Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (逆転裁判 ６, Gyakuten Saiban 6; lit. "Turnabout Trial 6") is the sixth installment of the Gyakuten Saiban series, and the tenth installment overall in the Ace Attorney series of text adventure video games. It was announced in Famitsu on September 1, 2015 as a title for the Nintendo 3DS, with Motohide Eshiro as producer and Takeshi Yamazaki and Takuro Fuse as co-directors. It was confirmed shortly after the Japanese announcement that the game was in development for a Western release.

Setting
Unlike previous games in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice takes place in two different settings. In the Far Eastern kingdom of Khura'in, Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey come into conflict with a court system that has done away with attorneys and instead uses séance visions from a "Pool of Souls" to determine guilt.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes remain at the Wright Anything Agency to take on cases, only for a crisis to loom over them...

Anime prologue synopsis
In March 2016, as part of a Twitter campaign, an 8-minute anime video was released appearing to depict events shortly prior to those in the game. An English dubbed version of the video was shown at Anime Expo in early July 2016 before being uploaded to official YouTube channels on August 25.

Located at the western edge of the Far East, Khura'in is a kingdom of spirit mediums, with a religion centered around its founder, the Holy Mother. Its court system has undergone a drastic shift due to a mass persecution of lawyers under the Defense Culpability Act. To pass judgment, the High Court of Khura'in relies on "Divination Séances", which consists of a mystic ceremony involving a "Dance of Devotion" and a "Song of Ceremony", which conjures images in a "Pool of Souls", revealing what murder victims saw and felt shortly before being killed. Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi leads a police force that works to capture and silence the remnants of the attorneys who have eluded punishment. These remnants object to a court that only produces guilty verdicts and allows no room for rebuttal.

Meanwhile, in a land whose lawyers do not fear persecution, Phoenix Wright and Athena Cykes argue their client's case in court against Prosecutor Simon Blackquill. After the trial is adjourned, they join Apollo Justice and talk about Maya Fey, who is visiting Khura'in for spirit medium training. In her training sessions, Fey is assisted by a local boy named Ahlbi Ur'gaid. Commenting on her role as the upcoming Master of Kurain Village, he compares her to Rayfa Padma Khura'in, the royal priestess, who conducts the Divination Séances and interprets the resulting visions.

Later, Fey calls Wright on her cellphone, but their conversation is interrupted when a Khura'inese attorney with a knife grabs and holds her hostage to ward off his pursuers. In the process, she screams and drops her phone, breaking it. Nahyuta Sahdmadhi incapacitates the attacker, however, and leaves with his target. Unaware of this rescue, Wright immediately decides to hurry to Khura'in to make sure that she is all right. Meanwhile, a man overlooking a graveyard of Khura'inese attorneys heralds the arrival of a phoenix, and with him, "the flames of purification and change."

Episodes
Six full-length episodes (five in the main game, one as DLC) as well as two shorter non-canon bonus episodes are available in the game. This is the first game in the main Ace Attorney series since Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney to have all episodes unlocked in chronological order. All of these are accessed from the "Episode Select" menu rather than being in a separate menu as was the case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.
 * The Foreign Turnabout - After his arrival in Khura'in, Phoenix Wright decides to go sightseeing with Ahlbi Ur'gaid, a monk-in training who works as a tour guide. During that time, the Founder's Orb is stolen from Khura'in's Tehm'pul Temple, resulting in the murder of a temple guard. Ur'gaid is arrested for these crimes, so Wright goes to watch the trial. Upon learning that the country's courtroom has no defense attorneys, and instead relies on séances to render its verdicts, he raises an objection and springs into action as Ur'gaid's defense attorney (with permission from the presiding judge).
 * The Magical Turnabout - During a rehearsal of Trucy Wright's upcoming magic show, Trucy in Gramarye-Land, at Penrose Theater, one of the performers turns up dead, followed by part of the stage collapsing moments later. Trucy is held responsible, but Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes take her case to court, facing off against the international prosecutor from the Kingdom of Khura'in, Nahyuta Sahdmadhi.
 * The Rite of Turnabout - As Maya Fey is completing one of her final training rites, the priest conducting the session is found dead. Since Fey is the only one who was with the priest at the time and wearing a ceremonial outfit that matched the killer's description, she is charged with the murder. Nahyuta Sahdmadhi returns to Khura'in along with forensic detective Ema Skye to try the case in the Khura'inese courts, while Phoenix Wright steps up to defend his friend yet again.
 * Turnabout Storyteller - Athena Cykes takes on the case of Bucky Whet, a soba shop worker accused of murdering rakugo master Taifu Toneido, at Simon Blackquill's request. However, with Apollo and Trucy occupied and Wright out of the country, she faces off alone against Prosecutor Sahdmadhi. Blackquill is called as a witness in this trial, but soon moves to the defense's bench as Cykes's co-counsel (despite being a prosecutor) after finding the witness stand boring.
 * Turnabout Revolution - A dispute over a piece of evidence leads to Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes facing Phoenix Wright on opposite sides of a courtroom in a civil trial. This scenario was first hinted at in the last preview trailer for Spirit of Justice. Following this, the members of the Wright Anything Agency and Miles Edgeworth travel to Khura'in, where rebellious citizens are attacking. Inga Karukul Khura'in, the country's Minister of Justice, is found dead. Dhurke Sahdmadhi is accused of his murder, and his trial is held with Wright and Justice at the defense's bench against the queen, Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in.
 * Turnabout Time Traveler - Downloadable episode that chronologically takes place after the other episodes in the game. The case revolves around Ellen Wyatt, a maid who claims that she was attacked just after her wedding, then traveled back in time to the moment of the attack. Ironically, she now finds herself accused of the attack. Larry Butz returns in this episode, claiming to be Wyatt's husband-to-be, even though she is married to a mechanic named Sorin Sprocket. Miles Edgeworth takes the prosecutor's bench and Maya Fey stands as Wright's co-counsel, for the first time since Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
 * Ace Attorney Theater - Two downloadable short scenarios that serve as non-canonical "what-ifs".
 * Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney - A terrorist disguised as a guard barges into the High Court of Khura'in and demands Rayfa as a hostage. To stall for time, Pearl Fey claims she is Rayfa. Ur'gaid, who is acting as Pearl's guide in Khura'in, cannot afford to have one of his customers getting taken away by terrorists, as it would be bad for business, so he insists she is not Rayfa. Wright plays along with Pearl and tries to prove she is indeed Rayfa.
 * Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney - Apollo Justice is accompanied by Rayfa upon his return to the United States. Rayfa wants to look around the country since it's her first time there and Klavier Gavin has to escort both of them. But when Gavin calls the Khura'in Minister of Justice to ask about her staying an extra day, he is denied, preventing her from sightseeing. In retaliation, Rayfa heads into the courtroom and explains what she would like to see in the country. During the trial, Justice video-calls Athena Cykes and Jinxie Tenma at Nine-Tails Vale, and later calls Trucy Wright at Penrose Theater, pointing out various places during them.

Main characters

 * Phoenix Wright - Noteworthy veteran Los Angeles defense attorney and the senior practicing attorney of the Wright Anything Agency, well-known for his ability to pull off impossible comebacks in court. He is drawn into the Khura'inese court system during a visit to check on Maya Fey, his friend and former assistant. The end of the final trailer for the game showed him facing Apollo Justice in a Los Angeles courtroom.
 * Apollo Justice - A defense attorney who has been practicing at the Wright Anything Agency under Phoenix Wright for two years. With his boss abroad, it is up to him to take care of incoming cases at home. He possesses a genetic ability, augmented with a special bracelet, to sense nervous tics in others, which he uses to perceive if someone is lying. The first trailer depicted him facing Nahyuta Sahdmadhi in a Khura'inese courtroom.
 * Athena Cykes - An energetic rookie attorney who joined the Wright Anything Agency the previous year. Like Apollo Justice, she helps by taking incoming cases while Wright is away, as well as assisting Justice in his investigations. She has a specialization in both law and analytical psychology, which she combines in order to better understand witness testimony and identify abnormalities in emotional states, relying on her advanced hearing and a special program called the Mood Matrix on her personal AI companion, Widget.
 * Rayfa Padma Khura'in - The royal priestess of Khura'in. She performs the Divination Séance, a ritual that uses a "Pool of Souls" to reveal what a murder victim saw and felt with the five traditional senses before their demise.
 * Maya Fey - A spirit medium of the Kurain Channeling Technique and upcoming leader of Kurain Village, who is training in Khura'in. She was previously Phoenix Wright's assistant and co-counsel, as well as his client in two previous cases. Wright rushes to Khura'in after hearing Fey scream when she drops her phone during a conversation between the pair.
 * Nahyuta Sahdmadhi - An international prosecutor and respected monk from Khura'in who has a soft demeanor that hides a sharp tongue. He believes that convicting criminals in court will provide salvation for their victims. He is also in charge of the persecution of the remaining attorneys in Khura'in, who are fighting against what they see as a corrupt judicial system. He was first shown briefly at the end of the extended 2015 Tokyo Game Show trailer as a silhouetted individual holding a purple butterfly. Said trailer showed Apollo Justice facing (and seeming to recognize) the mysterious character in a Khura'inese courtroom.
 * Ema Skye - A snackoo-obsessed forensic scientist who has previously appeared in several games in the series, using her strong interest in forensic science to assist various Ace Attorney protagonists in solving crimes. In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, she was hired by the Criminal Affairs Department as a homicide detective, much to her irritation, but since then she has managed to obtain a position as in forensics, as she had originally envisioned. First reintroduced in The Magical Turnabout, she plays a similar role to what she played in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Prior to the Famitsu article revealing details of this episode, Skye's appearance in the game was hinted at when a tiny sprite of her was shown to appear on the postcards that come with the "limited goods set" of Ace Attorney 6.

Other main story characters
Recurring:
 * Ahlbi Ur'gaid - A monk-in-training who works as a tour guide. Once he starts one of his tour monologues, there is no stopping him. In the first episode, Wright defends him in court on charges of murder.
 * Shah'do - Ur'gaid's pet dog.
 * Trucy Wright - Phoenix Wright's adopted daughter and heir to the performance rights of Troupe Gramarye. A stage magician and high school student working out of the Wright Anything Agency, she has sometimes accompanied the Agency's attorneys on investigations and acted as co-counsel to Justice in addition to her stage career. In The Magical Turnabout, a death occurs during a show, placing her under suspicion. In Turnabout Revolution, she travels with Justice and Dhurke to Kurain Village, and later to the Kingdom of Khura'in. Prior to the Famitsu article revealing details of The Magical Turnabout,  posters of her could be seen in in-game screenshots from that case.
 * Inga Karkhuul Khura'in - The current Minister of Justice for the Kingdom of Khura'in. Married to Queen Garan Sigatar Khura'in.
 * Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in - The current queen of the Kingdom of Khura'in.
 * Dhurke Sahdmadhi - The leader of the defense attorney resistance group known as the "Defiant Dragons".
 * Amara Sigatar Khura'in - The former queen of Khura'in. She disguised herself as Rayfa Padma Khura'in's personal aide Nayna.
 * Khura'inese judge - A man similar in appearance to the judge who normally presides over Wright's cases, albeit with different attire and a beard that ends in two braids.
 * The recurring unnamed judge who presides over the cases that take place in the United States.
 * A bailiff in Khura'in who wears a khaki uniform with a purple headband and carries a rifle.

The Foreign Turnabout:
 * Gaspen Payne - A prosecutor and self-proclaimed "Rookie Humiliator" who appears in a Khura'inese courtroom wearing a yellow suit, a gold crown, and a sash. Having been chased out of the prosecutor's office of Los Angeles at the end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, he has made a reputation in the attorney-less Khura'in as an "undefeated prosecutor", and has ultimately risen to the rank of Chief Prosecutor there.
 * Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin - The head monk of Tehm'pul Temple, he performs the Song of Ceremony on a Khura'inese instrument called a "dahmalan". A witness in Ahlbi Ur'gaid's trial.
 * Paht Rohl - A treasure guard whom Ur'gaid is accused of murdering.

The Magical Turnabout:
 * Bonny de Famme - A rookie magician at the Penrose Theater working under Trucy. She is a witness to the case, with both Justice's bracelet and Cykes' Mood Matrix being used on her.
 * Betty de Famme - Bonny's much more aggressive twin sister, and witness to the case.
 * Roger Retinz - A producer for Take-2 TV who is looking to do a special broadcast of Trucy's latest show, Trucy in Gramarye-Land. Also known as the "Ratings Rajah".
 * Manov Mistree - A co-performer of Trucy's, under the name Mr. Reus, whose dead body appears during a performance of her show.

The Rite of Turnabout:
 * Tahrust Inmee - A Khura'in priest who is found dead during Maya Fey's final training rite.
 * Rheel Neh'mu - A government spy who is found dead on the first day of trial. He went under the alias Puhray Zeh'lot before his death.
 * Datz Are'bal - An revolutionary who escaped from prison around the time of Tahrust Inmee's death. He later disguised himself as A'nohn Ihmus TBD, a man with amnesia.
 * Beh'leeb Inmee - The widow of Tahrust Inmee.

Turnabout Storyteller:
 * Simon Blackquill - The rival prosecutor from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, who testifies and then serves as Athena's co-counsel. He is known for his dark and somewhat mischievous sense of humor as well as his use of psychological manipulation in court via flattery, suggestive persuasion, and implicit death threats. Having been on death row for seven years after being wrongfully accused and imprisoned for the UR-1 Incident, he was cleared of all charges in the previous game due to the efforts of Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes. Prior to the game's release, he appeared during the anime prologue video, where he faces Wright and Cykes in court, as well as in [[Media:Ace Attorney 6 - Key Visual.png|key visual art for the game]].
 * Taifu Toneido - The victim and a rakugo master. He worked closely with Whet, and Geiru and Uendo were his students.
 * Bucky Whet- The defendant. He's the head chef of Whet Soba and carries boxes of food with him and rides on a skateboard.
 * Geiru Toneido - A balloon artist and rakugo performer who witnessed the murder along with her fellow student and Blackquiil.
 * Uendo Toneido - A skilled rakugo performer under Taifu's tutelage and witness to the case.

Turnabout Revolution:
 * Miles Edgeworth - Renowned prosecutor prodigy, current Chief Prosecutor, and childhood friend and long-time rival of Phoenix Wright. Also appears in Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney and the DLC case Turnabout Across Time as the main prosecutor.
 * Pearl Fey - A spirit medium who is Maya Fey's younger cousin. She appears when Apollo Justice visits Kurain Village. She also appears in Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney, where she pretends to be Rayfa Padma Khura'in and testifies alongside Ahlbi Ur'gaid.
 * Paul Atishon - A politician running for local assemblyman in Kurain Village.
 * Archie Buff - A professor of archaeology studying Kurain and Khura'inese artifacts who was found dead in his home.
 * Armie Buff - Professor Buff's shut-in daughter who often communicates with a robot called Sergeant Buff.
 * Jove Justice - Apollo Justice's biological father who died on-stage in the Kingdom of Khura'in.

Turnabout Time Traveler:
 * Larry Butz - An overemotional and lazy childhood friend of both Wright and Edgeworth. Has had at least five jobs and nine girlfriends in the space of three years, although the latter is always due to him being unceremoniously dumped. Sometimes uses the pseudonym "Laurice Deauxnim" when working as an artist.
 * Ellen Wyatt - A maid and acquaintance of Butz who is attacked shortly after her wedding.
 * Sorin Sprocket - Wyatt's newly-wedded husband and an engineer.
 * Pierce Nichody - A witness to the case, who works as Sorin's butler.
 * Dumas Gloomsbury - The victim of the case, he worked with Wyatt as a servant in the Sprocket household.
 * Selena Sprocket - Sorin's sister who passed away in a car accident a year before the case.

Cameo characters
Two characters appear in the Ace Attorney Theater short Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney, and are alluded to in The Magical Turnabout as people who sent flowers to Trucy Wright.
 * Klavier Gavin - An easygoing but steadfast and principled prosecutor who was formerly the lead vocalist and guitarist in the Gavinners, as well as Apollo Justice's rival prosecutor in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. He is seen in a flashback by Apollo Justice in Turnabout Revolution. He is also mentioned by Ema in The Rite of Turnabout whilst she is complaining about how Nahyuta Sahdmadhi treats her.
 * Jinxie Tenma - A young maid living in Nine-Tails Vale who is friends with Trucy Wright and was a witness in The Monstrous Turnabout. She is mentioned in The Magical Turnabout as one of the people who sent flowers to Trucy, along with her father.

Gameplay
For the most part, the normal trial and investigation procedures are retained from previous main series Ace Attorney games, particularly Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. However, in Khura'in, a major new gameplay element, the Divination Séance, is introduced. In these rituals, Rayfa Padma Khura'in uses a "Pool of Souls" on the floor of the High Court of Khura'in to show what a victim saw and felt during their final moments. Rayfa interprets these visions as "Insights", a series of claims about the incident. Phoenix Wright's job is to find contradictions between the Insights and what is actually shown in the visions, which can lead to corrections in the Insights or the visions.

The 3D evidence viewer also makes a return from previous games, used to examine specific objects from all angles during the course of the game. In Spirit of Justice, this functionality is combined with the forensic investigation mechanics from the Nintendo DS era of games. When using fingerprinting powder, for example, the player can rotate, zoom in and zoom out on an object to pick out a specific area to dust. There is also a limit to how much fingerprinting powder can be applied at a time, though the powder can be blown off to be reused.

Spirit of Justice uses a "five strike" penalty system. This is the first main series Ace Attorney game since Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney to use this system, rather than the variable health bar-like "Confidence Gauge" system that has been in place since Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All. Due to feedback that Dual Destinies gave too many hints to the player, the developers aimed to have fewer direct clues in Spirit of Justice. Additionally, while Dual Destinies only allowed the usage of the "Examine" feature in specific locations, investigation segments in Spirit of Justice allow the player to "Examine" any environment, more akin to the other games in the series. Spirit of Justice nonetheless inherits several elements from Dual Destinies, such as investigation notes, the Mood Matrix, anime cutscenes, and revisualization. The anime cutscenes are produced by A-1 Pictures (the animation studio that produced the anime adaptation), rather than Bones.

Spirit of Justice also contains new features not seen in any previous initial release of a main series game. In contrast to the bare-bones title screens from previous games, Spirit of Justice is follows suit with Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy and plays background music, as well as having a background design that does not simply depict a courtroom. Additionally, an options menu accessible from the title screen allows the player to toggle or adjust various settings, such as volume controls, skipping of unread text, and the "Consult" feature, which is a first for the main series titles. Within the game, cutscenes can now be skipped by pressing the START button or tapping the touchscreen. Like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, there are instances of in-dialogue voice-acted lines, most notably when Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is reciting a sutra, when Rayfa Padma Khura'in begins her Dance of Devotion and when Dhurke says "A dragon never yields."

Development
Communion with otherworldly spirits is a concept previously only used with the Fey clan. The developers have explained that they felt that no one could prove a match for Phoenix Wright anymore in his usual setting, so they moved him to a foreign country with a different court system, which would provide a sense of urgency not seen in his usual games. The 3D character models from Dual Destinies were remade.

Promotions
A playable demo of the game was available at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show (September 17-19), as were stickers for players, stage events, and a "Special Court" video.

At the beginning of March, Capcom Japan ran a Twitter campaign to have "#逆転裁判 ６" posted as many times as possible, offering rewards as they passed certain thresholds (6,000, 12,000, and 18,000): headshot icons of Wright, Justice, and Cykes; wallpapers; and a special video at the highest tier. Ultimately the campaign reached over 55,500 re-Tweets, meaning all rewards were posted to the official Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice site, with the promised video being an anime prologue for the game.

Pre-orders and Limited Edition
The Japanese version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice shipped in two versions: a standard version that contains just the game, and a Limited Edition bundle that includes the game, a bag in the style of Ur'gaid's tote bag, a plush toy of Shah'do, a drama CD, and a set of Spirit of Justice-themed postcards. All pre-order copies also had the Ace Attorney Theatre episodes (featuring such returning characters as Pearl Fey, Klavier Gavin, and Jinxie Tenma) and pixel-art keychain charms of the main characters of Spirit of Justice. Purchasing the game in the first few weeks of release also granted free alternate costumes:
 * "The Tiger" costume for Phoenix Wright, based on Furio Tigre's outfit
 * "School Days" costume for Apollo Justice - a male Japanese high school student uniform, based on Justice's middle school outfit in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and similar in style to that worn by Ryūnosuke Naruhodō
 * "Trés Bien" costume for Athena Cykes, based on the waitress uniform from the restaurant Trés Bien

International release
As with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Spirit of Justice was only released digitally on the Nintendo eShop outside Japan. The game was released in North America and Europe on September 8th, 2016.

Other DLC
A 3DS theme based on Spirit of Justice is available as of the game's release. Additionally, three downloadable costumes are available as of June 23, 2016. These costumes are based on characters from Sengoku BASARA, another Capcom franchise. Phoenix Wright's costume is based on Masamune Date / Azure Dragon, Apollo Justice's on Yukimura Sanada / Scorpio, and Athena Cykes's on Ieyasu Tokugawa / Irdene. Moreover, a downloadable case entitled "Turnabout Across Time" was released on June 30, 2016; the case was offered free of charge between June 30 and July 20, and then become paid DLC afterwards.

For the English release, the first set of costumes for Wright, Justice, and Cykes were offered as free downloadable content in the first week of release (from September 8th until September 15th). Additionally, the two bonus "mini-episodes" and the full episode, Turnabout Time Traveler, were offered as paid content, released on each Thursday following the release of the game. The bonus non-canon mini-episodes each cost $3.99 and came with a 3DS theme. Turnabout Time Traveler was released for $5.99. No announcement has yet to be made regarding the Sengoku BASARA costumes.

Sales
Spirit of Justice sold 196,831 copies in its first week in Japan, which is more than Dai Gyakuten Saiban but less than Dual Destinies and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Sales figures are yet to be released for the digital-only English localisation.

Critical Reception
Spirit of Justice received a 34/40 from Famitsu, being awarded two eights and two nines. It holds an 81 on Metacritic, placing it into the 'Generally Positive' category. The game also received a mediocre review from IGN (who awarded it a 65/100), citing that the game has a 'bloated middle act' and a flawed new mechanic, among other things.

Trailers

 * Tokyo Game Show 2015 trailer (w/ English subtitles) (w/ extra scene)
 * In English
 * Spring 2016 trailer (w/ English subtitles)
 * In English
 * Character Abilities Trailer
 * Sizzle trailer at end of demo
 * Special anime prologue segment
 * In English
 * Launch Trailer (w/ English subtitles)
 * In English
 * Special court skit for Turnabout Across Time DLC