History YMMV / PhoenixWrightAceAttorney

--> '''Lana Skye''': "Give it three years. Then we'll see what you've become."

** In case 1-5 Pearls says that if Phoenix works hard and gets famous, he might one day have copycats. And now, we've got Apollo Justice...

** There's no question that [[spoiler:Manfred Von Karma]] is a terrible person, but is he an [[AbusiveParent abusive parent]] to [[spoiler:his daughter Franziska (there's no question he's using Edgeworth as part of his scheme]] or merely demanding?

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: When you show Lana Skye the Attorney's Badge, she comments that the gold plating will flake off in a few years, then we'll see the ''real'' Phoenix. The conversation ends like this:

** Dahlia and Iris's father could be this. We're told that he coldly left his wife and badmouthed Kurain village, but the person who says most of this is [[spoiler:Dahlia]], who is hardly one to speak well of anybody. His marriage and divorce of Morgan can also count. On one hand, he only married her to get the prestige that came with being a member of the Fey family. On the other hand, we see that a desire to gain power causes Morgan to [[spoiler:try to commit murder ''twice'', the second time using her own daughter as an UnwittingPawn]]. With that second part in mind, one has to wonder if him taking his daughters with him when he divorced Morgan was as cruel as it's portrayed...

* BreatherBoss: In Case 3-3, Gumshoe's Psyche-lock regarding the lottery. Most likely PlayedForLaughs, given that Gumshoe ends up telling Phoenix crucial information about his cases without meaning to do so.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Breaking Wendy Oldbag's psyche-locks in 2-4. It's the first time you have to deal with 4 locks at once, but if you show her [[spoiler: Juan's autograph]], all four of them break at the same time. Given how it's Wendy Oldbag we're talking about here, who is very dramatic, they probably did that [[RuleOfFunny on purpose]].

** Sister Bikini's five Psyche-locks come off with two presentations of evidence. Most other unlocking sequences require, on average, one or two pieces of evidence ''per lock''.

** During the psyche-lock sessions, Adrian Andrews in 3-2 as well due to the fact that she needs to see an evidence that is not obtainable until you pick up Pearl[[note]]who carries it with her[[/note]] at Luke Atmey's house after multiple times of backtracking.

* TheWoobie: Poor sweet Pearls in case 3-5. She's [[spoiler: worried about Maya's safety and blames herself for putting her in danger, she's manipulated by her mother, she's trapped on a freezing cold mountain all alone for an entire day, she's convinced she's lost her channeling powers because she can't channel Dahlia, and she's heartbroken at the fact that she's disappointed her mother because of it.]] When Phoenix confronts her she bursts into tears before you can even break all her psych-locks. And to think [[spoiler: she's not even ''aware'' of the fact that her mother was using her to get rid of Maya or that the person she's been asked to channel is her dead older sister who's also a psychotic killer.]] As bad as it was it could have been ''even worse.'' Heck, even [[spoiler: ''Dahlia Hawthorne'', said psychotic killer,]] feels sorry for her.

** 3-5 has one when you examine the incinerator. "A fight between a lawyer and [[{{Galactus}} an overgrown boiler?]] [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Who'd want to see that?"]]

This page covers the first three games and the film adaptation. Take general series tropes to YMMV/AceAttorney, and take tropes specific to ''[[YMMV/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Apollo Justice]]'', ''[[YMMV/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'', or ''[[YMMV/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'' to those pages, please.

** There's also the issue of whether [[spoiler:"Ini Miney", aka]] Mimi Miney, or Turner Gray was the one at fault of malpractice incident. If Mimi was to be the one telling the truth, then Turner Gray is a monster who overworked Mimi into the accident or drugged her to keep her quiet. However, [[spoiler: Grey had a point in that he had no real motivation for doing so and was in fact trying to bring her ghost back to clear his name, which would probably be a bad idea if she'd just accuse him of her murder instead. Also, she seemed to kill him because he was about to reveal that she was still alive, not out of any apparent desire for revenge]]. But Grey is an UnreliableNarrator about himself. [[spoiler:Why did he have an (illegal in Japan) gun with him? Why did he expect to get Mimi's ghost to sign a confession that utterly blackens her name and exonerates her former BadBoss? It seems likely he intended to force her to sign it at gunpoint (with the medium's life on the line), and if that's the case, then just how far ''would'' he go in anger?]]

** All cases that involve [[spoiler:Dahlia]] are this, [[spoiler:mostly due to her innocent looks and manipulative nature]]. [[SequelDifficultySpike One of the case is even the ''first one'']], averting the "all first cases are easy tutorials" tradition in the ''Ace Attorney'' franchise. Those who started the game with ''Trials and Tribulations'' might find 1-1 and 2-1 a little bit too easy after completing said game.
** In terms of magatama sessions, Adrian Andrews in 3-2 as well due to the fact that she needs to see an evidence that is not obtainable until you pick up Pearl[[note]]who carries it with her[[/note]]] at Luke Atmey's house after multiple times of backtracking.

* SophomoreSlump: It's certainly not considered a bad game, but a lot of fans regard it as the weakest game in the series, for reasons including the lack of an overall storyline -- barring the vague theme of Franziska wanting revenge on Phoenix, which doesn't really go anywhere since she's OutOfFocus in the last case -- along with the hugely divisive third case, and the developers going overboard with the new health system and frequently hitting you with gigantic penalties with no warning whatsoever; in particular, the game has more "instant game over" scenarios than every other game in the series ''combined''. Other, minor annoyances for some are Pearl getting all the focus over Maya, who barely features in the game and has no real character development, the substandard English localization, and Franziska being a much less interesting adversary than Edgeworth or Godot.

** All cases that involve [[spoiler:Dahlia]] are this, [[spoiler:mostly due to her innocent looks and manipulative nature]]. One of the case is even the ''first one'', averting the "all first cases are easy tutorials" tradition in the ''Ace Attorney'' franchise. Those who started the game with ''Trials and Tribulations'' might find 1-1 and 2-1 a little bit too easy after completing said game.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: Manfred von Karma.]] As a prosecutor, he had a flawless, decades-long win streak, and [[FridgeHorror is most likely responsible for hundreds of defendants' false charges and subsequent executions, making him an indirect mass murderer]]. until defense attorney Gregory Edgeworth managed to (rightfully) have [[spoiler: von Karma]] penalized for his illegal workings in the courtroom. Although Gregory still lost the case, [[spoiler: von Karma]] was enraged by the black mark on his previously-perfect record. Unfortunately, right after the end of the case, an earthquake hit the building. It trapped Gregory Edgeworth, his nine-year-old son Miles, and a bailiff inside an elevator. As oxygen was beginning to run out, the bailiff panicked and attacked Gregory. Miles threw a piece of evidence from the trial at them to get them to stop fighting, which turned out to be a gun. The gun fired once, a terrible scream was heard, and then Miles passed out from lack of oxygen. Unbeknownst to the people in the elevator, [[spoiler: von Karma]] had come across them. The bullet from the gun shot through the glass and hit his shoulder, causing him to scream. In revenge for the black mark against his record, [[spoiler: von Karma]] picked up the gun and shot the unconscious Gregory in the heart. Afterwards, [[spoiler: von Karma]] took Miles under his wing and, for fifteen years, raised Miles to be the antithesis of everything that Gregory Edgeworth was, twisting the boy to fit his views and become a ruthless, cold-hearted prosecutor who cared for nothing but getting a guilty verdict every time. Finally, on the very last day before the Gregory Edgeworth murder case was closed forever, von Karma set up a murder and pinned the blame on Miles Edgeworth, intending to have his own foster-son executed for a murder he didn't commit. [[spoiler: Von Karma]] also planned it out so that Miles would be convinced that ''he himself'' was the one who had killed his father and would confess to and be charged with that murder as well.

* TheWoobie: Poor sweet Pearls in case 3-5. She's [[spoiler: worried about Maya's safety and blames herself for putting her in danger, she's manipulated by her mother, she's trapped on a freezing cold mountain all alone for an entire day, she's convinced she's lost her channeling powers because she can't channel Dahlia, and she's heartbroken at the fact that she's disappointed her mother because of it.]] When Phoenix confronts her she bursts into tears before you can even break all her psych-locks. And to think [[spoiler: she's not even ''aware'' of the fact that her mother was using her to get rid of Maya or that the person she's been asked to channel is her dead older sister who's also a psychotic killer.]] As bad as it was it could have been ''even worse.''

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Admit it, [[spoiler: you smiled VERY evilly after taking down Matt Engarde once and for all]].

* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: An inverted example. The Blue Badger officially appeared in this game during Rise From the Ashes before going on to appear elsewhere (such as Wocky's "Bad Badger" shirt or as the mascot for Gatewater Land in ''Investigations''). However, in Japan the fifth case was only added after the third game had been released when the original game was ported to the DS, meaning that "Taiho-kun" (the Japanese name for the Blue Badger) had already appeared on Maggey's shirt in the first case of the second game. To western players it looked like the Blue Badger went on to become a sensation after case 5 (which led to the production of t-shirts by the time case 2-1 rolled around) but for keen-eyed Japanese players it was evident that the developers were expanding on the design they had put on Maggey's shirt.

* AllegedlyFreeGame: The iOS port of the first three games. It's free to download and gives you the first two chapters of the first fame for free. The remaining chapters must be purchased in packs(one pack contains a full game) for US$5.99 per pack. However, to be fair, it's still way cheaper than trying to get the games brand new for the DS.

* SophomoreSlump: It's certainly not considered a bad game, but a lot of fans regard it as the weakest game in the series, for reasons including the lack of an overall storyline -- barring the vague theme of Franziska wanting revenge on Phoenix, which doesn't really go anywhere since she's OutOfFocus in the last case -- along with the developers going overboard with the new health system and frequently hitting you with gigantic penalties with no warning whatsoever, Maya's heavily reduced role compared to the first and third games, and the third case having a ''lot'' of detractors.

** Acro's ManlyTears at the end of 2-3 is ''supposed'' to be taken seriously. It ended looking like cartoony OccularGushers instead, with the animation and everything.

* {{Narm}}: A good amount of the movie qualifies due to the fact that most of the characters[[labelonte: *]] [[FreezeFrameBonus even the courtroom spectators]][[/labelnote]] look like cosplayers (albeit, fairly good ones), not to mention how they [[LargeHam overact]], oftentimes making hilarious faces and noises at the most inappropriate times. On a few occasions, Phoenix literally ''throws'' holographic images containing evidence at his opponents, and one particularly memorable scene involves him making the rather innocuous observation that Christmas Eve is almost Christmas, which inexplicably causes everyone in the court (including ''[[TheStoic Edgeworth]]'') to fall to the ground in a collective dead faint. Naturally, all of this leads to a lot of NarmCharm.

** Acro's ManlyTears is ''supposed'' to be taken seriously. It ended looking like cartoony OccularGushers instead, with the animation and everything.

** Acro's ManlyTears is ''supposed'' to be tragic. It ended looking like cartoony OccularGushers instead, with the animation and everything.

* {{Narm}}: A good amount of the movie qualifies due to the fact that most of the characters look like cosplayers (albeit, fairly good ones), not to mention how they [[LargeHam overact]], oftentimes making hilarious faces and noises at the most inappropriate times. On a few occasions, Phoenix literally ''throws'' holographic images containing evidence at his opponents, and one particularly memorable scene involves him making the rather innocuous observation that Christmas Eve is almost Christmas, which inexplicably causes everyone in the court (including ''[[TheStoic Edgeworth]]'') to fall to the ground in a collective dead faint. Naturally, all of this leads to a lot of NarmCharm.