Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Shu Takumi talks about motion capture

Yesterday, Shu Takumi (Director) caused another Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken-flavored tweet storm. But just like last time, the kind folks over at Court-Records have translated them all, allowing us to get some rather neat details about the game!

Shu Takumi starts by explaining that they used a lot of “new” things for this “new” project. Of course, having Sherlock Holmes himself appear in the game was quite the novelty, but what he’s actually talking about is the technology used to make Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken.

We learn that Capcom used mocap (motion capture) during the development of the game. Of course, it’s not really a new technology, and lots of games have already used it in the past few years: Shu Takumi (who is quite bad with technology) is well aware of that. He then goes on to explain how it actually works, and admits that he finds the end result rather “realistic”.

The technology itself has been around for quite a while, but there’s a reason why they haven’t used it before (and no, it’s not just because Shu Takumi is bad with technological stuff!). He explains that, at its core, the Ace Attorney series is “mystery fiction”, and kind of like a fantasy tale set in the real world. Therefore, realitic mo-cap didn’t quite fit with his ideas of the characters.

Up until now, the characters’ animations in Ace Attorney games were all drawn by hand, giving them a “handcrafted” feel. The animators basically designed and controlled pretty much all the movements of the characters. Obviously, the end result was anything but realistic, and the animations ended up being really unique.

If you’ve played an Ace Attorney game or even Ghost Trick (another game Shu Takumi was the Director for), you probably know pretty well what he’s talking about:

But this time around, Shu Takumi wanted to do something a bit different for animation, which is why he tried to think about a new approach. However, there was one condition: it had to fit in the Ace Attorney universe. He then adds that he decided to give this rather long explanation after seeing a particular tweet recently.

Capcom needed someone for mocap, and they went to ask Shiotsuki Shuu (who was a member of the Takarazuka Revue until recently). Back in 2008, the Takarazuka Revue had a special show based on the Ace Attorney series, and since then, Shu Takumi has been attending their shows on a regular basis.

For him, Takarazuka Revue is the ultimate “un-usual” life, as the troupe is only composed of female actresses (with women playing all the roles, including male ones). Their shows generally feature “fabulous worlds”, and a touch of unusualness (which is something the Ace Attorney series also has, according to Shu Takumi).

It’s that “fabulous world” that came to his mind when he thought about using mo-cap for Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken, so he went and asked Shiotsuki Shuu for help. She gladly accepted the job, and for Shu Takumi, it was a dream collaboration coming true. That’s how the over-the-top characters, which are a central element of Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke, came to be.

Therefore, he’s really thankful for Shiotsuki Shuu’s hard work. He also notes that it’s the first time in his life that he’s met someone with the same name (Shuu) as him. He concludes by saying that even if Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken is a brand new project, it’s still a project that was born out of friendships and other relations that have grown over time. For him, it definitely feels “big”.

Finally, here’s a separate recording for the Dai Gyakuten Saiban – Naruhodou Ryuunosuke segment from the 20th episode of Capcom TV:

Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken (3DS) comes out on July 9th in Japan.

Source: Shu Takumi
Translation: Court-Records