Franchise: Ace Attorney

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.

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."