Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten (2005) — they added one case to a four-year-old game, and the series crossed the ocean

September 15, 2005: a four-year-old game shows up on the DS shelf

Hello, Toki here. Episode 56 of “Today Is Release Day.” Today's pick is a port of a game that was already four years old.From the thumbnail of “『逆転裁判123 成歩堂セレクション』プロモーション映像” (CapcomChannel, YouTube)

Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten. For the Nintendo DS, published by Capcom, priced at 4,800 yen plus tax. It came out in Japan on September 15, 2005 — twenty-one years ago today, September 15, 2026.

The contents were almost the same as Gyakuten Saiban, released on the Game Boy Advance on October 12, 2001. Four cases. Plus one more: a fifth case called “Yomigaeru Gyakuten,” known in English as “Rise from the Ashes.”

One case. That was the whole addition. And that one case changed where the series went.

Only the new case had a different machine underneath it

The Game Boy Advance has no stylus. It has no microphone. So the fifth case was built around parts that only the DS had.

You turn a piece of evidence with your finger and look at its back. You spray luminol and watch a wiped-away bloodstain surface. You dust for fingerprints, then blow into the microphone to clear the excess powder away.

What you examined stopped being a picture on a screen and became something you handled.

The size of it goes well past “bonus,” too. The fifth case has three investigation chapters and seven trial chapters, and it holds more evidence than any other episode in the main series.

One more thing. The Japanese release shipped with an English mode built in, presented as something for people studying English. Keep that detail in mind.

The original sold 62,169. This port sold 101,902

Here are the numbers from the time.

The 2001 Game Boy Advance version sold 62,169 copies in 2001, plus another 37,143 when a budget edition appeared in 2003. Not an explosion — a quiet, steady following. Famitsu's review panel gave it 8, 8, 9 and 7, for 32 out of 40.

The DS version sold 101,902 copies in Japan in 2005. A four-year-old port outsold the original's first year.

Then came the other side of the ocean.From the thumbnail of “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - Launch Trailer” (Capcom USA, YouTube)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney launched in North America on October 11, 2005 — twenty-six days after Japan. Europe followed on March 16, 2006.

North America ran out of stock. More than 100,000 copies had shipped there by February 2007. The Metacritic average was 81. GameSpot's Carrie Gouskos wrote that the game revitalized the adventure genre, and called its cross-examination presentation unique and outstanding — with an atmosphere close to that of a fighting game.

Now back to that English mode. If the translation had only started once Japanese sales came in, twenty-six days would never have been enough. The preparations for going abroad were already running by the time English was placed inside the Japanese release.

2019: all three, together, on current machines

Now for the present day.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy collects the first three games. It reached the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2019, and phones in 2022 — changing machines, but never stopping.

The video below is the overseas launch trailer for that collection.

As of April 2025, the collection has sold more than 4.10 million copies. Counting from 62,169 in 2001, that is a long way travelled.

The fifth case survived too, carried into later ports as a “special episode.” A case built for the DS is still being taken along, long after the DS.

Let me write down the year: two thousand and five

2005. Unless I write the year down like this, an article never quite feels finished to me. The Japanese release was September 15, 2005 — twenty-one years ago today, September 15, 2026.

A small coincidence, while we're here. On that same September 15, 2005, Super Robot Wars J went out on the Game Boy Advance, and Tamagotchi no Puchi Puchi Omisetchi on the Nintendo DS. Same day, same shop floor.

The plainest-looking box on that shelf was probably the four-year-old courtroom game. It is the one that travelled furthest.

Is there a game whose release day you still remember?