50 Fun Facts About Ace Attorney

In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the accused actor Will Powers stars as which children's TV hero?

The Steel Samurai's star is accused of spearing the actor who plays his archenemy, the Evil Magistrate, who is found dead in costume at the studio.

Phoenix Wright first became a playable fighter in which 2011 crossover game?

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has him scour the arena for evidence mid-fight, and enough good finds unlock a far stronger courtroom mode.

On which handheld did the first Ace Attorney title launch in Japan in 2001?

Game Boy Advance hardware won the team over mid-project: the game had been planned for the Game Boy Color until they saw the new screen and early Mega Man Battle Network footage.

Phoenix's Japanese surname is a running pun meaning roughly what?

"I see" is the everyday phrase his Japanese surname sounds like, so the English writers named him Wright to trade those jokes for "right" puns.

What is Maya Fey, Phoenix's assistant in the first three games?

A spirit medium was a rewrite: Maya was always planned as Phoenix's partner, but at first as a trainee lawyer studying for the bar exam.

Which gameplay mechanic did Justice for All introduce to Ace Attorney?

Psyche-Locks were added because the creator found the first game's investigations too basic; satisfied with the result, he gave the third game no new mechanic at all.

What object lets Phoenix see and break a witness's hidden secrets?

A magatama is just a bead until it is charged with spiritual energy, and the one Phoenix carries eventually runs flat and has to be recharged years later.

Apollo Justice's Perceive system was compared to spotting what?

A poker tell is the model: Apollo feels a witness's tension through his bracelet, then studies them in close-up for the nervous twitch that gives a lie away.

What do Spirit of Justice's Divination Séances show the player?

A victim's final moments are conjured in a pool on the courtroom floor by a dancing royal priestess, and the defence must catch where her reading of the vision goes wrong.

Which Great Ace Attorney character's English name is borrowed from Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin stories?

Herlock Sholmes is the name Leblanc switched to once Conan Doyle objected to his borrowing Sherlock Holmes; in the game, the hero has to correct the detective's flawed deductions.

In Ace Attorney Investigations, teenage sidekick Kay Faraday proudly calls herself a great what?

Thief is the title Kay claims as the second Yatagarasu, a legendary figure who steals only to expose corrupt corporate dealings.

The Great Ace Attorney sends its student hero abroad to which setting?

Victorian-era England adds a jury to the trials: when it swings towards guilty, the player wins it back by setting two jurors' statements against each other.

Who is the protagonist of The Great Ace Attorney?

Ryunosuke Naruhodo, an ancestor of Phoenix, starts out as a university student, not a lawyer, who is put on trial for a murder he did not commit.

Which masked rival prosecutor debuts in Trials and Tribulations?

Godot wears the mask because he needs it: it is a visor that restores his damaged sight, though it cannot show him red on a white background.

What does Godot drink constantly in court?

Coffee replaced the bourbon and cigarettes first planned for the hard-boiled Godot, which the team dropped as a bad influence on children.

Which fellow game director voiced Godot in Japanese?

Hideki Kamiya, a fan who had asked for a part, ad-libbed "Objection, baby!" in the booth; the take was liked but dropped, because the on-screen bubble only says "Objection!".

What weapon does Franziska von Karma use on witnesses, lawyers and the judge?

A whip summed up the creator's aim for a second-game cast that felt "100% out of this world", and he was surprised that nobody on the team called the idea ridiculous.

Which Ace Attorney prodigy became a prosecutor at 13?

Franziska von Karma was created so a popular rival would not keep losing: once the writer learned how much players liked Edgeworth, he saved him for the end of the sequel.

In Ace Attorney's English localization, which city are the games mainly set in?

Los Angeles here is an alternate-universe city where anti-Japanese laws were never passed, the localizers' answer to why Japanese culture is everywhere.

Maya's favourite food, ramen, became what in the English version?

Burgers took over from ramen in the English script, and the games later square the two versions by having Maya love both.

As a schoolboy, Phoenix was put on a class trial, accused of stealing what from Edgeworth?

Lunch money was the charge, and the classmate who spoke up for him was Edgeworth himself, the future prosecutor, who back then dreamed of being a defense attorney.

Who took charge of Ace Attorney's English localization from the second game onward?

Janet Hsu also stepped up to the microphone, recording the English courtroom shouts of one of the rival prosecutors.

Whose short story "The Psychological Test" inspired the creator of Ace Attorney?

Edogawa Ranpo's tale has a perfect crime unravel through the culprit's own contradictory testimony, the very idea the courtroom gameplay was built on.

Which boss gave Ace Attorney's creator six months to make any game he wanted?

Shinji Mikami made the offer once Dino Crisis 2 had wrapped, and the young planner, who had joined the company hoping to make mysteries, spent it on a courtroom adventure.

Which prosecutor, nicknamed the "Rookie Killer", is Phoenix's very first courtroom opponent?

Winston Payne earned the nickname by beating novice lawyers, yet he is the first opponent of two rookies, Phoenix and later Apollo, in their opening cases.

What does the original Japanese title Gyakuten Saiban literally mean?

"Turnabout Trial" left its mark on the English games, where the word Turnabout runs through the case titles as a nod to the original name.

Which director made the 2012 live-action Ace Attorney film?

Takashi Miike was best known abroad for violent shockers such as Audition and Ichi the Killer, yet here he made a courtroom comedy-drama that opened at the Rotterdam film festival.

Which security guard at Global Studios has a crush on Edgeworth?

Wendy Oldbag was cut from the third game for lack of cartridge memory, then squeezed back in as a cameo once the team found just enough space.

Which studio produced the 2016 Ace Attorney anime?

A-1 Pictures was doing double duty that year: it also animated the cutscenes of Spirit of Justice, then the newest game in the series.

Which rookie attorney joins Phoenix in Dual Destinies, able to hear emotions in a witness's voice?

Athena Cykes charts those hidden feelings with Widget, a small gadget that hangs round her neck and projects what she hears for the whole court to see.

Which Japanese theatre troupe first staged an Ace Attorney musical in 2009?

Takarazuka Revue shows are performed entirely by women, so an actress played Phoenix, and the 2009 show reworked the story to give him a love interest.

Phoenix Wright shared a 3DS crossover adventure with the hero of which other series?

Professor Layton's studio proposed the pairing, and a Capcom executive was "80 per cent certain" it would be refused; instead the lawyer's creator ended up writing the scenario.

Which real Japanese novelist stands trial as a defendant in The Great Ace Attorney?

Natsume Soseki appears as a jittery exchange student of English, years before his fame, who is charged with a stabbing in the street and cleared by the hero.

Which notoriously unlucky character is accused of murder in two games, with Phoenix defending her both times?

Maggey Byrde is a police officer the first time Phoenix clears her; by the second she has lost that job and is waiting tables, her bad luck intact.

Who is Phoenix's adopted daughter, a young magician, in Apollo Justice?

Trucy is the daughter of the magician Phoenix was defending in the trial that cost him his badge, and it is to support her that the disbarred lawyer takes work as a pianist.

Which prosecutor in Apollo Justice fronts the rock band the Gavinners?

Klavier Gavin was written as a bright, carefree rock star because the creator felt the first three rival prosecutors had all shared a sense of darkness.

Which Dual Destinies prosecutor is a convict who appears in court in shackles?

Simon Blackquill is allowed to keep prosecuting despite a murder conviction, and he brings his pet hawk, Taka, into court to help him intimidate the other side.

Phoenix travels to which fictional kingdom in Spirit of Justice?

Khura'in gives any lawyer who defends a guilty client the same sentence as the client, so by the time Phoenix arrives its defence attorneys have all but vanished.

Who kidnaps Maya during Justice for All's final case to force Phoenix to win an acquittal?

Shelly de Killer prizes trust above all, so when Phoenix shows him that his own client planned to blackmail him, he breaks the contract and vows revenge on the man.

Which prosecutor, unbeaten for forty years, raised and mentored Edgeworth?

Manfred von Karma took the boy in after secretly murdering his father, revenge for the single penalty that had stained his otherwise spotless record.

"Rise from the Ashes" was created for the first Ace Attorney game's re-release on which system?

Nintendo DS hardware shaped the new case: players spray luminol to reveal bloodstains and dust for fingerprints on the touchscreen.

Which aspiring forensic scientist hires Phoenix in the fifth case added to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney?

Ema Skye gets her wish the long way round: she returns in Apollo Justice as a police detective and only becomes a forensic investigator in Spirit of Justice.

Which scruffy Ace Attorney regular ends most of his sentences with "pal"?

Dick Gumshoe was written with almost no backstory; a throwaway threat from Edgeworth to cut his salary simply grew into the running joke about his empty wallet.

Which childhood friend is Phoenix's very first client in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney?

Larry Butz was first planned as an ordinary office worker who turned up only in the fourth case; he was reworked when a new opening case was added and needed a client.

Who is Phoenix's boss and mentor when Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney begins?

Mia Fey is murdered early in that game, yet the third game makes her playable, in flashback cases from her own days as a rookie attorney.

Which voice actor played Phoenix in the English versions of Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice?

Sam Riegel did more than voice the lead: he also directed the English voice recording for Dual Destinies, having first played Phoenix in a fighting game two years earlier.

Which Fey clan member is just eight in Justice for All?

Pearl Fey was first planned as a snooty one-off rival of Maya's own age; a designer argued a much younger girl would be more dramatic, and the writer liked her enough to keep her for more cases.

Which student gave Phoenix a bottle necklace and is exposed as a murderer in Trials and Tribulations?

Dahlia Hawthorne passed him the necklace to hide the poison it had carried, then tried to kill him to get it back, while her twin sister posed as her hoping to recover it peacefully.

Which sea creature stars in the Dual Destinies DLC case "Turnabout Reclaimed"?

An orca is the defendant: in his first case after regaining his badge, Phoenix defends the performing whale against a charge of killing the aquarium's owner.

Which first name, dropped for sounding like a famous rabbit, was the localizers' first idea for Phoenix?

Roger was liked for the alliteration and the jokes it offered, but a developer heard Roger Rabbit in it, so a more heroic name from further down the list won out.