Unused content in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Justice for All
This page aims to catalogue all the unused and cut content of the second game in the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series — Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Justice for All.
The majority of the findings presented here were discovered by me, the author of this article, while I was fan-translating the game. However, some content was uncovered by folks at court-records.net, tcrf.net and other contributors.
In general, most of the unused content mentioned here is present in the GBA, NDS, and 3DS versions. However, there are exceptions. For instance, the GBA version does not feature any unused English dialogue since it was only released in Japan. The 2019 re-release of the Trilogy contains only a small fraction of the unused content.
This article contains spoilers.
2026.02.11 update: improved text flow and wording throughout the article, added one new entry to the Unused Animations section (Mia Fey (channeled)).
Unused Dialogues
The unused dialogues were extracted from the game scripts and may contain spelling errors due to them being unused. The provided English translation was taken from the American NDS version of the game.
Unused Dialogues: Case 2, Part 1, Investigation
Dialogue #1
Location: Wright & Co. Law Offices.
Context: Upon returning to Wright & Co. Law Offices and examining the newspaper on the desk (after visiting Kurain village).
| Unused English Dialogue | Unused Japanese Dialogue |
|
Phoenix:
...That newspaper clipping
Dr. Grey must have forgotten
Newspaper Clipping 1 added |
Naruhodo:
‥‥新聞記事の切り抜きが
きのうの夜、霧崎先生が
証拠品《新聞記事・１》を |
Commentary: In the final game when the player returns to Wright & Co. Law Offices after visiting Kurain village, the game automatically starts the following dialogue:
| Regular Dialogue |
|
June 20
Phoenix: But it's only been one day... (Oh, that's right!)
Where's that newspaper
...Ah, here it is. Right on
(This is the only thing he
Newspaper Clipping 1 added |
The newspaper then disappears from the desk, making it impossible to examine it again and activate the unused dialogue.
In the final game, Gumshoe is the one who brings attention to this newspaper. However, if the player visits the Wright & Co. Law Offices before speaking with him, this scene makes little, if any, sense.
According to the unused dialogue, an earlier version of the script did not force the player to take the newspaper before discussing it with Gumshoe. Instead, the player could examine the newspaper and pick it up of their own accord. If they had already spoken to him, the story proceeded as it does in the final game, with Phoenix automatically taking the newspaper upon returning to the office.
On the other hand it could just be a mere bug, where the developers accidentally allowed the "Wright autopicks the newspaper" dialogue to trigger at any time.
Dialogue #2
Location: Side room of the Fey Manor.
Context: When confronting Ini Miney after she "actives" her Psyche-Locks.
| Unused English Dialogue | Unused Japanese Dialogue |
|
Phoenix:
▼Select your answer▼
Phoenix: |
Naruhodo:
▼ぼくのコタエを示そう▼
Naruhodo: |
Commentary: In the final game, the player must present Maya's Magatama in order to start breaking Psyche-Locks. The unused lines above suggest that during the first Psyche-Lock encounter the game would directly offer the choice to the player — probably to get their attention and thus avoid confusion associated with the newly introduced gameplay mechanic.
There is also a possibility that this was the original way to start the Psyche-Lock breaking sequence.
The "Try to break it" and "Don't try" graphics are still present in the game data, see the "Unused Choices" section.
Unused Dialogues: Case 3, Part 1, Investigation
Dialogue #1
Location: Big Top.
Context: Upon presenting Ben's puppet, Trilo, to Regina.
| Unused English Dialogue | Unused Japanese Dialogue |
|
Regina:
He's not moving...
Maya: |
Mirika:
‥‥動かないね。
Mayoi: |
Commentary: In the final game, after the player obtains Trilo, Regina leaves the Big Top. Since she does not reappear until after the puppet is returned to Ben, there is no opportunity to present this item to her.
Dialogue #2
Location: Wright & Co. Law Offices.
Context: When showing a Berry Big Circus member profile to Maya.
| Unused English Dialogue | Unused Japanese Dialogue |
|
Maya: And so incredibly strange...
Phoenix:
Maya:
Phoenix: |
Mayoi: ヘンなヒトばっかり。
Naruhodo:
Mayoi:
Naruhodo: |
Commentary: This conversation was probably meant to be used for the profiles of the circus performers that had no unique dialogues associated with them. In the final game, however, Maya has unique reactions to each one of them, and thus these lines remain unused.
Placeholder Captions/Icons
In the Japanese version of Ace Attorney for Nintendo DS/3DS, each item in the Court Record consists of two icons and two separate boxes (images) that contain caption/age text and description data respectively.
In the English version, icons and captions are stored just like in the Japanese version. However, since text for the western languages usually requires more space, the localized descriptions were separated into a completely new set of graphics assets containing a much larger area, while the original description assets were repurposed to contain the age data and additional info not found in the Japanese version.
The game contains a set of large and small icons. The small icons are only used in the Court Record menu to represent available evidence. However, some full-sized icons that appear only on the top screen (and were never meant to be evidence) also have smaller-sized versions that go unused. This should not come as a surprise: the developers likely batch-converted all large icons and never bothered to remove the redundant files.
Strictly speaking, Justice for All does not contain any unused evidence, but it does contain captions for certain items that are only displayed on the top screen for illustration purposes. Most likely, they were never meant to appear in the Court Record as actual evidence, since their age and description boxes are empty in both the English and Japanese versions; moreover, in the GBA version, their description boxes contain the word "Dummy."
Case 1 — Maya's Cell Phone
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: Maya's cell phone makes its appearance in the first episode.
Case 2 — Received from Lotta Hart
Caption (ENG/JAP):
Commentary: At first glance this caption does not make much sense. One might even think that someone accidentally inserted the wrong text. The answer to this curiosity is found in the GBA version:
メモ・・ダミー
(Received from Lotta
memo... Dummy)
As it turns out, the Japanese text was so long it overflowed into the description graphics. When the game was ported to the Nintendo DS, only the first line was retained, causing the original context to be lost.
This memo is actually mentioned in the game:
| Regular Dialogue |
|
Lotta:
Phoenix:
Lotta: |
When she says "I'll give ya the clinic's address", a crumpled memo icon appears on the screen:
Case 2 — Manfred von Karma
Big/Small Icon (both not used):
Commentary: Seemingly, this is the only big icon that never appears in the game. It was clearly not intended for the Court Record profile section, as there is no corresponding empty caption or description; instead, it was likely meant to be displayed when a character mentions Manfred von Karma during dialogue.
Case 3 — Grapes
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: This grape icon is shown during the first encounter with the clown Moe.
Case 3 — Milk
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A milk carton given to Max by Regina during court proceedings.
Case 3 — Playing Card
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A playing card used by Max.
Case 3 — Playing Cards
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A pack of playing cards used by Max.
Case 3 — Tiger
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: Regina's tiger.
Case 3 — Untorn Note
Caption (ENG/JAP), Big Icon (used):
Commentary: When the player obtains the upper part of Acro's note, its caption in the Court Record reads "Note". After finding the lower part and restoring the note, its caption stays unchanged.
The caption above suggests that, at one point, the restored note was intended to be titled "Untorn Note" instead.
Case 4 — Cat
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A cat named "Shoe" that lived in Engarde's house.
Case 4 — Clock
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A clock from Corrida's hotel room.
Case 4 — Crumpled Note
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: Curiously, this icon has a second caption, even though there are no other copies of it in the game files.
Case 4 — Detector
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: This was probably the earlier name of Gumshoe’s Bug Sweeper.
Case 4 — Gumshoe's Coat
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: Karma uses it to bring the items dropped by de Killer.
Case 4 — Receiver
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: This receiver was used by Karma to spy on Detective Gumshoe.
Case 4 — Sealed Letter
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: An ordinary sealed letter. Could be the original name of the "Letter of Introduction" evidence.
Case 4 — Uniform Button
Caption (ENG/JAP), Small Icon (not used):
Commentary: A button from the bellboy's uniform. At one point it could have had a more prominent role as a red herring. In the final game, though, Karma only briefly mentions it when showing de Killer's possessions.
Dummy Icons
Floor Plans
Commentary: These are large and small dummy icons that contain descriptions of their intended content. Interestingly, the second small dummy icon appears garbled.
Unused Questions
Questions appear on the bottom screen when you talk to characters during investigations.
Graphics of the same type are usually grouped together. "Question" and "Answer" graphics are mostly sorted based on their order of appearance in the game, though there are some exceptions.
Based on its position in the game files, this question was likely intended for use during the second episode.
Unused Choices
Choices mostly appear on the bottom screen during court proceedings and affect the course of actions.
"Try to break it" does not have the Japanese equivalent.
These unused choices were orinaly used in the deleted dialogue, see the "Unused Dialogues: Case 2, Part 1, Investigation" section for more information.
Unused Graphics (GBA)
Note: The GBA release features all the unused content from the DS version. The images below only appear in the GBA version.
Demo Version Image
Gyakuten Saiban 2 features the demo version title screen from the original game.
Background Placeholder 1
A background placeholder that says something like "Two persons talking".
Unused Graphics (DS)
Demo Version Image
This is the ending screen from the demo version. Some parts appear discolored due to incorrect conversion: the image uses the first 32 palette colors, which are reserved for the UI and not intended for backgrounds.
Unlock all Episodes Promt
The Japanese version allows the players to unlock all episodes if the GBA Gyakuten Saiban 2 cartridge is present in the GBA slot. Since the NDS version is the first release of the game outside Japan, this feature was programmatically disabled for the Western versions, but the corresponding images were left as is.
Background Placeholder 2
(Toshiro's Defendant Lobby No. 2)
The GBA and DS versions also contain another background placeholder that containt the text "Toshiro's Defendant Lobby No. 2".
The identity of this Toshiro remains a mystery, as no one by that name is found among the development team of Gyakuten Saiban 1 or 2. Furthermore, the artwork of the Defendant Lobby was created for the original game and has been used since then without any changes.
In the second game, there is only one other background depicting a Defendant Lobby: the intro scene from the first episode, The Lost Turnabout. In this shot, Phoenix is seen lying on a couch on the right, while Wellington stands on the left holding a fire extinguisher. Incidentally, this scene takes place in Defendant Lobby No. 2.
One might assume Toshiro is the Japanese name for Richard Wellington; however, his official name in the original version is Takamasa Moroheiya. Given the evidence, it is possible that Toshiro was an early developmental name for the character.
Rise from the Ashes Button
An episode select button for Rise from the Ashes remains left over from the first game. The presence of this graphics suggests that the second game was built directly on top of the first game's engine and assets (which, in turn, was derived from the GBA Gyakuten Saiban 3 codebase).
Unused Background Thumbnail
Background thumbnails are used on the bottom screen to represent available locations within the Move menu.
Since the player never gets a chance to visit the Berry Big Circus at night, this thumbnail goes unused.
Unused Animations
Manfred von Karma
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Manfred von Karma makes his appearance in the second game only in flashback scenes.
He has three unique animations in the internal files, but the one shown here is the only one that remains unused.
Mia Fey (channeled)
This unused head shaking animation of Mia channeled by Maya first appeared in the original game. However, this time it goes unused: in Justice for All Mia is instead channeled by Pearl for the majority of the story.
In Gyakuten Saiban Jiten it is listed as 首ふり(助手席) / Head shaking (assistant), but is not marked as unused.
Kudos to MF5K for discovering it and providing some additional information.
Unused Sprites
All the unused sprites listed below are exclusive to the Art of Gyakuten Saiban book and are not present in the game files in any form.
Mia Fey (Pearl)
It is hard to say whether this rather risqué sprite was meant to appear in the game or if it was a tongue-in-cheek joke, but it looks similar to Mia's default sprite when she is channeled by Pearl.
Then again, this and the following game contain implicit phallic symbols, so its existence may not be entirely accidental.
Pearl Fey
This sprite is identical to Pearl's default pose, except she is blushing. It is quite possible that, at one point, the character was intended to have a separate blushing animation.
Maggey Byrde
This sprite was most likely removed because a near-identical version already existed.
Another unused sprite with Maggey taken aback. Its purpose was, most likely, to be used as a transition between the other two sprites, but for some reason it remained unimplemented.
Adrian Andrews
This sprite eventually found use in Ace Attorney — Trials and Tribulations, but it may have been originally intended for the second game. In the Art of Gyakuten Saiban book she is depicted with a blue top, matching her Justice for All design, rather then the black one from Trials and Tribulations. On the other hand, her hairstyle is similar to the the third game, which somewhat disproves this theory.
Richard Wellington
The Art of Gyakuten Saiban lists it under the title コワレ / Breakdown. As the name suggests, this sprite was once part of Wellington's breakdown animation.
Notably, his original color scheme featured a red costume instead of the final blue one.
Early Sprite Design
First of all, it should be noted that the following images are definitely not character artwork; they were clearly intended for in-game use. Their poses and general similarity to the final sprites further support this claim.
When comparing them, please keep in mind that the hues may not accurately reflect their original appearance, as these frames were obtained from imperfect paper scans.
The images below do not appear in the game files in any form.
Pearl Fey
In the final game, when Pearl is crying, she only moves her right hand while the left remains stationary. In an earlier version of this animation, however, she rubbed her eyes with both hands.
Unused Music
Because the second game was built directly on top of the first one, it contains several leftover music tracks from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney:
- Maya Fey ~ Turnabout Sisters' Theme 2001
- Ace Attorney ~ End (Credits Theme)
- Unknown Track BGM009 (Unused Track from AA1)
- Jingle ~ It Can't End Here (Save Jingle)
- Ace Attorney ~ Prologue (AA1 Case 1 Intro)
- Investigation ~ Opening 2001
- Marvin Grossberg ~ Age, Regret, Retribution
- Reminiscence ~ Heartbroken Maya
Trivia
This section covers various minor details and trivia that do not fall under any specific category.
Starting from the Nintendo DS re-release, a lobster's tail in Viola Hall was censored out in both the Japanese and Western versions due to its suggestive look:
This background remained altered in all subsequent versions up to the 3DS re-release, where it finally appeared in its full glory again.
Surprisingly, there is another instance of censorship, only this time it went the other way around:
Before the arrival of the 3DS re-release, Dr. Grey pushed his glasses back with the middle finger, but for the 3DS release he was redrawn to use his index finger instead. This change affected both the English and Japanese versions, and was carried over into the latest Trilogy HD re-release.
While this change makes sense, it raises the question of why developers bothered to edit out a harmless lobster's tail while leaving the more offensive middle finger gesture intact for so many years.
Since the game was built on top of the first one, it also contains all of its junk graphics, such as the Japanese GBA Bubbles, GBA UI Buttons and Language Buttons among other things.