Dual Destinies will be here within the next 1 to 6 months, so it's time to start thinking about a playthrough of the games! What are you going to be doing to get ready for GS5? Which games will you replay?

Personally, I will be starting a marathon of the games as soon as we get an update with a U.S. Release date or news on the Physical Release (which would bring a delay). I usually only have time for 1 or two "chapters" [the parts of each case] a day so it should take me right up to GS5's release. Here's my schedule, with chapter amount #s in case you want to try to plan something similar.

Each "Part" ends at a "to be continued" and a save option. For example, "The First Turnabout" has 1 Part and "Turnabout Goodbyes" has 6 parts.
I found the part counts by looking at walkthroughs and wiki articles, so they may not be exact.

Regarding the Manga: The [Official] manga is complicated because of its contradictory nature. It will contradict dates from the official games but at the same time make references to the same things being contradicted. When the Phoenix Wright manga came out, the localization team did their best to make it feel like one of the games, which means the only issues were possibly continuity mistakes by the author. This made me take everything in them as "canon" and made me try to fit them into a specific place "as they were". However, more recently the Edgeworth manga was released with a lazy localization job that tries to be as literal as possible: this means that the Edgeworth manga takes place in Japan, Yen is used instead of US dollars, and Ema is studying in America. They even gave a new name to a character who had previously appeared in the PW manga - they didn't even bother to check their previous work. (The edgeworth manga was localized by someone else but it was released by the same company as the PW manga). So in short, The Edgeworth manga and its huge inconsistencies with the game universe make any fact or description "up for grabs" and make it so you have to "replace" details mentally anyway, so now you can have a lot more leeway with where you put the manga, what parts of it are canon to you and what parts of it are not.
(Also, this is for the Official PW and Edgeworth manga released in the last couple of years by Kodansha Comics, not the terrible fan manga released by Del Ray back in 2008).

1. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Game Length: 18 Parts
Reasoning for being here: It's not an official AA game, but it has the style and atmosphere of one. It's not hard to imagine that GT could have taken place 30-35 years before GS1. It also lets me start the "marathon" a little sooner.

2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Game Length: "The First Turnabout" - 1 Part, "Turnabout Sisters" - 4 Parts, "Turnabout Samurai" - 6 Parts, "Turnabout Goodbyes" - 6 Parts, "Rise from the Ashes" - 10 Parts, 27 Parts total.

3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
Game Length: "The Lost turnabout" - 2 Parts, "Reunion, and Turnabout" - 6 Parts, "Turnabout Big Top" - 6 Parts, "Farewell, my Turnabout" - 8 Parts, 22 Parts total.

4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Manga - Cases 2,3, and 5
Manga Length" "Turnabout Gallows" - 4 Parts, "Turnabout Showtime" - 1 Part, "Turnabout From Heaven" - 2 Parts, 7 Parts total.
Reason for being here: Based on the dates described, this would take place before T&T but after JFA. However, Case 1 of the manga references Larry Butz working at a security job, something that Phoenix wouldn't know before Case 3-2, so Case 1 can't be here. Case 3 features Phoenix still having an attraction to Dahlia Hawthorne/still being weird about the whole thing, which hints that he hasn't experienced the events of 3-5 yet. Cases 4, 6, and 7 have Fransiska Von Karma as the prosecutor, however in T&T she says that they haven't met since JFA, so those cases can't come here. Technically, these cases could come after T&T as well, but I put them here for three reasons:
1). Edgeworth will appear in DD, which means they might make a big deal about "Look who's back". And While the reunion with Fransiska in T&T is a "I haven't seen you since Maya was kidnapped" thing, Phoenix and Edgeworth don't go through a similar greeting, acting like they have seen each other regularly and recently. I think its safer to put these cases here rather than possibly have them be contradicted in DD.
2). They give T&T-era Phoenix more "screentime". I always felt that Phoenix didn't get enough screentime in T&T, as he only got one case that I cared for (3-5). The other two cases I really liked were handled by Mia, and Phoenix was left with two of the most unmemorable cases in my opinion. These cases help show Phoenix as a successful attorney before the events that conclude the trilogy occur.
3). Taken as one long volume, the manga simply has too much happening to have occured in the month-long period before Phoenix loses his badge in AJ. Splitting up the cases make it much easier to fit the manga in.

5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Game Length: "Turnabout Memories" - 2 Parts", "The Stolen Turnabout" - 5 Parts, "Recipe for Turnabout" - 5 Parts, "Turnabout Beginnings" - 2 Parts, "Bridge to the Turnabout" - 9 Parts, 24 Parts total.

6. Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations
Game Length: "Turnabout Visitor" - 2 Parts, "Turnabout Airlines" - 4 Parts, "The Kidnapped Turnabout" - 4 Parts, "Turnabout Reminiscence" - 4 Parts, "Turnabout Ablaze" - 7 Parts, 21 Parts total.

7. Gyakuten Kenji 2
Game Length: "Turnabout Target" - 2 Parts, "The Imprisoned Turnabout" - 4 Parts, "The Inherited Turnabout" - 9 Parts, "The Forgotten Turnabout" - 6 Parts, "The Grand Turnabout" - 5 Parts, 26 Parts total.
Reason for being there: Rather than wait for the fan translation, I decided to go ahead and import GK2 so I could go through the entire AA story before DD, especially since there seem to be references to it in DD. I can't read Japanese, but I'm going ahead and doing it anyway. I'm using these resources to help me with this: [Warning: Clicking on these before you are ready might give you spoilers]
Here's a complete Spoiler-Free walkthrough for the game.
On the wiki you will find summaries of all the cases. Most of them are very detailed and broken up by location/part so you can only read what you are doing now rather than spoil later parts of the case.
You can also find translated playthroughs of the first two cases on youtube. My plan right now is to play a part of a case, then at the end of every part go and read the summary of that part before I continue. I'm also using a great app for the iPhone that will translate onscreen text into engligh: the translation isn't awesome but I played through the first couple minutes of Case 1 and pretty much got what was going on. Also, because its an Investigations game there will be more on-screen action than the GS games, so hopefully a lot will be understandable just by watching the images.

8. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Manga: Cases 1, 4, 6, and 7
Manga Length: "Turnabout with the Wind" - 1 Part, "Turnabout Prophecy" - 3 Parts, "Turnabout Gurgitation" - 2 Parts, "Turnabout Power Vs. Supernatural Power" - 2 Parts, 8 Parts total.
Reason for being here: As mentioned earlier, Case 1 features references to 3-3. Von Karma is in it, so it must occur after 3-5.

9. Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations Manga
Manga Length: "The Turnabout Costume" - 1 Part, "The Turnabout Last Number" - 2 Parts, "The Turnabout Bullet" - 4 Parts, "The Turnabout Museum" - 5 Parts, "The Turnabout New Year" - 2 Parts, "The Turnabout Silver Screen" - 4 Parts, "Turnabout! Secret of the Ogres!" - 4 Parts, "The Turnabout Clinic" - 2 Parts, 24 Parts total.
Reason for being here: Really the only reason for this being here is that a character from Cases 4 and 7 of the PW manga reappears and the previous cases are referenced.

10. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Game Length: "Turnabout Trump" - 2 Parts, "Turnabout Corner" - 5 Parts, "Turnabout Serenade" - 5 Parts, "Turnabout Succession" - 7 Parts, 19 Parts Total.

196 Parts total.

Things I decided not to include: "Turnabout Crossover" manga, since it just couldn't fit anywhere realistically and it's not really a real case in any way, "Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney" because it seems like it would have a hard time being canon, and all of the fan manga, since that's fan manga.

Well, that's my schedule. What's yours?

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Oh snap, you're right. I completely forgot about this lol.

Anyway, I think I'll just play GK2. It'll get me in the Japanese AA mood, and 26 parts seems perfect (19 days until the release, but then you need to factor in shipping time... I splurged on shipping so I should get it before 26 days, but I don't mind a mini-marathon to finish it~)

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Back in the day I used to marathon all the games when a new one was announced, but nowadays I just don't have the time I used to to go through every game :\
We'll see what happens though.

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I already started mine, and I'm about halfway through JFA at the moment. I plan to take a bit of a break between AAI and AJ, to more or less give the sense of a long span of time (the seven years between Phoenix's final trial and Apollo's first). I'll probably wrap up AAI sometime around mid-late August, and I'll start AJ two or so weeks before DD launches. Hopefully, Capcom won't delay it, or this may throw a wrench in that plan.

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I've actually been replaying GS4 (in Japanese for the first time! Well, first time I actually understand what's being said) but I don't plan to do a full-series replay, since frankly I've played the first three games to death.

I'm actually pretty close to being done - just have Turnabout Succession left to take care of. I'll probably knock that out some weekend between now and GS5's release (which I should hopefully get delivered day one, but you never know.)

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I almost forgot that those playing the Japanese version of the game are already getting close to getting it.

I think once the japanese version comes out (assuming the game isn't terrible out of nowhere) then the hype/excitement is going to skyrocket for the localization.

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Wow I'm really impressed by this. You got this marathon down to a science.
I couldn't wait to play them over again so I have already replayed the games. So i don't know what i will do between now and when Dual Destinies come out

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Which app is that? I'd probably be interested in getting it.

By the way, how hard is the Japanese in Ace Attorney; particularly with GK2? I've memorized about half the hiragana so far. Does GK2 use a lot of kana, or does it rely a lot on kanji?

It has a good amount of Kanji in it, without furigana.
I know some kanji, but without furigana, I'm kinda lost... so unless you know kanji well, you will have trouble in GK2.

And I'm not pepping myself up for this.
I generally don't do marathons. I've been playing a few T&T or JFA cases off and on, but nothing great.

C-A

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Same here. As long as the translation isn't Google-Translate bad, I'll be fine with using it from time to time.

Not only a lot of kanji, but a lot of varying styles of speech. Be sure to not confuse certain terms with others, as a simple overlook can change the entire meaning. Also, there's a lot of slang being used from time to time, especially with the less polite characters. Dictionaries are useful for recognizing kanji, though, so if you can get the grammar down, you can get most of what's been said.

No, I don't do marathons anymore; I don't have that time. But what I can slip in between classes is some self-tutored Japanese. I don't know if I'll be getting the Japanese release, but if I do, I'll need plenty of brushing up to do.

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Hey Bolt, super-random question - in GS4, does Polly use boku or ore?


If you haven't even memorized all the kana yet, you probably won't have a good time with GK2.
As for how much kanji you need to know for GK2, it all depends on how willing you are to just hunker down and sift through a kanji dictionary. The more willing you are to spend time going through a kanji dictionary, the less kanji you need to know yourself.



Anyway, started GK2-2 today. I didn't notice how mean Shigaraki is to Edgey the first time I played this case... (Of course, my Japanese has improved a lot since then.)

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I'll learn all the kana soon enough, that's not what I'm worried about. It's the kanji that bothers me. It's going to take forever to memorize all of them. By the way, exactly how does one use a kanji dictionary? How can you possibly look it up if you don't recognize it?

Once my kana skills are decent enough, I'm going to start with Ni no Kuni on DS. It's all kana, and any kanji has the furigana aid. Plus, the game isn't too hard and comes in a deluxe package. It's the perfect game for someone just learning Japanese. Afterwards I want to move on to the Wii visual novel 428: In A Blockaded Shibuya, which has some kanji. By the time I get to GK2, hopefully the patch will be out.

He always uses ore.


Don't memorize all of them; that takes longer than a lifetime. Just memorize some that pop up more frequently.

Most kanji dictionaries have a radical index to sort characters by the way they're written. Each radical can sort of be pictured as a section of a character. For example, the 検 in kenji can be broken up into the 木 on the left, 个 above, 口 in the middle, and 人 radical spread out below. Many online dictionaries allow search using any combination of them. Sometimes, the characters are radicals themselves, though. It can be tricky to find the right radical(s), so just be patient.

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So by looking up the radicals, I can learn the translation of the kanji? That's good to know.

Memorizing kana is easy for me. The hard part is remembering actual vocabulary. The app I'm using has lessons that teach you various words with each kana learned.

...You have a Japanese Wii? (The Wii is region-locked, so if you don't have one, I'm not sure how you intend to play 428...)

As Rubia mentioned, traditional kanji dictionaries use radicals (and stroke order).

However, you'll probably have a much easier time using this website or (even better) this thing (which is especially great if you had a DSphat and then upgraded to DSlite or DSi)

You could also splurge on an electronic Japanese dictionary with a touch screen or something, but those are pretty expensive. The two things I linked two are what I use.

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Well there are ways to play imported games... some say it's not allowed, but I think, since I bought and own the Wii console, I can do with it whatever I want... plus, still helping and supporting the companies and all by buying and importing games.

C-A

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I installed the homebrew channel as well as the configurable USB loader app. I can run any Wii game from the disc or download the files online. I prefer actually owning the games though, and stuff for the Wii is pretty cheap nowadays. With the homebrew channel I can also run all kinds if enulators!

The homebrew channel lets you run emulators? Neat! All I used it up to now is play Knight of Ratatosk's Japanese Import. Although I read that with Homebrew I can somehow play Rune Factory Frontier in a way that doesn't make me have to take care of the Runey System at all?

C-A

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Huh... Didn't know that. Might look into that to see if I can play 428 too xD

Anyway, seems I missed not one, but two big things in GK2-2 on my first runthrough...

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Here's a list of all the emulators for the Wii. Most of them have top notch emulation, but some like the DS and PS1 emulators are rather unstable.



You might want to check out Machi first. It's another visual novel by Chunsoft that also uses live action photo stills. It takes place in the same universe and 428 males numerous references to it. 428 is a little easier to follow though because it uses way more pictures and the Japanese is a bit easier. It's on PS1 and Sega Saturn, so many of the well-known emulators should be able to run it fine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machi_(video_game)

About how long did it take you to be reasonably fluent in Japanese? I want to really play these games.

Now to play 428, you need to have to homebrew channel and the Configurable USB Loader app. Here's a tutorial for downloading that. This article was originally published by Joystiq before Xenoblade got released in America. It's still very helpful and easy to follow though.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/how-to-play-xenoblade-chronicles-if-you-live-in-america/

Here's also a tutorial for the Configurable USB Loader. Make sure you follow the instructions EXACTLY and download all the necessary software.

gwht.wikidot.com/usb-loader

I started playing GK2 after 2 years of Japanese. I took third-year Japanese while playing it, and I'm pretty sure it helped too.

Note, however, that I was religious about looking stuff up. I looked up every single word and kanji I didn't know, along with a couple of grammar points that I didn't know. It was extremely slow at the beginning.

(I think doing something like that--looking up every single word you don't know in a fairly complex text--is a good way to learn. However, it has to be something where understanding most of it is necessary and something that you're so interested in finishing you won't mind how tedious it becomes. So in that respect, GK2 was great for me, since it fulfilled both those conditions.)

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We're you able to learn Japanese with a tutor or by taking a class? I'm just learning kana with some apps on my iPod now.

Yeah, that sounds like a good strategy especially since I want to really understand and get thought text heavy games like Ni no Kuni and 428.

Classes.

You need to know more than just some hiragana--you need to know ALL the kana, along with a few hundred kanji, plenty of vocabulary, and a good chunk of grammar.

(Well, you don't 'have' to, but the more you know, the smoother it'll be)

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I'm teaching myself for about 11 years now. Hiragana works great, I know some Kani - I can recognize them and all, but when it comes to pure kanji, I generally tend to get lost.

C-A

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The app I am using is called Worlddictionary: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/worldic ... 72600?mt=8
There is a free version that lets you try it out before making you spend 2 bucks to get the full thing. You can do both real-time translations (where you hold it up to the word live) or take/open a photo and translate the language there. It features many languages including horizontal and vertical Japanese.

There are many other apps that offer this kind of thing, but Worlddictionary is the only one that worked on the 3DS screen.

Unfortunately as far as I am aware it (and all of the other picture translators) use Google or Bing Translate. Like I said, the stuff it was giving me seemed to be somewhat correct with what I know of GK2-1 but I in no way guarantee it will work or give you the true meaning. The only apps that don't use this are the kind where you send the photo to a person from the company and they will translate it for a fee - obviously not something realistic to do to play the game. For instance, I did some tests with Bad Player's translated playthrough of the game, and (this isn't exact since I don't remember the exact lines) a lines that Bad Player translated as "Prosecutor Edgeworth! The Chief Prosecutor requested you come here to Gourd Lake to investigate the scene!" was translated by the app as "Prosecutor Edgeworth! Investigation of crime area was asked by Attorney General for you!" or something like that. You can work out the main point of what the person is saying but it's not going to be really coherent and you will have to pull and Edgeworth and put the pieces together yourself.

(Little Off-Topic Side-Story: The hassle of not knowing exactly what is going on and having to try to figure it out yourself is actually something I'm looking forward to. I've always liked stories that made you work things out on your own, and I've even had situations where a major part of the experience is unavailable to me and I have to figure it out myself. For instance, as a child I was a huge fan of LEGOs, specifically LEGO's "BIONICLE" series, which started when I was 5 or 6. The first year it was around, they made an online adventure game which told the story of the series. Most of it was done with gameplay, but there were also short cutscenes with minimal to no dialogue about what was going on. I didn't get to play the game at first; I only got to see all of the cutscenes in a row. I didn't understand everything that was going on (in fact I probably understood less than 40%) but it became so fun and imaginative to put this fractured story together using hints and visual clues. And in the end I wasn't too far off from the official story. Obviously GK2 is a more adult and complex story with much more dialogue, but I've grown up and I think my ability to understand narratives has improved a lot. Even if i don't understand the full story, I already know the main plot in regards to Edgeworth, so it'll be my job to work out everything else, which is almost as fun as an AA itslef.)

Also, keep in mind I'm playing on a 3DS XL. I'm guessing the normal DS/3DS screen would be too small for the program to detect the Kanji.

Obviously this way is not going to be very accurate way of getting the story and it will take a lot of work to understand what's going on, but I am only just starting to learn Japanese, so there's no way I'll be able to understand it when DD comes out, so this is the best way to play it I've got. If you are doing this, just don't assume you will understand everything. Start with low expectations and I think you will come away pleased. And be sure to use the wiki links and the walkthrough I posted as they will be invaluable.

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Last edited by D.A. McCoy on Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks! I'll be sure to check it out. I'm sure that I'll be able to make enough sense of it, and I'll also have some basic Japanese skills.



Yeah, I remember those. You're lucky you understood how to work that game. With me being the same age, I could barely figure out what to do!

Yeah it was pretty text-heavy for a game aimed at 3-8 year olds, and there was little direction of what to do. I enjoyed it so much I went on later in life to play other first-person adventure games like Myst and Dark Fall.

Like I said, no gurantees about the app but it seemed to work for me. It's better than not being able to read any of it, at least.

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Tried the free version on my iPod Touch 5th Generation. It's very laggy, unresponsive, and has a very small view. There's no way I can play an entire game like this. I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way. Learn more Japanese and have a dictionary at my side! That seemed to work for Bad Player.

Hmm, that's strange it's laggy; that's not an issue for the 4s. The small view doesn't bother me since you have to go word by word anyway, and on the 3ds each sentence fits in the bubble pretty nicely, but as you said its a pretty hard way to play a game.

I also wouldn't rule out just following it visually (along with help from the wiki).

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I may try to replay them all in order (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorny, Justice for All, Trials and Tribulations, Ace Attorney Investigations, then Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney) one more time until GS5. I just got my 3DS, so now all I'm waiting for is the game to be available on eShop.

I just finished Trials and Tribulations. I plan on playing Apollo Justice again sometime soon.

Well since Sven has left Capcom I'll probably start sooner since the physical release has much less chance of getting released.

I'm guessing the game is going to come out in October or November, so I'm probably going to start Ghost Trick on August 1st and try to play two parts a day.

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As staff, I probably shouldn't continue the off-topicness, but... my brothers.

But back on topic, I'm planning to poke my way through 4-4 starting this weekend. Honestly I can't imagine that much 4-4 stuff showing up in GS5 (if only to avoid dropping mountains of exposition on new players), but it's been a while since I've played it.

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All of the games have usually been pretty minimalistic about the previous games' stories. Usually a previous story is only brought up when it is connected to the story of the current game, and even then it tends to be the "cliffnotes" version. So i doubt GS5 will be any different.

I do hope they discuss why the Jurist system isn't being used though. I understand why people would have issues with the gameplay side of it but if they just ignore everything about it it's going to be really annoying.

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Since GK2 isn't being localized, I wonder how much of that game Dual Destinies will reference. Hopefully not too much.

Considering how the GK games has always gone out of their way to not even mention Phoenix by name, I doubt GS5 is going to put any emphasis on GK or GK2.

C-A

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Well since Edgeworth is returning, he might make some indirect references to the cases of GK2. If that does happen, I'm wondering how the localization team will handle that seeing has how most players won't have played GK2. I also remember that in the first GK, there were some references to the Gavinners and Troupe Gramarye in Gatewater Land. If Dual Destinies makes any references like that to GK2, it won't be a huge loss or anything; but 99% of players won't get them.

Yeah, the Gavinners thing and Gramary you only notice if you really pay attention to the background. It's like the easter egg of Phoenix' appearance in GK - it's extremely easy to miss and, generally, people only notice it when they really pay close attention to it.

C-A

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I kept wondering where the Phoenix Easter Egg was, but I missed it completely. I had no idea you could actually leave the area. Oh well, something to look for on my next playthrough.

GK1 actually does make a few explicit references to the previous games, but at least those were localized in English. Hopefully the full fan translation for GK2 will be completed in less than two years or so.

If there's a little, specific, text-only reference (like Phoenix saying "I remember Edgeworth mentioned knowing a student of this school before" I bet the localization team will simply replace it.

If there's a more complex or abstract reference (like showing an image from GK2 or referencing a more general event in the game) then I would imagine they would keep it, since usually when the games reference eachother they are pretty generic anyway so newcomers don't get confused.

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