the day, even if he outright fails doing it. He can do it when it counts, pal!

In contrast, let’s take a look at Pearl. Pearl, like most younger “cute” characters in anime, can usually be exemplified as a circle.

A circle, or oval or sphere, is usually described as a ball. A ball is bouncy, playful. A bit endearing. The lack of edges makes the shape feel more safe. Most of the characters people think of when “famous cartoon character” comes to mind are usually given that spherical shape as a base. One of the most famous examples, Mickey Mouse, is just three circles when simplified. It’s a safe bet, then, that circles are going to be very popular when it comes to character design.

With Pearl, we know she’s adorable. Her first appearance is as an innocent bystander and later on becomes a staple of the first trilogy for Phoenix and Maya to work with. Her design is endearing, making her a fan-favorite. She’s a warm presence in Phoenix’s life which strives to help him succeed in his job, either to help Maya in some way or trying to force the two to fall in love together. She’s a precious flower that keeps getting involved with murder somehow, so basically Phoenix and Maya are terrible guardians.

Can’t believe he has a kid...

Angular Tangent

Now, those aren’t the only shapes of course. The two I emphasized are simply the ones that made sense for Gumshoe and Pearl.

Another common shape that people like to use for design is a triangle. The angular lines usually imply a deviousness. Cunning. Threatening. Determination. They are also the more energetic of the shapes, usually because they imply direction and movement. Dynamic. These tend to pop up most in villainous characters, who are usually given more pointy features. 

Downward triangles are pretty common for devious characters.

A triangle doesn’t have to be shown in a sinister character only. It can be a good indicator on more fun, light-hearted characters, like Athena.

Triangles imply energy. Athena is a bundle of it.

So while triangles indicate caution, they also imply energy and optimism. Consider how a star, which is usually a symbol of hope, is a bunch of triangles.

And also consider how a star can also be used in a demonic summoning, and you understand that shapes are as varied as everyone else.

Innocence

So let’s talk about the characters real fast, since there’s one thing that defines them both that I think is a pretty good concept: an endearing childlike personality.

Gumshoe is not a child. He’s a bumbler and sometimes pretty stupid, but he’s as adult as all the others. He’ll focus his efforts on trying to help solve the case in whatever manner it takes. He’s a loyal companion to Edgeworth for years, and Edgeworth is not keeping him on because of his ineptitude. It’s because he knows, no matter where things may lead, Gumshoe will have his back. That’s the kind of working relationship you respect, and Edgeworth more than likely understands that positive influence in his life.

Gumshoe’s got a childlike loyalty for whomever he’s allgned with at that point, be it Edgeworth, Phoenix, or even Franny. It’s a sort of endearing trait that keeps him close to most fans’ hearts. It shows very well in how he’s able to get along with child characters like Pearl and Kay Faraday.

Pearl, of course, is an actual child, but her presence as a child helps ground Phoenix. Murder after murder makes the life of a defense attorney pretty grim, but Maya and Pearl are sort of like lights in his life that helps him keep moving forward. When Maya is in danger, Pearl is always able to put her feelings of the moment aside to help Phoenix in any way she can, be it as an assistant or by trying to summon Mia Fey to help them.

They promote ways to better their charges in any way they can, and that has helped them both in various ways that only the audience can really notice.

Conclusion

So what did I learn from making this post?

Shapes can be seen as different from a lot of people’s perspectives. Shapes are going to be key in differentiating a character.

I kind of went over this in my Phoenix post, but the shape of a character is actually a lot more than just its silhouette. It’s the actual feel of the character. The silhouette is good for making the design unique, but their character only begins once you assemble the design that was hiding beneath it. You can make a very unique blob of a character that you want to be scary, but if it’s just implied roundness, then it’ll look cuter than scarier. Meanwhile, 50 sharp angles on a baby’s face is going to make me very afraid to hold that baby.

Shapes are going to be a key to designing characters for me, especially as a graphic designer. Shapes are everywhere and can imply anything.

It’s just all about how you use those shapes.

Thank you for reading. This was a bit short considering how long it took for this post. I may end up making something faster for next time, but I’m not sure yet. It really depends on if the mood works.

Whenever I do, it’ll probably be a bit of a gushing-about-character post. Until then, it’s just a Distant Trace...

#Turnabout Design #Ace Attorney #Dick Gumshoe #Pearl Fey #Blog

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Franziska and the von Karma Legacy

Hello, and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look at character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am the foppish fool Falcon who flounders and fawns for fictional females, and let us begin. Spoiler Warning: This is going to be covering a character specifically, so there will be story points gone over, mostly from Justice for All.

Even though there’s still a few points I could talk about regarding the first game, I feel it’d be better to go ahead and continue on with the second game of the Ace Attorney series: Justice for All. Considered by some people to be the weaker entry of the trilogy, with a fairly meh first case (Phoenix gets amnesia, whoaaaa) and a - in my humble opinion - lukewarm third case, it still etches itself up to good quality with a pretty good second case and one of the most memorable final cases in the entire series.

And part of that is due to the main characters and their arcs continuing. New characters pop up, old characters get new tidbits to them (Gumshoe having a crush on Maggey while also being a big hero...I should probably get to him at some point), and our main lead has a veritable moral crisis on his hands at the end.

But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today.

So I elected to put off on talking about Manfred von Karma, the first game’s final antagonist (aside from Rise from the Ashes) because, aside from his terrifying presence, he’s actually not a very grand design. To me, at least. I am aware that his design is actually an adaptation of the original design idea for “the rival prosecutor” (Edgeworth), but he never struck me as a very memorable design. A memorable character, yes, but his actual design layout didn’t strike me.

Not to mention, a lot of the deal with Manfred is that his actual character, in a lot of facets, is used to fuel motivations of other characters. He’s the opposing force for Gregory Edgeworth in the past which was needed for his murder, his involvement with DL-6 caused Miles Edgeworth to live with him and eventually set himself down the road to becoming a prosecutor. His involvement with DL-6 is what eventually (non-intentionally) led Mia Fey into law. His role as a prosecutor is used to be the “final boss” for Phoenix for the fourth case. The man’s actions reverberate throughout the original trilogy and beyond, in a lot of respects, but there’s not much to him beyond the need for a perfect record and a calculating, cold megalomaniac.

His child, on the other hand, bears a few of those characteristics along with a lot of time to grow beyond them into her own staple of the series. I’m talking, of course, of Franziska von Karma.

You ever wonder if she ever intends to....draw blood? No? Just me?

You liars.

The Design

So I’ve spent the last few times talking less and less about the actual facets of her design, so I think it’d do to try and fix that. First off, let’s see her silhouette.

A lot of the best parts about Franziska’s design is the lively actions she is able to produce in court. This is mostly due to including the whip into the picture. The whip is one of the most important parts of her design, both due to her character and due to the added action poses it can create. If a character can be defined by the tool they use, that’s a very good thing to consider when designing their poses. You can tell that, when you take the whip out of the equation, you’re still able to tell who she is in a list of Ace Attorney characters, but it’s not as clear if you throw other franchises in.

A lot of times, an external item like a weapon is almost as integral as a piece of clothing for a character. Of course, relying entirely on that for a character’s design isn’t prudent, as the weapon needs to be integral to the design. For example, if Link from the Legend of Zelda series were to not have a sword available, the clothing is still very distinctly him. The hood in particular is almost instantly recognizable, even with every other feature blacked out. And, forgive me, but even the Master Sword is still just a sword to a silhouette.

However, we look at Samus from the Metroid series, we end up having two ‘states’ of Samus. One with her Power Suit on and one without. (I count the Power Suit as a weapon, fight me) With her Power Suit, she is the same Samus we know, who is able to go into the unknown and fight whatever comes her way but without it, not only does the silhouette change but the actual gameplay changes. She can’t go in and fight aliens the same way without her weapon. The lack of her suit makes the encounters she faces more aligned on the side of cautionary, because she can’t deal with space pirates and monsters the same way as if she did have her suit.

Lot of talk to amount to “her whip is important”, huh? It’s a very distinct trait for her design that speaks of her character. She’s aggressive and wishes to dominate her opponent with nothing short of perfection in her case. She uses it to force her will through the court. She uses it for “reward” once with Detective Gumshoe, too. (poor Gumshoe)

When you look at her design, you can see that there are elements of Manfred in her. Compared to Phoenix, her design is more regal looking with a nice big bow and a stylish suit. Her gray hair masks her actual age, to the point that you’d have to hear it from her to find out that she’s actually a young prodigy. Her posture intimidates in court, with animations ripped from her father, yet her fragile ego causes her to lose her cool very fast, which includes a few distraught emotions in her sprites.

She builds up a cool facade with her whip and her dressed-to-impress confidence that she attempts to exude. To her, the impression she leaves is most important, which makes sense because have you ever gotten hit by a whip? She cares about the mark that’s made and aims to make sure her presence is known. And to a passerby, that is exactly what happens, because outside of context she looks like a very scary lady who will absolutely dominate you, in court.

Franziska is obsessed with perfection and control, even moreso than her father was. This is due to having not one, but two individuals she has to live up to. She lives up to her father in terms of name, but she must also live up to her “little brother” Edgeworth in terms of legacy.

Legacy

Now obviously when I say “legacy”, I bet you would say “but wouldn’t she get that from her father, as well?” Well, only tangentially. I personally believe that Edgeworth left a more lasting impression on her character than her father, and it’s mostly due to Mr. Phoenix Wright.

See, Franziska grew up with her father’s shadow looming overhead. To be anything short of the genius prosecutor that Manfred was would be considered a blight to her name. So she focused her energies on doing so, even though she personally admitted to herself that she’d never get to the same level of genius as her father. Still she studied and persisted, earning herself the title of “the Prodigy”.

Soon enough she heard of her father’s defeat at the hands of Phoenix Wright, but that alone did not set her off. In fact, she couldn’t care less about her father’s defeat. It was learning that the defendant was Edgeworth, then finding out that Phoenix had already beaten him twice before despite HIS perfect record, and then learning of Edgeworth’s disappearance (Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death) that set her off on her travels to Japanifornia.

Because she wasn’t facing against Wright for revenge of her father. She was going to prove herself against someone that Edgeworth lost to.

When I think of a “legacy” character, I consider a character that has a torch passed down to them, much like a family line of superheroes. In some ways they retain the same spirit as those who came before them, but they have their own spirit about them. Take, for example, DC Comics icon - and man with most elaborate basement under parents’ house - Batman. A few years back when Bruce Wayne had “died”, Dick Grayson took up the mantle of Batman. While Bruce was more stoic and cold in his style, Dick was more loose in his demeanor. He cracked more smiles and was more talkative. More relaxed. He couldn’t replicate Batman himself, despite how many years he studied under him as Robin, because he realized that he couldn’t do so. He instead took his own take and, depending on who you ask, succeeded in doing the role justice. He lacked confidence as Batman but was more than able to fulfill the role as Gotham City’s protector regardless.

Why I find legacy characters fascinating is the little bits of what is brought from the past into the role of the present and how that can mix well, can clash with other elements, and even be forgotten. Even Edgeworth did this, to an extent, when he was the antagonist of the first game. You didn’t know it until the fourth case, but everything that Edgeworth did was due to what was displayed to him by his teacher, Manfred. Winning at any cost. He sets that aside after the first game and finds his own path as a prosecutor, yet he still retains some elements of his mentor, such as his outfit’s similarities to Manfred’s and his posture when at the bench. Naturally, some elements would have to stay because of his iconic design, but even 7 years later in Dual Destinies, Edgeworth is still using the same posture, and his big change is that he also has an unbuttoned coat and wears glasses out of court.

So going back to Franziska, her main motivator for Justice for All is to “defeat Phoenix Wright”. She goes through the same methods as her father before her, but also took in Edgeworth’s forwardness in understanding the entire case, no matter the absurdity. She studied the Kurain Channeling Technique and even introduced it in the second case in order to prove that, even with something supernatural like channeling spirits which is beyond normal law, Maya would have still done the deed and is still guilty under law. She puts up a potentially damaging photo for her prosecution just to back Phoenix in a corner. In the third case she focused her energies on making sure Phoenix wasn’t getting any evidence she didn’t know about, which ended up costing her the case when she forced Acro out of the room before he could dispose of the murder weapon. And in the time she was involved in prosecuting the final case, she made explicitly sure that Adrian Andrews knew that she didn’t have to testify.

All of this was to defeat Phoenix Wright, who had inadvertently brought himself up as a target for all of her ire. The one who defeated her father and adoptive  brother before her. All to stoke her ego.

But, of course, she didn’t.

Try as she did, she wasn’t able to defeat Phoenix. She got shot on the way to court to the fourth case and had to let Edgeworth do the job for her. Even then, she took it upon herself to get the decisive evidence to court just in time to give Edgeworth the win. Finally, Phoenix lost and it was because of her!

And yet, when Phoenix was so happy even after losing his first case (for a reason she didn’t know), she broke. She didn’t understand why he was so happy about it. She tossed her whip aside and left for the airport, to fly far away.

But then Edgeworth came to her with her whip. He spoke to her about what he found out on his trip. About how win records were meaningless. About how Manfred was wrong, and how a prosecutor’s job is to find the truth. She was still a prosecutor, but if she wanted to give up, then he would continue forward and leave her behind.

Handing the whip back to her was an important gesture, because as mentioned, the whip is a symbol of control. When she had it, she had always felt like she was in control of her situation. It was much like a security blanket for her. Handing it back after she tried to toss it away signifies that Edgeworth understands that prosecution is important to her and she needs to find her own path forward like he did.

Telling her that she’d be left behind is also important. It may have been cruel, but Franziska is a character who went through all that effort to overcome her own faults in order to try and surpass those who came before her. She was obsessed with it, in order to stoke her own ego, but she wouldn’t be able to do so if she gave up. Edgeworth knew she didn’t want to do that. She still needed someone to fight against, and being the doting little brother that he is (still like 7 years older), he took it upon himself to stoke that fire again.

And she vowed, in a show of sobbing emotion, that she would return and defeat Phoenix Wright and to become a better prosecutor than he.

Franziska is a great character even though her role as a prosecutor was done because the designers didn’t want to have Edgeworth continue to lose fights due to his popularity. She was brought in as a flawed and fixated prosecutor to further the prosecutor’s role as an antagonist while solidifying that which Edgeworth had proven before; that the prosecution is merely an antagonist, not a villain.

Her emotional weight is believable and sympathetic. Her personality in court is perfect for the role of making you detest her because of how many times she’s able to one-up Phoenix (you) as you go through the cases. And yet her overall character is someone you can’t help but feel for once it’s all over. She’s in a dogged pursuit of proving herself as better than those before her, and Phoenix (you) proves to be an obstacle she can’t overcome.

After Justice for All, she learns to pursue her goals for herself and not for any legacy she was supposed to inherit. She works with Interpol and assists Edgeworth in his own games, but she hasn’t seen much action since. Now that we know what Maya’s been up to in Spirit of Justice, I really want to see what Franziska has been up to in the years since next.

I want to know if she sued Larry for the use of her likeness in his children’s book, “Franzy's Whippity-Whip Trip“.

Conclusion

Wow, she’s tipping Gumshoe $5. That’s probably the nicest thing she’s ever done for him.

Even though her inclusion was the designer’s intent to keep Edgeworth from losing all the time, Franziska was a worthy entry in this series as an antagonist. Her flaws helped elevate her as an egomaniac that eventually made you empathize with where she’s coming from. She’s not perfect and can’t be the same level as what her father was, but that’s exactly what makes her such a good character.

Because true perfection doesn’t exis-

Okay, stop that. Get outta here.

Thank you very much for reading. It was fun to look more into Franziska and remind myself why I really like her. Most of these thoughts are just my thoughts, of course, so if you have any thoughts about her yourself, let me know! 

Until next time...

You foolish fools.

#Turnabout Design #Ace Attorney #Franziska von Karma #Blog #Ace Attorney: Justice for All #Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Sisters in Law and the Setting Changer

Hello and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look at character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am about 6 days late for making a jab at how Edgeworth’s adoptive father ruined Christmas for him - yet again - and let us begin.

This post is going to spoil a good amount of the first trilogy as I am going to be a bit more in-depth with the actual characters this time. No spoilers for Spirit of Justice, however, as this story is safely contained in the first trilogy. I don’t think I mentioned it before, but if you haven’t, you should absolutely play the first trilogy. The HD Collection is really easy to get on the 3DS eShop and the iTunes App Store, and very good value for the price if it’s your first time playing the series.

Character design, at least to me, is as much about bringing a story together as setting the character apart. A main character can have as bright a shade of pink as you can color them, and that’s an easy way to set them apart from the crowd, but an outlandish outfit and color scheme is not what makes a character unique.

Take Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Sorry I focused on the pink hair. You wear it well, I mean it.

Utena is a....weird story. The visuals that encompass the majority of the show is an avant garde spectacle, and Utena’s outfit is by far the least weird thing about the series in the long run. (of course, maybe it was moreso the time period it was released)

However, in the first five minutes of the first episode, the school is downright boggled by her wearing a boy’s uniform. The school of grand Victorian architecture and a student council with their own grand elevator up to a giant office with a goddamn balcony. Did your high school have a balcony? My high school didn’t get a freaking bench outside of the building until two years after I left, and it was dedicated to some guy who probably didn’t even need a bench. I needed the bench.

My point is, all of these weird factors and the show deliberately focused on the fact that Utena is wearing a boy’s outfit. In this crazy world, she is an outlier. It’s one thing to make a character stand out, but it’s another thing to make a character be unique to that world. She does stand out. Her pink hair and outfit make her stand out. Her personality makes her stand out. And this drives her into the conflicts repeatedly, because in the plotlines of everyone else, she is an agent of change, or the thing which starts up the story proper.

Now, what the hell does that out-of-left-field commentary mean for Ace Attorney? Well, hopefully I’ll make a point here. Ace Attorney is not as abstract a world as Utena’s, nor did it try to be. However, it’s important to understand what a design’s role in the story ultimately holds.

You got the basic design premise of a series down, but they can’t all be normal if the story has an abnormal premise. If your main character is a run-of-the-mill average Joe, yet is set in a world of something not average or run-of-the-mill, then it stands to reason that there needs to be a character that would encompass that idea. An agent of change in the story that would bring this average Joe into the abnormal world. This can come in plot devices, such as the spider that bit Peter Parker who would become Spider-Man, but more often than not it comes in the form of characters.

So focusing on Ace Attorney, by the end of the first case, aptly named The First Turnabout, we are introduced to a fairly standard list of roles, covered by unique characters grounded to earth...for the most part. Phoenix Wright the rookie lawyer, a defendant in the form of Larry Butz, the Judge, a Prosecutor who could pop up again as our antagonist, and a culprit we need to prove guilty. It’s a basic recipe for a lawyer game premise. You are also introduced to Phoenix’s teacher and boss, Mia Fey. And it’s the introduction of the Feys that makes the series truly unique as the agent of change, bringing a lawyer game into the supernatural,

The Boss

Mia Fey is an attractive woman, passionate for her job and doing whatever she can to help her clients.

Her design is actually fairly basic. The outfit is fairly standard “female lawyer” style. Distinct features for her include her long hair, her generous bosom, and a small mole on her face. The latter two are actually due to a story mechanic later on, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

She also rocks a scarf that covers her neck in both iterations of her design, covering up her magatama necklace, a symbol that would be seen repeatedly throughout the story.

The magatama being around her neck shows that, no matter how far away she is or what she gave up to do this, her family is still important to her. She would have been the heir to the family by right, but instead chose to pursue law to figure out what really happened with her mother and the DL-6 Incident. Whether or not her aim was solely for that, what she would do as lawyer was inspiring to many. One of which is Phoenix Wright himself. Her steadfast belief in her clients and a focus on that mutual trust. To trust the lawyer and to have the lawyer trust them. Even if he passed the bar with flying colors, Phoenix would learn that particular trait by studying under her.

One trait that I personally love about Mia, which is something a lot of people actually consider a fault for the first game, is in her guidance for Phoenix. She’s always there to help Phoenix when the character is left clueless, but she would never just say it. Her intellect is clear, and it’s safe to say that she knew why the culprit did it halfway through when Phoenix was piecing it together. However, it was Phoenix’s first case and he needed to solve it. And what’s important is that she knew he would. 

That bit is a great example of mentor-student writing, and something that seems core to how we can perceive Mia’s method of practicing law: mutual trust and respect. This carries over to Phoenix when he eventually becomes the boss for Apollo and Athena in the later games. She would help when necessary, but everything up to that point is something that Phoenix himself (us) is able to piece together ourselves. For the most part, the Ace Attorney games are great at letting the player figure it out before having to help for a plot-important twist. They can be kind of faulty later on in the series, but the early games did it just fine.

So something interesting happens once the second case of the first game starts up. Mia Fey, the mentor who helps us through the first case and gives us clues, is killed. A mentor that only just began to show us, the player, the way to be a lawyer, is gone, and Phoenix is left alone with her sister, who is now being accused of the murder.

Mia’s gone and Phoenix is left with the pieces.

This makes the second case of the first game - Turnabout Sisters - one of my favorites, solely because of the personal investment you had for Mia and how serious it was. You only barely got to know her, and she’s gone. And now you have to move on and figure out how to solve this case for your boss.

And the fact that you felt that investment for Mia despite only knowing her for 30 minutes so far is a pretty big strength to Ace Attorney’s characters as a whole.

A side note before we move on to Maya. Turnabout Sisters was actually going to end up being the first case of the game early in development, but they decided to make it the second. They felt that losing the mentor character so fast would cause people to miss out on how important Mia’s role as Phoenix’s mentor was for his own character, and caused us to lose out on a very important character for the overarching plot.

Doing this little series is great, specifically because I can learn stuff like that from early development. It really does elevate the series even more in my eyes.

The Mystic

Okay. Fine. I’m just going to come out and say it. Maya Fey’s my favorite character in the series. I love her design, the perky enthusiasm, her interactions with Phoenix and the rest of the world, her unfortunate habit of being accused of murder like FOUR times (I don’t even need to look to see if she’s in jail in Spirit of Justice.) and just her overall character arc.

Her design is markedly different from all of the characters we had met so far in the series. She’s young and has garb similar to real-life Japanese  mediums. She has her magatama around her neck just like Mia, and also has spirit beads along with it, most likely to help with her training. The purple kimono has her stand out in a crowd, especially in urban Los Angeles, Japanifornia.

In a way, Maya is the outlier of the world we’ve seen so far. Before Maya came in, the world seemed pretty basic. Wacky characters being overly emotional, and murderers throwing their hair at attorneys, sure, but the game still had a chance to be a basic lawyer simulator. But then Mia dies, and Maya comes in, and her presence changes what we were expecting from a lawyer game.

Maya is a spirit medium, and with that she brings in a completely new element to the lawyer game that would be a game changer. “Channel the dead to find out the true murderer in a crime.” This point would be of great importance to a lot of different points in the story, even beyond the trilogy. However, Maya is a medium-in-training. She can’t do it all just yet.

This position as a spirit medium is actually not the reason for her first incident with the law. However, it is due to this that she’s able to save the day at the end of the second case by channeling her recently-deceased sister.

When a spirit medium channels the spirit, they take certain aspects of that person’s form. This is what happens when she channels her sister to help Phoenix, causing her form to change into something akin to Mia’s, including a mole on her face and her chest.

Hey, at least the kimono is staying around her chest. That’s a really good kimono.

This mechanic of spirit channeling is actually a crux of a few various incidents through the series, which all have intriguing circumstances. Even though the idea of channeling spirits is considered fairly nonsensical, a lot of the concept creates some very interesting mysteries. In one scenario where Maya is accused of murder, she wasn’t even channeling a spirit, but through the use of costume and scheming, the culprit was able to properly create a scenario where Maya seemed guilty. And in another scenario, it was through her channeling a “demon” that she was unknowingly placed as an accessory to an elaborate murder in a mountaintop village.

As a spirit medium, Maya is a weirdo in a world of lawyers, populated by a guy with a poofy cravat, an old and clearly evil vampire of a man, a woman who became a prosecutor at 13, a guy with a hi-tech visor on his face drinking more coffee than a healthy person should, a rock star who air-guitars in court, and a convict with a pet bird with a taste for rookies. A world where Phoenix would eventually have a magic-studying adopted daughter, and be a mentor to a guy who has a magic armband that can see when someone is nervous and a girl who can analyze emotions with a pendant computer on her necklace. A world with crazy assassins, oddball characters, freak accidents and, also, a member of the mafia that looks like Phoenix if he went tanning in oranges for 5 months.

And yet with all of that, it’s weird to know that it’s really the spirit channeling that’s odd, and that Maya is the one considered as this hippie weirdo. Even up to Dual Destinies where we’ve seen wild circumstances and odd-as-hell individuals, the truly odd one is the girl who channels spirits and is a big fan of Samurai cartoons.

The world is surreal, and Maya’s inclusion is what brought this all along. And I love her for it. It’s because of this that a lawyer game of all things became a killer app for the DS, which is one of the most popular handhelds in history. It’s not just the premise of a lawyer game, but the presence of his plucky spirit-channeling assistant and her thoughts about step-ladders, that brought it such a following.

Character (Design)

So that’s nice and all, but you noticed I spent most of this post talking more and more about the story of these characters than the actual design. What is the point of that if this is supposed to be about design?

The standout characters of a story tend to be the ones who leave the biggest impression on the actual setting. The characters who end up shaping the story, or are such standouts in design that they reinforce a theme of the story.

Maya being introduced changed the structure of the setting. What we played in the first case was definitely not hinting towards this in the second case onward. That change was emphasized even more with Mia’s death, as losing our mentor and suddenly being told the world actually includes spirit mediums and real-life channeling sessions is a pretty great way to engross you into the setting. “I need to figure out who killed my boss....and...wait, spirits? Huuuuh?” It took our first impressions of the game and twisted it around. You’re still a lawyer and you’re still solving crimes, but now you’re doing so in a world not like our own.

Designing a character isn’t just a matter of getting them an iconic look, a stylish outfit, or making them weird and different. It’s about making a character that drives a story along. Even the most basic design can shift a setting to a different meaning if the creator wanted to.

It’s something I think I only really began to learn after starting this little series. Ace Attorney has an awesome cast of characters, but it’s easy to forget that a lot of the designs of the first game are fairly grounded. However, their role is still the same as the highly animated, highly detailed ones from Apollo Justice onward: they drive the story.

If a character’s design is striking and a feast for the eyes, but they don’t drive some sort of plot, then they’re going to be forgettable. Inversely, if a character’s design is normal and basic, but they drive the plot to new heights, then they’re a great character regardless.

So I suppose the takeaway there, for me at least, is to design with intent. Even looking at Phoenix’s basic blue look, there is intent in the way he is designed.

Conclusion

So, that was a lot of talking about things outside of the sisters in design, huh? Hope that wasn’t a huge detriment to the post. I hope my talk about design intent was interesting.

It’s 2017 as I post this now, and I’m in a mood to create more things this year. I don’t know if that means I end up going super crazy on design posts, but for now, I think I can at least tie a ribbon on the first game. I’m sure I’ll go back to it for some points to make, but we’ll see what happens.

Until the next post, thank you guys for reading. Appreciate it and any comments you have. Have a safe start of the year, and take it easy!

Take That Easy, Haha! Isn’t that funny, Nick?

#Turnabout Design #Ace Attorney #Maya Fey #Mia Fey #Blog

[falcon6]

I’ve been waiting all year to post this.

[falcon6]

Hey, this is relevant to my interests, huh.

I always find stuff like this interesting. The different interpretations for a character and the design sensibilities of each. Still the same characters, and still the same foundation, but still fairly different.

Know your Ace Attorney character artists

After some research I have made an informational image regarding the artists of Ace Attorney, because many people get them confused. Went through several english and japanese sites and watched some videos to get the details. View the full size by clicking here (imgur). Please share and update any wikis you spot lacking in this information. I hope you find this helpful.

Updated image Mar 05 with Nuri photo fix..

#ace attorney

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: To Witness Ace Attorney 1

Hello and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look at character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I personally don’t believe in the ethical application of consistency in updates, and let us begin. Spoiler Warning: This post is going to cover ALL of the first Ace Attorney game, making note of characters that would be making a return in other games and explaining briefly about motives of culprits.

Ace Attorney games have a fantastic main cast, but each game’s supporting cast is what will make or break a case’s overall quality. If you go over a fan’s least favorite case in any game, it is almost always whittled down to the witnesses and culprits. They are the vehicle that will get our main characters their development, their wins and losses, and a shining look into their personalities.

So because taking the time to do an elaborate post for each and every witness is a tiring thought, I’m going to make a post dedicated to ALL witnesses for every game, bar a few special characters. After this, I believe one more post will be a good cap off for the first Ace Attorney game and then I can be a little more loose going to the next games.

Another thing I’m going to do, since this is purely about analyzing character design, is to try and come up with three words that will best describe each character in this post, then try to keep the description limited. This will further emphasize how great the designs actually are.

Also, since Rise from the Ashes is such an outlier for the first game with its wide design differences (it has a Cowboy), I’ll probably hold off on talking about that case until later. Probably closer to Apollo Justice time since I’ll have to talk about one character around that time.

That being said, let’s begin with...

Frank Sahwit

sycophantic, slimy, angry.

Frank Sahwit did it, as people know. He was introduced visibly as the first culprit with a solid poker face in order to give satisfaction to the player for breaking his facade. When you do, the character switches to an angry persona that further satisfies a player in exposing him for what he really was. The design echoes that of a salesman, stereotyped as only wanting to profit for themselves. Good starting character.

April May

cutesy, flirtatious, aggressive

April May is curvaceous and knows it. The exposed chest and playful first impression is just enough to go “This character seems alright” only to break that impression when you break her facade. The design is made to give a good first impression to the player as “ohhh, this looks like a fun character” as well as further providing them a great conclusion to the challenge of “What is she hiding?”.

The Bellboy

formal, proper, weird

The Bellboy is a bit of a mysterious chap and his design is one of the more straightforward ones of the bunch. He’s...a bellboy. Most of the weird things about him come from his odd comments. Fun Fact: The developers didn’t plan for him to be a witness in 1-2 and didn’t change his sprite to give him a stance without the teacup. He goes to the stand and never stops being The Bellboy.

Redd White

arrogant, manipulative, harsh

Redd White of Bluecorp is another scenario where we’re shown immediately who did it. However the man is not introduced until later, so we have no idea what kind of person he is until then. First impressions are of a man full of himself and wanting to show off just how much he’s worth compared to others. This is shown well with his outfit, which is garish and a way to focus all attention to him. He thinks he’s hot stuff and intelligent. A full package. This is another scenario where the player is given a good “boss” character to take down with a satisfying display. You feel good taking this guy down after what he did to Mia.

Will Powers

imposing, gentle, sensitive

Moving to Turnabout Samurai, the defining feature of Powers is the fact that his face is definitely not what people expect for a TV superhero. His design is built around that fact, as from first glance he looks like he’d be better suited as a villain (Maya even says “He definitely did it” when she first saw him). However, when you see more animations and get to know him, you see he’s a big sweetheart. It’s good to build upon false first impressions, and Ace Attorney does that in spades.

Wendy Oldbag

old, emotive, stubborn

You know the developers just loved to have Oldbag around. She’s one of the few witnesses that has popped up throughout multiple games in various attire, usually as a way to torment poor Edgeworth. Her actual design is very basic: She’s a cranky old lady. She’s prone to spouts of anger and has a soft spot for handsome men. Still, even a basic design can do wonders if the character attached is so..I guess memorable is the correct word. Striking?

Edgeworth would probably say so much worse.

Penny Nichols

obsessive, normal...normal

Penny is a very...normal girl. She’s probably the most normal character in the game. Possibly of any game in the series. The only thing that really strikes her as odd would be her obsessive desire to get her Steel Samurai card collection done, but even that’s not really “weird” by the series’ standard. Her design is also nothing to write home about, save for the odd choice of vest with a striped shirt. Kinda cute, though. Her design is definitely a good indicator of her role in the case, as she doesn’t have much to do.

Cody Hackins

obsessive, fanboy, difficult

Cody is a kid character, and his temperament shows well in his design. Very prone to anger and acting more obnoxious than he needs to. He’s still a kid, though, and when he’s happy, he shows a big ol grin. And when he’s sad, his emotion is very visibly loud. The big thing about him that always struck to me was the green outfit. It kind of helped give him a sort of red-flag. Like he was basically showing “I’m the one who will help you figure it out”.

Sal Manella

weird, pushover, otaku

I’ll spare you the roxxor l337 5p34k *wink*

Sal’s personality shows pretty well in his design. You can tell from his emotive sprites that he’s...odd? The way he behaves around Maya, and his relationship with Dee, is a good indicator of his personality, as well. His sprite constantly sweats up a storm and is very creepy in general. They had the idea for the design and went with it pretty handily. His name in Japan literally means “annoying otaku”. As far as design goes, it’s pretty straightforward.

Dee Vasquez

calm, manipulative, confident

Vasquez’s design is a very imposing and dominant figure, as emphasized by her behavior towards Sal. She is described as a beautiful woman, most likely emphasized by her confidence and calm disposition even in the face of the murder. Even though she did it, she took the accusation in court as a game of wits between her and Wright. And when Wright finally does beat her in this game, she accepts defeat graciously, the first culprit to do so. All throughout, these points are emphasized in her design, with her fiddling with her pipe inattentively, showing how bored she was of the situation. Definitely a nicely designed character. Outfit’s hot, too. Sorry.

Lotta Hart

loud, single-minded, well-meaning

Now we come to Turnabout Goodbyes and meet up with another series regular, Lotta Hart. She has a lot of...heart. Her design is pretty basic and humble, with the afro being a pretty strong way to show a silhouette. She’s well-meaning and sunny, but likes to try and get in the middle of something big when she can. In Japan she was designed as a character from Osaka, and this usually translates to a southern dialect in America. It fits her, I think.

Yanni Yogi

senile, old, mysterious

Since Yanni was the culprit and was mostly using this outfit and persona as a disguise of sorts, it’s kind of hard to judge a character from it. Considering what all happened in his life, it’s easy to assume that this senile act is more of a comfort for him than anything. Disheveled and alone. Hoping to one day get revenge. It’s a tragedy all the way through.

Polly

bird, grasping-at-macaws, friend

Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6. Don’t forget DL-6.

Manfred von Karma

smug, arrogant, intimidating

I think I’ll probably end up talking about von Karma later on, but I mostly wanted to show him briefly. Fun fact: His design is actually adapted from an older design for Edgeworth where he was shown as an older man. Manfred’s design is intimidating and the influence he had on Edgeworth’s upbringing is quite evident in the design. That’s all I’ll probably have for now, but expect something later for him.

And that’s all for the first game! Definitely the most basic cast for the series on a whole, but that’s only natural considering it’s the first one. I bet when I go through Justice for All, the differences will be very big. Still, you can easily see the character in the series from just this list.

So what can we learn from this? I think distilling the characters to three words for their personalities is an easy way to start with a character template. The personality begets their agency and motivation. Oldbag’s personality is what makes her frustrating in 1-3, because her stubborn attitude towards Wright makes it hard to move forward with the investigation, but accusing her also allows her emotive attitude to work to your advantage. Lotta Hart is loud and focused on her goal, which can be frustrating to your investigation. However, her well-minded persona will always shine through and remind you she means well in the end.

Granted, three words can be a bit limiting. Not to mention, it doesn’t necessarily indicate a good fit. For example, Penny can be distilled to three basic words, but she’s definitely the less striking of the bunch. It’s important to remember the best practice is to consider a character’s overall placement in the story. The “agency”, as it were. If they can be easily forgotten or replaced, then they probably need retooling. If I were to adjust her design, I’d probably not have the stripe shirt and maybe something else. Possibly a Steel Samurai shirt. Maybe her idle animations would be her admiring a trading card, which would work well since that’d be the card you eventually give to Cody.

That does improve as the series goes along, though. Even the bit characters in the games start to get a lot more personality to them and have their own ways about them. You’ll get to see more of that as I describe the later games, I think.

For now, though, that’s almost the end of the first game that I have planned to talk about. There’s just one more subject I wanted to discuss before I consider the first game “closed” for now. I hope to make that sooner rather than later, so hope to see you later!

#Ace Attorney #Turnabout Design #Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney #Frank Sahwit #April May #the-bellboy #Redd White #Will Powers #Penny Nichols #Cody Hackins #Sal Manella #Dee Vasquez #Lotta Hart #Yanni Yogi #Polly #Manfred von Karma #this was a long tag list

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: A Close Examination of Butz

Hello, and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look into character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am a guy who is constantly afraid of the design of his own shadow, and let us begin. Forewarning that this is going to be covering some story bits of the first Ace Attorney game, Trials and Tribulations, and a bit of Investigations, but solely around the character subject today.

So this would have probably been more neatly placed after Phoenix’s entry since I’d be talking about it. I’ll go ahead and link it here. There’s something to be said about a unique silhouette and consistent outfit that brings a certain “theme” to a character. Phoenix Wright, as I mentioned, doesn’t change his outfit much. Edgeworth even less so. Even in a time skip, when they’re on their respective benches, they’re in that readily recognizable outfit or sporting that recognizable hair.

So to consider a different angle, let’s look at a character who has gone through quite a few different costume changes, but doesn’t change no matter what. Mostly. 

It’s Larry Butz!

This guy. Apparently smells bad.

A Repeat Offender

So Larry is, not too remarkable as a design at first glance. If you put him to silhouette, his hair looks like if Phoenix just went through a windstorm. It’s a good and simple look for a good and simple character. By all accounts, Larry himself could have probably been okay in a position on the sidelines, maybe popping in once or twice to cheer Phoenix on. Not a consistent defendant or witness.

But then a beautiful thing happened: software limitations. As the first three games were developed on the Game Boy Advance in Japan, the development team had to figure out ways to reduce space on the cartridge. One of the ways they did so was to bring characters back in multiple cases. This was why Larry here popped up so much in the first three games, as his original position was not even as Phoenix and Edgeworth’s friend, but just another one-off character in case 1-4. Due to trying to figure out ways to save space, the series creator, Shu Takumi, decided to reuse that character in the first case as the defendant and adapted his role as a quirky friend to Phoenix. This made his reintroduction in 1-4 more enjoyable to players.

This concept would continue along with Wendy Oldbag, Lotta Hart, and Will Powers in the first game, along with a few other characters throughout the series. This is also one of the series’ high points as it gives every character a great sense of presence. If you relegate a character to a single case, they can be memorable, but having a character pop up multiple times gave them a lot more room for development. It made them feel less like actors in a specific play but like a theater troupe specializing in different roles.

So back to Larry. His role was suddenly switched from one-off witness to the main character’s childhood friend, and his writing was enjoyable to a lot of people. However, his design was still pretty basic. The orange color on his jacket is striking, but it’s not really something that screams “repeat character” like something from Phoenix, Edgeworth, or Maya.

That’s why he had to change. Kinda.

When Something Smells

When I talked about Phoenix, I mentioned how they kept his design pretty much the same throughout in order to keep that iconic lawyer look going. Same thing with Edgeworth and his design being well-suited for both the antagonist and protagonist role. So in contrast to this, Larry is one of the few characters in the series that has gone through a few costume changes.

In the first game, we have prime Larry. The original flavor.

His outfit is, like I mentioned, pretty basic though striking compared to most.

Later on on case 1-4, Larry appears again, but starts out with a Santa outfit on as he went from defendant to witness.

What I like about this, aside from how cheaply made the outfit actually is (a gift from his girlfriend), is that it’s a clear indication that he’s moving forward. He’s not just “that character we defended in the first case” now. He’s actually got his own agency, which is usually just so he can keep his girlfriends. Plural.

He doesn’t have a lot of good luck with women, either due to their being too busy to be around him or his inability to seriously hold a good relationship, being more in it for the idea of simply having a girlfriend. Only one girl seemed to genuinely like him and was taking the relationship seriously, and she gets murdered by the clock he made her. Ouch.

Then he dresses up like Santa in order to sell hot dogs during Christmas for another girlfriend that dumps him soon after. Double ouch.

So Larry’s bad love life continues through to Trials and Tribulations as he’s now a security guard trying to fund gifts for another extravagant girlfriend.

When we keep seeing these new outfits, we start to notice Larry as some sort of living, breathing person. He’s not perfect, and that’s kind of the point. He’s not very smart and is very...emotionally charged. If push comes to shove, he’ll always be there to help Phoenix and Edgeworth in any way he can, but he’s definitely not seen as too reliable in either of their eyes.

And on the last case, Larry changes careers once more, this time becoming an artist named Laurice Deauxnim.

Swearing off women to become an artist. A true hero for me.

And this is one of the career paths that really makes sense for the guy. He did a really good statue of the Thinker in the first game, and his drafting skill isn’t too bad. Not to mention, in his words, “ Self-centered, lazy, anti-social... I'm an artist!“

And even soon after that, he changes careers shortly to the Steel Samurai.

“I will never accept you as the Steel Samurai!” ~ Miles Edgeworth

But he goes back to Laurice and that’s where we see his career path end up.

So there’s something very definitive I wanted to show from this little spiel, but honestly, Phoenix himself said it best.

“ Liar! You're Larry! Your clothes may change, but you're still the Butz.”

Despite all of the different costume changes, Larry was still Larry. Still hopelessly naive. Still a loudmouth. Still constantly getting in trouble or simply being trouble.

How does this show in the different designs? The key is that Larry’s personality is not dictated by his outfit, but by his face, hands, and actions. He goes through what is, arguably, as large a character arc as the main characters do, going from a guy who almost got accused of killing his girlfriend to doing odd jobs to impress different women, to becoming an artist to swear off women. (only to forget about what ‘swearing off’ means when he meets Iris but hey) And apparently his artistic career was really taking off, too, so good on him.

It’s not just the outfit that makes the man, but how he smells. I guess! That’s a weird way to end this section, sorry.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to learn from Larry, actually. Obviously, the biggest thing is to know how to deal with relationships better than he does, but beyond that.

1. Sometimes, limitations in your budget or your time frame can help you make great decisions. Larry is the product of Takumi trying to save space, and adapting this into the story. Setting yourself up for a limitation can sometimes be a huge boon to your project.

2. Costume design is nice, but nothing beats real character. If you make a character’s design super flashy, it won’t mean anything if the character underneath was boring.

3. If you create a real character, don’t be afraid to try out different outfits and roles. A good character will adapt to any sort of clothing. Don’t take that the wrong way, though.

4. A returning character is more of a benefit than a detriment. I don’t think 1-4 would have had as much an impact as it did if Larry’s bungling was not part of it.

I’m sure there will be more to consider, but I’ll probably end up tying those to other characters. Until then, thank you for reading this little post about Larry. Let me know if you have any thoughts about this. As mentioned before, I am a novice so any sort of knowledge I may learn from you guys is much appreciated!

#Ace Attorney #Turnabout Design #Larry Butz

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Miles Edgeworth and the Duality of Man

What a title.

Hello and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look into character design using the Ace Attorney Series as a base. I am constantly intimidated by a need to impress myself, and fail myself, and let us begin. This time I’ll be mentioning quite a bit about the first two Ace Attorney games, and I’ll touch upon a little bit of the star’s personal game at some point as well, so be warned.

Last time I talked about Phoenix Wright himself and the importance of keeping it basic in design for a repeat appearance. When people think of Ace Attorney, they usually shift their focus right towards Nick, even in games that he may not star in. (sorry, Apollo) And all throughout, save for one game, his design has kept focused on sticking to the original design, mostly because changing a character’s design so drastically can have severe risks. This is fine, of course, because changing a design can be a big benefit to the story depending on what story you tell. However, it’s also important to realize a character’s role changing does not mean a design change is necessary.

Just because your evil character has a change of heart doesn’t mean they should suddenly throw away all their black clothing for angel white. A character’s intentions changing isn’t necessarily a reason to change their entire look. In fact, a design can transcend any singular role they have if planned accordingly.

Take our ground-shaking main prosecutor of the series. Our foundation-shatterer. The man who makes the earth under old ladies quiver.

That last one was kind of weird, sorry.

It’s Mr. Miles Edgeworth.

This is a man who understands when egg prices are too high. Don’t be a Wright, be an Edgeworth.

Suits and Power

So when you first meet Edgeworth, it’s under a bit of mystery. You know that Nick knows him and you know about his “perfect track record” of guilty verdicts. He’s intimidating, like someone you’d face at the end of the game, and is a direct opposing force to you, both as Nick and as the player. For two cases, he is the one who is against you at almost every turn, but the last part of the third case has him questioning his own resolve. Then in the fourth case, he’s put on trial for murder and it’s up to Nick to fight for him against a REAL final boss. Final part of the game ends and Edgeworth leaves.

When he comes back for the next game, there’s a different air about him. He’s an ally, but he’s still a prosecutor. He helps you with a personal matter, but he’s still the opposing force in the courtroom. His trip made him realize what a prosecutor is supposed to be. And it’s that point where we, as a player, understand that it’s not a case of black and white. A prosecutor can be good, and a defense attorney can be bad.

And that’s when Edgeworth’s design really shines to me.

He’s got a pretty stylish suit going. Like Phoenix, he has a pretty good silhouette going, with distinct hair for the game’s universe. It’s not as outright memorable as Phoenix’s head, of course, but it doesn’t need to be. Really, Edgeworth’s truly striking point is when you look at the overall design instead. His suit is not buttoned like Phoenix’s, which marks a distinct difference between the two in terms of suit design, because you can change the hue of most of the suits to just make your own Ace Attorney OC.

The unbutton look lets us see his black undercoat which matches very well with the suit itself. A good suit can look good buttoned or unbuttoned, says the guy who does not own a suit and whose only exposure to suits is a bunch of attorneys online.

Of course, the most striking thing about Edgeworth’s design is his cravat. It has a position on the neck so it’s sometimes difficult to show it off in silhouette, but it’d be weird if it DID show up sometimes. It’d be like if Edgeworth was in a wind tunnel. Still, it’s a direct contrast to Phoenix’s more down-to-earth look, so it makes his original introduction fairly interesting.

In the past, his look was defined in a different manner which was more due to his mentor. This can usually be reasoned as Edgeworth still finding his own identity beyond the von Karma line, but it’s pretty great that he switched. The gold trimming, while elegant, doesn’t really suit him. Which is the point, I suppose.

So that’s really Edgeworth’s design. He doesn’t really change much throughout the series, but his design is strong enough that it sticks with you. Probably not as much as Phoenix Wright, of course, but he’s probably top 3 now.

So why did I talk so much before about how important it was that he didn’t change? It’s all about color. Or as my Canadian friends say it, the wrong way to spell color.

Color to Antagonize / Color to Embolden

Do you ever stop and think about why video games love marking opposing teams as red or blue or green? Yes, in competitive games, the point is to easily tell who is on your team, and the easiest way to denote that is in color scheme, but why those colors in particular? Why does Team Fortress 2 not have a war between the Lilac team and the Goldenrod team?

Because color means something, right? Blue means harmony and red means anger. Blue is safety and red is danger. Blue means “friendlies” and red means “hostiles”. However, blue can mean cold and emotionless while red means love and passion. Blue could mean sadness and red could mean RED-HOT ACTION AND VIGOR. Both colors have their own way to say a positive and a negative thing.

There’s a common string, though, that ties them together: conflicting natures, and that’s all we need for a competitive lawyer game. And at the start, Phoenix and Miles definitely have that. Phoenix is someone who trusts in his client, but Edgeworth sees nothing out of that which can help against finding someone guilty of a crime. Spurned by the loss of his father in a case that was never truly resolved, with a nagging feeling in his heart that maybe he would have been the one responsible. He doesn’t see the point in seeing these people as anything other than guilty.

His red suit is great in the first game because his ideals are in contrast to Phoenix. However, after that story, where does that leave him? He’s a good ally to Phoenix and a great prosecutor in the last case of Justice for All, but his ideals aren’t as easily against Phoenix’s.

Luckily, one of the best things about blue and red is that they are BOTH heroic colors and it lends well to him when he’s leading in his own game, Ace Attorney Investigations. We play through new cases in the eyes of Edgeworth, in his own method of investigation. and his own lawyer power LOGIC. And it’s great! He lends himself well to his own game, probably better than most people thought.

And that’s one of the best things about color: They have multiple ways to apply to your work. They may be strikingly different to each other, but it’s in the way you use them that their real brilliance is brightly shone. Red is heroic, but so is blue and green and yellow.

Two colors may have different temperaments but they’re always going for what they may desire or want.

And even if the two colors are strikingly different and clash based on their different viewpoints..

They’ll always fight together for their goal which may be more similar than they realize.

Blah blah power of friendship, blah blah power of attorney.

My point is that red and blue, despite being directly opposed to one another, can be in harmony together. They can be antagonists one day, but work together the next and still make sense. Their best quality, however, is that they can work on their own and still succeed.

Conclusion

So this is a pretty basic idea into the reason why color is important in design, at least in my eyes, and why a good design transcends what the role of the character is. Changing a character’s outfit just because of their role shift is not necessarily the best option. However, it’s important to realize where a character’s dress is going to impact their presence in the story. You don’t give a character an “I Am Evil” T-shirt, then expect them to be a good guy while still wearing the same shirt.

That’s what I learned from making both this post and Phoenix’s post. Design for longevity. Remember, when you create the story with these characters, you will end up seeing characters differently as you write the story. The real beauty is when you can take a character with a signature look go through so many different moments of character development, yet still looks the same way. Maybe a few wrinkles here and there.

People may not agree with me on that. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have a lot of different changes to a character’s look as you go along with a story. However, I find it really enjoyable to look at the Edgeworth in the first Ace Attorney, compare them to the Edgeworth in Ace Attorney Investigations and the later AA games, and see the recognizable character in a completely different light.

That’s all I have for you today. Please let me know if you all think I missed something big for the designs. Again, I am a novice and this is a novice’s look into some more interesting findings, so this may not be entirely accurate. Thank you for reading!

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is Red.

#Turnabout Design #Ace Attorney #Miles Edgeworth #Blog

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Basic Phoenix Wright

Hello and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look into character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am heavily under-qualified for this discussion, and let us begin. Forewarning, a lot of this may be based on speculation for its meaning and is purely my opinion. There isn’t going to be much in terms of spoilers this time, though there’s certain things about this subject I could delve into at a later date.

So a lot of Ace Attorney’s characters are vibrant and memorable because a lot of their personality is shown through their design. You can go through all the witnesses in the series and end up with a favorite based solely on their design, which also can show their personality (but more on that later). However, a design that is busy can tend to distract more than anything else. There’s something to be said about keeping it basic.

So to emphasize that point, I’m going to look at the original Ace Attorney himself. The myth. The legend. The Turnabout Terror. The Fiendish Feenie. The man who could make the Seat-of-Your-Pants Warehouse and be its most loyal customer.

Mr. Phoenix Wright.

Nobody told him that cutting back on eggs for his toast would give him bus money. Guy gets good exercise, though, so who am I to judge? Only his boss does.

Mouse Heads and Spiky Hair

So Phoenix Wright, or Nick as I’ll probably end up calling him constantly, is a pretty simple design. As he should be. This is the character we’re going to be playing as for three games, after all. The best way to help with that is to keep the design basic.

Why is that, I wonder? You would think that a design being memorable means it has to be elaborate. It’s striking, right? Adding a bunch of bells and whistles to a design will be a good way to get people’s attention for the character, yeah?

In spite of my lack of knowledge in design, I do know one of the key basics for character design: a powerful silhouette. Consider, for a moment, Mickey Mouse. In the simplest of terms, Mickey’s head is three circles. You can easily draw three circles at this point and go “Oh, yeah, that’s Mickey Mouse from Disney”. Look, I did it here.

Please don’t sue, Disney.

You take out the face and the expression and all you have are three geometric shapes. And those shapes are so powerful now that placing those three circles together like that makes you immediately think of Mickey. It’s a brand’s greatest goal to find that defining factor that makes someone immediately think of them.

So let’s take Phoenix up there and consider his silhouette.

Oh wait, hang on. That’s not him, right? Where’s that ICONIC element?

Yeah, look at that hair on the right. Looks like some sort of amateur drew THAT, huh?

As it’s pretty big, here’s a link to some of the original concepts for Phoenix. (all credit to Court Records and Swammi for the scan) One of the things we notice is that they only really show off one sketch of Phoenix with a bit of a basic hair style to him, then diverted straight to a few different spiky looks until they landed on the style we know.

One of the big benefits of the spiky hair is that it gives the silhouette more of a unique look. If you cut off Nick’s head, he has the look of a suited man. If you take off Miles Edgeworth’s cravet on his neck along with the head and you have the same thing. Take off Manfred von Karma’s cravet and his collar and he’s a suited man with a cane. Take away Detective Gumshoe’s hairstyle and you got a guy in a trenchcoat. 

These extra elements show in the silhouette very clearly in the best pieces of art because it’s a very big focal point. Those are what drive home the idea that, yes, this is Phoenix Wright we’re looking at. Otherwise we have a guy with very hastily-drawn hair.

So from what I can tell, one of the first big things to think about with a character’s design is how you present them. I took a sprite sheet (also from Court Records, natch) and put a few of them into a black overlay, because I’m an expert at Photoshop.

You can find that here.

So despite having no facial cues or color scheme placed here, we can still tell it’s Nick because of that iconic hair. If we took out the hair, it would probably be like a bunch of vinyl art for a window.

I’m not the only one to see a vase that got super hot in the kiln, right?

With this in mind, let’s consider something else. Does that mean the secret to success is a wild hairdo? I don’t think so. There’s a lot more to design than simply making that silhouette pop, but it’s a very good way to start. If you feel like you struggle at design, and a character’s silhouette doesn’t make you, the artist, look at it and go “Oh yeah, this is definitely my character”, then that may be a good place to start. It doesn’t even need to require new hair, but maybe just a difference in posture.

One of the biggest things that should be done when you make something, it seems, is making sure that your art clearly defines the different elements of the design. If that spiky hair isn’t at least partially shown, then how do we know that guy is REALLY Nick and not just some flat-haired guy that looks like him? Mick. Mick the Lawyer. That’s who the flat-hair attorney trying to take over the LAW is. Beware of Mick.

That isn’t to say that those elements are the only things that define a character’s silhouette. Heck, Phoenix himself has an outfit that completely hides the hair, but that design alone is also iconic. In fact, I’d say that a great character has more than one silhouette. You can place Clark Kent and Superman as a silhouette together and some artists will play with the idea and make Clark slump slightly, or have a clearly heroic stance in Superman to further emphasize a difference between the two. You can place Bruce Wayne and Batman together in a silhouette and play with the idea of Bruce acting more relaxed and flexible playboy versus the stern and serious, imposing figure of Batman. A character with a dual or a secret personality is best shown through these little hints, to drive home that what we’re seeing is not the way we think of them, but is still a big part of who they are.

The Blue and the Badge(r)

So we put some detail back in and put up a finished design of Nick. What about his character is striking to me?

In case you forgot who Nick was. He knows you did.

I’ll make a quick list of what helps remind me of who he is: his hair, his suit and badge, and his pose.

First, the hair. I already went through that. His hair is iconic for him. That’s why it’s very difficult for some artists to take a chance and change a character’s design, because at a certain point the look becomes synonymous with the character. The hair is very close to the face, and the face is one of the easiest ways to recognize a character. On that note, Nick also has some pretty defined eyebrows.

Next is the suit, and it’s very easy to tell why if you consider how most of the prosecutors are more elaborate with their suits. Nick’s suit is very simplistic and down-to-earth, and with good reason. The character himself is down-to-earth. We know from the story that he’s not very wealthy and is usually living case-by-case. Sure, he gets actors and high-profile magicians here and there, but he also has a lot of downtime. We can guess a few things about the suit from those circumstances: Nick is poor enough that he doesn’t go to a tailor often and only owns the one suit. Nick may simply like his suit and takes good care of it, also due to his lack of wealth. Nick may not even have bought a suit before and was gifted it by his boss Mia Fey, as some sort of congratulations for passing the bar, and is sentimental enough to keep it. There’s a few options that could arise from it beyond “It’s just a suit, lawyers wear suits, stop thinking so much about it!”. It’s more fun to think about those prospects. The badge is also clearly shown, because he needs to present it to everyone that he sees. Even if they already know he’s a lawyer. Especially if they already know. I may end up talking about the color of the suit whenever I end up talking about Edgeworth, since there’s a clear idea to mess with there, but I think the suit being blue is also a choice to give the design more color to it. And not simply the act of painting it blue, but the actual design reasoning. You could make his outfit a gray or black suit and it wouldn’t feel like it’s him. Of course, it’s Capcom so maybe they like the color blue for their protagonists, who knows?

Finally the pose. Something that people instinctively think of when they think of Phoenix Wright is the way in which they pose an objection. Phoenix points his finger at a contraction with a flair for the dramatic. Edgeworth doesn’t really point right at Phoenix, but he does wave his finger around slightly when talking as if he were trying to dissect the defense’s claims handily, then shrug with confidence that the claim was clearly a pathetic attempt at pursuing a silly point. The way these two do these hand gestures are different because their personalities are different. I’ll probably end up looking more at that at some other point.

Conclusion

So I could end up talking a lot about Phoenix’s design from the next few games onward, but a lot of the beauty in it that I wanted to focus on is its basic premise. You dilute the design to its basic concept and it’s “spiky-haired dude is a lawyer who points at things”. And that’s probably where a lot of great designs come from: those basic ideas that expand to something else entirely.

I think talking about some differences in Nick’s design over other games would be better suited for another post, since I’m sure there’s a lot I could consider there.

Still, I hope that my considering these silly points was somewhat interesting to you. I’ll probably not end up making a post for every single character, but you never know, right? I feel like some characters deserve it because they’re so prominent both in design and the history of the franchise. I’m certainly not done talking about Nick, though.

As for what I think I learned from making this post, I believe it’s just a reminder of different things I learned from taking some art classes. A character’s design is powerful when you can tell who they are without any color or lines. If it’s simply an outline of a character, and you can still see the character, then it’s probably a solid design. Also, a lot of the best things you can do as an artist is remember when things are better simple and when things are better with more oomph to it. Yes, Phoenix could have had epaulets like some sort of silly prosecutor, but those would have to stay there for the entirety of the series. You take out the epaulets and people will go “Where’s the stupid things on his shoulders? I like them being gone but I want them back so I can hate them.” Likewise, you take out something like the spiky hair and people will be equally distraught...which could make for a good chance to relearn and enjoy the character, you never know.

Basically, what I’m saying is a better way to make more elaborate designs is to start slow. You aren’t going to make the greatest design in the world, but the big thing to do is practice the idea. Instead of thinking about the costume of a character, consider the shape of the character. You aren’t going to make something great to start, but that’s alright. You keep at it, everyone...and also me.

Thanks for reading, Chibi Phoenix objects to you.

#Ace Attorney #Turnabout Design #blog

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design (Intro)

Forgive me if I may start with a sort of controversial statement here: The Gyakuten Saiban games, or Ace Attorney for us Japanifornians, are pretty great games. In fact, I would probably put the series as a whole as one of my favorite franchises in video games. A few missteps here and there, depending on your personal preferences, but the series hasn’t really disappointed me yet. In fact, I’d say the only real disappointment involved is knowing a few of them aren’t going to be coming out in the west.

I feel ya.

Still, aside from some personal gripes at certain games or cases, the series is pretty solidly done. The first trilogy has been a success on the Nintendo DS and was considered one of the must-have games to own for the system. For a lot of people, it was their first introduction into the world of visual novels and even adventure games. Since then it’s had a few sequels here and there, a few HD rereleases, and even ended up on the Wii at some point.

They’re a bit confused about that, too. But then, Gumshoe’s constantly confused.

I know that a lot of things have come out in regards to this series over the past 15 years it’s existed. A lot of varied opinions about it, a lot of interviews, a lot of theory, and all that. However, I wanted to talk about an aspect of the game that has been one of my absolute favorite aspects over the past few years, and that is its character design.

So first off, a bit of a disclaimer.

I am, by all accounts, a pretty mediocre artist. One of the big things that I struggle with constantly, aside from a solid foundation for art in general, is the idea of character design, which also happens to be one of the biggest things I need to learn. Funny thing, that.

A lot of what I’m going to talk about is probably going to either seem obvious to some or still incredibly novice regardless. If you’re going to go into this expecting me to have definitive answers, then I’m probably not going to be able to give them. More than likely, I’ll be producing some of my own personal opinions about the design. Less what makes it work in general and more why it works for me. I hope that my learning about design while going through the series is something that will be good content to read!

I yearn to create characters with a look that is both striking to remember and fun to draw while also being designed with simplicity when needed. And while I know that will be something that comes with practice, I also know that nothing’s better for practice than study.

And what better thing to apply to study than something you love?

So I got Ace Attorney Trilogy on my 3DS, I got every game save Spirit of Justice and the Japan-only games ready on the side, and I got a lot of time on my hands. As I try to figure out this whole “design” thing, I’m going to be trying to formulate the ideas based on the series, as well as consider things I enjoy about the character design in the game.

I will warn you beforehand, there will be some spoilers here and there on many games in the series, from the oldest to the newest, as some design aspects involve personality and possibly criminal intent, but I’ll be sure to mark them as such. Most of the time, these posts will be focused on one or two characters, or even an entire case.

Most likely I won’t be touching Dai Gyakuten Saiban too much since that is officially Japan-only, but there is a good chance I’ll play through Ace Attorney: Investigations 2 at some point as that has an (unofficial) translation. And it’ll be a while before Spirit of Justice since I’ll probably end up playing that last, but I’m sure I’ll cover it.

In a similar vein to that, I’ll probably be referring to some characters by the English version, solely because that’s what I always see them as.

Finally, a lot of the images I end up using will probably be sourced from Court Records. They’re a fantastic Ace Attorney fansite that has been my favorite spot for file rips and AA content for years. If I end up finding images otherwise, I’ll try to source as I can. Otherwise, assume I found them on there.

If you have any recommendations for me as I go along, let me know! As far as spur-of-the-moment projects go, this is one of my more daunting ones. Covering a series I love with the lens of something I’m constantly struggling with isn’t ideal. Still, I’m hoping I can keep with this project as long as I can. In the end, I’m going to learn something, and I hope my learning something will help you all learn, too! Or at the very least, you can read the ramblings of someone who really loves a lawyer game and understand why I love it.

Thanks for reading! I’ll update this with links as I go along!

#ace attorney #turnabout design #I'll also try to use tags

[falcon6]

Boy, this blog is pretty dusty.

[falcon6]

Slurmp…