Capcom has posted a deep-dive blog post with the localization director of Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, Janet Hsu.
They delve into various intricacies surrounding the challenges of localizing these entries, notably how massively the gaming development landscape has altered over the past thirteen years since the launch of the first Ace Attorney Investigations.
In particular, the significance of the UI and the remedied difficulties of implementing multiple languages since graphics are no longer required for text are discussed.
Hsu also touched on the enhanced presentation with 16:9 and 1080p, which allowed the team to make the backgrounds more detailed and let the text boxes contain more words.
So how did making the screen 16:9 help the localization? Well, for one thing, the added horizontal space allowed less compact languages like English to use longer words.
In the era of the original Nintendo DS version, we still used the “number of characters” x “number of lines” method of calculating how much text could fit in each text box. So when I was localizing the first AAI game, I had to stick to the 30 characters x 3 lines rule because of how narrow the screen was for the main text window.
You can view the full post for more extensive details.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection occurs after the events of Trials and Tribulations, focusing on adventures with Miles Edgeworth that make him confront the reality of his career as a prosecutor. Past demons and new characters bring repressed truths to light.
New swappable HD illustrations by the original character designer are featured alongside a music player with orchestral arrangements. The second game, which was never before localized, is titled Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit.
A detailed look at the new features includes a conversation log, a Story Mode that autoplays the narrative like the other Ace Attorney re-releases, a Gallery mode with illustrations, character animations, accolades, soundtrack, sketches, promotional art, and all 106-in-game background tracks. 23 orchestral tracks are also included, alongside one completely new track and five arranged tracks.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Windows.
