Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Trials and Tribulations — the game consists of 5 episodes that occur in chronological order. The fourth case, The Origins of the Twist, takes place first, followed a year later in-universe by the Twist in Flashbacks, and the remaining cases take place 5 years after that.
From the very beginning, only 1 episode is available to play; When the player completes an episode, a new one opens. The episodes are divided into chapters, which consist of investigations and trials. During investigations, the player strives to find evidence to use in the courtroom; the game advances to the next chapter of the episode when the player has collected enough clues. The player navigates and performs actions through a menu with four options: "explore", which allows him to move the cursor around the environment and examine objects; "move", which shows a menu with places the player can move to; and the present, which allows the player to show evidence or character profiles to a witness.