List of Ace Attorney characters
Ace Attorney is a series of legal thriller comedy-drama adventure/visual novel games created by Shu Takumi. Players assume the role of a defense attorney in a fictional courtroom setting in the main series. Published by Capcom, the series includes Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve''. Character names for the English release of the series were changed significantly from the original Japanese release.
Main characters
Phoenix Wright
Phoenix Wright is a defense attorney and the main character of the franchise, and the protagonist in all games in the main series, except for Apollo Justice.Mia Fey
Mia Fey first appeared in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as Phoenix's boss and mentor at Fey and Co. Law Offices, assisting him before she is murdered and her sister, Maya Fey, framed for the crime. Phoenix successfully defends Maya, and learns of both sisters having spirit channeling powers, with Maya managing to channel Mia. Mia is channeled through Maya and later their cousin Pearl Fey at various points during the series' story. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Mia again assists Phoenix in proving Maya's innocence after their aunt, Morgan Fey, frames Maya for murder in order to have Maya replaced as the master of the spirit channeling technique by Pearl. Mia appears again in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, where her backstory is explored, particularly her defending Phoenix for murder and proving a woman named Dahlia Hawthorne was the true culprit. It is later revealed that Dahlia was involved in her first trial, causing the death of her defendant and getting away with her crimes before also poisoning her lover, Diego Armando. She later assists Phoenix in defeating Dahlia after Dahlia attempts a plot to kill Maya.Mia was created by the series' creator, Shu Takumi. Originally, Takumi planned to have Mia's law office consist of a protagonist, helper, and mentor, but this changed when Takumi's boss told him to remove one, arguing that three was too many. Takumi did not want to do this, choosing to handle it by having Mia die and exist as a spirit through a spirit medium, saying that this would end up being two characters. He stated that he considered having Mia be a spirit from the very beginning of the game, and positive reception during development spurred on this idea. The first trial was intended to be about the murder of Phoenix's mentor with Phoenix as the defendant, but this was scrapped with the idea being that the death wouldn't have an impact if the player had not met the mentor before. Thus, he introduced a new prologue with the mentor assisting Phoenix in his defense. The spirit medium angle was planned to be used only in the first game, but expanded this aspect in the second and third games, where the third entry became centered around spirit mediums. Takumi expressed worry, when designing her younger self for Trials and Tribulations, about pulling it off properly. When designing the fourth episode of Trials and Tribulations, Takumi wanted Mia to face off against Edgeworth, but experienced complications due to both having not lost a case before. He ultimately decided to have defendant Terry Fawles die during court in order for the trial to end without a verdict in order to deal with this.
Mia was designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto, who originally conceived her as an older man wearing a geta. They decided to change this after determining that too many of the characters were old men, causing them to change Phoenix's mentor character to be a young woman. The original old man design was repurposed for the Judge's design. When designing Maya in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, the game's character artist, Takuro Fuse, considered making her resemble Mia now that she is grown up, ultimately coming up with a design that felt similar to Mia's while attempting to not lose Maya's charm. The theme song for Maya and Mia, "Turnabout Sisters Ballad," was originally written to be cheerier, but once Mia's death was written, the song was changed by adding a semitonal chord shift to the main part of the song to express sadness.
Mia Fey has received generally positive reception. Dengeki writer Ayana felt that her words to Phoenix, to reverse his way of thinking, resonated with her, feeling that being able to change one's way of thinking was a valuable quality in all walks of life. Eurogamer writer Jay Castello, while discussing their desire to become a lawyer as a teenager, stated that Mia was the character who drove this desire. They called her "compassionate, dedicated, and hyper-competent," and that she was the kind of person they aspired to be. Fellow Eurogamer writer John Walker called her a "wonderful" character, enjoying her presence in the game while expressing that he had a lot of affection for her as a female video game character. Game Revolution writer Joe Dodson discussed her sexuality, particularly noting that her breasts were particularly large and commenting on how weird it is that she can possess Pearl, an eight-year-old, giving her breasts. Nintendo Life writer Kate Gray also commented on Mia's design when channeled by Pearl, calling it creepy. On Mia's character, she felt that Mia's death was meant to teach players not to take anything for granted, comparing this scene to a later case where Phoenix's client turns out to be guilty. She felt that this twist was written with the idea that you'd grown complacent. On Mia, she discussed whether Mia falls under the women in refrigerators writing trope, where women are killed, abused, or otherwise harmed as a motivation for the player or protagonist. She argued that while she fit this trope, she doesn't "stay in the fridge," stating that she remains "strong, powerful, and utterly unfazed by her own murder," as well as a superior lawyer to Phoenix.
Miles Edgeworth
Miles Edgeworth is Phoenix Wright's long-time friend and first rival in the court room. He is temporarily playable in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations and the main player character in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit. As a child, Edgeworth aspired to become a defense attorney, following in his father Gregory Edgeworth's footsteps. When they were children, Edgeworth successfully defended Phoenix in a classroom trial, where Phoenix was accused of stealing lunch money from Edgeworth himself. However, upon witnessing his father's death and watching in horror as the suspected murderer was let free, he gained a hatred for criminals and began studying to be a prosecutor, learning tactics from his mentor Manfred von Karma to always get a "guilty" verdict. This later earned him the name "demon prosecutor". Miles had not lost a case he was involved with until his first trial against Phoenix, after which he felt a need to defeat Phoenix. By the end of the first game, Miles would undergo some self-reflection, and eventually cast aside his traumas to become a more well-rounded and just prosecutor, instead of just chasing guilty verdicts.Edgeworth's spin-off game Ace Attorney Investigations was originally going to star Ema Skye, another character from the series, but due to fan response, they went with Miles Edgeworth, a more popular character.
Maya Fey
Maya Fey is a spirit medium and the younger sister of Phoenix's boss, Mia Fey. Maya is introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, in which she is accused of her sister's murder and defended by Phoenix. She becomes his legal assistant and investigates cases with him in the first three Ace Attorney games. Maya cheerily banters with Phoenix during investigations, and can channel her sister's spirit when Phoenix needs her help. She does not appear in the fourth and fifth games, but returns in the sixth, reuniting with Phoenix in Khura'in as she prepares to complete her channeling training. Maya also appears in other franchise media: the manga, film, anime series, and the spin-off games including the Professor Layton crossover and Ace Attorney Investigations. Maya, alongside Phoenix, also makes cameo appearances in several games across other genres.Pearl Fey
Pearl Fey first appears in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, where she is introduced as the sheltered younger cousin of spirit medium and investigative assistant Maya Fey and a member of the Fey clan, a family of spirit mediums living in the isolated mountain town of Kurain Village. A spirit medium herself, after her mother Morgan Fey attempts to have Maya framed for murder in order to have Pearl succeed Maya as the Master of Kurain, Pearl channels her deceased cousin and defense attorney Mia Fey so she can guide Phoenix Wright in clearing her cousin's name and exposing Morgan's crimes. Afterwards, Pearl often accompanies Phoenix and Maya, whom she views as each holding romantic interest towards the other, because of her sheltered upbringing. At one point, they take Pearl to the Berry Big Circus. Nine months after her mother's arrest, Pearl, Maya and Phoenix are invited to an awards show at the Gatewater Imperial Hotel, where Maya is kidnapped by notorious hired hitman Shelly de Killer and Phoenix is made to defend his employer Matt Engarde and have him receive a "not guilty" verdict as ransom. Pearl and Maya subsequently each separately channel Mia to allow her to pass information about where Maya is being held to Phoenix, allowing them to turn De Killer against Engarde during his trial and have Engarde plead "guilty", allowing for Maya's release. Pearl additionally displays her athletic abilities in being able to run from the mountaintop Kurain Village to Los Angeles in under five hours, a distance taking two hours to travel by train.Pearl returns in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, seeing the Sacred Urn she had previously broken displayed at a department store, before it is stolen by the infamous thief Mask☆DeMasque, a.k.a. Ron DeLite. After Phoenix clears Ron of both his true theft charges and untrue murder charges, Ron's wife Desirée hugs him, leading to Pearl, having just arrived on the scene, knocking Phoenix out, after mistakenly believing him to have been cheating on Maya. Sometime later, after visiting her mother in prison and travelling with Phoenix and Maya to a mountain retreat, Pearl is tricked by her mother into attempting to channel her deceased half-sister Dahlia Hawthorne to have her kill Maya, only to be saved by her aunt, Misty Fey, who had disappeared many years prior, and Mia's former boyfriend Godot, who had been rendered comatose many years prior. Later, while Pearl's other half-sister Iris is accused of Misty's murder, Pearl confronts Franziska von Karma over her poor treatment of Maya, rendering her speechless, before once again channeling Mia to help Phoenix in court. In the aftermath of the trial, Pearl returns to the temple in tears to clean up gravy she had spilled on Misty's portrait; Phoenix and Maya then catch up with her, reassuring her that she is not to blame for the events that occurred.
Pearl does not make a physical appearance in the series' fourth entry; however, she is briefly referenced in dialogue by Phoenix in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. By Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, set eight years after Trials and Tribulations, Pearl is a high school student, regularly keeping in touch with Phoenix and his legally adopted daughter Trucy Wright, who sees her as her "big sister." After Phoenix's new protégé Athena Cykes is arrested, Pearl visits Phoenix on her regular route to clean his office and deliver him a letter from Maya, before accompanying him in proving Athena innocent of her mother's murder, and comforts Athena after Phoenix breaks the black Psyche-Locks on her subconscious mind, representing repressed memories of secrets. In the game's DLC case, set several months earlier, Pearl is visiting Shipshape Aquarium with her summer camp before being questioned by police after the aquarium's owner is apparently murdered. Subsequently, Pearl runs into Phoenix and Athena, introducing herself to the latter before recharging Phoenix's magatama, it having finally run out of spiritual energy after she had first charged it for him upon meeting him nine years prior. After an orca and subsequently their trainer are accused of the murder, Pearl assists Phoenix and Athena in their investigation, retrieving forensics equipment Phoenix had previously received from Ema Skye. Months after the trial's conclusion, Pearl revisits the aquarium with Phoenix, Athena, Trucy, and Apollo Justice.
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Pearl briefly appears in Kurain Village after Apollo visits it with his deceased adoptive father Dhurke Sahdmadhi, providing them with directions to a cave they were searching for. After Maya finally returns from her medium studies in the Kingdom of Khura'in, she is greeted by Pearl, who unsuccessfully pitches the concept of allowing clothing stores to set up in the town. In the non-canon DLC case Asinine Attorney, Pearl appears on vacation in the Kingdom of Khu'rain, briefly impersonating royal priestess Rayfa Padma Khura'in to prevent them from being kidnapped.
Outside of the main Ace Attorney series, Pearl makes a brief cameo appearance in the Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth spin-off title, also appearing in several other Capcom titles, including as an unlockable costume in We Love Golf! and as a collectible card in Teppen: Ace vs. The People.
Pearl has appeared in other media adaptations of Ace Attorney. She is a recurring character in the Ace Attorney manga series published by Kodansha Comics, and in a stage play based on the case Farewell, My Turnabout, portrayed by Shiyū Urushibara with understudy Yūna Takano. Pearl also appears in the Ace Attorney anime series, which adapts the events of the original trilogy.