Turns out, there's a tool out there that allows you to not only translate the PC version of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy to different languages, but it also allows you to modify the scripts for the game altogether, allowing for custom scenes, perhaps even a whole custom game, if you know what you're doing.

Here is the download link for this tool, called the "TranslationFramework" https://mega.nz/#F!GZNQWSBQ!JA42-HIGTy79O0I7is0FGw

I'm not sure how well known this tool is, but per the request of an user, I'm here to tell you the basics of how to use it.

Let's do an example. Our goal is to modify the final trial sequence for "Turnabout Samurai", the third case of the first Ace Attorney game. https://youtu.be/nWt1IJyUqog?t=9798 I've time stamped the scene in the video that we're modifying.

What we need to do is point TranslationFramework over to the game file that contains this scene.

Opening up the TranslationFramework program reveals that it's in Spanish (at least, i think that's spanish...). Unfortunately, there's no way to change the language, so you might wanna keep a translator handy.

On the top left side of the program, click on "Archivo", then "Nuevo".

https://i.imgur.com/Ge6n1b2.png

The window shown in the above picture should open up. There's a bunch of games shown there, make sure to click once on Phoenix Wright to select it. Then, direct your attention to the "trabajo" and "instalacion" portions of the window.

"Carpeta de trabajo" is your "work folder", AKA the location of the mod project. It's where the program will install all the Phoenix Wright-related files that you'll be modifying. You can pick whichever location you want on your computer for this.

"Carpeta de instalacion" is where you point the program towards where is the Phoenix Wright game installed. Specifically, where the EXE application for Phoenix Wright is, along with the PWAAT_Data folder. Meaning, I select the folder shown in https://i.imgur.com/B5jMuAP.png this image, and then I press OK.

In other words, do not select the "PWAAT_Data" folder for the "instalacion", but the folder containing it instead. I made this mistake myself, and I got an error message for it.

After you've set up both the "trabajo" and "instalacion" folder, press "Aceptar".

https://i.imgur.com/gnY3TF2.png

The program will now be extracting all the Phoenix Wright files over to your work folder. This might take a couple minutes. Go grab a bite to eat. You'll know it's done when you'll see a "FINALIZADO" message. You can press the "Cerrar" button at that point.

https://i.imgur.com/qmNQGm7.png

Within the "Explorador" section, all sorts of Phoenix Wright files should pop up. In particular, we're looking for all the dialogue and scripting for the first Ace Attorney game, which is located in the "GS1 scenario" folder highlighted in the above image. "GS2 scenario" would have all the stuff for the second game, GS3 has the stuff from the third game, you get the idea.

https://i.imgur.com/XIgALXp.png

The final trial sequence from Turnabout Samurai is located in "sc2_5_text_u.mdt". Here, you can modify the game to your heart's content. Not just the dialogue, but when do characters speak, and for how long, when do songs & sound effects play, which background is used, ect. All it takes is a little intuition & trial 'n error.

Once you're done toying around, you now need to export your changes. To do that, click on "Archivo" again, then "Exportar". A window will likely pop up, click "Yes".

https://i.imgur.com/S4dJbYS.png

Another window will pop up, asking you which specific Phoenix Wright files do you want to export as modified. By default, because you modified 2_5_text_u.mdt, it'll automatically check just that file and that one file alone. Click "Aceptar". A second later, it's done exporting.

The modified file was placed within your "work folder". Go in there, then go to the "export" folder, then PWAAT_Data > StreamingAssets > GS1 > scenario. Locate the 2_5 file in there that should be modified, and copy it.

We now need to place this into the game folder. Similar process. Go to the folder where Phoenix Wright is installed, then PWAAT_Data > StreamingAssets > GS1 > scenario, and paste your file in here. Make sure to make a backup of the original file, just in case something really screws up.

That's basically it. You can now boot up the game and test your changes. I'm not very good at explaining things, so I sincerely hope I wasn't too confusing on some matters.

Here are a couple starting tips on what kind of stuff can you modify.

1) PlayCharacterAnimation determines which character is shown on screen, and what animation do they play. Next to each PlayCharacterAnimation line, you might notice three numbers. I haven't figured out what the first number does, but the second number determines which animation plays when a character is talking, while the third number determines which animation plays after a character is done talking. For example:

PlayCharacterAnimation(8, 93, 92);

The Judge's animations fall somewhere into the 90-105 range of numbers, I would guess. 93 is Judge's default expression with lip movement, while 92 is the default expression without any lip movement.

What if you wanted to put Phoenix onto the Judge's bench instead, for some weird, unfathomable horrifying reason? If you look through the script, you can tell that Phoenix's animations fall into the number range of 1-25. I've actually noted down which numbers correspond to his animations. They are as follows:

1 is phoenix's default pose, no talking
2 is default pose, talking
3 is thinking while not talking
4 is thinking while talking
5 is phoenix nodding
6 shaking head animation
7 table slam
8 is a regular "holding hands on table" animation
9 same as 8, but his mouth was animated during this one
10 the finger point (phoenix moves his mouth for only a little bit in this one)
11 same as above, but no talking
12 same as above, but doesn't stop talking (not unless you set his animation at the end to be 11)
13 is phoenix looking over the piece of paper (no talking)
14 same as above, but there is talking
15 is phoenix's disgruntled sweating face (no talking)
16 same as above, but talking
17 phoenix's shocked "W-W-WHAAAT?!" expression
18 sheepish expression
19 sheepish, but talking
20 is horrifying because phoenix has no face in this one
21 is phoenix getting attacked with a wig
22 smug, hands on hips, no talking
23 same as above, but talking

With that in mind, let's change line 43 in 2_5_text_u.mdt...

PlayCharacterAnimation(8, 93, 92);

to this instead...

PlayCharacterAnimation(8, 19, 18);

Now, sheepish Phoenix is sitting in the Judge's bench. Er, kind of.

https://i.imgur.com/ddWDiJM.jpg

Though the game still thinks the Judge is talking... that's because we didn't modify the SpeakerID at line 47. 2048 is the Judge's speakerID, but if we set that to 512 (again, looking through the script will help you know about this), the game would recognize that it's Phoenix speaking.

2) It looks like it's possible to not only modify the script, but sprites and backgrounds too. Looking through the Explorer, when you go into images, there are "Import" and "Export" buttons in there. Certainly helps with making custom scenes more flexible.

3) Characters can talk for longer, if you simply expand the amount of lines they have. Right now, the script's looking like this...

https://i.imgur.com/zASnSk0.png

And to expand the amount of lines that Phoenix (still in the judge's bench) has, I made it look like this.

https://i.imgur.com/t7StBuj.png

Just for fun, I threw in a "Quake(30, 1);" before Phoenix says "FUNNY". It's an effect that causes the screen to shake. I would assume that the higher the first number is, the more intense the shaking is. As for the second number, I don't know what it does, I left it alone during my tests.

Make sure to insert a "ReadKey();", each time a character is done talking, as it's what allows you to advance to the next line of dialogue.

Lastly, some misc stuff. Here's a part of the script that produces the dramatic close-up effect on Phoenix, with the blue background and whatnot. You can paste this anywhere, and it'll happen.

Op_1C(0);
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
Op_1C(0);
SetStatusFlag(1);
PlayCharacterAnimation(29, 309, 308);
CutIn(0);
SetBackground(66);
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
ControlSE(72, 1);
ControlSE(122, 1);
Quake(30, 1);
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
SetMessageTime(1);
Text("ha");
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
Text("s h");
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
Text("appened ");
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
Text("again!");

Or, here's the "Objection!" animation:

Op_69(98, 456);
Op_1C(1);
PlayFadeCtrl(769, 8, 31);
PlayObjectAnimation(3, 1);
ControlSE(55, 1);
Wait(60);
Op_1C(0);

The 55 in ControlSE is the sound effect, however, I don't believe it's the one for Phoenix's objection. If you're going to want to make good use of sound effects, you'll have to test each one & note down what it does. That goes for a lot of things within these scripts, but with a little patience, you can do anything you want for sure.

Guess that's that!