Franchise: Ace Attorney

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

According to series translator Janet Hsu, the games that make up the "Apollo Justice Trilogy" were grouped together as such because Apollo Justice had a more prominent ongoing character arc compared to Phoenix Wright, despite Apollo Justice's name being in the title of only one game outside of Japan. Hsu felt that this would have been less confusing to some if the games were instead released internationally with sequential numbers like the game's Japanese title, Gyakuten Saiban. Apollo Justice Ace Attorney Trilogy producer Kenichi Hashimoto believed that Apollo could still be the focus of future games, but acknowledged this was yet to be determined.

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.

In the official Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia, Dick Gumshoe's weapon of choice is listed as "Good-Natured Incompetence".

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.

Many players and publications have claimed that the Ace Attorney series was written to be a critique, satire, or parody of the Japanese legal system. These arguments often compare the series' setting with cultural differences and criticized elements of it, including but not limited to: a statistical ~99% rate of conviction; the reliance on witness confessions to secure them; immediate assumptions that a suspect is guilty upon arrest; the lack of a jury; corruption and incompetency among the police, prosecutors and judges; and exaggerated verbal or physical abuse in courtroom proceedings.

However, creator Shu Takumi's statements tell a different story. While he planned out Ace Attorney as a mystery game, he and other developers became concerned that the legal setting applied to it might misinform players about how the Japanese legal system works, but they did not know anyone who studied law to ask for input (Takumi later stated that he was afraid to ask lawyers who had not played the series for their impressions of it). In the end, he insisted that realism was not the point of the game, but to recreate his perception of a tense courtroom atmosphere for a logic and reasoning-based mystery game.

At one point during development, he and a group of developers visited a small local courtroom and sat in on four criminal trials as a "team-building" exercise, with a murder trial as their last. Takumi recalled realizing just how relevant crime is to everyday life and that the courtroom's atmosphere was quiet, undramatic, and "almost homely", notably lacking gavels and the shouting of "Objection!" However, he intentionally did not change the tone of the game's courtroom to reflect this, and it remained based on his original, exaggerated expectations before the visit.

When asked about the possibility of a seventh mainline game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy producer Kenichi Hashimoto stated that it would be difficult to make a game that could appeal to both fans and new players, but believed it was essential for it to retain the same kind of story, characters, puzzles, and pacing that made up the "indispensable" elements of the series. Separately, series producer Motohide Eshiro expressed a desire to include Franziska von Karma in a seventh game after being largely absent outside of the Ace Attorney Investigations games.

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.

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".

When asked what lawyer from the Ace Attorney series they would choose to defend them, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth director Motohide Eshiro stated he would go for the young version of Mia Fey as seen in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, while the former game's producer Takeshi Yamazaki was more uncertain as he perceived all the other lawyers as "a little shaky".

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.

For series localizer Janet Hsu, Miles Edgeworth is the most interesting character for them to localize, because of his overarching character development over the course of the series while still retaining the same personality at heart.

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.

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.