AMINE AND MANGA

Ace Attorney, known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban (逆転裁判, lit. "Turnabout Trial"), is a series of adventure/visual novel games created by Shu Takumi and published by Capcom in which players assume the role of a defense attorney in a fictional courtroom setting, which is based on the Japanese legal system, to strive to find their clients "not guilty" using investigation, evidence, and cross-examination to prove their case.

The first three games in the series, originally released only in Japan and in Japanese between 2001 and 2004 for the Game Boy Advance platform, have been ported to the Nintendo DS as well as localized into English and other languages. The series has been developed for the DS from the ground up starting with the fourth game. The DS remakes and games in the series take advantage of the DS features, including the microphone and touchscreen. The series was released on WiiWare in Japan from December 15, 2009 and in North America from January 11, 2010.

The first three games feature and are sometimes referred to by the eponymous main protagonist, Phoenix Wright. The fourth game, set seven years after the end of the third game, introduces a new protagonist, Apollo Justice, who takes over from Wright, and Miles Edgeworth, a key character from the first trilogy, is featured in a special interquel title set between the third and fourth games.

The game takes place in an urban city set in 2016 and later; for the Japanese versions, this city is somewhere in Japan, while the North American and European localization places the games in Los Angeles, California. Localization differences will sometimes reflect the differences between these societies, for example the side of a car the driver's wheel is on. Additionally, the names of the major characters have been adapted for localization; for example, the main character of "Ryuichi Naruhodo", whose last name is a pun on the Japanese phrase for "I see", has been renamed in the Western versions as "Phoenix Wright", referencing the phoenix that rises from its own ashes, and a pun on the word "right".

The fictional future justice system is such that when a person is accused of a crime, they are immediately given a bench trial presided by a judge, a prosecuting attorney from the state, and a defense attorney that must completely prove the accused innocent of the crime. Trials last 3 days at most, due to the large number of cases that the courts must deal with; if the accused cannot be found innocent after this time, their case is consigned to a higher court. The majority of the work during a trial is on the shoulders of the defense attorney who must cross-examine the witnesses brought forth by the prosecution to find contradictions in testimony to clear their client. During the time frame of the fourth game, an option for a jury trial is also established.

In the first three games, the main playable character is Phoenix Wright. He is a rookie lawyer fresh out of law school in the first game, taking a position at Fey & Co. Law Offices run by Mia Fey, a defense attorney that helped to acquit Wright of murder several years prior to the events of the first game. When Mia is murdered, Wright takes over the offices with the assistance of Maya Fey, Mia's younger sister, and renames the office "Wright & Co. Law Offices". The Fey family have the ability to channel spirits, which sometimes allows Maya or her much younger cousin Pearl Fey to channel Mia's spirit to help Wright in court. Wright develops a rivalry with prosecuting attorney Miles Edgeworth as they oppose each other in court. Wright's victories over Edgeworth (along with Wright's victory over prosecutor Manfred Von Karma) introduces a third prosecutor to combat Phoenix in court, Franziska von Karma, who sees Edgeworth as a younger brother (despite actually being several years younger than him). She is determined to succeed where her father and Edgeworth failed by winning against Phoenix in court. In the third game, Phoenix's main rival in court is Godot, a mysterious prosecutor who holds some kind of grudge against him. Also more info related to Phoenix, Mia and other members of the Fey family is unveiled, intertwining with the events from the previous games until the last case, which closes the Phoenix Wright chapters of the Ace Attorney series.

The fourth game shifts seven years after the first three games. Phoenix, having been disbarred for unknowingly using falsified evidence, has become a piano player, adopted a young magician named Trucy, and has transformed the office to the "Wright Talent Agency". When he is accused of murder, he spies the upcoming and talented defense attorney Apollo Justice with his "Chords of Steel" and has him defend him as well as hiring him, forcing the office to be renamed "Wright Anything Agency". While Apollo and Trucy handle cases, Phoenix still works with ties to the justice system to implement changes that will help improve the courts, including the introduction of a "Jurist System" that leaves the decision of guilt or innocence to a six-panel jury, while investigating the remaining mysteries involving his last case seven years before.

Set between Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice, the spin off Investigations, features Miles Edgeworth as the main character. While and after returning from a trip to Europe, Miles is thrown in a series of incidents tied to a mysterious smuggling ring also involved in the creation and distribution of counterfeit money and art pieces. The game also features important characters like Franziska who is working with the interpol to break down the ring and detective Dick Gumshoe. Key characters exclusive to this game include Kay Faraday, who claims to be the successor of the legendary thief Yatagarasu, and Shi-Long Lang, and interpol agent who somehow despises prosecutors. One of the cases is a flashback featuring Miles and Franziska's mentor Manfred Von Karma and depicting Miles' first encounter with Kay and Gumshoe.

There are some points where a different character from the main character is controlled. In Justice for All, Maya is temporarily controllable when she is kidnapped in the fourth case. In Trials and Tribulations, Mia is the playable character in the 1st and 4th cases, set three years before the first game, and Miles Edgeworth replaces Phoenix when he is injured in the fifth case. Phoenix is also playable in the fourth case of Apollo Justice, both in the court of his final case seven years ago, and his following investigation.