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From left to right:Phoenix Wright,Athena Cykes,Simon Blackquill, and Apollo Justice
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Dual Destinies is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the fifth main entry in the Ace Attorney series, and was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, with iOS and Android versions following in 2014 and 2017.
Set a year after Apollo Justice, it deals with the Dark Age of the Law. Ever since Phoenix Wright was unjustly disbarred, the court system has gone into a massive crisis due to corruption, false evidence, false charges, etc. This is the court world that the now rehabilitated Phoenix is dealing with, and he's not alone: people like his old friend and now chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, his daughter and assistant Trucy, his once-fanboy and now protegé Apollo, his other protegé Athena Cykes (a young lawyer who's specialist in psychology) and the police detective Bobby Fulbright are by his side, ready to start fighting back and cleansing the system.
The new prosecutor is Simon Blackquill, a somber man who is actually in death row, but has been recommended by Edgeworth himself; he and Athena seem to have a sort-of connection, and as the cases come and go, many ugly truths about the Dark Age itself are revealed AND that leads to very shocking revelations...
- Abusive Parents: Subverted: People think that Metis used Athena as a guinea pig for her experiments, solely for her own benefit. In reality, Metis was trying to help her daughter with her Power Incontinence.
- Bandage Mummy: Apollo is reduced to this after the bombing in the beginning of the game. It seems to not affect him at first but then it catches up to him just a little before Juniper's trial, and Athena has to replace him.
- Big Bad: The Phantom
- Broken Bird: Aura Blackquill.
- Creepy Child: One very creepy little girl is seen in a flashback. It's the young Athena, who was badly traumatised by Metis' murder and barely understood what was going on... so she put her mom's corpse on the lab's repair bench intending to "fix her". . .
- Cute Clumsy Girl: In her first scene Athena is gloriously marching the courtroom stairs.... and trips on a degree and falls.
- Childhood Friends: Athena and a girl named Juniper Woods, who's accused twice of being a criminal.
- Also, Apollo and Clay Terran. And then Clay is murdered...
- Darker and Edgier: The game was rated Mature (17+) for a reason.
- Downer Ending: There can be several for the last case: either Simon is executed for a crime he never committed and Aura disappears with all of her hostages (including Trucy), which emotionally destroys Athena and Apollo and causes Phoenix to quit forever; or Simon is released but Athena is arrested, then Aura takes the poor girl away in the courtoom itself in exchange for the other hostages, and both disappear forever; or both Simon and Athena are acquitted, but the real culprit manages to escape, and the Dark Age becomes even darker...
- Fiery Redhead: Athena is redhaired and has an explosive personality, though she tries to subdue it because Widget will often spill out her thoughts.
- Fingerless Gloves: Athena's glove for some reason covers only three of her fingers in her right hand.
- He Knows Too Much: Three victims get killed for this in the game: Candace, Professor Constance Courte, and Metis Cykes (in the past).
- Heroic BSOD: Athena suffers one after Payne presents an evidence that Juniper was the one who bombed the courtroom that Athena has no answer for. She suffers an even more severe one, bordering on Despair Event Horizon crossing, when not only she's indicted for Clay's murder but her and Simon's shared Dark and Troubled Past is finally revealed, and she begins to wonder if she actually killed her mom...
- Hostage Situation: Towards the end, Simon's older sister Aura captures lots of people (including Trucy) to force the system to grant her younger brother, who's one day away from execution, a re-trial.
- Girlish Pigtails: Juniper's hairstyle, with leaves as decorations, weirdly enough.
- Jerkass: Gaspen Payne prides himself in humiliating people and the audience doesn't need to wait more than one minute before he tries to humiliate Juniper and Athena.
- Ill Girl: Juniper ocasionally coughs out of nervousness or fear.
- It's Personal: Apollo takes a leave later in the game because of this: the murder victim is his best friend.and another close friend is one of the suspects.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Edgeworth pre-emptively warns Phoenix to to stop "presenting random evidence just to see how that person will react"
- Master of Disguise: The Phantom, who has been posing all the game as... Bobby Fulbright.
- Rapunzel Hair: Athena
- Remember the New Guy?: Poor Clay Terran.
- Self-Made Orphan: Towards the end, there's the very real possibility that Athena killed her mother as a child... She didn't.
- She Is All Grown Up: Pearlie
- Ship Tease: Athena and Apollo, Apollo and Juniper, Athena and Simon (to borderline Implied Love Interest levels).
- Slapstick Knows No Gender: Athena suffers as many Amusing Injuries as Phoenix and Apollo do. If not more.
- Super Senses: A key for Athena's work is her extremely acute hearing, which lets her "listen to others' hearts". She also suffers of Power Incontinence, which is why she wears headphones.
- Sympathetic Murderer: It's speculated that, if Athena did kill her mother, it was because Metis used her in her experiments and she snapped over it.
- Taking the Heat: Hugh and Robin try this on behalf of Juniper
- More importantly, this is the real reason why Simon is in death row. He found a pre-teen and very traumatized Athena in Creepy Child mode, trying to "fix" her murdered mother Metis (his mentor); he believed that she had killed her and immediately took the blame to protect the girl. Athena's biggest motivation to be a lawyer is to save him.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Athena suffers a bad case of this. . .
- Visual Novel
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Robin Newman is a girl raised as a boy.
- Wingding Eyes: Juniper hits herself with her own pigtails after prosecutor Payne presents an evidence that leaves her on a dangerous position, and her eyes turn into Xs.