Solfadore ranks all 127 Ace Attorney Characters

In honour of Kanz and Omega's playthrough of the AA series, I decided I might as well rank the series' best and worst characters, since case rankings are done all the time and since it's been a long time since we've had a comprehensive ranking of AA characters.

I don't think my taste in characters is way out there, so there shouldn't be a lot of surprises as we get near the top, but then again, there might be two or three controversial rankings. As a rule of thumb, I tend to like well-executed and fascinating villains more than I like heroes, so expect to see a few of these alongside the top. That said, a lot of Ace Attorney's good guys are really, really well-done, while a good bunch of villains (save for the few great ones) tend to fall flat on their face.

One thing: I'll be cheating a bit with my rankings and will consider PW1-PW3 Phoenix as one character, and AJ Hobonix as another. Why do I do this? Because contrary to even, say, Ema Skye, Nick's character in PW1-3 and AJ is so radically different that I almost feel like they designed the 'Hobo character' first, and then decided to name him Phoenix Wright due to executive pressures. So yeah, in order not to be unfair to Shu Takumi's protagonist, I'll divide up the entries.

127. Wendy Oldbag
Let me get things straight: Oldbag was fine in 1-3. The dev team was obviously aiming for an annoying first witness who let her anti-Powers/pro-Hammer bias get the better of her common sense; that’s par for the course as far as PW witnesses go.

The awful, awful thing about her character is how they just keep recycling it in nearly every single game. She was a huuuge pain in the ass in 2-4, since on top of being her usual annoying, uncooperative self, she also happened to be the toughest witness in the game, IMO – and for bad reasons, with really unclear contradictions and the like. The rest of the case is amazing, but she just brings it down. Oldbag has NO business being in a final case.

You’d figure since she hates Phoenix, she’d be a lot more fun around Edgeworth or something (especially since she has that huge crush on him), and lo and behold: here comes AAI, in which she's just as bad as usual, and where she not only appears once, but twice! First in the terrible E-3 case, where she brings nothing of value, and then – since apparently they haven’t learn their lesson from 2-4 – in yet another final case… and in the showdown against the Big Bad, too. Even if they have some sort of Oldbag quota to fill, couldn't they at least have her be the first witness and get out or something?

Save for Edgeworth in 2-4 and 3-5 as a whole, I feel like the AA series hasn’t handled cameos well at all, and Oldbag is most definitely the worst offender. Can’t we get back, like, Morgan, who’s actually interesting and could be delved upon a bit more? Or, hell, the whole cast?

I hate Oldbag.

126. Ka-Shi Nou
Thoroughly uninteresting guy whom we still know nothing about even after finishing the case. The double-murder setup in both embassies was cool, but where Coachen was an interesting victim, that guy definitely is not. It’s just such an anticlimax to go back to this murder after the whole Shih-Na/Yew stuff.

125. Dustin Prince
Nothing interesting about the case, nothing interesting about its victims. He’s a… policeman. Woohoo. Next.

124. Buddy Faith
Well, what can you expect from a guy murdered just because he walked in on the killer committing another crime? Nearly as bland as Prince, but at least he did something before dying, as opposed to just being… there.

123. Cindy Stone
The first victim! Yay! Just as bland as the others, but apparently, she did genuinely love Larry. From the top of my head, she’s probably the only character in the series to actually love the guy. That has to count for something.

122. Ini Miney
This is the one that died in the car crash. The twist alone would normally be enough to at least move her up a few spots up the list, but I find Mimi’s façade to be incredibly annoying, and since Mimi… mimicked her sister’s personality, I guess Ini’s to blame for this.

At least she had the good sense to die in a car crash, which is more than I can say for Oldbag (if it ever comes to that, I’m rooting for the car).

121. Cece Yew
I have nothing. Can’t even recall if we knew anything about her aside from the fact that she was an important witness/defected from the smuggling ring. If it is the case, that has to be enough to put her above these other jokers.

120. Ami Fey
She has to be the least relevant character in the entire franchise. Well, I have nothing negative to say about her, at least, and I think it was stated somewhere that her lingering spirit might be why that urn keeps breaking again and again. Which means she’s responsible for that cute as hell Maya/Mia picture at the end of T&T.

119. Bat
A blustering idiot, but his name is so hilariously bad that he ranks above Ami and her cohorts.

118. Akbey Hicks
That guy looks like Kristoph. I remember being really pumped up for AAI, thinking Edgeworth’d meet a younger Kristoph, but alas, it was not to be. Plus the whole Interpol shtick is a pretty cool deal, though I expected him to put up a better fight than this.

117. Glen Elg
Hey! Look! Another terrible name!

116. Doug Swallow
That guy was one of the few that was on to Dahlia. Plus he acted like a bro by warning Phoenix about the spawn from hell that is Dollie. Sadly for him, he’s not compelling at all beyond this.

115. Kane Bullard
Dude was an *******, but as far as victims go, that’s a point in their favour. At least they have some character. Sadly, we barely even learn about Bullard aside from the fact that he blackmailed Atmey, and since we only ever learn of his existence after the first day of trial, well… he wasn’t going to rank very high.

114. Mack Rell
These awful names…!

I don’t like that guy’s design for some reason. It just… stands out, I don’t know. That said, Rell was Yew’s accomplice, which makes him a bit less bland – and a lack of blandness is good in these rankings! Not much more to say beyond that, sadly.

113. Romein Letouse
Awful name streak currently set at 2. Letouse was chill and had a cool gun on one hand, but had that streak of terrible flashbacks on the other. 113 sounds about right.

S-Siren.

112. Bruce Goodman
He was a… good man. Stood up to Gant and everything. That takes some balls.

111. Pal Meraktis
Pal Meraktis. Mal Peraktis. Malpractice. Hah.

Bad pun aside, that dude is almost the real villain of 4-2, and that ‘killer nearly acted in self-defence’ is pretty much the only good thing 4-2 has going for it.

That, and he almost ran over the terrible train wreck that is Hobonix.

110. Deid Mann
This right here. That *has* to be the single best name in AA history.

109. Neil Marshall
Neil looked alright and did manage to overpower a serial killer. Aside from that, not much to note about the guy.

108. Celeste Inpax
When you first see her appear in your Court Record, she’s shrouded in an aura of mystery. Her name as well reinforces the idea that she might be really, really important to the case. Turns out she ain’t.

107. Russell Berry
That guy was an idiot. “Oh, Acro may be planning to hurt my daughter in X days? Let’s not do anything for now and go meet him at that exact time/date, instead of, say, GO TALK TO HIM RIGHT AWAY.” Awful case aside, though, he seemed kind – and they had to pull the “wrong target” twist sooner or later.

106. Byrne Faraday
I cannot for the life of me remember anything about the guy except that he was Kay’s father and one third of the Yatagarasu. That, and I don’t like his design that much (like Mack Rell, it just seems weird).