Hypothetical plot outline for Ace Attorney 7:
Title: “Ace Attorney: Unsolved Cases”
Our tutorial level. To jar the player, we play as a new defense attorney, Gail Rherring, who is defending the CEO of a major record label. Her assistant is Bethany Algernon, whose personality is along the lines of Maya Fey.
Most of the case is standard Ace Attorney fare; you kick Winston Payne’s butt, you learn the cross-examination process, and so on. However, there’s a twist at the end of the episode. Gail and Bethany return to the office and, just as you think all is well, Bethany shoots Gail in the back. Bethany laughs and says, “Thank you for your services” as she heads out of the office.
Just before Gail dies, she notices that Bethany somehow changed faces..a bit similar to another Ace Attorney villain...
It’s been one year since “Spirit of Justice”. Although Khura’in is still adjusting to the change in legal systems, Apollo has become famous as the country’s top defense attorney. Phoenix, Maya, Athena, and Trucy visit him for vacation, although unbeknownst to everyone, Phoenix timed the visit. Around the same time for their visit, Thalassa Gramarye / Lamiroir will be holding a concert in Khura’in’s capital. The plan is for Apollo and Trucy to attend the concert so that they’ll finally know the truth.
Of course, things go to shit when, just before Lamiroir can tell them, her manager is murdered. She’s put on trial, forcing Apollo to take the lead. Phoenix and Athena want to help but Apollo says that due to the change in legal systems, they’ll need to pass the bar exam in Khura’in in order to take part in court.
Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is expected to be the prosecutor but, much to everyone’s surprise, he says he let the case go. Apparently, someone at the prosecutor’s office made a special request to take the trial. Someone who has the same international privileges as he does. We are then introduced to the main prosecutor in the game; Alexandria Allegretto, an Italian prosecutor who studied in America.
She was also Apollo’s best friend back in law school. Phoenix, Maya, Trucy, and Athena wonder if she stepped in to handle the case specifically just to meet Apollo. When they ask him what their relationship was like, Apollo only says that they were close and then they weren’t.
Apollo and Alexandria battle it out, resulting in Thalassa being declared not-guilty. We finally get the moment where Apollo and Trucy learn they’re siblings. At the same time, Apollo and Alexandria awkwardly catch up, with their dialogue hinting that they had a falling out around the same time that Apollo joined Kristoph Gavin’s law firm.
A few weeks after their vacation in Khura’in, we see Phoenix and Maya back at the office. Much to Phoenix and Maya’s surprise, they watch a news segment that reports that Redd White was murdered in his holding cell. Maya coldly says that he deserved it but then wonders who could’ve been responsible. Curious, Phoenix heads down to the prosecutor’s office to find out.
At the office, Alexandria tells Phoenix that Diego Armando/Godot (still serving his sentence for the murder of Misty Fey) is the defendant. She says that Diego did it to avenge Mia Fey’s death, which bothers Phoenix since Diego has been in prison since 2019 and has never made an attempt to kill White until now. Alexandria suggests that maybe Godot has changed but Phoenix doubts it.
Phoenix and Maya visit the prison. Godot says that he’s innocent and that even though he’s thought about murdering Redd White multiple times, he never acted on his urges as he felt that White’s punishment was adequate. Basically, why kill him (or put him out of his misery) when he’s gonna suffer for the rest of his life in prison. Phoenix says he’ll defend Godot in court but Godot says it’s pointless as he’s already serving a life sentence. Phoenix insists, saying that there’s something bigger going on behind the scenes.
Phoenix and Maya investigate and, during their investigations, find out that Redd White’s death is tied to a bigger conspiracy. White may have been assassinated and that he had ties to a larger organization. Something along the lines of a secret society that consisted of the world’s most powerful people. This ties the case back to the first case because we learn that the record label CEO was also part of the organization.
At the end of the episode, Phoenix and Maya successfully defend Godot, although he’s sent back to prison anyways. Then...the twist.
Phoenix finds Godot in his apartment, badly wounded. Godot says that he escaped the police van he was in. Phoenix asks why and Godot says that the officer in the van tried to kill him and he fought back. Godot says that they may have angered a monster...and it all goes back to the phantom from Dual Destinies.
Athena and Simon team up to defend a computer programmer who was trying to expose corruption in the company he was working for. While working the case, Athena tries to get to know Alexandria better in order to figure out why she had a falling out with Apollo.
Alexandria pretty much says what Apollo said; they were close friends in law school and that they cut each other off some time afterward. Then all of a sudden, Alexandria drops the bombshell revelation that she was in love with Apollo. And that Apollo may have been in love with her as well.
Athena says that Apollo didn’t have any girlfriends in college and Alexandria clarifies that they weren’t together. They were never sure how to act on their feelings. Then, for reasons she won’t disclose, Alexandria left to become a prosecutor. She just cut Apollo out without even telling him why. Athena senses distress in Alexandria but doesn’t pursue.
During this case, we get another bombshell revelation; the computer programmer was trying to expose the phantom’s employers, which is why he was “framed” for the murder he’s on trial for. Also, Athena’s mother, Metis, may have been part of the same organization. Athena is pissed at this accusation but the programmer points out that the police never found out why the phantom sabotaged the HAT-1 launch. The programmer theorizes that the sabotage may have been “punishment” for Metis going against the organization.
The trial ends abruptly when, during the programmer’s testimony, he suddenly dies from poison. Upon examination, Simon finds a poison dart in the programmer’s back. Horrified at what happened, Athena runs from the courthouse.
Taking place during Apollo Justice’s law school years, we follow him in a mock trial with Alexandria Allegretto. This is a trial-only level, meant to highlight Apollo and Alexandria’s relationship. Although it’s not explicit, just based on the dialogue, it’s heavily implied that Apollo and Alexandria really like each other.
We then see that the “prosecutor” for this case is none other than Bethany Algernon, the same Bethany who killed Gail Rherring in the first episode. Also attending the mock trial are two attorneys; defense attorney Kristoph Gavin and prosecutor Abraham Murdock.
Apollo and Alexandria win the trial and are approached by the senior attorneys at the end of it. Kristoph offers both of them a place in his office while Abraham proposes the same for his. Apollo and Alexandria are both excited at the job offers.
We then get an Apollo Justice voice-over in which he says that Alexandria took Abraham’s offer without telling him and then just disappeared from his life. This left him in a deep depression and as a result, he stayed away from the dating scene (put this in context with Apollo and Athena’s discussion about his love life in Spirit of Justice and...sadness)
6. Turnabout Father and Daughter
So like Turnabout Storyteller, this is the filler episode of the game. This is also a trial-only episode and it features Phoenix and Trucy working together to solve a crime also involving another father-daughter pair.
Although we don’t get significant story development, we do get character development as this a case where Trucy Wright is Phoenix’s main assistant. Also, this case is meant to lighten the mood as the previous 5 cases have all been pretty dark, especially going into the finale.
7. The Phantom of the Turnabout
Finale time! This is the longest turnabout in the game (possibly in the series as I pictured it longer than Rise from the Ashes). We start off with Apollo Justice returning to America. The phantom, who has been in police custody since Dual Destinies, has finally agreed to confess to his crimes and will name members of his organization on the promise that he’ll be protected. And among the names of his organization is...Alexandria Allegretto.
This leads to a huge scandal, with the public wondering if Alexandria had ulterior motives to her actions. Apollo doesn’t believe the phantom and urges Phoenix and Athena to take the case. However, both of them are hesitant to get involved. Athena says she wants nothing to do with the phantom, saying that she’s too scarred from her previous trial. Meanwhile, Phoenix introduces Godot to the team and says that the phantom’s organization tried to kill Godot to cover their tracks. He says that if they aren’t careful, they’ll be next to go.
Apollo says he doesn’t care and that, as defense attorneys, they need to defend Alexandria. Although still hesitant, Phoenix and Athena follow Apollo’s lead. Meanwhile, Abraham Murdock volunteers to be the prosecutor for this trial. This puzzles Apollo as Abraham was Alexandria’s mentor. Why would he want to prosecute his protege?
For the first third of this case, the Wright Anything Agency are forced to fight an uphill battle against Abraham Murdock. Apollo is forced to concede that even if he successfully defends Alexandria, she still has to pay for her crimes as she actually was part of the organization. What Apollo then hones in on is figuring out why Alexandria decided to work for them in the first place.
The case forces Apollo to reexamine the past, back to when Alexandria walked out on him. He discovers that she was blackmailed into working for the phantom’s organization. If she didn’t do what they said, her family and friends (namely Apollo) would be killed. Apollo proves this in court and that her blackmailer was none other than Abraham Murdock.
However, the case takes a turn when Abraham is murdered in his holding cell. Reluctantly, the Wright Anything Agency agrees to look into Abraham’s murder. Things turn to shit when the accused is none other than Phoenix Wright. The main evidence is footage of Phoenix entering the holding cell to shoot Murdock dead.
In this next third of the case, Apollo and Athena have to defend their mentor in court. With Alexandria still in police custody, Simon Blackquill takes over as prosecutor. This section is pretty straightforward, with the both of them trying to figure out what really happened. They eventually discover that the “Phoenix Wright” who entered the holding cell is a phony. It’s another person using the same disguise-technology that the phantom used.
Phoenix claims he’s real and everyone in the courthouse becomes paranoid over who’s real and who’s the fake. This leads to Godot taking drastic measures. He takes the courthouse hostage and forces the doors closed in order to draw the assassin out. We get a cross-examination minigame in which Apollo and Athena have to cross-examine everyone in the gallery to determine if they’re real or the fake.
(People in the gallery could include anyone from the series, like Ema Skye, Larry Butz, Pearl Fey, Juniper Woods, Klavier Gavin, etc.)
Eventually, they stumble upon the fake. Phoenix takes the fake down and, upon reveal, they discover that the fake is Bethany Algernon. Bethany laughs, confessing to the murder of Abraham Murdock. Bethany says she killed him to keep him silent and that the phantom is next on her kill list. Also, now that she’s exposed, she’ll off herself next, showing just how dedicated to the organization she really is. Bethany then says that they’ll never learn who the leaders of her organization are. When Phoenix says that the phantom is giving people up, Bethany says that all the people who the phantom named were low-level members of the organization. The phantom doesn’t know any of the leaders.
Unsatisfied with that answer, Godot takes the prosecutor’s stand and says that they’ll have one last “trial”/interrogation. This time, it’s not for solving a murder, it’s just to get a name on one of the organization’s leaders. Phoenix takes the defense’s stand but with the intention of working with Godot to get a name (this trial is obviously meant to be a callback to Trials and Tribulations). Bethany laughs at the two of them but decides to play along.
Although it takes a while, Phoenix and Godot eventually manage to trip Bethany up and get her to slip out a name. Something along the lines of “the current CEO of Bluecorp”. Bethany has a breakdown, realizing that she’s given up one of the leading members of her organization, and tries to kill herself. Before she can do so, she’s knocked out by Maya Fey. Bethany is placed under arrest while the judge issues out a warrant for the Bluecorp CEO’s arrest.
As the episode ends, we get the following developments:
1) Godot is sent back to prison but with several years taken off his sentence for his help in the war with the phantom’s organization
2) Apollo says goodbye to Alexandria but promises to keep in touch with her. Alexandria says they have a lot to catch up on after her short prison sentence.
3) Apollo goes back to Khura’in. Trucy and Thalassa go with him so they can have quality family time.
4) Athena says that she wants to forge her own path and decides to leave the Wright Anything Agency. Simon says he’ll help her set up her own law firm.
After the credits roll, we get a post-credit scene in which we see Phoenix talking to someone. Based on their dialogue, we learn that he’s talking to Franziska von Karma. She says that her brother has gone missing again, although this time, he disappeared without warning. She asks Phoenix’s help to find him.
