Note: I will not list appearances in which the character is playable for either 100% of the game, or 0% of the game

Note 2: I will only count characters who fall under both criteria:

1: The character is playable for 5% or more of a single case.

2: The character at least meets 0.05% of playability for the Series

For this reason, certain characters, like >!Maya Fey!< during >!Farewell, My Turnabout!<, as well as >!Yujin Mikotoba!<, during >!The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo!<, have been excluded.

Note 3: I will not include Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for this, as that game does not have a dedicated story mode.

Note 4: Due to the animation time during the 3D games, I decreased the Story Mode game time for every 3D case by 20%, and used those times as a metric, as opposed to bloating the scores for the 3D cases.

Note 5: Due to the Story Mode of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection taking completely optimal lines during the walking segments, I increases the Story Mode game time for those cases by 20%, and used those times as a metric, as opposed to thinning the scores for those cases.

Phoenix Wright

• 84 Hours 25 Minutes
• 35% of the Series
  • 89% of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 71% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
  • 42% of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 16% of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
    • 55% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
    • 45% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

Ryunosuke Naruhodo

• 52 Hours 40 Minutes
• 22% of the Series
  • 94% of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
    • 91% of The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

Miles Edgeworth

• 50 Hours
• 21% of the Series
  • 5% of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 13% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
  • 95% of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
    • 91% of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit

Apollo Justice

• 35 Hours 15 Minutes
• 15% of the Series
  • 46% of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 84% of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
    • 23% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
    • 46% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

Athena Cykes

• 8 Hours 35 Minutes
• 4% of the Series
  • 11% of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 21% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
    • 9% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

>!Mia Fey!<

• 3 Hours 25 Minutes
• 1% of the Series
  • 6% of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
    • 16% of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations

>!Susato Mikotoba!<

• 2 Hours 40 Minutes
• 1% of the Series
  • 5% of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
    • 9% of The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

>!Gregory Edgeworth!<

• 2 Hours 40 Minutes
• 1% of the Series
  • 5% of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
    • 9% of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit

/uj I could understand removing the Asoryuu post because it was the latter post and it had the same format as the prior one. But removing the Gorestrade one? Why?

Please tag, y’all……

It’s me. I’m “Authors”.

Sources: https://www.ace-attorney.com/assets/images/timeline/PWAA-DD_CRM_en.jpg | https://www.ace-attorney.com/assets/images/timeline/PWAA-SoJ_CRM_en.jpg | https://gyakutensaibanlibrary.blogspot.com/2018/06/15th-anniversary-gyakuten-saiban.html

When Takeshi Yamazaki began working on AA6 (Gyakuten Saiban 6), he decided to focus primarily on Apollo Justice (Odoroki in the 3rd image) and Phoenix Wright (Naruhodō in the 3rd image), having to revoke Athena Cykes' status of protagonists. And, to be explicitly clear for the other games in the series, Mia Fey (and >!Miles Edgeworth!<) are not considered protagonists in Trials and Tribulations, nor are (AAi2 and GAA2 Spoilers) >!Gregory Edgeworth, or Susato Mikotoba considered protagonists for Prosecutor's Gambit or Resolve!<.

With the only exception of Phoenix Wright, no character in the series has been given the status of protagonist, and then have said status revoked. And, as we see with Phoenix Wright, his status of Protagonist was restored with Dual Destinies.

While this one case can be used to support the idea that, yes, Capcom can revisit a past protagonist and make them a protagonist again, the initial problem with that is that Phoenix's return was a very important part of AA5, as stated by Yamazaki himself. As for the main producer of AA5, this was said in the 3DS Gyakuten Saiban 5 Special Long Interview (2013) [note, original linked in source is in Japanese, hence why I'm not linking that source, and instead sourcing a translation of that]:

>Interviewer: Had it been the plan right from the start that you’d bring Naruhodō back for 5?

>Eshiro: It had already been decided at the concept stage that we’d have Naruhodō back as the main protagonist.

Using that as a basis, we can see that, from the very beginning of AA5's development, it was planned to have Phoenix return as a / the main protagonist (note: of my very limited knowledge of japanese, I believe there is no difference between "a main protagonist" and "the main protagonist", so the usage of "the main protagonist" may not be accurate to what Eshiro meant). However, we still need to know why they decided to have Phoenix return. And, thankfully, we have an official explanation:

>Interviewer: So you wouldn’t ignore Gyakuten Saiban 4?

>Eshiro: No. However, Naruhodō wasn’t practicing law anymore in Gyakuten Saiban 4, so what were we going to do? But he himself had said at the very end of the game: “Maybe I’ll try passing the bar again.” And if we followed up on that, how would this Naruhodō turn up? I wanted to see that.

For those who know about the credits of AA6, you'll know that Athena Cykes does have some choice words. Specifically:

>Athena: I've been pulling double duty ever since Apollo left, but that's okay. I'm going to make Simon recognize me for the awesome lawyer that I am!

>Widget: She's quaking in her boots!

>Athena: Tsk, Widget! I can do it! And I will! Mr. Wright will be calling me his right-hand woman before you know it! Let's do this!

However, it is very important to know what the Japanese text says as well, to ensure that it is as accurate as possible. Here's the Japanese text:

>ココネ: オドロキ先輩が抜けた穴はわたしがバッチリ埋めて・・・・夕神さんにわたしが一人前だって認めさせてみせます！

>モニタ: ヒトリジャ ファンダヨー！ヒトリジャ ファンダヨー！

>ココネ: コ、コラ、モニ太！そ、そんなことありません！今にナルホドさんの右腕と呼ばれる弁護士になってみせます！Let's Do This!

(yes, Athena says "Let's Do This!" in pure english, as a reference to her theme song, literally titled, even in the Japanese listing of the soundtrack, "Let's do this!")

Plugging that into a google translator, we get:

>Athena: I’ll perfectly fill the void left by Apollo-Senpai... and prove to Blackquill-san that I’m a full-fledged lawyer!

>Widget: I can't do it alone! I can't do it alone!

>Athena: H-Hey, Widget! T-That's not true! I'm going to become a lawyer known as Wright-san's right-hand woman! Let's do this!

With this, we can confirm that both the English and Japanese versions convey the same general meaning, with slight changes, except for one change, that of Widget's "I can't do this alone!". If we take what this is to mean, this feels like a hint towards the next developers that while, yes, Phoenix is the most marketable protagonist in the series, to the point of landing upon Capcom's top 10 most popular characters according to Capcom's Super Elections, and landing in 2nd place according to just the Japanese votes. According to the full results, Athena Cykes landed in 89th place, which isn't half bad at all, considering that you could only vote for a single character across the entire Capcom series (including Resident Evil, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, etc.), not to mention that she got more total votes than Sonia Strum, who placed among Japanese-Side Top 10 Capcom Women.

On the topic of Athena Cykes being the next protagonist of a potential Ace Attorney game, that begs the question of "does Capcom actually want to make a new Ace Attorney game?", which I feel the answer is extremely obvious:

YES

In terms of awaiting a sequel or new game, Ace Attorney wasn't just 8th overall, but was 1st in Japan, having over 500 votes compared to Monster Hunter, which was in 2nd place for Japan. This also isn't considering how 2/3rds of the top 3 favorite Capcom games in Japan are Ace Attorney games, with 3 of the top 10 being Ace Attorney games. On top of that, Ace Attorney is both solidly within the top 10 Capcom Series, both Internationally and in Japan.

Regardless, the possibility of Athena Cykes being a protagonist in the next game is all contingent on whoever is producing, directing, and / or writing the next game. Unfortunately, Takeshi Yamazaki left Capcom, so most people assume that Shu Takumi would lead the mainline series afterwards. However, unlike what most people may suspect, this could be fantastic news.

Shu Takumi stated the following to the Official Nintendo Magazine UK: "I felt that Phoenix's story had been told, and that the series should not continue. Knowing when to end a story is very important and I wanted to avoid dragging it out and having it become a shadow of its former self."

The part where he says "Phoenix's story had been told" gives me hopes that, if Shu Takumi were to direct the next game, Phoenix would not be the main protagonist. Of course, this does bring into question of wether Shu Takumi would follow up on Athena Cykes, but given the message given by Athena at the end of Spirit of Justice, I find it evident that Shu Takumi would feel that Athena Cykes' story had not been fully told. In fact, I dare say that, if Shu Takumi directs Ace Attorney 7, a potential Athena Cykes game, he'll craft it in a way to ensure that it wraps up Athena's arc, finish the Lamioir plotline in a DLC case (or, somehow, naturally weave it into AA7), and finish the game in a way where there's nowhere to go afterwards.

Of course, there's the fear that Shu Takumi would create a completely different protagonist. However, we've seen with Shu Takumi's other protagonists, Apollo Justice and Ryunosuke Naruhodo, that Shu Takumi typically can't create a protagonist for a new Ace Attorney game and complete their arc within what one would consider to be a single, standalone game. He would absolutely want to end a series that, as he has clearly stated, "should not continue", and introducing a new protagonist and completely ignoring someone who was set up in the prior game's credits to be the primary protagonist of the next game, would still allow room for the series to continue, which goes against what Shu Takumi would want.

As for the possibility of Shu Takumi continuing The Great Ace Attorney, I'd give that an absolute 0 chance. He concluded that game to a degree that is completely unrivaled by any other game's conclusion in the series. I have no doubts that he would be fiercely opposed to the idea of continuing one of the only two overarching stories that he managed to conclude (Ghost Trick and Great Ace Attorney).

All of that said, there is a chance that Shu Takumi would not be the main writer of the next game, but any other main writer would likely not be so bold as to create a new protagonist for the series, at least not until they've written a game or two for it prior. Trying to fill in either Takeshi Yamazaki's shoes or Shu Takumi's shoes would be like climbing a vertical mountain with no climbing equipment. They'd likely want to start safe, and take what was made before, and expound upon what was hinted at, hence Athena Cykes' post-credits scene.

I'll admit that there is a possibility that Capcom would make an AA7 completely centered around either Phoenix Wright or some new protagonist, and completely ignore Athena Cykes, but I'll cross that burning bridge when I come to it.

If I didn’t draw Robin Newman in the “God, you’re pathetic” pose, no one else would. So I’m proud of the results, despite what Robin Newman says.

https://bckl.gg/vy12

In the notes is the difference in score. For example, if a game is rated at a 4/5, but I have it as a 3.5/5, then I'd write "0.5 (Negative)".