The Greatest British detective…
HERLOCK
SHOLMES
The MAN, The legend
People all around the world And now we can read more about the latest sensation, the enigmatic detective
Herlock Sholmes ( Sherlock Holmes in the original Japanese language versions) is a fictional private detective in Capcom's Ace Attorney video game series, based on Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle and named in tribute to Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes by Maurice Leblanc in the English localization. Sholmes is featured as a supporting character in the two games of the spin-off prequel series The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.
The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is an adventure game and the eighth installment in the Ace Attorney series, developed and published by Capcom. It was directed by Shu Takumi and produced by Shintaro Kojima.
The game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in July 2015, with Android and iOS versions following in August 2017. A sequel, The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, was released in Japan in 2017.
Both games were released worldwide in July 2021 via The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a duology compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Windows.
Taking place near the end of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th century (known in Japan as the Meiji Period, in Britain as the Victorian era), The Great Ace Attorney focuses on Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a student at Imperial Yumei University.
Upon traveling to England to further his studies, Ryunosuke meets and befriends world-famous British detective Herlock Sholmes Herlock is a very eccentric and free-spirited individual. Despite being genuinely intelligent, the rapid-fire of his reasoning often leads Herlock to incorrect conclusions.
Accompanying Sholmes is his assistant Iris Wilson (named "Iris Watson" in the original Japanese release), a ten-year-old prodigy and Sholmes' adoptive daughter.
Sholmes was working in a hospital's chemical laboratory, "indulging curiosities for little gain," and was in need of a roommate to split rent with. Yujin Mikotoba, at the time a student of forensic medicine who had arrived in Britain as part of a study exchange program, who found himself in much the same situation, agreed to live with Sholmes. They solved many mysteries, and Mikotoba took notes about their adventures together, keeping them in a trunk in their flat.
After six years of Sholmes and Mikotoba living together, Klint van Zieks, a renowned prosecutor, was killed. Mikotoba was entrusted with taking care of Klint's newly born daughter, Iris. Forced to return to Japan, Mikotoba asked Sholmes to take care of Klint’s daughter in his stead, to which Sholmes immediately agreed. Iris grew up for a time believing Sholmes was her father.
Iris eventually concluded, through matching the handwriting on the case notes with the handwriting on a stolen autopsy report, that her father was John H. Wilson. (This was proven much later to be false, as the handwriting on both documents was Mikotoba.) Regardless, Iris compiled the writings left behind by her "father," and, using John Wilson as a pen name, she would come to publish The Adventures of Herlock Sholmes.
Fun fact: Sholmes was rated 2d favourite character among Japanese fans!
Herlock Sholmes has been noted by many to be a very eccentric individual, to the point of causing annoyance. At times, Sholmes can be very forgetful; however, when the situation arises, Sholmes can indeed be genuinely competent, with his behavior and deductions becoming more reminiscent of his portrayal in Iris's stories. Despite looking like an unserious character, he is a supportive and caring father, a good friend and truly a professional in his field.
Sholmes is meant to be an ambiguous, hard-to-read character. His reasoning is supposed to be so outrageous that the audience starts to wonder whether he knows the real truth after all.
Several Sholmes designs were proposed, described by art director Kazuya Nuri. The final design is a slightly arranged take on the canonical Holmes, used to accentuate the contrast between the Holmes of the books and the "real" Sholmes seen in the game.
