Franchise: Ace Attorney

According to series creator Shu Takumi in a 2017 interview, Capcom executives issued two mandates affecting the writing of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The first mandate was that the game had to include Phoenix Wright in the story, which went against Takumi's original idea for a reset of the series. The second mandate was to incorporate the Lay Judge system, a real-life judicial system, into the story, resulting in the creation of Spoiler:the MASON System game program and the trial run of a new Jurist System in the game's last case "Turnabout Succession". The Ace Attorney series began as a critique of how Japan's legal system handles criminal offenses, but around this time, that system was changing. While Japan previously suspended an older jurist system in 1943, their legislative body, the National Diet, gradually implemented a new lay judge system (裁判員, or "Saiban-in") from 2004 to 2009. This system, resembling more democratic systems in North American and European countries, calls upon six random common citizens to serve in serious criminal trials as inquisitorial judges sitting alongside three professional judges. Together they make up the judicial panel and actively analyze and investigate evidence presented to them throughout the trial before ruling on guilt and sentencing. Reflecting this, Spoiler:the Jurist System seen at the end of Turnabout Succession is made up of six random jurors guided by Phoenix Wright, where the player from the sixth juror's perspective has to rule the defendant Guilty or Not Guilty.

Takumi revealed that as part of the game’s promotion, Capcom collaborated with the Japanese Ministry of Justice and even gave a presentation of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney at the ministry's head office, implying that the system's mandated inclusion in the game was political propaganda. Despite Capcom cooperating in the Japanese government's push for this new system and despite participation experiences being reported as positive and easy to understand, the reception to other aspects of the system were largely negative. Complaints included gradually more severe sentencing since its implementation, the risk of criminal penalties for lay judges publicly discussing confidential deliberation room details after trials come to an end, and most starkly, calling upon Japanese citizens to put aside time to participate in the system, who have been increasingly unwilling to do so. This decline in interest has been largely attributed to the length of lay judge trials and even the length of pre-trial proceedings increasing significantly over the next decade, and due to aging populations and people simply not being able to make these commitments, more citizens refused to serve or even show up to be vetted for serving in the first place, making it harder to fill out the jury.

As a result of this reception, the Ace Attorney series has not used Spoiler:the MASON System and the Jurist System since, sticking with the series' traditional Initial Trial system in future games.

In the English dub of the Ace Attorney anime, the character Furio Tigre is voiced by Sam Riegel, the English voice of series protagonist Phoenix Wright starting with his appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (with the exception of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, where Phoenix was instead voiced by Trevor White). Based on a tweet from Kyle Phillips, the voice director for the dub, this appears to be intentional, as the case Tigre was involved in, "Recipe for Turnabout", involved him Spoiler:posing as Phoenix in a plot to frame Maggey Byrde for murder.

Hideo Kojima, best known as the creator of the Metal Gear series, is a fan of the Ace Attorney series and tried to recruit some of its developers to Konami after the release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, including Shu Takumi and Shinji Mikami.

The first 3 games in this series were released on the GBA, only in Japan. When the first game was ported to the Nintendo DS, a new case was added. This case caused a continuity error in the second game, when the original last case of the first game was said to be Edgeworth's last case. This was corrected in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which updated some of the lines of dialogue to fit the new case into the series timeline. Specifically:

• "(But after "that" case was over...)" became "(But a little after "that" case was over...)"
• "After that case, Edgeworth was in a peculiar state, and he got worse everyday." became "Edgeworth was never quite the same after that case, and then, with the case after that one..."
• "That was one year ago. It was right after you left to go back home." became "That was one year ago. It was a few months after you left to go back home."

From 2009 to 2013, Capcom Japan collaborated with the all-female musical theater company Takarazuka Revue to produce three musicals based on the Ace Attorney series, the first time Takarazuka had ever collaborated with a game company. The first production, "Gyakuten Saiban: The Truth Reborn", sold out all tickets on its first day, and with the second musical ("Gyakuten Saiban 2: The Truth Reborn, Again...") drew a combined total attendance of over 50,000 people. According to series creator Shu Takumi, the musical's director Suzuki Kei cleared the first four Ace Attorney games seven times each before sitting down to write the script. Additionally, while he was not involved in the first musical's production, Takumi did contribute feedback midway through the second musical's production. The musicals were successful enough that it prompted the Revue to partner with Capcom again to produce a musical based on the Sengoku Basara series, and once more to produce "Dai Gyakuten Saiban: New Truth Reborn", a musical based on the The Great Ace Attorney spinoff games.

A running gag throughout the Ace Attorney series involves the protagonist and his assistant having a conversation about the difference between a ladder and a stepladder. First occurring in "Turnabout Samurai", the third case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a stepladder has appeared in at least one location in each game to date (with the exception of The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures) for the sole purpose of continuing the tradition. The conversation generally goes as follows: after examination, the protagonist and one of their partner characters engage in a debate about the usage of the words "ladder" and "stepladder", and the difference between the two. Usually, one will accuse the other of being too absorbed in the details instead of looking at the big picture to realize that they both serve roughly the same function, to which the latter's response will often vary. Additionally, similar gags in regards to other items in the series have also been used, particularly in The Great Ace Attorney games, which primarily use a variant of the debate involving the difference between a shovel and a spade instead.

Within the various re-releases of the Ace Attorney games, an achievement is added that can be unlocked for engaging in every "ladder vs. stepladder" debate within the games featured in that collection. In the case of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a second achievement for engaging in every "shovel vs. spade" debate within the two games is also included.

One of the primary Western influences of Ace Attorney is the American crime drama series "Columbo", of which series creator Shu Takumi is a professed fan, and who based his character profiles on the sharpness and secrecy of Lieutenant Columbo:


In the 2015 interview the above quote came from, Takahiro Ookura, writer of the Japanese crime drama series "Enter Lieutenant Fukuie", commented afterwards:


Additionally, the character design for Detective Dick Gumshoe is likely modeled off of Columbo's actor Peter Falk; Gumshoe's squint and uneven eyebrows mirror those of Falk, whose signature squint was the result of using an artificial right eyeball stemming from a childhood eye surgery.

For the first three Ace Attorney games, if the game detects the GBA version of the Japanese release of Ace Attorney, Gyakuten Saiban, in the GBA slot while starting the Japanese DS version, the first four cases are unlocked from the beginning. The GBA-slot support was removed from international releases.

Mia Fey's Japanese given name, "Chihiro", can mean "great depth", or "a thousand fathoms". Shu Takumi describes her name as being a pun, with the kanji together meaning "a thousand questions", as in "If I have to ask him 1000 times, I will!" The second kanji is also the first in "cross examination". The "sato" in her Japanese surname may come from the word for "village" or "home country", while the "aya" part has no particular meaning.

Apollo Justice's Japanese surname, "Odoroki", comes from the word for "a surprise".

In Edgeworth's original design, he was going to be a 36 year-old veteran prosecutor, but the staff decided that was not interesting enough as a rival. When Shu Takumi saw the second version of the character, he was struck with inspiration and created the back story between him and Wright.

Miles Edgeworth's name may come from "edge of a sword", just like his Japanese surname "Mitsurugi", which contains the kanji for sword. This may be a reference to both Gregory and Miles Edgeworth having sharp minds and being "worthy" opponents for Manfred von Karma and Phoenix Wright, respectively. His first name in Japanese, "Reiji" comes from the kanji for "cleverness".

Maya Fey's Japanese given name, "Mayoi", means "true evening". When written in kana, "mayoi" means "hesitation" or "doubt". The name was apparently picked from a list of kanji that Shu Takumi liked. "Maya" was chosen as her english name because it closely resembles her Japanese name. The name Maya can either come from the Sanskrit for "illusion" or, similarly to her sister Mia's name, as a pet form of "Maria", which is itself the Latin equivalent of "Mary". "Mary" is originally from the Hebrew for "bitterness". This could be a reference to her sister's unpleasant death. Other possible meanings include: "rebelliousness" and "beloved-child".

During production, the name "Souka Naruhodou" (which translates to "Oh, yes, I see now") was suggested as Phoenix Wright's Japanese name, but quickly dismissed. It was decided to settle for just "Naruhodou".

In the Japanese versions of each game, Maya Fey's favorite food is ramen. However, this was changed to burgers in the US releases.

Sega built a theme park attraction called the "Gyakuten Kenji in Joypolis" dedicated to the Gyakuten Kenji games. The attraction has each visitor investigate a crime scene and look for clues in 20 minutes, after which they then write their conclusions in their own organizers.

Phoenix Wright's Japanese surname, "Naruhodou" is a reference toward the Japanese expression "naruhodo", which roughly means "I see", "I understand" or "indeed".

In the French translations of the games, Detective Dick Gumshoe is named "Dick Tektiv", a pun on the word "detective".

Shu Takumi, the creator of the Ace Attorney series, had always wanted to make a mystery game. He gained this opportunity when Capcom told him to get 7 inexperienced employees and "make whatever you want". His idea for a lawyer based game was frowned upon by the higher-ups, but tried to convince them that the game would be interesting with its "eccentric" characters.