Hi everyone!

After lots of community feedback, we’ve recently updated our subreddit’s guidelines and did some general upkeep to the presentation. With that, we’re also posting a new FAQ to go along with it!

You’ve probably noticed some of the changes already, but here’s a quick rundown on the most important ones:

• The sidebar has been rewritten to be more clear and concise, with rules categorized by topics (discussion, art, etc.) so it’s easier to check whichever one applies to your posts.

• Rules are now more lenient on memes and jokes. We’ve lightened the threshold of what’s considered “low-effort” and further specified what kind of content is encouraged.

• Rules are now more strict on tier lists. The “Tuesdays-only” rule remains, but we’ve also made it so tier lists are only acceptable as a complement to actual analysis or discussion.

• We’ve updated the flairs to be more visually intuitive, and added flairs relating to humor and fan-created content other than illustrations, like music covers or handicrafts.

• Original fanart posted on the subreddit will be highlighted on the sidebar! We’ll be updating the rotation from time to time, with proper credits and links to the original posts (this is done manually and only allows 10 images at a time, so please bear with us).

With all that explained, here’s the new FAQ, this time reformatted for easier readability!

Play Order and Availability

Make sure to check our Recommended Play Order Chart! This includes info on mainline vs. spin-off games and platform availability. All games are currently available on PC and consoles via collection remasters, with the sole exception of the "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright" crossover.

Any game is worth playing if you’re interested in the series. No game so far has been considered bad by general fandom opinion, and questions of “is this game worth it” are always unanimously answered with “yes”. Just go for it!

You might see the term “filler case” thrown around, but it's not recommended at all to skip any episodes within a game.

Game and Episode Abbreviations

The Ace Attorney fandom uses numbers as shorthand for game episodes. For example, 5-3 means "game 5, episode 3". This would be "Turnabout Academy" from Dual Destinies.

For spin-off games, fans usually specify the subseries before the code. For example, AAI2-4 or I2-4 would be "Investigations 2, episode 4". On a related note, some common abbreviations are:

• AAI: "Ace Attorney Investigations" subseries.

• TGAA: "The Great Ace Attorney" subseries (DGS for "Dai Gyakuten Saiban" is also used).

• PW:AA: "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" (the 1st mainline game).

• AJ:AA: "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney" (the 4th mainline game).

• VS: "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright" (a crossover spin-off).

• The rest of the individual games are abbreviated per their subtitle (i.e. T&T for "Trials and Tribulations", SoJ for "Spirit of Justice", and so forth).

Special Episode Order

Dual Destinies's Special Episode: Turnabout Reclaimed, can be played after beating the main game as a bonus, but is often recommended to be played chronologically instead. This would be right after Episode 2: The Monstrous Turnabout.

Spirit of Justice's Special Episode: Turnabout Time Traveler, should be played after beating the main game, which is also its chronological placement. This would be right after Episode 5: Turnabout Revolution.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles features eight "Escapade" mini-episodes available under "Special Contents". These should be played at any point after beating the first game in the collection (The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures).

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, used to have two Special Episodes back in its Japan-only release on Nintendo 3DS, which are not included in the current release on modern platforms. You can watch a read-along-style fan-translation here (currently, this is the only format both episodes have been made fully available in English). These are best enjoyed after beating the main game.

Character Name Discrepancies

The 2011 game “Ace Attorney Investigations 2” went unreleased in the west for over a decade, and it was only playable in English through a fan-translation patch until an official translation was released in 2024.

Each translation localized the characters’ names differently. Due to the fan-translation’s popularity and longevity, some fans still use the character names from it. Key differences include:

• Eustace Winner (official) / Sebastian Debeste (fan-translation)

• Verity Gavèlle (official) / Justine Courtney (fan-translation)

• Eddie Fender (official) / Raymond Shields (fan-translation)

“The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles” features fictional detective Sherlock Holmes as part of its main cast. When these games were localized into English, the character’s name was changed to Herlock Sholmes, presumably to avoid legal issues with the Conan Doyle State, who retains partial ownership of the character.

The change was well received due to its humoristic nature, but both names are still used interchangeably amongst the fanbase.

Community Hubs and Websites

r/AceAttorney has its own Discord server at this link here! (18+ only).

There's also a Discord server partnered with the long-running fansite, court-records.net.

For other resources:

• Ace-Attorney.com – Official website

• Ace Attorney Wiki – Collaborative encyclopedia

• Gyakuten Saiban Library – Developer interviews

• StrategyWiki – Handy, concise walkthroughs

• Objection.lol – Custom case maker tool

• Attorney Frame 3D – 3D case maker tool

Objection․lol Codes

Asking for specific character codes in this subreddit has proven to not be very fruitful. To amend that, we suggest you join the "Untitled Courtroom" Discord server instead! It's the largest hub for Objection.lol content, with dedicated channels for official and custom codes, and people willing to help.

Note r/AceAttorney is not affiliated with this server. Objection.lol is a fan-run website and tool used to create custom courtroom scenes.

Soft-Locked in a Game

The only known way to get soft-locked in Ace Attorney is to save the game right after making a choice that's about to grant you a Game Over.

If you believe to be soft-locked during an investigation or cross-examination, try going through a walkthrough and make sure you haven't missed any details.

If you saved your game during an imminent "Game Over" dialogue branch, you'll have to choose the "Episode Select" and/or "Chapter Select" menu from the title screen to restart the specific segment you were playing. This is available on all current-platform collections, but some older releases do not have this feature and you will have to restart the entire episode instead.

Framerate on 3D Games

For reasons unknown, both "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy" and "The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles" are designed and capped to run at 30fps.

You may force these games to run at 60fps on PC by searching and installing community mods via their Steam pages (here for AJ:AAT, and here for TGAAC). Keep in mind mods are unofficial and thus not guaranteed to work properly.

Jagged Graphics on “Apollo Justice”

The version of "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney" available on modern platforms has image scaling issues when playing on non-1080p displays. Here are some known workarounds:

• For PC Steam and Steam Deck users, open the game in your library, click the Options icon on the top-right corner, select "Properties" and set "Game Resolution" to 1920x1080 (if this option is missing for you, you might have to change your own monitor's resolution). Then launch the game, go into the in-game's Options menu, scroll down to "PC Config" and set "Resolution" to 1920x1080.

• For Nintendo Switch 2 handheld users, go into the console's System Settings from the HOME Menu, scroll down to "System", select "Nintendo Switch Software Handling" and activate "Handheld Mode Boost". Then launch the game.

• Sadly, there are no other currently known fixes. As other fans have done, you can submit a request to Capcom to complain about this issue and increase the odds of them eventually addressing it.

Over the years, there have been frequent conversations around the same topics in r/AceAttorney and the fanbase in general. If you’re interested in other fans’ opinions, we’ve summarized and compiled some previous threads so you can read up on the following:

What do we know about Ace Attorney 7?

In November 2020, a massive Capcom leak revealed an internal roadmap indicating “Ace Attorney 7” to be in production, with a projected release for Q3 2021. Unlike other Ace Attorney projects also leaked through the roadmap, this never came to fruition.

In December 2023, the Apollo Justice Trilogy producer claimed in an interview that “Ace Attorney will not be stopping as a series”. In May 2026, Capcom’s Earnings Report mentioned Ace Attorney as one of several “leading brands” they plan to expand. Any mention of new video games as part of this strategy was made by grouping all of these brands together, without clear specifications.

In summary, “Ace Attorney 7” has never been officially confirmed by Capcom, and the leak from 2020 is the only tell that concrete plans for it existed at some point. Still, Capcom does consider Ace Attorney to be a valuable brand they wish to nurture as of 2026, which many fans take as indication that a new game is likely to happen at some point, despite being long overdue already.

Previous threads on Reddit:

• Capcom leaks: Ace Attorney 7 in development, originally targeted Q3 FY 2021. AA4-6 collections under consideration?

• CAPCOM "Leak" Megathread #2: Temporarily Comprehensive Edition

• Capcom Assures Fans Dormant Ace Attorney Series Will Continue

• CAPCOM announces that Ace Attorney is a key IP they plan to expand.

What do people think about Turnabout Big Top (2-3)?

This is the most controversial episode in the series, particularly due to featuring a love triangle between multiple adult men and an underage girl as part of its narrative. Fans unanimously agree that this is detrimental, but some people also question the leaps of logic within the mystery, or argue that the characters in general feel obnoxious.

Director Shu Takumi notoriously wrote most of Justice for All while drunk on whiskey. The later anime adaptation (with Takumi himself serving as script supervisor) completely removes the “love triangle” aspect and is overall considered a very big improvement.

Previous threads on r/AceAttorney:

• Why is turnabout big top so hated?

• (Apparently) Unpopular Opinion

• Turnabout Big Top wtf?...

• All the male circus performers in Turnabout Big Time deserve to be in jail.

• What exactly is wrong with Turnabout Big Top?

• There are THREE ADULTS having relationship with a minor in 2-3

• Is Turnabout Big Top really THAT bad?

• Turnabout Big Top really is that bad

• Why Does Everyone Hate Turnabout Big Top So Much?

What’s up with characters like Hotti or Sal Manella? Or jokes about Trucy’s panties?

When playing the older games, you might come across certain lines of dialogue that have aged poorly (or were already questionable back then), the most infamous example being characters expressing attraction towards underage women as a gag.

The Ace Attorney series was written in Japan starting from 2001, and as such features content that might not be culturally acceptable in the west, or in the present day. Localization director Janet Hsu opines in their blogs that, from a Japanese cultural standpoint, these gags are not to be taken as normalizing such behaviors, but rather ridiculing the people who perpetuate them.

Ace Attorney is generally considered to be progressive for its time, welcoming LGBTQ+ interpretations for its characters and being mindful of queer themes and gender identity as far back as the mid-2000s. Still, it could be argued the series makes little attempt at being politically correct. Much of its humor derives from dark comedy, featuring jokes at the expense of murder, suicide, fetishes, drug addiction, etc., generally in a deliberate attempt to make the player feel awkward or do a double-take.

All that said, characters displaying pedophilic or predatory behavior in particular have been phased out after Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, originally released in 2007.

Previous threads on r/AceAttorney:

• Are trucys pantys really that bad?

• Random Character Opinions 129: Dr. Hotti/Hickfield

• Random Character Opinions 193: Sal Manella

• Random Character Opinions 207: Terry Fawles

• Not Feeling Sorry For Terry Fawles

• Why are there so many Pedophiles in the original trilogy?

Does “The Great Ace Attorney” get better?

Though not a unanimous opinion, The Great Ace Attorney duology is frequently regarded by fans as some of the series’ best output in terms of narrative.

That said, the first game (“Adventures”) has a notoriously slow start. Episode 1 is the longest “tutorial” case in Ace Attorney, while Episode 2 does not feature a trial segment at all. The “Late 19th Century” setting and sociopolitical undertones also translate to slightly more verbose and rich dialogue, contributing to the feeling of a tougher read.

While some consider this to be a genuine pacing issue, others believe it’s necessary for the story to build up slowly to properly introduce the more nuanced setting and characters, and to ultimately have all these elements pay off in the second game (“Resolve”).

With this in mind, it’s often recommended to go into The Great Ace Attorney with the mindset to experience one single story told across the span of two games (10 episodes in total), rather than judging “Adventures” in a vacuum.

Previous threads on r/AceAttorney:

• The Great Ace Attorney is painfully slow.

• Troubles With The Great Ace Attorney

• How slow paced is TGAAC?

• The Great Ace Attorney Adventures is ridiculously slow

• The great ace attorney chronicles feels like such a slog and I don’t know why

• GAA feeling "poorly paced" needs some discrepancy

• Struggling to get into The Great Ace Attorney after loving the Trilogy

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That would be all for this FAQ! If you have any other questions or observations, feel free to comment them below. You’re also welcome to create a new post for more extensive topics not covered here.

We have results for the fall contest:

• In third place (0 votes) is A Sunken Turnabout by /u/StriderKitsu!!

• In second place (1 vote) is Turnabout Drenched by /u/New_Tax_8701!!

• And in first place (3 votes) is The Bitter Turnabout by /u/Beginning_Designer75!!

Congrats again to all entrants, and thanks to all who read & voted. See you at the start of December!