I was a bit surprised to see an article on PW as the cover story in an online magazine. Specifically, it's The Escapist, the home of Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation) and other gaming videos, plus some very neat articles. Their most recent issue covers PW, and how closely it reflects the actual legal system of Japan. Definitely worth a read if you have the time.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -Objection

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Wow, this was quite fascinating. Nice find

Fascinating indeed.
Thanks a lot for finding this article :)

I honestly didn't know AA's legal system was that close to Japan's. I thought they had exaggerated a lot more than that.

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It's rather scary to think that the PW legal system is in some ways actually less dystopian than the real thing.

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I'm surprised at the "statistics show that there is a 99 percent chance that you will be convicted." part. That is insane. Also, that the Attorney they interviewed only won 5 cases in 25 years of being a lawyer, and that some attorney's don't even win any cases at all in their lifetime. Scary thought, if you're wrongly accused in Japan.

This is such an interesting read! I always thought that the game is too exaggerated, but I didn't know that it is that similar to Japan's legal system.

I'm so glad that things are changing (slowly, I think), having a jury and all. I commend the defense attorneys in the game and in Japan. Life must be hard.

"Despite being so critical of Japanese criminal justice, Ace Attorney leaves us with reason to be hopeful about the future. The redemption story of Miles Edgeworth shows that the creators believe that the system has the capacity to change. Even more significant is the main storyline in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Mirroring long-running law reform debate in the Japanese legal world, the plot sees Phoenix himself working to reform the courts by introducing a jury system."

Wow...

Edit: Though, after reading the comments, maybe we aren't seeing the whole story. Still, nothing is perfect, and that is the same for legal systems.

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My appreciation of Ace Attorney just grew tenfold. It's less like a "video game" and more like a developer's commentary; an awesome developer's commentary with truck loads of "win" and "epic" shoveled in.

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I suppose after spending so much time here, I already knew most of what was in the article. But the actual statistics about the conviction rates and really how often defense attorneys win (or don't win, really) was pretty shocking.


It would be very annoying to be arrested... I mean, you get sent to an infinitely long interrogation where they just wait for you to say what they want to hear... (on an unrelated note, I just finished reading 1984, so hm...)

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