Phoenix Wright


 * You may be looking for the game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or the Ace Attorney series.



Phoenix Wright was a renowned defense attorney who was famous for turning hopeless cases around, getting the defendant found innocent as well as finding the real killer. His badge number was 26381. He handled at least 16 cases in his career; out of these, he lost once and his last case was postponed due to the defendant's disappearance. Wright's last trial saw him unknowingly present forged evidence, and thus he was disbarred.

Phoenix Wright has since become a piano player and poker player at the Borscht Bowl Club. As a poker player, he is undefeated, and he considers himself a professional. Wright is still involved in law, being instrumental in re-introducing the Jurist System into California law.

Early life
Phoenix Wright grew up as an only child. At one point in his life, Wright broke into a cattle ranch and tipped some cows.

During fourth grade, Wright was in the same class as Miles Edgeworth and Larry Butz. One day, Wright was accused of stealing Edgeworth's lunch money. Due to a lack of an alibi, everyone assumed Wright was the culprit, but Butz and Edgeworth came to his defense, Edgeworth asserting that he could not be proven guilty without evidence (it was revealed much later that, even though he was not in school that day, Butz was in fact the one who stole the money). At the time, Edgeworth took strongly after his famous father Gregory Edgeworth, a legendary defense attorney. This event would be a powerful inspiration for Wright during his legal career.

After the DL-6 Incident, which resulted in his father's death, Edgeworth transferred schools and moved out of town.

University years
Wright studied art and law at Ivy University. During his time there, he saw a story in a newspaper with the headline "Dark Suspicions of a Demon Attorney". The article said that prosecutor Miles Edgeworth was suspected of tampering with witnesses and fabricating evidence. Edgeworth had become a ruthless prosecutor, unrecognizable from the Edgeworth that Wright knew from his childhood. Wright attempted to contact him, but he was ignored. Wright decided that if he became an attorney, Edgeworth would have to meet him sooner or later in court, and then Wright could save him from his problems.

In his third year, Wright was framed for the murder of Doug Swallow, who had been a former lover of his girlfriend Dahlia Hawthorne. Wright's lawyer was Mia Fey, a rookie at the time who had not taken a case since her first a year before. Fey exposed Hawthorne as the true killer, which Wright found hard to believe. Hawthorne would later be convicted and sentenced to death.

Fey's defense of Wright inspired Wright to pursue law full-time.

Law career
"Phoenix Wright"

- My past is like my logic, straight and true. Nothing's changed. All I did was point the finger of justice in the proper direction.

Earlier cases: 2016-early 2017

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"Judge"

- Mr. Wright. You are truly the most unpredictable defense attorney I've ever known.

After receiving his law degree, Wright became a pupil of Mia Fey and a member of Fey & Co. Law Offices. In his first case, he successfully defended his childhood friend, Larry Butz. When Mia was murdered, her sister Maya Fey was put on trial, and Wright finally met Edgeworth in the ensuing courtroom battle; Wright bested Edgeworth in Edgeworth's first loss ever. Wright then inherited Mia's firm, renaming it to Wright & Co. Law Offices, and took on Maya Fey as an assistant.

Wright then took Edgeworth on again in another case, in which television star Will Powers was accused of murder. He found Powers innocent in his third consecutive win, although this time it was with Edgeworth's help that the true killer was found.

Wright then found himself defending his rival in the murder of defense attorney Robert Hammond. The prosecutor was Edgeworth's mentor and adoptive father Manfred von Karma, who would do absolutely anything to maintain his 40-year perfect record. Wright's investigation of the murder uncovered the whole story behind the unsolved DL-6 Incident, which had resulted in the death of Edgeworth's father. It would turn out that von Karma was the killer in the DL-6 Incident, and that von Karma had instigated Hammond's murder as well.

After this last case, Maya felt she was now a burden and left to train to improve her spirit medium abilities. Wright stopped taking cases after Maya left until Ema Skye came into his office looking for help, as her sister had been accused of murder. With Ema's forensic science tools such as fingerprint dusting and luminol testing fluid, Wright was able to uncover the truth behind not only the murder but the events that had led to it two years ago in the SL-9 Incident.

2017-early 2018

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All

2018-2019

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations





One month before his disbarment, Wright, Maya and Pearl went on a trip to Gatewater Land and whilst there, they all went on a ride on a row boat together. Unbeknownst to the trio, Edgeworth was also in Gaterwater Land, although he was there on business.

During his investigation into an international smuggling ring, Edgeworth would occasionally refer to Wright, but never by name. Instead he is mentioned in a vague way ("him", "the man in the blue suit", and so on).

Disbarment

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

In April of 2019, Zak Gramarye, a famous magician at the time, called Wright to his detention cell. Gramarye challenged him to a game of poker, which Wright won. Gramarye then asked Wright to be his lawyer, as he was suspected of having killed his master, Magnifi Gramarye. He had just recently fired his previous lawyer, and the trial was to occur the next morning, but Wright reluctantly agreed to take the case.

The next day in court, Zak Gramarye's daughter Trucy gave Wright a piece of paper that seemed to have been ripped out of a journal. He took it into court with him, where he faced a young Klavier Gavin. Wright was able to show that Zak's stage partner Valant Gramarye had the opportunity and motive to kill Magnifi. In the end, Gavin presented Magnifi's journal, which had a page ripped out. Wright presented the page that Trucy had given him, as it seemed to be the missing page, but Gavin declared that the evidence was fraudulent, calling a forger to the stand who confirmed that he made the page. The trial abruptly ended soon after.

When Zak took the stand to receive his sentence, he disappeared into thin air, and no verdict was ever given.

Wright was then put before a hearing conducted by the other lawyers in his field. It was determined that he was responsible for the forgery and all of them except Kristoph Gavin voted for Wright's disbarment. Even after losing his badge, however, it was apparent that the judge and those involved with the law still carried him in somewhat high esteem.

Post-disbarment

 * Main article: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Two weeks after the Gramarye trial, Wright took in Zak's abandoned daughter Trucy and raised her as his own. He also made friends with Kristoph Gavin, and the two of them met often over the next seven years. Wright had a sneaking suspicion that Kristoph was somehow related to the forged evidence, but having no proof at the time, he continued his investigation, confirming among other things that Kristoph had requested the forgery.

In the years that followed, Phoenix Wright was hired as a poker champion at the Borscht Bowl Club posing as a piano player. This was purely for the competition, however; his main source of income was Trucy's magic shows. He learned that Trucy could read subtle body language and used her in his poker games to beat all of his opponents.

Finally, the time came seven years later in which Zak Gramarye reappeared to Wright, posing as "Shadi Smith". Wright questioned Zak about his intentions and about the Gramarye family, learning that Kristoph's new student Apollo Justice was Magnifi's grandson. Magnifi and his descendants had the power to read subtle body language, and Justice has a bracelet that allowed him to use this ability much more easily. Wright decided to use him to come to the truth about his last case. In addition, Zak wrote a letter confessing to Magnifi's death (though he had not actually done it) and handed Wright a will passing on the legal rights to Magnifi's magic tricks to Trucy.

Kristoph Gavin's downfall

 * Main article: Turnabout Trump

Zak challenged Wright to a poker game. Zak cooperated with the dealer, Olga Orly, whom he had planted earlier, to plant extra cards on Wright to make him look like a cheater, but by sheer luck, Wright came across the card planted on his person and stowed it away. Furious at the failed trap, Zak hit Orly with a bottle, knocking her out. Wright moved upstairs to call the police. When he came back down, Zak was dead.

Wright called Kristoph Gavin to defend him, but Kristoph let slip Zak's baldness under his hat, which he couldn't have known about. Wright replaced Zak's hat on Zak's head, put a drop of Zak's blood on an ace of spades, and left to call the police. He was arrested on suspicion of Shadi Smith's murder.

Wright surprised Kristoph by hiring his student Apollo Justice as his lawyer. The judge recognized Wright, but Wright insisted that the past not be discussed for the moment. With Justice at the helm of the defense team, Wright was able to convince him that the case wasn't as clear-cut as Kristoph was trying to make it out to be. Orly, the sole witness, didn't kill Shadi Smith; someone else did. With the help of Justice's power to "perceive" Orly's nervous twitches to expose Kristoph as the real killer.

Wright even had enough influence in the judicial system to bring about a change in it, bringing about the Jurist System.

Personality
Phoenix Wright is generally quite easy-going in his outlook. His relaxed attitude usually leads to his hyperactive friends leading him around or taking advantage of his good nature, usually by making him foot the bill of large celebratory meals. Wright has repeatedly shown himself to be a loyal friend who refuses to back down once his mind is made up. He has somewhat of a sarcastic side that he usually keeps to himself. This tends to manifest itself when dealing with the eccentric characters he comes across (including his friends).

In his university years, Phoenix Wright was somewhat of a crybaby and a little childish. For example, he burst into tears when his lawyer Mia Fey got mad at him for lying in his testimony. His naïvety manifested itself mostly in his relationship with Dahlia Hawthorne. Nonetheless, he is often considered the most mature out of all of his friends.

When he was a lawyer, Wright was dedicated to defending his innocent clients, and followed his mentor's advice of believing in his clients. However, even after he built up a respectable reputation for himself, Wright still depended on his former boss and mentor, Mia Fey, for advice. At one point, Wright's morals were challenged when he was forced to choose between defending a guilty client to save Maya Fey, or letting her die to see justice done.

Wright has become even more laid-back and less serious since his disbarment and has a habit of telling (mostly bad) jokes and giving cryptic advice, which at times irritates his student Apollo Justice. His actions and speech give off the vibe of the "old man" archetype in literature, in which one person seems to know all that is, was or will be. Although he is apparently a professional pianist, he is awful on the piano and refuses to take requests. He has also developed a great liking for grape juice and drinks it near constantly.

His morals seem to be far more flexible since his disbarment, shown in his use of forged evidence in the Shadi Smith murder trial. This could be due to a 'devil-may-care' attitude, as most people think he is a sham anyway and so he has given up on caring what they think of him. However, he still deeply cares about those close to him and views Trucy as his own daughter. He is also still in contact with old friends such as Ema Skye and Maya Fey. Wright has kept his desire to find the truth from his time as a lawyer.

Phoenix Wright does not have a car or, in fact, even a driver's license. Taxis seem to be his main mode of transport, as he traveled between the prosecutor's office and the police department by taxi. He has claimed that he watches Kid's Masterpiece Theater every Sunday. Although he has repeatedly professed indifference towards the Steel Samurai, Wright's mobile phone ringtone is the Steel Samurai theme tune. He also seems to be somewhat knowledgeable of the franchise in general. Wright is also afraid of heights.

Reputation and legacy
"Apollo Justice"

- Pianist at the Borscht Bowl Club. Formerly an ace defense attorney of some renown.

Wright was well-known for his bluffing tactics and his unwavering determination in the courtroom, both of which he inherited from Mia Fey. Wright would stubbornly cling onto anything that could help his case, whether it be an inconsistency between the evidence and the claims of the prosecution and the witness, or a seemingly insignificant clue. Wright would often not know where his logic was going, and would make a story up and back it up with evidence or logic as requested as he went along. Nonetheless, depending on how much attention he paid to the court record, his version of the murder would almost always turn out to be true eventually. Wright has also occasionally tricked witnesses into implicating themselves for the crime in question. Wright was also known for the clever lines he delivered while making his stand, though one was stolen off of Mia Fey.

Such tactics have, however, given Wright somewhat of a bad reputation among some of his enemies such as Kristoph Gavin and Furio Tigre. Gavin has gone so far as to call Wright "a second-rate attorney". Nonetheless, in general he was renowned for winning seemingly unwinnable cases. Wright's disbarment tarnished this reputation, with the media being quick to call him a "crooked attorney", but regardless, he and even his law firm have been referred to as "legendary". The judicial system was apparently forgiving enough to allow Wright to head the Jurist System Simulated Court Committee, even giving him the power to choose the case, the jurors and the defense attorney.

The Wright Way Lunch
Angel Starr has named one of her lunches in honor of Wright called the "Wright Way Lunch". Apparently, the top tastes as bitter as defeat but the bottom is as sweet as victory; Starr has suggested not to eat it from the bottom up. According to Starr, it's popular with kids around exam time due to its turnabout theme. This is a reference both to the general naming of the cases and how Wright's trials usually progress.

Name

 * His English first name is a reference to the phoenix, known for reviving itself from the dead; he is famous for his almost impossible comebacks during trials.


 * His Japanese surname, "Naruhodou" (成歩堂), is a reference toward the Japanese expression "naruhodo", which equates to the English "yes, I see" or "is that so?".


 * His English surname is likely meant to have a similar effect to his Japanese surname (with lines such as "Isn't that right, Wright?").


 * His Japanese given name, "Ryuuichi" (龍一), initially had no particular significance until Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations introduced a man named Furio Tigre (芝九蔵 虎之助 Shibakuzō Toranosuke in Japanese) — Ryuuichi alludes to the dragon, while Toranosuke alludes to the tiger, which are said to be natural enemies. This is referenced in-game by Tigre's jacket design, which has the image of a tiger biting down on a dragon.


 * His nickname "Nick" is simply a shortened form of "Phoenix".

Development

 * During production, the name "Souka Naruhodou" (which translates to "Oh, yes, I see now") was suggested, but quickly dismissed. It was decided to settle for just "Naruhodou".


 * In the original art, Wright has brown eyes as he does in-game. However, in the official art created for the DS release, he has blue eyes.


 * Shu Takumi has speculated that the reason Wright was studying art at college was to become a Shakespearean actor. The character artist Kumiko Suekane, however, prefers to think that Wright was studying to become a manga artist.


 * Wright was designed to be the player's avatar and so made him easy to relate to and gave him his "spiky hairstyle" to give him a unique look. The hairstyle also served to give Wright a distinctive silhouette, which Shu Takumi would repeat with Sissel, the main character of Ghost Trick.


 * His hair is not as spiky as a college student as it is later on. This difference was to add distinction between the stages of Wright's life.

Other media

 * Near the end of the episode "Remote Island Syndrome Part 2" of the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the mannerisms of a few of the characters mirror those of the sprites of some Ace Attorney characters. The scene in question is when Haruhi confronts the other characters with the truth of a "murder" that had taken place.  Haruhi performs a number of actions that are identical to those Wright performs in-game.  The most obvious reference however, is when she is making her final statement which consists of an extreme close up (with a blue dramatic background) immediately followed by Wright's iconic finger point.  The scene can be viewed here.


 * Phoenix Wright was originally supposed to be a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. However, Wright had only one notable move, Objection! In-game, the attack would create the Objection! speech bubble, which would attack opponents. The main reason Wright was ultimately cut was that localization would enlarge the Objection! attack, going from four to ten characters, making the move impossible to avoid. Producer Ryota Niitsuma has expressed a desire to implement Wright into future Capcom fighting games.