Japan-only Great Ace Attorney games may finally release in the West

It’s not an official confirmation, but a pair of Japanese exclusive Ace Attorney games may finally release in other regions soon.

Last year, Capcom was subjected to a severe security breach that saw a lot of confidential information leak online. That included unannounced game releases and, among that, was a supposed plan to re-release the Great Ace Attorney duology.

This wasn’t necessarily a confirmation but, while there’s still no official word from Capcom, the evidence has continued to mount thanks to a discovery on the Taiwanese ratings board.

First spotted by Gematsu, the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee contains listings for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which can safely be assumed to be a compilation of the two games. According to the listings, it’s been rated for PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 (no Xbox version, curiously).

While this at least suggests the games are releasing in Taiwan, the fact that the board uses the English name for the games means a Western release could be happening too.

This is a big deal for Ace Attorney fans as these two games have been exclusive to Japan for years, initially releasing in 2015 and 2017, respectively, for the Nintendo 3DS.

The games are set during the Victorian era and put you in control of Phoenix Wright’s ancestor, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō, who travels to England to study how to be a defence attorney and ends up teaming up with Sherlock Holmes to solve cases.

Unlike the newer games such as Dual Destinies and Spirit Of Justice, these are written and directed by series creator Shu Takumi and even include gameplay features from the Professor Layton crossover, namely needing to interrogate multiple witnesses at once.

If these games are being localised for the West that would leave Ace Attorney Investigations 2 as the only Japan exclusive entry in the series.

A sequel to the spin-off starring Phoenix’s prosecutor rival Miles Edgeworth, it came out for the Nintendo DS in 2011. Fans were so disappointed with its lack of Western release, that they went on to make a fan translation for people to download.

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