So I've played through Ace Attorney time and again, and I love the series. Something has always occurred to me though; where is the game set? I'm not talking about the Japanese GK, because it's pretty obvious it's a fictional city in Japan. That's not what I'm concerned about. I was wondering where the localization could be set.

As someone creating a fangame, perhaps it's just the architect in me, I always think of settings before anything else, where things occur is important to me. Anyway enough about that.

SO. It's generally accepted fanon that it's set in L.A., and this has always bugged me. I'm willing to believe that it's set in California, given the metropolitan setting and the more liberal ideologies of the characters. But, L.A. seems to impossible based on what we see in the game. L.A. is a costal city, where the climate is consistently warm or mild. This doesn't fit in with events that happen in AA.

So, my hypothesis, is that it takes place in a fictonal town known as Hope Springs, California. This fictional town is in Northern California, not too far from the coast, but not close to it. It has a decent proximity to the mountainous areas, but you still have to take a train to get to them. It's a decent sized city, big enough to have it's own airport, but not big enough where you can't walk to get from place to place, so somewhere from a few hundred thousand citizens to maximum 1 million. It clearly a metropolitan area, with plenty of skyscrapers, office complexes, and a well funded government (I mean, a 16 story police department). And I bring PROOF!

-The name comes from the airport in AAI (Hope Springs Airport), airports are almost always named after one of two things 1) the city it's built in, or 2) an important or historical figure they try to honor. While Hope Springs sounds like it could be the name of a person, it sounds more like a city, and plus with the idea of name puns and the themes of the series, Hope Springs seems like a fitting name.

-It's proneness to earthquakes lends HEAVILY to it's location in California. (Thanks VelleVette), also, the fact that Gumshoe mentions L.A. casaually also helps it's case.

-A location in northern California allows the ability to have a cold enough winter to permit snow. Not blizzard-esque conditions, but a reasonable amount such as in case 2-3.

-Proximity to mountains (from a reasonable distance) suddenly makes Kurain and Hazakura quite possible. Also a mountain in the north makes snow more likely on places like Hazakura which aren't directly near the peak.

-Plus it being a city near Sacramento (also north-ish) could make this fictional city's surreal political importance more reasonable.

Almost all of this came from the game series and a bit of knowledge of geography.

Now note this piece of evidence from Turnabout Succession (4-4):

Image

This is the letter that Drew Misham sends to Kristoph Gavin (who is in solitary) right before his death, the poisoned stamp actually being the CAUSE of his death. Now the to line in the middle is clearly a pseudonym, but the INTERESTING part is the address, more specifcially, the city. Blessing Springs, CA.

Now, if that doesn't thoroughly de-bunk the LA setting theory, I don't know what will. Of course we don't have any other information on the setting aside from what we can glean, but I think the rest of my theory still applies perfectly, and frankly, Hope Springs could be a Retcon in AAI to change the name of the city (I frankly prefer Hope Springs to Blessing Springs, and will be using that as the setting in my fangame). Also notice the localization team cleverly made the ZIP Code partially illegible, as far as I can tell, unless someone can make it out better than I can.

To be quite honest, I think you're putting too much thought into this.
For all I care, the names have been translated and that's it. The story still takes place in a Japanese setting for me.

C-A

It actually seems to read 90012, where Little Tokyo is set in east LA. Now, that second number could possibly be a 6, but that would put the city too far north, closer to Lake Tahoe. In any case, it doesn't look like a 4 or 5, which is where the Bay Area encompasses. So, if anything, it supports the LA theory.

But I have to agree; the climate and geography around the city better resembles those of northern California. By the way, the latitude of Tokyo City is just about a degree south of Santa Cruz. Not the best comparison, I know; but I find it intriguing.

You may not like my contribution, but that doesn't make it any less the truth.
I have been known to make a big deal out of the huge flaws the GS court system has - more than even a friendly satyrical take on the Japanese court system can have - but I never knew or care about the setting of the damn place. Why? Because Gyakuten Saiban is a Japanese game, set in a Japanese environment and any attempt done in-games to make it seem 'western' is dumb.
Case 1-4, no American teenager would forget about it being Christmas. Ignoring the part where Japan celebrates Christmas on Dec 24th and not 25th like America. Case 1-4, again, the Boat Shop Caretaker talking about noodles and saying the best were made 'west of the rockies'. Case 1-4, again, referring to heated tables/kotatsu. Those definitely exist in any American household.

Those are the top things I can think of where they tried to localize GS into an American setting.
And they were terrible. Why did they think they needed to localize the game's setting? I was told that the manual makes mention that the GS law system is not to be taken as any real life law system. So why can't they add a little note saying "It's a satyre of the Japanese court system - if you don't get it, screw it" so that people don't wonder exactly where this thing could be located in America?

C-A

"The localization team sux Japan is teh reel stting"

Believe me, you won't hear me saying "Japan is teh best cuz iz twu!"
They did a decent enough job localizing the text and names, even if the text is littered with typos at times, but I just don't like how they tried to put in hints that it takes place in America. Why can't they let games that originally take place in Japan just keep taking place in Japan?


And as somebody mentioned, nobody actually in-game ever said that the game was taking place in LA or California. Only mention of LA was Marshall coming from Western LA, which is dumb, why can't they just say he comes from Texas.

And if you say the localization takes place in California, well why are you saying that it can't take place in California? Because the climate in California is pretty mild? In which case, Northern California is just fine as that does have a bit of a harsher climate than the southern california part, where they do get things like snow and cold weather.

C-A

They say Marshall is from west LA instead of Texas because this country isn't Japanexas, it's Japanifornia.

Just quick pointing out, why can't they just say he came from Texas, but was then transferred to wherever AA takes place?

C-A

Just quick pointing out, why can't they just say he came from Texas, but was then transferred to wherever AA takes place?

C-A

Because he always references Texas, almost every other line, and he thinks he's a Cowboy. But not only is he not from Texas, he's from LA, that is the joke.

Said joke not being funny. That's the worst part about it.

C-A

Case 1-4, no American teenager would forget about it being Christmas. Ignoring the part where Japan celebrates Christmas on Dec 24th and not 25th like America. Case 1-4, again, the Boat Shop Caretaker talking about noodles and saying the best were made 'west of the rockies'. Case 1-4, again, referring to heated tables/kotatsu. Those definitely exist in any American household.

They did a decent enough job localizing the text and names, even if the text is littered with typos at times, but I just don't like how they tried to put in hints that it takes place in America. Why can't they let games that originally take place in Japan just keep taking place in Japan?

Okay! On topic now!

Yeah, I noticed the odd discrepancy of the game's setting, too... I looked at the address on said yellow envelope at a bunch of different angles and believe it is addressed to Blazing Springs, CA 98012. But that doesn't make sense, as 98012 is in Washington I also looked at the address on the envelope addressed to Drew Misham in the same case; it appears to be addressed to Yardsmith (Yardsville?), CA, 96124. I looked it up. 96124 is in Calpine, CA. That's in the Sierra County of Northern California, two hours away from Sacramento and only one from Reno, according to Mapquest.

Ha ha! I have given you a tiny bit of support! Though I had to use a different piece of evidence to do it xD

It's interesting to think about the different possibilites. I will freely admit that you can't make out for certain what the envelope says, I made out what I saw to the best of my ability and thought Blessing Springs seemed the most likely, given the thematic naming and also using Hope Springs as another hint. Blazing Springs is still another possibility, it's interesting to think about the Zip Codes. I'm not certain how much attention was paid to Zip Coding beyond the fact that they made sure they were in California!

But very interesting info you bring, I thank you!

EDIT: Both of those titles make more sense than what they have on the Wikia, which is "Blaing Springs" for some reason.

Most people like to be able to pronounce the names of the characters they're playing with [...]

I'm gonna have to say this.
People can pronounce names like Naruhodo and Ayasato, whether they speak Japanese or don't.
They just pronounce it wrong. (Which I hate, I mean it's such a spit in the face of the "different language" it's like pronouncing Betty as Bah-Teai istead of Be-tea)
So the pronounciation "problem" does technically not exist.

C-A