Victorian-era Ace Attorney prequels featuring ‘Herlock Sholmes’ are coming to PC

Capcom has announced that this year, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Ace Attorney series, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney Adventures 2: Resolve will be released in English for the first time. They’ll be bundled together as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, confirming a leak from earlier in the year when the two games were rated in Taiwan.

These prequels star Phoenix Wright’s 19th century ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who travels between Meiji Period Japan and Victorian England, solving mysteries and defending the innocent like his descendent. Except that Ryunosuke does so with help from London’s famous great detective, known as ‘Herlock Sholmes’ in this translation, and his companion Iris Wilson (another change in translation—in the original her surname was Watson).

The between-trial investigation scenes introduce a new system in which Sholmes makes deductions while the player points out contradictions in them and spots clues that will lead the goggle-hatted sleuth in the right direction. Another change in these prequels is that the trials feature juries and individual jurors may leap to conclusions that have to be be objected to in the traditional Phoenix Wright fashion.

The Great Attorney Chronicles include mysteries such as the Case of the Visiting Professor and the Case of the Stricken Steamship, spread over 10 episodes and eight mini-escapades that apparently add up to over 50 hours’ worth of dilemmas and deductions. An auto-advancing story mode, another new addition to the series, will let players who aren’t interested in the puzzle side of things experience the plot as more of a pure visual novel.

Players can choose either Japanese or English audio. Extras include additional costumes, creator comments, and bonus videos.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will be available on Steam on July 27. Capcom is also releasing a bundle called the Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection, which includes these prequels and the complete Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy released on PC in 2019.