Make a Musou: Ace Attorney Musou

Hello, and welcome to yet another article in my new series on The Story Arc: Make a Musou. I love Dynasty Warriors, the number of times I bring it up, and the multiple Musou related articles I’ve written should be proof enough of that. However, I am currently in a Dynasty Warriors drought as I have no interest in Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires, so I thought it was time to flex some creative writing.

But what could I do? When it comes to Dynasty Warriors content you can find whatever you want online already. For the past twenty years, the internet has been filled with character analyses, essays on the storytelling, and gameplay deconstructions. I don’t have much to add when talking about Dynasty Warriors itself. However, there is one question that everyone has had at one point in time: “What if ___ was a Musou game?”

That’s right, it’s time to pretend we’ve gone back to the Tumblr days when imagining your ideal game and talking to people about it wasn’t cringe! I have asked my friends to give me a list of franchises, and I will make a Musou roster out of each and every one of them. Last time I made a Musou roster out of every character from Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This time though we’re going to be casting a much, much harder roster as I will be making movesets out of a franchise with little to no fighting.

This week on The Story Arc, we shall be making a Musou roster out of the Ace Attorney series!

How we’ll be designing the movesets!

Now, we must discuss how Musou Movesets typically work if we are going to create a wide variety of them. If you have already read my pieces on making a Batman Musou, Pokemon Musou, or Sakura Wars Musou, you may skip ahead to when we start talking about how many characters our roster will have. First, let’s go over the basics of each character’s normal attacks. You all likely know how Musou movesets work on a basic level; you string together combos consisting of light attacks and heavy attacks. However, there is a pattern that movesets typically follow that I feel need some explaining.

Pressing light attacks once and then heavy will knock enemies directly in front of you in the air, allowing for a juggle or for you yourself to transition into an attempted combo.

Pressing light attack two times and then a heavy will perform an attack that while not super powerful will hit enemies close to you, generally on your left and right.

Pressing light attacks three times and then heavy will perform an attack that, while not your strongest, will hit a wide range of enemies.

Pressing light attack four times and then a heavy will perform an attack that is either straightforward or will move you slightly forward

Finally, pressing light attack five times, and then triangle will perform an attack that does plenty of damage in a short range, the perfect attack for enemy officers.

These are the foundations of a basic Musou moveset; however, there is more to explain and think of for our roster.

The bar you have been seeing below or next to the health bars in this footage is the Musou gauge. Once it is full, you are able to unleash your most powerful attack: a Musou attack. So we’ll need to think of a Musou for everyone.

Next, we have the trickiest part of our roster, the R1/RB button. The R1/RB button is used as a weapon switch in mainline Dynasty Warriors, but various spin-offs have used it as a button that activates a unique skill or attack for a character. These attacks can span from being very average to something atypical, so thinking about each character’s uniqueness will be hard.

Finally, we’re going to incorporate something that main modern Musous and Musou clones have, skill attacks. Holding down a button will give you an option of activating a skill. Most of these are just buffs like increased attack or speed; however, many Musous gives characters extra moves via skills. As we want to make this hypothetical game seem as appealing as possible, we shall come up with 3 skill attacks for each character.

And that’s everything! 5 Normal combos, a musou attack, a unique skill, and 3 skill attacks for each character. As we go into this, I won’t describe what each and every character’s individual combos will be but rather just how we imagine them playing with a few combo examples. I will mostly focus on describing every Musou, unique, and skill attack we come up with. A fair warning as well that I won’t talk about some characters as much as others, thinking of a variety of different movesets is difficult

With everything about how we will go about this explained, let’s move on.

Our Roster Size

Before we get into picking our characters, we first need to figure out how big the roster could be. While a true dream would be everyone playable, we’re going to have to be realistic with this. Other licensed Musous started with rosters of these sizes

Berserk Musou – 8 characters
Arslan Musou – 16 characters
Dragon Quest Musou – 13 characters + 1 DLC
Touken Ranbu Musou – 15 characters
One Piece Pirate Warriors – 15 characters

In my early days of making these rosters I would always pick a certain number of characters and try to rationalize the roster size, but I do not do that anymore. No, nowadays I always create rosters of 18 characters!

With Ace Attorney a roster of 18 characters gives us room for the 12 main characters of the franchise as well as 6 picks of my own, so it’s a pretty reasonable size I say.

With all of that out of the way, we can finally get into talking about the characters!

Character 1: Phoenix Wright

Up first one the roster we’ve got the cream of the lawyer crop himself: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney! Phoenix being in this roster is no surprise bit I feel like I do need to preface the importance of making him sound fun to play as to you before we begin.

Half of you are already commenting that the idea of an Ace Attorney Musou game is dumb and that I shouldn’t even be writing this. While I don’t make plots for these games, if I did it wouldn’t matter, there is no explanation that would make people accept this concept if it were real. However, let’s just have fun with this and try to imagine that Capcom lost their minds and made a Musou game where Phoenix and gang have to fight thousands of goons hired by someone who wants them dead.

Making Phoenix sound fun to play as in a Musou game here is important because if this moveset doesn’t sound plausible then the entire idea of this article falls apart, so let’s get started and hope you don’t close the article immediately!

Phoenix’s light attacks will be weak slaps and punches like in Marvel vs Capcom. This is important as we don’t want Phoenix to come across as a guy who can normally fight. His heavy combos however will be references to his various courtroom actions. Unlike MvC we will be avoiding using Maya in his moveset as I feel she deserves to be her own character.

The first heavy year combo of Phoenix’s moveset will have him yell out hold it and have a speech bubble literally appear under enemies and launch them into the air.

For Phoenix’s second heavy combo he’ll let out a sneeze and jump backward slights, damaging both enemies hit by the sneeze itself and those in the way as he jumps backwards.

As a third heavy combo Phoenix will pull out his trusty magatama and chains of the heart will appear around him as a wide range of enemies get harmed by psyche locks.

Phoenix’s fourth heavy combo of course has to be the iconic Objection pose. When performing the combo Phoenix will point his finger forward at enemies and shout the words. Heavily damaging those hit by his arm itself while also lightly damaging those in shouting radius.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Phoenix will yell out “Take That!” And have a speech bubble appear over his head which he will then throw at enemies for heavy damage similar to an action he took in the live action movie.

For his Musou attack we’re going to take inspiration from Marvel vs Capcom and have Phoenix give a very short explanation about why his foes are guilty before firing a laser beam forward from his fingers, eliminating enemies.

Now before we go into explaining attack skills as I always do let me first preface that I will be having EVERY character in this roster following a gimmick with these skills. That gimmick being evidence. I don’t want any character’s moveset to just be them pulling out random pieces of evidence but I also can’t just have all of it be unrepresented. As such, every character will use three pieces of evidence from cases they were in for their attack skills!

Phoenix’s first attack skill will have him pull out his attorney’s badge and shine it at enemies, lightly damaging them.

As a second attack skill Phoenix will pull out a bundle of bananas and toss them on the ground to make enemies slip.

Finally as a third attack skill Phoenix will pull out a bottle of wine and smack enemies in front of him with it!

One character done, seventeen to go! If you thought Phoenix was hard or I was really stretching for some attack then you haven’t seen anything yet! At least Phoenix had an MvC appearance unlike our next character!

Character 2: Miles Edgeworth

Second on the roster we’ve got the franchise’s first rival character: Miles Edgeworth! Edgeworth is easily the most popular character in the franchise to the point where Capcom gave him two spinoff games! There is no world where he isn’t on a roster like this.

As for how he’ll play um uh, okay I’ll be completely honest here while most of this roster was actually incredibly easy to make a lot of the main characters were hard to think up movesets for. Edgeworth in particular was pretty difficult as he is the character on this roster least likely to fight people. I will try my best though!

For his light attacks Edgeworth will do some weak punches forward while his heavy combos will be either different variations on Phoenix’s or references to his Ace Attorney Investigations gameplay.

The first heavy combo of Edgeworth’s moveset will have him pull out a large autopsy report, enemies hit by the file as he’s lifting it shall be sent flying into the air.

Edgeworth’s second heavy combo will have him shout “HOLD IT!” As he holds out an arm, causing speech bubbles to appear around him that will bounce away enemies that are too close.

As a third heavy combo Edgeworth will raise his arm slowly like Manfred Von Karma does and snap his fingers. Causing a light effect that will harm many enemies similar to how the Pirate Warriors handle conqueror’s Haki

For his fourth heavy combo Edgeworth will have a large chess piece appear in front of him via the power of his mind and flick it forward at enemies to damage them.

Edgeworth’s fifth heavy combo will have him shout Objection while pointing his finger as a large speech bubble appears and flies toward a single enemy to heavily damage them.

For his Musou attack Edgeworth will snap his fingers and transform the area around him into a chessboard. enemies around him will begin to be attacked by giant chess pieces before the area quickly returns to normal.

As a first attack skill Edgeworth will toss the King of Prosecutor’s trophy at enemies as he finds it worthless.

Edgeworth’s second attack skill will see him pull out the Jamin’ Ninja’s red guitar and hold it into the air, causing enemies all around him to fall to the ground in shock.

Finally for his third attack skill Edgeworth will bring out a very oddly colored luggage and swing it at enemies around him.

And that was Edgeworth! Writing Edgeworth’s moveset made me start to believe this was a bad idea but let’s soldier on to our next character and hope things get easier!

Character 3: Maya Fey

Up third we’ve got Phoenix’s trusty assistant and arguably the secondary protagonist of the franchise: Maya Fey! Like Phoenix and Edgeworth there is no reason for Maya not to be on this roster but she will be difficult to craft a moveset for as she doesn’t really have a way to fight enemies. On the bright side though, she will be the last hurdle before getting to some easier characters! So let’s craft this moveset!

For her light attacks I want Maya to swing her arms around in front of her wildly like she does during Phoenix’s attacks in Marvel vs Capcom. For her heavy combos I’m going to either have Maya reference an aspect of the games that I couldn’t with Phoenix and Edgeworth or have her summon her cousin Pearl for help. Yes that’s right I’m turning Maya from the character who gets summoned into the summoner!

The first heavy of Maya’s moveset will have her kick a Steel Samurai branded ball at an upward angle at enemies, once the ball is in the air her cousin Pearl will appear and spike it back down to Maya.

Then as a second heavy combo Maya will call Pearl and grab her by her legs before swinging her at enemies around them.

For her third heavy combo Maya will throw confetti all around her both referencing an animation from Project X Zone and the confetti at the end of each trial.

As a fourth heavy combo the bicycle that Maya rides in the Art of Gyakuten Saiban will appear under her as she rides toward enemies before quickly crashing into them and falling off.

Finally for Maya’s fifth heavy combo Pearl will run to her side while holding her family’s urn before tripping and throwing it at enemies, dealing massive damage as it shatters.

Maya’s Musou attack will have her take a channeling pose as the ground around her erupts with several pillars of flame that take the shape of a magatama, burning away enemies before everything returns to normal.

For her first attack skill Maya will pull out the party popper she used when looking for Gordy and pop it right into the face of enemies, damaging them.

Then as a second attack skill Maya’s clothing box will appear under enemies for a second before Pearl jumps out of it, launching them all into the air.

Maya’s third and final attack skill will have her toss forward several perfectly baked loaves of bread at enemies.

Maya was a very difficult character to think up attacks for as expected but things are actually going to be easier from here on out so let’s move on!

Character 4: Dick Gumshoe

Next on the roster we’ve got everyone’s loveable, eternally broke goofball: Detective Dick Gumshoe! Gumshoe is one of the most popular characters in the franchise and fans have been demanding his return ever since the timeskip happened so he absolutely needs to be on this roster.

As for how he’ll play I want our Gumshoe to be a slow bruiser character. His light attacks should be slow wind up punches similar to the kind that Popeye the Sailorman throws out. While his light attacks will be simple his heavy combos will be some of the most complex we have seen so far as I want each of Gumshoe’s heavy combos to make use of one of the Seven Secret Weapons of the Detective.

For his first heavy combo Gumshoe will pull out his trusty fishing rod and cast it forward at enemies before pulling them up into the air where he can begin to juggle them with his punches.

As a second heavy combo Gumshoe will bring out his metal detector and run it over the ground around him, bouncing away any enemies he touches with it.

The third heavy combo of Gumshoe’s moveset will have him grab the magnet he bought at a hardware store which will somehow be powerful enough to pull surrounding toward Gumshoe until they’re in punching range again.

Then as a fourth heavy Gumshoe will call forth Missile the trusty police dog to charge forward at enemies and bite them before vanishing.

Finally as a fifth heavy combo Gumshoe will pull out his pistol to attack enemies, however he shall not fire a shot rather he will instead smack enemies with it for heavy damage.

Gumshoe’s Musou attack will have him call upon another police officer for backup, unfortunately for him the police car will run him over as well as enemies around him.

For his first attack skill Gumshoe will toss forward the wooden Blue Badger from the police station! The badger will stay in place and harm enemies that run into it for a few seconds.

Gumshoe’s second attack skill will see him pull out a box of weenies to share with everyone but unfortunately he will almost trip and send the weenies flying at enemies.

Finally for his third attack skill Gumshoe will jump toward an enemy and slam the head of the Bad Badger mascot onto them.

Not only was Gumshoe much easier than the characters before him in this roster, he was one of the first characters I finished! Our next character was easy as well as she actually has a weapon.

Character 5: Franziska Von Karma

Up fifth on our roster is Franziska Von Karma, the main rival of Ace Attorney Justice for All! I remember a few years back in the fanbase there was commonplace hatred for Franziska but that appears to have subsided in recent years.

Franziska is one of few people in our roster who feels naturally built for a Musou game, why? Because she has a weapon! Yes, quite infamously Franziska carries a whip with her to court in the games and uses it quite liberally on people. Now while there is a whip weapon for Diaochan in Dynasty Warriors 7 I wouldn’t want Franziska to play anything like that. No, instead of moving around and flipping with the whip Franziska will come to a standstill for her heavy combos as her whip stretches a considerable distance to hit enemies all around her.

Franziska’s light attack and heavy combos will involve her attacking enemies with her whip, she won’t have anything too fancy but I feel having a weapon at all already makes her stand out.

For her first heavy combo Franziska will strike her whip downward at enemies in front of her before pulling it back up, sending enemies flying into the air.

Franziska’s second heavy combo will have her snap her whip to her left and then to her right twice to knock away enemies.

The third heavy combo of Franziska’s moveset will have her swing her whip in a circle above her head to both damage enemies and pull them closer to her.

As a fourth heavy combo Franziska will swing the full length of her whip straight forward at enemies to strike a lot of them in a line.

Finally for her fifth heavy combo Franziska will swing her whip forward to wrap around an enemy before pulling them in and releasing them with a kick, dealing devastating damage

When activating Franziska’s musou attack she will strike forward at a single enemy with a taser before proceeding to rapidly whip enemies all around her.

Franziska’s first attack skill will see her take out and throw Trilo Quist at enemies, why him? Because it’s the most worthless piece of evidence in JFA.

For her second attack skill a pushcart will appear in front of Franziska which she will then kick forward into enemies.

Finally as a third attack skill Franziska will use a lock and chain to grab several enemies around her and pull them in close so she can whip them.

And that’s Franziska’s entire moveset! Never in my life did I feel as grateful for her whip as I did while writing this. Unfortunately our next character was nowhere near as easy to write.

Character 6: Godot

Up sixth we’ve got the final rival character of the Original Trilogy: Godot! Being the last rival and having one of the most out there designs of the Original Trilogy, Godot left a huge impression on the fanbase and to this day is one of the most popular characters.

As for how he’ll play there is one gimmick we need to center his entire moveset around: coffee! Godot loves his coffee as black as hell itself and here enemies will be scolded by it as if it were the fires of hell too! Godot’s light attacks will involve him bashing enemies with his coffee cup without spilling a drop while his heavy combos will involve using it or spilling it in various ways.

The first heavy combo of Godot’s moveset will have him swing his cup forward and send hot coffee flying at the feet of enemies, damaging them and making them jump into the air.

For his second heavy combo Godot will drop his coffee mug to the ground before holding his arms out to his left and right. As he does two more coffee mugs will fly toward his hands for a refill, harming enemies they hit on their way.

Then as a third heavy combo Godot will swing his cup upward and send coffee flying all around him to burn enemies.

As a fourth heavy combo Godot will chug down his coffee before spitting it forward at enemies, scolding them.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Godot will throw several coffee cups forward onto the heads of enemies, burning away their health bars.

Godot’s Musou attack will have him pull out the Shichishito and stab it forward on enemies, impaling many of them on its edges.

Godot’s first attack skill will have him pull out several plates of the Tres Bien lunch special and toss them forward at enemies.

As a second heavy combo Godot will pull out a sword disguised as a can and slice enemies with it several times.

Finally for his third attack skill Godot will kick the ground in front of him and out of the ground a large diamond will fly forward and hit enemies before being buried again, forever unfindable.

Do you understand how tempted I was to make Godot shoot lasers out of his vizor? It wasn’t easy not to! With our final original trilogy character out of the way let’s transition into the timeskip era of the franchise.

Character 7: Apollo Justice

You didn’t think my entire roster would be Original Trilogy characters, did you? Apollo was the main character of the fourth Ace Attorney game, arguably the focus character of the entire time skip era of the franchise. It would be insane of me not to put him on here.

Apollo is another difficult character to think up a moveset for but thankfully he is the last hard character on this roster. His light attacks will be punches similar to Phoenix but they should look more deliberate and stronger as unlike Phoenix Apollo has actually punched someone before in the games. His heavy combos will involve variations on Phoenix’s and Edgeworth’s but will include some of his own flair.

The first heavy combo of Apollo’s moveset will have him shout out “Objection” and a speech bubble shall appear from the ground and an upward angle to launch enemies into the air.

As a second heavy combo Apollo will yell “I’m fine!” Out Loud to himself with his chords of steel, causing a small shockwave that will harm enemies near him.

Then as a third heavy combo Apollo will pull out a stepladder and spin it over his head, smacking enemies all around him.

For his fourth heavy combo Apollo will throw a huge pile of paperwork forward at enemies.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Apollo will charge forward at enemies and poke up to two of them with his extremely gelled hair for massive damage.

When activating Apollo’s Musou attack a red vortex will appear behind enemies as Apollo glares at them, any enemy he glares at during this attack will receive massive damage.

For his first attack skill Apollo will pull out a bowl of noodles and toss it at an enemy, having it land on their head and burn them.

Apollo’s second attack skill will have the noodle stand appear behind him, which he will somehow pull at high speeds and run over enemies.

Finally for his third attack skill Apollo will stand back as a miniature rocket ship launches next to him at enemies in front of him.

Apollo was probably the hardest to write of the three playable DAs but he wasn’t too difficult, thankfully our next character was incredibly easy to write though.

Character 8: Klavier Gavin

Up eighth on the roster we’ve got a rockstar of a prosecutor: Klavier Gavin! Ever since his debut in the fourth game Klavier jumped high on the list of people’s favorite Ace Attorney characters and to this day I still see new fanart of him on a weekly basis. Even if he weren’t a main character he’s popular enough to include on here.

As for how he’ll play I want to lean heavily into the rockstar aspect of Klavier as we already have several characters who are just lawyers. As such we will replace Klavier’s air guitar with an actual guitar that he’ll lightly smack enemies with in his light attacks and play in his heavy combos.

For his first heavy combo Klavier will slide on his knees forward at enemies while playing guitar, knocking them into the air in the process.

The second heavy combo of Klavier’s moveset will have him begin to walk forward as he plays his guitar, enemies too close to him as he walks will take light damage.

As a third heavy combo Klavier will strum his guitar a few times to send three sound waves flying in a circle around him to hit many enemies.

Klavier’s fourth heavy combo will have him strum his guitar while holding it in front of him to send a soundwave flying forward at enemies.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Klavier’s guitar will burst to flame and he’ll begin smashing it on the heads of enemies in a desperate attempt to put it out!

Klavier’s Musou attack will have him summon the other Gavinners to perform a few second long concert where his music will attract a large number of enemies.

For his first attack skill Klavier will pull out an ignitor and somehow enemies around him will combust into flame and burn.

As a second attack skill Klavier will bring out a glass nail polish case shaped like a hand and swipe at enemies with it.

Finally for his third attack skill Klavier will pull out a pair of slippers and smack them against the head of an enemy.

Klavier was an incredibly easy character to write as I love having the opportunity to play around with things like guitars when writing these rosters. Sadly our next character has no such gimmick to take advantage of.

Character 9: Athena Cykes

Up ninth in our roster we’ve got Athena Cykes: the alleged protagonist of the fifth Ace Attorney game! I use protagonist in the loosest sense of the word there sadly as Capcom themselves appears to not like Athena very much which had resulted in the fanbase’s opinions on Athena being very split. However she is a protagonist so her placement on this roster was guaranteed no matter what.

Being the fourth protagonist in our roster Athena will of course play similarly to the other three protagonists, but I will try my hardest to give her moveset a unique flair. For her light attacks I want Athena to rapidly kick enemies as the other lawyers all either slapped or punched and then for her heavy combos we’ll reference her courtroom shenanigans.

For her first heavy combo Athena will clap her hands together and an attorney’s desk will launch up from the ground under enemies, knocking them into the air.

As a second heavy combo Athena will yell out Objection as a speech bubble appears to her left and quickly floats to her right, knocking away enemies.

Then as a third heavy combo I want Athena to punch the ground and knock away enemies all around her with a shockwave of light. Why? Because Athena had a costume of Sengoku Basara’s Ieyasu Tokugawa in the sixth game and I couldn’t resist referencing that.

Athena’s fourth heavy combo will have her trip over her boots and fall forward onto enemies in front of her, damaging them in the process.

Finally as a fifth heavy combo Athena will pull out a pirate’s sword and slash at enemies a few times before putting it away, in reference to the fifth game’s DLC case.

When activating Athena’s musou she will duck as an orca jumps from the ground behind her and crushes enemies in front of her before vanishing.

For her first attack skill Athena will place a stuffed animal on the ground and run backwards as the stuffed animal explodes and damages enemies around it.

As a second attack skill Athena will pull out Scuttlebutt’s box and toss its contents at enemies, even her laptop!

Athena’s third and final attack skill will have her wrap some soba around enemies in front of her and use it to pull them closer

As I write this conclusion sentence to Athena’s moveset two second before I upload it dawns upon me “Oh God, I forgot Widget” so before you all comment that, trust me, I noticed.

Character 10: Simon Blackquill

Up tenth in the roster we’ve got Simon Blackquill! Simon was the rival prosecutor in the franchise’s fifth game Dual Destinies and while I don’t frequently see people give him a lot of love I know he has a dedicated fanbase.

As for how he’ll play I want Simon to remain handcuffed for his entire moveset. While this would break canon as he got out of prison at the end of Dual Destinies I can’t let the chance at crafting a handcuff moveset pass me by.

Being handcuffed, Simon’s light attacks won’t have much range at all as he will smack enemies around with his chain. However he will make up for his lack of range by having a lot of power behind his attacks. Meanwhile his heavy combos will take advantage of both his fists and the chain of his handcuffs.

For Simon’s first heavy we will have him put both of his fists together and swing them upward to knock enemies into the air.

The second heavy combo of Simon’s moveset will have him stomp one of his feet in a terrifying way to create a small shockwave around him that’ll knock enemies off their feet.

As a third heavy combo Simon will spin his body around in a circle to smack a wide range of enemies around him with his fists.

Simon’s fourth heavy combo will have him charge forward at enemies like a pull, those not knocked to his sides will get ensnared on his handcuffs before being thrown behind him.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Simon will grab a single enemy and quickly choke them with his chain to deal massive damage before throwing them to his side at other enemies.

Simon’s Musou attack will have him snap his handcuffs, grab an enemy, and swing them around to hit many enemies before his handcuffs reform and the attack ends.

For his attack skills we’re going to have Simon call upon his trusty pet Taka to help him fight enemies. Such as for his first attack skill where Taka will fly forward at an enemy and claw at them.

As a second attack skill Simon will spit a feather forward at enemies as speeds fast enough to slice through several enemies

Finally, for his third attack skill Simon will have Taka fly above him in the sky and drop random objects onto the heads of enemies.

Simon finished! His moveset was an absolute joy to write as I doubt I will ever deal with another completely handcuffed character while writing a roster again!

Character 11: Nahyuta Sahdmadhi

Up 11th we’ve got Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, the main rival prosecutor of Ace Attorney 6: Spirit of Justice! As the Ace Attorney series went on it completely abandoned any sense of being grounded. This is a minor source of debate in the AA fandom but it does have the nice side effect of making the later characters in this roster really easy to write movesets for!

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi will be relatively so compared to some of the other characters in this roster but he will make up for that with great range as he will make use of two “weapons” in his moveset. The first of these is the cloth that floats behind him in the games. Nahyuta will make use of this in his light attacks as he makes it float around him and smack enemies similar to Koshosho in Samurai Warriors 4. However unlike Koshosho he will not be using it to swing around in his heavy combos, rather his heavy combos will have the cloth push enemies in place so they can be hit by his other weapon: beads that he’ll shoot around!

As a first heavy combo Nahyuta will have his cloth wrap around enemies in front of him while he flicks beads at the ground which will then bounce upward at the enemies and knock them into the air.

Nahyuta’s second heavy combo will see his cloth wrap around him in a square formation to push enemies away before he then bounces beads off of it to his sides.

The third heavy combo of Nahyuta’s moveset will see him spin the cloth above his head in a spiral formation as several beads bounce around in many directions.

For his fourth heavy combo Nahyuta will stretch his cloth forward in front of him in two trails before having a bead bounce back and forth between both sides, damaging any enemies it bounces off of.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo Nahyuta will wrap his cloth around a single enemy before pulling them closer and launching a bead in their face for massive damage.

Nahyuta’s musou attack will have him make several gestures with his hands as a large amount of beads fly forward and wrap around the faces of enemies before quickly popping off, dealing massive damage in the process.

For his first attack skill Nahyuta will stretch a string of beads that will quickly pop under stress, sending them flying around at enemies but also reducing Nahyuta’s health as some will hit him in the face.

As a second attack skill Nahyuta will use his cloth to push enemies in front of him away as he himself jumps backwards.

Character 12: Ema Skye

Up twelfth on the roster we’ve got Ema Skye! Ema was initially introduced in the bonus fifth case in the DS port of the first game and then went on to be the main Detective of the fourth game and 3D era of the franchise. Being a main character her placement in this roster was set.

Figuring out how Ema should play is hard as while we obviously want to have her moveset be based around forensic science deciding what her light attacks should be is hard. In the end I decided her light attacks should be spraying enemies with luminol from a spray bottle while her heavy combos will make use of other scientific techniques.

Ema’s first heavy combo will have her hold in her luminol spray bottle to create a constant stream that she will point at the ground and quickly swing up at enemies, launching them into the air.

Then for her second heavy combo Ema will throws scalpels on the ground around her, damaging enemies they hit before landing on the ground as well as enemies who step on them.

As a third heavy combo Ema will pull out some fingerprinting powder but will sneeze and send it flying at enemies all around her.

For her fourth heavy combo Ema will flick four snackoos forward at enemies, hitting them in the face and damaging them.

Finally for her fifth heavy combo Ema will pull out a cast of a footprint she made and proceed to beat enemies with it until it quickly shatters.

Ema’s Musou attack will have her rapidly consume a bag of snackoos, with the earth shaking and enemies around her bouncing up and down with each bite she takes.

For Ema’s first attack skill she will pull out an emergency water bucket and splash cold water onto enemies, damaging them.

Then as a second attack skill Ema will smash a brown vase over the heads of enemies.

Finally for her third attack skill Ema will snap her fingers as Billy the Cactus pops out of the ground and launches enemies into the air.

With Ema Skye finished we are finally done talking about the twelve main characters in the franchise! We have talked about every Defense Attorney, Prosecutor, and living Detectice so for our final six characters I was able to pick whoever I wanted! Let’s move on to our first pick of this final group!

Character 13: Rayfa Padme Khura’in

Up next on the roster we’ve got Rayfa from the sixth mainline Ace Attorney game! While she isn’t a mandatory character like the first twelve characters on this roster I feel her role in the sixth and currently most recent mainline game is big enough to be included here. In addition she is one of few characters in the franchise who we can justify putting on this roster with a weapon as she holds a staff during her Dance of Devotion!

Speaking of the Dance of Devotion, we’re going to use that as the basis for Rayfa’s entire moveset! After running up the enemies and pressing square to begin Rayfa’s light attacks she will begin to dance and any enemy that makes contact with her or her staff shall be damaged!

For her first heavy combo Rayfa will kick her leg high up in front of her mid-dance which will knock some foes into the air.

Rayfa’s second heavy combo will have her stretch her arms around herself as she does in the opening animations of the Dance of Devotion, which will end up whacking enemies next to her with her staff.

As a third heavy combo Rayfa will do a twirl in place for her dance and in the process hit many enemies around her with her staff.

The fourth heavy combo of Rayfa’s moveset will have her wave her hands in front of her as she dances and end up bonking the heads of enemies in front of her.

Finally for her fifth heavy combo Rayfa will finish off the dance with a bow to the ground, any enemy that touches her as she does this animation will take massive damage.

When activating Rayfa’s Musou attack Lady Kee’ra will dash past Rayfa and begin to stab at enemies while Rayfa dances.

Rayfa’s first attack skill will have Shah’do appear and happily run around her, damaging enemies he touches.

As a second attack skill Rayfa will accidentally kick the Founder’s Orb forward at enemies before running forward to pick it up.

Finally, for her third attack skill Rayfa will duck as Armie Buff’s helicopter drone flies overhead and begins to shoot explosive shots at enemies around Rayfa.

Making Rayfa’s entire moveset be centered around the Dance of Devotion was a good idea but after having to watch it on loop for thirty minutes while writing this I never want to see it again!

Character 14: Justine Courtney

Next up on the roster we’ve got Justine Courtney! Justine was one of many, many rival characters in Ace Attorney Investigations 2 who was able to stand out among those rivals by virtue of being our first antagonist judge in the series. Now, while I don’t think I can get away with having the normal judge of this roster as we have literally only seen him get out of his chair once we can at least have Courtney on here for the sake of having some judge representation!

As for how she’ll play I want to take advantage of Courtney’s extendable gavel. It should start at its smallest state and gradually grow as she performs her six light attacks before returning to its smallest size after the sixth light attack or when she performs a heavy combo. This would allow Justine to be a character who can have incredible range but only in specific situations.

For her first heavy combo Justine will swing her shortest gavel directly upward in front of her to knock a few enemies into the air.

As a second heavy combo Justine will slam her short gavel down to her left and then again to her right to smash away enemies too close to her.

Justine’s third heavy combo will have her spin around in a circle with her extended gavel to hit a wide radius of enemies around her.

The fourth heavy combo of Justine’s moveset will have her smash her enlarged gavel down in front of her to hit a group of enemies a fair distance away.

Finally for her fifth heavy combo Justine will push her longest gavel forward at enemies and spin it rapidly, knocking them away and dealing heavy damage

Justine’s Musou Attack will be a reference to the opening scene of Justice For All. When activating the attack a giant, phantom version, of the iconic judge will appear behind her and slam a giant gavel onto enemies.

For her first attack skill Justine will smirk as Dogen’s black dog runs past her and begins to bite at enemies.

As a second attack skill Justine will call upon Sebastian Debeste for help as he runs forward at enemies and swipes at them with his baton.

Finally for her third attack skill Justine will take a step backward as the foot of Moozilla stomps on enemies

I will be completely honest and say that I think this was one of my best moveset ideas on the roster. I’m just really proud of how it turned out!

Character 15: Kay Faraday

Up fifteenth on the roster we’ve got one of Edgeworth’s companions from the Ace Attorney Investigations games: Kay Faraday! Despite technically being an assistant character Kay actually isn’t in the Investigations games that much so I doubt anyone would have noticed her missing from this roster. However I had trouble thinking of how Lang would play so she’s here to fill in for bim!

Being a thief Kay needs to be one of the speedier characters in our roster. I want her light attacks to have her zipping around as she kicks and slaps enemies. Her heavy combos will have her perform some Yatagarasu techniques to startle enemies and steal from them.

The first heavy combo of Kay’s moveset will have her toss a balloon at enemies, popping it and sending them all jumping into the air as they’re startled.

As a second heavy combo Kay will pull out her cell phone to take a picture of herself, as enemies around her are blinded by the flash of her camera she’ll perform a spinning kick on the ground to knock them away.

For her third heavy combo Kay will toss a ton of counterfeit bills into the air that will burst into flames and harm enemies all around her.

Then as a fourth heavy combo Kay will jump forward through the air, attempting to grab enemies’ wallets but failing and instead grabbing them to do damage.

Kay’s fifth heavy combo will have her wrap a red jacket around an enemy as she kicks them to ground and then rolls them into another group of enemies.

For her Musou attack Kay will jump into the air appear to be surrounded by an aura in the shape of the Yatagarasu raven as she swoops forward at enemies.

For her first attack skill Kay will pull out what appears to be a sword and scare enemies. However upon slicing it at them it will shatter and be revealed as a prop.

Kay’s second attack skill will see her kick an enemy to the ground and pull a Swiss roll out of their pocket.

Finally for a third attack skill Kay will pull out two crossbow arrows and use them to grab an enemy like a pair of chopsticks before flipping that enemy into another group of enemies.

Several times while writing this moveset I accidentally called Kay a ninja before undoing that as while she has a bunch of ninja aesthetics I don’t think she actually counts as a ninja. Anyway let’s move on to the character you are all expecting out of this pack.

Character 16: Trucy Wright

Our next “Not 100% needed but the roster would be very weird without them” character is Trucy Wright! As Trucy’s last name states she is the daughter of the franchise’s main protagonist Phoenix, ever since her introduction Trucy has been an incredibly popular character among the fanbase so she absolutely needed to be on here.

For Trucy’s moveset we’re going to take full advantage of her profession: magic tricks! Trucy is a very skilled magician so for each of her attacks I want her to use a different magic trick to harm enemies. Each of these tricks will vary wildly in terms of how much damage they do or how much range they have, making Trucy’s moveset a complete wildcard. Finally, for light attacks we’ll have Trucy whack enemies with a magician’s wand – doing a very small amount of damage with each hit.

The first heavy combo of Trucy’s moveset will have her take off her hat to fire Glitter and confetti at enemies, knocking them into the air.

Trucy’s second heavy combo will have her bring out her Magic Panties and have her pull out a random object before tossing said object to her side. The thrown object will hurt any enemies it touches.

For her third heavy combo Trucy will throw knives around her to hit many as she mentioned being able to do a knife throwing trick in the fourth case of Dual Destinies.

Then as a fourth heavy combo Trucy will pull out an oversized gun and launch a cat named Bullets out of it at enemies in front of her.

As a fifth heavy combo Trucy will have Mr. Hat appear from her cape to deliver a suckerpunch to enemies before retreating back into her cape.

When activating Trucy’s musou attack a large amount of enemies in front of her will be put into a box as she grabs a huge saw and slices them in half!

For her first attack skill Trucy will pull out a stack of playing cards and toss them all around her as she spins to harm a large number of enemies.

Trucy’s second attack skill will see her bring out one of the Gramarye’s golden pistols and fire a shot at enemies.

Finally for her third attack skill Trucy will pull out a rubber sword and poke at enemies enemies, doing light damage but bouncing them away from her.

With Trucy out of the way we have only two characters left. I haven’t put anyone from the Original Trilogy in these final six slots yet so let’s give the last two to AA1 characters!

Character 17: Larry Butz

Up 17th on the roster we’ve got Phoenix’s childhood friend and catalyst for the entire franchise: Larry Butz! Larry may not be talked about as much as many of the other characters on our roster but he’s an essential character to the franchise who has appeared in all but two games!

And in those appearances it has become the norm for Larry to have a different job every time we see him. So for this roster we will construct Larry’s moveset around each of the various jobs he has had in the series. Such as his light attacks which will all have him slapping enemies with a paint brush!

The first heavy combo of Larry’s moveset will have Larry roll a wheel of cheese at the feet of enemies in front of him, knocking them off their feet. Yes, Larry did work at a cheese shop once I too had forgotten it until researching for this article.

As a second heavy combo Larry will pull out and drop a pack of hot dogs around him, enemies will then slip on these hot dogs and receive damage.

Larry’s third heavy combo will have him pull out a camera and take a photo with he camera flash on, ligthly damaging all enemies in the flash’s radius.

For his fourth heavy combo Larry will pull an entire catering table out of nowhere and push it forward, running over enemies in his path.

Finally as his fifth heavy combo Larry will pull out a taser from his time as a security guard and shock an enemy in front of him for massive damage.

Larry’s Musou attack shall have him begin to paint the battlefield around him before he messes up and overreacts by throwing his painting supplies everywhere, damaging many enemies in the process.

For Larry’s first attack skill he’ll duck as an air tank comes flying from behind him toward enemies in front of him.

Character 18: The Steel Samurai

That’s right! For our final slot I’m going to be talking about a character who doesn’t even exist! Ever since the Steel Samurai’s debut in the first Ace Attorney game every game in the franchise has referenced this show in some shape or form so I’m putting him on the roster! He also fulfills a Musou trope that our roster desperately needed: a Spear User!

Gameplay wise I want the Steel Samurai to be the absolute best character on this roster. He needs to be as fast as the wind, hit like a truck, and have long range with his spear!

The first heavy combo of the Steel Samurai’s moveset will have him swipe his spear as pillars of fire appear from under the feet of enemies to launch them high into the air.

Then for a second heavy combo the Steel Samurai will jump into the air before slamming his spear into the ground, causing a small earthquake to hurt enemies around him.

For his third heavy combo the Steel Samurai will spin his spear above his head to create a tornado that’ll suck in and damage enemies all around him.

As a fourth heavy combo the Steel Samurai will have water appear under his feet to push him forward and drown enemies as he strikes a Kabuki pose.

Finally for his fifth heavy combo the Steel Samurai will stab his spear into and enemy and then proceed to slam them against other enemies before releasing then

The Steel Samurai’s Musou attack shall see him climb upon a horse made a steel and charge forward at enemies while swinging his spear.

For his first attack skill the Steel Samurai shall call forth the Pink Princess to stab at enemies in front of him.

As a second attack skill the Steel Samurai will summon his son the Iron Infant and roll him at enemies.

Finally for his third attack skill the Steel Samurai will call upon his copyright free rival the Plumed Punisher to perform a team attack on a single foe.

I absolutely loved writing the Steel Samurai’s moveset. Writing about a character who can actually fight at the end of this roster was such a breath of fresh air!

Conclusion

And we’re finally done! 18 movesets written around the idea of there being an Ace Attorney Musou! Before I close out I would like to answer a few questions

Who would they even be fighting? I have no idea! When you come to me you only get ideas for how everyone would play, not a story!
Why no DGS characters? Because I could make an entire DGS Musou if I wanted to. So in order to avoid bias I made sure to only pick modern day Ace Attorney characters

If you enjoyed this roster please check out my others on the Make a Musou homepage