The Complete Ace Attorney Timeline, Explained

Capcom’s Ace Attorney franchise is a beloved mainstay of gaming culture. Whether or not you’ve dipped your toes into one of Phoenix Wright’s many adventures, you’re likely familiar with the quotes, iconography, and basic setup. You’re a lawyer tasked with defending a veritable conga line of cartoonish klutzes from the most absurd rap sheets you’ve ever seen. Desk slamming, paper tapping, and finger pointing ensue.

Despite this surface-level silliness, however, there’s a lot of depth to the games’ universe that rewards the dedicated. Characters that initially seem like nothing more than two-dimensional ciphers develop intriguing arcs; seemingly innocuous cases snowball into grand conspiracies; and cherished friendships are tested in dark ways. Indeed, the series has morphed into something of an extended soap opera, with its own timeline and interweaving narratives – so it’s understandable that newcomers may be rather confused. Let’s break down the entire Ace Attorney canon.

This article will be getting into some major spoilers for every game in the Ace Attorney franchise. We’re just being honest about that; no need to break our Psyche Locks!

Updated on February 15, 2025, by Bobby Mills: On our initial pass of this article, we presumed (not unreasonably!) that the Edgeworth Investigations titles wouldn’t be a necessary inclusion for the foreseeable future – languishing as they were in obscurity, with the first title locked to the DS and the second never making it out of Japan.

Well, the egg is truly on our faces, because 2024’s Ace Attorney Investigations Collection blindsided us and promptly put both titles in the hands of everyone. We’ve therefore updated our article to be about the ENTIRE Ace Attorney timeline, as the title implies!

The Great Ace Attorney Era

What Is The Great Ace Attorney?

Somewhat disarmingly, things kick off not in the modern day with Phoenix, Maya, and co., but during the Japanese Meiji era, in the twilight of the 19th century. This is where the duology of prequel titles, The Great Ace Attorney, takes place.

Most fans assumed it’d never make its way across the seas for a Western release, given that Capcom’s localization team had spent a decade prior reinforcing the idea that the games take place in America – but all were proven wrong on its 2021 debut. Miracles can happen!

What Happens In The Great Ace Attorney Adventures?

The first game of the two is ‘Adventures.’ Phoenix’s long-suspected dual ancestry is at last confirmed as you play his distant ancestor, Ryonosuke Naruhodo. ‘Naruhodo,’ incidentally, means ‘I understand’ in Japanese; a bit of ironic humor that continues the series’ trend of punny names.

A budding attorney, Ryu (as his friends call him) is totally out of his depth when he’s summoned to defend himself against charges concerning the murder of one John Wilson. Ultimately, with the assistance of his partner Kazuma Asogi and soon-to-be confidant Susato ‘Susie’ Mikotoba, it’s proven the killer was Ms. Brett, a British national visiting Japan.

There’s an air of political tension going on, in fact, between England and Japan at the time the game takes place. Vital accords are being signed to ensure peace, and as part of this, Kazuma is to be sent overseas to Britain via an exchange programme. Ryu and Susie stow away, only for Kazuma to turn up murdered and for Ryu to once again take the blame.

What Happens In London?

Once the air is cleared on that front, the pair arrive in England in Kazuma’s stead and soon find themselves dealing with racial prejudice. London society is none too kind to a couple of fresh-faced Japanese folk wandering around. Still, they’re taken under the wing of bumbling detective Herlock Sholmes and his protégé Iris Wilson.

Herlock, as you may have surmised, is this universe’s version of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, with a few letters altered to dodge copyright. Meanwhile, the Wilsons are stand-ins for the Watson family.

Ryu and Susie solve a number of cases – meeting such wacky characters as Inspector Gregson and local Cockney pickpocket Gina LeStrade – and it all crescendoes in a final trial where the trading of government secrets is exposed. Information therein suggests Kazuma’s murder was in fact planned and is part of a wider scheme. Intriguing; onto the second part!

What Happens In The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve?

Things pick up back in London. Chief of Justice Mael Stronghart has assigned Ryu to work on a case connected to a series of old murders of British aristocrats committed by the enigmatic serial killer ‘The Professor.’ He faces off against the intimidating prosecutor Barok Van Zieks and his mysterious masked apprentice while blowing various lids off various cover-ups.

It would be tough to cover all the labyrinthine twists and turns of Resolve in only a few paragraphs (it probably deserves an article of its own!), but suffice to say, the familial revelations come thick and fast. Zieks’ apprentice is unmasked as Kazuma, who apparently survived his attempted offing and has come to London to discover the whereabouts of his estranged father, Genshin.

Genshin, in turn, is discovered to have been the Professor, but then it turns out he wasn’t. The real Professor was a man named Klint, Zieks’ brother, who grew disillusioned with the aristocracy being able to pay their way out of justice and took it upon himself to correct the issue.

What Becomes Of Mael Stronghart?

The orchestrator of the Japanese-British exchange programme – which, it transpires, was intended to swap two citizens over to provide diplomatic immunity during the elimination of any witnesses to the Professor – is found to be Mael Stronghart.

He knew of the Professor’s identity and spent many years blackmailing him into killing certain individuals, thus making him complicit in the murders. As if that weren’t all enough, Iris is revealed to be Klint’s daughter; Sholmes took her in and hid her identity to avoid association with a serial murderer. Probably wise.

In the end, Ryu, Susie, and Kazuma expose Stronghart’s illicit activities and send him down, in front of the Queen no less. While Kazuma opts to continue his fledgling career in England, the other two friends head back to Japan, more determined than ever to bolster its legal system after seeing how the British one functioned (or rather, how it didn’t.)

Presumably, Ryu and Susie get together at some stage – at least, this is the heavy implication – and start a long, storied lineage of lawyers that would one day lead us to…

The Original Trilogy

What Happens In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney?

It’s modern day (well, the mid-2010s, at least) and it’s time for the games you’re probably most familiar with. In a manner that directly parallels his ancestor, Greenhorn attorney Phoenix Wright is kicking off his legal journey with a bang. He’s tasked with defending his childhood mate Larry Butz, who, quite frankly, lacks the intelligence to pull off the kind of meticulously plotted crime the prosecution is suggesting.

Under the tutelage of his longtime mentor, Mia Fey, Phoenix gets Larry off the hook – but an intended celebratory night out gets cut short when Mia is murdered in their office. Things go downhill fast; Mia’s sister Maya, who just happened to be popping over for a burger or two, is arrested by local lawman Dick Gumshoe for the killing, and Phoenix is saddled with her defense.

Throughout the investigation, it turns out the culprit was Mr. Redd White (of Bluecorp, naturally), a phone-tapping blackmailer whom Mia had been compiling evidence against after he ruined their mother, Misty Fey’s, reputation as a mystic.

With Redd White jailed, Phoenix and Maya become firm friends – and as a bonus, Maya’s spirit channeling abilities let Phoenix chat with Mia whenever he fancies, so all is not lost. The dynamic duo takes on a series of wacky cases, all prosecuted by another of Phoenix’s old school chums, Miles Edgeworth. Edgeworth’s reputation precedes him, but it’s soon desecrated by Phoenix’s sheer bluffing ability.

How Does The First Game End?

In the finale, old wounds are opened for Edgeworth when he’s pulled back into DL-6, an old case concerning the murder of his biological father, Gregory. For years, he’d been tormented, thinking he’d accidentally caused the gun that killed his dad to go off – but Phoenix, via the use of Gumshoe’s metal detector to track down the missing bullet, can implicate Manfred Von Karma, Edgeworth’s adoptive father.

Scars are healed, hugs are shared, and credits are rolled. Plus, if you own the DS version, you get a bonus chapter where you help science student Ema Skye bail her sister Lana out of a jam. A jam that goes all the way to the top: police chief Damon Gant was the true mastermind. Ema would become a fan-favorite recurring face in the series.

What Happens In Justice For All?

Sadly, the joviality doesn’t last. Phoenix is called in to defend Maya – again – when she finds herself in a room with a corpse – again – during a spirit channeling session in her home village. In this caper, Phoenix befriends Pearl Fey, Maya’s shy cousin and heir apparent to the Fey legacy – were it not for Maya.

He also gets to know Morgan, Pearl’s mother, who appears more than a little bitter that her precious kid isn’t first in line to run things.

Once Maya’s absolved, it’s business as usual. Most of Justice For All’s runtime is spent on disconnected cases of varying quality. Turnabout Big Top, the legendarily awful chapter set in the Berry Big Circus grounds, is easily the point in the franchise that causes the highest concentration of folks to drop it.

Moe the clown’s laugh will haunt your every dream. If you can push through, however, you’ll be treated to Farewell, My Turnabout; an exemplary finale chapter that shows what peak Ace Attorney can be.

What Happens In Farewell, My Turnabout?

Maya is kidnapped by a man calling himself Shelly De Killer, who claims she’ll only be returned intact if Phoenix gets his employer, Matt Engarde, out of trouble. There’s a slight snag, though – Engarde is possibly the most card-carrying villain you’ve ever seen, openly confessing to the crime, which directly conflicts with Phoenix’s moral code about only defending the innocent.

It’s an engrossing dilemma: save Maya or ensure a guilty man pays the price?

Phoenix attempts to straddle the line between both, but he has a hard time keeping his personal interests out of the trial. It’s only a last-minute technicality (De Killer asks that his clients not record their conversations, but Engarde did, voiding their contract) that sets Maya free and gives Phoenix the green light to nail Engarde where he stands.

Breathless and nail-biting, it’s as good a piece of fiction as you’ll find in any crime thriller.

What Happens In Trials And Tribulations?

By now, Phoenix reckons he’s got his job down pat. He’s notched several career criminals under his belt, including, but not limited to, the chief of police and a small handful of corrupt prosecutors. However, his confidence is shaken when a demon from his past returns in the form of Dahlia Hawthorne. This outwardly charming girl is hiding a sordid heart.

In a series of flashbacks, where you play as a pre-murder Mia for the first time, you’ll discover Dahlia’s long (long, long) history of manipulation and mendacity. Not only was she involved in a money-making scheme that required her to dispatch her adoptive sister; not only did she swear revenge on the Feys after Mia exposed her for this; not only was she responsible for poisoning Mia’s old colleague, Diego Armando; but she foisted the evidence for all her crimes onto poor, innocent Phoenix.

Convincing a college-aged Wright that she liked him, she disguised her poison bottle as a necklace and gifted it to him – not counting on the fact that Phoenix, the sentimental soul that he is, would refuse to give it back.

Dahlia is ultimately convicted and executed, but it soon becomes clear that even the grave will not be enough to keep her from exacting vengeance.

How Does The Original Trilogy Wrap Up?

In the present, Dahlia resurfaces via spirit channeling and bands together with Morgan Fey in a convoluted scheme to install sweet, oblivious Pearl to power in the village. Dahlia, it transpires, is actually a Fey; Morgan’s daughter, to be precise, who was whisked away from the village by her father, Mr. Hawthorne.

Morgan and Dahlia intend to eliminate Maya (and Misty, who has popped up again after decades of absence), but their plans are repeatedly hindered by another of Morgan’s daughters, Iris, who wants nothing to do with Dahlia’s evil.

Diego Armando also returns as Godot, a masked prosecutor who’s determined to get back at Dahlia for rendering him comatose for so long. Things then get extremely complicated, extremely quickly.

Misty channels Dahlia’s spirit to prevent Pearl from doing so as instructed, scuppering that part of the plan – but when Godot sees Dahlia wandering around, he skewers her, not knowing that he’s just axed Misty. Dahlia’s spirit is then channeled by Maya, who’s trapped in a nearby chamber, to keep her from doing any further harm.

In the final trial, Phoenix exposes Godot as Misty’s killer, though he acknowledges his fit of rage was perhaps justified. Still in Maya’s body, Dahlia attempts to take the stand and pretends to be Iris, but Phoenix is having none of it. With the help of Mia’s spirit and a reformed Godot, he lays bare Dahlia and Morgan’s scheme – and Dahlia is expelled to the afterlife. For good, this time.

Edgeworth’s Investigations

What Happens In Ace Attorney Investigations 1?

With Edgeworth quickly becoming one of the series’ most popular faces, the financial potential of a spinoff seemed too large for the suits at Capcom to ignore. Fans just couldn’t get enough of his immaculate cravat, his sardonic world-weary tone, his will-they-or-won’t-they homoerotic energy with Phoenix (which even the writers acknowledged). At last, director Shu Takumi relented, and Edgey-poo received a duology of his own on the DS.

These Investigations titles shift the action from the courtroom and into a more third-person style. Sure, you pounded the streets a lot as Phoenix and Maya, but those segments were slow and essentially boiled down to cycling between a selection of still images until you tripped whatever story flag needed to come next.

They were far from the focus; but here, you can freely maneuver Edgeworth around crime scenes however you please.

The first game takes place shortly after Trials and Tribulations, and actually occurs entirely inside of a week – surely the most bonkers week of Edgeworth’s life. On a return flight from the European nation of Borginia, an Interpol agent turns up dead, and Edgeworth is fingered as the culprit.

With some smooth deduction, it turns out the killer was Cammy Meele, an air hostess who’s a member of an international smuggling ring. Meele is jailed, but the ring’s influence remains strong.

Over the next couple of days, Edgeworth tackles a variety of cases. First, his old friend Ernest Amano’s son is kidnapped for ransom, but in resolving the matter it emerges that Ernest has ties to the smuggling ring. Next, Edgeworth is held at gunpoint in his office by a shadowy thief, and a detective turns up dead. The killer? One Jacques Portsman, a corrupt prosecutor who… also has ties to the smuggling ring. You may be noticing a pattern.

The final case of Investigations 1, Turnabout Ablaze, sees Edgeworth and his new assistant Kay Faraday visiting the embassy of Cohdopia, a kingdom of two halves. There, a complex web of crime unfolds, including the death of Manny Coachen, a secretary.

Coachen is exposed as a subordinate to the kingpin of the entire smuggling enterprise: Quercus Alba, the ambassador for the Allebahstian half of Cohdopia. Alba pleads extraterritorial immunity, but through a gruelling battle of wits, Edgeworth manages to nullify these rights and puts the head of the nefarious ring behind bars.

What Happens In Ace Attorney Investigations 2?

If Investigations 1 erred a little too much on the bureucratic side of things (trust us, arguing the toss about diplomatic law for the final four hours is nobody’s concept of fun), Investigations 2 salvages it with arguably the best piece of writing the Ace Attorney franchise has yet seen. This one was Japan-only until the 2024 collection, and is subtitled ‘Prosecutor’s Gambit.’

Investigations 2 takes place against the backdrop of the “Prosecutor Purge,” an initiative led by the ominous Committee for Prosecutorial Excellence that’s aimed at removing prosecutors deemed unfit. Edgeworth, of course, who values truth over winning cases, soon finds himself in the crosshairs of this movement. Verity Gavèlle, a monastic judge rocking an extendable gavel, pursues him and his badge throughout the game’s chapters.

The story blasts off in spectacular, geopolitical fashion with an attempt on the life of Di-Jun Wang, president of Zheng Fa, which is roughly analogous to China. Though Wang survives, his head bodyguard, Bastian Rook, kicks the proverbial bucket. Edgeworth uncovers that the “assassination” was a staged event to boost Wang’s popularity, and that Bronco Knight (there’s a chess motif going on), Rook’s second-in-command, axed him to take his place.

Knight, as is inevitable if you’re an Ace Attorney character, is murdered in prison. Circus performer Simeon Saint is accused of the crime, while Edgeworth is pitched against young (and highly irritating) rookie Eustace Winner. Eustace is a snot-nosed novice with almost no prosecutorial skill, and it later transpires he got the job only thanks to his dad, Excelsius Winner, paying off the right people.

With the help of his father Gregory’s smooth-talking apprentice, Eddie Fender, Edgeworth discovers that the prison’s Warden Fifi Laguarde killed Knight. Saint is cleared, but Edgeworth is warned against interfering any further.

What Was The IS-7 Incident?

Soon after, a murder attempt at the Zodiac Hall art gallery ties back to an 18-year-old case involving Gregory, Manfred von Karma, and a rigged cooking competition. Specifically, this is the case that led Von Karma to resent Gregory to the point where he fired a gun right into his chest, after Gregory proved to the court that Manfred was tampering with the evidence.

Judy Bound and Carmelo Gusto, participants in the contest, were both involved in covering up the murder of famed sculptor Artie Frost, a crime that wrongly imprisoned television chef Samson Tangaroa for nearly two decades. The case also leads to the discovery that Frost and Gusto each had a son, who both mysteriously vanished.

Things escalate further when Kay is found injured, having apparently tumbled off a 50-storey building and survived, somehow. Evidently, there’s something else afoot. To look into the matter, Edgeworth relinquishes his prosecutor’s badge to Gavèlle and discovers the truth – Excelsius Winner is running an underground auction of stolen evidence, and is behind the corruption of the Committee, as well as Gavèlle’s overbearing approach.

How Does Investigations 2 Wrap Up?

The game’s final case, Turnabout for the Ages, is phenomenal. It casually reveals that President Wang had actually been dead for 12 years, and a body double had taken his place. The double had hired the assassin Bodhidharma Kanis to kill the real Wang, and had been aided in this endeavour by Warden Laguarde and Excelsius. In essence, literally everything we’ve been dealing with up to this point is retroactively connected.

Meanwhile, Simeon Saint is (gasp!) revealed to be Gusto’s long-lost son, who had orchestrated events to expose the corrupt conspirators. He was also the mastermind that led to the deaths of Knight, Rook, and the body double in the present, all of whom he blamed for ruining his and his father’s lives. It’s a shocking reveal, and one that very few players see coming.

An odd technicality relating to his circus balloon is what does simple Simeon in on the stand. With the case solved, Edgeworth regains his badge, and opts to pursue the role of Chief Prosecutor in place of Excelsius; which is where we find him after the timeskip. Speaking of which…

The Apollo Justice Trilogy

What’s The Deal With The Seven-Year Time Skip?

The two main ‘eras’ of the franchise (not counting The Great Ace Attorney, which is so far in the past it’s its own beast) are quite neatly separated by a gigantic seven-year time skip. This occurs shortly after Trials and Tribulations. Maya decided to head off to the kingdom of Khura’in, where she’ll be situated for the next few games or so, to continue her spirit medium training.

Edgeworth is busy with his Investigations subseries, and Pearl continues to grow up in the village – but what’s Phoenix up to? Well, getting disbarred and internationally disgraced.

Zak Gramarye, one part of the legendary magic act Troupe Gramarye, has been arrested for the murder of the troupe’s leader, Magnifi.

In truth, Magnifi’s death was suicide; he was ill and bequeathing the rights to the group’s magic tricks to Zak’s partner, Valant. The prosecution, rock-and-roll fanatic Klavier Gavin, asserts that it was a revenge kill out of jealousy for not receiving the rights. Phoenix is on the job to clear Zak’s name.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t Zak’s first choice. Gramarye had briefly considered hiring Klavier’s brother, Kristoph, as his defence attorney; who, given that the trial was to be headline news, was thrilled to bits by the opportunity.

However, Zak, an avid poker player, was able to look into Kristoph’s eyes and saw that he was not an honest soul and cared more for the fame the trial would bring him than justice. Hence, Zak opted for Phoenix, which sealed Wright’s fate.

How Does Phoenix Get Disbarred?

Behind the scenes, Kristoph arranges for Drew Misham, a renowned forger, to whip up a false piece of evidence. Specifically, it’s a diary page that appears to vindicate Zak entirely. Kristoph hands the page to Zak’s young daughter Trucy and asks that she give it to Phoenix under the pretense that he found it in her dad’s belongings.

The precocious Trucy does so, and Phoenix – never one to pass up an easy win – presents it in the trial.

Klavier corners Phoenix and demands that the page be analyzed. When it’s confirmed to be fake, all hell breaks loose. Zak is declared culpable pending further trial, but he flees the courtroom via one of his disappearing tricks. Phoenix’s name is dragged through the mud by the media, and he’s promptly stripped of his badge.

The only winner in this situation is Trucy, who was adopted by Phoenix when her dad failed to return for her. Trucy Wright rolls off the tongue better, anyway. Kristoph lurks in the shadows, content that his scheme worked out, while Phoenix swears he’ll uncover the mastermind behind the plot – eventually.

What Happens In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney?

It’s now seven years later. Phoenix is eking out a living as a piano player in a local bar, Trucy has converted the law office into a talent agency, and Kristoph has set up his own legal company. His newest employee is Apollo Justice, a red-suited rookie who’s young, eager, and very, very loud.

Phoenix clocks Apollo and decides he’s his best shot at exposing Kristoph, so he takes on a mentor role for the lad, guiding him through an assortment of cases. All the while, Trucy acts for Apollo as Maya did for Phoenix, employing her magic tricks when necessary to get out of tight spots.

Things come to a head when Phoenix and Apollo campaign for a jury system to be trialed in the courthouse, knowing that it’s the only way to beat Kristoph – whose meticulous covering of his tracks has meant there’s no tangible evidence to be found.

How Is Kristoph Defeated?

Kristoph is called to the stand for the murder of Drew Misham, the latest in his string of loose ends to tie up. Naturally, he denies both the killing and forging the diary page, but Apollo is able to prevent sufficient circumstantial evidence pointing to Kristoph, as opposed to the usual single decisive piece, to convince the jury to convict.

Kristoph is furious that his perfect scheme has been undone by “common riff-raff,” but it’s a victory for the people. There’s nothing he can do.

Incidentally, during the course of the game, Phoenix discovers that Trucy and Apollo are related. Trucy’s mother, Zak’s wife Thalassa, was a member of the magic troupe who was presumed dead when a trick involving a firearm went awry.

Instead, she resurfaced as amnesiac musician Lamiroir; and remarried to Jove Justice, bearing him a son, Apollo.

Thalassa’s memories are reignited upon seeing Apollo and Trucy working together. Phoenix opts not to tell them about their history for the time being.

What Happens In Dual Destinies?

In the time between Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies, Edgeworth catches wind of Phoenix’s disbarment and, in his new capacity as chief prosecutor, pulls some strings to get him his badge back in the wake of Kristoph’s conviction.

While that’s going on, the controversy surrounding Phoenix’s situation – coupled with the recent imprisonment of Simon Blackquill, a formerly respected prosecutor who’s found guilty of murder – has shaken all public faith in the legal system. A series of violent bombings are carried out on courtrooms across the country. It’s ‘the dark age of the law.’

A newly reinstated Phoenix, along with a more mature Apollo and newcomer Athena Cykes, vow to do what they can to restore the system’s respectability. Athena, a psychology graduate born with highly sensitive hearing, can easily attune to people’s emotions, and her abilities prove invaluable when analyzing testimonies.

Case after case falls before this awesome lawyer trio, and it soon becomes clear there’s a culprit at the heart of the chaos: a foreign spy known only as ‘The Phantom.’

How Is The Phantom Exposed?

A murder at the space station where Athena’s deceased mother worked appears to throw into light a lot of unpleasant truths. Apollo’s close friend Clay is the victim, and initial evidence points to Athena, leading Apollo to give her the cold shoulder.

On top of that, evidence is presented indicating that she may have been inadvertently responsible for her mother’s death, too – the killing for which Blackquill, a friend of the Cykes family, took the fall. Things look bleak.

Luckily, Phoenix is able to prove that The Phantom, having been hired to sabotage the station’s various rocket launches, was the killer in both cases. With Blackquill prosecuting, resident detective Bobby Fulbright is unmasked as The Phantom, having axed the real Fulbright and stolen his identity.

An assassin silences The Phantom before he can finish testifying, but he says just enough for Athena to walk free.

What Happens In Spirit Of Justice?

With Blackquill exonerated on the world stage and Phoenix having been the one to do it, the dark age of the law concludes. Things are getting back to normal; Phoenix, Apollo, and Athena continue to work at the company, which Trucy now operates as a half-law-office-half-talent-agency combo.

One day, Phoenix receives a phone call from Maya, who’s still training in Khura’in, inviting him to come visit. Phoenix is overjoyed to be reunited with Maya. He probably wasn’t expecting to wander into a nation mired in a monarchical coup, though. Former queen Amara has disappeared, and in her place, the autocratic Queen Ga’ran has assumed control.

Her husband Inga administers laws and signs execution warrants with an iron fist. At the same time, her daughter Rayfa performs séances that show the final moments of the dead, rendering defense attorneys useless – and outlawed.

It’s on Phoenix’s shoulders, then, to try and restore some order to this fractured system. Through a series of cases he handles – under pain of death – he demonstrates that Rayfa’s insights are not perfect and can easily be manipulated by people just out of sight of the victim.

He’s heckled by rival prosecutor Nahyuta all the way but doesn’t waver. His actions send ripples through Khura’in, and a rebel group bent on restoring the old ways, the Defiant Dragons, decide to make their move.

How Does The Apollo Justice Trilogy Wrap Up?

The Dragons’ leader and Queen Amara’s husband, Dhurke Sahdmadhi, travels to the US and drops in on Apollo because, as it turns out, he had been Apollo’s foster father for a while after Jove Justice died. Jove and Thalassa had been visiting Khura’in when a fire broke out at the palace, consuming baby Apollo’s father.

As if that weren’t enough familial discoveries, it also emerges that Nahyuta is Dhurke’s son, making him Apollo’s adoptive brother and that Rayfa is Amara’s daughter, not Ga’ran’s. In essence, Apollo gained two more siblings he never knew about.

Dhurke’s in the US to retrieve the Founder’s Orb from the Fey village, as it’s apparently the key to bringing down Ga’ran’s rule. Following a brief civil battle over custody of the Orb, Dhurke, Apollo, Athena, Edgeworth (who tags along), and Trucy head to Khura’in to join Phoenix and Maya in finishing things off once and for all.

Amara reappears, having disguised herself as a palace servant for years, and accuses Ga’ran of having no right to rule. And Apollo has the proof. He opens the Founder’s Orb, which contains a statue of the Holy Mother, founder of Khura’in.

According to Khura’inese law, queens of the nation must be able to channel the spirit of the Holy Mother using such an effigy. Ga’ran attempts to do so, but the outcome is perhaps inevitable: she fails, proving she isn’t of royal blood, and her men turn on her in an instant.

Where Does The Ace Attorney Franchise Leave Off?

With matters in Khura’in settled, and Maya’s training complete, things are all rosy. Apollo, his love for his adoptive family rekindled, bids farewell to Phoenix and Athena and started the Justice Law Offices in Khura’in, staffed by former members of the Defiant Dragons.

Maya comes back to the US with the others, and we close on Phoenix having a pivotal conversation with a most intriguing returning face: Thalassa Gramarye.

“Don’t you think it’s about time we told them the truth? After all, they’ve both grown into fine young people now.”

“Yes, you’re right. Perhaps it’s time they knew…”