List of episode-specific game mechanics



The following is a complete list of game mechanics in the Ace Attorney series that are not universally relevant to all episodes in the series. This includes forensic investigation techniques that rely on the touchscreen of the Nintendo DS as well as techniques that simply did not carry over to every episode. The list includes game mechanics used during trials as well as in investigations.

Detection
In Farewell, My Turnabout and Bridge to the Turnabout, Phoenix Wright uses an electronic detection tool to find evidence in a presumed crime scene. This mode is similar to "Examine", but a gauge reading "CHECK" appears the the top of the screen and the letters light up in succession as the cursor is brought closer to metal (with the metal detector) or electric current (with the frequency detector), accompanied by appropriately pitched beeping sounds.

Frequency detector
In Farewell, My Turnabout, Dick Gumshoe gives Wright a frequency detector that he made as a kid. The frequency detector reacts to electric current; Wright uses this to sweep for bugs in Juan Corrida's hotel room and finds one on a large bear doll. The doll turns out to be from Matt Engarde; Wright confronts him and finds that he hired an assassin to kill Corrida.

Wendy Oldbag also uses the frequency detector to sweep for bugs at the Gatewater Hotel, at Miles Edgeworth's request. Edgeworth also uses it at Corrida's house to find spy cameras Engarde had sent to find out about Celeste Inpax's suicide note. In Rise from the Ashes, the frequency detector appears in the evidence room of the Los Angeles police department.

Metal detector
In Turnabout Goodbyes, Gumshoe offers Wright a metal detector, a police dog named Missile and a fishing pole to investigate the area around a boat caretaker's shack, but Wright can only have one at a time. Wright uses the metal detector to find an air tube from Larry Butz's Samurai Dogs stand. The same metal detector was also used in the trial to prove that a bullet was lodged in the shoulder of Manfred von Karma, which made von Karma confess to killing Gregory Edgeworth.

In Rise from the Ashes, the metal detector appears in the evidence room of the Los Angeles police department.

In Bridge to the Turnabout, Gumshoe gives Wright the metal detector again to look for clues in the back yard of Hazakura Temple, in which Elise Deauxnim's body was found. Deauxnim's cane was found to double as a sword, the blade concealed inside the cane.

Magatama

 * Main article: Magatama

In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations and Turnabout Succession, Phoenix Wright uses Maya Fey's magatama to see the presence of secrets in individuals as Psyche-Locks. He then undergoes a process in which he questions the witness until all of the locks are broken; the witness then gives in.

The magatama is a prominent part of Wright's investigations in the aforementioned games, but Justice does not use it.

Little Thief

 * Main article: Little Thief

Little Thief is a simulation device used to investigate a crime scene in detail by entering information such as data, people, places, weapons, and other objects related to the crime scene. Faraday uses this to investigate the stadium and the haunted house remotely in The Kidnapped Turnabout, as well as to re-create a crime scene that had been set on fire in Turnabout Ablaze.

Forensic investigation techniques
The following tools are used in Rise from the Ashes and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and require the use of the touchscreen (as well as the microphone in the case of the fingerprint powder). Tools common to Rise from the Ashes and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney generally see more extensive use in Rise from the Ashes.

Luminol and atroquinine indicator
In Rise from the Ashes and Turnabout Serenade, Ema Skye introduces the use of luminol for finding invisible blood on objects. Although in Turnabout Serenade the usage is very brief, in Rise from the Ashes it can be used in any location by selecting the luminol spray and pressing "X" or "Spray", and then using the stylus to spray on suspicious objects. The results can be comical as well as critical.

In Turnabout Succession, Apollo Justice and Phoenix Wright use an indicator for the lethal poison atroquinine; this operates almost identically with the usage of the luminol spray in Turnabout Serenade. The poison is found on various places in the victim's residence as well as an envelope that the victim sent.

Fingerprint powder
"Ema Skye"

- Just dust it on... And blow it off!



In Rise from the Ashes and Turnabout Corner, Skye introduces fingerprint powder. When the protagonist comes across an object with possibly important fingerprint evidence, a close-up of the area is seen and then the fingerprint dusting mode begins. The stylus is then used to dust an area of the touchscreen, which appears green with blue grid lines, with powder, and then the player blows into the microphone to blow off the powder. Powder in contact with oil from fingertip contact will stick, forming the fingerprint. The print is then compared with the fingerprint profiles of characters relevant to the case at hand.

In Rise from the Ashes, the player may choose a fingerprint to dust at one point.

Jar
In Rise from the Ashes, Wright must piece a jar back together to use it as evidence. Using the bottom piece as a reference, there are eight locations on which the eight pieces fit. Going through each location one by one, Wright must find the fragment that fits each location using the left and right buttons and turn the fragment to the correct orientation using the buttons to the sides of the display.

Later, a ninth and final piece is found in Damon Gant's safe.

Safes
In Rise from the Ashes and Turnabout Corner, the player must input a code into a safe to break into it. Gant's safe is cracked with his ID number, 7777777, and Pal Meraktis's safe is cracked by dusting for fingerprints on the buttons and entering the numbers in the correct order.

Gant's safe contains evidence from the SL-9 Incident that he kept as "insurance" in case his involvement in the incident threatened to be fully exposed. Phoenix Wright opens the safe and finds a piece of Neil Marshall's vest and the final piece of a jar that he was putting together. Both serve as crucial evidence in the trial of Lana Skye in the murder of Bruce Goodman.

Meraktis's safe contains patient information for Wocky Kitaki; in particular, the information includes the failure of Meraktis to remove a bullet from Kitaki's chest, which he claimed earlier had been a success. This would cause the events of Turnabout Corner to unfold. Alita Tiala confronts Meraktis, and Meraktis chokes her. Believing that he just killed her, he steals Guy Eldoon's noodle cart and goes to dump the body into a river, but Tiala wakes up and shoots Meraktis.

Footprint analysis
"Apollo Justice"

- (Plaster, here comes Justice! *sigh*)



In Turnabout Corner, Justice uses a footprint analysis kit to record footprints and shoe prints as evidence. He pours plaster into the print with the touchscreen (if he runs out of plaster, he must restart the process). Then, he uses a dryer to dry the plaster, aimed with the stylus. After that, the print is covered with ink with a roller, also aimed with the stylus, and then the cast is pressed onto paper to give an image of the print on the paper. The print is compared with known shoe prints of relevant characters.

Footprint analysis is used several times to find out who had been traveling on foot in People Park. As it rained on the day of the murder of Pal Meraktis, the ground had many shoe prints to analyze.

In one instance, footprint analysis is used to find a toe print. The print is suspected to belong to Alita Tiala, but since toe prints are not recorded, Justice must use other evidence to verify his suspicions.

X-Ray Analyzer
"Ema Skye"

- It has a real name, but it's much more complicated: the X-Ray Spectralization... something. How am I supposed to remember all that?

The X-Ray Analyzer is used in Turnabout Succession to look at the contents of letters without opening them. It features an X-ray display, a layer view display that shows the depth at which the machine is scanning for an image, and a dial that can be turned to change the depth of the layer view. The display is rubbed with the stylus to make displays on layers persist as the depth is changed, thereby allowing the user to be able to see the contents of a piece of paper in full. The rays used are cited to be at a wavelength of 0.05 microns.

Justice uses it on a lottery ticket; the result on the ticket depends on the extent of the player's use of the fast-forward function of the game, showing a win if the function was not used much and a loss otherwise.

Justice then uses the machine on letters addressed to the victim, and then he uses it on the victim's paintings to find that the victim has been following his career.

Bracelet

 * Main article: Bracelet

In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Apollo Justice uses his bracelet in the courtroom to aid him in seeing nervous habits that witnesses do when they hide information. Justice focuses on a suspicious part of a testimony and then looks for the nervous habit.

Phoenix Wright cannot use the bracelet.

Videotape
In Rise from the Ashes and Turnabout Serenade, a video is presented as evidence, and the protagonist must pinpoint instances in the video that show critical events to prove his point. The video is played, paused, rewound and put on fast-forward with the buttons on the touchscreen, and then the location of the event of interest is selected with the stylus.

Each video proves several of the protagonist's points about how each crime happened.

Audio mixer
In Turnabout Serenade, Justice uses an audio mixer to search for peculiarities in two song performances during a Gavinners concert. First, he searches for a mistake that occurred during a performance of Guilty Love that has Klavier Gavin upset. Later, in court, he searches for the sound of the gunshot that led to the death of Romein LeTouse during the performance of The Guitar's Serenade.

The mixer has five channels, each of which records a different performer. Each channel's volume can be adjusted by dragging the respective slider. Like the videotape, there are buttons on the touchscreen for playing, pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding. Each song is divided into four sections and Justice must set the video to the correct section and select the channel that contains the sound of interest.

The latter instance invalidates the alibi of one of the band members.

Jury

 * Main article: Jurist System

At the end of Turnabout Succession, the six-panel jury decides the verdict. The player takes control of Jurist No. 6 and either presses the buttons with the stylus or presses left for "Not Guilty", right for "Guilty" and "X" to confirm.