Ace Attorney Weekly Poll [2]: Who is your favourite prosecutor?

So I've been replaying (or rewatching, in some cases) a bunch of Ace Attorney lately. It's gotten me in the mood to write up some big text posts, so I think I'll start a series of threads like this one, in which I'll outline my thoughts on the characters in each game as I'm going along. Some characters will get a bunch of detail from me, others won't. So, away we go!

PHOENIX WRIGHT

This is the game in which Phoenix feels the most like a relatively blank player stand-in. The specific intention with his dialogue was to try and give him the kind of reactions that the player would most likely be having at any given moment. About the only thing to give him much developed character of his own is the bit of backstory he's given surrounding the class trial that first inspired his interest in law. This gives us the first sign of what will become a recurring trait of his, in that Phoenix is kind of... weirdly intense about relationships. His friendship with Larry, established in the game's opening minutes, comes across as very mundane in comparison to the way he'll act toward other friends and allies later.

No problem with that, of course. Leaving his characterization open like this makes it easy for the player to step comfortably into his role in the story from the beginning. Given time, it might start to seem a bit strange how very little we know about Nick outside of the relationships we see directly established during the events of the games, though.

Phoenix in Rise From the Ashes is a different story, to some extent. As a natural result of the case being the last one written in the original trilogy's timeframe, Nick comes across considerably more like the world-weary, deeply sarcastic fellow he'll be in later games. The way he becomes totally despondent and unmotivated with Maya temporarily out of his life is interesting, too. The unfortunate circumstances under which they first met made them pretty emotionally reliant upon one another in no time at all.

LARRY BUTZ

This is Larry at his most harmless. Phoenix describes him as a decent guy in the game's first case, and he comes across that way during that episode. He's overdramatic, but give the guy a break - his girlfriend was just murdered, and despite some misgivings that come up during Larry's trial, Cindy actually seems to have genuinely cared about him.

Case 4 Larry is good, too. He's not especially skilled at helping, but he does his best to try and protect Edgeworth from a Guilty verdict. It even works! Sure, his testimony is as much of a garbled mess as you'll eventually come to expect from the Butz, but it still gets the job done when all hope seems lost.

CINDY STONE

Dead. Shame that it happened, too - she's the only girlfriend of Larry's that we've ever actually met, and as mentioned, she really did seem to care for him. If she hadn't caught the bad side of a Thinker statue, maybe Larry wouldn't have turned into such a complete screw-up.

MIA FEY

Not to discredit Mia, but she's definitely one of the characters to feel the weirdest in retrospect, when you look back at the first game. The Fey family's complicated internal politics definitely hadn't been worked out yet in this game's development, so she's mainly just the cool-headed, big sister-ly mentor who gets killed off so she can become the Fey-us Ex Machina of the next couple of cases. Her relationship with Phoenix doesn't really come across quite as personally as it will later on, as well, what with their history together not being developed yet.

Mia's also mentioned as having been an accomplished spirit medium, but that never really comes up as relevant at all.

WINSTON PAYNE

The Payne is just a dull, spineless tutorial opponent here. Don't worry, he'll improve. In a reimagined version of the first game, I could see the first case having a bit of fun with Payne's response to seeing the same lovesick university dork he prosecuted just a few years earlier now standing alongside the attorney who defended him in that case, and losing to the guy.

FRANK SAHWIT

Obviously a bit of a 'nothing' character, which will certainly seem weird in retrospect once you get into the far less grounded culprits of later games, but he serves his purpose. The toupee throw is a good first display of the courtroom shenanigans you'll get used to with time, too.

THE JUDGE

The courtroom's resident immortal warlock spends a good chunk of this game just being a fairly generic authority figure. He has his moments, but it's clear that his quirks hadn't been figured out just yet for the majority of this story. His better parts tend to come in climactic moments like the end of the final trial in Case 4, when he finally puts his foot down and forces Von Karma to cooperate with the metal detector test that will seal his fate for good.

In Rise From the Ashes, of course, he feels much more like the sillier Judge we'll see for most of the series to come. He's certainly not useless or stupid, and as always, has honourable moments of clear intelligence (his final exchange with Gant comes to mind), but he does still tend to let himself be swayed a bit more easily than someone in his position ought to. That's just a quirk we'll all come to accept with time, of course, and it's far from being seen at its worst in this game.

MAYA FEY

Our peppy burger girl. Maya's... pretty good, here in the first game. Of course she'll improve a ton later, but this first outing with her is decent. One of my favourite things with her in game one is seeing how different her relationship with Phoenix was in their first two cases. Just think about how incredibly close they become, and then look at Turnabout Sisters, in which Maya starts off calling Phoenix "Mr. Wright", and then "Phoenix", before finally arriving at "Nick", which is of course about the only thing she'll ever call him for the rest of the series to date. Phoenix has something similar, of course. His dialogue in Turnabout Samurai is filled with moments of confusion and eye-rolling at Maya's childish antics and wacky outlook on the world. Just give it some time, Nick. Soon enough, you'll care about her more than anyone else you've ever known.

This is Maya during the phase of her life in which she's least motivated to keep up with her spiritual training, and it bites her at least a few times. Being unable to give Phoenix the help he needs by channeling Mia without having to first be under serious stress doesn't exactly do a lot to improve her crippling self-esteem issues. For much of the late story, she badly needs a hug, and unfortunately, Phoenix doesn't yet know her well enough to catch on when it counts.

APRIL MAY

Clearly Ms. May is quite used to having her ditzy-boobs act get whatever she needs done. Sadly for her, even rookie Phoenix takes his job seriously enough not to be particularly swayed, even if he does acknowledge her attractiveness in his head.

The only real depth April ever gets is one momentary suggestion that her actual motivation for taking part in Redd White's criminal activities is fear that White might have her killed if she tries to turn against him in any way.

MISTY FEY

Basically nothing to say at this point.

THE BELLBOY

Phoenix is right to consider this guy a total weirdo. He just seems to live in his own little world, barely affected by the plot developing around him.

DICK GUMSHOE

Gumshoe feels very strange in this game, when you reflect on him. This is a problem that impacts a lot of the cast, of course, due to their quirks and the general over-the-top nature of the game not having been totally figured out yet. He's much more bull-headed and aggressive than in any later game, particularly early on, his running gag of forgetting who Phoenix is doesn't really last past this game at all, his immense admiration for Edgeworth isn't given much context outside of Rise From the Ashes, and really, he can just be kind of a jerk. Not at all the good-hearted, slow-witted teddy bear we'll know later on in the games. He starts to get better in Case 4, when Edgeworth's arrest gives him much more reason to lend his help to Phoenix and Maya.

He's great in Rise From the Ashes, of course. Fiercely loyal to Edgeworth and willing to do whatever it takes to back Phoenix up for Edgeworth's benefit, even if it's going to cost him his job.

MARVIN GROSSBERG

One of the most "normal" lawyers in the whole series. Grossberg isn't a bad guy, but he'll admit to having made some terrible mistakes that have hurt a lot of people, from those he cares about to those he's never met. He doesn't have a ton of depth, though - he's mainly just there to be the game's first DL-6 exposition delivery boy. Great theme music, though.

REDD WHITE

What a waste. Considering what extreme importance Redd White has to the timeline of the series, it's kind of inexcusable how poorly executed a character he turned out to be.

White is set up and sold as a menacing, powerful figure with connections across every branch of the legal system, and countless people under his thumb. He can downright casually have a trial's defendant released and replaced, show off what his long career of blackmail and coercion has afforded him, and, of course, assault or murder anyone he sees as inconvenient seemingly without worry. That last one proves not to be such a terrificent idea, of course.

So what's White's problem? Well, he's got a few. First, he's kind of an idiot. It's a wonder he ever got into such a position of power at all, given how easily he cracks under even a faint amount of pressure. His behaviour in court is a stark change from how confident and arrogant he was when standing in his office. Phoenix points out just one or two minor inconsistencies in White's testimony, and he's already sweating and stumbling over his words. The fact that pre-character development bastard Edgeworth is the prosecutor assigned to the case is about the only reason White isn't indicted inside of ten minutes. Frank Sahwit was genuinely a better liar. Even considering his monumental arrogance, it was idiotic bordering on suicidal for White to change his mind about taking part in the trial surrounding Mia's murder. There's no way Phoenix would've gotten him onto the stand without White himself choosing to allow it.

His next problem is the nature of his defeat. It's been discussed to death, so I'll keep this short. Phoenix manages to work out what he needs to put White into a seriously difficult position during the trial, but thanks to Edgeworth, the blackmail kingpin is given another chance, nearly getting away with Mia's murder without a scratch on him, only for Mia herself to appear as the case's textbook Deus Ex Machina and knock the wind out of him again. Even then, of course, Edgeworth nearly manages to help him wriggle free again, but Mia delivers a second, decisive blow that makes White confess on the spot.

And pretty much every word of this happens without a second of player input. Phoenix becomes a spectator for the trial's entire climax, with Mia's ghost solving the last of the mystery for him and robbing the player of any chance to personally overcome the opposition the whole case has spent building up. It's not even explained why White would be so afraid of Mia's knowledge of his crimes potentially getting out that he would confess to her murder just to stop her or Phoenix saying anything more.

So Phoenix ends up on trial in the second half out of his own stupidity, White ends up in danger out of his stupidity, and ultimately the case is put to rest by the collective stupidity of everyone involved, because in about three days' time, no one ever bothered to check the other side of a piece of paper.

Boy, Turnabout Sisters kinda sucks. Sure, it needs to demonstrate that Phoenix is still far from ever reaching Mia's level of skill, and also introduce Maya's spirit-channeling ability, but the execution of all this is just dumb.

White's other prominent problem is how damn vague everything about him is. We see that he has Grossberg under pressure. We hear about countless lives he's ruined and reputations he's destroyed, and we get small, brief moments that suggest his reach might extend even as far as the other people involved in the trial. Problem is, none of this is really explored in any meaningful detail, nor do we ever get a clear answer as to just how many people White has dirt on. Edgeworth? The Judge? The police involved? It's all a hand-waved "maybe", at most.

The incredible anticlimax of White's part in the story will only become more jarring with time, too.

MILES EDGEWORTH

Our first meeting with an eternal rival. Edgeworth starts out as a right jerk who shows no particular hesitation to pull dirty tricks and manipulate witness testimony in whatever way he feels will suit him best. He's a victim of the writing in Turnabout Sisters to some degree, though - his case isn't particularly solid at all, and is really only held together by his competence as a prosecutor. His near-obsessive drive to maintain his perfect prosecution record shows pretty strongly in his refusal to back down from providing Redd White with all the help he can during the final trial segment, and this paints a pretty negative picture of Edgeworth's morals overall during his debut case. It's interesting to consider that Shu Takumi didn't originally intend for Edgeworth to actually be likeable, when you compare to his characterization later on in the series. His very scummy behaviour in this case seems to support that original view on him more than anything else. The problem with Redd White comes up again here - was Edgeworth himself under any pressure from White? It's pretty damn vague, and never really clears up in this case or later.

We only see hints of Edgeworth's past history with Phoenix in Case 2, and a bit more in Case 3, before Case 4 hits and we learn the rest. And of course, in Case 4, following from his decision to turn against his lead witness in Case 3 and effectively lose himself the case, Edgeworth finds himself in an extremely difficult, vulnerable position. Now facing a murder charge of his own, and with Phoenix insistently demanding the chance to defend him, he's forced to endure a case that dredges up all manner of deeply traumatic memories from his childhood and all the time since. Uncovering the truth behind that trauma makes up most of this game's emotional climax, and we get a conclusion that I find pretty damn satisfying when Manfred von Karma is finally proven to be the culprit behind the DL-6 Incident after so many years. Not bad for a game that I don't think really gets to be good at all until its fourth case.

I've seen years' worth of divided opinions on Edgeworth in Rise From the Ashes. It's a very common take to dislike the way the case erases the previous ambiguity on whether or not Edgeworth ever actually deliberately forged evidence throughout his career, giving a decisive answer of "no". I personally already take some issue with the way the series has kinda just shrugged and said "whatever" to the implication that Edgeworth was most likely responsible for countless false Guilty verdicts over the years, all but certainly sending more than a few innocent people to prison (and potentially their deaths) for crimes they didn't commit. So, that in mind, I'm not really bothered by the story giving a definitive statement that he never (deliberately) stooped to evidence forgery.

I do like the way Gant's statements toward him are shown to affect Edgeworth, who is already struggling with an identity crisis in the wake of Case 4's ending. I honestly think this sets up quite well for his disappearance following this game, although JFA for suffers a bit from originally being written with only 1-4 as Edgeworth's last prior appearance. A minor dialogue change to reflect the presence of 1-5 in the timeline isn't really enough to fix that.

WILL POWERS

A total teddy bear. Powers is just a good guy all around, with no real flaws written into him besides a distinct lack of self-esteem.

JACK HAMMER

Dead, and by all appearances a jerk. Not much more to say.

WENDY OLDBAG

Oldbag isn't nearly the exaggerated joke she'll later become here. Sure, she's a cranky old woman and a creep toward Edgeworth, but she does actually have some noticeably humanizing, sympathetic traits in Case 3. They'll pretty much evaporate later on, though. See the ring on her finger? One has to wonder if any of her abrasion comes from the loss of her husband.

SAL MANELLA

Gross. Fuck this creep. (Don't actually, though, you deserve better.)

There's nothing likeable about him, and that appears to be intentional. At least his localized 1337-speak dialogue is kinda funny, like a relic from the game's release time.

PENNY NICHOLS

Sorry, who?

... One thing I found interesting about Penny upon returning to game one is that her appearance in the ending seems to suggest she actually made friends with Maya, and they've maintained some level of contact after Maya's return home to Kurain Village. Big-time Steel Samurai fans have gotta stick together, I guess.

CODY HACKINS (who I forgot on my first pass through this post)

Kind of irritating? Not much depth? Responsible for at least one of the annoying fetch-quest sections in this case's boring, overlong investigation phases? I haven't got much for Cody.

DEE VASQUEZ

Vasquez is just kinda boring, and feels a little aimless in places. On one hand, she's about the most composed of all culprits in the series when under pressure and even when defeated, and is also the series' first attempt at a culprit who leans at least a little closer to sympathetic than average, but on the other, she clearly shows no real hesitance to blackmail someone, frame someone else for her crimes, and, y'know... the whole "tries to get Phoenix and Maya murdered by the mob" thing. She's just a weird anomaly of a character, and not especially memorable. For being the first "wacky" case in the series, Turnabout Samurai sure has some dull characters.

LOTTA HART

I like Lotta more than most seem to. I think she's kinda charming, and while her pushy desire to make a name for herself as a photojournalist tends to make a lot more trouble than it solves, when it comes down to it, she does try her best to help out. The anime made her pretty cute, too, while eliminating a lot of her worse traits.

ROBERT HAMMOND

Dead bastard.

POLLY

The bird - the witness - the legend. (And the half-assed joke.)

GREGORY EDGEWORTH

Dead dad. Very little to say on him here. He's really just shown to have been a highly skilled defence attorney, and a good person in general.

YANNI YOGI

The first real attempt at a sympathetic culprit, and while I think later efforts do a fair bit better, he's a good one. It would be better if more screentime was given to his actual persona as a broken old man, rather than spending nearly all of it on his act as the senile boat shopkeep. His past does make him genuinely sympathetic, what with how everything he had in life was forcibly torn away from him simply because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being manipulated and thrown away as a tool for Von Karma's obsessive revenge scheme can't have helped him much, either.

MANFRED VON KARMA

Such a lust for revenge. Who could've guessed? Obsessed, evil, sociopathic narcissist with a fifteen-year plot to destroy the life and legacy of a well-meaning defence attorney who bruised his ego. Manfred's a monstrous bastard with pretty much zilch in the way of redeeming qualities, and all of early Edgeworth's worst traits came straight from him.

He's appropriately menacing in the courtroom, using his fearsome reputation and unrelenting aggression to try and bully the entire court into playing by his rules. It can only carry him so far, though. Even our Judge has his limits, and his eventual unwillingness to let Von Karma control the trial is what finally ensures the veteran prosecutor's defeat.

Something I guess I'll ask this community about, with regards to Von Karma - I've seen some opinions that he's improved as a character by his appearance in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. I disagree with that pretty strongly, feeling that his appearance there actually tries to downplay what an evil bastard he was while simultaneously robbing Gregory Edgeworth of a lot of his strength in getting Von Karma his single penalty in the first place, but I'd like to understand the viewpoint a bit more. Anyone have anything to offer?

EMA SKYE

Far from the day she'll become my favourite character, but this teenaged Ema is pretty good. I find her intentional, extreme Maya resemblance weird, though. It kinda makes it hard to view her as her own person until later on in the incredibly long runtime of Rise From the Ashes. Once she gets there, though, she finally gets to show off a decent bit that makes her more unique, having a much more strained relationship with her older sister, and a whole lot of trauma in her recent past.

LANA SKYE

Good. Not great, but good. Lana keeps a whole lot bottled up out of a desire to protect her little sister, even when she knows that doing so will damage their relationship, possibly irreparably. It's hard not to feel for her when she's desperately trying to stop Phoenix exposing the "truth" about Neil Marshall's death. It's damn lucky that Ema's apparent role in the incident turned out to be something that Gant faked for his own gain, or this case would've ended in tragedy.

I kinda wish we could hear something more from Lana post-timeskip, seeing as her sister has gone on to become such a prominent supporting character.

BRUCE GOODMAN

Dead. Decent guy, by all appearances. Maybe a bit of a bad judge of character, not realizing he was inadvertently setting Gant up to kill him. There's some suggestion that he also wasn't an especially brilliant detective.

ANGEL STARR

Some sympathetic traits, some that are less so. A spiteful lunch lady with some legitimate reasons for hating prosecutors. Not the worst grudge-holder in this series.

JAKE MARSHALL

Similar, though leaning more toward sympathetic. Jake has mostly managed to forgive the people Angel hasn't, with his life's goal having become his singular desire to uncover the truth behind his brother's death, even if it costs him what little of his career remains. Cool theme music.

MIKE MEEKINS

Don't really know what to say. Meekins is a ridiculous goof, and can be entertaining, but his part in this case really just feels like padding, and a lot of it.

JOE DARKE

Dead nutcase. What was his deal? Overworked? Just plain volatile? Did he really intend to turn himself in for good, and just panic during his questioning? This is the kind of place where RFTA could've afforded to spend some more time, instead of on a first trial and first investigation that both turn out to be a near-total waste of time.

NEIL MARSHALL

Dead, decent guy. He may well have saved Ema's life, and he deserves credit for that.

DAMON GANT

Class act, as far as villains go. Gant is a far better attempt at the same sort of role that Redd White played, being a powerful, intimidating figure with a great deal of sway in the legal system. Unlike White, he doesn't suffer from being a moron who buries himself under his own mistakes, and it takes focused teamwork from Phoenix, Gumshoe, and Edgeworth to bring him down.

His final portion of the case does seem a bit weird, though - he really could've just walked out of the court and gotten away with Goodman's murder for most of that segment, and he even gets one foot out the door at one point, only to decide to turn around and resume his head-to-head debate with Phoenix, ultimately resulting in his defeat.

(... I haven't missed anyone of note, have I?)

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Sketched Trucy out of boredom. Might draw it digitally later on

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 04:24 PM PDT

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An interpretation of my OC as an attorney.

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 11:41 AM PDT

submitted by /u/LORENZODMJ
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Have a trash fanart of Lana and Damon

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 05:56 PM PDT

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I want to learn English using the Phoenix Wright games.

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 09:09 PM PDT

My English writing skills are poor relative to many U.S. Americans. I want to use the Phoenix Wright games to improve my English skills. Also, you need strong attention-to-detail and reading comprehension to play through the visual novels, so I can train these skills on top of English reading and writing.

Should I go with the HD collections or should I stick with the DS versions?

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Question about Sal Manella

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 05:00 PM PDT

So, just replayed AA1, and I just wanted to see if anyone has an answer to this. Sal was established as an accomplice for Vasquez, moving the body to Studio One and all. But in the first Investigations game, Sal makes a cameo in the 2nd case, presumably being completely fine.

So, my question is, did this ever get officially addressed? The only one I haven't played is Investigations 2, so maybe there's something there. Or, Sal is an absolute bastard and remains the only guilty person to not be punished for his actions. I'm curious to know. Thanks!

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an imagined conversation for my favorite punny game (TRIALS AND TRIBULATION)

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 04:51 PM PDT

*a conversation over drinks...coffee drinks, that is. Specifically, godot blend no 105*

wright: I've just realized that ELDOON is noodle spelled backwards....

godot: well, isn't that a rather trite name...it's almost as if his only career choice was to sell noodles.

wright: and you realize that if Mia had married you, her name would've sounded like ME ARM AND TOE

godot: *breaks coffee cup*

wright: And there's something about Redd White being the ceo of Bluecorp that seems rather fishy. You know, it almost reminds me of something...

godot: *looks down at own clothes* well...those are nice colors

wright: colors that....YOU CAN'T SEE?

END SCENE/FIN (Godot gets roasted into oblivion for not being able to see red on white)

submitted by /u/anomianomaly
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yo if anybody wants to join this objection.lol court room your welcome to come in

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 06:35 PM PDT

http://objection.lol/courtroom/room/8yguln

submitted by /u/Dontwastemytime99
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How do I edit a save file on Ace Attorney trilogy on PC

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 06:31 PM PDT

To make a long story short I messed up when I saved on part two of the first day of the trial when defending Maximilian Galatica. The problem is where I saved since I only have two blue bars left I'm in an infinite loop and then don't have a backup save. So I was wondering if any one could help me be telling me how to edit saves.

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The Sprite Turnabout

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 03:30 PM PDT

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How in the world did Manfred von Karma have children?!

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:43 AM PDT

I already asked about Franziska being a legitimate child and I apologise for asking such a similar question again but some things just don't make sense in my mind...

Manfred was known for never taking a single holiday in his 40 years of working (except for that one time)
in AATT it's stated that Franziska was BORN and RAISED in Germany
according to the wiki and Manfred's statement Franziska has an older sibling that most likely is 10+ years older than her (having a 7 y/o child in AA1)

So how did Manfred have a child? Did he have a wife who lived in Germany with both children but sometimes returned (to get pregnant again lol)? Or did he have two different wives? Or were they possibly separated but then how could Manfred influence Franziska that much if they never/rarely saw each other?

Side question: And why isn't the second child a famous Prosecutor if they are a von Karma (well we don't actually know that but it's never mentioned)?

Also side question: how could Miles Edgeworth have grown up with Franziska when she was in Germany?

Once again I am aware that it's probably just a plot hole but it makes me think and I'd like to hear your inputs to the subject :)

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Mia Fey bodypillow (art by me)

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 08:42 AM PDT

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I'm sorry for not being more careful with how I worded the last post. I'm an idiot.

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:38 PM PDT

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Just Finished Apollo Justice

Posted: 08 Aug 2020 06:20 AM PDT

I don't know how they have the ability to give us shockingly mind blowing twists every single game. It's absolutely shocking how they make Apollo and Trucy and Lamiroir all related. I do have some questions. Do Apollo and Trucy ever find out? Does Lamiroir/Thalassa Gramarye ever jump into their lives? No need to explain or anything just say yes or no in the comments. I'll either be playing Dual Destinies or the Fan Translation of DGS-1 next.

submitted by /u/Phrophetsam
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Sunday, August 9, 2020

Ace Attorney Weekly Poll [2]: Who is your favourite prosecutor?

Ace Attorney Weekly Poll [2]: Who is your favourite prosecutor?

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