"Hey hey, shouldn't we choose that guy as the one lying? It's obvious that the timing he mentioned doesn't make sense!"
"Wow! I found it! This guy kept saying he found the body at two o'clock, but according to the investigation, the victim actually died at four o'clock. There's definitely something wrong here!"
In the crowd lining up, a group of people chattered away, discussing the trial details in Ace Attorney.
The greatest joy of Ace Attorney is finding clues from various witnesses' testimonies.
And as soon as you find a clue, it becomes a thrilling moment, giving you a sense of satisfaction for uncovering a secret.
That's the advantage of Ace Attorney.
However, this game is actually better suited for solo exploration.
But here, several people were gathered around a GBA, each one discussing, and soon they could unravel all the game's mysteries together without any difficulty.
This immediately worsened the gaming experience.
But the onlookers were having a great time.
Because they experienced the excitement of suddenly discovering certain secret details and exposing them.
This made them even more eager to buy the game.
Meanwhile, the players who had pre-purchased the digital version and unlocked it first weren't too happy.
They had originally just wanted to queue up early to buy a physical copy for collection, but now they just wanted to experience the game firsthand.
However, these onlookers ruined their gaming experience, leaving them feeling frustrated.
But the game was indeed very interesting, offering a completely new experience.
It turns out that a game combining only text and colored images could be so engaging.
Many recent games have been moving towards more sophisticated, realistic graphics, gradually neglecting this more traditional form of game presentation.
But Takayuki's Ace Attorney brought many players back to the pure joy of gaming.
Games don't necessarily have to have stunning graphics; of course, it's better if they do, but gameplay is what really matters.
On the day of its release, thanks to Takayuki's celebrity effect, the sales were quite good, reaching 400,000 copies on the first day.
For a text-based game, this was quite a record.
Surpassing this record would probably be very difficult.
And the total development cost of Ace Attorney was only about a million dollars.
But just on the first day, it had already completely recouped its costs. If the subsequent sales remained stable, it would definitely be a bestseller.
However, Takayuki's other supervised game, "The Sims," wasn't as popular.
People in different regions also have different hobbies.
"The Sims" was released a few hours earlier in Japan than in the US, but there weren't many people willing to buy it. It only sold about 200,000 copies on the first day.
This was still due to Takayuki's fame effect, making many players default to Takayuki's games as the highest quality. But this type of game wasn't very popular in Japan.
Takayuki estimated that "The Sims" would be a small miracle if it sold over 500,000 copies in Japan.
So Takayuki didn't promote this game too much in Japan but instead invested more resources into promoting Ace Attorney. This way, "The Sims" would be less likely to stand out in Japan.
The release of Ace Attorney was undoubtedly very successful, and few doubted this.
After all, Takayuki's celebrity effect preceded him.
Nowadays, just the fact that Takayuki supervised the game was enough to make people fork over money to buy it.
Many people who were only interested in the spectacle of the bet didn't pay much attention to the game's sales. As Takayuki's main battleground, it couldn't fail.
Many spectators were more interested in the other battleground, the Ace Attorney: Victory is Justice TV drama that premiered on the same day as the game release.
This time, Tokyo TV clearly put a lot of effort into it.
They spent over 100 million yen on the early promotion of this drama alone.
Subways and bus stops were plastered with posters for the drama on that day.
And besides the drama's poster advertisements, other ads belonged to Ace Attorney itself.
With the combination of these two works, even those who weren't interested would remember that there was a very good-looking drama today.
That night, Ace Attorney: Victory is Justice officially aired.
Whether it was the spectators enjoying the show or the enthusiasts of this type of workplace drama, they were all waiting in front of the TV for the drama to begin.
At this moment, the part-time editor and writer, Tian Chong, was already waiting in front of the TV, and beside him was his son, Xiaotian Chong, who was absorbed in playing GBA.
Oh, by the way, Xiaotian Chong is now a junior high school student. He shouldn't be called Xiaotian Chong anymore, but people are still used to calling him that.
Over the years, Xiaotian Chong still loved playing all kinds of games.
Because the family atmosphere was very good, and his father was also a loyal gaming enthusiast, Tian Chong could play games openly at home without worrying about being scolded.
But he was also very competitive, and at least he still maintained an above-average academic performance. Although not particularly outstanding, it wasn't too bad either. Tian Chong was satisfied with this, and he didn't really expect his son to stand out completely.
He hadn't heard of the saying "Dragon's child produces a dragon, phoenix's child produces a phoenix, and a mouse's child can dig a hole," but he roughly understood the principle.
"Dad, do you think this witness is suspicious? I've always felt there was something wrong with what he said, but I can't figure it out for the moment."
At this moment, Tian Chong had been pondering the latest Ace Attorney game for a long time, but he still couldn't grasp the tricks.
As the game progressed, the difficulty also gradually increased.
At the beginning of the game, some hints would be given to let the player notice some details.
But as the story progressed, these kinds of hints became fewer and fewer.
This was also a good method to increase the difficulty of the game. However, for Xiaotian Chong, it seemed a bit too difficult.
"Put down the game console for now. Later, let's study it together. First, let's finish watching this Ace Attorney drama together, and then tonight I'll write a new article, preparing for tomorrow."
"Okay."
Xiaotian Chong reluctantly put down the GBA and then watched the TV drama with his father.
Since the advent of electronic games, the father-son relationship had become extremely harmonious. In the past, Tian Chong would often say many things, and Xiaotian Chong would say one thing to his face and another behind his back, but now, Xiaotian Chong could really listen.
Even though he was at an age when children were rebellious, Xiaotian Chong was still very obedient. Tian Chong was already very satisfied with this, and even if his child's exam scores weren't very good, a harmonious family relationship was better than anything else.
As for the child's future, grandchildren have their own blessings, and he didn't want to interfere too much.