Franchise: Ace Attorney

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.

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".

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".