| Miles Edgeworth | |
| Series: | Ace Attorney |
| First: | (2001) |
| Creator: | Shu Takumi |
| Designer: | Tatsurō Iwamoto |
| Occupation: | Prosecutor |
Miles Edgeworth, known as in original Japanese language versions, is a fictional prosecutor in Ace Attorney, a visual novel adventure video game series created by Japanese company Capcom. Initially introduced as a cold-hearted perfectionist, he appears as the antagonistic rival to main character Phoenix Wright in (2001). Following the events of the first game, the character has a change of heart and reappears as a friendly rival in most subsequent entries. He was created by Shu Takumi and designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto, being a character more difficult for Takumi to create compared to Phoenix. Edgeworth went on to star in two of his own spin-off games, (2009) and its sequel.
Edgeworth has also made appearances in extended Ace Attorney media, such as film and animation, as well as several cameo appearances in titles outside of the main Ace Attorney series. He has been generally well received by critics and fans, identified as one of the best new video game characters of the 2000s by GamesRadar+. The relationship between Phoenix and Edgeworth has also been the subject of critical commentary.
Edgeworth's first appearance was in , where he is introduced as an antagonist prosecutor with a perfect record, who would do anything to win a trial; he is presented as respectable, but cold and ruthless. Throughout the game, the perception of Edgeworth changes, starting in episode three when he, for reasons then unknown, suddenly helps Wright to corner a witness. In the next episode, Edgeworth finds himself accused of murder, and Wright defends him on detective Dick Gumshoe's request against Manfred von Karma, Edgeworth's austere adoptive father and mentor, who won every case in his 40-year prosecutorial career. It is revealed during this episode that Wright and Edgeworth, along with Larry Butz, were childhood friends, and that Manfred von Karma murdered Miles's father, the defense attorney Gregory Edgeworth, and raised Miles as a prosecutor under his wing as revenge for a minor penalty tarnishing his otherwise spotless record. Edgeworth blamed himself for his father's death, a fact that led to him becoming a prosecutor instead of a defense attorney. In "Rise from the Ashes", a fifth episode included in all subsequent editions of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, he is plagued by rumors about his past as a prosecutor, abandoning his job and disappearing. He returns in , having figured out what it means to be a prosecutor. He assists Phoenix and his adoptive sister, Franziska von Karma, the prosecutor of that game in taking down the final villain of the game. He appears again in in Phoenix's place on his request when Phoenix becomes incapactiated. The game also shows Edgeworth's first case as a prosecutor, where he faces off against Mia Fey.
Edgeworth gained a starring role in the spin-off , in which he investigates murders relating to a smuggling ring. During the course of the game, he meets Kay Faraday, a young self-proclaimed "great thief", who acts as his assistant in a similar vein to Maya. A flashback case focuses on a younger Edgeworth investigating a case early in his career, explaining how he and Detective Dick Gumshoe first met. In , Edgeworth comes under fire by the Committee for Prosecutorial Excellence, who seek to have him stripped of his badge. Edgeworth begins investigating cases tied to a larger conspiracy and cover-up, including the last case his father took before his murder, and struggles between his life path of becoming a defense attorney like his father, or continuing as a prosecutor.
Edgeworth returns as a friendly rival in and , with Dual Destinies set eight years after Trials and Tribulations. Edgeworth assists Phoenix in solving mysteries in each game and serves as a prosecutor in a limited capacity, filling in for Simon Blackquill and Nahyuta Sahdmadhi respectively.
Edgeworth has appeared in other media adaptations of Ace Attorney. In the Japanese Ace Attorney stage musical Ace Attorney – Truth Resurrected, staged by the all-female troupe Takarazuka Revue, Asahi Miwa portrays Leona Clyde, an original composite character based on Edgeworth and Lana Skye, depicted as Phoenix Wright's love interest, who defended him in his childhood class trial as a young girl in place of Edgeworth. While Edgeworth is also present in the musical and its sequel Ace Attorney 2 – Truth Resurrected, Again (in which Leona is established to have died) as a separate minor character, respectively portrayed in each by Hikaru Nanaho and Hiro Yūmi, he is merely a rival to Wright with no personal connection to him.[1]
Takumi Saito portrays Edgeworth in the 2012 live-action film Ace Attorney, loosely adapting his role in the first game; Roi Hayashi plays Edgeworth as a child. Edgeworth appears in the 2016 Ace Attorney anime series, which adapts the events of the first three games in the series; he is voiced by Masashi Tamaki in Japanese and Christopher Wehkamp in English. Edgeworth also appears as a recurring character in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney manga series, as well as the main character of its spinoff series, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.[2]
According to game designer Shu Takumi, Edgeworth was difficult to develop as a character compared to protagonist Phoenix Wright. Edgeworth's character came together once Takumi decided he would be rich. In the original game, Takumi designed Edgeworth to be an unlikable and tragic character. This is seen in Manfred von Karma raising Edgeworth to be a prosecutor and then prosecuting him for murder, just to have his revenge against Edgeworth's father.[3]
In Edgeworth's original design, he was going to be a 36-year-old veteran prosecutor, but the staff decided that was not interesting enough as a rival. When Shu Takumi saw the second version of the character, he decided to create the backstory between him and Wright. The design team gave him a cravat to make a distinct silhouette but did not finalize that addition until finalizing von Karma's design.[4] He worked with yaoi character designer Kumiko Suekane to make the relationship between Phoenix and Edgeworth more interesting, with Suekane being responsible for helping develop certain personality traits of both characters. Iwamoto designed early versions of the elder Miles and a mentor man, and was quite sad when they went away. He wanted to re-use them somewhere in the game. So he reworked that old Miles a bit and he became Manfred von Karma from the first game. The same design was used for the judge. Atsushi Inaba was shocked over seeing them.
Due to feeling it would be sad if Edgeworth kept losing each trial to Phoenix, due in part to his popularity, choosing instead to have a new opponent for Phoenix in Justice for All. He devised the character of Franziska von Karma as a result and rewrote most of the game's dialogue.[5] When Takumi saw a comic depicting Edgeworth liking the Steel Samurai, he decided that a more likable Edgeworth would be "cuter", and so Edgeworth was fleshed out into the valuable friend and ally seen since Farewell, My Turnabout.[3] Edgeworth's final scene from the second game was one of Inaba's final parts.[6]
For the third game, Takumi noted that Edgeworth had a become a popular character, even more than Phoenix which led to ideas with how use him Takumi was against Edgeworth to turn into this supposedly a prosecutor who still manages to lose every case against Phoenix. This led to alterations from the first trilogy with Edgeworth appearing in the end of the second game to support Phoenix and ultimately becoming playable in the third. Takumi was already writing the story for the final case of the third game when he such concept, but it was such a 'lightbulb' moment for me that the writer immediately started rewriting my draft. This led to the scene were Phoenix goes to the hospital in the final case. Takumi enjoyed writing Edgeworth in the third game, finding it refreshing as such character had different ideas from Phoenix. He also like exploring his relationship Detective Gumshoe, which made him love the latter character even more.[7]
The older Edgeworth in Dual Destinies went through many iterations. In the first design, he had large frills that went down to his thighs. In other designs, he had grown facial hair. In the end, Edgeworth retained an "elegant" look, with rolled-back sleeves and vest, and sporting a longer coat and a pair of glasses, appearing more like his father.
In 2009, GamesRadar+ hailed Miles Edgeworth as one of the best new video game characters of the decade. Staff felt that Edgeworth was a more complex character than Phoenix, believing that "in a perfect world" he would be the protagonist instead.[8] The staff of the Adventure Gamers not only named him the best character of 2010 but also "one of the most intriguing characters ever to grace an adventure game". They felt that Edgeworth stole the show from Pheonix, expressing appreciation to seeing Phoenix and Edgeworth's relationship develop and that Edgeworth was getting his own spinoff.[9] Malindy Hetfeld of PC Gamer also praised Edgeworth's characterization and multi-installment character arc for communicating "a simple yet powerful message—before you can show justice to other people, you have to experience justice yourself". She concluded that "it’s reassuring that sometimes it takes even videogame characters years to settle into themselves."[10] In a 2024 survey released by Capcom, Miles Edgeworth was voted as the #1 most popular character of the Apollo Justice trilogy, followed by Phoenix and Apollo.[11]
While reviewing , Touch Arcade lauded how "his collected personality [in the game] provides a fun contrast to the usual hapless protagonists found in this franchise.";[12] Reviewing its sequel, Noisy Pixel praised the game for "hon[ing] in on Edgeworth as a character, making me appreciate him and his circumstances far more than any previous game [in the ''Ace Attorney'' series] did", describing him as a "fan-favorite",[13] with The Daily Trojan likewise complimenting "Edgeworth’s take on morally ambiguous shortcuts" over the course of the narrative, with the "morally gray setting within the game challeng[ing] Edgeworth" straight "through [to] his steady [character] development".[14] Anime News Network praised Edgeworth's role in the 2016 Ace Attorney anime series' seventh episode, an expansion of the character's backstory.[15]
The relationship between Phoenix and Edgeworth has become one of the most popular character ships in video games according to Inverse writer Hayes Madsen. He noted elements of the series' canon that could be interpreted as romantic between the two, including much of Phoenix's life being about reaching out to and understanding Edgeworth, as well matching wedding rings released as merchandise. He felt that two men expressing their love and care for each other stood in contrast to typical video game "machismo".[16] Senior narrative designer of Gameloft Claire Stenger described them as "two men dancing around each other," citing the influence of yaoi artist Kumiko Suekane on Takumi's design process in making the relationship between the two more interesting.[16] Takumi commented on the pairing, stating that he depicted their relationship in Justice for All as a "rekindling" of their relationship. His intent was to depict how strong a bond two men can share, but acknowledged that there were people who depicted this bond in a romantic context.[16] TechRadar noted his rivalry with Phoenix had inspired the LGBTQ+ community when creating their own games.[17] One exchange between the two rivals as Edgeworth mentions that seeing Phoenix's return gave him unnecessary feeling is famous for being taken out of context as a subtle way of Edgeworth being in love something that heavily appealed to the LGBTQ+ community.[18] The San Francisco Chronicle praised the "dadification" of Miles Edgeworth through his "history and closeness" with Trucy Wright—the daughter of Edgeworth's rival Phoenix—and his role as "a significant adult" in her life. In particular, it took a moment when Trucy sleeps on Edgeworth's shoulder in Spirit of Justice and compared him to "any dad who desperately wants to move, but won't disrupt his child's all-important rest". The piece concluded by expressing interest in future Ace Attorney media acknowledging Edgeworth in a queer-platonic or romantic same-sex relationship.[19]