Ace Attorney Sequel Earns Series' First M Rating

[Cognimancer]

Ace Attorney Sequel Earns Series' First M Rating

Ace Attorney: Duel Destinies may take the franchise in a darker direction, if the ESRB's verdict is anything to go by.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and its sequels walk a strange line between the merry and the macabre. The plot of each game typically involves a series of investigations into grisly murders, but everything is pretty kid-friendly. So far the series has received a T rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board in each of its incarnations - until now. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, in addition to being a mouthful of a title, has been rated M for "Mature."

It's a first for the series, and since we've heard no objections from Capcom, it looks like the latest game will take Ace Attorney to new levels of "serious business." Having reviewed Dual Destinies, the ESRB offers warnings of "Violence, Blood, Suggestive Themes, and Language" - which are actually the very same content descriptors assigned to the first game in the series back in 2001. So even if Capcom isn't exploring new and exciting avenues like intense gore, the typical elements have been pushed far enough that the American and Canadian rating system doesn't recommend the game for players under the age of 17.

The content we have seen from Dual Destinies still looks like it has all the eccentric charm the series is known for, so it's probably safe to assume that we aren't looking at L.A. Noire levels of morbidity. It's still unknown what exactly warranted the increased rating, but if anything comes up in the investigation, we'll let you know.

Source: Shack News [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_HlFbtj9jc]

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[geldonyetich]

Ace Attorney Sequel Earns Series' First M Rating [for...] "Violence, Blood, Suggestive Themes, and Language"

Pesky ESRB, got my hopes up: here I thought we might get to see that tasty Maya Fey in the buff.

 

[Souplex]

As a rule of thumb, you can reduce most ESRB ratings by one notch anyway for the actual content of a game.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

okay, now I'm REALLY intrigued

 

[Kennetic]

I'm having the hardest time finding Apollo Justice right now but I'm definitely buying a 3DS XL for this game and Pokemon X/Y. Very excited as this series is so enjoyable.

 

[elscotty]

I have no problem with this.

 

[ImBigBob]

I'm having the hardest time finding Apollo Justice right now but I'm definitely buying a 3DS XL for this game and Pokemon X/Y. Very excited as this series is so enjoyable.

Apollo Justice is the worst AA game by far. Don't bother.

 

[Ariyura]

I'm having the hardest time finding Apollo Justice right now but I'm definitely buying a 3DS XL for this game and Pokemon X/Y. Very excited as this series is so enjoyable.

Apollo Justice is the worst AA game by far. Don't bother.

Really? I loved Apollo, it was just really weird because the whole time I was playing it I wanted to be playing as Phoenix. It's still a good game to have as part of the PW collection.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Apollo Justice is the worst AA game by far. Don't bother.

Oh, pfah. A lot of people beat on it but it wasn't that bad. At the very least, you're gonna need it for context in Dual Destinies.

 

[GabeZhul]

If you ask me, it's probably that the costume of one character kinda-sorta looked like it revealed a nipple or one character (possibly an antagonist) said an innuendo and now ESRB is losing their shit because OH MY GOD, THE SEXUAL CONTENT IN THIS GAME IS POISONING OUR CHILDREN ad shit...

This thing kind of reminds me of the Moenovel shitstorm, where the company decided to translate an eroge (that, among many things, had relatively high sexual content and an entire route dedicated to the relationship problems cause by starting out as "sex friends" and trying to step up the relationship) and to make it so it would get a T rating so they could put it in shops, and they had to cut not only the erotic content (duh), but also all the hugs, kisses and even some jokes with innuendos and came out with a butchered game in order to get the ESRB's approval.

So yeah, ESRB is like a cancerous growth on the face of the industry that still fuels the "moral guardian" movement and should be cut out as soon as possible.

 

[KOMega]

Ace Attorney Sequel Earns Series' First M Rating [for...] "Violence, Blood, Suggestive Themes, and Language"

Pesky ESRB, got my hopes up: here I thought we might get to see that tasty Maya Fey in the buff.

I know... Darn... We can only dream ;P

If you ask me, it's probably that the costume of one character kinda-sorta looked like it revealed a nipple or one character (possibly an antagonist) said an innuendo and now ESRB is losing their shit because OH MY GOD, THE SEXUAL CONTENT IN THIS GAME IS POISONING OUR CHILDREN ad shit...

This thing kind of reminds me of the Moenovel shitstorm, where the company decided to translate an eroge (that, among many things, had relatively high sexual content and an entire route dedicated to the relationship problems cause by starting out as "sex friends" and trying to step up the relationship) and to make it so it would get a T rating so they could put it in shops, and they had to cut not only the erotic content (duh), but also all the hugs, kisses and even some jokes with innuendos and came out with a butchered game in order to get the ESRB's approval.

So yeah, ESRB is like a cancerous growth on the face of the industry that still fuels the "moral guardian" movement and should be cut out as soon as possible.

No, I think it was the blood. Maybe it has a little more than the other ones. Plus it doesn't seem to list off sexual content as one of it's rating points.

Captcha: no-brainer
Now captcha, that's not nice.

 

[GabeZhul]

snip

If you look at the reasons behind the rating, I still think it's probably some sexual innuendo that got the ESRBs panties into a twist.
-Violence: We had murders in all previous games, some of them pretty darn ugly (being impaled in a ceremonial sword or beaten to death with a small statue both sound pretty bad to me)
-Blood: I am pretty sure we had bloodstains and dripping blood before.
-Suggestive Themes: This reads "sexual innuendo" in my book.
-Language: Ditto.

 

[KOMega]

snip

If you look at the reasons behind the rating, I still think it's probably some sexual innuendo that got the ESRBs panties into a twist.
-Violence: We had murders in all previous games, some of them pretty darn ugly (being impaled in a ceremonial sword or beaten to death with a small statue both sound pretty bad to me)
-Blood: I am pretty sure we had bloodstains and dripping blood before.
-Suggestive Themes: This reads "sexual innuendo" in my book.
-Language: Ditto.

Yes yes that's in it. I'm just saying maybe there's a little more than usual.
You don't seem to like the ESRB a lot.
Does the rating system prevent you from accessing games of certain ratings where you live?
If so, I can understand where you may be coming from.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

The 11th 3DS game to be rated M. That's the exact number of DS games that have been rated M.

As a rule of thumb, you can reduce most ESRB ratings by one notch anyway for the actual content of a game.

So much this.

The funny thing is that higher ESRB ratings likely make the games look more appealing to older audiences.

 

[Lieju]

Well, the past games had some pretty gruesome stuff. You saw people getting stabbed and looked at pictures of dead bodies.
Now that the graphics are more detailed, I imagine it's the thing that ups the rating.

That or Phoenix and Edgeworth will finally resolve all that sexual tension. I can hope, right?

 

[Lovely Mixture]

That or Phoenix and Edgeworth will finally resolve all that sexual tension. I can hope, right?

Oh my god, that's the reason neither of them got married after 7 years!