Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/Headscratchers

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  • In Investigations, people regularly give you a logical scenario of what happened and why the current suspect did it. It bugs me that everyone is always wrong and Edgeworth is always right.
    • To expand on this, as it bugged me too: When Phoenix is in court, there are often times when he'll say something along the lines of "I can't see any contradictions... but if I don't find one, my client will be found guilty!" and use that as motivation to keep pressing. In Investigations, Edgeworth doesn't have that kind of motivation, aside from ascertaining the truth. Far too often, it feels like the only reason the player's trying to rebut the current theory is because Edgeworth's doing it. (Particularly true near the end of case 3, after the people Miles has reason to believe didn't do it have all been cleared of suspicion.)
      • Well, Edgeworth's motivations for arguing are not that far off Phoenix's - he wants to defend a suspect. Plus, it's probably a matter of instinct - if he suspects that the theory is off, it probably is and he needs to investigate further.
      • More importantly, it's not so much that he wants to defend suspects. He knows that if he accuses the wrong person, the true killer would get away, and the truth would be unrevealed, and so he wants to make sure that the case is airtight. And better to do it now, than wait on the unlikely (yeah, right) chance that a certain blue suited spiky haired attorney is going to turn it around and pull the real killer out of your witness lineup.
      • It might just be because of this little fact, which is also one of the things that annoys me: They always, ALWAYS accuse the people who absolutely couldn't have committed the crime due to their personality/lack of motive. Shall we draw up a list of "suspects"? Gumshoe (TWICE), Maggey Byrde, Edgeworth himself, Mike Meekins, Kay, Larry, Franziska...reckon any of them could commit murder? No? Neither does Edgeworth. It became my pet peeve with this game that it was obvious the accused didn't do it, but you still had to prove it by going up against some painfully plausible explanations. And he isn't being arrogant; he's normally the only one there who actually cares about bringing in the right person. Gumshoe mentions in the first game that he has a trusting work relationship with Edgeworth because "he trusts that we've got the right guy". That's part of him "finding the truth"; he assumes that the police have done their job, and if they haven't, then he'll unveil what the truth really is. If he can help the police get the right man in the first place, then that's a lot less work for him to do later.
      • It might be "Obvious" to you or to Edgeworth, but the people doing the accusing are either doing so out of necessity, or because they probably don't know the person well enough to think "They would never do that", and are simply going with the facts. It even occurs in reverse when you accuse Shih-na of being Calisto Yew - Lang gets very upset because you are accusing his subordinate, whom (He thinks) would never dream of doing anything of the sort.
        • Among Edgeworth's investigative rivals, several of them are actively trying to cover up the murder- namely Portsman, Yew, Shih-na (who didn't kill either of the victims but worked for the person who did), Naito and Bansai.
      • This could just be to keep the possibility open for new players. This Troper played JFA and thought that in the first case Gumshoe did it. Seriously. Also, one never knows if the writers will have an older game's character become a new case's murderer (or victim).
  • I think Edgeworth is playing Devil's Advocate. He summons his inner defense attorney and analyzes the case. If he can debunk it right there, then a skilled attorney should be able to do so as well. Many of Phoenix and Apollo's cases might never have gone to court if the police had looked at it with a second viewpoint. Or put more than twenty minutes into choosing a suspect (which Edgeworth wants to prevent).
    • This is easily explained. In Phoenix's and Apollo's cases, the prosecution doesn't want to find the truth persay but to rather just arrest all people who could be the killer. The whole point of These cases is that they are seem from ONE viewpoint, the polices, however Phoenix/Apollo change the viewpoint to see it from their eyes. Edgeworth (in AAI)wants the truth and thinks through things from his own viewpoint. Not to mention that the WHOLE POLICE FORCE is a little bit different from just one single prosecutor who happens to find the truth.
  • On a slightly related subject, isn't it a bit redundant in the Ace Attorney universe to make the perpetrator break down into a Motive Rant before he's anywhere near a courtroom? There's at least one possible exception given (the question of whether or not Lance was justified in killing Oliver will be raised in trial), but it's like the game's claiming that police who aren't evil or incompetent shouldn't arrest anyone unless they confess first... which kinda renders the next step pointless.
    • That's not the police, that's just Edgeworth, who wants to be super-sure he has the right suspect.
  • In I-3, when you do a Luminol test on the sword, where the heck is Ema? She was in the case earlier, but completely disappears after the stadium. Why did the writers skip a perfect chance for her to make one final appearance?
    • Back in the stadium, the great thief Kay Faraday stole her scene. This left her purposeless and she left soon afterward. This is why we should keep our eyes on those great thieves.
  • Why did Edgeworth in case 4 of Investigations think that Badd was going pull out a gun on him? I mean, yes, it's not uncommon for a detective pull a gun out of his jacket, but they were in a courthouse with other officers in the room.
    • Calisto Yew did end up pulling a gun on him, in a courthouse, with Detective Badd in the room. Seeing as how Badd just projects that aura of "mess with me and you'll regret it," It isn't too much of a stretch.
      • Yew was cornered and revealed to be the murderer and the Yatagarasu, so that at least made sense. Not so much for Badd, though the "mess with me and you'll regret it" aura does kinda make sense.
    • Also, the courthouse isn't exactly the safest place to be. Just look at it's track record: A defense attorney shot dead in an elevator, one prosecutor and suspect murdered, another attempted murder on the same day, a prisoner committing suicide in broad daylight, Diego got (near) fatally poisoned, a certain spiky haired defense attorney getting assaulted with a fire extinguisher, and finally, a suspect in a murder investigation magically (ha, ha) vanishing. Just cause he's in the court doesn't mean it's safe there, and if this track record is anything to go by, I frankly wouldn't be surprised if more similar incidents had occurred in the past.
      • Or the prosecutor knocking the defense unconscious?
      • And that same prosecutor beating another witness into unconsciousness.
      • --> Are we talking about Franziska here? Because that taser incident happened at the police station, didn't it?
      • And that mysterious man in the hat seizing the defense counsel during cross-examination.
      • Or a certain spikey haired defendant assaulting his own attorney, stealing a valuable piece of evidence, running off, and eating it.
      • And all of the hot coffee burns Phoenix suffers at the hands of Godot.
      • While we're at it, lets note down the assault via toupee. And birdseed. And snackoos.
    • Also, he reached for the mirror so fast that, by the time Edgeworth realized that Badd wouldn't actually pull a gun on him in the courthouse, it was already clear that that wasn't what he was doing.
    • Could just be nerves about meeting such an important detective. He's 19 years old, talking to a guy so badass he could put Chuck Norris to shame, and said badass suddenly reaches into his coat where a gun would normally be holstered on a detective...I could see where he was coming from.
  • Why was Ema detained for questioning in AAI, case 3 anyways? Oldbag was a witness, but Ema just sort of wandered in. Lang already has several forensic investigators, so he really doesn't need the help of a vacationing high school student.
    • He probably just didn't want her helping Edgeworth, so he "detained her for questioning" so she'd be out of the way.
  • Possibly an inconsistency: In Investigations case 4 (should we call it I-4, I wonder?) when Byrne Faraday is accused, he is immediately removed from the case. Yet in 3-5, when Godot is accused, he is allowed to keep prosecuting. I can understand there being two different responses for two different crimes the prosecutor is accused of (theft vs. murder), but then why is the more severe measure taken in response to theft instead of murder? Or is this just because Godot is who he is, and nobody except Phoenix - including the Judge - wants to take action against him?
    • Come to think of it, this happens in 1-4 as well. Manfred von Karma, anyone? Although given that there's a very pressing time limit there - statute of limitations and all - it's a little more understandable that they would not want to wait for a replacement...
    • Keep in mind that I4 is a flashback case. A lot can change in 7 years. (This troper may in fact be woefully uninformed)
    • Perhaps it's because in I-4, Byrne is accused of a separate crime, that of being the Yatagarasu. Since he's required as defendant for a separate case, he can't act as prosecutor. In 3-5, the accusation is directly that of the current case, and one which already had a defendant. 3-5's situation was essentially the same as 1-2, when Phoenix was accused, and allowed to provide his own defense.
    • But wouldn't that mean that they would be trying Byrne for being the Yatagarasu at the same time as they would be trying Rell, the witness who accused him of being the Yatagarasu to begin with, for murder? Surely they can't run both cases at the same time?
    • I was of the opinion that they were simply taking Byrne off the case due to conflict of interest. Of course, that didn't bar Phoenix from staying on the case in 1-2...
      • In 1-2, Phoenix was defending himself, which is perfectly within the law. It's not very advisable, especially for a murder trial, but he was a defense attorney with a good knowledge of the law. If he trusted his own skill above that of a state defense attorney, then he's perfectly able to defend himself.
        • It helps that Redd White essentially ensured that no one else would defend him.
    • Perhaps the public fallout from Faraday and Rell's murder led to the 'replacement prosecutor' plan being cut. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable to accuse the prosecutor. Or the defense counsel. Or the chief of police. Just not the Judge.
  • In AAI Case 2, why does the plane take off in Borginia, refuel in Zheng Fa, and then land in America when the distance between Europe and North America is obviously much shorter? It makes sense in the Japanese version of the game, as the setting of the game is, well, Japan, but I still feel like something could have been done to address that. And for that matter, why is Edgeworth in Borginia in the first place?
    • Well, it is assumed that the setting for the localized version is somewhere akin to Los Angeles. That is, it's on the west coast. A flight passing over Asia could conceivably be faster than the alternative... besides which the first class options up to Edgeworth's standards are probably few and far between. As to why he's there, well, he is studying foreign legal systems...
    • Also, they were loading and unloading cargo at Zheng Fa, not just refueling. It's possible that Edgeworth was unable to book a more direct flight.
  • Why isn't Lauren Paups arrested at the end of I-3? She WAS in on the fake kidnapping, after all.
    • She was, we just didn't see it. Her little bit during the credits has her talking about the guard at the Detention Center.
      • HOLD IT! That isn't the point - at the end of the case the Amanos are immediately arrested and carted off, so why isn't she immediately arrested as well?
        • Not so fast! Certainly, the Amanos are arrested and carted off while Lauren isn't arrested until later, if she's arrested at all. After all, Lance is the one who committed murder, and while merely obstructing the investigation, it allowed for Ernest to be brought in for his involvement in the smuggling ring - much more important to Interpol than staging a kidnapping!
      • OBJECTION!: In the ending, she reveals that she was, in fact, put on trial and imprisoned for her part in the fake kidnapping.
  • I-3: Edgeworth clearly hears the mirror in the haunted house breaking, but not the gunshot which followed shortly thereafter. He claims the latter is because of the soundtrack in the haunted house - the sound supposedly blended in. But wouldn't the gunshot be a lot louder than the mirror breaking? Why wouldn't the sound of the mirror breaking have blended in too?
    • The gunshot came before the mirror breaking, since the victim was shot through the mirror, no? (Not like I can actually remember or anything, but it was something like that.) As for why one blended when the other did not, perhaps the soundtrack happens to include gunshot sounds, but no mirror-breaking sounds?
      • OBJECTION! ::desk slam:: It's clearly stated that the mirror breaking was the start of the struggle - immediately after Edgeworth hangs up on the phone - and the gunshot was, obviously, at the end! Ergo... ::points:: the gunshot happened after the mirror broke, clearly contradicting your theory! Besides, the order is irrelevant - what matters is the relative volume of the events, and any gunshot is going to be a lot louder than a mirror breaking - such a loud noise is going to be very easy to hear over any ambient sound, even if it is meant to sound like a gunshot!
        • OBJECTION! The order of the events is indeed irrelevant! Indeed, the mirror was broken in the struggle, and not by the gunshot, but this does not significantly contradict my previous testimony! As for the blending, could not the gun have been equipped with a silencer? ::lawyerspace closeup:: There is no proof that the sound of a gunshot was ever actually produced in the first place, as nobody heard the sound!
          • In addition! From what I've heard, a gunshot sounds a lot different than most people believe. Especially when at sufficiently close range. We already know the shot was close to the victim because of gunpowder burn. In fact, if a gun is shot right up against its target, it sounds *extremely* muffled. Ergo! Even a silencer is not required to explain the lack of sound!
  • When Edgeworth gets into court at the end of AAI, there's no defense attorney. Could be accepted as "the court hasn't quite started yet", except that Edgeworth still needs to shout OBJECTION.
    • Because it was the end of the game, and the protagonist always shouts "OBJECTION!" at the end of the game. And, in Edgeworth's own words: "I never allow an opportunity to shout 'objection!' pass me by!"
      • But that wasn't an opportunity. Nothing was happening, at all, which would be a legitimate reason to shout "OBJECTION!". Unless, of course, Edgeworth really has Medium Awareness, knew it was the end of the game, and was aware that the protagonist always shouts "OBJECTION!" at the end of the game.
        • It was a sort of montagey representation of the upcoming legal battle? Perhaps Edgeworth has more in common with Apollo and his "Chords of Steel" training than we thought, and he was practicing?
          • In that case I am now convinced that young Apollo was watching said trial with a notepad in his hands, jotting down the words "Note: Good Lawyer trains his yelling carefully".
    • I watched it again, and if you look closely, you can't even see Edgeworth himself- the entire court is empty. It's possible that they didn't want to use Phoenix as the attorney (since he wouldn't represent the ring members), or create a new character.
  • How does Lang's backstory make any sense, at all? He brags about arresting people because they're in the way and openly breaks the law to do so. Yet he hates the prosecutors because they couldn't possibly bring a case to court in which the lead agent was openly admitting to arresting people out of convenience rather than reasonable suspicion? What an Idiot!.
    • I think it's supposed to reflect Edgeworth's own morals when he first became a prosecutor as Manfred had taught him; you never know who's the criminal, so get them all guilty. In the final case, he really does grow and seem to realize he shouldn't take out his anger on Edgeworth or other prosecutors, but rather on those really deserving of it. Sorta what Edgeworth himself did with Wright in some of the last cases of the first game. -shrugs- I just felt it was a good contrast and he was an overall interesting character. But I can see where you're coming from.
    • His family was disgraced because despite arresting people carefully and with legitimate evidence, the prosecutor in charge tampered with the evidence and got the case thrown out. Lang's arrest-everyone-in-sight stance when he first appears reflects his bitterness knowing guilt is ultimately going to be determined by the prosecutors who don't care about the work that goes into arresting people -- the polar opposite of how Gumshoe feels Edgeworth treats the work of detectives. It's not how things always were.
  • Why is the term "Yagaratsu" untranslated? None of the three members are indicated to be Japanese in the American version. Why not call themselves Morrigan, which the wiki says is a basis for it in the first place?
    • "Look out! It's the Great Thief Morrigan!" It may just be me, but Morrigan is the worst name for a "professional" thief moniker.
      • Point taken. I would have gone with Munnin a raven that brought the truth to Odin in Norse Mythology. Probably still obscure but at least it fits the Groups background better.
    • Because it has a meaning in Japanese mythology.
      • My point was neither Yew, Faraday, or Badd have any indication that they're Japanese. It undeniably made sense in the original Japanese but considering the general translation stance using a Japanese name in a game which pretends that it takes place in America is odd.
      • Well, the one who really came up with the symbol, Alba apparently was into Japanese culture as seen by the Steel Samurai, so maybe they just thought, "Well why not use the Japanese raven, then?"
      • Besides, as pointed out in the Wikipedia article linked here, it's also in Chinese, Korean and Egyptian myths, too. That's almost all of Asia and parts of North Africa. People will be able to get the significance of the symbol, never you fear.
  • In Ace Attorney Investigations case 3, why wasn't the fake mirror wall in the Haunted House blueprints? That seems like the kind of thing that would go on a blueprint.
    • They added it after the house was already built, and thus it wasn't on the original blueprints?
    • Besides, the fake mirror wall was a secret, used to create the disappearing badger trick. If someone who wasn't part of the theme park's staff got a hold of it, the secret to the trick would be spilled.
      • Wouldn't there need to be maintenance or redesigning in the haunted house? Or what about the people building and installing the mirror wall? Surely there would need to be some blueprints for that section so those people could work on it. Why not turn those blueprints over to the police?
  • In Investigations, it seems that delicate political events where both countries' fates hang in the balance are decided... at those countries' Japanese American embassies. Priceless national treasures of those countries are similarly kept at those embassies instead of inside the concerned countries themselves.
    • Presumably, they do have other priceless national treasures in their own countries, it's just the Primidux statues that are at the embassy.
      • Also, that particular embassy did provide a convenient neutral site for representatives of the two countries to meet. Other embassies may not have been able to provide the same. Remember, those two countries were in conflict with each other until very recently, so a neutral site would be more or less required for the two countries to settle their differences.
    • The national treasure thing also has some justification on Palaeno's part, since he does everything he can to advertise Babahl, and his guards are eager to let people into the embassy.
  • In Investigations, couldn't the killer have argued that Coachen was the one who attacked him first, and thus the killing was self-defence, as he had for the other killing?
    • Not really, because they'd already established that he'd had a motive for killing Coachen. A whole part of his argument about killing De*Masque was that he didn't know the guy and he was in his office; self-defense is perfectly plausible. With Coachen, however, that wasn't possible. They knew each other, and once we found that he'd betrayed Alba, the motive for his death became clear. His argument was "if he was my subordinate, then what's my motive? I don't have one, so you can't pin this on me", and so you had to prove it.
    • Yes, but Coachen also had a motive for trying to kill him, so self-defense would still be plausible. Then again, he did bring a knife into the theater, but maybe he could make up some nonsense argument that he suspected that Coachen would try to kill him...although the only reason that he would suspect that Coachen would do that is if he was the head of the smuggling ring, so I suppose he couldn't get out of the killing without admitting to being the smuggling ring head, which would make him culpable for every other death that occurred in the game (bar Oliver Deacon's), so it amounts to the same thing really.
  • I'm just finishing up case I-3, so maybe the other, more Yatagarasu-centric episodes handle this better, but am I the only one who gets the feeling that Kay is horribly out of place? Her chimings-in are usually rather generic and Edgeworth is the only one that seems to ever acknowledge her. It's like Gumshoe could easily, easily take back his place as sidekick.
    • Likely to establish her character. I'm currently only partway through I-4, but knowing what little I do about that case, it seems like they need to have her character (and backstory) firmly established by the time case five actually started. They probably needed to establish the Little Thief's presence as well. For that matter, having her there did have at least one pronounced effect-- if they removed her character, they would likely have to remove Amano obstructing them as well, meaning that he wouldn't get arrested. That last part will also probably be important in case five.
    • She's vitally important to cases 4 AND 5, so you need her in case 3 to establish her character. One thing I got the impression of was that throughout case 3, Edgeworth himself had the mindset of "why was she tailing me, and why is she so insistent about helping me?" He let her hang around because he couldn't get rid of her and she did indeed prove useful in solving the case, but it's only at the end that you realize that she needed his help in trying to stop the "fake Yatagarasu", Calisto Yew. Fridge Brilliance in that if she didn't insist that Edgeworth go to the embassy to track Calisto down, then he would never have been involved in bringing down the smuggling ring. In a way, her presence itself sets off the plot. She seems out of place at first, but she ends up being vital to his investigations. Besides, in case 5, Kay, Gumshoe and Franziska all take turns being his assistant, so it's not like Gumshoe's gone for good.
      • As far as Franziska was concerned (or willing to admit), Edgeworth was the assistant.
    • Toward the end of the "middle" segment of Case 5, Shih-na says that upon seeing Kay in I-3, and her using Little Thief, she recognized who she was, and had planned on arresting her for Coachen's killing so that she could confiscate Little Thief, which is another subtle long-term effect of Kay appearing in I-3.
  • In I-3--one of the big cusps of the case is that Edgeworth's blood being on the left side of the sword and that Edgeworth was hit from the right, meaning the assailant had to have been right-handed. But how does this discount a left-handed backhand swipe, which would've had the same results?
    • Not really because this would have still ended up being incriminating. Like Edgwworth says, the true culprit used his non-Domestic hand to make the attacker seem like someone else. If the killer had have used a left-handed backhand swipe then it would seem pretty strange seeing as how the killer had no reason to pull of such a complicated attack just to hit someone who had there back turn to them. Also, this means that it would have been more incriminating because, the true culprit, who was left-handed, would have been in more danger of getting found out. Therefor, the killer wouldn't have pulled of such a move and if they had have then it would still lead t o the same conclusion that was made.
  • Here's what confuses me: So in case 5, right at the climax of the middle section, Lang takes a bullet to the leg for Shih-na. Pretty badass. But what I want to know is, where the hell was Detective Badd aiming?! He was pointing the gun at Yew's back, and he was at close-range as well, so there's no way he could have missed her. How did the bullet manage to go through his leg, especially since she has longer legs than him (due to wearing high heels)?!
    • Maybe Badd was startled by Lang's sudden movement, enough to throw off his aim?
    • Also, looking at where everyone is standing during the scene in question, it's entirely possible that Lang bumped into Badd when he grabbed Sheena, which definitely would have thrown off his aim, and also might have caused Badd to fire by accident. After all, Badd was standing very close to Shih-na -- could Lang really have put Shih-na in that hold -- a hold, mind, that has her arm that's holding the gun sticking way out behind her, in Badd's general direction -- without getting in Badd's way? Unlikely.
  • During case 3, how come no one else seemed to be there? There were clearly people visiting the park, as evident when you're at the entrance and talking to Meekins, but how come there were no other people in both the Wild Wild West section AND the Haunted House? Surely someone else other than Kay would have stumbled across a tied-up Edgeworth, or been in the Haunted House at the time of the kidnapping and murder?
    • The Haunted House isn't easily explained (unless it was shut down for repairs or something); however, Edgeworth was not held prisoner in a place he could have easily been stumbled across. Remember that he was held in a room that is only supposed to be accessible by the park's staff, and after his rescue, he had to slide down a drainpipe. Only someone who was trying to go where they weren't supposed to go (like Kay) or a staff member (like one of the Badgers) would eventually have found Edgeworth where he was tied up.
      • I got the impression that the park was evacuated by Lang's goons. We just didn't see that.
  • Minor Nitpick: At the beginning of case 4, after Edgeworth gives the young Kay change for a dollar, she becomes available in the profile screen. Of course, since no name was given to him, she's simply labeled as "????". The problem is, it also has "???" listed for her gender! This is stupid for two reasons: It's odd that Edgeworth couldn't tell it was a girl (she had a schoolgirl uniform on), and the fact that her profile clearly says, "A LITTLE GIRL with a balloon.
    • Perhaps unnamed people are, by default, not given genders as well.
  • At one point in case 5, Ambassador Colias Palaeno mentions that Manny Coachen was concerned about something during the second fire, and hurried back to his office. Problem: It's later discovered that Coachen was dead as of the first fire, and was never alive and present for either fire at Babahl. It's possible, however, that Palaeno didn't actually see Coachen, but someone he thought was Coachen. After all, Palaeno did mention that he called after Coachen, but got no response. And of course he got blocked by the burning counterfeit bills, so he couldn't discover the truth. If this is so, who was it that Palaeno actually saw? Shih-na, perhaps?
    • He most likely saw Shih-na. It seems unlikely that Coachen wouldn't acknowledge him at all if he called after him. And Shih-na was headed in that direction around that time, after all.
  • Does anyone else find it rather disgusting that Alba's face CRACKS when he goes into his shocked face?
    • Yes, and then during the defeat animation, I was incredibly disturbed when it looked like his eyes disappeared/burst out of their sockets. Ugh.
    • Says you. I can see why that could be creepy, but I just thought it was really funny. Combining that with the ridiculous Scooby Doo Shout-Out ("I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling prosecutors!"), the end of that case was a bit Narmtastic.
  • Case 3. When the crime scene is thought to be the stage, a big deal is made of the weird positioning of the victim's gunshot wound on his body: this makes Edgeworth's reconstruction of the events perfectly plausible. However, after the crime scene is revealed to be elsewhere, the wound issue is never touched upon again.
    • I'm pretty sure it's because the killer fired at Deacon while Deacon was on top of him during their struggle, thus explaining the upward trajectory of the shot.
    • The point was, the position of the entry wounds was impossible due their standing on different levels, unless Devorae was doing a handstand of something. Since there was a struggle between him and Lance in the haunted house, the entry wound ceases to be noteworthy.
  • Final case: Who was in the elevator?
    • Shih-na, I believe, since it was too risky wandering around the embassy with Coachen's body.
    • I think it's said late in the debate with Alba, when you're trying to find out how Shih-na moved the body from Babahl's open-air stage to Coachen's office.
  • I-5 okay so Quercus Alba's blood just happens to land exactly on the little circle on the samurai dogs wrapping, and completely fills it up, and Oldbag just happens to steal that very samurai dog that proves Alba did it. My problem is that this is requires way to much suspension of disbelief and Contrived Coincdence to work.
    • The entire series works on Contrived Coincidence. After all, it just so happens that Kristoph just happened to have hired Apollo, the long lost son of Lamiroir, who happened to be involved in one of Apollo's cases, and happens to be the long-lost half brother of the girl Phoenix adopted, who was the daughter of the client in the case in which Kristoph had Phoenix stripped of his badge.
    • Not to mention, in the words of Phoenix Wright: "It may be almost impossible but almost impossible is not impossible." Yes it seems EXTREMELY unlikely that the blood would do this however one could argue to opposite: There is a change (a small change but still a change) that this could happen with some extreme luck. Saying that something that is "improbable" in a plot of a game is a plot hole is just not true considering how, there ARE coincidences just like this one that have happened many times in real life.
  • Case 3: It's nice that the game subverts the expectations that certain Genre Savvy players of Trials and Tribulations might have. (If that's being too generous, they at least avoid getting stale and predictable by obviously re-using the same character types with the same genders in the same plot.) It also seems fair that Edgeworth doesn't automatically assume that suspects , even (self-confessed) felons who committed a similar offense to a Complete Monster, are the same as a Complete Monster that they have a few things in common with. However, it still makes Edgeworth seem forgetful and maybe even naive that he is so unwilling to believe that a flirty 19-year old girl who can make sad eyes who was involved in a kidnapping/extortion plot and apparently betrayed her boyfriend would be capable of killing a member of her own family.
    • By the time Lang has officially suspected Lauren, Edgeworth has already found out there were three kidnappers, which not only raises the possibility of an additional suspect, but also raises the possibility of the kidnapping being staged by the "victim" like Case 3-4 was. It's thus entirely possible that by that point, he already knew Lance was the murderer.
  • Why was the Trump Card considered illegal evidence? It was said that it was on Coachen's person at the time of KG-8.
    • Because it hadn't been submitted as evidence in the first place for the KG-8 case. If memory serves, Badd mentions Prosecutor Faraday sitting on that one until the appropriate moment to take the entire smuggling ring down. I'll have to replay the case to double check that.
  • There is a point in the first AAI where it is suggests that Ambassador Alba traded away a real solid gold relic that was in his care so that he could get a fake hollow one. Edgeworth quite reasonably points out that this would make more sense for him to do in reverse and that, since it doesn't appear to make sense, there must be some kind of shady motive. The suspect asks, "can you prove that it doesn't make sense?" Everyone reacts as though this logic is extremely hard to beat.
  • The Primidux statue looks like it may have more volume than Kay's whole body. It has at least as much volume as both of Edgeworth's legs combined. If Edgeworth's weight is 160 lbs and his legs are 40% of that, his legs together weigh 64 pounds. The density of gold is about 19 times that of water, so that's about 1200 pounds for the statue. The statue almost certainly has a mass over 300 kilograms and weight over 700 pounds. It's probably over 1500 pounds. How could anyone move the thing, even just to the windowsill? It's not like Demasque II or Alba had a wheelbarrow. (Then again, Demasque II may have known he was after the fake.) Furthermore, how could anyone think that the real statue could be picked up and used as a murder weapon?
    • It isn't solid gold.
    • Maybe it's smaller than it looks.
  • Is there any fan-made diagram of how the statues were smuggled in the last case of AAI? I don't understand and can't visualize how it worked with the fans as pulleys.
    • The fans don't quite work as pulleys. It's more like they're used to create a makeshift treadmill. With that in mind, look at this image. Perhaps it'll help you understand better.
  • Edgeworth's behavior in I-4 seems inconsistent with his behavior in 3-4. Maybe he hasn't been working with Manfred at the prosecutor's office for very long yet (though he has known Manfred since childhood, apparently), but in I-4, Edgeworth repeatedly says that he doesn't approve of going outside the law to catch criminals. However, in case 3-4, he's basically an accomplice to perjury (a serious crime) when Dahlia testifies under a false name. True, he had several reasons, such as protecting the witness and getting her to agree to testify in the first place, but there's no way to deny that what he and Dahlia went outside the law in court in 3-4.
    • Edgeworth and Manfred are referring to people who can't be brought to court, like Ambassador Alba, and are stating their belief that their job is to get all people who are brought to court as defendants guilty (by any means necessary).

Manfred: (Byrne Faraday) once tried to explain to me a way of punishing "those who cannot be brought to court".
'Edgeworth: "Those who cannot be brought to court"... That IS nonsense, for no man is above the law.
Manfred: Well... there are always a few exceptions. However, there is no reason to even deal with such individuals. A prosecutor is a guardian of the court, with no obligation to outside matters.

  • Why does Edgeworth remember I-4 so clearly during I-5, but have only limited recollection of 3-4 during 3-5?
    • Perhaps he's treating it as a case that has yet to be closed, and is certain to remember as much as he can about it so that he can act when he's ready to continue it, similar to how Kay kept Yew's perfume bottle around with the fingerprints preserved.
    • Plus, it was supposed to be his actual first case. Maybe it stood out to him more since he was supposed to get to prosecute, but didn't actually get to.
  • I-5 question. Is Shih-Na on drugs? Or was she wearing colored contacts in I-4 or I-5? Her eye color is not the same between those two cases. For that matter, her freckles are gone.
    • What did you think all that makeup was for?
    • There's also that her hair is shorter(except for in front), and white instead of black. There was a fair amount of effort altering her appearance.
      • I figured Shih-na's hair was a wig the instant I made the connection. A couple of times it looks like it'll fall off too.
  • In the second case, it's a bit disappointing that Edgeworth didn't give Gumshoe the suitcase at the end (even if it would be a re-gift; Gumshoe was the only person who liked it, and how often does Gumshoe get to own expensive things?). However, the real fridge logic sets in when you realize that it was a huge ethics violation for Edgeworth to accept the suitcase in the first place. Imagine reading this in a newspaper: "A prosecutor accepted a $1200 gift from a murder suspect. They both admitted that she gave him the gift because he convinced the other investigators to arrest a different suspect instead of her."
  • Why did Colias Palaeno trust Manny Coachen so much? Sure, the fans completely trust Maggey Byrde even after she was charged with murder twice and accused a third time, but you'd think Palaeno would be at least a little hesitant to trust him so much after he was found not guilty in Cece Yew's murder as a result of a lack of evidence. He calls Coachen a good man and trusts him with all the embassy's printing equipment and fake statue management even though killing Cece Yew would imply ties to the smuggling ring and there is clear reason to think that someone at the embassy was involved with the ring even if it wasn't Coachen.
    • It's pretty in-character. "He was acquitted, so he's innocent, right?" He's an unsuspecting, pleasant but kind of ineffectual sort of guy, which made him exactly the kind of person Coachen would find it perfect to operate through. He's like the villainous version of the Hypercompetent Sidekick.
  • In case 4, how did the culprit get a gun? I'm not talking about the one that was in Faraday's evidence supply, I mean the other one that was used at the end. Don't these courthouses have security? In real life, you have to go through a metal detector to get into a courthouse.
    • The true culprit was an attorney so they probably brought it in under the guise of trial evidence.
  • Why doesn't anyone ever pat suspects down for weapons? In case 5, as soon as someone said "pwwhwh", one of my first thoughts was to check the person for weapons and take them away if present.
    • Shih-na presumably is authorized to carry a gun, and Lang, her superior, was unwilling to believe that she was The Mole until the final piece of evidence was presented.
      • Being authorized to carry a gun is no reason to let them carry it while they're under suspicion and being accused of things. They didn't pat down any suspects in case 1 until the end, didn't pat down any suspects in case 2 (though it was highly unlikely that the killer had a gun in that case), not sure about case 3, didn't pat down any suspects in case 4 (which would have been smart even though the murder weapons were apparently accounted for), and didn't pat down any suspects in case 5.
  • In I-3, at the very beginning, when Kay and Edgeworth are trapped in the room, there's a bunch of lockers in front of the windows. Kay tries to jump up and grab ahold of them, but they're too high up. My problem with this is: Why doesn't Edgeworth just let her stand on his shoulders, or his entwined hands? It looks like that would have been enough to get to the top of the lockers, and she could help him up from there.
    • Edgeworth might be a bit of a Neat Freak? Hey, he's got a nice suit, for crying out loud!
    • How would Kay have helped him up from there? She doesn't have a way of getting him up to the lockers, such as a ladder or rope, and she can't open the door to the kidnappers' meeting room from the outside because of the sword.
  • Regarding the second game, and Shigaraki's participation in the final trial... doesn't it seem like a breach of conduct for Shigaraki, otherwise an unambiguous good guy, to use his position as court-appointed defense attorney to actively aid the prosecution in convicting his client? Yes, I know she was guilty as hell and that Bansai was pulling out all the stops in order to get her acquitted, but that doesn't make it right. Further, when Mikagami calls him on it, he retorts that she was there and knows she's guilty too, her response is basically chalked up as a strawman argument she doesn't actually believe, since she's acting as a mother in fear for her son's life rather than a judge, but it turns into a case of Straw Man Has a Point for me. What business does he have acting as Miwa's attorney if he knows he can't bring himself to actually defend her? Is this whole business the reason why, elsewhere in the series, getting saddled with a court-appointed lawyer is treated as tantamount to a death sentence?
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