I’ll post what I’m finding.
First of all, the properties of his “Hold it!” attacks need to be explained as far as I can tell. It’s a pretty good command normal in both standard modes that can follow any normals and be canceled with launcher, specials, or hypers. What’s interesting is that after hitting so many times, it inflicts a stun state. In trial mode it’s always on the third hit, but in investigation mode it is somewhat inconsistent. It seems to always be on the fifth hit if you combo into it, but sometimes it’s on the fourth hit if you don’t. I can’t figure out why it isn’t always the same. If you hit with some in investigation and then hit with more in trial, they do accumulate in an uneven way. (1 + 2), (2+2), (3+1), and (4+1) are the combinations, and I just hope that makes sense to everyone since a real explanation would require a lot of words. The reverse will likely be very rare, but the combinations are (1 + 4) and (2 + 2) which isn’t exactly ideal for Wright. If you have three pieces of good evidence, in trial mode you lose access to “Hold It!” and instead gain “Objection!” which is much slower but also turns Phoenix Wright into a broken character if you land it. “Objection!” has the same stun properties as “Hold It!” and is the standard command normal you’ll have in Turnabout (though it’s fast like “Hold It!” in that mode because Turnabout is broken).
Investigation Mode:
Corner BnB (371.800 without using meter, 541,100 with meter):
c.:l:, s.
:h:, :f: + :h:, :s:, j., j.:d: + :h:, :s:, :qcf: + :h: (M-maya!?), s.:h::s:, j.:h::s:, :d::d: + :s: (stance change) xx :qcb: + :atk::atk: (Order in the Court!)
Wright can only solo relaunch in the corner, but this is a pretty solid BnB damage wise for the type of character he is and the fact that it requires no evidence or anything of the sort (and will also destroy any false evidence you may have). Other than the first air series (which must be input with a somewhat delayed but also generous timing) everything can and often must be input as quickly as possible; the stance change to hyper has to be really fast or you’ll miss which is very bad with that hyper.
Midscreen shield summon combo (289,900):
c.:l:, s.:h:, :f: + :h:, :s:, j., j.:d: + :h:, j.:s:, :qcf: + :l: (M-maya!?)
You can connect with the M-maya!? slide from anywhere on-screen, but by himself Wright can’t follow up on it outside of the corner and even more it would take quite a special assist to make it possible. Just summoning the shield for a damage sacrifice but a lot more evidence gathering time seems ideal. Wright and the enemy recover at about the same time except you just got your shield up and the enemy is half-screen away so it should provide ample time to start up the evidence train. Note that in the corner M-maya :l: comes out well behind Wright making the first combo always better in the corner. This also lands two “Hold It!” attacks.
Midscreen to judge (500,300):
c.:l:, s.:h:, :f: + :h:, :s:, j., j.:d: + :h:, j.:s:, :qcf: + (M-maya!?), :d::d: + :s: xx :qcb: + :atk::atk: (Order in the Court!)
I like this as a mid-screen damage BnB since it’s pretty modest on resources (it is about 55% meter negative which for Wright is fantastic) and doesn’t do a whole lot less damage than his two meter combo I’m about to list. Note that you have to do the version of M-maya!? here or the judge hyper will whiff. This also has the benefit of destroying all false evidence.
Two meter combo (570,200):
c.:l:, s.:h:, :f: + :h: xx :qcf: + :atk::atk: (Steel Samurai Maya Smelting!), {wavedash forward if midscreen}, s.:h::s:, j.:h::s:, :d::d: + :s: xx :qcb: + :atk::atk: (Order in the Court!)
This is essentially the same combo as combo II in the guide except omitting the needless second light at the start and also one of the j. later on (I’m not sure if it helps damage or hurts it, but it does make the combo a lot harder for what is doubtless a trivial difference). This is probably Wright’s best damage he’ll be able to do by himself starting in Investigation Mode, but unless the extra 70k is going to kill a character, I don’t really see why you’d blow all that meter for this. This combo is also pretty hard mid-screen, but my execution sucks so what do I know?
Overhead combo in corner (310,100 without meter, 514,200 with meter)
:f: + xx :qcf: + :h: (M-maya!?), s.:h::s:, j.:h::s:, :d::d: + :s: (stance change) xx :qcb: + :atk::atk: (Order in the Court!)
I really tried to sneak in a “Hold It!” but I couldn’t seem to get it to work. Outside of the corner, the overhead still has to go straight to Maya which more or less means that you can either do the medium version to judge hyper if you want some damage (in fact, that’s combo III in the guide!) or just call the shield and enjoy your frame advantage to find evidence.
Investigation Mode is really limited, and it’s hard for me to imagine I missed anything significant. I guess there’s combos off throws, but it’s basically the same as off overhead (you have to call Maya next). An OTG assist would doubtless help him extend combos, but it’s hard to imagine many other assists helping since he doesn’t really keep enemies pinned down that long to create opportunities for assists to get out there and start hitting.
Trial Mode (with 3 evidence):
The main question is how to combo into “Objection!”. I pretty much have to thaink the guide’s combo VIII for this one, but I’m quite sure that this is the best starter:
c.:l:s.:h::h:, :f: + :h: (Objection!)
Replace c.:l: with any starter normal but you probably want as short of a combo as possible pre-turnabout to avoid hurting yourself via scaling, but if you add in the magic series typical in the middle I can confirm it still works. Against most crouching characters though, that will whiff. Your two basic options I see are:
s.:l::h:, assist, :f: + :h: (Objection!)
s.:l::h: xx :dp: + (Press the Witness) xx :qcf: + :atk::atk: (Steel Samurai Maya Smelting!), :f: + :h: (Objection!)
Many assists can work, and if you happen not to have any, it’s pretty easy to achieve turnabout by burning the bar of meter. Yes, that connects even if you don’t move at all midscreen, but moving forward can only improve your options afterward.
As per your options afterward, there are a lot of variables. What starter you used is going to be non-trivial, the current state of the stun is going to be a big deal (the Objection! that causes Turnabout itself can’t cause the stun but does contribute to the internal stun meter), and it generally gets messy. I would explore more, but I’ve been working on this for hours and it’s getting really late to the point that I’m not going to be able to get up for work in the afternoon if I don’t stop. I think the most important thing for Wright is going to be killing off his Turnabout inducing hit without using either X-Factor or Ace Attorney. If you can kill a character with Wright and then hard tag out in Turnabout to abuse his assist, odds are you are going to win that game.
Also, guys, I don’t want to come in here and act like a jerk or anything, but seriously, can we not discuss the name? I think I speak for an otherwise silent majority in preferring that the combo thread only discuss combos or at the very least limit itself to gameplay relevant discussion.
Anyway, it’s nearly 6 AM locally here, and I do need to get some sleep at some point, but I do intend to investigate Wright further though it may be a few days since I intend to get in real play too.
- Medium Attack