Curate, connect, and discover
No joke, my dream mainline AA final entry (whether that be AA7 or later) is not one that simply brings back all the beloved living characters from past entries who’ve disappeared (Gumshoe, Franziska, Kay, etc.) I want it to lean hard into the concept of spirit channeling in order to bring back all the former big bads (Dahlia, Manfred, Kristoph, Phantom, etc.) but also the lost loved ones (Gregory, Mia, Clay, Jove, Dhurke, Metis, etc.) for an all-out, true send-off to the mainline series.
It’s Ace Attorney! It can be ridiculous; the stakes get stupidly higher with each game anyway! Let’s say Maya senses there’s havoc being wrecked in the spirit world, and she channels Mia to discover that something has gone terribly awry with Judgment and now everyone who’s ever died in the series is stuck in purgatory, unable to move on into either Heaven or Hell (or whatever equivalent there is in the world of Ace Attorney).
Mia and some other spirits who dealt with justice systems in life (whom we later discover to be the likes of Gregory Edgeworth, Dhurke Sahdmadhi, and Godot) are trying to sort it out, but they simply can’t do it on their own—so Mia is reaching out to the world of the living for help. Now all the main living characters—Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, Maya, Ema, Miles, Gumshoe, Klavier, Simon, Nahyuta, Franziska, everyone—have to team up to help their loved ones find peace and ensure their enemies face justice in the Beyond.
Like, can you imagine what an amazing emotional mess this could be? Miles having to face his father after all the mistakes he made in his life, and them working together to send Manfred to literal hell (and just think about how Franny fits into this dynamic). Apollo and Phoenix needing to unlock Kristoph’s black psychelocks, digging up all the Gavin family skeletons, and requiring Klavier’s help to do it. Simon and Athena and Metis and the actual Bobby Fulbright having to unmask the Phantom for real. The list goes on.
It’s pipe dream, but I’m foaming at the mouth just thinking about it.