It's old news now that Phoenix is the defendent for the 1st case in GS4, however, I am worried about the continuity of the series as a whole. My reasons being that Phoenix up and quit his job, dissappeared for several years, and is now a gambler, is this to say that after GS4, Phoenix won't be the main character anymore? Will Odoroki be the main star fro then on? My apologies if this has already been answered, I havn't been to these forums in a loooooong time.

Yes, and yes. The fourth game singnifies the start of a new story arc with a new main character. That is all.

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Phoenix is no longer the the main character of the series, since his arc has officially ended. That doesn't mean he'll be gone altogether, though we'll have to wait and see how he fits into the overall plot of Odoroki's story.

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We'll probably be playing as Odoroki for the upcoming games, but like Blademaster_Orca said, he's probably not gone forever.

After all, he's on the cover and the calendar and everything. Being there as a draw aside, that could signify him having a larger role to play than the defendant of the first case, so don't give up on him just yet!

I suppose, I just think of phoenix as my favourite Character, right next to Franziska.

We're lucky that we still at LEAST have Phoenix around after his arc has ended. Capcom could easily have just wiped the entire slate clean and we'd never see the characters we'd grown to love ever again, not even as a secondary cast.

I'm not too bummed out about the lead switching up, either. Change can be good. I think that once the 4th game is out and people have had a chance to play it, they'll warm up to poor Odoroki.

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Rofl, "Poor Odoroki", that has a nice ring to it.

I'm not totally convinced that the Phoenix arc is totally dead yet. I'm sure this is at least 75% me grasping onto everything I possibly can to not see Phoenix go, as, admittedly, I really don't want to see him go, but the series is known by the title Phoenix Wright by the majority of its North American fans. That's most likely because of bad localization, or some oversight by the people titling it for a US release, but regardless, I think because of that, it's going to be very hard for Capcom to let loose of all ties to the original arc. I definitely think at least some characters (...besides Ema) from the original arc are going to stick around in some form. Phoenix himself will probably be involved in a few cases besides the first, and I wouldn't be surprised if Minuki was a die-hard [type of metal] Samurai fan, or something. Or maybe we'll be bumping into Lotta Hart. I also have a strong feeling SL-9 will be returning. Maybe it's because Ema's back, I don't know, but that case was way too big to simply be a bonus for the DS. Maybe it was previewing some GS4 things other than some DS tricks.

Of course... this is pretty much all baseless speculation, but if this series has taught me anything, it's that going with baseless speculation can bring you to the solution quite often. :P

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^It would be unfaithful to the Odoroki fans to keep Phoenix around too much. Keep in mind though that it's the same universe, and everyone can't be dead yet

^

Or CAN they?!

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.. while this kind of discussion is going around,
I'm already thinking when and how GS5 will come out.

... ... ... might hurt myself.