Herlock Sholmes, known as 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, consisting of Adventures and Resolve. The character has also appeared in the manga adaptation of the series.
Characteristics
Sholmes is mostly presented as an outwardly eccentric and forgetful detective, who houses great intellect and deductive abilities. However, his reasoning skills are presented as being akin to a spontaneous "game of logic" that goes beyond "the truth". Consequently, his deductions tend to consist of rapid-fire statements of abductive reasoning, that, while logically sound and clever, result in an incorrect, and often times ridiculous-sounding conclusion. Throughout his appearances, Sholmes aides defense attorney Ryunosuke Naruhodo and his partner Susato Mikotoba in honing their own deductive abilities, by allowing them to correct his deductions to arrive at the truth.
Concept and design
Shu Takumi cited the origin of the Herlock Sholmes character as originating from a Sherlock Holmes game idea he had come up with in 2000: of a mystery game in which a detective makes incorrect deductions, and where players have to correct the detective and lead him towards the truth. Thinking it would be fun to combine this idea with Ace Attorney, Takumi pitched the idea to Capcom a few months after the Japanese release of Takumi's previous project, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The development team additionally decided to change "Sherlock's Watson" from the original, as they thought it would be more interesting if Watson weren't another English gentleman, using the original character name as a stand-in for the victim of the first case.
Kazuya Nuri designed Sholmes to make them look simple while also conveying a lot of information. He intended to make the graphics look like illustrations, and wanted to convey the feeling of the materials clothes and items from the Victorian era in which the series is set. Characters were designed to be partially realistic, as realistic animations and facial expressions were needed for the game. Witnesses and jury members were however designed in a more stylized way, to ensure that players immediately recognize them when they see the characters sitting next to each other. Several different variations were made for Sholmes' design, including "depressed", "cute", "adventurous", "dark", and "sleeping" variations; eventually, they used a variation on how Sherlock Holmes is traditionally depicted, as contrast to his personality. Additionally, he was given a gun as contrast to the sword of Ryunosuke Naruhodo. The design of Sholmes' daughter, Iris Wilson, was designed to include gothic elements, as well as elements of a mad scientist, and was created to look good when appearing together with Sholmes.
Localization
Due to long-standing copyright issues related to the character of Sherlock Holmes with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the character was renamed Herlock Sholmes for the international release in homage to Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes; in the original Japanese language release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Sholmes is still known as Sherlock Holmes.
Backstory
Following an exchange program established by Klint van Zieks, a young Herlock Sholmes befriends Japanese student Yujin Mikotoba, solving many mysteries together, with Yujin taking notes about their adventures together, which he stores in Sholmes' trunk. However, after Klint is found to be the serial killer "The Professor" by Mikotoba's friend Genshin Asogi, who then kills him, Mikotoba is forced to return to Japan, leaving Klint's infant daughter Iris in Sholmes's care. While Iris initially believes Sholmes to be her biological father, Sholmes decides to tell Iris that his former partner is her father, not telling her his name to allow her to deduce it, which she mistakenly does to identify him as John H. Wilson. Compiling Sholmes' adventures and using John Wilson as a pen name, Iris publishes The Adventures of Herlock Sholmes in The Randst Magazine, leading to Sholmes becoming recognised worldwide as a legendary detective.