Unpacking The Great Ace Attorney Controversy

Let’s get right into it: the top five most controversial moments, debates, and decisions in The Great Ace Attorney localization saga are guaranteed to set off arguments in any Ace Attorney fan group. This ranking will be debated for years, because the story of how The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and its sequel finally reached English-speaking players is packed with drama—delays, legal minefields, fan activism, and a cast of characters as complex as the games themselves.

Number 5: The Renaming of Sherlock Holmes to Herlock Sholmes

When The Great Ace Attorney was developed, Shu Takumi included Sherlock Holmes as a major character, but in the Japanese release, he retained his iconic name. For the English-language release in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Capcom renamed the character “Herlock Sholmes.” This wasn’t a creative whim: the name change was triggered by legal concerns around the copyright status of Sherlock Holmes, especially in the United States, where the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle has historically been litigious about depictions of Holmes with certain personality traits.

Fans argue about this for two reasons. First, many see “Herlock Sholmes” as a jarring, almost parodic moniker that undercuts the character’s gravitas and historic literary roots. Second, others defend the choice by pointing out its roots in Japanese media—Herlock Sholmes was already the name given to the character in earlier Japanese games and literature, such as Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin stories, to skirt copyright. The debate continues: purists want Sherlock Holmes, while others accept Herlock Sholmes as both a clever workaround and a nod to classic mystery fiction.

Number 4: The Omission of a Western Release for Six Years

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures launched in Japan on July 9, 2015, as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive. Despite the Ace Attorney series’ strong following in the West, Capcom France announced in September 2015 that there were no immediate plans for an English-language release. Both games in the duology remained Japan-exclusive for six years, while the rest of the franchise saw steady localization.

Fans passionately debate whether Capcom’s hesitation was justified. On one side, some argue the game’s Meiji-era setting and heavy use of Japanese and Victorian British cultural references made localization uniquely challenging and risky. Producer Yasuyuki Makino confirmed that Capcom was worried “proper localization would be a core challenge.” On the other side, fans argue that the company underestimated the global audience’s appetite for historical mystery and legal drama, especially since fan translations and subtitled playthroughs on YouTube drew tens of thousands of views. Some accuse Capcom of being out of touch with its own fanbase, while others defend the company’s caution, citing the unique legal and narrative hurdles.

Number 3: Capcom’s Takedown of the Fan Translation Videos

As the wait for an official English release stretched on, a group of Ace Attorney fans spent eight months producing subtitled video playthroughs of The Great Ace Attorney and uploading them to YouTube. In June 2017, Capcom issued takedown notices for the entire channel, asserting its copyright. The fan translators filed a counter-notification, and YouTube briefly reinstated the videos in July 2017, but the channel was eventually deleted and the videos removed for good.

This incident remains a flashpoint in the fandom. Supporters of Capcom’s move argue that companies have the legal right to control the distribution and representation of their intellectual property. Critics see it differently: they argue that Capcom was punishing the very fans who had kept interest in the series alive and proven demand for localization. The debate is supercharged by the fact that the games remained unavailable in English for years after the takedown, making Capcom’s actions seem especially stifling to many. Some also believe that the fan effort was a labor of love that filled a void Capcom refused to address; others warn that unofficial translations can undermine sales or complicate future localization efforts.

Number 2: The 2019 Release of a Complete Fan Translation Patch

After Capcom’s crackdown on subtitled video playthroughs, the fan community took a different approach. In 2019, a complete English fan translation patch for The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and its sequel appeared online, allowing players to patch their Japanese 3DS or Android copies of the game and experience them fully in English. The patch, dubbed The Great Ace Attorney: The Adventures of Ryuunosuke Naruhodou, circulated widely—so widely that it essentially became the de facto way for English-speaking fans to play until the official localization.

Here’s why this is such a flashpoint. Some fans celebrate the patch as a triumph of grassroots fandom and a testament to the global reach of the series. They argue that Capcom’s hesitation essentially forced the community’s hand, and that the fan translation demonstrated both the demand for and the feasibility of localization. Opponents worry that fan translation patches, especially when distributed widely, can hurt future sales if and when an official English version appears. Some also believe that unofficial translations can introduce inaccuracies or culturally insensitive interpretations that don’t reflect the creator's intent. For years, debates raged in forums about whether to play the patch or wait for an official release, with fans split between loyalty to Capcom and frustration with the company’s inaction.

Number 1: The Debate over “Authentic” Localization—Should Ryunosuke Stay Japanese?

The single most debated issue in the entire saga is how The Great Ace Attorney should be localized for Western players: should characters like Ryunosuke Naruhodo remain explicitly Japanese, or should the translation continue the mainline Ace Attorney tradition of “Americanizing” the setting, names, and cultural references? In the original main series, Capcom’s localizers famously relocated Phoenix Wright’s adventures to a fictionalized Los Angeles and changed many Japanese references to American equivalents, but The Great Ace Attorney is set in Meiji-era Japan and Victorian England, with deeply rooted historical and cultural context.

When Capcom finally announced The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for worldwide release in July 2021, they chose to keep protagonists Ryunosuke Naruhodo and Susato Mikotoba Japanese, preserve the Japanese and British settings, and maintain historical authenticity in their localization approach. This broke with Ace Attorney tradition.

Fans are deeply divided. Some argue that this was the only correct approach—Ryunosuke’s story is about a Japanese law student navigating two very different legal systems, and the narrative hinges on issues of national identity, colonialism, and cross-cultural exchange. Others feel the break from “localized Los Angeles” is jarring, or that the older approach was more accessible to new players unfamiliar with Japanese history. There are also heated debates about the translation of names: should Ryunosuke Naruhodo become “Ryu Wright” or remain as-is? Should Susato Mikotoba be “Sarah” or “Susato”? Every choice is loaded with implications about authenticity, accessibility, and respect for the source material.

To this day, fans argue about whether The Great Ace Attorney’s localization finally struck the right balance—did Capcom’s team, led by director Shu Takumi and a new wave of translators, do justice to the original story and characters, or should they have found a way to fit the duology into the Westernized universe established in Phoenix Wright’s earlier adventures?

So, do you agree with this ranking? Should Capcom have taken a different approach with Sherlock Holmes, or was the six-year delay the bigger crime? Did the fan translation help or hurt the community? And did The Great Ace Attorney’s “authentic” localization finally settle the debate, or just open up new arguments? Let us know which controversies you’d rank higher—or what we missed entirely.