Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Review: Check and Matte

Why does Phoenix have to be the center of attention? Why do we always try to find the good in people? Why don’t we wear a red suit with more frills than an 18th century aristocrat? What if we just want to send a few bad guys to jail, revealing their guilt, instead of saving people?

What if I just want to be a stuck-up prosecutor with a pompadour? Ace Attorney Investigations Collection may be for you.

This is the latest The best lawyer Capcom’s remastered collection completes the series by bringing every entry in the beloved franchise to newfangled consoles. For those living in English-speaking countries, it’s also the first-ever Western release of the series’ latest untranslated adventure.

The set includes two games from the Nintendo DS era featuring Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth AND Ace Attorney Investigations 2: The Prosecutor’s Gambit), but two games for the Switch (also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC), only the first of which ever saw release outside of Japan. Poor sales caused the second game to remain unlocalized from 2011 to the present.

Improved Interrogation

There are a few improvements to the collection over the original adventure. All of the artwork has been re-drawn for HD screens, although those who love the pixel-style walking animations of the characters in the investigation sequences can operate them if they want. However, considering that the novel artwork remains the only dialogue option, and the pixel-style backgrounds don’t hold up well on larger screens, the novel artwork is certainly better. The gallery allows you to revisit the ancient illustrations and listen to the music (including orchestral arrangements of some songs) at your own discretion, and the character designs and additional illustrations are also a welcome bonus.

The main attraction of this novel title is moving from the courtroom to the mind and machinations of the prosecutor’s role. In this role, you’ll investigate crime scenes – murders and otherwise, although the latter will likely result in murder at some point. This is The best lawyerdespite everything – and uses logic and reasoning to find the real culprit and bring him to justice.

Interestingly, justice is served in this game without ever entering a courtroom, as you move Edgeworth freely around crime scenes, using the analog stick to search for clues and talk to suspects. Talking to suspects involves confessions and cross-examination using evidence that is identical to such courtroom scenes in the main games, but you won’t see Miles standing at the prosecutor’s bench during your time in the world Ace Attorney Investigations.

For those accustomed to the point-and-click puzzle environments associated with the main series installments, the ability to control these little heroes at will and wander the environments in search of something suspicious is a strange feeling that takes some getting used to. The actual mechanics of finding points of interest to add clues to the evidence are functionally identical, as are talking to characters and examining evidence, but they serve as a way to differentiate the two characters and their approaches.

As a prosecutor rather than a defender, your arsenal of tools for uncovering the truth, along with your approach to each case, is different from Phoenix Wright’s. In addition to clues, you’ll pick up bits of logic that will be added to your bank of logical statements. Gather together a few of your investigations and you’ll be able to piece them together to create novel leads or deepen your understanding of the case, perhaps finding the thing you need to uncover the truth in the process.

In the first game’s third case of a kidnapping and murder in an amusement park featuring an adorable police mascot, it’s possible to piece together facts about three used cups in the kidnapper’s hideout and three folding chairs, which may reveal that there are actually three kidnappers involved, not two as originally thought – a key clue in unmasking the real perpetrator.

While this is a cold idea in theory, it also reveals the biggest flaw in the game’s unique approach: it’s too uncomplicated. At its best The best lawyer games excite with their challenge, with intricate investigations spanning a multitude of environments, with interrogations and cross-examinations, with confounding puzzles that only become clear at the very end. Here, the logic rarely extends beyond a few statements that can be easily pieced together, and the fact that they are singled out from the outset as logical statements only makes it more clear what the key evidence is when you later confront and question the statements of witnesses and suspects.

Investigations are also disappointingly streamlined. Instead of encompassing multiple environments and crime scenes that intersect to reveal the truth, you’re confined to one environment at a time to investigate each clue before moving on to the next in a turn-based manner that feels devoid of freedom and control. Along with the logic, it makes much of the game feel formulaic.

Rookie mistake

At least at first, it seems too straightforward. It’s a game of two halves, literally in this case. For most of the first game in this spin-off duology, which I didn’t have the chance to experience before writing this review, I was a bit saddened by how simplistic the experience felt compared to the enigmatic heights The Great Ace of the Lawyer or the twisted tales of the main titles. By the end of the first game, I finally saw the potential of the idea, before the second game expanded things even further with novel mechanics that completely transformed the title into one of the most energetic in the series to date.

In the second game, Miles Edgeworth uses a novel talent to extract the truth from his opponents: Mind Chess. Instead of the typical “health bar” that decreases every time you operate incorrect evidence, you enter a novel Matrix-like environment where you talk to your opponent in a more energetic way. As they share their side of the story, you can choose to retaliate with words or wait a while in the hopes of leaking more information, at which point you can shoot a pawn at their words to break down their defenses and ultimately checkmate them for more information.

In a way that even the most compelling cross-examinations in the game can’t, what this mechanic achieves is to bring the intensity and pressure of a real interrogation to the series. The time limit forces you to act and react to statements on the fly, with real consequences if you mess up. It’s easier to fail, but more satisfying to catch a knight in the act or corner him with a well-timed response to his words, supported by the facts of the case that force him to confess or share novel evidence.

If I had to call the first one Ace Attorney Investigations a decent, fun experience, but probably the weakest title in the series, its sequel breaks into Western markets as one of the stronger entries to date, just in terms of mechanics. As things get grimmer and darker, the mechanics open up novel avenues for seeking the truth, and alongside presenting the better of the two overarching stories, it single-handedly makes a case for the collection’s existence simply because it’s the reason this title is getting its first English localization in 13 years.

Availability

In addition to language options, the game offers options to disable screen shaking and flashing, remove controller vibration for those with sensitive hands, and adjust the transparency of the text box. Auto-play text is also possible with the ability to set the amount of time the text remains on the screen after it has fully rendered before moving on to the next text box.

Is Ace Attorney Investigations Collection worth playing?

Play if…

Don’t play if…

How I Reviewed the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection

I played the game on the Nintendo Switch OLED model primarily in handheld mode, though portions of the game were also played on an ASUS VG27AQL1A gaming monitor in docked mode. I played mostly with AirPods for audio, and put in about 30 hours total between the two games.

First review: August/September 2024