Ace Attorney Director and Writer Takeshi Yamazaki Has Left Capcom

Another longtime Capcom employee has announced his departure from the company. This time, it is Takeshi Yamazaki, one of the people responsible for shaping and keeping the Ace Attorney series alive. He worked there for 15 years and confirmed in his Twitter announcement that he will continue to make games. [Thanks, Court-Records!]

Here is Court-Records’ translation of his tweet.

He says he’ll be continuing to work in game development, but also be taking on new challenges.

Best of luck to Yamazaki-san in his new endeavors, and many thanks for his work on the series over the years!

— Court-Records (@CourtRecords_) July 11, 2020

While Shu Takumi was the creator of the Ace Attorney series and driving force behind the original trilogy, Yamazaki stepped up starting with Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. Yamazaki was involved since the beginning, with planning, and continued to do so with the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

However, Yamazaki stepped up in a larger role after Takumi briefly moved on from the series. (As a reminder, Takumi told Official Nintendo Magazine UK in a 2014 interview that “I felt that Phoenix’s story had been told and that the series should not continue.”) Yamazaki was the director and writer for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, and Ace Attorney Investigations 2.

Takumi returned to the Ace Attorney series at times. He is the creator of the Great Ace Attorney spin-off 3DS and mobile series, which has never been released outside Japan. He was also involved with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

This is the third notable Capcom departure to come up recently. We learned Ryota Suzuki, who was formerly with the company and involved with Dragon’s Dogma, Devil May Cry 5, and Monster Hunter World development, was working with Square Enix on a new project as of 2019. Ryosuke Yoshida, who worked on Devil May Cry 5 and Monster Hunter Generations, announced he had left Capcom in July 2020.

The last original Ace Attorney mainline release was Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, which appeared on the Nintendo 3DS worldwide in 2016 and mobile devices worldwide in 2017. The last spin-off was Great Ace Attorney 2, which showed up on the 3DS in Japan in 2017 and on mobile devices in Japan in 2018. As far as rereleases go, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy showed up on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide in 2019.