195-564: Phoenix " Nick " Wright , known as Ryūichi Naruhodō ( Japanese : 成歩堂 龍一 , Hepburn : Naruhodō Ryūichi ) in the original Japanese language versions, is the fictional titular defense attorney and the protagonist in Ace Attorney , a visual novel adventure video game series created by Shu Takumi , who was an employee of Japanese gaming company Capcom . Introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001), Phoenix
390-469: A cult following . Following Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake , Kojima produced his next graphic adventure, Policenauts (1994), a point-and-click adventure notable for being an early example of extensive voice recording in video games. It also featured a hard science fiction setting, a theme revolving around space exploration, a plot inspired by the ancient Japanese tale of Urashima Taro , and some occasional full-motion video cut scenes. The gameplay
585-449: A day-night cycle with a time scheduling system that provides context and relevance to character interactions, allowing players to choose when and if to interact with certain characters, which in turn influences their responses during later conversations. It is not uncommon for visual novels to have morality systems. A well-known example is the 2005 title School Days , an animated visual novel that Kotaku describes as going well beyond
780-475: A hentai anime. Traditionally, PC-based visual novels have contained risque scenes even if the overall focus is not erotic (similar to the " obligatory sex scene " in Hollywood action films ). However, the vast majority of console ports do not contain adult material, and a number of recent PC games have also been targeted at the all-age market; for example, all of Key 's titles come in censored versions, although
975-599: A point-and-click interface for a console, like The Portopia Serial Murder Case , but making use of visual icons rather than text-based ones to represent various actions. Like the NES version of Portopia Serial Murder Case , it featured a cursor that could be moved around the screen using the D-pad to examine the scenery, though the cursor in Suishō no Dragon was also used to click on the action icons. Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame)
1170-539: A post-apocalyptic science fiction setting, an amnesiac protagonist, and some light gun shooter segments. It was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel, voice acting comparable to a film or radio drama , and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world. The Sega CD version of Snatcher was for a long time the only major visual novel game to be released in America, where it, despite low sales, gained
1365-415: A real-time branching choice system where, during an event or conversation, the player must choose an action or dialogue choice within a time limit, or to not respond at all within that time. The player's choice, or lack thereof, affects the player character 's relationship with other characters and in turn the characters' performance in battle, the direction of the storyline, and the ending. Later games in
1560-650: A Japanese manga adaptation of the series, written by Kenji Kuroda, illustrated by Kazuo Maekawa, and published by Kodansha . A Japanese musical based on the series, Ace Attorney – Truth Resurrected , staged by the all-female troupe Takarazuka Revue , cast actor Tomu Ranju as Phoenix Wright, using the English name rather than the Japanese "Ryūichi Naruhodō", featuring Phoenix in a romantic relationship with Leona Clyde, an original character based on Lana Skye and Miles Edgeworth. A sequel, Ace Attorney 2 – Truth Resurrected, Again ,
1755-579: A Little Planet . There are role-playing video games that feature visual novel-style elements. A well-known example in the West is Mistwalker 's Lost Odyssey , an RPG that features a series of visual novel-style flashback sequences called "A Thousand Years of Dreams". These sequences were penned by an award-winning Japanese short story writer, Kiyoshi Shigematsu. Another title is the Arc System Works fighting game series BlazBlue , which plays off of
1950-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
2145-426: A book. Most visual novels have multiple storylines and more than one ending; the mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiple-choice decision points, where the player selects a direction in which to take the game. For example, in a dating simulator -themed visual novel, the player is prompted to pick different characters to date which, in turn, leads to a different ending. This style of gameplay
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#17331058483102340-435: A branching path structure, and allowing them to focus on complex stories with mature themes and consistent plots in a way which Choose Your Own Adventure books were unable to do due to their physical limitations. Many visual novels often revolve almost entirely around character interactions and dialogue choices usually featuring complex branching dialogues and often presenting the player's possible responses word-for-word as
2535-556: A cameo appearance in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth , a game starring his longtime rival Miles Edgeworth , as well as in its sequel, Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit , exploring Europe with the Maya Fey. He also stars alongside Professor Hershel Layton in the 2012 Nintendo 3DS crossover title, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney , developed by Level-5 ; in
2730-529: A character through his adoption of Trucy Wright in the fourth game, commenting on how his friendly relationship with Edgeworth has been "popularly interpreted as bisexual " and potentially " queer-platonic or romantic" amongst portions of the fan community , the writer proceeding to dedicate the final paragraphs of their op-ed to calling for Capcom to make the relationship canon , stating that “Ace Attorney” fans certainly wouldn’t mind [and] Capcom doesn’t have to worry about losing sales by canonizing" it. However,
2925-503: A complex fantasy setting where a one-hundred-year period is reset indefinitely with many variables. The many branching storylines in Story Mode can serve as stand-alone stories, but players must consider them together along with Arcade Mode stories to be able to fully understand the universe. Another successful example is Sega 's Sakura Wars series, which combined tactical role-playing game combat with visual novel elements, introducing
3120-538: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
3315-475: A defense attorney. He also retains Apollo Justice as a protégé and Athena under his wing as the newest junior attorney for the Wright Anything Agency. When Pearl comes to visit, she reveals to Apollo that she sees Phoenix as a surrogate father and Trucy as her sister due to Phoenix and Maya having raised her following her mother's arrest, with Phoenix paying for her boarding high school education. In
3510-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
3705-415: A fugitive. Trucy then renamed his office the "Wright Talent Agency", becoming its CEO and one half of the represented talent, with Phoenix being the other half. Phoenix continues to work behind the scenes, helping to bring the truth behind his disbarment to light as well as implement a jury system in the fictional justice system. At the time Apollo Justice takes place, he works as a pianist and plays poker at
3900-455: A game in which the player could discover lies or contradictions in statements. Takumi used his privilege as director to cast himself as Phoenix. Phoenix was a private investigator who found a body at his client's office and was arrested. As the lawyer who is assigned to his case is useless, Phoenix takes up his own defense. One staff member suggested that Phoenix should be a hamster; while this did not happen, this early version of Phoenix did have
4095-455: A generally open world , a branching dialogue conversation system where the story develops through entering commands and receiving responses from other characters, and making choices that determine the dialogues and order of events as well as alternate outcomes, though there is only one true culprit while the others are red herrings . It also features a phone that could be used to dial any number to contact several non-player characters . The game
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#17331058483104290-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
4485-483: A jurist system before the actual inclusion in Japan in 2009. This was mostly noted because the game was released in 2007 in Japan in contrast to the latter Western release. In retrospect, since Phoenix Wright was originally intended to be a private investigator instead of a defense attorney, the leftover gameplay elements give the player to build his own case and then compete against the prosecutors who created their own cases. In
4680-403: A lawyer in an underground court that served the likes of the mafia and other underworld inhabitants. The corrupted nature of the setting would make Phoenix have problems trusting his clients to the point of feeling like a fish out of water . The decision to properly portray Phoenix in such game also led to a new character who rivals him in the narrative. However, Capcom said that they aimed to keep
4875-415: A likeable character with a realistic profession. His mannerisms and character design have inspired many cosplayers. However, his more minor role in the second trilogy earned mixed responses for lacking his original appeal. His other appearances in the anime series and related cross-overs were still the subject of praise. The idea of a lawyer was conceived when director Shu Takumi was searching for ideas for
5070-436: A list of "[t]he 30 best Capcom characters of the last 30 years", remarking that he has no power and "isn't even that good of a lawyer when he starts out, but watching him grow is part of why we love him." Jason Mecchi of Screen Rant complimented how, despite how "it would be easy for Phoenix to fade into the background" as the protagonist and perspective character of the game and its first two sequels, there are people who love
5265-429: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
5460-425: A live-action television drama, but allowing players to explore multiple character perspectives and affect the outcomes. Another successful example is 428: Shibuya Scramble , which received a perfect score of 40 out of 40 from Famitsu magazine. The history of visual novels dates back to The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983). It featured non-linear elements, which include traveling between different areas in
5655-468: A more unique lead in the film, like when there are extreme close-ups to his body". Phoenix was also praised for his actions alongside his friend Larry, as if they "contort their faces and fling their bodies around in Chaplinesque fashion and relishing every movement as they wage all-out warfare on the very concept of subtlety". Kotaku found Phoenix's and Van Karma's actors "spot on". According to Hominis ,
5850-460: A new main character. Feeling that Apollo's story had not been explored enough in the previous game, they focused on developing his character further in Dual Destinies and added the character Athena Cykes as his junior. Yamazaki created Athena to be an active partner for Phoenix rather than a "supporter in the background". The development team encountered problems while figuring out how to make
6045-402: A pet hamster. The character was designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto. In order to stand out, he was given distinctive spiky hair. Iwamoto claimed that whenever he had to design Phoenix, it had to look as his confidence shows. He draws him over and over until he can look at him and sense that he is really confident for no reason. When starting development for the first Ace Attorney , Iwamoto showed Takumi
Phoenix Wright - Misplaced Pages Continue
6240-499: A playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 . His fighting style sees him gather evidence on the field, which he can use to either attack his opponent or save for a powerful courtroom confrontation. Takumi oversaw Phoenix's lines when the character was added to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and was in joy after seeing the final product. Phoenix, along with Franziska von Karma, Mia Fey, and Miles Edgeworth, appear as cards in
6435-474: A portmanteau of ero tic ga me ( エロチックゲーム )). Many visual novels also qualify as eroge , an abbreviation of 'erotic game'. These games feature sexually explicit imagery that is accessed by completing certain routes in the game, most often depicting the game's protagonist having sex with one of the game's other characters. Like other pornographic media in Japan, scenes depicting genitalia are censored in their original Japanese releases, only becoming uncensored if
6630-675: A reference and analyzed them to try to determine why they were so popular. He decided that the secret was that the stories would start with ordinary, enjoyable days, but then a sudden event would occur leading the player to cry from shock. He used a similar model as the basis for Higurashi but instead of leading the player to cry, Ryukishi07 wanted to scare the player with the addition of horror elements. Other examples of horror-themed visual novels include: Animamundi: Dark Alchemist , Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni , Umineko no Naku Koro ni , Ookami Kakushi , Imabikisou , Saya no Uta , Doki Doki Literature Club! , and Corpse Party . Prior to
6825-1214: A resurgence in the adventure game genre outside Japan. GameSpot has credited Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in particular for revitalizing the adventure game genre. The success of the Ace Attorney series was followed soon after by the even greater success of Level-5 's Professor Layton in 2007. Both have since become some of the best selling adventure game franchises, with Ace Attorney selling over 3.9 million units worldwide and Professor Layton selling over 9.5 million units worldwide by 2010. Their success has led to an increase in Japanese visual novels being localized for release outside Japan, including: KID 's Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (2002), Cing's Another Code series (2005 onwards), Marvelous Entertainment 's Lux-Pain (2008), Chunsoft 's 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2010), and Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (2010). In more recent years, several modern Western narrative adventure games have drawn comparisons to visual novels, including Telltale Games titles such as The Walking Dead (2012), and Dontnod Entertainment 's Life Is Strange (2015);
7020-569: A save file of Konami's dating sim Tokimeki Memorial is present, a technique Kojima would also later use in Metal Gear Solid . From 1997 to 1999, Kojima developed the three Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series titles, which were adaptations of Tokimeki Memorial in a visual novel adventure game format. Other acclaimed examples of science fiction visual novels include ELF 's Yu-No (1996) and 5pb. 's Chaos;Head (2008) and Steins;Gate (2009). Popular subgenres of visual novels include
7215-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
7410-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
7605-414: A sketch of his ideas for a suitable leading character. As Takumi's opinion of what a suitable protagonist should look like clashed with Iwamoto's, the character was redesigned again, especially as it was decided to illustrate the characters after the plot was done. Maya's design was especially praised because it fits Phoenix's character. Takumi spent little time writing a backstory for Phoenix before writing
7800-479: A small tuft of his hair poking out in the front. This look was meant to add a little wildness to his design, while the waistcoat and pendant were meant to give an additional air of maturity. The balance between his face and expressions was also tweaked in the illustrations and 3D models for the game. The game's scenario director, Takeshi Yamazaki , felt that Wright is the embodiment of the "revival" theme of Dual Destinies . Due to Dual Destinies being made long after
7995-897: Is Fate/stay night (2004). Many visual novels are centered on drama , particularly themes involving romance or family, but visual novels centered on science fiction , fantasy fiction , erotic fiction and horror fiction are not uncommon. Dōjinshi ( 同人誌 , often transliterated as doujinshi ) is the Japanese term for self-published (fan-made) works. This includes (but is not limited to) dōjin games ( 同人ゲーム ), also sometimes called dōjin soft ( 同人ソフト ). These visual novel-style games are created as fan-made works based on pre-existing fandoms (usually anime and manga , but also for TV shows or even other pre-existing games and visual novels). Dōjinshi games are often based on romance (or shipping ) between two characters, known as an otome game ( 乙女ゲーム ) or dating sim ; sometimes becoming sexual (or hentai ), known as an eroge ( エロゲ ,
Phoenix Wright - Misplaced Pages Continue
8190-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
8385-405: Is a pun , allowing for wordplay (such as "Right, Wright?" and "Phoenix Wrong"). Early brainstorming suggestions for Phoenix's name included "Cole" and "Wilton", but "Phoenix" was chosen as a name that would "stand out". The nickname "Nick" (used by his partner, Maya Fey, and his best friend, Larry Butz) was chosen based on its believability and similarity to the sound of "Phoenix". As Takumi wanted
8580-409: Is a form of digital interactive fiction . Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games , but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity . The format is more rarely referred to as novel game , a retranscription of the wasei-eigo term noberu gēmu ( ノベルゲーム ) , which
8775-418: Is a young rookie attorney who the player controls in several cases to protect the clients suspected of murder. Phoenix is the main character in the first three games, accompanied by assistants Maya and Pearl Fey and Ema Skye , mentored by the ghost of Mia Fey (channeled by the former two mediums ), and rivalled by Miles Edgeworth , Franziska von Karma , and Godot . He remains in a less prominent role in
8970-505: Is actually manipulating to have him blamed as murderer during his college years. Even by further exploring this narrative during Phoenix's work as an attorney, the further exploration of the characters involved leave the player, Phoenix and his friends a sense of defeat. In contrast, his rivalry with Edgeworth is interpreted as romantic based on the narration used which inspired the LGBTQ+ community when creating their own games. One exchange between
9165-412: Is also all-ages, its spinoff Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life is not. Often, the beginning of the eroge will be dedicated to introducing the characters and developing the protagonist's relationship with them, before the protagonist sexually interacts with other characters, for example, Lump of Sugar games such as Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity and Everlasting Summer do this. The effect it has on
9360-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
9555-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
9750-643: Is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has
9945-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
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#173310584831010140-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
10335-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
10530-459: Is considered to be some of the best pixel art in the history of video games , with a popular example being Policenauts in 1994. There have also been visual novels that use live-action stills or video footage, such as several Sound Novel games by Chunsoft . The most successful example is Machi , one of the most celebrated games in Japan, where it was voted No. 5 in a 2006 Famitsu reader poll of top 100 games of all time. The game resembled
10725-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
10920-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
11115-500: Is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and
11310-519: Is left unvoiced, even when the rest of the characters are fully voiced. This choice is meant to aid the player in identifying with the protagonist and to avoid having to record large amounts of dialogue, as the main character typically has the most speaking lines due to the branching nature of visual novels. Non-linear branching storylines are a common trend in visual novels, which frequently use multiple branching storylines to achieve multiple different endings , allowing non-linear freedom of choice along
11505-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
11700-442: Is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving as if they were turning a page (many recent games offer "play" or "fast-forward" toggles that make this unnecessary), while making narrative choices along the way. Another main characteristic of visual novels is their strong emphasis on the prose, as the narration in visual novels is delivered through text. This characteristic makes playing visual novels similar to reading
11895-562: Is more often used in Japanese. Visual novels originated in and are especially prevalent in Japan , where they made up nearly 70% of the PC game titles released in 2006. In Japanese, a distinction is often made between visual novels (NVL, from "novel"), which consist primarily of narration and have very few interactive elements, and adventure games (AVG or ADV, from "adventure"), which incorporate problem-solving and other types of gameplay. This distinction
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#173310584831012090-670: Is normally lost outside Japan, as both visual novels and adventure games are commonly referred to as "visual novels" by international fans. Visual novels are rarely produced exclusively for dedicated video game consoles , but the more popular games have occasionally been ported from PC (or a hardware equivalent) to systems such as the Sega Saturn , Dreamcast , PlayStation Portable , or Xbox 360 . The more famous visual novels are also often adapted into light novels , manga , or anime , and are sometimes succeeded or complemented by video games such as role-playing games or action games set in
12285-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
12480-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
12675-405: Is related as a plot device in the game. Fan-created novel games are reasonably popular; there are a number of free game engines and construction kits aimed at making them easy to construct, most notably NScripter , KiriKiri and Ren'Py . Many visual novels use voice actors to provide voices for the non-player characters in the game. Often, the protagonist (that is, the player character )
12870-430: Is similar to story-driven interactive fiction , or the shorter and less detailed real-life gamebook books. Some visual novels do not limit themselves into merely interactive fictions, but also incorporate other elements into them. An example of this approach is Symphonic Rain , where the player is required to play a musical instrument of some sort, and attain a good score in order to advance. Usually such an element
13065-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
13260-483: Is unable to execute justice and instead provide proof of such acts. In contrast, the Phoenix Wright explored in the anime comes across as a more intelligent man comparable to Sherlock Holmes or Conan Edogawa due to the fact that he single-handedly solves all trials, whereas the players are instead dedicated to supporting Maya or Edgeworth. THEM Anime Reviews felt the anime had notable animation issues when featuring
13455-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
13650-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
13845-593: The nakige ( 泣きゲー , crying game) , which still usually has a happy ending, and the utsuge ( 鬱ゲー , depressing game) , which may not. The genres are somewhat fluid and were largely pioneered in parallel during the late 1990s through the early 2000s by the works of Key co-founder, scenario writer, lyricist, and composer Jun Maeda ; and through the works of Hirohiko Yoshida [ ja ] through his affiliated company Âge , particularly Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and its successors, notably Muv-Luv . The ultimate goal of nakige and utsuge are emotional connection with
14040-464: The Memories Off series (1999 onwards) by KID , D.C.: Da Capo (2002) by Circus , Wind: A Breath of Heart (2002) by Minori , and Snow (2003) by Studio Mebius (under Visual Art's ). One of the most acclaimed visual novels of this subgenre was Key's Clannad , written by Jun Maeda, Yūichi Suzumoto , and Kai and Tōya Okano. Released in 2004, its story revolved around the central theme of
14235-463: The Borscht Bowl Club. After being accused of murder himself and being successfully defended by rookie defense attorney Apollo Justice, he hires Apollo, reopening his law office as the "Wright Anything Agency". Wright uses the "MASON System" computer program to assist the player in piecing together the evidence from both past and present for the game's final case, where the circumstances regarding
14430-505: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
14625-541: The PSP version of Tactics Ogre (2010). Chunsoft sound novels such as Machi (1998) and 428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) developed the multiple-perspective concept further. They allow the player to alternate between the perspectives of several or more different characters, making choices with one character that have consequences for other characters. 428 in particular features up to 85 different possible endings. Another popular visual novel featuring multiple perspectives
14820-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
15015-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
15210-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
15405-628: The "goofy, insightful defense attorney whose earliest cases form the backbone of the first game in the series", concluding to praise the character's "unique and often humorous perspective of the world" despite a general lack of a "dramatic arc" and ranking them as the "most memorable" character in the game. Phoenix Wright's signature mannerisms , such as finger-pointing and cries of "Objection!", have become well-known, and were parodied in episodes of anime such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya , Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt , No Game No Life and Maria Holic . The way Phoenix solves cases
15600-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
15795-548: The Condominium Wife ), which was an early adventure game with colour graphics, owing to the eight-color palette of the NEC PC-8001 computer. It became a hit, helping Koei become a major software company. Other now-famous companies such as Enix , Square and Nihon Falcom also produced similar erotic games in the early 1980s before they became famous for their role-playing video games . While some early erotic games integrate
15990-408: The English "I see". This phrase is often used in Japan to express attentiveness to the subject at hand. Takumi chose the phrase to highlight Wright's inexperience; even though his name reads "I see", he may not in fact understand what is happening, something that may also be true of people using the phrase. It is also commonly used in mystery novels when investigating, which is a core gameplay concept of
16185-507: The Japanese dub of the game, Narimiya reprised his role from the live-action film. The developers of the crossover fighting game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars had wanted to include Phoenix along with Franziska von Karma as a character on the roster but had trouble designing additional moves besides his finger-pointing gesture. Though they had come up with an attack that used his catchphrase "Igiari!" ("Objection!" in English), with
16380-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
16575-547: The Kingdom's Defense Culpability Act, which states that defense attorneys of parties found guilty are to receive the same sentence as their client. Phoenix's actions begin turning the wheels of revolution when he encounters a rebel group known as the Defiant Dragons and finds out that their leader, a once-renowned defense attorney named Dhurke Sahdmadhi, aims to restore the legal system to its proper state. Phoenix Wright appears in
16770-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
16965-478: The PC-8801 and FM Towns computers in 1990; it featured a branching narrative, multiple endings, and audio CD music. A common feature used in visual novels is having multiple protagonists giving different perspectives on the story. EVE Burst Error (1995), developed by Hiroyuki Kanno and C's Ware, introduced a unique twist to the system by allowing the player to switch between both protagonists at any time during
17160-463: The Phoenix from the live-action is faithful to the original one, as Hiruki Narumiya played him with his kind and pathetic personality. In regards to Phoenix's role in the two-season Ace Attorney anime adaptation , in "Why We Love Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney", Jacob Chapman from Anime News Network noted that people had two different experiences when choosing between playing the visual novel or watching
17355-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
17550-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
17745-638: The all-ages market in recent years, with titles such as Steins;Gate and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni respectively. In addition to official commercial translations, a vibrant fan translation scene exists, which has translated many free visual novels (such as Narcissu and True Remembrance ) and a few commercial works (such as Umineko no Naku Koro ni and Policenauts ) into English. Fan translations of Japanese visual novels into languages other than English such as Chinese, French, German, and Russian are commonplace as well. English translations of Japanese visual novels on video game consoles were rare until
17940-465: The anime adaptation as a result of how they grasp the protagonist. Phoenix comes across as the opposite of a detective when solving cases: "Instead of starting out with all the evidence and narrowing down a list of suspects based on facts, you start out with the hopeful assumption that your client is innocent and must fight to make the clues match that often fragile belief." Despite the culprits often making obvious statements about their identities, Phoenix
18135-516: The bad impressions Phoenix gives in Apollo Justice due to his poor fame and looks, he subverts people's expectations in the first trial where the main character's mentor is revealed to be connected to him and has him sent to prison instead. GameSpot compared the lead with Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza as both characters appeared to have retired in this installments and replaced with a younger protagonist but both Capcom and Sega decided to keep using
18330-479: The book What is Game? , Phoenix's decision to defend Miles Edgeworth was noted to be approved by the character even if the player is against it; the writer claims it is obligatory to fit the character's behavior. A similar case happens when Phoenix defends Maya in Spirit of Justice and Phoenix will always move forward with the case. In regards to Phoenix's role in the live-action Ace Attorney film , Polygon praised
18525-532: The characterisation and design of the older Phoenix Wright seen in Apollo Justice has been criticized as "aloof and inscrutable", with "his character's development [criticised as being] lost along the wayside." With the later release of Dual Destinies , both Eurogamer and Kotaku enjoyed the return of the lawyer as the protagonist, following his supporting role in the previous game, but Kotaku lamented that not much of it really focused on Phoenix's character himself but instead his partner. GameDaily called him
18720-484: The characters, through exploration of their personalities and evolving interrelationships through the drama of the game's storyline, and to emotionally resonate with the player; repeated playthroughs across a rich cast of characters offers a multi-layered narrative. Games from publisher Key often follow a similar formula: a comedic first half, with a heart-warming romantic middle, followed by a tragic separation, and finally (though not always) an emotional reunion. This formula
18915-553: The concept so that Wright simply enjoyed grape juice, but it took a long time to adjust the gambling concept before it was finalized to be purely competitive with only pride on the line. For the second game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies , it was decided Wright's return to law. His role was instead changed to that of the "newbie chief" of the Wright Anything Agency. His new character design had to be similar to his appearance in Trials and Tribulations , while keeping signs that it
19110-484: The content might still not be appropriate for children, and three have never contained erotic content at all. Also, all of KID 's titles are made with general audiences in mind. However, some of these games are later re-released with the addition of erotic scenes, or have a sequel with such. For example, Little Busters! was first released as an all-ages visual novel, but a version with erotic scenes titled Little Busters! Ecstasy came out later, and though Clannad
19305-433: The course of the game, Phoenix receives a magic Magatama from Pearl that is able to reveal whether a person is hiding a secret in their heart, involving the use of Psyche Locks. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations , it is revealed that Phoenix was framed for the murder of his girlfriend's ex-lover while in college. He was defended by Mia Fey, who had not taken a case since her first against Edgeworth
19500-416: The crime scene. Phoenix must also contend with the loss of his mentor and fellow defense attorney, Mia Fey. Throughout the game, Phoenix is hired to defend various people accused of murder, including his friend Larry Butz and Mia's younger sister Maya Fey. The game culminates with Phoenix defending rival prosecutor Miles Edgeworth from being convicted for the murder of Robert Hammond, an old defense attorney who
19695-463: The day he was disbarred are finally revealed. Wright returns as the protagonist in the fifth main series installment, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies . Having regained his attorney's badge, he works on cases with Apollo Justice, striving to put the "Dark Age of the Law" to an end once and for all. After clearing his name, Phoenix retakes the bar exam, regaining his badge and once again becoming
19890-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
20085-579: The eighth-greatest Capcom character, citing how he perseveres in the face of hardships. Game Informer claimed that Spirit of Justice has the best storyline in the franchise due to the depth given by the two player characters making them relatable, with the original dynamic between Phoenix and Maya being surpassed by the new Apollo and his aid. In "Objection!: Ace Attorney and the Japanese Criminal Courts", Emmalee A. Ellison from Marshall University notices Phoenix, Apollo and Athena stand out in
20280-411: The erotic content into a thoughtful and nuanced storylines, others often used it as a simplistic vehicle for fetishism, pleasure, an aid of the lightheaded themes that encourage stress relief or to portray nuances of sexuality. The Japanese game Pai Touch! involves the protagonist gaining the ability to change the size of girls' breasts, and the adventures that ensue in trying to choose which girl to use
20475-457: The events of the first game, including Phoenix's first case, his meeting with Maya, and his defense of Edgeworth; the end credits sequence additionally adapts elements of the second game. Phoenix appears as the lead character of the 2016 Ace Attorney anime series, which adapts the events of the first three games in the series over two seasons. He is voiced by Yūki Kaji in Japanese and Eric Vale in English. Within his own series, Phoenix makes
20670-423: The first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese
20865-512: The first game's story and instead made up dialogue and developed Phoenix's personality as he went along. Phoenix ended up being too similar to Takumi's personality. As he was too close to Takumi, one staff member revised Phoenix to be more of his own; Takumi also wanted to avoid giving the protagonist a less average personality as symbolized in Japanese by the word "ore". There was also the need to of separating Phoenix from visual novel protagonists when writing his character. Meanwhile, Miles Edgeworth
21060-416: The first season for half a year, which gave him a certain degree of understanding of the characters and the work. The actor noted the anime had comical reactions, facial expressions, and expressions sprinkled throughout, so he kept Phoenix's sense of justice and freshness in mind, being careful how serious or comical he had to sound. Kaji sees Phoenix as a lawyer with a strong sense of justice in accordance with
21255-437: The first three Ace Attorney games to be part of one larger work, he did not want the first game to look outdated in comparison to later ones, so it was decided to keep the same graphics for main characters such as Phoenix, Maya, and Edgeworth throughout all their appearances and not make updates to them. Takumi wanted the series to end with Trials and Tribulations , as he had explored Phoenix's character fully and wanted to avoid
21450-456: The focus in visual novels, including Spanish, French, Russian and Mandarin, which have seen increased success due to the popularity of the genre. Sales data for visual novels is frequently unavailable; the sales listed below can be significantly outdated as some of the sources are over a decade old, and series qualified for an entry could be missing. These lists should be referenced carefully. Free visual novels do not appear in these lists due to
21645-478: The former protagonist would suffer drinking problems and be actually involved in gambling, but Takumi changed it after receiving advice that the concept would not be appropriate for all ages. Takumi himself also found it more difficult than he had expected to handle such themes in the story. This resulted in Wright just showing a preference for grape juice in general with the poker concept. It was relatively simple to change
21840-439: The game SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS . Both Phoenix and his assistant Maya Fey also appear as a two-in-one solo unit in the crossover tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2 . Phoenix Wright has generally been praised by critics for being a likeable character with a realistic profession as well as an appealing design. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 55th best hero in video games. GamesRadar also included him in
22035-436: The game is licensed outside Japan with all art assets intact. Certain eroge titles receive re-releases which exclude explicit content in order to be sold to a younger audience, such as ports to consoles or handheld systems where sexually explicit content is not allowed, and storylines referring to aforementioned sex scenes are often omitted from adaptations into other media, unless that media is also pornographic in nature, such as
22230-435: The game), with character sprites ( 立ち絵 , tachi-e ) superimposed onto these; the perspective is usually first-person, with the protagonist remaining unseen. At certain key moments in the plot, special event CG computer graphics are displayed instead; these are more detailed images, drawn specially for that scene rather than being composed from predefined elements, which often use more cinematic camera angles and include
22425-450: The game, instead of finishing one protagonist's scenario before playing the other. EVE Burst Error often requires the player to have both protagonists co-operate with each other at various points during the game, with choices in one scenario affecting the other. An important milestone in the history of visual novels was YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World (1996), which
22620-612: The gameplay was handled in the crossover was also praised by Mega Mix. However, he comes across as a weak fighter when compared with other characters like Magneto or Vergil . Nevertheless, the character leaves a major impact in the fighting game due to how different he is from others. Phoenix's characterization was also praised by the same writer in other crossover Project X Zone 2 due to his accidental funny comments, like when fellow character X asks him if his Attorney badge comes with firepower or when Phoenix questions whether or not vampires are weak to sun light. Professor Hershel Layton
22815-496: The games thanks to their colorful designs. Phoenix's constant rivalries with prosecutors which the former always stays behind his opponent were compared with real depictions in Japan as "many Japanese prosecutors likely do hold perfect or near-perfect records, as the conviction rate in Japan is a staggering 99%". Meanwhile, in Apollo Justice Phoenix was noted for attempting to reform the criminal justice system by introducing
23010-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
23205-405: The impact they wanted with the game with both Phoenix and Apollo, until they decided on the story concept of Phoenix and Apollo working to revive a collapsed trial system. Miles Edgeworth was brought back as the developers felt that Phoenix needed a character to play off of. They felt that Phoenix had been portrayed as the main character in Dual Destinies , with Apollo just being an important part of
23400-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
23595-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
23790-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
23985-503: The latter's creative director cited visual novels such as Danganronpa (2010) as an influence. Additionally, there have been some visual novels developed mainly in English, and intended for an English-speaking audience; one of the earliest commercially-available examples on a mainstream platform is 2004's Sprung , and in more recent times, the availability of the genre has increased, with notable examples being Doki Doki Literature Club! and VA-11 HALL-A . Other languages have been
24180-485: The law and enjoys being surrounded by sister figures. At the time of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney , Phoenix is a rookie defense attorney who usually accepts murder cases, attempting to exonerate his clients when there is seemingly incontrovertible evidence and testimony against them. Described as "goofy and single-minded", he often encounters unusual situations. Rather than simply arguing his case, Phoenix uses detective skills to gather relevant evidence and investigate
24375-502: The letters themselves used to attack the opponent, they found that localization would have changed the four-character phrase (in kanji ) to a nine-letter word and would have unbalanced the game. Phoenix was also considered for inclusion as a playable fighter in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds , appearing alongside Miles Edgeworth as a cameo in She-Hulk 's arcade mode ending. He appears as
24570-417: The main protagonist does not advance towards the flow of the story. Kinetic novels are visual novels with non-branching plots, similar to a conventional novel or a graphic novel in multimedia form. Examples of kinetic novels include Higurashi When They Cry , Muv-Luv Alternative , and Digital: A Love Story . The term was first used by the publisher Key for their title Planetarian: The Reverie of
24765-417: The main protagonist. Originally designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto, the character's design remained the same for the first and second trilogy except for Apollo Justice due to a request from Takumi. Across these installments and adaptations, several actors provided their talent for Phoenix with Takumi himself playing him in the original games. Phoenix has received positive critical reception and has been described as
24960-578: The market thrived with the excitement and the risks that were being taken, and became a hotbed of creativity". The branching timeline system was influential, opening "the door for visual novels to become more elaborate and have a greater range of narrative arcs, without requiring the player to replay the game over and over again". According to Nintendo Life , "the modern visual novel genre would simply not exist without" YU-NO . Branching timeline systems similar to YU-NO also later appeared in role-playing video games such as Radiant Historia (2010) and
25155-399: The narrative style of literature , visual novels have evolved a style somewhat different from print novels. In general, visual novels are more likely to be narrated in the first person than the third, and typically present events from the point of view of only one character. In the typical visual novel, the graphics comprise a set of generic backgrounds (normally just one for each location in
25350-595: The only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little
25545-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
25740-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
25935-459: The overall storyline and it is only after uncovering all the possible different paths and outcomes, through multiple playthroughs, that every component comes together to form a coherent, well-written story. The digital medium in visual novels allow for significant improvements, such as being able to fully explore multiple aspects and perspectives of a story. Another improvement is having hidden decision points that are automatically determined based on
26130-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
26325-439: The player character would say them. Such titles revolving around relationship-building, including visual novels as well as dating simulations , such as Tokimeki Memorial , and some role-playing video games , such as Persona , often give choices that have a different number of associated "mood points" that influence a player character's relationship, and future conversations, with a non-player character. These games often feature
26520-413: The player's past decisions. In Fate/stay night , for example, the way the player character behaved towards non-player characters during the course of the game affects the way they react to the player character in later scenes, such as whether or not they choose to help in life-or-death situations. This would be far more difficult to track with physical books. More importantly, visual novels do not face
26715-408: The plot, so they set Spirit of Justice in two different countries with one equal main character in each location. The character Rayfa was described by Yamazaki and Eshiro as both a heroine and an opponent to Phoenix; they thought that this approach, as opposed to having the heroine stand by the hero's side, brought something new and fresh to the series. One idea from Capcom was to have Phoenix stand as
26910-553: The point critics found it hilarious especially since the franchise avoids giving any character romance. There was also commentary about Phoenix's older portrayal in the second trilogy of Ace Attorney games; Despite his bad fame in Apollo Justice caused when losing his Attorney badge. In a retrospective feature, Rock Paper Shotgun claimed Apollo "never quite gets out from under Phoenix's shadow to completely hold court on his own two feet" and that Phoenix still had outstanding skills when playing as him. NintendoLife said that despite
27105-577: The point he believed he fully understood them. For Apollo Justice , Takumi did not plan to have Phoenix appear in the game, but his colleagues wanted him in the game in some form, which led to him being the accused in the first case in the game. In Apollo Justice , Wright wears a new outfit, as Takumi did not like him as a veteran attorney. He then asked artist Kazuya Nuri to change him to the point of being unrecognizable, and subsequent requests only served to make him look even worse. However, promotional materials quickly revealed Phoenix's identity. Originally,
27300-420: The portrayal due to "the notable emotional whiplash that occurs in the movie whenever the protagonist believes he is going to fail and then the atmosphere changes. This is also helped by how faithful the style is to the video game, where the actor manages to copy the video game character's mannerism without issues. While Edgeworth and Mia do not have the same impact as in the original games, Phoenix still feels like
27495-458: The power on the most. Another subgenre is called "nukige" ( 抜きゲー ) , in which sexual gratification of the player is the main focus of the game. In 1986, Square released the science fiction adventure game Suishō no Dragon for the NES console . The game featured several innovations, including the use of animation in many of the scenes rather than still images, and an interface resembling that of
27690-431: The previous main game in the series, the developers felt that they needed it to make a big impact; they knew from the start that they wanted Phoenix Wright to return as the game's main character and as an attorney, since they had hinted at it at the end of the previous game. Additionally, they wanted to retain Apollo Justice as an important character and not steal the spotlight from him, as he had already been established as
27885-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
28080-533: The protagonist, and the way the anime adapts the mysteries comes across as hilarious sometimes due to the nature of how Phoenix overlooks cases with Maya's aid. His appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was also positively received, with Metro describing him as "the star of the show". Mega Mix commented on the character's appearance in the crossover fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , as he keeps his original mannerism despite encountering famous comic superheroes like Spider-Man or Captain America . The way
28275-492: The protagonist. These event CGs can usually be viewed at any time once they have been "unlocked" by finding them in-game; this provides a motivation to replay the game and try making different decisions, as it is normally impossible to view all special events on a single play-through. Up until the 1990s, the majority of visual novels utilized pixel art . This was particularly common on the NEC PC-9801 format, which showcased what
28470-504: The reader is the H-scenes (sex scenes) will have a stronger emotional impact for the two (or possibly more) characters. Some of Japan's earliest adventure games were erotic bishōjo games developed by Koei . In 1982, they released Night Life , the first commercial erotic computer game . It was a graphic adventure , with sexually explicit images. That same year, they released another erotic title, Danchi Tsuma no Yūwaku ( Seduction of
28665-772: The release of the Nintendo DS , though some games with visual novel elements had been published in the Western world before then, such as Hideo Kojima 's Snatcher . Following the success of mystery titles for the Nintendo DS such as Capcom 's Ace Attorney series (which began on the Game Boy Advance in 2001), Cing's Hotel Dusk series (beginning in 2006), and Level-5 's Professor Layton series (beginning in 2007), Japanese visual novels have been published in other countries more frequently. The success of these games has sparked
28860-448: The same length restrictions as a physical book. For example, the total word count of the English fan translation of Fate/stay night , taking all the branching paths into account, exceeds that of The Lord of the Rings by almost 80%. This significant increase in length allows visual novels to tell stories as long and complex as those often found in traditional novels, while still maintaining
29055-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
29250-406: The same universe. The market for visual novels outside of East Asia is small, though a number of anime based on visual novels are popular among anime fans in the Western world; examples include Clannad , Danganronpa , Steins;Gate , and Fate/stay night . Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their generally minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction
29445-521: The second trilogy starting with a supporting role in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (2007) as an older single father to Trucy Wright and mentor to Apollo Justice , before becoming a playable character again as a veteran attorney in subsequent games, mentoring Athena Cykes , rivaled by Simon Blackquill and Nahyuta Sahdmadhi , and reuniting with Maya and Pearl. The character has also appeared in film , anime , and manga adaptations of
29640-422: The series added several variations, including an action gauge that can be raised up or down depending on the situation, and a gauge that the player can manipulate using the analog stick depending on the situation. The success of Sakura Wars led to a wave of games that combine role-playing and visual novel elements, including Thousand Arms , Riviera: The Promised Land , and Luminous Arc . Despite using
29835-438: The series becoming "a shadow of its former self", saying that he thinks it is important to know when to end a story. Because the dialogue-integrated tutorial in the first game had been well received, it was considered a major point for future games in the series. In the first game, Takumi had Phoenix being guided through his first trial by the judge and Mia, and for the second game, he had Phoenix suffer from amnesia. When writing
30030-473: The series, a Japanese series of musicals and stage plays , as well as several crossover games. Phoenix Wright was created by writer Shu Takumi , who wanted a character who would spot contradictions in statements. While the series was meant to end with the third game, feedback from the fans resulted in an older Phoenix becoming a supporting character as an older person in the second trilogy. While he eventually became playable, his protege Apollo Justice remained
30225-455: The series. In English versions, Wright's name was localized to present a similar meaning to English-speaking audiences. His first name is also a mythical reference: to the phoenix , known for "rising from the ashes", an allusion to his almost impossible comebacks, or "turnabouts", during trials. This is referenced in the first game, in which the fifth case is titled "Rise from the Ashes". His surname
30420-417: The sixth game in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice , Phoenix travels to the Kingdom of Khura'in, where he reunites with Maya Fey and discovers that defense attorneys are reviled throughout the kingdom, having a reputation for abiding criminals. He successfully defends his young tour guide and Maya when they are both accused of murder, putting himself at severe risk of falling prey to
30615-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
30810-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
31005-400: The third game, Takumi did not know what to do, as it would not seem credible if Phoenix had amnesia a second time. Eventually he came up with the idea of using a flashback to a case where Mia had just become an attorney; he developed this idea further and ended up using flashbacks as a major theme for the game's story. In order to allow Edgeworth to be the player character, the first thing he did
31200-686: The time they have used a Reflector stone. The game also implemented an original system called Automatic Diverge Mapping System (ADMS), which displays a screen that the player can check at any time to see the direction in which they are heading along the branching plot lines. YU-NO revolutionized the visual novel industry, particularly with its ADMS system. Audiences soon began demanding large-scope plotlines and musical scores of similar quality and ambition to that of YU-NO , and that responded by hiring talent. According to Gamasutra : "The genre became an all-new arena for young artists and musicians once again, with companies willing to take chances on fresh blood;
31395-469: The title after showing his work on the Dragon Quest role-playing video games to a girl he was dating. On finding she did not enjoy them, he was encouraged to make a video game that he described as "for people who haven't played games before." Influenced by the early survival horror game Sweet Home , he developed it into a horror-themed interactive story. Chunsoft's next release, Kamaitachi no Yoru ,
31590-558: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Visual novel A visual novel ( VN )
31785-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
31980-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
32175-461: The two rivals as Edgeworth mentions that seeing Phoenix's return gave him unnecessary feeling is famous for being taken out of context as a subtle way of Edgeworth being in love something that heavily appealed to the LGBTQ+ community. Inverse regarded Phoenix and Edgeworth as being one of the most famous duos in gaming as a result of their close relationship despite the two never forming something intimate to
32370-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
32565-410: The typical comical style Phoenix is often involved with. Sam Riegel has voiced Phoenix since Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 . Riegel took a liking to Phoenix's catchphrases due to the yelling and attention they demands. He also liked the character's outfit and hair for standing out. He noted that Phoenix has a tendency for bluffing until finding a truth behind the cases he works into. Kaji worked on
32760-410: The usual "black and white choice systems" (referring to video games such as Mass Effect , Fallout 3 and BioShock ) where you "pick a side and stick with it" while leaving "the expansive middle area between unexplored". School Days instead encourages players to explore the grey, neutral middle-ground in order to view the more interesting, "bad" endings, e. g. an ending where a character dies or
32955-972: The value of having a family. It was voted the best bishōjo game of all time in a poll held by Dengeki G's Magazine . It served as the basis for a media franchise, with successful adaptations into a light novel , manga , animated film , and acclaimed anime series . In 2008, several of Key's visual novels were voted in the Dengeki poll of the ten most tear-inducing games of all time, including Clannad at No. 2, Kanon at No. 4, Air at No. 7, and Little Busters! at No. 10. In 2011, several visual novels were also voted in Famitsu ' s poll of 20 most tear-inducing games of all time, with Clannad at No. 4, Steins;Gate at No. 6, Air at No. 7, Little Busters! at No. 10, and 428: Shibuya Scramble at No. 14. After developing The Portopia Serial Murder Case , Chunsoft released Otogiriso in 1992. Koichi Nakamura conceived
33150-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
33345-501: The veteran heroes which might divide players' reaction depending on their tastes. RPGFan enjoyed Phoenix's portrayal as a father as his relationship with his adoptive daughter Trucy show several kinda and protective moments; At the same time, Trucy helps to protect Phoenix in his darkest times. Calling Phoenix "one of gaming's most enduring icons," The Datebook of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Capcom's "dadification" of
33540-422: The video game Tekken 8 attracted Automaton Media writer for detailing how important is the character and how his inclusion into the game as a guest is what fans want. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan ,
33735-434: The way, similar to a choose-your-own-adventure novel. Decision points within a visual novel often present players with the option of altering the course of events during the game, leading to many different possible outcomes. An acclaimed example is Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward , where nearly every action and dialogue choice can lead to entirely new branching paths and endings. Each path only reveals certain aspects of
33930-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
34125-482: The year 2000, few Japanese visual novels were translated into other languages. As with the visual novel genre in general, a majority of titles released for the PC have been eroge , with Hirameki 's now-discontinued AnimePlay series a notable exception. As of 2014, JAST USA and MangaGamer are the two most prolific publishers of translated visual novels for the PC; both primarily release eroge, but have begun to diversify into
34320-430: The year before. Mia exposes the true murderer as Phoenix's girlfriend, Dahlia Hawthorne, who is later executed. Phoenix must also contend with a fake "Phoenix" who posed as him in court and gets his friend and former client, Maggey Byrde, a guilty verdict. Phoenix also faces the mysterious Godot , a prosecutor who appears to harbor a grudge against him. It is revealed in the final case that during his years at university, he
34515-459: Was "get rid of" Phoenix by having him fall from a bridge into an icy river. He enjoyed writing from another character's perspective, who thought differently from Phoenix; he also used the case to explore the relationship between Edgeworth and Gumshoe. For this game, the team had difficulties with exploring Phoenix's girlfriend Dahlia Hawthorne as her design had to fit the protagonist's likes. Wright and Maya happened to be Takumi's favorite characters to
34710-574: Was "heavily hyped [and] had gamers impatient until its release. It was only one game released by Key so far, and yet [it] had already sent major shockwaves around the industry. And yet another game [ Air ], two years later, sent even more shockwaves. Air was equally hyped and well received." Key's "crying game" formula used successfully in One and Kanon was later adopted by other visual novel companies to create their own "crying games". Examples of this include: Kana: Little Sister (1999) by Digital Object,
34905-434: Was also a best seller and would prove to be highly influential. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ( When They Cry ) was a 2002 horror-themed visual novel by 07th Expansion , influenced by the "crying game" subgenre. Ryukishi07 of 07th Expansion mentioned in 2004 how he was influenced by Key 's works and Tsukihime during the planning of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni . He played their games, as well as other visual novels, as
35100-492: Was also derived in part from Phoenix Wright; Akihiro Hino, CEO of Level-5, examined what he believed to be Wright's good and bad points and designed Layton by overcoming what he saw as Wright's bad points. Although the crossover with Professor Layton was due to both main characters lacking the qualities to confront each other, GamesRadar still praised their team-up as it helped to create an innovative entry for their franchises. The popularity of design customization made by fans in
35295-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
35490-446: Was created to be Phoenix's ideal rival. Takumi came up with the partner character Maya because he thought it would be more fun for players to have another character with them giving them advice rather than investigating on their own. Wright's Japanese given name, Ryūichi, alludes to the mythical dragon with its use of ryu ( 竜 ) . His Japanese surname, Naruhodō, references the Japanese expression naruhodo ( なるほど ) , which equates to
35685-453: Was dating Iris, a temple nun and Dahlia's twin, who posed as her sister to protect Phoenix from Dahlia's wrath. During a case seven years prior to the events of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney , two months after Trials and Tribulations , Phoenix was forced to forfeit his attorney's badge after presenting evidence that, unbeknownst to him, was forged. Two weeks later, he adopted Trucy Enigmar after her father and his client, Shadi Enigmar, became
35880-451: Was developed by Hiroyuki Kanno and is ELF 's most famous visual novel. It featured non-linear storytelling, with a science fiction plot revolving around time travel and parallel universes . The player travels between parallel worlds using a Reflector device, which employs a limited number of stones to mark a certain position as a returning location, so that if the player decides to retrace their steps, they can go to an alternate universe to
36075-506: Was falsely accused of stealing money from his fellow student and Edgeworth was the only one who defended him. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All , Phoenix once again defends Maya and faces the prosecutor and daughter of Manfred von Karma, 18-year-old legal prodigy Franziska . In the game's climax, Maya is kidnapped by a hitman , forcing Phoenix to make the true killer admit his guilt, which results in his first loss (however, this didn't affect his career negatively). Throughout
36270-403: Was found realistic by Fanbyte due to the way due to handlic of bluffs which lead to a way to properly handle evidence. This is further explored when the protagonist develops sensory abiltiies which act as a symbolic manner of high skills of observation when dealing with other people. In regards to third title, Nintendo Life noted Phoenix falls into a major tragedy for dating and loving a woman who
36465-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
36660-518: Was influenced primarily by Hiroyuki Kanno 's YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World (1996) and Leaf's To Heart (1997), and was further developed in One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e (1998) by Tactics . After One was complete, the development team quit Tactics to form Key where they developed their first title Kanon , also based upon this formula. According to Satoshi Todome in his book, A History of Adult Games , Kanon
36855-493: Was inspired by The Portopia Serial Murder Case to enter the video game industry, and later produced his own adventure games . After completing the stealth game Metal Gear , his first graphic adventure was released by Konami the following year: Snatcher (1988), an ambitious cyberpunk detective novel, graphic adventure, that was highly regarded at the time for pushing the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scenes , and mature content. It also featured
37050-498: Was involved in the DL-6 case, wherein Edgeworth's father was murdered. Going up against Edgeworth's mentor, Manfred von Karma , Phoenix successfully defends his friend and clears him of all charges, destroying von Karma's 40-year-long winning streak and revealing his crimes as the real culprit behind DL-6. Phoenix's reason for defending Edgeworth originates from their school years where Phoenix
37245-500: Was largely similar to Snatcher , but with the addition of a point-and-click interface and some first-person shooter segments. Policenauts also introduced summary screens, which act to refresh the player's memory of the plot upon reloading a saved game (save), an element Kojima would later use in Metal Gear Solid . The PlayStation version of Policenauts could also read the memory card and give some easter egg dialogues if
37440-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
37635-560: Was produced after the first musical sold out on the first day. Three Japanese stage plays have additionally been performed by the Super Eccentric Theater in which Sho Kato portrays Phoenix, the latest of which (released in 2022, delayed from a 2020 premiere by the COVID-19 pandemic ) depicts a romance between Phoenix and Maya Fey. Hiroki Narimiya portrays Phoenix in the 2012 live-action film Ace Attorney . The film loosely adapts
37830-449: Was set after the first trilogy. Many potential designs were put forward, including versions that had glasses, wore his pendant around his neck, wore a sweater hand-knitted by Trucy, or had a small goatee. It was decided that he should be well-dressed in a suit, but even the design of said suit had many variations. In the end, the game's art director, Takuro Fuse , wanted to make him look older by altering his classic look subtly and giving him
38025-406: Was well received in Japan for its well-told storyline and surprising twist ending , and for allowing multiple ways to achieve objectives. Shortly after, in 1988, Snatcher appeared, developed by Hideo Kojima and released for the PC-8801 and MSX2 in 1988, in which a cyberpunk detective hunts down a serial killer. Another more non-linear early example was Mirrors , released by Soft Studio Wing for
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