Phoenix Wright possesses a wide arsenal of moves, with a variety of effects and uses. His regular moves consist of simple mundane actions such as ducking to search for clues, looking at paper documents and even sneezing (which serves as his Launcher Attack). Many of his special attacks also function that way.
He has three modes (stances): Investigation, Courtroom and Turnabout Mode. Each stance has their own set of special moves and command normals. This makes him somewhat limited at first (as he has access to only three special moves in Investigation Mode), but grows exponentially during the course of the fight.
With this in mind, his gameplay is, coincidentally, defensive-oriented: a mix of a keep-away character (projectiles and other moves with wide/long range) with high combo abilities (moves that strike multiple times and hit OTG). He also has a relatively medium to high damage output (which is further increased in his Turnabout Mode), a decent amount of health, and a very damaging Level 3 (although this one requires him to be specifically in the Turnabout Mode).
However, one of his main weaknesses is that his normal attacks look too unorthodox in a combat situation, which causes him to have a lack of decently-ranged attacks for pokes. The fact that his fighting performance depends on growth during the battle is also a drawback, meaning he can't fight with his full potential right at the start.
In this mode, Wright is extremely defensive; he will be more focused on gathering evidence to use in Court and Turnabout Mode. He only has access to his Investigation and Maya specials in this mode.
In this mode, Wright is more combat-oriented. He loses access to his Investigation special, but gains access to all of his other specials. He also gains access to his "Order in the Court" Hyper Combo, which, once used, will automatically send Phoenix Wright back to Investigation mode and gets rid of all bad evidence.
If Wright has collected three pieces of legitimate evidence, he can enter Turnabout Mode by hitting an enemy with the Questioning attack. In this mode all of Wright's moves become more powerful (Present the Evidence can be spammed, for example), and he gains the ability to use his Ace Attorney Level 3 Hyper Combo. Most of his normal attacks change, becoming extremelly powerful; such as his arm and hand becoming a large spectral pointing finger that covers 3/4 of the screen (and causes a lot of knockback, in addition of nullifying projectiles if timed right). His combo potential is even higher in this mode. Something interesting to note is that Phoenix Wright becomes an invincible assist in Turnabout Mode: his "Press the Witness" effectively becomes one of the best assists in the game (however, since the release of the Heroes and Heralds update patch, Phoenix Wright has lost his invincible assist while in Turnabout mode, making him vulnerable to attacks).