The player takes the roles of various defense attorneys, including Phoenix Wright, his mentor Mia Fey, and his understudies Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes, and investigates cases and defends their clients in court; they find the truth by cross-examining witnesses and finding inconsistencies between the testimonies and the evidence they have collected. The cases all last a maximum of three days, with the judge determining the outcome based on evidence presented by the defense attorney and the prosecutor. In the spin-off series "Ace Attorney Investigations", the player takes the role of prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, and in the spin-off "", they play as Phoenix's ancestor Ryūnosuke Naruhodō.