Capcom at E3 2021 published a new trailer and showcased several minutes of gameplay of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - many fans are wondering though why the game's Sherlock Holmes was renamed to Herlock Sholmes.

Taking place in London and in Japan, the Great Ace Attorney features the most popular detective in history. For some reason though, his name was altered, what happened?

Ace Attorney - Why Sherlock Holmes is called Herlock Sholmes?

First, it's important to note that in the Japanese version of Dai Gyakuten Saiban, the character is properly named Sherlock Holmes. Capcom has been reintroducing the Dai Gyakuten Saiban duology's characters on Twitter for the collection's release, so you can check for yourself if you know your katakana:

However, the localization switched his name to Herlock Sholmes. The problem lies with original Sherlock Holmes author's Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate, who has been suing people lately.

According to the estate, only the emotionless, expressionless version of Sherlock Holmes is in public domain. So if you write a story where Sherlock Holmes has an actual personality, you need to pay up. That's why the localization team decided to change the name and avoid taking any risks.

Ace Attorney and localization

It's also important to note The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the first time in the series' history of localization that the names and locations were not westernized. I was personally not a fan of that system, though I definitely understand how hard it is to adapt in another way all the name puns and Japanese references the series has. From what we've seen of it so far, the localization seems particularly well handled, so I'm eager to see the final product.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is coming to PS4, Switch, and PC via Steam on July 27, 2021, with dual audio.