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The first game in the Ace Attorney franchise, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was originally released in Japan under the title Gyakuten Saiban for the Gameboy Advance on October 12, 2001. Its North American release was almost exactly four years later in October of 2005 for the Nintendo DS. The player takes on the role of titular character Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney. Cases typically consist of two types of gameplay: investigation and trial. In investigations, the player moves between locations to find evidence and discover new information about the case through conversations with other characters. In trials, the player uses what they have learned and gathered to find contradictions in witness testimonies and corner the true culprit. The franchise has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity, as is illustrated by the long-hoped-for localization of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit, and its inclusion in the 2024 release of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Steam, and Xbox One.
The ever-lengthening release timeline for the Ace Attorney games also encompasses changes to the legal system in Japan, including the implementation of plans for vast reform to the criminal justice system in particular (Reform of the criminal justice system). For the sake of accuracy, I have done my best to use information about the Japanese criminal justice system as it stood at the time of Gyakuten Saiban’s initial release. This is to provide an accurate comparison between the criminal justice system portrayed in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney to that of the Japanese criminal justice system it was based on. It is worth noting that perceptions have likely shifted significantly as reforms have been implemented, however that is not the focus of this paper. The focus instead will be on the issues of legal dystopia and corruption.
Legal dystopia, as defined by Craig Newbery-Jones, involves “oppressive legal systems that facilitate totalitarianism and state power, the consequences of law in society and specific legal systems and the narratives of resistance against such oppressive legal and political systems” (2024). In the Ace Attorney franchise, these elements are most clearly illustrated through the structure of the criminal justice system and the corruption therein. Of course, corruption can take many forms. As Morris outlines it, corruption is typically characterized by a transactional relationship, be it monetary or otherwise. Additionally, corruption is difficult to categorize because of the many forms it can take. The primary form of corruption examined in this paper will be “institutional corruption,” which refers to corruption that is deeply entrenched in an organization or institution due to a lack of balances or controls (Morris, 2011). In the following paragraphs, I will explain the similarities and differences between Ace Attorney’s criminal justice system and those of Japan and the United States before the initial release of Gyakuten Saiban. Then, I will investigate instances of corruption illustrated in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Through these two approaches, I will demonstrate how Ace Attorney fits the definition of legal dystopia provided by Newbery-Jones.
As is standard, criminal justice in Phoenix Wright and the broader Ace Attorney franchise begins with arrest and investigation. The second case in Phoenix Wright, “Turnabout Sisters,” is the first time this procedure is shown to the player. Upon discovery of a murder scene, Phoenix Wright also bears witness to the prompt arrest of suspect Maya Fey. This is due to evidence at the scene bearing Maya’s name, written in the victim’s blood. This falls under what might be considered a “flagrant offender” arrest in Japan (Castberg, 1988). These arrests usually occur when there is obvious evidence at the crime scene pointing toward the suspect or when the suspect is caught red-handed with evidence of the crime on their person. Many other arrests in Ace Attorney also fall under this category. As for how this compares to the United States criminal justice system, arrests do not line up as closely. The best comparison is that of “probable cause” leading to arrest (Castberg, 1988). However, because these arrests require a reasonable belief that the suspect committed a crime, there is a disconnect. When the word “reasonable” appears in United States legal proceedings, it refers to what the average or typical person would believe or understand to have occurred (Wex Definitions Team, 2020). Many arrests in Ace Attorney do not meet this standard, especially in the case of arrests which occur primarily based on witness testimony. With this in mind, it is reasonable to assume there is considerable pressure on the police and detectives in the world of Ace Attorney to make arrests quickly, especially in murder cases.
Moving on to the investigation process, in Japan, there are only 48 hours allowed for investigation after an arrest is made. After this, it is left up to the prosecutor in charge of the case to make a decision within 24 hours on whether or not to take the case to trial (Castberg, 1988). Similarly, in the United States, 48 to 72 hours of investigation post-arrest is standard leading up to an initial hearing (Castberg, 1988). The key difference is that in the United States, especially in the case of more serious crimes, the bulk of investigation occurs before an arrest is made, even in cases of probable cause. With this in mind, we turn to the dates of arrests and investigations in Ace Attorney. Almost every case throughout the entirety of the franchise puts exactly two days between the occurrence of a murder and the subsequent trial (Contributors to Ace Attorney Wiki). This is likely drawn from typical Japanese criminal procedure.
Before moving on to trial procedure, there is one more quality of Ace Attorney’s criminal justice system that might strike an American audience as strange: the direct involvement of prosecutors in the investigation process. In the United States, investigations occur independent of the District Attorney’s office, and even at the initial hearing, the responsibilities of the prosecution are “usually limited to recommending bail amounts” (Castberg 1988). In Japan, on the other hand, prosecutorial involvement in investigation procedure is standard, at least in cases of political corruption. However, in all cases, it is the prosecutor’s responsibility to decide to take a case to trial and to request additional investigation time should they believe it is needed (Castberg 1988). With the knowledge that prosecutorial involvement is a standard part of some investigations in Japan, even if not all of them, it is likely that this element of criminal procedure in Ace Attorney is drawn from reality.
Trial procedure is where the greatest deviance from both systems can be seen. All trials in Ace Attorney are limited to three days. This brings the total amount of time between a murder and the final verdict to a maximum of five days. The reason for this system is explained by Phoenix Wright during the game’s third case, “Turnabout Samurai.” “That’s the new court system they introduced two or three years ago. They had so many cases in the system, they decided to speed the whole process up” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). The three-day trial system does not align with either the Japanese or United States criminal justice systems. In the United States, the length of trials can range anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the complexity and severity of the crime (Castberg, 1988). Most cases in Ace Attorney are fairly convoluted due to the fact that many of them involve defendants who were framed or evidence that has been otherwise tampered with. This suggests that if the game were to take place within the framework of the United States criminal justice system, the cases would stretch into the longer end of that range. However, prior to the implementation of the three-day trial, the system in Ace Attorney aligned quite closely to the Japanese system. In Japan, as previously mentioned, the prosecution is able to request extra time for investigation after the initial trial date. Additionally, trials can last for a few months, up to several years (Castberg, 1988). In Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit, the player learns that a case, referred to in-game as the IS-7 Incident, lasted for an entire year due to a lack of evidence (2024). While there is little other information provided about the previous trial system, it does appear to follow more closely with the Japanese criminal justice system.
Moving further into how trials in Ace Attorney function, there is further deviation from the criminal justice systems in both the United States and Japan. Regarding evidence and witnesses, defense attorneys in the Ace Attorney system are typically kept out of the loop. Defense attorneys must conduct their own investigations to gather evidence and are barred from speaking to eyewitnesses, as is illustrated in “Turnabout Sisters” and its subsequent case, “Turnabout Samurai” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). In the United States and in Japan, there are systems in place to allow evidence and witness lists to be shared between the defense and prosecution, even if both sides usually only reveal what is legally required of them (Castberg, 1988). During trials, both the defense and prosecution are able to present evidence and call witnesses, which aligns with real life procedure.
Perhaps the most complicated element of trials in Ace Attorney is determining where the burden of proof lies. Both the United States and Japan have built their criminal justice systems on the principle that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. This means that the burden of proof always falls on the prosecution (Castberg, 1988). In the Ace Attorney games, however, determining where the burden of proof lies is not so simple. In order to secure a not-guilty verdict for a defendant, the defense must prove that there is another, more likely suspect. In doing so, the defense essentially must prove another person is guilty of the crime. This is demonstrated in all five cases featured in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This suggests that the burden of proof then falls on the defense, instead of the prosecution. However, this is countered by a quote from Phoenix Wright in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, during the case “Farewell, My Turnabout.” He states that because the prosecution presented a certain piece of evidence, then the burden of proof falls to him, not the defense (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). With this in mind, one might assume that the burden of proof shifts between the prosecution and the defense depending on who is presenting evidence in the moment.
There are more elements of the criminal justice system which could be analyzed, but these are the core elements portrayed in Ace Attorney and demonstrate the greatest amount of similarity and contrast between the system which exists in the world of the game and the ones that exist in the real world. Furthermore, an understanding of these elements is key in interpreting the in-game criminal justice system as part of a legal dystopia. However, before approaching this question, there are the elements of corruption to consider. While the theme of corruption continues throughout the entirety of the Ace Attorney franchise, this paper focuses on three instances which play a key role in the plot of the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
The first clear instance of corruption in the Ace Attorney franchise is featured in “Turnabout Sisters.” The case centers around the murder of Phoenix Wright’s mentor, Mia Fey. When Phoenix happens upon the crime scene, he finds Mia’s younger sister, Maya, already there. After a brief period allowed for an initial scan of the scene, the good detective, Dick Gumshoe arrives and immediately places Maya Fey under arrest. However, from details revealed in the opening cutscene, the player is already aware that Maya is not the killer. Instead, the killer is a man with a wide grin, purple hair, and pink tuxedo. The image is shown with the caption “Red... White... Blue...” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). From early in the investigation, the player is aware that something is wrong. Maya Fey sends Phoenix to ask attorney Marvin Grossberg to take her case, but when asked, Grossberg says that it is “quite impossible” and, when pressed, goes on to say that “no lawyer worth their salt will take on this particular case” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). However, it is not until after the first day of trial that the corruption truly comes to light. As Phoenix, the player follows a lead to Bluecorp, where Redd White, the CEO, tells them pointblank that he is blackmailing and extorting not only Marvin Grossberg, but that “[t]he police, the courts, they all do my bidding” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). Additionally, before the trial the following day—in which Phoenix has taken Maya’s place as defendant due to White’s meddling—Miles Edgeworth says that “[n]o matter how you try to attack [White’s] testimony... If I raise an objection, I have it on good faith that the judge will listen to me” (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). Through these instances, it is clear that the blackmail and extortion Bluecorp runs on is deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system.
The second clear example of institutional corruption in the game is the corruption of the prosecutor’s office. While this is slowly developed throughout earlier cases in the game, it is the fourth case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, “Turnabout Goodbyes,” that brings the most attention to the issue. In this case, Miles Edgeworth—Phoenix’s rival in the previous two cases—is placed in the role of defendant. He is accused of murdering one Robert Hammond, a defense attorney who previously got Edgeworth’s father, Gregory’s, supposed killer, Yanni Yogi, off on an insanity plea. In truth, it was Yanni Yogi who killed Robert Hammond, after receiving a letter promising that this was “the time to get revenge on the two men who ruined your life” and detailing how to go about committing the crime (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). The question, then, is who sent the letter to Yanni Yogi.
As Miles Edgeworth is the defendant in this case, a new prosecutor is introduced: Manfred von Karma. Von Karma is Edgeworth’s mentor, and he holds a win record dating back forty years. Throughout the case, Phoenix is warned about von Karma, and not without reason. When Phoenix shows the Yanni Yogi’s letter to Grossberg, he recognizes the handwriting as belonging to none other than Manfred von Karma himself. Then, in classic Phoenix Wright fashion, he proceeds to confront the culprit in the police department’s records room, where all the evidence from the DL-6 Incident—that is, Gregory Edgeworth’s murder—has gone missing. Manfred von Karma uses a stun gun to electrocute Phoenix until he is rendered unconscious, stealing the letter proving von Karma’s involvement in the process. In exchange, Maya Fey, playing the role of Phoenix’s assistant, manages to steal one piece of evidence from DL-6 off of von Karma’s person: a bullet. It is with this bullet—along with a borrowed metal detector—that Phoenix Wright is later able to prove Manfred von Karma’s guilt in the murder of Gregory Edgeworth (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). So, in this case we see not only that there is at least one murderer in the prosecutor’s office, but also that he has no qualms about tampering with evidence and sabotaging the defense.
The third example comes from “Rise from the Ashes,” the fifth case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This case was not part of the original release of Gyakuten Saiban and was instead added when the game was ported to the Nintendo DS in 2005. The case follows a similar model to “Turnabout Goodbyes” in that it too centers around an old case, nearing the end of the statute of limitations: the SL-9 Incident. SL-9 refers to the in-game Joe Darke killings and, more specifically, Darke’s subsequent arrest and his attack on one Ema Skye, the younger sister of then-detective Lana Skye in the office she shared with future Chief of Police Damon Gant. There are layers to the corruption revealed in this case, originally leading the player to believe that the corruption is once again rooted in the prosecutor’s office, where Lana Skye has taken up the position of chief prosecutor. However, as the case progresses, it is revealed that Damon Gant is blackmailing Lana Skye into taking the fall for a murder he committed. The blackmail? Evidence stolen from the scene of Joe Darke’s attack on Ema Skye that suggest she was the one to kill Prosecutor Neil Marshall. What is then revealed, through cooperation between Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, is that Damon Gant tampered with the evidence so it would lead Lana Skye to that conclusion (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). Not only does this case reveal another layer of corruption within the prosecutor’s office, it reveals corruption in the police department. Moreover, it illustrates just how deeply entrenched the corruption is in Ace Attorney’s criminal justice system, to the point that the corruption in the prosecutor’s office and police department is intertwined.
Bearing in mind the elements of corruption illustrated through these three cases as well as the cutthroat aspects of Ace Attorney’s criminal justice system, we return to the idea of legal dystopia. According to Newbery-Jones’ definition, there are a few specific features that a legal dystopia must include: 1) an oppressive legal system that facilitates state power, 2) the consequences of law in society and legal systems, and 3) narratives of resistance (2024). This second requirement is fairly easy to explain, as the entire premise of Ace Attorney is based in the criminal justice system, which is a part of the legal system, and therefore anything that occurs in the game is an illustration of “consequences.” However, the first and third qualities are a bit more complex.
Ace Attorney’s criminal justice system is oppressive primarily through the suppression of defense attorneys and the intense timeline enforced on trial procedure. When accused of a crime, especially murder, defendants have only a slim chance of earning a not-guilty verdict. This is facilitated by corruption in multiple parts of the system, as well as from third parties, as is illustrated in the aforementioned cases. It is also facilitated by the limited access defense attorneys have to investigations, evidence, and witnesses. The criminal justice system in Ace Attorney also facilitates state power. This is primarily through the prosecutor’s office, all prosecutors are in the employ of the state, and they are given significantly more power over investigations and trials than defense attorneys. Additionally, the police department is run by the state. The layers of corruption—especially nepotism, blackmail, and extortion—that are showcased in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney exacerbate the issue of state power, perpetuating and worsening the oppression enacted through the system.
The third facet of legal dystopia is the inclusion of a narrative of resistance. There are several ways that this is enacted in the story of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Firstly, Phoenix Wright is a greenhorn attorney, inexperienced and brand new at his job. The corruption of the system has not reached him yet. His philosophy is to always believe in his clients, a philosophy that he picked up from his mentor, Mia Fey (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2019). It is his belief in the people he serves and those he cares about that leads Miles Edgeworth to change his practices as a prosecutor, carries him toward Manfred von Karma’s defeat, and guides him through the murky waters of the SL-9 Incident. One step at a time, Phoenix Wright begins to dismantle the corruption that has been so longstanding in the criminal justice system.
The themes of corruption continue on into later games in the Ace Attorney franchise, further reinforcing the legal dystopia within the game’s world. However, just as corruption continues, so does Phoenix Wright. Moreover, he passes his mission on to the next generation of defense attorneys, and Miles Edgeworth joins him on his mission by initiating reform within the prosecutor’s office itself with his new position as chief prosecutor (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, 2024). The elements of real-world criminal justice that have made their way into Ace Attorney contribute less to the elements of legal dystopia than those that are fictional, though some of those real-world elements may make those fictional elements appear more severe.