A Hypothesized Setting for Ace Attorney, What Nonsense is This!?

So I've played through Ace Attorney time and again, and I love the series. Something has always occurred to me though; where is the game set? I'm not talking about the Japanese GK, because it's pretty obvious it's a fictional city in Japan. That's not what I'm concerned about. I was wondering where the localization could be set.

As someone creating a fangame, perhaps it's just the architect in me, I always think of settings before anything else, where things occur is important to me. Anyway enough about that.

SO. It's generally accepted fanon that it's set in L.A., and this has always bugged me. I'm willing to believe that it's set in California, given the metropolitan setting and the more liberal ideologies of the characters. But, L.A. seems to impossible based on what we see in the game. L.A. is a costal city, where the climate is consistently warm or mild. This doesn't fit in with events that happen in AA.

So, my hypothesis, is that it takes place in a fictonal town known as Hope Springs, California. This fictional town is in Northern California, not too far from the coast, but not close to it. It has a decent proximity to the mountainous areas, but you still have to take a train to get to them. It's a decent sized city, big enough to have it's own airport, but not big enough where you can't walk to get from place to place, so somewhere from a few hundred thousand citizens to maximum 1 million. It clearly a metropolitan area, with plenty of skyscrapers, office complexes, and a well funded government (I mean, a 16 story police department). And I bring PROOF!

-The name comes from the airport in AAI (Hope Springs Airport), airports are almost always named after one of two things 1) the city it's built in, or 2) an important or historical figure they try to honor. While Hope Springs sounds like it could be the name of a person, it sounds more like a city, and plus with the idea of name puns and the themes of the series, Hope Springs seems like a fitting name.

-It's proneness to earthquakes lends HEAVILY to it's location in California. (Thanks VelleVette), also, the fact that Gumshoe mentions L.A. casaually also helps it's case.

-A location in northern California allows the ability to have a cold enough winter to permit snow. Not blizzard-esque conditions, but a reasonable amount such as in case 2-3.

-Proximity to mountains (from a reasonable distance) suddenly makes Kurain and Hazakura quite possible. Also a mountain in the north makes snow more likely on places like Hazakura which aren't directly near the peak.

-Plus it being a city near Sacramento (also north-ish) could make this fictional city's surreal political importance more reasonable.

Almost all of this came from the game series and a bit of knowledge of geography.

This post has been edited by Percei on Feb 13 2011, 05:34 PM

Hope Springs sounds more like a landmark if you ask me. It could be one of those airports that are a bit outside of the city.

No it definitely sounds more like a place.

Anyway Percei, nice essay. And it all makes sense.

Whoa the airport in AAI is "Hope Springs Airport"? I missed that .__.

Well, that's a pretty good argument

It also has to be prone to earthquakes. I'm guessing that being in California means that goes without saying.

This is quite believable, great argument.

Sounds great. I now feel bad for using LA as the setting in my fanfic...

Then again, my Fanfic also features a Yaezakura Tree in Kurain, blooming in late spring. Everything is possible!

The climatic problem with the resetting of the localization in America is the fact that Japan does have a pretty messed up clima. (I wrote a test about that not too long ago.) They have their summer split up into 4 extremly different phases, several warm- and cold-water currents playing around with the air-masses that reach the islands, cold and warm continental air coming from the west, cold and warm maritime air coming from the east, mountains seperating the country into two climatic halves... Let's just say: The weather newscast is something you should keep a close eye on in Japan.

^The weather forecast in Japan is usually ridiculously accurate though.

Wow. This is now head-canon for me.

So, where do you people think the other countries are, exactly? I mean the fictional ones - Borginia, Cohdopia and Zheng Fa.

Off-topic: Minus the ridiculously accurate weather forecasts, Japan's weather is very similar to ours in Britain.

@Percei
Are you sure that Hope Springs Airport is actually in same place as the setting of the AA games? It could be a half-an-hour's drive away and belong to a smaller city.

Being in Northern California, I can say that your argument makes perfect sense. I have to admit, I was always puzzled by the snow in LA (at least for the fictional locations in this game. Out of curiosity, how exactly is japan's climate messed up? I actually thought codhopia was was based on either Germany (E and W Berlin) or a small area in eastern europe near Serbia or Croatia. Zheng Fa,I could see it is as sorta being like Taiwan, a small island off the coast of Asia.

Britain. Another country known for it's messed up wheater. XD At least where I live.

We have a few jokes about how bad the weather in England is, actually. ^^;

I am wondering what part of Japan you are refering to though.

Ura-Nihon and Omote-Nihon (I am only using those terms out of lack of an alternative) have very different climates, Hokkaido's a lot colder than the rest of the country and the Ryuukyuu Islands are a lot more tropical.

That's incredibly good to know! ^^

Here in Austria, you can NEVER trust the weather forecast... It's almost always colder than they claim... except when it's the other way around.

This post has been edited by Neni on Feb 13 2011, 06:32 PM

Borginia=Germany.
Cohdopia=I'm thinking either Czech Republic or Ukraine for me.
Zheng Fa=China.

Borginia=Germany.
Cohdopia=I'm thinking either Czech Republic or Ukraine for me.
Zheng Fa=China.

Same, except I say Borginia is in South America, maybe near Brazil.

Make that Hungary. Germany is alive and well in AA, as the following people proof:


Also, German culture is a lot different from what we have seen of Borginia yet.

It was canonially stated to be in Europe, if I remember right, so no South America, saddly...

This post has been edited by Neni on Feb 13 2011, 08:26 PM