Visual Novel / Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

aka: Ace Attorney Investigations

He has Logic and he knows how to use it.

"My name is Miles Edgeworth. And I work as a prosecutor in my local district. Little did I know that upon my return home after a month abroad... ...I would be thrust into a multitude of cases, and some very frantic and busy days."

— Miles Edgeworth

A Spin-Off of Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (逆転検事, "Gyakuten Kenji" in Japan — lit. "Turnabout Prosecutor") landed its American and European releases in February 2010. Investigations stars Miles Edgeworth, the main rival of Phoenix Wright, as he investigates crimes outside the courtroom. Assisting him on his search for the truth is Detective Dick Gumshoe and the franchise newcomer Kay Faraday, a teenage self-declared thief. Compared to the main series installments, the game takes on a more traditional point-and-click adventure style, with walking sprites exploring areas rather than simply moving from scene to scene. Instead of engaging in courtroom battles, Edgeworth solves mysteries through Logic, and by countering arguments from witnesses, culprits, and rival investigators.

The first game is set one month following the events of Trials and Tribulations, where Edgeworth finds himself solving numerous cases connected to both an international smuggling ring and the Yatagarasu, a mysterious Phantom Thief who opposed said ring. However he finds his investigations challenged by Shi-Long Lang, a cocky Interpol Special Agent who doesn't trust prosecutors to get the job done and has a bone to pick with the smuggling ring.

Investigations was followed by a Japan-only sequel, Gyakuten Kenji 2, which was released on February 2011. Taking place two weeks after the events of the first game, Edgeworth finds his position as a prosecutor threatened by Judge Justine Courtney, a member of the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee, as he is accused of going beyond the bounds of the law in the pursuit of the truth. Edgeworth also finds himself getting reacquainted with defense attorney Raymond Shields, a former apprentice of Edgeworth's father who suggests that the prosecutor considers returning to follow his father's footsteps. In the midst of all this, Edgeworth has to deal with with several new cases, ranging from an attempted assassination of a foreign president to the last case Edgeworth's father worked on before his death.

Gyakuten Kenji 2 features a new system called "Logic Chess". This does not necessitate playing chess, but instead acts as a visual metaphor. When Edgeworth can't find a fault in the witness' testimony, he can instead ask one of two questions. Asking the correct one will cause the player to "take" one of their "pieces", allowing the "game" to move further. An incorrect choice will have the reverse happen, and the player will lose points from their Truth meter.

Currently, there are no plans for the sequel to be localized, but there is a Let's Translate on YouTube (complete as of September 29, 2013) while a full Fan Translated patch (subtitled "Prosecutor's Path" and featuring a complete localization of the dialogue) is currently available in English, and can be found here. To keep consistent with other Ace Attorney entries on TV Tropes, all entries referring to the sequel use the Prosecutor's Path localized information rather than the official Japanese information. ^note The reason why the game went into No Export for You territory was because the team itself was unable to get together in the timeframe whilst everyone was moving and leaving after the game was completed.

After several years of being only available on the Nintendo DS, the first Investigations game released for iOS and Android on December 8, 2017 in both English and Japanese territories. Gyakuten Kenji 2 was later released for the same platforms in Japan on December 21, 2017.

Note that this page contains spoilers for the sequel, and may not be properly marked at some points.

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These games provide examples of:

Both games

• Always Murder: Of course. Edgeworth can't even take a simple plane trip without someone winding up dead in an elevator (and himself accused of the crime). The second game even has an assassination attempt that takes place during a faked assassination attempt, which is then used by the case's culprit to obscure his actions in the very real murder that ends up taking place!
• Amateur Sleuth: Edgeworth does far more of the detective work than any of the actual police. Somewhat justified, as a majority of the prosecutors and police are more concerned with getting a guilty verdict than actually finding the truth. It doesn't stand out as much as in the main series, since in-universe prosecutors and the police are shown working as partners in investigations. It just so happens that Edgeworth is assigned Gumshoe as his detective...
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Pretty much everyone, but it's particularly noticeable with Franziska, who gets another mole on both sides of her face because of this trope, and the Pink Princess, on whose shoulder the kanji is reversed.
• Arc Welding: Each game has its respective cases interrelated in some way, more so than the rest of the Ace Attorney games. Possibly to make up for the lack of recurring rival prosecutor.
• Art Shift: Detective Tyrell Badd is drawn in a similar, but noticeably different, style with facial definition and dark colors that markedly contrast everyone else's simple faces and bright colors.
• Despair Event Horizon: How the Life Meter is justified in this game: If it runs out due to Edgeworth making too many mistakes, he concludes that the truth of the case is "lost for all eternity" and gives up.
• Doom Magnet: Between both games, Edgeworth has just returned to the country after spending a few months abroad, and immediately gets caught in nine different murder cases^note One of them is an attempted murder, but he gets to solve another murder that happened in the same place over the course of one month, and all but one of them happen in locations he was already in or was heading to anyways. Case 4, while being a flashback case, still applies as Edgeworth had just got into the courtroom when the victims are killed in the room next door.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Edgeworth gets left out of the loop and pushed to the side by Lang in the first game, and is even in danger of losing his prosecutor position in the second. Presumably this is to give him (and the player) the challenge of solving a case while under the kind of handicap that defense lawyers have to deal with.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Taken rather literally: "Eureka!" is Edgeworth's unique exclamation for making a connection with Logic. More traditionally, about once per case Edgeworth hits a brick wall in his deductions, only for someone to say or do something mostly unrelated that causes this. He immediately flashes back to a number of previous hints, and the player is given several new pieces of logic to sort through and reach a conclusion.
• Evil Versus Evil: In both games the Big Bad rivals someone who is probably just as nasty as them. For the first game Alba had to deal with The Starscream that was Manny Coachen, who wanted Babahl to become the representative of the reunited Codohpia, likely so he could leverage Alba's smuggling ring for his own purposes once the country was reunified. In the second game the manipulative and misanthropic Simon Keyes loathes the villainous triumvirate of Patricia Roland, Blaise Debeste, and the impostor Dai-Jun Huang; a team that successfully arranged an assassination of the real Dai-Jun Huang and even planned to turn on their hired killer. And at the very end of the second game, Sirhan Dogen halts Shelly de Killer's decision to kill Keyes.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The whole first game takes place over about three days (contrasted with the nominal separation of months at a time in other Ace Attorney games), with Edgeworth solving four murders in a little over three days (case 2 happens on one day, 1 and 3 happen the next, 5 happens the night after that). The second game only kicks up about two weeks later and finishes up in about as much time. The fourth and fifth cases of the second game occur over the course of two days, allowing none of the characters to even get a wink of sleep in between.
• Fictional Flag: One case is set in two embassies of fictional countries: Allebahst and Babahl. The country the two used to be split into and later are re-unified as - the Principality of Cohdopia - has one, too. Allebahst's features a flower, Babahl's features a butterfly, while Cohdopia's features both as a unified state.
• The Ghost: Phoenix Wright. He's referred to obliquely as "him", "that lawyer", "a certain defense attorney", and even "the guy in the blue suit", but never by name (even though it's no big secret that Phoenix and Edgeworth and Larry are friends), and only makes one background appearance in each game—his cameo in the first game is extremely easy to miss, at that. There's even a generic flashback in the second game which features Edgeworth in a court session as the "Demon Prosecutor" with him narrating that someone "saved him", only for an unvoiced OBJECTION! to ring out and immediately pans to the defense's side of the room, but the screen whites out before the camera reaches it.
• Hardboiled Detective: Homicide detective Tyrell Badd.
• Heinousness Retcon: Downplayed with Manfred von Karma. A flashback to the case that led to the DL-6 Incident reveals that the forged evidence von Karma used in the trial was prepared by someone else and he wasn't aware of the forgery. At the same time, he's still very much the same Amoral Attorney he is in the present, and it's still implied he forged evidence in past cases, and the flashback case also reveals he had the defendant interrogated non-stop to the point where his hair turned white, which is what he actually received his one penalty for. It's also implied that, through the events of this game, Franziska finally comes to terms with how horrible her father was.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: In both games, Edgeworth gets around Jurisdiction Friction by finding someone with authority to investigate the case and signing on as that person's "assistant." Invariably, that means doing all the actual work.
• Jurisdiction Friction: It is difficult to find a single case in which someone doesn't claim authority over the crime scene and demand that Edgeworth leave.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Averted for once: it's "Jotted down in the Organizer" unless the object is explicitly given to Edgeworth and/or clearly his to take.
• Left Hanging: Both games are notable for leaving almost no loose threads hanging. It's even subverted with the second case of GK2: one may wonder how a blind assassin was able to read (much less write) a correspondence chess memo to send to Knightley... until the fifth case, where it's revealed that Simon Keyes acted as a middleman who translated the memos in order to eventually kill off Knightley.
• Leitmotif: If Edgeworth's "Objection!" theme sounds fitting for him, it should: it's "Great Revival" sped up and remixed.
• Life Meter: The usual explanation for how this works is absent here, but Edgeworth can evidently deplete his lifemeter by thinking wrong, if the player screws up the logic segments. Mistakes take him "further from the truth", as he explains it. Presumably depleting the whole thing causes Edgeworth to entirely lose the thread he was following and become confused, thus letting the culprit slip through his fingers.
• Magic Realism: Kay's "Little Thief" is a technological equivalent, being a cell-phone sized device able to generate room sized holograms.
• The Many Deaths of You: Every situation where it's possible to get a game over is unique, but they all end with the same line: "Thus, the truth was lost for all eternity."
• Musical Nod: Music from older games that was associated with characters from past games.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Logic in both games and Logic Chess in the sequel are spectacular visualizations for... stringing thoughts together or picking information out of an uncooperative witness.
• Musical Spoiler: Whenever you hear "Confrontation: Presto" playing, you know the person you're cross-examining is the killer. Played With in the sequel though, where "Presto" is often used for characters unconnected to the murder as a fake-out. Examples include Jay Elbird in Case 2, and John Marsh in Case 5.
• No Smoking: Hardboiled homicide detective Tyrell Badd always has a white stick in his mouth, but it's eventually revealed to be a lollipop. He even keeps a mirror in his coat "to keep an eye out on who is behind him". It's possible this is a Kojak reference. Who loves ya, Badd?
• One Degree of Separation: In both games, the murderers are all connected to each other, although the ones from the second game do not belong to a particular group, unlike the first. See Arc Welding above.
• Parrot Exposition: You could make a drinking game out of the times somebody repeats a key word or phrase in the form of a question. (In the form of a question?)
• Rule of Three: In most of the cases, the third person to come under suspicion is the actual killer.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: It's odd that the heroic and noble Great Revival heralds the arrival of Manfred von Karma in both games. The second game even has him coming out of a fairytale castle made of sweets.
• Thief Bag: Kay, befitting a Great Thief such as herself (in her mind, anyway), wears a pink-and-white-swirl variation on her shirt. If you look closely you can see the same pattern on her father's bandanna, an interesting piece of foreshadowing.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Edgeworth's major decision in the last case of the first game, over whether to use a piece of illegal evidence to find the truth, boils down to this. He uses it. In the second game, he's faced with a decision over whether to sacrifice his badge to continue to defend Kay Faraday, and he does.

Ace Attorney Investigations

• Absence of Evidence:
  • In the first case, the killer claimed to have lost his keys and asked a security guard to open the door to "his" office for him. The absence of the security guard's prints on his door, combined with some other evidence and Logic, suggests that he tricked her into opening a different door that she thought was his.
  • In a later case, the absence of blood on the hilt of a knife that was found inside a victim suggests that the hilt was switched, as there were several knives with hilts and blades that fit each other.
• Accuse the Witness: In Case 5, Lang accuses Franziska of the murder of DeMasque II as a ruse to continue the investigation.
• Affectionate Parody: The Judge at one point uses the famous "HOLD IT!", but then apologizes for being too loud and simply says "Hold it".
  • Similarly, Edgeworth using "OBJECTION!" out of sheer habit during case 2, only to get called on his Suddenly Shouting behavior.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: Allebahst and Babahl were originally one country named Cohdopia.
• Always Murder: More obvious in case 3, where the crime is originally just a standard kidnapping.
• Amoral Attorney: Calisto Yew takes this to its logical conclusion, murdering her own defendant and a witness. Then again, she isn't a "real" attorney, she just poses as one. We also have prosecutor Jacques Portsman, who is the killer in the first case and also happens to be a member of the Big Bad's crime syndicate. According to Gumshoe he's been suspected of tampering with evidence for some time.
• Anachronic Order: As a flashback case, case 4 is this but is also predecessor to everything that has happened to that point in the entire series (previous flashback cases included). The true sequence of the first game is chapter 4, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 1, chapter 5.
• Anachronism Stew: Case 4 is set before anything else in the franchise, but has a flat screen TV, color security video with sound, and video on tape. While the first two aren't bizarre for 2011, it is bizarre when chronologically later games use less modern TVs and black and white photo.
• Anime Hair: Rhoda Teneiro and her 3-layered cube-shaped bun.
• Arc Words: KG-8 and "seven years ago"
• Artistic License – Biology: Miles comments at one point that passionflowers are vines, not flowers. This is not true. Any plant that is under the angiosperm clade is a flowering plant (as Passiflora is). In fact, most vines, whether the have showy flowers like passionflowers or tiny hard-to-see ones, are angiosperms.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Gumshoe cleverly hangs a lampshade on it. In Case 5 when the group is chasing the Yatagarasu and end up in the burnt embassy building. Gumshoe mentions that the Yatagarasu hasn't stolen.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Probably Lance Amano from the third case except that he's not actually a victim.
  • Manny Coachen wins the prize for Assholiest Victim in the series. Not only did he murder Defector from Decadence Cece Yew and get away with it due to the Amano Group's influence, but he also tried to usurp his "boss" Alba by ensuring Palaeno became the new Ambassador of Cohdopia. The cast even notes he was as much of a selfish prick as his killer.
  • Subverted with Colin Devorae. It's initially thought that he was an escaped convict who was killed because he tried to steal the ransom money for himself, but it turns out that he was forced into Taking the Heat for Ernest Amano, and Lance most likely blackmailed him into participating in the kidnapping.
• Back for the Finale: Larry again. A rarity as he usually shows up in the same game before the last case.
• Bait-and-Switch: During the introduction scene showing Buddy Faith's murder, the killer expresses a "get a conviction at all costs" mentality, as well as the belief that he's a prodigy among prosecutors. You might think it's pre-Character Development Miles Edgeworth, but it turns out to be Jacques Portsman, who's far less moral than Edgeworth at his worst and doesn't have the talent to back up his boasts.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: The killer from case 4 turns up in the final case, and you'd expect them to be revealed as the head of the criminal syndicate, right? Nope: it's either the shifty looking Colias Palaeno or the doddering Quercus Alba, both of whom have suspicious names in the Japanese version (Damian and Carnage, respectively). While both of these characters are awesome, a section of the fans would have preferred Calisto Yew to have been the real Big Bad.
• Bathroom Search Excuse: Alba gives bathroom-searching as the excuse for leaving a play in the middle of the show and ending up in the changing room of the actors. To the surprise of nobody, he's lying.
• Be as Unhelpful as Possible:
  • You prove that Larry couldn't have been the murderer after a lengthy discussion with Lang. After that, Larry questions your theory and you have to play another discussion to convince him that he couldn't have been the murderer, while he tries to prove you wrong. In front of Lang. And tries to submit it as an actual testimony.
  • Completely averted with Colias Palaeno. When Edgeworth asks if he can investigate, Palaeno says to go right ahead. No questions, no obstructionism, nothing worse than a polite request that you not touch the Primidux Statue (since it's a national treasure).
  • Gumshoe leaves out details from his testimony and brings suspicion on himself as a result because he doesn't want it to get out that he bought a swiss roll with Kay, thus causing her to break her promise not to take anything from strangers, even though her father, the one he was trying to keep this from, was already dead.
• Big Bad: Quercus Alba, current ambassador of Allehbast, is the leader of the international smuggling ring Franziska has been investigating since before the game even started. He ordered the murder of Cece Yew, thus kickstarting the KG-8 incident in the game's backstory. He personally kills Manny Coachen and Mask☆DeMasque II, kickstarting Case 5. He's also responsible for the counterfeit bill chaos in the Republic of Zheng Fa. And it takes a significantly long amount of time to prove all of his misdeeds because of his stubbornness and his extraterritorial rights as an ambassador.
• Big Damn Heroes:The final case takes this to an art form. No fewer than four people burst into the room to save the day during the final showdown with the villain over the course of the confrontation. They even hang a lampshade on it when after a dramatic shout of HOLD IT!, everyone looks around to see who it was, and it turns out to be the random forensics guy with no name or portrait.
• Big "NO!":
  • Cammy Meele in case 2 does one of these directly before her Motive Rant while blowing a whole bubble factory of bubbles, which then burst all over her as if she were exploding.
  • Edgeworth himself has three when he realizes that Larry was playing the Steel Samurai and Oldbag was the Pink Princess (and before that, the Pink Badger.)
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Several name puns are in non-English languages — for example, Quercus Alba = the scientific name for the white oak, Colias palaeno= the scientific name for the Moorland Clouded Yellow and Shi-Long Lang = Chinese for "soldier dragon wolf" — the "soldier dragon" of the "wolf" family.
  • Also, "shifu" is Chinese for "master", which is fitting coming from Lang's respectful subordinates. It also, in broken English, looks / sounds like Chief.
• Blood-Stained Letter: A directives card from ten years ago has a bloodstain on it, showing that the order was carried out.
• Book Ends: At the beginning of Case 1, a mysterious armed assailant threatens Edgeworth from behind with his gun, then proceeds to shoot his framed jacket. In Case 5, the assailant, revealed to be Detective Badd, threatens Shi-na from behind with his gun, and proceeds to shoot at her, only for Shi-long Lang to take the bullet.
• Brick Joke: In case 3, Lang's agents sound off from one to a hundred. Lang gets annoyed at this and tells them that in his book, everyone is number one. Later on in case 5, Lang's men sound off with a chorus of ones.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Edgeworth's respect for Manfred von Karma is emphasized here for Dramatic Irony, but it also turns out that Ernest Amano, another person he respects, is also a criminal. It's not surprising since the two were close financial pals.
  • Ambassador Palaeno evidently placed a great deal of trust and respect on Manny Coachen, constantly talking about how he let the guy do all the important work for him and how much he relied on him, and is outright shocked when he is revealed to have been a genuine criminal.
  • Badd when he realized Calisto Yew betrayed both him and Byrne Faraday.
• The Bus Came Back: Not counting all the characters last seen in Trials and Tribulations, for the first time since the first game ... Missile came back!
• Busman's Holiday: The first game in particular is a rather blatant use of the trope, most evidently in case 2 (a flight that happens to turn into a murder case wherein Edgeworth ends up being the one to discover the body and takes it upon himself to reveal the real killer).
• But Thou Must!: A notable one near the end of the game, even by Ace Attorney standards. When the time comes to finally confront Quercus Alba, Edgeworth is presented with a personal moral quandary; he must choose between finally bringing an end to Alba's crimes through the use of illegally obtained evidence, or pursuing the path of the Law and letting Alba get away. The choice is presented to the player much like the choice was presented in Justice for All about whether it is more important to save an innocent life by allowing a murderer to go free and condemning another innocent to death or to allow justice to be served at the cost of the hostage's life. The difference here is it doesn't actually turn out to be much of a choice. Choosing not to present the illegal evidence simply results in all the other characters pressuring Edgeworth until he decides that the the illegality of the evidence is subjective anyway and proceeds to present it.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: While she doesn't transform or anything, Kay evokes this when she's about to use Little Thief.
  Kay: Dark skies of evening, when no other bird dares to take wing, one alone remains all-seeing! Now, witness the true power of a real, modern-day Robin Hood!
• Call-Back: When the fifth case seems to involve a flying entity, Franziska mentions that she has been involved in two cases with involving flying people before. This is a reference to "Turnabout Big Top" and "Bridge to the Turnabout" in the Phoenix Wright Trilogy.
• Call-Forward:
  • Case 3 gives us a glimpse of the Gavinners' equipment along with their logo on a stage. A banner emblazoned with "Troupe Gramarye" is also nearby.
  • Case 4 makes a reference to Phoenix getting hit in the head with a fire extinguisher 6 years before it happens.
  • The Borginians and the smuggling ring being investigated by Interpol, in a nod to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Is smuggling a regular problem in Borginia?
  • Case 4 shows Gumshoe's professional determination towards the future:
    Gumshoe: [S]omeday, I'm gonna become an Ace Detective [...]
  • Case 4 dramatically alludes to the fourth case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which takes place 5 years later:
    Franziska: I'll make sure each and every person on this stand is declared guilty.
    Edgeworth: You are aware that there are people besides the defendant who stand at the podium, right?
    Franziska: I don't care! You'd just better make sure that you never find yourself standing there.
• Canis Latinicus: The "Theatrum Neutralis" in the fifth case.
• Catchphrase:
  • Unique to this game, Edgeworth gets "Eureka!" for his.
  • Shi-Long Lang's Not so fast!, which is fitting as he's not a lawyer of any kind but an Interpol agent. He also goes on a Hurricane of Aphorisms when he brings up his scroll and begins reciting: "Lang Zi says: ...".
• The Cavalry: Several different parties burst in to assist Edgeworth during the finale, usually with a dramatic "HOLD IT!". Two of the more literal instances are Shi-Long Lang returning with his army of 100 agents to announce that Alba's diplomatic immunity was revoked and Babahl's embassy guards stopping Alba and his own army of guards from leaving.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Yatagarasu's Key from cases four AND five. It starts out as a key, then it becomes a weapon, then a key again, then the weapon part becomes a key. Finally, as a weapon, it becomes the ultimate key to defeating the Big Bad. Allebahst's Primidux Statue also gets more than its fair share of use in the last leg of of the fifth case.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • In the first case, Gumshoe delivers the line "So I guess only a GREAT cat burglar could get in! That must be who our culprit is!" The person who got into Edgeworth's office was a burglar. Or more specifically, the last member of the Yatagarasu thief group, Detective Tyrell Badd. Good guess, Gumshoe.
  • Larry does it again in the fifth case and pulls off a Big Damn Heroes with none other than Wendy freaking Oldbag.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Missile's fondness for Samurai Dogs made him a useless option in the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game. Come Case 5 in Investigations, though, it comes in handy during the investigation.
  • Early in Case 2, Cammy Meele's ability to understand Borginian is used to translate some of Lablanc's statements. Near the end, this is used to prove Cammy's role in the smuggling ring, and that she wiped out the victim's blood with a piece of Borginian cloth.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Calisto Yew who betrays each and every organization seen working for, including the smuggling ring she was The Mole for.
  Shih-Na: Why? There is no "why". I was destined to betray everyone from the beginning.
• Collective Identity: The Yatagarasu—Badd, Faraday, and Yew.
• *Click* Hello: Badd gets the drop on Calisto Yew during the last case.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: In "Turnabout Ablaze", the final case, Quercus Alba, the man suspected of leading an international smuggling ring, reveals a stab wound under his clothes, claiming he was attacked by a masked thief who came to burgle his office, justifying the thief's death at his hands. With Alba being an ambassador and the murder being within his country's embassy, this mean the thief's murder will only be tried in Alba's country to his advantage. However, as it turns out, Alba actually got wounded while he murdered fellow ring member Manny Coachen for being The Starsceam. Coachen had managed to stab him once before being killed. As this occurred outside of the embassy grounds, Alba is able to be arrested and tried locally, especially since his diplomatic immunity was just revoked moments before.
• Cloudcuckoolander: In case 3, you meet Lauren Paups. You quickly learn that's she's...really out in her own little world.
• Co-Dragons: In different ways, Calisto Yew/Shih-Na and Manny Coachen to Quercus Alba in the first game.
• Computer Equals Monitor: Averted in case 2 of the first game. The group finds a cell phone with a broken screen, but some experimentation shows its internals are still fine, and another character is able to transfer a case-relevant photo off of it to another phone.
• Concealing Canvas: Edgeworth's office has a variation—instead of a painting canvas, it's the frame for a suit jacket he used to wear.
• Continuity Nod: Has plenty of these, usually when you meet up with a fellow character from another game.
  • There's also a very minor one in case 3 —if you look behind the stage at the stadium, you can see a sign for "Troupe Gramarye", as well as the Gavinners' logo.
  • If you examine the sign up during the re-creation scene, it mentions the Gavinners and Max Galactica vs Troupe Gramarye as upcoming events.
  • At one point, Franziska discounts some evidence by pointing out that, "people can't fly". Edgeworth then claims to have worked on a case involving a flying person (3-5), and after a pause, Franziska realizes that she's actually worked on two (2-3 and 3-5).
  • Also in Case 3 we see Phoenix, Maya and Pearl on a boat in the background◊ near the entrance to the park. But only if you go there before there's any real reason to do so.
  • Kay asks if she can keep a bear statue that she found in Edgeworth's possession, referencing 2-4.
  • If you examine the Judge's seat in Case 4, you get an exchange about Edgeworth having a nightmare about being squashed by the Judge's gavel. This nightmare is a reference to the one Phoenix has at the beginning of 2-1 and 2-4. Same case, if you examine the fire extinguisher in the Court Hallway, Edgeworth will muse how a person getting hit over the head with that could lose a memory or two...which is exactly what happened to Wright in 2-1, when he was bashed over the head with one by that trial's villain prior to the trial.
  • On the airplane, Edgeworth recalls a traumatizing experience when the plane has a major case of turbulence that reminds him of an earthquake, then he sees an elevator, lampshades this, then sees a dead body inside. You have to respect the guy for being able to hold it together for the entire case, the only time he panics is just after he sees the body.
  • Manfred Von Karma boasts that he would have found Manny Coachen guilty in three minutes.
  • The ladders and stepladders -conversation appears in the first one, between Edgeworth (ladder) and Kay (step-ladder). Kay comments that from a thief's perspective, the best kind is a rope ladder. Miles thinks that from a prosecutor's perspective, all ladders are equally guilty - of being dangerous during an earthquake.
  • Minor characters Ema Skye, Winston Payne, Sal Manella, Lotta Hart, Wendy Oldbag, Maggey Byrde, Mike Meekins and Missile also return. You cross-examine the judge, for crying out loud.
  • Also in the third case, the 'Love Letter' from Viola of Tender Lender.
  • If you're paying very close attention in the third case as well, you may notice that the real Proto Badger is the Bellboy Who Swore the Affidavit from the first game.
  • A Running Gag in the first three games is a detective in Criminal Affairs talking to himself, usually image training or some sort. In Rise From The Ashes, he can be found writing a novel where the killer uses a tape to fake a gunshot, which is exactly what Calisto Yew did in Turnabout Reminiscence.
  • Larry mentions that he dressed up as Santa Claus once before at Gourd Lake. Edgeworth responds by imploring him not to bring up bad memories (of 1-4).
  • In the same case, Edgeworth tells Larry that he doesn't have time to search for "a key to unlock your heart" to find out what Larry is hiding, a reference to when Edgeworth used the Magatama on him in 3-5.
  • In a discussion about the Steel Samurai, whom Franziska was unfamiliar with, Edgeworth reminds her of the Nickel Samurai, which brings up some traumatic memories because he was the very subject of the court case that Franny was shot for prosecuting.
• Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: A very minor example. During one crime scene recreation in case 3, Edgeworth deduces that the culprit must be right handed based on the location of the wound and blood from where he was struck. However, it's entirely possible that a left-handed person could have hit him back-handedly or just stood to the right of Edgeworth. While not case-breaking or definitive by itself, it does steer suspicion toward the real guilty party.
• Contrived Coincidence: The whole game, full stop. One day Edgeworth finds himself on a plane when some turbulence causes him to black out and then is accused of killing a man found in an elevator on the plane. The day after that, he's at an amusement park delivering a ransom to save the kidnapped son of a friend...when that turns into a murder too. While doing this, he stumbles across a girl he met years ago when first working as a prosecutor during a case that involved the murder of her father. Then he returns to his office to find the body of a police officer lying next to his book case. All these incidents are related, despite the fact that Edgeworth's presence at all of them is no more than simple good luck. The final case pulls these events together but only explains that they are related, not that they have any meaningful relation to each other. The plot is driven purely by Edgeworth being in the right place at the right time.
• Cool Key: The Yatagarasu's Key. Very ornately designed, and transforms into a knife to boot.
• The Corpse Stops Here: Lampshaded if you press Lang on his being the first to find Mask DeMasque II's body. Edgeworth will point out that Kay was suspected because she was the first to discover Manny Coachen's body.
• Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel: Case 2 features a camera (possibly "smart" given the owner is described as playing with it) phone, while Apollo Justice has a (already slightly dated at the release) flip phone. Further, case 4, which is set before anything else in the series has a color video camera with sound, while the original Phoenix Wright Trilogy had all still pictures in black and white. The first case also had flat-screen televisions in the courthouse witness rooms that weren't there in the first 4 games.
• Counterfeit Cash: One of the smuggling ring's various operations is the production of fake Zheng Fa currency, throwing Zheng Fa's economy into shambles. This is why Lang, who is an Interpol agent from Zheng Fa, is persistent in chasing after the ring.
• Dark Reprise Ambassador Alba gains a darker, menacing version of the majestic Cohdopian national anthem as his new Leitmotif, which was previously used as the two ambassadors' leitmotif. The change is so dramatic, you really have to listen really, REALLY closely in order to realize that it's the same piece, only played in a minor key and smoothed over heavily.
• Death in the Clouds: The second case, Turnabout Airlines.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Attempted by Quercus Alba, much to Lang's outrage. Also Calisto Yew was originally planning to make it look like Byrne Faraday and Mack Rell killed each other.
• Detachable Blades: The embassies each have a collection of three knives with interchangeable blades. Since it's a reoccurring theme that things traveled between the embassies, so does a knife.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research:
  Lang: Human beings can't fly, you know.
  Edgeworth (taken aback) Of course not! That's bloody common sense!
• Didn't Think This Through: Never mind the "hideous" design of the luggage that was being sold by iFly airlines, but selling them on the plane? That's the last place any reasonable person would buy luggage. Eventually, either the company or Rhoda wised up on this and started selling them online instead, where they became a huge hit.
• Diplomatic Impunity: Naturally plays a part in the final case, what with it being set in an embassy. Played a bit more realistically than usual. Alba being accused of a crime as serious as MURDER isn't waived so easily; once the suspicion points his way, Lang is able to get it revoked with a single phone call.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Shih-na/Calisto Yew in Case 5. From the start of the case it's quite obvious to the observant player that Shih-na is really Calisto Yew and likely the guilty party in the murder of Manny Coachen. When you finally corner her however, she says that while she's Calisto Yew, she really had nothing to do with Coachen's death. Moreover, the murder of Mask DeMasque II is still unresolved, making it obvious that there's still a long way to go in this case.
• Distressed Dude: Miles Edgeworth, twice; he's handcuffed in his seat early in Case 2, and in Case 3, he's ambushed by the kidnappers and tied up.
• Dodge the Bullet: Edgeworth in Case 4.
• The Dragon: Calisto Yew who works for Quercus Alba's syndicate and is his accomplice in the final episode. It is also highly likely that Manny Coachen is the second in command of the ring. Of course, that makes Manny Coachen a Dragon with an Agenda when he tries to backstab Alba.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The flashback cases are full of this from the player's point of view (and no doubt Harsher in Hindsightinvoked from the point of view of the characters): for example, when von Karma tells Miles that he must become a famous prosecutor because "otherwise, it wouldn't be interesting", Miles seems to take this as reassurance, whereas any player who's followed the AA series will realize that this is some rather ominous foreshadowing of Case 4 in the first Ace Attorney game. There's also one example that doubles as Foreshadowing: Edgeworth says that no man is above the law. Von Karma disagrees, saying there are people like that. To the player who knows von Karma killed Edgeworth's father, the implication is that the speaker is referring to himself. However, the very next case in Investigations deals with a criminal who hides behind his diplomatic immunity, making him "above the law".
  • Edgeworth and Von Karma's lamenting over the fact that Edgeworth would have to wait until a later case before he could conduct his first "perfect" case. In Trials & Tribulations Case 4 Edgeworth's first case ended prematurely, when Terry Fawles killed himself unwittingly due to Dahlia, resulting in a permanent mistrial.
• Dramatic Wind: Kay gets this at the end of case 5, along with her Scarf of Asskicking.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Cammy Meele has these since she's constantly nodding off. Once her identity as the true murderer becomes apparent, she loses them.
• Enemy Rising Behind: In the third case, when Edgeworth drops off the ransom money in an amusement park's Haunted House dining room and steps into the hall, a slumped, seemingly-lifeless costume stands up and begins creeping up behind him.
• Evil Laugh: Calisto Yew/Shih-na and Quercus Alba both do this when cornered. The latter is lampshaded.
  Kay: Wow, you really know how to laugh at inappropriate moments!
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Zheng Fa is an Asian country that Shi Long Lang is from. A lot of it seems Chinese, although the structure of given names and the architecture of things we see like the Alif Red could also point to Thailand or Vietnam.
  • Boriginia is confirmed to be European, but few details exist other than that. Its people are fair haired and have extravagant, colorful clothing, so a Nordic background might be likely.
  • We are only told that Cohdopia (and later Allhebast and Babahl) is European and abounds in natural beauty, particularly butterflies and flowers. It could be anywhere from the Mediterranean to the Balkans to the Baltics.
• A Father to His Men: Shi-Long Lang, to all 99 of them. And he takes it to ridiculous extremes by remembering the birthday of the younger brother of the wife of the younger brother of one of his officers. When Lang's men are counting off, he gets mad at the MIB (his assistant) because he believes they are all number ones. Later, all 99 of them count off "1!", and at the end, the MIB says that probably all 99 of them are there. Taken to a more serious extreme in the final case, where he takes a (fortunately non-fatal) bullet for Shih-na, who had immediately prior been revealed as a traitor and a mole planted by the smuggling ring Lang had been investigating. His reasoning? Because no matter what kind of backstabbing wench she really is, she's still his subordinate, and he's responsible for her.
• Flashback: The fourth case is a playable flashback. To a lesser extent, so are cases 2 and 3; they take place, respectively, two days and one day before the first case.
• Foil: Edgeworth and Calisto Yew. One's an always serious and uptight prosecutor and the other is a more casual defense attorney prone to bursting out in laughter. And of course when Yew reveals herself to be an Amoral Attorney with a hidden agenda, the contrast strikes hard against "pursuing the truth" Edgeworth.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Case 2, flight attendant Rhoda Tenerio serves as your game-appointed "Partner" character for an investigation sequence early on, after Edgeworth clears her suspicion of him as a suspect. When Cammy Meele, her co-worker, comes with you to the next crime scene after dismissing Rhoda, notice that the game does not label Cammy as a "Partner" character like it did so for Rhoda.
  • In Case 5, upon pressing Shih-na's last statement, Franziska mentions never wanting to know what it's like to be falsely accused. And then who does Lang accuse towards the end of the case? Subverted in that she was falsely falsely accused as a ruse to investigate Allebahst once more.
  • In case 3, after Lang mocks Edgeworth's investigative skills, Shih-na comments that she can barely contain her laughter in a deadpan tone. At first, it seems like a throwaway line, but it makes a lot of sense after you discover that Shih-na is actually the human laugh track known as Calisto Yew, and is indeed holding back her laughter, since she's talking to Edgey.
  • The shadow of the Yatagarasu is caused by not one object as Franziska assumed, but a combination of multiple things. So's the real deal.
  • Along those lines, the real kidnapper of Lance Amano is three people, including Lance Amano himself.
• Framing Device: Case 4 is being discussed by Kay and Edgeworth to help Edgeworth recall how they came to cross paths originally during the conclusion of Case 3. Interesting since the first side of the frame is established in the epilogue of case 3 but the other side of it isn't seen until the end of case 4, which can push the Framing Device out of mind until case 4 wraps up, at which point the player remembers what was happening before the flashback started.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: In "Turnabout Airlines," all the dark red stuff that is very obviously wine is never called anything but "grape juice." In the original Japanese (for all the Ace Attorney games too), it was... still grape juice. Go figure.
• Futureshadowing: All over the place.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the first case, Edgeworth says he's going to do "what I always do in court: I'm going to cross-examine him." But throughout the series, cross-examining is depicted as virtually exclusively the defense's job, and the only time Miles has ever been seen doing it was when he was posing as a defense attorney in "Bridge to the Turnabout" in Trials and Tribulations.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-universe, The Steel Samurai is very popular in Allebahst, as they sponsor a stage show in their embassy; meanwhile, The Jammin' Ninja is more popular in rival Babahl.

• Glasses Pull: Shih-na and Lang do this a lot. At some points, they seem to have put on sunglasses while offscreen for the sole purpose of doing this.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • One testimony in the third case is incredibly bizarre. Lang says that Lauren knew Colin Devorae's true identity, and thus the two of them were able to plan the kidnapping as a father-daughter team, then demands that Edgeworth disprove it. On the first try, most players will probably deplete the truth meter trying to prove that Lauren didn't know. The correct answer is to prove that there were three kidnappers to disprove Lang's description of the kidnapping as a two-person job. This bit is particularly infuriating because Edgeworth's inner monologue outright misleads you as to what you're meant to do. It somewhat makes sense in retrospect, but it's one of those pieces of Ace Attorney-logic where you have to completely forget about what you just proved and concentrate on the one statement that you know is false.
  • Around the same time, we have Lauren Paups' testimony about how she fears she may have killed her father with the gun she got from her boyfriend. The obvious contradiction is that the gun she has is very obviously the fake gun from the Bad Badger suit, and thus she couldn't have killed anyone with it. The correct contradiction is that the man she supposedly shot in self-defense was using his left hand to hold his weapon instead of his right. You're liable to burn up half your meter presenting information related to the gun on various statements (at least three are directly related to the gun) before you finally present the dossier with the minuscule detail about Devorae's dominant hand.
• Height Angst: Young Fransizka von Karma does not take kindly to being used as an example of someone who wouldn't reach the window in the flashback case of Ace Attorney Investigations.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In the final case , Quercus Alba shows you a wound he got defending himself to prove that Demasque2's murder was self-defense (even though the wound was really from a separate incident). Later on, when you find unknown blood at the murder scene, the fact that he showed you this wound is the only reason you can prove that it's possible that Alba bled at the scene and that the blood could be his. Edgeworth even calls on it after he discovers that the Yatagarasu's Key was the weapon used to injure Alba. After all, it was Alba himself that left the blade on the victim's corpse, expecting it to be discovered. The entire case seems to be an example of this. Alba plotted everything that happened at the embassy in advance and kicked it off by sending the Yatagarasu's card, which was supposed to pin the whole smuggling ring on Coachen and then conveniently kill him off to keep him from doing the same and then becoming the new kingpin.
• Honor Before Reason: Lang takes a bullet in the leg for Shih-na and cites his responsibility to protect his subordinates, no matter who they might be.
• Hurricane of Aphorisms: Lang quotes Lang Zi rather often.
• Item Get!: Kay suggests that when capturing one of the badger family on camera, Edgeworth shout "Badger GET!" every time, or it doesn't count. She does it herself, eventually.
• The Hyena: Calisto Yew, who laughs at the most inappropriate times.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Manny Coachen seems to be the one really getting things done when working under Ambassador Colias Palaeno.
• Informed Ability: In Case 3, upon examining the mic during the stadium re-creation, Edgeworth mentions the only instruments he can play are the flute and piano. Playing the flute is a reference to the second "Gyakuten Meets Orchestra" album cover◊.
• Interface Spoiler: Franziska was called "von Karma" in the text boxes in the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, but it is now "Franziska" in this game. Manfred himself shows up in the flashback case. Granted, Edgeworth does call her by her first name when speaking to or about her.
• Jumpscare:
  • In Case 3, The Bellboy dressed as the Proto Badger nonchalantly pops out of a trapdoor backstage, which can spook players since the other one attacked Edgeworth in an infamous scene.
  • In Case 5, Larry suddenly rises out of the fountain at one point.
• Karmic Death: Mack Rell is hired to kill someone. After he carries out the shooting, the person who hired him to do it kills him with the same gun.
• Killing in Self-Defense:
  • The culprit of "Turnabout Ablaze" insists that the killing of Ka-Shi Nou was an act of self-defense, though it's heavily implied to be a lie and ultimately a moot point seeing as he committed another murder on the same evening that very clearly wasn't self-defense.
  • The culprit of the third case also claims this, since Colin Devorae/Oliver Deacon had tried to kill him over Lance blackmailing him into participating in the fake kidnapping, but Edgeworth says that will be determined in court.

• Last-Second Word Swap: Mike Meekins. "B-b-b-b-however, sir!"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In case 5, Kay describes Edgeworth's "Logic" ability through the sound effect it makes when you trigger it.
  • In the same case, Quercus Alba compares the whole thing to a game (though that's more a product of his incredible arrogance), and Larry Butz does not like the introduction he gets in Edgeworth's internal monologue.
• Like Father, Like Son: Ernest and Lance Amano in case 3. Initially, Ernest seems to be a wishy-washy old man while Lance is a timid young kidnapping victim; however, both are ruthless, conniving individuals to stop at nothing to achieve their own ends, even if it means supporting a vast criminal conspiracy and covering up a murder.
• Like Brother and Sister: Gumshoe describes Franziska and Edgeworth as this, at one point.
• Little Girls Kick Shins: Kay in Case 4. It looks like she hits Edgeworth in the back of the knee, but the lack of detail in the sprites and the severity of his reaction could mean it was actually a Groin Attack...
• Locked Room Mystery: Case 4.
• Long Song, Short Scene: The marching remix of the Blue Badger's theme is played exactly once, in a part of the intro to Case 3 that will take a good minute less than the song to finish.
• Made of Iron: Agent Lang! He took a bullet to the leg, then spent the rest of the case wandering around like nothing happened.
• Marathon Boss: Quercus Alba, who will take great pride in shooting down Edgeworth's logical arguments by abusing his extraterritorial rights. This turns into an annoying struggle to find any way to convict him.
• Meaningful Name: Quercus Alba in the Japanese version, where his name is Carnage Onred.
• Mexican Standoff: The final confrontation with Calisto Yew.
• Mirror Character: Like in case 3-5, Edgeworth's inner monologue is surprisingly similar to Wright's.
• The Mole: Calisto Yew/Shih-na to not only Interpol but to the Yatagarasu.
• Mood Whiplash: Case 4, From Kay Faraday standing up for Gumshoe to "I'm...not...gonna...cryyyyyyyyyyy!" to Kay blowing her nose on Edgeworth's cravat.
  • Earlier on, Kay stands up for Gumshoe, comically trying to pick a fight with Edgeworth, until he pacifies her with a Swiss roll. Then she says that she was saving it for her father. At that exact moment everyone in the room remembers that she's the daughter of the victim.
• Morton's Fork: After the killer of Case 5 is finally defeated, Edgeworth smugly asks whether said killer would like to first be tried in the US's / Japan's courts or Allebahst's, not that it matters because "either way, it's game over for you."
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Big Bad is also an extremely unsubtle example of this. Quercus Alba... or his Japanese name: Carnage Onred?
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Cammy Meele, who's missing an entire panel from her nurse uniform, and exposes both cleavage and stomach. Funny enough, she also wears her prisoner uniform in the same way.
• Nerves of Steel: Of all the reactions Edgeworth could have had to the armed robber that just killed someone in his office, he goes with "stoic defiance" without budging an inch.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Badd had to yell at Manfred von Karma for criticizing Byrne Faraday right after his death.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The official trailer showed several scenes of Kay Faraday assisting with the investigation of the second case. The player doesn't meet Kay until the beginning of case 3.
• Noodle Incident: It's not made clear exactly why Cohdopia was split into two countries. The only thing known is that it happened at some point after the KG-8 incident.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Subverted. The hardest part of pursuing the main villain is a government-sanctioned reason up until Shi-Long Lang and Interpol manage to convince his home country to remove that protection.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Quercus Alba's trial. We don't see it (because it would just be a rehash of everything that's gone before), but several supporting characters show up just to watch Edgeworth tear the defendant a new one, and he doesn't disappoint.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: There's a bit of pipe organ in Quercus Alba's leitmotif just before it loops.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Lang gets shot in the leg partway through Case 5, but he apparently just walks it off.
• Passing the Torch/Take Up My Sword: Kay Faraday does this. She finds her father's diary and believes him to be the Yatagarasu, taking on the title and mission of Stealing Truth for herself. She's...not quite as effective, though at the end of the game she's got new resolve to gather allies and do it like he did.
• Pet the Dog: Lang quite literally gets one of these moments when Missile shows up. It's plausible he's partial to canines, considering his wolf motif.
• Phantom Thief: The first Yatagarasu. The second is a Highly-Visible Ninja.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Yatagarasu's mantra is to "steal the truth", which for the original Yatagarasu meant actually stealing as a means to blow the whistle on corruption. Meanwhile, the new Yatagarasu, Kay Faraday, while constantly calling herself a Great Thief, apparently interprets "steal the truth" a little more literally and never actually steals anything beyond abstract concepts like character focus and lines. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when you realise Phoenix Wright's supposedly non-thief sidekick Maya regularly expressed an interest in "acquiring" items from crime scenes, whereas Kay does not.
• Precision F-Strike: In a series where swearing is rare, Lang beautifully delivers one to the villain of the last episode.
  Lang: Quercus Alba! You BASTARD!
• Real Men Wear Pink: In addition to the title character's berry-red suit, Detective Badd has a pink lollipop.
• Revealing Cover-Up: In "Turnabout Ablaze", Shih-na and Alba use a black cloth to cover-up the fact that they were switching statues between the embassies, giving off the impression that the Yatagarasu was flying in the air (which is ironic, considering the Yatagarasu ended up besting them in the end).
• The Reveal: Shih-na's Laughing Mad moment.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In "Turnabout Reminiscence," Edgeworth solves the mystery of Byrne Faraday's death by naming Calisto Yew as the real Yatagarasu, and thus the murderer. He's right that she's the real Yatagarasu, but he's wrong in assuming that Faraday wasn't — three persons were the original Yatagarasu.
• Say My Name: When he's finally defeated, Quercus Alba yells Edgeworth's name so forcefully that he can't even complete the word before he goes into full-on screaming.
• Schizo Tech: It is a bit odd to see a flat-screen television in the courthouse defendant lobbies hooked up to VCR players, though in fairness it is there for security tapes and many places still use old school tapes for security.
  • This manages to trip over itself in the context of the larger Ace Attorney franchise. Despite "the present day" of this era of the series referring to the years between 2016 and 2019, the technology in use is reckoned to the early 2000s at best^note As this is the time period the original trilogy was released on Game Boy Advance, given the standards of cell phones carried by the characters or the lack of flat-panel PC monitors. But the aforementioned flat-screen TV not only looks out of place among these dated technologies but appears during a case set five years before "the present day", which makes its presence even more of an anomaly than it already is.
• Shaped Like Itself: A certain witness from case 5:
  Dumbass: My claim is a claim claiming my claim!
• Shout-Out:
  • The painting hanging in the airplane stairway is a reference to Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David.
  • Edgeworth references Clue towards the end of Turnabout Kidnapped:
    Edgeworth: Lance Amano! I propose that you killed Mr. Deacon with the revolver in the haunted house!
  • Lang gets an awesomely fitting one near the end: "Your diplomatic immunity (dramatic point) has just been revoked!"
  • Present the knife to Calisto Yew in Case 4, and after a fit of laughter, she'll ask Edgeworth, "Why so serious?"
  • Kay at one point mixes up a baby mobile with a ceiling fan. When Edgeworth says she's confused the two she replies: "No! They spin those babies right round! Like a record!", referencing the band Dead or Alive.
  • Quercus Alba blurts out the *And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling prosecutors!* line after being proven guilty.
• Sleepy Enemy: Subverted. Cammy Meele is a flight attendant who is seemingly highly prone to falling asleep randomly. In reality, her sleepyheadedness is a façade to hide her role as an agent in the smuggling ring who murdered an Interpol agent who was investigating the ring.
• Snot Bubble: Cammy Meele. She actually invokes it with a bubble pipe!
• Soundtrack Dissonance: While Calisto Yew's theme seems like the appropriate track to be played after Shih-na's Reveal, the upbeat theme doesn't mesh well with the fact that she was Laughing Mad not even a second ago.
• Soundtrack Lullaby: Cammy Melee is a witness who constantly falls asleep. Naturally her theme is half asleep itself.
• Staring Contest: The fourth case reveals that Edgeworth once won a glaring contest against his own reflection. Somehow.
• Stealth Pun: The Yatagarasu's Key is an object from the Codophian Embassy stolen by the Yatagarasu. The national symbol of Codophia is a butterfly and butterfly symbols emblazon the handle of the artifact. The secret of the key is the fact it has two ends, the other of which can be used as a knife. It changes form by the handles swinging around to cover the currently exposed side, hence it is a butterfly knife.
• Suddenly Shouting: Lampshaded.
  Edgeworth: OBJECTION! Ms. Teneiro!
  Teneiro: Wh-Why are you shouting all of a sudden?!
  Edgeworth: (Argh! Force of habit!)
• Superdickery: The opening cutscene of Turnabout Ablaze makes it seem like Kay caused the titular fire, or at least that Edgeworth suspects her of it. In the actual game, she didn't do it and Edgeworth is actually worried she was caught in the blaze.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Edgeworth is given two pieces of evidence, a card and a video, proving that Manny Coachen was ordered by someone to kill Cece Yew. However, the card was evidence concealed during a case years ago and the tape was evidence part of another investigation that stolen from the police, which makes both illegal in the court of law. Despite this however, they can still be used outside the courtroom. With no other options, Edgeworth decided to try and see if the evidence somehow proves that Amabasador Alba is leader of the smuggling ring. Upon further examination, the tape shows that Alba was potentially the one who ordered the hit on Cece, which allows Edgeworth and co. to press Alba.
  • There's one on Diplomatic Impunity. Yes, it's true that ambassadors have certain rights that make it a pain in the ass to convict them, but it's also true that most nations really don't like their ambassadors to be outright criminals. Lang is able to get Alba's diplomatic immunity revoked by taking the aforementioned evidence (which is illegal in court, but the court system doesn't choose ambassadors) to the Alhbastian government, thus proving that their diplomat is guilty of smuggling and ordering someone killed. The government naturally fires Alba rather than risk a diplomatic incident with Japan/the United States.
• The Syndicate: The international smuggling ring that Interpol is investigating. Through the course of the game (3 days), Edgeworth proves that two of this ring's members committed murders, and finally takes down the ringleader (the Big Bad of the game).
• Take That!:
  Edgeworth: You know I've seen it occur a lot recently, and it's been bothering me greatly... but why does nobody know how to properly capitalize and space nouns anymore!?
• Tap on the Head: Edgeworth takes a solid hit by the Proto Badger/Lance in the third case, leaving him out of it long enough for his assailant to move him halfway across an amusement park. He's a little woozy when he comes to, but he's perfectly fine otherwise.
  • Edgeworth isn't unconscious the whole time, as he briefly wakes up while being transported to the storage room. He passes back out shortly, which can be attributed to claustrophobia resulting from the DL-6 incident. This is when Edgeworth is being transported in the Badgermobile, and he can overhear the heavy rainstorm, as well as snippets of Lance talking to Lauren remotely, telling her that Colin has betrayed the group and to meet at the hideout (presumably so he can give her the prop gun and stage the fake murder).
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Discussed as it is applied to the Pink Badger, the Blue Badger's Distaff Counterpart.
  Edgeworth: I suppose this is the Pink Badger? But since it has the same design, doesn't it seem forced to call this one a female?
  Kay: You think so? I mean, just look at how long her eyelashes are!
  Edgeworth: That's the only difference.
  Kay: And the fact that she's pink.
  Edgeworth: Yes, and?
  Kay: And her lips are red! See, lipstick!
  Edgeworth: (What? She has nothing to say about the giant pink ribbon, or is that too obvious?)
• That One Case: The KG-8 incident, the arc case of the game.
• Unnecessarily Large Interior: Edgeworth notes that the plane in case 3 is a special model. That's definitely true—it has the passenger level, a lounge below that reached by staircase (both very spacious), and an elevator down to a cargo hold which is two stories in height. The staircase is high enough that a man can die if he's pushed from the railing. It's hard to imagine how such a gargantuan flying machine can even leave the ground, even before you start packing it with twenty-foot stone statues.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: At one point in case 5, you can present evidence to Larry. Anything that doesn't result in a specific reaction from him leads to a conversation in which Franziska whips him until he's knocked out, while Edgeworth approves of it due to Larry's sheer unhelpfulness. Like with any other "I have no specific thoughts on this evidence" dialogue, you can repeat this as much as you want.
• Wham Shot: Things have already taken an interesting turn in Turnabout Ablaze, when evidence comes up that (seemingly) points to Shih-na being the one who murdered Manny Coachen. However, the real twist comes when when, upon being confronted about said evidence, Shih-na suddenly starts letting out a very familiar laugh from Turnabout Reminiscence.
• What Would X Do?: Edgeworth does this twice. Although the "X" is never named, Edgeworth is obviously referring to Phoenix.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Edgeworth fears earthquakes so profoundly that a bad spot of turbulence on an airplane triggers his phobia. He passes out and lies unconscious for a full ten minutes.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Quercus Alba, who manages to keep going the lion's share of an entire chapter after having his Diplomatic Impunity revoked.
• You Keep Using That Word: At one point, Prosecutor Portsman claims that there is a "mountain of evidence" pointing away from him. If you press him on this point, however, it turns out his "mountain of evidence" isn't really evidence at all; simply a claim regarding his supposed lack of motive. Edgeworth hangs a lampshade on this:
  Edgeworth: ...Might I recommend that you review what the word "evidence" means.
• You Meddling Kids: Alba says this word-for-word at the end.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: If you try to present the horse pendant to Lauren in Case 3, Edgeworth and Kay will quickly decide not to because she would go into one of her flights of fancy. And also because she would recognize it as a match for her own wing pendant, and the game needs that to stay hidden until the reveal in the next segments.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Horace Knightley's objection soundclip. OBJection!
• Accidental Hero: While bringing an unconscious Kay to the Grand Tower rooftop for his plans, Simon Keyes stumbled upon a secret meeting between the fake Di-Jun Huang and Justine Courtney. Hearing the balloon Simon was riding in, Huang ushered Courtney away and tried to shoot down Simon with a gun he was likely going to kill Courtney with if she realized he was a fake, only to get squashed by the hot-air balloon. Had Simon not discovered the meeting, the victim of Case 5 would've been Justine Courtney instead and John Marsh would've been erased next to clean off any loose ends.
• Acting Your Intellectual Age: Judging from Gregory Edgeworth's comments, Miles was stoic and serious even as a kid. His father even laments that he'd rather read law books than fairy tales, and that it seems unlikely he'll be able to get along with kids his own age.
• Artistic License – Physics: In the first case, a pistol with a Laser Sight is treated as a poor choice for an assassin because it would immediately give away the shooter's position. This is a fair assessment to some degree, but everyone's dialogue and the game's artwork implies that in this universe, the laser was a visible beam of light and not just a single point. Possibly justified by the fact it had been raining, and the moisture in the air would make the beam more visible, but still counts because no one mentions the weather as a reason. Note that the game itself is a bit inconsistent about this, with the laser appearing as a line in one photo and a dot in another.
• Always Murder:
  • The initial victims of cases 1 and 4 survive, necessitating that two additional people get killed.
  • Subverted in Case 3. The present portion of the case seemingly has no victim, until a body is found. Turns out, it's the same victim from 18 years ago, whose body was never found.
• Amoral Attorney: Blaise Debeste, the former Chief Prosecutor and current head of the P.I.C. In addition to his present-day jackassery, he also turns out to have been the instigator of DL-6 (indirectly) and the prosecutor who disgraced the Lang family.
• An Aesop: The game isn't shy about stressing that the pursuit of Revenge is wrong. Not only is the Big Bad motivated by a desire for revenge against the people who wronged him, but otherwise moral people such as Katherine Hall and Jill Crane take actions in pursuit of revenge, resulting in them being imprisoned for attempted murder and getting killed by the intended target, respectively. At the end of the game, John Marsh is offered a chance to take revenge for his father's death, but refuses it, knowing it would cause pain to those who care about him.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different:
  • Case 2 has you briefly play as Gumshoe using a metal detector.
  • Case 3 has you switching between Gregory and Miles Edgeworth.
  • Case 5 has you briefly present evidence as Sebastian Debeste.
• Arc Symbol: The Lion Lilies in Case 5. The flowers appear constantly in several locations, including a reenactment of the scene of the SS-5 Incident. The flower's meaning is "the bond between parent and child", the Central Theme of the game. The bouquet of Lion Lilies turn out to even be the final evidence that needs to be presented in order to bring down the Big Bad.
• Arc Words: The "path of the prosecutor" or the "prosecutor's path".
  • In case 5, the words "The bond between parent and child" are constantly repeated as the symbol of the Lion Lilies. Said bond is a Central Theme to the game.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Lotta can be spotted in AAI, and it's implied she takes a picture important to the case, but she's never identified. She plays a very significant role in the last two cases of GK2, and actually gets a sprite this time.
  • Remember Gregory Edgeworth? You get to play as him in case 3 of the sequel and find out what really inspired von Karma to take his life.
  • That nameless chief prosecutor from the first main series game who gave von Karma his penalty? He shows up here in the sequel, gets a name, and acts as one of the Co-Dragons to the Greater-Scope Villain.
  • Ema Skye appears for a brief moment in the third case (and the credits roll) of the first Investigations game, before she is taken away by Lang. In the sequel, she sticks for the near entirety of the final two cases.
• Asshole Victim:
  • From the final case, Di-Jun Huang's impostor, the man who prepared the president's assassination and poses as him for years, is killed by the game's Big Bad.
  • From the second case, Horace Knightley, who was shown to be a rather obnoxious Jerkass even before he turned out to be the first case's culprit.
  • From case 3, Isaac Dover. is guilty of blackmail, kidnapping and assault, and is about as bad as the real killer.
• Auction of Evil: The fourth case centers around an illegal auction at the prosecutors' office for evidence from past cases, in which participants hid their identities using masks with voice-changers. The victim, Jill Crane, was a Mole posing as a buyer and trying to bring down the auctioneer. The true murder weapon even turns out to be an auction gavel.
• Back for the Finale: Every surviving character from the first two cases except for Jay Elbird and Frank Sahwit return to play some role in the final case.
• Batman Gambit: As it turns out, Simon Keyes's entire plan and therefore the game's entire conflict involved this trope, including some elements of the Xanatos Gambit.
  • In Episode 1, he manipulated Knightley into killing Ethan Rooke by playing into his inferiority complex.
  • In Episode 2, he manipulated the evidence, using Patricia Roland's intense fear of Sirhan Dogen to trick her into falsely believing that Knightley was an agent of his, provoking her into killing him.
  • Episode 4 is where the Batman Gambit and Xanatos Gambit tropes most clearly overlap: he set up a meeting between Blaise Debeste and Jill Crane by communicating their secrets to each other, where one would inevitably kill the other. If Jill killed Blaise? Great, revenge achieved. If Blaise killed Jill (which he did)? Well then it was a good thing Simon also kidnapped Kay and made it look like she was working together with Jill. Blaise would then have to either kill Kay or frame her for Jill's murder (which is what happened), thus provoking the wrath of Miles Edgeworth, who would stop at nothing to bring Blaise to justice.
  • Episode 5 was when it all came to light.
• Barely Changed Dub Name: From the game's Fan Translation:
  • Delicy Scone to Delicia Scones
  • Ami Aizawa to Amy Marsh ("marsh" being the literal translation of "aizawa")
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Edgeworth's checkered past as Manfred von Karma's disciple haunts him for most of the game, especially when Raymond Shields returns and he comes under suspicion by the P.I.C. He is pretty much the only one who doesn't bristle at "Uncle Ray's" bitter anger toward him, since Shields had every reason to feel that he had betrayed his father Gregory by joining von Karma.
• Big Bad: Simon Keyes. Being the mastermind of the entire game, he plotted to use everyone involved to take down a government conspiracy consisting of Blaise Debeste, Patricia Roland and the fake Di-Jun Huang, whether it involves getting them arrested or killed, as well as plotting the death of his childhood friend as part of his ultimate plan.
• Big Damn Heroes: Gumshoe does this at the end of the final case when the real culprit is about to leave. Sebastian also pulls one off earlier in the case when Justine Courtney can no longer stall the trial.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Case 3's resolution ends with the possibility that the true killer may get away with the murder charge due to a Catch-22 Dilemma, but the heroes did achieve their own goal to exonerate the wrongly-convicted Jeff Masters, although Katherine Hall has to serve her own sentence regarding attempted murder.
• Blood-Stained Letter: Case 4 features a bloody letter due to it being on the body when it was impaled.
• Body Double: The Di-Jun Huang we meet turns out to not be the real one, but a body double who had the real one killed over a decade ago and took his place, since he was sick of putting his ass in the line of fire all the time and getting no recognition for it.
• Break the Haughty: Sebastian is smug, self absorbed, and thinks he knows everything better when he doesn't. He takes credit for things he didn't do, and constantly talks about how he's the best at everything...only to break down when he finds out the truth, and even then, fate has another nasty surprise for him in store.
• Brick Joke: The brick from the first game bounces and lands again in case 5, where Lang is working with only one of his subordinates, who offers to count off to cheer Lang up. When he realizes just "one" is unimpressive, he starts going through various ways of saying "one".
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Sebastian stops being a "Well Done, Son" Guy after Blaise reveals his treachery through the final two cases of the sequel (as well as being a heartless jerk towards Sebastian). Curiously, however, he still says he thanks his father for bringing him to where he is now, although he refuses to walk along the same path any longer.
  • It's very clear by the second game that the pedestal Franziska held her father and his ideals on has crumbled, since she actively avoids directly referring to him, except where Sebastian is concerned, and even then, she doesn't often say "my Papa" like she used to. The one time she does, it's because she's in shock from learning exactly what caused the black mark on his record all those years ago. On the rare occasions where she does refer to her father, it is without the pride she used to always use when talking about him, usually indirectly comparing him to Sebastian's father.
    Kay: That person... he really loves his father, doesn't he...?
    Franziska: However... one must be able to accept the mistakes of their father... However much they may look up to them...
  • Shelley once again falls under this trope, having another client that betrays his trust.
• But Thou Must!: A more comedic example. When we first meet Raymond, he gives Edgey a pop-quiz: What is the name of the room Knightley was murdered in? The three choices are "Lecture Room", "Morgue", and "Entertainment Room". The correct answer is "Workroom".
  Edgeworth: (All three answers were wrong. I hate it when he does that.)
• Catch-22 Dilemma: Dane Gustavia's conviction on IS-7 requires the false conviction dealt to Jeff Masters, but because of the expired Statute of Limitations that took Gustavia leaving the country for 3 years and Masters' trial being dragged for a year to extend the Statute, if Jeff really is declared Not Guilty, the false conviction will be overturned. However, the Statute of Limitations has expired again by a few months meaning that Gustavia will likely get off scot-free. Except it hasn't: it was paused the entire time he was out of the country, and this triggers his Villainous Breakdown.
• Call-Back:
  • A rather ironic one: the image of the conspirators in the sequel (Patricia Roland, Blaise Debeste, and Di-Jun Huang's body double) eerily mimics the image of the Yatagarasu trio from the first game (Calisto Yew, Tyrell Badd, and Byrne Faraday).
  • Even though both incidents happened by complete chance, Edgeworth seems to have learned a trick from one of Phoenix's cases by requesting a piece of evidence to be tested for his own fingerprints since he touched it earlier for a different reason at the time in order to prove that it was at a certain location, much like how Phoenix felt for something in a bag which turned out to be the missing Sacred Urn from Case 2 of Trials and Tribulations and requested a fingerprint test on it later.
  • Case 4 has an ID card record like in "Rise From the Ashes", with the victim's ID card being used last and a potential suspect being the one preceeding them earlier. Subverted when it turns out the only other person was Justine Courtney, who was only there to gather documents and wasn't the murderer.
  • Case 3 has the Organizer renamed as the Court Record like in the main games, as much like Phoenix, you're playing as a defense attorney, specifically Gregory Edgeworth.
• The Cameo:
  • Phoenix and Maya appear during case 5, although here it's easier to generate than in the first game, because it happens during an investigation taking place in the same area so it's much more likely you'll examine the large, obvious spot twice that triggers the cameo.
  • In case 3, Ron and Desirée DeLite from Trials and Tribulations can be found... "admiring"... a sculpture in the Winter Palace room.
  • Planned In-Universe with the in-production Moozilla movie, which was a remake of the original that the Zheng-Fa president Di-Jun Huang was a fan of, leading to plans for him to make a cameo in the remake, but it fell through due to his death.
• Central Theme: Gets more and more obvious with time: "The bonds between parent and child" and by consequence, the influence of a parent in their child's life and vice-versa. The entire game, particularly after Ray appears draws constant parallels between Miles and Gregory. Sebastian is the victim of an abusive father and this turns him into a "Well Done, Son" Guy with little interest in anything besides getting the love of his father becoming instantly more competent and grounded once he decides to turn his back to his father. Other Abusive Parents also appear in the game, namely Gustavia and Dover who respectively only used his son for his work and the other threatened his son to kidnap his friend, both are considered inhumane by the other characters and severely messed up their sons.
  • On the other end of the spectrum, you have Courtney and John. Courtney actively states that carrying an image of her son around with her gives her strength and courage in her job and John, being Happily Adopted is a incredibly well adjusted, if a little hot headed, kid, who even tampered the crime scene in order to help his mom and refused to avenge his father simply because he knew that it would make his mom sad. Their healthy and loving relationship is a Foil to the Abusive Parents in the game and shows how far in the side of the good Courtney really is. The end shows that John also respects his biological parents, who truly cared for him after all. Miles lampshades to Courtney that the Goddess of Law is also a motherly one, since she understands attenuating circumstances, like Courtney's own.
  • The Big Bad, Simon Keyes was betrayed and abused by every authority figure they should have been able to rely on, including his father and the caretaker of the orphanage he was in. The former only used him for his career and the latter tortured him in an attempt to keep him quiet about the SS-5 Incident. When he seems to have found a Parental Substitute in Sirhan Dogen, it's implied that Sirhan has softened to him and he became the one person Simon actually relies on, becoming a Family of Choice.
  • Several main characters struggle with their relationship with their parents in the end of the game. Lang, in the last case, is attempting to solve the case that send his family into shame, particularly, his father several of the evidences he gather are actually what his father could gather with his own investigation. Franziska has decided to leave her father's influence behind her, and make something of herself, independent of whatever her father did in the past. The end of the game shows that Gregory is still a huge influence in Edgeworth's life, even as he intends to keep on being a prosecutor, he intends to take his father teachings with him about how to save people. The ending implies that Kay will also attempt to get out of her father's shadow and start her own path as the Yatagarasu.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Knightley's chessboard, ring, the correspondence chess memo, and the photo of Dover and Gustavia with their sons. The Moozilla doll owned by the president also gets quite a bit of legwork in the last two cases after showing up in case 1.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the end of Case 2, Simon Keyes gives Edgeworth a flyer for Berry Big Circus, inviting him to visit for a show. The hot-air balloon in the background of the flyer becomes a major key of the final case, as Simon used it to travel to the crime scene and ended up killing one of his targets with it.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Horace Knightley and Simon Keyes seem to have paid off in the first two cases, but they're still important later on.
  • A boy with strange headgear makes brief appearances in the third and fourth case. He enters the plot in the fifth one.
• The Chessmaster: The Big Bad, Simon Keyes, both literally and metaphorically. Has orchestrated a plan that involves criminals getting their comeuppance throughout the game.
• Chess Motifs: Repeatedly. Besides Logic Chess and the physical chessboards in Dogen's cell, Edgeworth's office, and Knightley's case, there are a lot of characters who are metaphorical chess pieces. Knightley and Rooke are obvious examples, but there are more subtle nods, like Sebastian Debeste, who would surely claim to be a King while unaware that the King is the weakest piece on the board, and the generic bald bodyguards in Case 1, who are meant to resemble pawns and are even marked as such on a diagram. Edgeworth himself, however, is very likely depicted as the chessplayer. He then goes head-to-head against Simon Keyes, who manipulated the entire case and is also likely Edgeworth's chess opponent in the final argument.
  • While less direct than Rooke and Knightley, the game clearly invites players to continue the chess metaphor. Dogen's pointed head, monk/priest themes, and the fact he becomes much more valuable in the endgame phase makes him a bishop. Blaise and Patricia have competing right to be called the queen. Blaise is the most powerful piece on the board, who's capture weakens every other piece on the board, while Patricia was promoted to a powerful position from a relatively lowly one, and is easy to bully around the board in the early game, and both are right hands of the literal and metaphorical King.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: In "The Forgotten Turnabout", there is an inverted example of the victim having a unrelated burn mark on her hand that was visible when her body is discovered, but then it turns out she normally wears gloves to hide them. There was a taped recording of the murder, with the lone piece of dialogue determined to be the culprit mentioning the victim's burns. But when it was revealed the victim was actually wearing gloves during her murder, this meant the recording was actually the victim talking about the culprit's burn mark. A straight example of this trope follows, as the culprit was exposed when it was determined he was hiding his burn under his fake beard.
• Co-Dragons: Blaise Debeste and Patricia Roland to Di-Jun Huang's body double.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Grand Tower's 51st floor. It turns out to be a single room full of evidence sold for the black market auction on the 50th floor. The evidence ranges from the real Alif Red statue from I-2 to Redd White's office desk from way back in 1-2.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Gregory Edgeworth and Detective Badd have a conversation about ladders and step ladders.
  • Edgeworth alludes to Psyche-Locks during a conversation in case 5.
  • There are reappearances of "John Doe" (Shelly de Killer), Frank Sahwit, Polly the Parrot and Gourd Lake. Plus, there is a flashback case involving Gregory Edgeworth.
  • Pretty much the entire Case 3 is this. But it doesn't stop there — you also find out who the Chief Prosecutor who gave Manfred Von Karma the penalty was and who brought down Lang's family reputation in Zheng Fa.
  • The last two statements in Frank Sahwit's "When I Found the Body" are direct references to his testimony from the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
  Sahwit in 1-1: Then I saw her lying there... A woman... not moving... dead! I quailed in fright and found myself unable to go inside.
  Sahwit in I2-2: Then I saw him lying there... A man... not moving... dead! I quailed in fright and found myself letting out a scream.
• Copy Protection: Much like in Ghost Trick, if the game is detected as a pirate copy, all the dialogue text will be in Borginian and all the item descriptions are replaced with Xes. Due to how the fan translation patch works, the program that causes this is written out completely.
• Corpse Temperature Tampering: The victim of the IS-7 Incident was frozen with the intention of throwing off the time of death, but a series of events beyond the culprit's control led the body to disappear for over 18 years. Later on in case 5, the victim is frozen to throw off the time of death, which leads to parallels being drawn between the two killers.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Ray says that Katherine Hall wouldn't have needed to buy back Jeff Master's mansion and set a poison gas trap for Isaac Dover's real killer if she'd just trusted him and come clean about stealing the statues containing Dover's body from the crime scene. Katherine, however, replies that this is her way of atoning for her crime, and that since the police had hidden the fact that they hadn't found the body, she couldn't trust him.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The game has many instances of corruption in the series' justice system and the first and last cases feature a case of political corruption as well. The biggest of these instances is Blaise Debeste who manages to put every other Amoral Attorney in the series to shame with his corrupt actions and sends Edgeworth into a Heroic BSoD and a 10-Minute Retirement as a result. Then there is the game's Big Bad who is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds in contrast to the sociopathic and Large Ham villains in past games.
  • Case 3 in particular is darker in tone than the rest of the series. It's a flashback case with almost no comic relief characters, primarily focusing on some of the most serious characters in the series (Gregory Edgeworth, Von Karma, and Tyrell Badd), and the player knows that it's a Foregone Conclusion that this case will lead directly to Gregory's death.
• Darkest Hour: In The Forgotten Turnabout Kay was attacked by a mysterious mastermind and suffered amnesia and was implicated for the murder of a PIC member. Then the Chairman of the PIC, Blaise Debeste entered and shows his abuse of power by twisting the truth to have Kay convicted of the murder no matter what evidence Edgeworth tried to argue with. Then realizing the corruption in the PIC, Edgeworth gives up his badge and whole career as a prosecutor.
• Dark Reprise: Three notable ones: of Lang's theme, One of Kay's, and theme for the SS-5 incident is a tragic remix of the Zheng Fa Presidents theme. And with good reason.
• Demoted to Extra: Gumshoe in the second game, though it doesn't kick in until after the first case, when loads of characters start showing themselves. Raymond takes the role of Edgeworth's Lancer while still providing comic relief, while Sebastian fills the clueless logic comedy Gumshoe used to provide, leaving him with less and less screentime as the game goes on. After Case 2, his only real role is to occasionally transfer evidence and make arrests. To drive it home, AAI 2 is also the first game in the series where he never gets to testify.
  • Franziska and Lang in the second game as well, with Justine mainly filling Franziska's role and Sebastian (sort of) providing the "rival" dynamic that Lang did.
• Dialogue Tree: Logic Chess combines this with a Timed Mission: Edgeworth has to extract information from certain characters by giving the proper replies and asking the right questions. The player must choose wisely between the two or three options available at a time.
• Disc-One Final Boss:
  • Manfred Von Karma in Case 3. Justified, since the case switches between a flashback and the present, and it's a Foregone Conclusion that the case wasn't solved then and Gregory was never able to confront the real killer. Manfred von Karma is also imprisoned or dead by the present day, so he can't return for when Miles finally solves the case.
  • Sirhan Dogen in both of the cases in which he features. You even get the Presto theme during his testimony in the last case.
• Distressed Dude: Sebastian in case 5 of AAI2 is accidentally kidnapped by his father's men when he's mistaken for another boy. Kay and Edgeworth find him Bound and Gagged in his own house while investigating and have to free him. He's pretty heavily traumatized by the incident, and it's up to Edgeworth to get him back on his feet.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: At the end of Case 3, Raymond Shields asks the soon-to-be arrested Katherine Hall if he can act as her defense in a manner that sounds a lot like a proposal if you swap out "defense attorney" for marriage-related terms.
• Downer Ending: It's a Foregone Conclusion that the flashback portion of Case 3 isn't going to end well. Fortunately, von Karma's eventual downfall is also established in canon.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • When pressing Frank Sahwit, he reveals that he has a deep hatred of defense attorneys. Edgeworth correctly guesses that he had run afoul of one in the past, having no idea that it was Phoenix Wright since the prosecutor of that case was Winston Payne.
  • In "The Grand Turnabout", Kay says that she doesn't see anyone special around her either as the camera pans up to reveal Phoenix and Maya across the street.
• Enhance Button: Twice. The first time is in case 2, where you must examine surveillance footage from the detention center to determine who was attacked by what in the holding cell. The second time is in case 5, where you enhance the practice video. This could easily have been Hand Waved by saying that everything in the near future (the game's setting) is recorded in HD, including surveillance footage, and that "enhancing" it is actually just zooming in to video data that's already there. Instead, Lang mentions that "the police have a device that lets you analyze the video footage up close and personal", effectively making it this trope.
• Everyone Has Standards: Sebastian may be annoying, but everyone — even Franziska — is utterly disgusted when his father reveals that his "achievements" were all a lie and belittles him, causing him to run away, sobbing uncontrollably.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sirhan Dogen, the feared blind assassin who's pulled off countless jobs, once saved the life of two boys his guide dog found freezing to death in a car on a particularly cold winter day. He brought them to a local orphanage, and later kept in touch with one of them over the years through correspondence chess because he helped him escape being killed by clients from a hit. In Case 5, he pleads with Shelly deKiller for the life of that same boy, and succeeds.
• Face Death with Dignity: The real Di-Jun Huang upon being confronted by Dogen. He refuses to beg for his life, and only asks for some time to see his son John Marsh before Dogen kills him. Dogen declines and kills him immediately.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Played for Laughs in Case 2 when Raymond Shields asks Edgeworth what room the crime scene is out of a possible three. However...
  Edgeworth: All three answers were wrong. I hate it when he does that.
• Fake Assassination: The first episode opens with an attempted assassination on the visiting President of a foreign country. However, the President engineered it himself as a PR stunt to boost his popularity. However, there were a few complications that arose: First of all, somebody hired Shelley de Killer to actually assassinate the President, but de Killer took offense when he learned that the "President" is actually an impostor who pulled a Kill and Replace on the real President a decade ago (a fact the player doesn't learn until the final episode of the game) and therefore his client was lying to him, so he abandoned the job. Second of all, one of the President's bodyguards was killed, which wasn't part of the plan. The other bodyguard killed him hoping he would be promoted to head bodyguard in his place, and tried to frame de Killer for it, who naturally got pissed off by this and forcefully conscripted Edgeworth into solving the case (ironically by holding the real killer hostage).
• Flashback B-Plot: Case 3 has two flashbacks to when the originating incident happened, with the rest taking place in the present and revolving around finally solving the incident.
• Foregone Conclusion: Victory in the second game's third case seems shallow when you're already aware that it's the very case that puts a stain on Manfred von Karma's spotless record and drives him to murder Gregory Edgeworth. With that established, the point of final, big confrontation of Gregory's segment is not proving who the killer is, but proving von Karma forged evidence.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Shelly de Killer drops a hint to the mastermind's identity in the very first case, long before you even know there is a mastermind. Namely, he says he was hired by "a key individual". Said client, and the mastermind, turns out to be Simon Keyes. It's even more explicit in the Japanese script, as Shelly outright refers to to the client as a monkey.
  • At the end of Case 2, Regina comments that Simon is smarter than he looks. He most certainly is.
  • In the first case, Huang's body double "survives" his staged assassination attempt because he supposedly had on a bulletproof vest (it was prepared ahead of time). It's then mentioned how even while wearing a bulletproof vest, the impact from a bullet can still hurt you and even break your bones. In the final case, the body double is killed for real. He was crushed to death, with every bone in his body broken.
  • Given Courtney's age (26), it's really unlikely that she could be the biological mother of John Marsh (13). Then "The Grand Turnabout" rolls around, and you find out that she isn't.
  • At one point in the game, Simon says that he doesn't like sweets. Given that he used to have a grand affinity for them by being his father's taste tester, but nearly died because of this.
  • If you're familiar with American history around the 20th century, you might find a name in the fan translation very familiar. Sirhan Dogen shares his first name with Sirhan Sirhan; the man responsible for assassinating Robert F Kennedy, brother to President John F Kennedy. Sirhan Dogen is later revealed to have assassinated President Di-Jun Huang.
  • During Logic Chess, Edgeworth's imaginary pieces involve him playing with white pieces against his opponent, who he imagines is defending with black pieces. His second opponent, Di-Jun Huang also defends with black pieces, and his Chess Motif and map marker depict him as the white King, but when it's revealed that he's a body-double/imposter of the now-deceased Di-Jun Huang, his map marker is now a black King, which he truly represents.
  • In Case 1, Horace Knightley notes that the strange one-horned cow toy the president owns is apparently a very treasured keepsake to him, yet the president just refers to it as "that stuffed animal". Guess the body-double didn't know the real president that well.
    • Also, Knightley being held hostage by de Killer holding a knife to his throat hints at the nature of his death: stabbed in the neck with an assassin's blade.
  • After Edgeworth is hit with a major snag in Case 1 regarding the facts, his logic and the evidence that breaks his case, Kay suggests that if the facts don't match with the evidence, then there's probably something wrong with the evidence. Not only was she right about this as Case 1's murder weapon was switched, Case 4 has Edgeworth discover that the autopsy report itself was tampered with.
  • The culprit of case 1 has a Villainous Breakdown that involves getting hit in the head with a Thinker statue, foreshadowing his future role as a murder victim.
  • Later on, Edgeworth finds a moping Shelly de Killer, who's still griping about the events of Case 1 where he was sent to kill a false target, foreshadowing that President Di-Jun Huang was a fake.
  • Kay's confusion resulting from mixing up Gourd Lake with the Grand Tower's viewing platform results in her thinking that the man in the red raincoat was floating in mid-air. Case 5 reveals this is technically true, as Simon Keyes had access to a hot air balloon and could in fact float in mid-air.
• Forged Message: A plot point involves a hidden mastermind manipulating individuals by typing letters signed as other people, predicting that a few keywords would push them to act as the mastermind wanted.
• For Want of a Nail:
  • The entire series would not exist if not for Isaac Dover, who made his son kidnap and detain Dane Gustavia's son. Without his son to taste his food for him, Gustavia had no hope of winning the dessert contest, forcing him to sneak into Jeff Master's room and take a picture of the cure to his taste disorder, where Dover caught him and threatened him with blackmail. This led to Gustavia killing Dover, Kate finding the body, Gustavia hiding the body before the cops showed up, and Kate accidentally hiding the body even more. Since the cops Never Found the Body, von Karma forced a confession out of Master, received his first penalty for it and had his precious perfect record ruined, causing him to murder Gregory Edgeworth and adopt Miles, turning him into a infamously ruthless prosecutor, which made Phoenix decide to become a defence lawyer in order to face him in court and find out why he had changed so much.
  • In Case 5, the victim would've been Justine Courtney instead of the fake Di-Jun Huang hadn't Simon accidentally happened upon their meeting on the Grand Tower's rooftop while flying the circus' hot-air balloon, causing the fake to usher Courtney away and try to shoot Simon with a gun he was planning to kill Courtney with, only to get squashed by the hot-air balloon.
• Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: The Big Bad's plan hinges on this trope. Every culprit Edgeworth catches killed someone ( Horace Knightley with Ethan Rooke, Patricia Roland with Horace Knightley, Blaise Debeste with Jill Crane), but these deaths only came about because the Big Bad set up the circumstances to prod the culprits into murder, knowing Edgeworth would get involved solve the case but be unable to find decisive evidence against the true instigator. It's especially impressive because this wasn't the original plan; Simon only came up with the idea of setting Edgeworth on his enemies after he was arrested for Horace's murder (which he'd set up, but Patricia had enacted) and Edgeworth had defended him by proving Patricia did it- thus allowing him to kill two birds with one stone by having Horace killed and Patricia arrested.
• Friend on the Force: Detective Gumshoe more than usual in this game; when Jurisdiction Friction forces Edgeworth out of the official investigation, Gumshoe (reluctantly) assists Debeste but passes any useful information on to Edgeworth and Raymond Shields. Detective Badd played a similar role for Gregory Edgeworth in the IS-7 incident, for similar reasons.
• Go Through Me: When Sirhan Dogen shows up at the climax, Judge Courtney's sprite does the "hug" pose with John Marsh.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Played with. The corrupt organization encompassing P.I.C. head Blaise Debeste, prison warden Patricia Roland and Zheng Fa "president" (actually body double) Di-Jun Huang is significantly and obviously more powerful, influential and menacing than the game's actual Big Bad Simon Keyes, but they aren't the ones who drive and instigate the main conflict. In fact, he ends up destroying them all behind the scenes, thus technically elevating himself to a similar scope.
  • In a sense, Blaise Debeste ends up being this to the original trilogy due to being the Chief Prosecutor who gave von Karma his one penalty, which would drive Manfred to commit murder and start the DL-6 incident.
  • In a similar way, Dane Gustavia for committing the murder that lead to the DL-6 incident, and Issac Dover, for being the instigator. Issac is also responsible for the rise of the game's Big Bad.
• Guide Dang It!: The Logic Chess battle against Blaise Debeste in Case 4. Among other things, it requires you to go back on previous lines of questioning to discover options that weren't there before.
• Happily Ever Before: The game ends with one corrupt scumbag revealed and Edgeworth securely on his path in life — to reform the justice system. Five days later, a certain magician is found dead in his hospital room, and six days after that, a certain defense attorney is disbarred for presenting forged evidence. The Dark Age of the Law is about to begin...
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: President Di-Jun Huang was assassinated 12 years before the events of the game. The president encountered in-game is his body double, and at no point does Edgeworth ever meet the real president while he's alive.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: A variation. Kay's conspicuous homemade Yatagarasu's Badge is used to hold a tiny bug device inside by the Big Bad, which Edgeworth doesn't discover until he picks up on a few details that the Mastermind shouldn't have known.
• Interface Spoiler: In Case 1, you can talk to your partner, Kay. She'll reveal Nicole aimed a laser pointer at the President's head before you find it out yourself.
• Ironic Echo: Two near the end: first, Shelly de Killer repeats Edgeworth's "It's game over" line after the final villain is taken down, and during the ending of the case, Courtney mentions "the contradiction of law", which Shields had spoken about earlier.
• Irony:
  • Manfred von Karma, of all people, becomes the key to closing Gregory Edgeworth's final unsolved case due to dragging the IS-7 trial out for a year, enabling at least the release of the defendant he mistreated years ago.
  • Raymond points out at the end of case 3 in Investigations 2 that the very technicality that allowed the real killer to be apprehended could quite possibly be the element that sets him free as well: the statute of limitations was on hold during the year of Master's trial as a supposed accomplice to the murder. There's no way to hold Gustavia without accepting Master's conviction as genuine; conversely, showing Master to be entirely innocent means the statute had expired and the killer can go free.
• Karma Houdini:
  • In what continues what has so far been a series-long tradition, Shelly De Killer didn't face any comeuppance for his actions (but to be fair, he didn't actually kill anyone in this game).
  • Dogen is an interesting play on this trope. At the start of the game, he is sitting in a luxury prison cell. At the end of the game, he is sitting in a luxury prison cell. And the game never properly resolves the fact that this Professional Killer had access to a dog, a luxury cell, and (as was revealed in Episode 5) is able to get out of prison whenever it suits him.
  • Shields reveals that it's still possible for Dane Gustavia to get Off on a Technicality even after being caught, as his conviction relies heavily upon Jeff Master's accomplice charge, though it's also implied that the law can be changed in time for this to be averted.
  • Justine Courtney uses fabricated evidence to get Kay arrested for murder, and withholds evidence that would remove her from investigative authority in Case 4, and she receives no comeuppance for this illegal shenanigans.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: By the end of the game Blaise Debeste, Patricia Roland, and the body double all finally receive some form of punishment for past or current crimes. It can also be assumed that Blaise and Roland will be tried for the murder of the Zheng-Fa president as well, as the incident is only 12 years old, still three years within the statute of limitations.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Kay Faraday gets hit with this in Case 4 after being pushed down a ladder by the Big Bad.
  • As were childhood friends Horace Knightley and Simon Keyes. When Simon regained his memories, he also got a few things mixed up, such as who his father was and who Knightley's father was.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the final confrontation of the second game, the villain boasts that if Edgeworth is so confident in his case, he shouldn't have any problem accepting a greater risk. The Life Meter then appears to show that a wrong answer will cause you to lose half of the meter, causing Edgeworth to exclaim "THAT much???" Just what were they referring to in-universe, one wonders?
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • Ray constantly makes mention of the similarities between both Edgeworths. The game even allows the player to play as Gregory in the third case, who makes the same remarks as Miles in multiple situations. They even have the exact same opinion about Katherine's desserts being too sweet for their taste. It comes to a head where Ray ends up taking near-identical photographs with the two Edgeworths in the past and present.
  • Deconstructed with Dane Gustavia and Simon Keyes. Simon hated Gustavia for killing Isaac Dover, because a traumatic near-death experience had jumbled his memories and caused him to think that Dover was his father and not Gustavia. However, both Simon and Gustavia have the same habit of laughing maniacally when they believe there is no way their plans can fail, and Simon uses the exact same method of preserving the body of his victim that Gustavia had used: by freezing it, to throw off the time of death, even though he had no possible way of knowing that Gustavia used it. This is lampshaded by Edgeworth while he's cornering Keyes for the crime.
  • Blaise and Sebastian Debeste have a shared tendency to believe they are more clever and brilliant than they actually are, to say nothing of certain childish quirks like playing with objects while they talk. They also got to their high positions by taking advantage of others. However, Sebastian had no idea his father 'helped' him so much (and is genuinely dismayed to find out) and decides to do things on his own merits once it all comes to light. Blaise and Sebastian are also the only two prosecutors in the series who actually wear their prosecutor's badge instead of keeping it in their pocket.
• Locked Room Mystery: Played with in Case 5, which features a locked rooftop mystery. Lampshaded in this case.
• Lost in Translation: In the original Japanese, Kay, after losing her memory, refers to herself by the personal pronoun "atashi" rather than her usual "watashi" for almost the entirety of the chapter, and acts rather meek and timid compared to her usual Genki Girl self. After she recovers her memories, Kay switches back to her usual personality, with the change being shown as she switches pronouns mid-sentence. The fan translation is unable to convey this change.
• Luxury Prison Suite: Dogen has one in the detention center that looks more like a Buddhist shrine than a cell. Justified in that he's blackmailing the warden.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Case 3 has Gregory and Manfred walk into a room at the crime scene, and both discover in horror that the sherbert ice sculptures have suddenly completely melted.
• Mexican Standoff: The last case has one between De Killer and Dogen — each has a knife to the other's throat.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Turns out that the overabundance of bandages and the eyepatch on Kay after her accident was actually an overreaction by Karin Jenson, as Kay actually fell down a height of a single floor rather than from the roof of the Grand Tower to the ground.
• Mirror Character: Several of the characters, in an attempt to defeat their personal nemeses, use exactly the same evil methods they use. Roland and Dogen both hide weapons in their respective pets' mouths; Jill Crane and Blaise both try to ambush each other during the black market auction; and Simon and Blaise both try to kidnap the judge's child to influence a trial's outcome. Simon also shares several mannerisms with Dane Gustavia, who he believed killed his father and thus despised (in actuality Gustavia was his father and Simon's memories were mixed up). He even uses the same method as Gustavia to throw off a victim's time of death even though he had no way of knowing Gustavia used it too, which Edgeworth points out.
• Miscarriage of Justice:
  • Jeff Master. He confesses to the crime because the prosecution threatens to charge Katherine for being an accomplice. Gregory Edgeworth is able to prove that the confession was coerced, but is unable to prove that the body was falsified due to a coverup in the higher ranks of the prosecutor's office. This gets undone at the end of his case, thankfully as the real killer was caught.
  • This trope is also the reason Simon Keyes decides to enact justice on his own — knowing the Prosecutor's Office was corrupt at the highest level, he never dared come forward with the truth. Edgeworth resolves to spend the rest of his life as an Internal Reformist so that people can trust the Prosecutor's Office again.
• Missing Floor: Edgeworth is able to deduce this in the fourth case, where he compares the photo of the Grand Tower in the newscast to the photo in the pamphlet.
• Mundane Utility: In most cases, the Logic Chess segments are used to weasel info out of people who are being uncooperative by carefully guiding them to giving up information. In the final case, Edgeworth uses it to try to shake Sebastian Debeste out of his misery. Interestingly, despite being a more mundane use, it's actually the longest and most involved Logic Chess battle in the game.
• Murder By Proxy: The "mastermind", Simon Keyes, mainly works by sending letters to parties, informing them of people who'd be a cause of concern for them. Stuff like who knows about their own illegal dealings (such as murder). At the confrontation at the end, the mastermind disclaims responsibility for people choosing to act on this information.
• Musical Spoiler: In Case 4 when you first meet an amnesiac Kay Faraday, her theme is playing slowed down, even before you learn it's her.
• Mysterious Waif: The "Mysterious Girl" brought to Edgeworth's office in Case 4. She is very quickly revealed to be an amnesiac Kay Faraday.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Would you entrust your life to the "Dye-Young Hospital"?
• Never Found the Body: The body of the victim of the IS-7 incident disappeared before the autopsy, meaning the report Manfred von Karma used in the trial was a forgery. Edgeworth and company Finally Found the Body 15 years later when they revisited the case at Raymond Shields' request.
• Non Standard Game Over: Giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sebastian in the game's final Logic Chess match will result in you being hit with a 100% penalty, resulting in an instant failure at the match. (You don't get an actual game over, because losing at Logic Chess only costs you a sliver of your Life Meter and forces you to start over, but the same principle applies, since other mistakes only cost you a tiny percentage of the Logic Chess timer, while this one wipes out the whole thing.)
• Not Zilla: Cases 4 and 5 have the filming of a monster movie featuring The Mighty Moozilla vs. Gourdy.
• Oddly Small Organization: Case 2 reveals that the Berry Big Circus has divisions specializing in each act, and only Regina's Animal Tamer division has more than one person- it consists of herself and her apprentice Simon Keyes.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Justine Courtney's theme features it heavily, presumably to reinforce her "holy" appearance.
• Origins Episode: Remember the trial where Manfred von Karma got his first penalty? The IS-7 incident is what the trial was about.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Shelly de Killer is able to walk about completely undetected while sporting his signature shell design on his "ice cream salesman" outfit. Even Edgeworth is kicking himself afterward for not recognizing it.
• Pet Positive Identification: The murder investigation at the prison uncovers a breakout attempt by Jay Elbird. Elbird was wearing a guard uniform as a disguise, but he gets outed when his pet polar bear Rocky walks up to him.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: Sirhan Dogen to John Marsh in The Grand Turnabout. Marsh decides against it.
• Publicity Stunt: The first case involves an attempted assassination of the President of Zheng Fa. It turns out it was engineered by the president himself with one of his bodyguards, where the president hoped that pulling an Assassin Outclassin' would boost his flagging approval ratings.
• Race Against the Clock:
  • Case 3 has an interesting variant: the clock had already stopped 3 years ago due to the Statute of Limitations, leaving Edgeworth to find a way to restart it again in time to catch the killer. In the end, he manages to elongate it to 6 months left.
  • Case 5 has Edgeworth and Kay scramble to find John Marsh and the evidence for Patricia Roland's trial during its recess, as the former had been taken hostage to force his mother Justine Courtney declare a Not Guilty verdict as its judge and the latter had been disposed of by Blaise Debeste to also force the Not Guilty verdict. Plus, the prosecutor; Sebastian Debeste also went missing.
• Request for Privacy: President Huang requested a private meeting with Judge Courtney without his bodyguards shortly before he was found dead in a nearby film lot. It's later discovered that he was planning to kill Courtney to keep his true identity as the real president's Body Double a secret.
• Resolved Noodle Incident: In the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy, all that was revealed of Gregory's final case was that Gregory's managed to get von Karma penalized for faulty evidence, which is basically why the DL-6 Incident, and by extension, the original trilogy, happened. Investigations 2 would end up revealing the major details, including making Gregory playable in a flashback.
• Revealing Cover-Up:
  • Subverted with Simon Keyes in "The Grand Turnabout". He inadvertently uses the hysteria surrounding Moozilla and Gourdy to cover-up the fake president's murder and his own involvement in the crime.
  • Played straight with Blaise Debeste attempting to dispose of the evidence for Patricia Roland's trial. Sebastian Debeste only found one piece of it, but a glove print found on the newspaper it was wrapped in was determined to have belonged to Blaise's gloves, proving that evidence was disposed of in the garbage heap Sebastian found it in, enabling him to put a request in to perform a bigger search of it.
• Say My Name: Blaise screams Sebastian's name after being defeated by him and Edgeworth in court.
• Shoo the Dog: In case 4, Kay tries to drive Edgeworth away, believing that she's a criminal ruining the life of a good man. He doesn't listen. Edgeworth, in turn, prevents Gumshoe from following him when he surrenders his badge rather than remain a prosecutor in an openly corrupt system.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Case 1, Horace Knightley has a habit of reloading his gun and spinning it.
  • In Case 2:
    • The guard petting the cat says the cat's name is Nermal.
    • When Simon's ponytails are pulled by his pet, his arm moves, a reference to how Remy manipulated Linguini thusly in Ratatouille.
  • In Case 4:
    • Kay suggests that the 51st floor could be accessed via a portal. Ray tells her, "Now's not the time to be thinking with portals."
    • Sebastian says his father is "the very best, like no one ever was!"
  • Also in Case 4, Miles tells an amnesiac Kay, suspected of murder to "believe in me, who believes in you." Doubles as Actor Allusion, as Kamina's English VA also voices Edgeworth in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice
  • Sirhan Dogen, a guy with a dog motif, is looking for a young person in a red hood. Coincidence?
  • Early in case 5, Lotta proclaims that "On this day, mankind received a grim reminder: we live in fear of the great Moozilla!"
• So Last Season: Extraterritorial rights are a major plot point in the first game; to the point where the final boss repeatedly invokes them in order to evade arrest. For several chapters. In the very first case of the second game, the President of Zheng Fa attempts to do the same...but Edgeworth quickly finds a way to nullify them, and they aren't mentioned ever again aside from a throwaway line in Case 2 that because Edgeworth proved that the true murder took place inside the plane in order to exonerate the innocent suspect, it fell into Zheng Fa territory once again, meaning that he did end up violating the Extraterritorial Rights. It also pops up again later as a nonexistent inconvenience, where Shi-Long Lang acknowledges the murder of Di-Jun Huang very clearly took place on Japanifornia grounds, meaning that Extraterritorial Rights wouldn't apply and there would be unrestricted investigation.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: When Knightley in the first case speaks ill of his fallen co-worker, almost everyone believes he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon by doing so.
• Statute of Limitations: A major plot point in the IS-7 incident: the killer claims that they can't be arrested for their crime because the statute of limitations has already expired. Your job is to prove that it hasn't run out yet.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The President of Zheng Fa and his staff have Chess Motifs, with "Rooke" and "Knightley" having hair and collars that make them look like said chessmen. The President is the King, so what does he look like? A lion.
  • Elbird is a boxer on a Nintendo console. He is also a literal Bear Hugger.
  • Case 3 has one in the Japanese name for the cooking show, "Dansweets". The hosts sing and dance while making various confectionery items.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Sirhan Dogen may be very proficient with wood carving despite his blindness, but writing fully-coherent sentences not in Braille is practically impossible for him, let alone use or even access a word processor with very little reason to despite his connections. This helps Edgeworth realize that someone served as a middleman between Dogen and Knightley- or more specifically, made it seem as though they were corresponding with each other when each was sending messages to him
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Turns out that the electronic bracelets the prisoners wear to keep them from roaming the prison freely can easily break if the prisoner just happens to randomly trip and fall. Although given that Sahwit was the warden's accomplice in smuggling, his tripping story was probably a lie, and he was deliberately given a bracelet that never worked in the first place. You can also have practically anything snuck in illegally via the Jail Bake method, such as asking a friend to deliver a portable chessboard that has a chisel in a secret compartment, as the guards perform simpler checks on visitor's packages.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted in Case 1: During the Logic Chess battle against Di-Jun Huang, Horace Knightley meddled with the evidence he took from Edgeworth and swapped the bullets and laser sight from the supposed assassin's gun with his one to change the rifling marks results and pin Ethan Rooke's murder on Nicole Swift.
• Take Me Instead: In Case 1, Shelly de Killer holds Horace Knightley at knifepoint in order to force Di-Jun Huang into doing this, knowing that Huang is a Father to His Men who won't permit Knightley to be killed in his place. The fact that this fails tips off de Killer to the fact that "Huang" is actually an imposter.
• Tempting Fate: In Case 3, Ray says that von Karma reminds him of an old schoolteacher of his. Gregory Edgeworth comments in his inner monologue that he would hate to have his son being taught by someone like von Karma...
• 10-Minute Retirement: Edgeworth turns in his prosecutor's badge midway through Case 4, and reclaims it at the end of Case 5, a few in-universe days later.
• That One Case: IS-7, the case where Gregory caused Manfred von Karma to get a penalty and lead to DL-6. Then there's also SS-5, the case where the Lang family's reputation was tarnished.
• Title Drop: In addition to the phrase "ace attorney" popping up a few times, Edgeworth drops the subtitle of the fan translation in case 4 while explaining his reasoning for relinquishing his badge.
  Edgeworth: If it's the prosecutor's path to turn a blind eye to the truth, then that title is worth nothing to me!
• Troll: Simon Keyes qualifies, doing things like imitating Edgeworth's voice and faking a breakdown.
• Turn in Your Badge: Edgeworth decides to surrender it rather than give up on defending Kay. He gets it back in the ending, though.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • In the IS-7 incident, an innocent person unknowingly manipulated the crime scene, leading the Chief Prosecutor at the time to forge evidence (because the victim's body had gone missing) and then stick Manfred von Karma with a penalty. This resulted in DL-6 and set up a whole host of problems for many characters in the series. The case's murderer could also be considered this, but he at least knew he was doing a despicable deed. Hell, the case's victim counts here. By forcing his son to kidnap Gustavia's, Gustavia had no choice but to sneakily take pictures of the medicine formula he was seeking. Dover tried to blackmail him over it, and got himself murdered as a result.
  • Isaac Dover's son prevented Simon Keyes from helping his father in IS-7. This led to the series of events that made Keyes manipulate the present day events.
• Verbal Tic: Blaise has one of these, y'know. Despite how evil he is, he's pretty laid back most of the time, y'see.
• We Will Meet Again: The killer of Case 1 curses Edgeworth after being defeated, stating that "this game isn't over yet". Knightley never pays off on this, as he's the victim of the immediate next case.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: During the logic chess segments, you get the opportunity to say some really hurtful things to your opponents. Doing so will usually give you a penalty. In particular, while playing logic chess against Sebastian, if you choose "You are a failure as a person!", you instantly receive a 100% time penalty, and a loss of part of the health bar.
• Visual Pun: The Logic Chess battle against Di-Jun Huang in Case 1 has his King defended by a single Knight, as Rooke is now dead and Knightley now remains as his last defender.
• Wham Line:
  • A great one in Case 4, signifying Courtney's Heel–Face Turn.
  Courtney: The defendant.... Blaise Debeste! I hereby indict you!
  • Case 5 has an even bigger one.
  Ray: He's a member of the circus, Knightley's friend...and Dane Gustavia's son. Wh-Who'd have thunk it...?
  Edgeworth: An apprentice beast tamer? Heh...he's no amateur. For the beast he has tamed is none other than this entire case! Simon Keyes! He is the mastermind behind this entire incident!
• Wham Shot:
  • Case 4 has a major one when Edgeworth willingly surrenders his badge in order to continue defending Kay. Nobody in the room sees this coming, and everyone reacts with surprise and incredulity.
  • In Case 5; Edgeworth is inspecting Knightley's possessions, being his portable chessboard and mysterious ring, the latter of which hasn't been properly looked at aside from Frank Sahwit describing it with a snowflake design. When Edgeworth does, it's revealed to be Pierre Hoquet's signet crest fashioned into a ring, revealing Knightley to be Issac Dover's son, as that was part of his inheritance.
• Word Association Test: Has elements of it. To kickstart Kay's memories, Edgeworth gives a chance for her to repeat after him. It turns into this trope.
  Edgeworth: Bookcase.
  Kay: [Beat] ...Broken safe.
  Edgeworth: Stained glass.
  Kay: ...Stolen goods.
  Edgeworth: Books on the law.
  Kay: ...Crooks on the lam.
  Edgeworth: [serious face] Statue of the goddess.
  Kay: [cowering] ...Snatched loot of the Great Thief.
  Edgeworth: (Are all of her mistakes biased towards a certain way...?)
• Xanatos Gambit: See Batman Gambit above (the Big Bad's gambit invokes both tropes).
  • Katherine Hall's trap against the real IS-7 killer has shades of this. She doesn't care if she gets caught in the end, so long as she ends up forcing the authorities to release Jeff Master and/or committing a Vigilante Execution to avenge him.
  • Gregory Edgeworth's insurance in case that Jeff Master breaks and gives a false confession due to Manfred Von Karma and Rip Lacer's brutal interrogations was to ask Detective Badd to record said interrogations, which allowed Gregory to expose Manfred's corruption and get Lacer fired, enabling him to get more time to investigate and demand a retrial. However, then comes DL-6...
• Xanatos Speed Chess:
  • Edgeworth literally gets to do this with several major characters through the "Logic Chess" feature. Most notably Blaise Debeste.
  • Simon Keyes probably pulls off the craziest gambit ever. He plots an insane plan to kill not only his best friend, Knightley (whose actions somewhat impacted Dover's death, and Keyes had incorrectly believed that Dover was his father), but also the three co-conspirators who tried to kill his mentor, Sirhan Dogen. He manipulates the circumstances around him and waits for the perfect opportunity to stage the murders (the events of case 2 and 4) so that his own hands wouldn't be dirty in the process. The only murder he doesn't plan is that of the body double; however, he successfully throws off the time of death to divert suspicion from himself. He would've gotten away with it all, too, if he had destroyed the evidence on the bottom of the hot-air balloon's basket.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • In case 4, Edgeworth repeatedly does this to an amnesiac Kay who thinks she killed someone and just can't remember.
  • He also gives Sebastian Debeste some perking up after the guy experiences some serious self-esteem issues in the final case. It pays off.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: When arriving at the Grand Tower in Case 4, Edgeworth, Gumshoe and company wrongly believe John Marsh to be in real danger, but Penny Nichols correct them by announcing they were filming. The filming is an important part of Case 5.

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