History VisualNovel / PhoenixWrightAceAttorney

* ObfuscaingPostmortemWounds: The victim of Case 5 was stabbed in the chest, and the defendant was caught stabbing the victim with a knife from the trunk of the car where the body was found. The culprit had forced the defendant to stab the corpse after it was transported to the crime scene to frame her for the murder.

* AFoolForAClient: Pheonix ends up having to defend himself in court in the second case after [[spoiler: Redd White]] used his connections to make sure there'd be no lawyer who'd actually represent him. This is a bit of an artifact from [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original pitch for the game]], where Pheonix was actually a detective who got arrested after discovering the body of his client and ended up having to defend himself due to his assigned lawyer (who ended up being Winston Payne) being incompetent.

* AFoolForAClient: Phoenix winds up representing himself for the last trial of case two. In fairness, it's pretty much stated outright that he doesn't ''have'' a better option--thanks to the culprit's meddling, no other defense attorney will take the case, and taking a state-appointed attorney will practically ensure him being found guilty.

** The fantasy elements are more understated than in later games, being limited to Maya's channeling of Mia, which is mostly a plot device to give Phoenix hints than anything. Even then, the fantasy stuff is a case of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, as the game doesn't even clarify whether characters other than Phoenix recognize Mia when she's being channeled. From the second game onward, fantasy elements start becoming more frequent, cases start revolving around them, and they unambiguously exist in-universe.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Maya taking Mia's physical appearance when channeling her is ambigously treated as possibly just the audience seeing it through Phoenix's eyes; no character other than Phoenix seems to recognize Mia when she's being channeled, although though their reactions indicate they can tell some sort of change has occurred. From the second game onward, physical appearance changing during channeling is unambiguously real in-universe.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Maya's channeling of Mia is treated as this; no character other than Phoenix seems to recognize Mia when she's being channeled, although though their reactions indicate they can tell some sort of change has occurred. From the second game onward, channeling abilities are unambiguously real in-universe.

A [[Film/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney live-action movie]] directed by Creator/TakashiMiike was released in theaters in Japan in February 2012 based mainly on the events of the second and fourth cases of the game. The game was also adapted into an [[Anime/AceAttorney anime]] in 2016.

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: The fourth case of ''Trials and Tribulations'' is about how a cop's sister is kidnapped by her boyfriend, asking for a ransom of an expensive diamond of their father's at a mountain river. It was all staged in order to sell the diamond and split the millions of dollars amongst themselves. However, all of THAT was a scam; the sister planned this all along and jumped into a river with the diamond, keeping it for herself. (Until it was lost in the river, leaving her with nothing but a criminal background and a lot of karma to hit her over the head later.)

* MakeTheDogTestify: As seen in the page image, Phoenix calls a parrot as a witness. Said parrot completely turns the case around. This actually isn't as crazy as it sounds, since during his investigation he learned that a certain question would cause the parrot to repeat an incriminating phrase, "[[spoiler: Don't forget DL-6]]". Granted Manfred actually took the time to [[CrazyPrepared retrain the parrot]] not to respond to the trigger phrase, but Phoenix manages to turn the case around using other seemingly trivial phrases that the parrot was taught to repeat.

** Maya channels Mia in [[http://i54.tinypic.com/353625h.jpg a comic]] to [[FavorsForTheSexy gain big breasts and have more filleted pork added to her bowl]].

* GagBoobs:
** April May takes it up to eleven, and the bellhop of the Gatewater Hotel even makes mention of how she's unmistakable because of "them" with a HUGE blush.
** Maya channels Mia in [[http://i54.tinypic.com/353625h.jpg a comic]] to [[FavorsForTheSexy gain big breasts and have more filleted pork added to her bowl]].

** '''"Rule 1: No evidence shall be shown without the approval of the Police Department."''' Angel Starr gets a blood test done on the victim's shoe and determines that the two blood types likely belong to the victim and the defendant. Edgeworth tries to claim that it was illegal because of Rule 1, until it was confirmed by a "boyfriend" in the Police Department. [[spoiler:This comes back to bite Damon Gant in the ass, since the Police Chief himself ordering Phoenix to show something specific ''technically'' counts as "approval". He also uses Lana's photo of Neil Marshall impaled on a sword to prove a point, unaware that she had smuggled that in the "Evidence Law" book she lent to Phoenix and had only come to light a few minutes ago, proving he knew much more about the incident than he lets on.]]

** "Rule 1: No evidence shall be shown without the approval of the Police Department". Angel Starr gets a blood test done on the victim's shoe and determines that the two blood types likely belong to the victim and the defendant. Edgeworth tries to claim that it was illegal because of Rule 1, until it was confirmed by a "boyfriend" in the Police Department. [[spoiler:This comes back to bite Damon Gant in the ass, since the Police Chief himself taunting Phoenix to show something ''technically'' counts as "approval"...]]
** "Rule 2: Unregistered evidence presented must be relevant to the case in trial." Because Edgeworth refused the report about the apparent death of the exact same victim in the Police Department's evidence room, it legally was regarded as unrelated and the victim's exact identity couldn't be revealed until Phoenix proved that the victim was the same man in both cases. [[spoiler:A lengthy amount of EvilGloating about the above evidence by Damon Gant also gives it some obvious connection to SL-9, making it legal for Phoenix to use against him.]]

** In the last day of 1-5, Gant at one point testifies that he had nothing to do with the forgery that took place. The correct contradicting evidence is the evidence list or the unstable jar that you found in his office the day before. However, if you present the piece of cloth, which you also found there, the game will tell you that evidence is not relevant yet. [[spoiler: This is because it's part of Gant's KaizoTrap; being able to present it early (before Gant is ready for it) would break the plot.]]

** No magatama, and by extension no psyche-locks to crack open. Aside from legitimate spirit channelling being part of the plot, this is pretty much one of the most ordinary and down to earth entries in the series.

* EasterEgg: You can use the Luminol Spray on the cactus at the Guard Station and in front of Edgeworth's desk in his office in "Rise From the Ashes" to find some unrelated blood. The first was apparently from a prior accident and the second is guessed by Phoenix to be Gumshoe's nosebleed after apparently being slapped by Edgeworth.

* ExactWords: [[spoiler:When pressured by Damon Gant to present the piece of cloth from his safe, Phoenix simply denies having any evidence to present at this time due to Evidence Law prohibiting him from doing so. This angers Gant, causing him to directly order him to present it, enabling Phoenix to legally present it after a lengthy amount of EvilGloating that explains its material relevance to the case, as he, being the Chief of Police, inadvertently both approved it as evidence and established foundation to use it against him.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The law has never been this fun!]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MundaneMadeAwesome Behold the]] [[WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw Power of Attorney!]]]]

** The game's soundtrack is much sparser compared to the following ones, with most of the tracks being location-specific, and the only characters who get their own themes (outside of "Rise from the Ashes", which was scored more like the later entries in the series) being Maya and Gumshoe. The second game would add in a few more character-specific themes -- namely for Pearl, Edgeworth, and Shelly de Killer -- but it wouldn't be until Noriyuki Iwadare became the series' regular composer with the third game that the soundtracks switched to focusing on giving each key character their own leitmotif, with a common set of "investigation" themes shared across all the cases.

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: It takes [[spoiler:Maya channeling Mia to take the bloody receipt she allegedly wrote on... and turn it over to reveal a damning part about it.]]