Fan Made Ace Attorney Cases

[Caecae97]

So, if you've ever played an Ace Attorney game, you may have created your own case in your imagination or in a fan fiction. If you do, here's a place to share and critique them. Here's one of mine

Client is accused of attempting a bank robbery. He was supposedly hiding in a bag that the guards driving to the bank believed was a bag of money that had somehow fallen off another armored truck. The doctor reported that the client had many bruises similar to those of a rough ride, assuming he got the bruises from the drive to the bank in the back of the armored truck. Phoenix presents the bag that his client supposedly hid in. He brings to the attention of everyone, including a shocked prosecutor, that unless he had an accomplice, which there is no evidence of him having, that he could not have tied the bag shut from the outside while hiding inside of the bag. In classic Ace Attorney style, one of the bank guards who was a witness for the prosecution beat the defendant unconscious, stuffed him in the bag, and tried to dispose of his body by putting him in the bank vault, where he would have suffocated to death because bank vaults are airtight and have no ventilation. The defendant woke up and broke out of the bag, setting off alarms and leading to his arrest​

 

[Belle T]

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding why they would see someone covered in bruises after being apparently stuffed in a bag and assume that they were the culprit, rather than the victim of assault. I'm aware that the prosecution in the Ace Attorney games are nakedly corrupt, but it does remind me a bit of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, End of Days, where the investigators walk into a crime scene and see a man who has quite literally been crucified and tied to the ceiling, and Schwarzenegger's assistant says with complete earnesty, "Maybe he did that himself?" That is to say, it stretches my suspension of disbelief a little. Perhaps there is a detail in the bag that would suggest the culprit deliberately used it? Perhaps he's a magician whose act involves getting out of a bag. As is, while the police would definitely want to keep the victim around for questioning, I don't know if I think they'd immediately jump to the conclusion that he was the culprit given the current amount of information available.

I also feel like you need to establish some more details. Chiefly-

• Who is the prosecutor in this case? Is it an original prosecutor or one that has been in the series before? If this were someone like Edgeworth, for example, I would find this especially hard to believe, given his character development in the first game.
• When in the series does this take place? Different rules generally apply to the first three games than they do the more modern games.
• Who are the other characters? The victim, the witnesses, etc.? What are their names, their backstories, their motivations, their personalities, their relationships, etc.? What are their strengths and weaknesses? There is more to the average Ace Attorney case than simply "who done it?" Usually there are many twists and turns as the truth unravels, and we learn that even if the defendant may be innocent, they also have secrets and insecurities that they'd like to hide. Sometimes they're not guilty of a particular crime, but are, in fact, not necessarily innocent, either.
• What is the current status quo of the Wright Anything Agency? Beyond Phoenix's usual devotion to his clients, what stake does he have in ensuring this victim is declared innocent? How does he learn and grow through the course of the case?
• Same question, but for the prosecution.

I think you have the right train of thought, but you need to establish a lot more in the case's background, history, etc. before getting into the real meat of the plot.