The Best Ace Attorney Protagonists

Ace Attorney is a visual novel series that has slowly but surely become one of Capcom's most popular properties. The series combines mystery-solving with comical exaggerations of the Japanese legal system, known for frequently finding defendants guilty.

The story primarily focuses on Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who believes the goal of his work is to find out the truth behind every case. He gathers evidence from his investigations, which he uses to argue his point in the courtroom. Inevitably, he discovers the truth and gets the guilty party arrested. Several sequels and spin-offs later, Wright can no longer be considered the sole main hero of his game. With other characters taking on the defense in his absence, it's worth questioning how well each one has been used.

Updated on October 7, 2024, by Kenneth Rasmussen: This list was reviewed after the release of the Investigations bundle. It notably localized Prosecutor's Gambit, which was previously only released officially in Japan. With this, every Ace Attorney game (except for the Professor Layton crossover) has been both localized and made available on contemporary consoles, further adding interest to any potential future installments of the series and the potential role established protagonists could play in it.

5 Athena Cykes

A Newer Character That Deserves More Time In The Spotlight

Athena Cykes first appeared in Dual Destinies as the newest member of the Wright Anything Agency. She combines her skills as a defense attorney with a super-sensitive hearing that can detect emotions, and a knowledge of analytical psychology that one would not expect from an attorney. All these skills coalesce to give her the ability to read emotions in a person's testimony and detect contradictions through them when making use of her portable computer and AI companion, Widget. Having appeared in a mere two Ace Attorney games, she still feels fairly green compared to Apollo and Phoenix.

Not for nothing, Cykes has only ever served in court as the primary defense attorney once in each game she appears in. She often serves as a co-counsel despite being billed as a protagonist in Dual Destinies. Her first full trial as the primary defense attorney, Turnabout Academy, remains one of the best trials in the game. It makes the entertaining choice of investigating a murder in a high school that also happens to be a law school, and features an interesting cast of characters. It also makes Cykes the only female character to lead an investigation (with other temporary protagonists like Mia Fey and Susato Mikotoba doing strictly courtroom-only trials.) She was also initially the primary defense attorney in Turnabout Countdown, but she quickly defers to Wright when he arrives in the courtroom.

Her second full trial as the primary defense attorney, Turnabout Storyteller, remains a unique entry as well. However, it is fairly short and confirms that Cykes still has a long way to go before becoming a defense attorney on the level of her colleagues. It also gives her a fairly unique co-counsel in the form of a prosecutor, rather than a defense attorney or the archetypal assistant characters prevalent in the series. A future installment that sees Cykes come into her own would be an interesting concept for an Ace Attorney game.

4 Phoenix Wright

The Legendary Attorney

Phoenix Wright is the most well-known leading lawyer from Ace Attorney. His sarcasm, emotive nature, and occasional goofiness make him an entertaining character to follow. He also uses a magatama, a sacred charm gifted to him by Pearl Fey, to detect if a person is lying regarding any given question he asks them. Though the games aren't considered canon, he has also been charged with helping save the world multiple times in games such as Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Project X Zone 2.

While he is fun to follow, narratively there is a bit of a dissonance between Phoenix's informed ability and his continual participation in cases. Wright has pretty much been built up as a legendary defense attorney. Indeed, he has managed to hand defeats to several prosecutors previously thought to be unbeatable. This becomes a narrative fixture at points in Spirit of Justice, where his absence from America (or Japan in the original text) is used as a plot device in multiple cases. He spends this time in Khura'in, resolving court cases where the law dictates he could be punished as badly as his clients if they are found guilty. This includes saving a 9-year-old (and himself) from capital punishment.

At this point, his ability is such that it's hard to derive as much pleasure from him as the protagonist. Initially, Wright's final appearance was to be in Trials and Tribulations. However, the popularity of the original trilogy led to a demand for more sequels. A better role in the future for him might be as a mentor, similar to how he was used in Apollo Justice. That game featured a more casual side of Wright, one less directly involved with the courts since his disbarment years ago.

However, he was still intensely dedicated to pursuing the truth behind the case that lost him his badge and managed to steer Apollo in the right direction several times. While he doesn't need to lose his badge again, if another Ace Attorney game is released, he may work better as a supporting character, possibly dealing with unrelated cases that limit his involvement in the game properly.

3 Apollo Justice

A Strong Character In His Own Right

Apollo Justice is fairly similar to Phoenix Wright in the English translation. He is a sarcastic yet noble man who seeks to find out the truth behind every case. He also possesses a bracelet that tightens around his wrist when his eyes spot someone lying.

Apollo Justice has appeared far more often as a defense attorney than Cykes. His titular debut was primarily through his POV, with Wright and his adoptive daughter, Trucy, assisting him for the majority of his cases. He was also one of two protagonists of Spirit of Justice and acted as the primary defense attorney in two cases of Dual Destinies, serving as the co-counsel in a third. Ultimately, Justice left the Wright Anything Agency in order to rebuild the decimated legal system of Khura'In. However, due to his being the only active law office in the area, he subsequently found himself bombarded with cases.

His exit was probably an optimal choice narrative-wise, as the trilogy, despite its inconsistent backstories for Apollo, did continually establish him growing more independent and stepping out of Phoenix's vast shadow. Allowing him to branch off and begin his own law firm was probably the best way to wrap up this narrative beat.

2 Miles Edgeworth

Prosecutor Turned Attorney

Edgeworth debuted as Phoenix Wright's rival in the original Ace Attorney game. He is presented as a haughty prosecutor with a great fashion sense who would do anything to win a case . However, after being defended by Wright in court, Edgeworth re-evaluates his beliefs and decides to dedicate himself to discovering the truth. He was first utilized as a protagonist during the first half of Bridge to the Turnabout, the final chapter of Trials and Tribulations. After suffering a debilitating injury, Phoenix calls upon his friend and rival, to act as a defense attorney in his stead.

Despite being a prosecutor, Edgeworth feels compelled to accept. His temporary brush with the role of a defense attorney was only a taste of things to come. Edgeworth starred in two spin-off games which made use of his "logic" as a primary means to solving cases. This process involves gathering facts and combining them accurately to form conclusions. The sequel, Prosecutor's Gambit, introduces Logic Chess, which involves tactically arranging points (in a manner visually represented by chess pieces) to break through an opposing argument.

Due to the prosecutorial bias in the series' justice system, Edgeworth's series focused more on investigations than trial appearances. In these scenarios, he is typically presented with a "defendant" of sorts, as he aids a person being falsely accused of a murder they didn't commit. This results in him finding the actual culprit as he is given time to gather evidence and formulate his argument. In Prosecutor's Gambit, when faced with various barriers to effectively solving cases, Edgeworth even flirts with the idea of becoming a defense attorney. However, in the end, he decided that the system was in need of decent people to function efficiently, and continued working as a prosecutor.

Sometime before Dual Destinies, Edgeworth became the chief prosecutor. While he is not the primary prosecutor for either game he appears in, he does act as a sort of special boss, prosecuting in one trial for each game he appears in. Ultimately, Edgeworth was allocated fine as a protagonist, with the two games focused on him connecting well to his concerns about systemic corruption, as well as his own unique style of reasoning and argumentation. His limited but important appearances add to the idea of him as a deeply capable prosecutor.

1 Ryunosuke Naruhodo

The Great Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright's Japanese ancestor from the Meiji era was also a defense attorney. He stars in a spin-off series known as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Ryunosuke is similar in a lot of ways to his modern-day descendants, with developers admitting the differing time periods act as the best way to distinguish the two. A string of events compels him to study law in London, where he operates as a defense attorney with aid from his more learned assistant, Susato Mikotoba. The pair investigate various mysteries tied to the courts with the help of Herlock Sholmes, a local detective who is famed for his mystery-solving prowess.

This spin-off also moves focus away from certain established mechanics, such as the magatama, replacing them with other mechanics instead. With Sholmes, Ryunosuke performs the dance of deduction, where Sholmes' initial conclusions from cursory glances end up corrected by Ryunosuke, whilst the pair dance around the scene of the crime. Ryunosuke is also exposed to racism, with many English people decrying him for his Japanese heritage upon their frustration with him, most notably his rival prosecutor, Barok Van Zieks. Ultimately, he is able to prove himself as a capable attorney, uncovering the fetid underbelly of London's criminal justice system.

Ryunosuke is the best-used protagonist and the current number of games he stars in make for a perfect story. Adventures, unlike the vast majority of Ace Attorney games in the series, directly teases a sequel. Many narratives from the original are then connected to Resolve. Considering the open-and-shut nature of these two games, there appears little need for a follow-up.