What's Next for Ace Attorney?

HOLD IT! This post contains major spoilers, particularly for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice. If you haven't played those games, look away now; spoilers are unmarked!

In recent times, it seems like the Ace Attorney series has been steadily gaining popularity, especially in Japan. The series received an anime and has had a new game in Japan for the past three years (Dai Gyakuten Saiban in 2015, Spirit of Justice in 2016 and Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 this year). Sadly, Capcom has failed to localise the Dai Gyakuten Saiban games (although I'm living in hope that it'll happen one day), but their English Spirit of Justice marketing was perhaps the best the series has ever seen, with a localisation announcement from day one and constant updates, videos and social media coverage.

Whilst we might not get the spin-off games in English any time soon, I think it's natural to assume we're all but guaranteed a localisation of the next main series game. But what could that next game be about? If you've played Spirit of Justice (and, if you're reading this post, you should have), the ending of that game features a couple of talking points.

For starters, the main point is that Apollo chose to stay behind in Khura'in to start up his own law offices to tackle the wave of unsolved cases. He did say he'd return to America after a while, but when could that be? Well, it's possible the next game in the series could cover his trials and tribulations (ahem) in Khura'in. It'd be nice to see Apollo and Nahyuta working together to find the truth. Or, perhaps, a new prosecutor could be introduced to face Apollo, giving him a whole set of new challenges to overcome in his search for the truth. Perhaps Capcom would want to add a new defence lawyer to the mix and someone could join Apollo's law offices? Or maybe we could even see some returning faces, such as Klavier, return to help or hinder Apollo. In fact, in terms of Klavier, some much needed character development wouldn't go amiss.

Speaking of returning characters, that brings us nicely to the next point Spirit of Justice leaves for us; Lamiroir, aka Thalassa Gramarye. In the final scene of the game, we see Phoenix Wright speaking with Thalassa, discussing when and how to tell Apollo and Trucy that Thalassa is their mother. This leaves us with a fairly open-ended sequel hook. If you combine everything I've mentioned so far, it seems like the logical next step for the series would be an Apollo Justice 2; a game centred on Apollo with Phoenix and Athena taking more of a backseat than the previous two games.

We could see Apollo take on a handful of cases in Khura'in throughout the game, perhaps with Nahyuta as the prosecution, or a new face altogether. It'd be nice to see some characters from Apollo's story return; Klavier would be a personal favourite choice of mine. Perhaps Klavier could visit Apollo in Khura'in at some point and wind up being arrested for a crime (we all know that when a character gets arrested for something is when Capcom likes giving them some much needed backstory or character development), resulting in Apollo taking his case. At some point, Phoenix and Thalassa would be involved, culminating in the reveal that Trucy and Apollo are related.

But at risk of sounding like a fanfiction, those are just some ideas I have for the future of the series, logically based on Spirit of Justice and the series as a whole. That said, Capcom isn't necessarily the most logical company when it comes to Ace Attorney. Perhaps they'll take a completely different direction; perhaps we won't see Apollo much at all in the next game.

Athena Cykes was severely underused in Spirit of Justice. Sure, she had one case (albeit filler) and a few Mood Matrix uses, but we got essentially no character development or plot points regarding her. Of course, we got a lot of her backstory in Dual Destinies, but it'd be nice to see her growing and improving as a lawyer. Perhaps the next game will revolve around her instead of Phoenix or Apollo; it'd be nice to get to see her grow and face a new prosecutor who she overcomes on her own. Maybe we'd even see Blackquill as a prosecutor again, and together with Athena would take on a miscellany of new cases, culminating in some big reveal or plot point.

That said, Capcom might not want to make a new game in the series that focuses on one attorney. It's entirely plausible that we'll see another Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice style game, in which we play as Phoenix and Athena back in America whilst Apollo tackles cases in Khura'in. They could even introduce another playable lawyer (although I highly doubt this). Maya might make more of an appearance, and we could see her and Phoenix solve some crimes like in the original trilogy. It might even be set a little in the future, after Apollo has returned to America, ready to take on some new cases there.

Development blogs for Spirit of Justice revealed that before the game was set in Khura'in, developers were toying with the idea of an "underground court – one that would deal with cases no normal court would dare take on because they involved the seedy underbelly of society" ⁽¹⁾. Perhaps they'll return to this idea for the next game? I think it'd certainly make for an interesting game.

All in all, I for one am definitely looking forward to seeing what's next for Ace Attorney. I've given some of my ideas; I hope you've enjoyed reading them. What are some of your thoughts or ideas for the future of the series? Leave a comment below or come and talk to me on Twitter!

Sources: ⁽¹⁾ Capcom Unity