Michael Beckwith 
Ahead of the release of the Ace Attorney Investigations collection, Capcom has shared an official timeline of the series detailing the chronology of all its games.
While veterans of the series will be plenty familiar with the Ace Attorney timeline, this is handy for newer fans who’ve only recently experienced the games for themselves. It’s also fitting for Capcom to share this now. Once the Investigations collection launches on September 6, the entire Ace Attorney series will be available on current platforms, with the exception of the 2012 crossover game with Professor Layton.
With any luck, between all these re-releases, this is Capcom’s way of prepping fans for an eventual Ace Attorney 7. A new sequel hasn’t been formally announced yet, but producer Kenichi Hashimoto did say in a 4Gamer interview that the series would continue.
What is the chronological order of the Ace Attorney games?
Capcom revealed the official timeline of the Ace Attorney series, from the original game to present day.
The chronology of all the Ace Attorney games looks like this:
- The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures (late 19th century)
- The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve (late 19th century)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2016-2017)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All (2017-2018)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (2018-2019)
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (2019)
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor’s Gambit (2019)
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (2026)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (2027)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (2028)
Chronologically, the first Ace Attorney games are the two The Great Ace Attorney titles, which is ironic as they’re some of the more recent entries in the series, originally launching in 2015 and 2017. Both games are set in the late 19th century.
The first Ace Attorney game is set roughly 100 years later. Its sequel, Justice For All, takes place a year later, with the third game, Trials and Tribulations set a year after that. Both of the Ace Attorney Investigations games then take place just a month later.
This is all followed by a timeskip of seven years, leading into Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The next game, Dual Destinies, then takes place the following year. The final entry is Spirit of Justice, which is set a year after Dual Destinies.
While the games typically don’t state what year they’re set in, fans have deduced a slightly more specific timeline of events. This is thanks to the DL-6 Incident, an important event that took place before the first game. Without spoiling anything, it’s stated the DL-6 Incident happened on December 28, 2001. Since the first Ace Attorney is explicitly set 15 years later, this means the events of the game happen in 2016. From there, the exact years of the subsequent games can be easily deduced.
