You’ve probably noticed some of the changes already, but here’s a quick rundown on the most important ones:
The sidebar has been rewritten to be more clear and concise, with rules categorized by topics (discussion, art, etc.) so it’s easier to check whichever one applies to your posts.
Rules are now more lenient on memes and jokes. We’ve lightened the threshold of what’s considered “low-effort” and further specified what kind of content is encouraged.
Rules are now more strict on tier lists. The “Tuesdays-only” rule remains, but we’ve also made it so tier lists are only acceptable as a complement to actual analysis or discussion.
We’ve updated the flairs to be more visually intuitive, and added flairs relating to humor and fan-created content other than illustrations, like music covers or handicrafts.
Original fanart posted on the subreddit will be highlighted on the sidebar! We’ll be updating the rotation from time to time, with proper credits and links to the original posts (this is done manually and only allows 10 images at a time, so please bear with us).
With all that explained, here’s the new FAQ, this time reformatted for easier readability!
Play Order and Availability
Make sure to check our Recommended Play Order Chart! This includes info on mainline vs. spin-off games and platform availability. All games are currently available on PC and consoles via collection remasters, with the sole exception of the "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright" crossover.
Any game is worth playing if you’re interested in the series. No game so far has been considered bad by general fandom opinion, and questions of “is this game worth it” are always unanimously answered with “yes”. Just go for it!
You might see the term “filler case” thrown around, but it's not recommended at all to skip any episodes within a game.
Game and Episode Abbreviations
The Ace Attorney fandom uses numbers as shorthand for game episodes. For example, 5-3 means "game 5, episode 3". This would be "Turnabout Academy" from Dual Destinies.
For spin-off games, fans usually specify the subseries before the code. For example, AAI2-4 or I2-4 would be "Investigations 2, episode 4". On a related note, some common abbreviations are:
AAI: "Ace Attorney Investigations" subseries.
TGAA: "The Great Ace Attorney" subseries (DGS for "Dai Gyakuten Saiban" is also used).
PW:AA: "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" (the 1st mainline game).
AJ:AA: "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney" (the 4th mainline game).
VS: "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright" (a crossover spin-off).
The rest of the individual games are abbreviated per their subtitle (i.e. T&T for "Trials and Tribulations", SoJ for "Spirit of Justice", and so forth).
Special Episode Order
Dual Destinies's Special Episode: Turnabout Reclaimed, can be played after beating the main game as a bonus, but is often recommended to be played chronologically instead. This would be right after Episode 2: The Monstrous Turnabout.
Spirit of Justice's Special Episode: Turnabout Time Traveler, should be played after beating the main game, which is also its chronological placement. This would be right after Episode 5: Turnabout Revolution.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles features eight "Escapade" mini-episodes available under "Special Contents". These should be played at any point after beating the first game in the collection (The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures).
The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, used to have two Special Episodes back in its Japan-only release on Nintendo 3DS, which are not included in the current release on modern platforms. You can watch a read-along-style fan-translation here (currently, this is the only format both episodes have been made fully available in English). These are best enjoyed after beating the main game.
Character Name Discrepancies
The 2011 game “Ace Attorney Investigations 2” went unreleased in the west for over a decade, and it was only playable in English through a fan-translation patch until an official translation was released in 2024.
Each translation localized the characters’ names differently. Due to the fan-translation’s popularity and longevity, some fans still use the character names from it. Key differences include:
Eustace Winner (official) / Sebastian Debeste (fan-translation)
Verity Gavèlle (official) / Justine Courtney (fan-translation)
Eddie Fender (official) / Raymond Shields (fan-translation)
“The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles” features fictional detective Sherlock Holmes as part of its main cast. When these games were localized into English, the character’s name was changed to Herlock Sholmes, presumably to avoid legal issues with the Conan Doyle State, who retains partial ownership of the character.
The change was well received due to its humoristic nature, but both names are still used interchangeably amongst the fanbase.
Asking for specific character codes in this subreddit has proven to not be very fruitful. To amend that, we suggest you join the "Untitled Courtroom" Discord server instead! It's the largest hub for Objection.lol content, with dedicated channels for official and custom codes, and people willing to help.
Note r/AceAttorney is not affiliated with this server. Objection.lol is a fan-run website and tool used to create custom courtroom scenes.
Soft-Locked in a Game
The only known way to get soft-locked in Ace Attorney is to save the game right after making a choice that's about to grant you a Game Over.
If you believe to be soft-locked during an investigation or cross-examination, try going through a walkthrough and make sure you haven't missed any details.
If you saved your game during an imminent "Game Over" dialogue branch, you'll have to choose the "Episode Select" and/or "Chapter Select" menu from the title screen to restart the specific segment you were playing. This is available on all current-platform collections, but some older releases do not have this feature and you will have to restart the entire episode instead.
Framerate on 3D Games
For reasons unknown, both "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy" and "The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles" are designed and capped to run at 30fps.
You may force these games to run at 60fps on PC by searching and installing community mods via their Steam pages (here for AJ:AAT, and here for TGAAC). Keep in mind mods are unofficial and thus not guaranteed to work properly.
Jagged Graphics on “Apollo Justice”
The version of "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney" available on modern platforms has image scaling issues when playing on non-1080p displays. Here are some known workarounds:
For PC Steam and Steam Deck users, open the game in your library, click the Options icon on the top-right corner, select "Properties" and set "Game Resolution" to 1920x1080 (if this option is missing for you, you might have to change your own monitor's resolution). Then launch the game, go into the in-game's Options menu, scroll down to "PC Config" and set "Resolution" to 1920x1080.
For Nintendo Switch 2 handheld users, go into the console's System Settings from the HOME Menu, scroll down to "System", select "Nintendo Switch Software Handling" and activate "Handheld Mode Boost". Then launch the game.
Sadly, there are no other currently known fixes. As other fans have done, you can submit a request to Capcom to complain about this issue and increase the odds of them eventually addressing it.
Over the years, there have been frequent conversations around the same topics in r/AceAttorney and the fanbase in general. If you’re interested in other fans’ opinions, we’ve summarized and compiled some previous threads so you can read up on the following:
What do we know about Ace Attorney 7?
In November 2020, a massive Capcom leak revealed an internal roadmap indicating “Ace Attorney 7” to be in production, with a projected release for Q3 2021. Unlike other Ace Attorney projects also leaked through the roadmap, this never came to fruition.
In December 2023, the Apollo Justice Trilogy producer claimed in an interview that “Ace Attorney will not be stopping as a series”. In May 2026, Capcom’s Earnings Report mentioned Ace Attorney as one of several “leading brands” they plan to expand. Any mention of new video games as part of this strategy was made by grouping all of these brands together, without clear specifications.
In summary, “Ace Attorney 7” has never been officially confirmed by Capcom, and the leak from 2020 is the only tell that concrete plans for it existed at some point. Still, Capcom does consider Ace Attorney to be a valuable brand they wish to nurture as of 2026, which many fans take as indication that a new game is likely to happen at some point, despite being long overdue already.
What do people think about Turnabout Big Top (2-3)?
This is the most controversial episode in the series, particularly due to featuring a love triangle between multiple adult men and an underage girl as part of its narrative. Fans unanimously agree that this is detrimental, but some people also question the leaps of logic within the mystery, or argue that the characters in general feel obnoxious.
Director Shu Takumi notoriously wrote most of Justice for All while drunk on whiskey. The later anime adaptation (with Takumi himself serving as script supervisor) completely removes the “love triangle” aspect and is overall considered a very big improvement.
What’s up with characters like Hotti or Sal Manella? Or jokes about Trucy’s panties?
When playing the older games, you might come across certain lines of dialogue that have aged poorly (or were already questionable back then), the most infamous example being characters expressing attraction towards underage women as a gag.
The Ace Attorney series was written in Japan starting from 2001, and as such features content that might not be culturally acceptable in the west, or in the present day. Localization director Janet Hsu opines in their blogs that, from a Japanese cultural standpoint, these gags are not to be taken as normalizing such behaviors, but rather ridiculing the people who perpetuate them.
Ace Attorney is generally considered to be progressive for its time, welcoming LGBTQ+ interpretations for its characters and being mindful of queer themes and gender identity as far back as the mid-2000s. Still, it could be argued the series makes little attempt at being politically correct. Much of its humor derives from dark comedy, featuring jokes at the expense of murder, suicide, fetishes, drug addiction, etc., generally in a deliberate attempt to make the player feel awkward or do a double-take.
All that said, characters displaying pedophilic or predatory behavior in particular have been phased out after Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, originally released in 2007.
Though not a unanimous opinion, The Great Ace Attorney duology is frequently regarded by fans as some of the series’ best output in terms of narrative.
That said, the first game (“Adventures”) has a notoriously slow start. Episode 1 is the longest “tutorial” case in Ace Attorney, while Episode 2 does not feature a trial segment at all. The “Late 19th Century” setting and sociopolitical undertones also translate to slightly more verbose and rich dialogue, contributing to the feeling of a tougher read.
While some consider this to be a genuine pacing issue, others believe it’s necessary for the story to build up slowly to properly introduce the more nuanced setting and characters, and to ultimately have all these elements pay off in the second game (“Resolve”).
With this in mind, it’s often recommended to go into The Great Ace Attorney with the mindset to experience one single story told across the span of two games (10 episodes in total), rather than judging “Adventures” in a vacuum.
That would be all for this FAQ!If you have any other questions or observations, feel free to comment them below. You’re also welcome to create a new post for more extensive topics not covered here.
16 years ago I went to my very first London Comic Con as Maya Fey. 16 years later I'm basically Mia's age… so this time it's Mia, channelled by Maya 👻💜 Same spot, same sign, one very busy spirit medium.
The defence presents its evidence ⚖️👻 Mia Fey (via Maya) investigates the con floor. Exhibit A: one Mario pipe. Exhibit B: Link. Exhibit C: coasters I made at Roll Mighty. Exhibit D: a Dalek, who did NOT accept my objection (swipe to see it turn on me 😱). Further evidence: Apollo, Phoenix and another Maya, Eustace Winner, two Hobo Phoenixes, the Blue Badger, Rick and Unity, Project Hail Mary (amaze amaze amaze!), Morty's sofa, Ghostbuster Mario & Luigi and a Cyberpunk crew. The defence rests 💜
I've been dreaming about doing this again for years, and I've only just finished my 5th playthrough of the Ace Attorney series 🎮
Some fanart I drew! I'm so hooked. Phoenix is a lovable dork, the cases are intriguing, and Edgeworth's poses give me life. So happy there are so many AA games available. Let me know which one's your favourite! ^^
......have a last name? The character I'm referring to is Iris. She's stated to be the daughter of Morgan Fey, and twin sister to Dahlia Hawthorne, both of which were from Morgan's first husband, aka the jeweler. So shouldn't Iris's last name have been Hawthorne?
His Perceive power when used in Trial is litteraly a "Badgering the Witness" button that goes unpunished.
The fuck this dude point out you're sweating like a pig , or twisting your fingers when you say something so you must be a liar ? Can no one just be anxious about being in a courtroom ? I Sure would be.
For context: The remaster was leaked through Steam Achievements (which adding achievements usually is done rather late during development) right before a Nintendo direct, so everybody thought it would include a formal announcement for the game, which it didn’t and we hadn’t heard anything about it during the many other presentations it could’ve been announced at (like that god awful Level-5 one).
Ok, so I just read the most amazing, swap AU, fanfiction to ever exist! And realized it isn't popular enough, so I'm just posting it here so people can discover it and read it! It is so good and it needs so much support and I don't know? People just need to know about this work of pure, human art! https://archiveofourown.org/works/82567666/chapters/217345406
All the twists, drama, comedy, amazing characters, each unique and amazing in their own way. Masterpiece truly.
And episode 5? Damn with all those new mechanics, even more twists and turns, eccentric characters and mystery as fine as that (plus we kinda worked together with Edgeworth on this one which is always good in my opinion)? Legendary stuff! Nothing short of one of my all time favourites.
I`m excited for next games now! Cant wait for Maya to return too!
(As far as I know I am the first to do this so bare with me if the title is inaccurate) Hiya everyone Im new here! So I hope I flaired this post right. But I love this franchise and I also enjoy Mario Kart Wii so I made a custom music pack for the game with all Ace Attorney music, featuring songs from AA1-6, Investigations 1-2, and GAA 1-2. I'd love for other fans of the franchise to check it out and share their thoughts. Maybe even, Id hope I could inspire someone else to create something similar. Here's the showcase video. Enjoy :)
Welcome to the second installment of my project to have a hot take about all 60 non-crossover cases in the Ace Attorney series! Let's get into it. Previous installment here.
Case 2-1: The Lost Turnabout
Hot take: I can't bring myself to hate it.
Look, I know this entire episode is a mess, but it's so gloriously goofy that I cannot manage to be mad. Banana-colored baseball gloves! Near-sighted con artists! Police so incompetent that they don't notice the victim misspelled his own fiancee's name! Shu Takumi could have picked any excuse for Phoenix to need the tutorial again, and he bypassed a dozen more reasonable options to settle on "short-term amnesia delivered by fire extinguisher." That's why we love him.
Case 2-2: Reunion and Turnabout
Hot take: More cases should have you meet the victim ahead of time.
It's not unheard of for cases to introduce living characters and make them the victims in the same episode, but this is the first and most effective use of that technique. Phoenix meets Turner Grey as a thoroughly unpleasant man, but one he has to stick by if he wants to reunite with Maya. This puts him (and the player by extension) in a situation not too dissimilar from Mimi's. When we later learn that Grey was a "slave driver" whose abusive management style led directly to Mimi's fatal mistakes, we can feel that a lot more viscerally than if we were just told about Grey after his death.
Ace Attorney should do this more often. Imagine if Juan Corrida got to charm the pants off the player before we learned what a scumbag he was. Or sympathizing with Glen Elg as he gets an impossible chance to turn his life around. It might get depressing if it started happening every single time, but it could be the antidote to a trend of forgettable victims of the Deid Mann flavor.
Case 2-3: Turnabout Big Top
Hot take: The silver lining isn't Acro. It's Russell.
Yeah, yeah, the hating on Turnabout Big Top, we've all seen it. The love triangle is weird, the cape is frustrating, and getting blamed for Moe's bad jokes sucks. It is never adequately explained why the bust is heavy enough to kill a man but light enough to be carried up two flights of stairs by a small monkey. I've got no interest in relitigating that.
However, I do take issue with the common argument that Acro is the saving grace. Now, I do like Acro as a character. It's refreshing to have a villain who never once twirls his moustache, who puts up a strong fight but admits when he's beaten. He's also got some depth, as an affable guy warped by grief into someone who could try to murder a teenager, who gets punished by instant karma while the object of his vengeance remains blithely oblivious. I disagree that Acro is the best character in Big Top, though; it's clearly the victim, Russell Berry.
Russell initially falls into a common trope of mystery fiction, the murder victim who was so universally beloved that the primary riddle is why anybody would want him dead. In this case, nobody did. But Russell's death is still the tragic outcome of his own inherent flaw: his inability to deny his daughter anything, and his wish to protect her from the entire world. This isn't a virtuous flaw. It's a serious mistake that Russell makes repeatedly, ending up responsible for every terrible thing that happens to Bat, to Acro, to Regina, and to himself. Outside of that, he's a thoroughly good person who seems to have earned the love of everyone at the circus -- yet he's also a strong candidate for the "villain" of the piece. I can't think of many other characters anywhere who fit that mold.
Case 2-4: Farewell, My Turnabout
Hot take: Shelly de Killer is terrible at his job.
Throughout all the world of fiction, there is a peculiarly common type of "assassin" who nobody in the real world would ever hire to actually assassinate somebody. This is the assassin who always looks the same no matter what disguise he's wearing, leaves obvious calling cards at the scene, and follows a "code of honor" that somehow makes it OK for him to murder for a living on behalf of rich people.
Shelly de Killer exemplifies this archetype. Every time he shows up in Ace Attorney, he's managed to botch a simple murder job so hard that it turns into an emotionally dramatic whirlwind involving no fewer than five bystanders. In this episode alone, he bungles the death of Juan Corrida deeply enough that his client -- who wasn't even in the room -- gets accused of the murder. He then chooses Phoenix Wright, a lawyer well-known for a strong sense of justice, to defend the obviously evil client de Killer landed in the shit. Instead of doing the reasonable thing and offering Wright $10 million of Matt Engarde's money to take the case, he jumps straight to kidnapping Phoenix's best friend, thereby ensuring Phoenix will fight against the situation with every ounce of his ingenuity. Over the next 48 hours, he also shoots a prosecutor and three cops, guaranteeing that he'll go straight to Forever Jail when one of his convoluted schemes inevitably goes even wronger in the near future. In fact, I'm positive that's exactly where he is starting with the Apollo trilogy, probably rooming with Dogen/Kanis.
A final note: the one thing de Killer does seem to be is a competent physical fighter, which makes it all the more badass that he gets beaten to a standstill by Dick "Motherfucker" Gumshoe.
Let's discuss all of these, and I'll see you soon for part three!
As the name suggests, it is a summary of DL-6 mashing the actual dialogues from the game into a coherent story (as coherent as possible, at least). This is my first attempt so it's not perfect, but I had fun doing that. If it popps off then maybe I will do more next, maybe SL-9! And do these with much more quality.
NOTE: I am using a tier list simply for format. Not for ranking.
The Achievements I'd add are
Turnabout Sisters - Coercion... or Companions?
How to Unlock: When conversing with Marvin Grossberg on "Mr. White", select either "You're lovers", "You go drinking together", or "Your lover".
Turnabout Samurai - Objecting before Thinking
How to Unlock: Select "No further questions, Vasquez!"
(Note: This was really hard to choose because there's not many standout moments that I could recall.)
Turnabout Beginnings - Spiritual Suggestion
How to Unlock: Present the Car when asked "Where was Melissa Foster when the incident on the bridge occurred?"
(Note: This was the hardest one to choose because the episode is extremely serious with frankly no moments of humor.)
Turnabout Trump - Preferences in Colors
How to Unlock: Examine the Card with the Blue Back from the Victim's Hand.
Turnabout Corner - A Gift from a Kid
How to Unlock: Examine the DVDs in the Hickfield Clinic.
Turnabout Countdown - Who's your Crush?
How to Unlock: Press "During the trial yesterday... I was overcome by a fit of coughing..." and "Apollo insisted on staying behind in Courtroom No. 4."
The Monstrous Turnabout - A Simple Solution
How to Unlock: Ask Trucy Wright about "What to do?" in the Wright Anything Agency.
(Note: I had a tough time deciding between that, the Devil May Cry reference, and the Reunion, and Turnabout reference.)
Turnabout for Tomorrow - Hungry Hungry Elephants
How to Unlock: Present the Phony Phanty Bomb to Pearl Fey.
(Note: I had a though time deciding between that, Trucy's "Phony vs Bum Rap" dialogue, the Bad End dialogue, and the "Daddy" dialogue.)
The Foreign Turnabout - Amatagam
How to Unlock: Suggest for the "Magatama Key" to be Flipped Horizontal.
Turnabout Storyteller - Beep Boop
How to Unlock: Suggest that Uendo is a robot.
Turnabout Time Traveler - An Administrative Assistant
How to Unlock: Ask Maya Fey "What to do" and Present her your Attorney's Badge.
(Note: It came pretty close between this and "the gods" dialogue.)
