The Ace Attorney series is almost 25 years old now, though if you’re in North America you likely only heard of the games around 2005. The first title, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney released in 2001 on the Gameboy Advance and went worldwide on a Nintendo DS rerelease, and that was the first time English speakers got to enjoy the spectacle of energetic lawyers shouting “Objection!” and “Hold it!” at one another in a spin on the detective visual novel genre. The newly released Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brings all of what everyone loves from the Ace Attorney series, puts a nice twist on the gameplay, and localizes the second game in the series for the first time.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth released in the US back in 2010, but apparently didn’t sell well enough to warrant translating Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit for English speaking audiences. This particular duology means that every major Ace Attorney title is now available in English, with all of them playable on modern consoles to boot (we just need a port now of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright). While Phoenix Wright, the ace attorney himself, is a protagonist near and dear to everyone’s hearts, this particular collection focuses on a couple of tales involving Wright’s prosecutor rival Miles Edgeworth.
Of course, just shifting to a different protagonist with no difference in gameplay mechanics could potentially make the game fall flat, especially if the characters in it weren’t utilized super well. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth gets around this by focusing on a lot of the supporting cast, introducing many new and interesting characters, as well as using a strong underlying plot about a worldwide smuggling ring to tie each case into one another.
The first Investigations game follows Edgeworth as he uncovers a major criminal plot, as well as helps his new supporting girl wonder, Kay Faraday, who professes to be The Great Thief Yatagarasu. It focuses on a supporting character from the original Ace Attorney trilogy and fleshes him out to the extent that you can’t help but root for Miles and Kay any time they encounter an obstruction. The only issue with the first title is that the pacing suffers a bit, and probably a good fifth of the dialogue from the final case could have been removed with practically none of the negatives.
Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit, has the benefits of beginning with impressively high stakes given that the prior entry already did the legwork to turn Miles Edgeworth into a fantastically competent protagonist. The second title tells a cohesive story where Miles has to contemplate the law, its flaws and contradictions, and his place in such a system. Prosecutor’s Gambit takes events established from the very first Ace Attorney game, such as the death of Edgeworth’s father, and builds upon those moments while directly tying them into the overarching narrative. Prosecutor’s Gambit is excellent and easily one of the best entries in the entire Ace Attorney franchise.
Prosecutor’s Gambit is one of those sequels that ratchets up everything: the stakes, character development, and fan service callbacks to other entries. Every single case is connected to another in some way, which makes for an absolutely riveting tale as you reach the end and all of the pieces begin falling into place right before your eyes. One of my favorite games in the Ace Attorney series, The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, was something I gushed about in my Save State column due to the interconnected nature of its cases, and Prosecutor’s Gambit does something very similarly here, and the narrative is much stronger for it.
Of course, while the storytelling should be great since these are visual novels, there are a bunch of mechanical changes to the Ace Attorney formula as well. There’s no mysticism in the Investigations titles: Phoenix’s ability to literally see lies through psyche-locks, summoning souls of the dead, and the ability to read body language or emotions aren’t present here. There is, however, an incredibly futuristic device used to replicate crime scenes, which is still pretty out there, but it’s more grounded than the supernatural elements of some other Ace Attorney games.
Examination of crime scenes is now done by manually moving Edgeworth through the area or walking up and talking to suspects or witnesses. There are still moments where you’ll need to investigate in first person and move a cursor to select the object you want to see the details of, but you won’t just be fed all of your clues as evidence. In the Investigations titles, you get the components of a deduction, then connect them in Edgeworth’s mind to get a better understanding of events that have transpired. The Logic mechanic of connecting different elements together helps ensure that players don’t get stuck while investigating or confronting perpetrators.
Another new mechanic, Mind Chess, is effectively a multi-route dialogue system where Edgeworth is attempting to extract information out of a witness or suspect. These scenes are flashy as well as timed, and you’ll be given hints for how you’re supposed to respond based on the opposing feedback. Mind Chess may seem a little daunting at first, but Edgeworth always gives a clue on how to proceed when the minigame begins. To explain, you’re given different choices as dialogue commences, which are basically conversation paths you need to go through, and the information you uncover in one dialogue route might unlock a new response in another.
Of course, because Mind Chess’s choices are timed, you need to be quick with your selections. Applying this tiny amount of pressure to decision-making is why this minigame is a lot of fun. Extracting information out of people by forcing them to slip up and release details is more believable than using spirit magic and magatamas to see locks in someone’s psyche, as well. For the final mechanic, Kay can use one of her tools to make a recreation of crime scenes based on case files to give you multiple angles from which to view murders and kidnappings too.
While both Ace Attorney Investigations games tell two different stories, the sequel builds up on story elements, characters, and even unresolved plot threads of the first title, and it ties absolutely everything up with a satisfactory bow on top, using one major theme: Uncovering the truth. Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit does such an amazing job of presenting an interconnected storyline through its case episodes that it’s almost a shame we were forced to wait 13 years for this to receive an official translation.
As far as the quality of the translation goes, there are a few typos here and there, which is pretty common for this series. Many of the characters have names based off puns using the trademarked Ace Attorney wit, and the localizers did a great job conveying all of the characters and their unique personalities. As far as visuals go, both Investigations titles have been completely redrawn with new, higher resolution artwork, though the original pixel art is still available in the menu should you prefer that.
There are a lot of little extras you can unlock as you play, such as concept art, CGs, character profiles, and music tracks. Of course, it’s recommended that you view the extras after completing the titles to avoid spoiling yourself on any of the events, just in case!
All in all, the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection has both a good Ace Attorney spin-off game in it as well as one of the best in the series, making this a collection you should absolutely get if you enjoy detective visual novels. This collection may not make a convert of anyone who has previously dismissed these titles due to their dialogue-heavy gameplay, but for those who enjoy an amazing story with excellent characters and worldbuilding, this is the collection for you.
Developers: Capcom
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One