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Capcom blog - Ace Attorney: Grave Wordplay Localizations and Their Gravy Consequences

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by rawmeatcowboy
22 March 2019
GN Version 5.0

Localizing the Ace Attorney games is no easy task. They're chock-full of references and jokes that would only make sense to those who speak Japanese. How do you go about taking that content, adapting it for the rest of the world, and still retail the essence of the overall experience? Check out the dev blog below to find out!

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s me, Janet Hsu, back with another localization blog! We’re less than a month away now (April 9th!) from the release of “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy” on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam!

Whether you play the game in English or in Japanese, I’m sure the question of “I wonder what this pun is like in the other language?” comes up from time to time. After all, as a humor-based series, there are many elements that just wouldn’t make sense if it were literally translated, and that’s where localization comes in.

The thing with localization is that it isn’t this one cookie-cutter process that can be applied to any and every game. It requires a lot of thought and effort to balance the needs of the game and the player’s expectation that they’ll be able to beat the game of their own volition, among other things. For example, a game that takes place in Japan can be localized in any number of ways. In an action game where the Japanese setting and/or cultural references don’t directly affect a player’s ability to clear said gme, the Japanese setting and the Japanese text within the game may be left as-is.

Check out the full blog here