“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” So goes the famous Sherlock Holmes quote. And so goes each trial in the Ace Attorney series; from game to game, from case to case, after inspecting your evidence and cross-examining your witnesses, you cut away the impossible and gradually approach – nay, embrace – the absurdly improbable truth.
The cases in the Ace Attorney games bear only passing resemblance to the events that might actually take place in a real court of law, but that scarcely matters. The Ace Attorney courthouse is more of a stage – imagine I’m making a theatrical gesture now and have ridiculous floofy sleeves, please – on which eccentric witnesses, defendants, and legal professionals with punny names perform their monologues and state their cases.
As they gesticulate, our bright-eyed and bushy-tailed lawyer protagonist – with the help of a level-headed young lady assistant – eventually coaxes out the truth. Aha! It was the butler all along! The true culprit invariably loses their cool so magnificently they manage to defy the laws of physics; their moustache turns into a helicopter rotor, or something to that effect.