Review: Ace Attorney Investigations Can Get Pretty Wild

2024 has been a fantastic year for Ace Attorney fans, between the Apollo Justice Trilogy in January and now Ace Attorney Investigations in September. As Miles Edgeworth, you get to prosecute criminals and bring them to justice. Psych! No you don’t, but you do get to solve cool mysteries, overwhelm opponents with the might of logic, and look snazzy with a fancy cravat and sleek new visuals. As a longtime fan of the series and a big Edgeworth fan, I can say with absolutely no bias at all that this was well worth the wait.

The plot of Ace Attorney Investigations focuses on Miles Edgeworth, one of the main characters from the original Ace Attorney trilogy and Phoenix’s rival. Though he is a prosecutor, he never goes to court in the games. Instead, Edgeworth focuses on solving cases outside of the courtroom. The cases all connect into an overarching story compared to somewhat more episodic first trilogy. It plays very similarly to the main series though. You still have to collect clues, put them together, and find contradictions in testimonies. Edgeworth’s unique mechanic of Logic doesn’t introduce anything too radical like the Emotional Matrix from Dual Destinies or the Jury of The Great Ace Attorney. But it’s still a fun way to advance the story and shake things up.

When I first played Investigations in high school, the story didn’t really resonate with me. At first, I thought it was because I liked how the more episodic first trilogy allowed for “breather” cases. However, the port helped me to figure out my initial disinterest. The setting for the duology reminds me a bit too much of how 5 and 6 became way grander in scale.

Edgeworth is a prosecutor, yet he’s doing work that seems far beyond his pay grade. I don’t know how the rules work in Japanifornia, but prosecutors leading a criminal investigation into an international smuggling ring seems pretty divorced from reality. Not that the games were ever trying to be realistic, but there was still some degree of credibility. It’s like watching CSI or Criminal Minds. I doubt those agents in real life go out in the field and apprehend criminals. It’s easier to accept Edgeworth doing this now than it was back then. I suppose I have 5 and 6 to thank for that, since those games jumped the shark in a way that nothing can really surprise me anymore in Ace Attorney.

This is subjective, but I really enjoy the cast of characters in the second game. They’re so much more colorful than ones in the first entry. The story is also a lot better, in my opinion, and I can see why some consider it one of the top three games in the entire franchise. I’m also a lot more receptive to Lang this time around, since I’m no longer a diehard Edgeworth-stanning teenager. Now I feel bad that the first thing I said when Lang appeared was, “Was he always this ugly?”

Something I vividly remember from when Ace Attorney Investigations first came out was an interview with the development team. Someone mentioned that they put a lot of care into Edgeworth’s running animations to make it look natural and effortless. The updated sprites in the game make those animations look even better than they were on the DS. He looks great jogging around, as do all of the characters. At no point did I ever feel like switching back to the original sprites and, during the brief period I did, it looked so wrong that I had to go back. It’s when the portraits appear that they revert to the ye olde “three frames per action” style of the DS era. The change is a little jarring, I admit, but not enough that it actively bothers me.

The little avatars on the field are so cute, especially now that we can see so many more details. I love Edgeworth’s smug little face when he does that annoying shrug. I love Gumshoe’s pathetic cringing animation. The guys in this duology are really lovable this time around thanks to their overall goofiness and the new sprites. I’ve liked Edgeworth and Gumshoe since the very first game, and this one really reinforced my affections for them. As for Eustace, he’s a ridiculous clown boy but I adore him all the same. He was one of the things I was most excited for when Nintendo first announced this port, and all of his scenes were as delightful as I hoped they’d be.

The girls are no slouch either in that department, especially with Kay’s lively little animation cycles. She’s so similar to what Maya and Trucy (and later Athena) brought to the table though! It’s way too late now to complain about the writing, but sometimes I wish that they’d gone a different route with her personality. Her rapport with Edgeworth was fun regardless and I enjoyed her integration into the overarching lore. So this isn’t me pushing an anti-Kay agenda, mind you.

One thing that kind of takes me out of the experience is the occasional wordiness in the localization. This is only prevalent in the first game. I decided to reread my review for the Apollo Justice trilogy while writing up this one and to my shock, I realized I repeated my past mistake. Once again, I chose to replay a bit of The Great Ace Attorney during Investigations, and the memory of that game affected my impression of this one. I should stop doing that. While the localization for Investigations is strong, there are a few points where a different translation might have been snappier to read. The sentences can be long to the point of awkwardness, making them feel unnatural for dialogue.

It’s one thing if the lines are, say, Edgeworth’s. He talks in an overly stuffy and formal manner in the Japanese as well. But it’s another thing for random characters who should be a lot more casual. That being said, I don’t believe that the occasional odd line is detrimental to the overall experience, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t work with words and writing all the time. It’s also a personal preference thing. I firmly believe all periods and commas should be in quotations, and that people should use harebrained rather than hair-brained. But according to my research, some people don’t share this opinion.

Ace Attorney Investigations is a fantastic port that looks and plays beautifully on modern consoles. I’m so happy that people can finally experience the second game with an official localization! So happy that we can finally see that little wiener Eustace in HD glory! It strikes that perfect middle ground between the old Ace Attorney (the original trilogy and I argue even the fourth game) quality and the new Ace Attorney (Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice) zaniness that most fans of the series can enjoy it, so long as they suspend their disbelief. Just pretend you’re watching something like Criminal Minds!

Ace Attorney Investigations will come out on September 6, 2024 for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows PC.