Fun Facts About The Ace Attorney Franchise

Ace Attorney is a video game series set in Japan or California depending on what language you’re playing. The famous original trilogy focuses on Phoenix Wright as he starts his career as a defence attorney. It’s since gone on have three more main games, two spin-offs, and two prequels. The series is inspired by detective shows like Columbo and Sherlock Holmes. The premise in most of the games is where you have to represent a defendant in homicide cases and prove them innocent.

What makes the series so unique is it’s colourful characters, witty dialogue and overarching stories that bring the game to life. As the franchise itself is over 20 years old, I thought I would write about the facts of my favourite game series that interest me.

Capcom released perfumes themed about the main attorneys and their rival prosecutors.

This is something that I have only found out recently during a simple eBay search.

There was an old fan theory that Damon Gant was Apollo Justice’s biological father.

As ridiculous as it sounds, it has solid ground on a series as crazy as Ace Attorney. There’s nothing fandoms love more than an outragous theory with solid proof. This one had quite a lot of support when I saw it on forums. The base of this theory is that Apollo and his mother, Thalassa have names that originate from Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, Thalassa is a sea god. Damon Gant also makes his love for swimming very prominent. Gant’s physical appearance also appears be inspired by Zues with his lightning bolt fringe.

This theory has now been outdated and debunked with Apollo’s father and Thalassa’s first husband being revealed in Dual Destinies. However, it’s still a fun theory.

Janet Hsu provided Franziska von Karma’s voice in the French and English localisations.

The team assigned to the games were a small team. Many of the staff behind the games also provided the small bits of voice acting. Janet Hsu who worked on localising and translating the games provided Franziska’s voice. Franziska is also on of Janet’s favourite characters, so I feel she must have been honoured giving her a voice.

Gyakuten Saiban was originally intended to be a stand alone for the Gameboy Colour.

Gyakuten Saiban (literal translation: turnabout trial) was originally intended to be just a stand alone game for the gameboy colour. Once the developers saw the upcoming Gameboy Advance, they were so impressed with it they decided to make the game for the upcoming console. The game was officially released in Japan on the 13th October in 2001. Producer Atsushi Inaba was so impressed with the first game, he suggested it to become a trilogy.

Miles Edgeworth was voted the most popular character in a Famitsu poll.

Ever since the conception of the games, Miles Edgeworth has always been a standout character. Weather it’s his fantastic character development over the series or his classy fashion choices, the games give you plenty of reasons to like him. Miles Edgeworth becomes the main character in the two spin off games; Ace Attorney Investagations 1 and 2. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is the only Ace Attorney game to my knowlege without an official English translation, but there is a fan-made translation readily availible.

Nintendo Life ranked Trials & Tribulations as the best Ace Attorney game.

The concluding game of the trilogy is one that many will never forget. Whilst the Ace Attorney anime merged the first two games into one series, the second series had Trials & Tribulations as it’s sole focus. It’s got unforgettable characters like Godot, Dahlia Hawthorne and the much beloved characters from the last two games. We learn a lot about Maya’s family and the brutal culture of her clan that almost makes Game of Throne’s Lannister family look like pussy cats. Everything ties up wonderfully together in the trilogy’s final game.

Turnabout Big Top isn’t a favourite among fans, but it’s one of Shu Takumi’s favourites.

Turnabout Big Top is theatrical case where the ringmaster of a circus is murdered. Some of the characters in the case can come across as annoying or borderline idiotic which is one of the reasons why it’s not a well loved case between the fandom. Despite that, it is creator, Shu Takumi’s favourite cases because he was able to add elements that he could only do in a video game.

The video games have had several adaptations.

The Ace Attorney anime is one of the most famous adaptions, but no everybody knows about the other adaptions which include musicals, live-action movies and even manga books.

At one point, The Ace Attorney Kink Meme was one of the biggest on the internet.

A kink meme is an anonymous fandom space where users can request and fulfill fan fiction requests. Requests can range from anything from erotic thrills and slice of life stories. Most of these kink meme spaces from other fandoms have since died out. Ace Attorney’s kink meme was one of the most popular and active ones on the internet around a decade ago. Whilst nowhere near as active as it once was, it still has the occasional boost in activity when new games are released.

The legal system in Ace Attorney is dystopian and corrupt.

Our final fact for the games I would like to share is just how dystioian and corrupt the legal system in this universe is. Judges are shown to be incompetent and gullible. Detective Gumshoe has to live on instant noodles because they keep docking his salary. Prosecutors seem to live a life of luxury.

Prosecutors even bring weapons to the court and nobody batters an eyelid. They‘ve had a parrot as a witness to a trial. In the second case, Maya is arrested or killing her sister because her name is written in blood. They don’t even come up with a motif to why Maya would kill her sister. They just assume she was there so she must have done it.