This Ace Attorney Investigations Collection closes a loop that has been open for a long time. The first Investigations game, a spin-off of the popular legal detective adventures starring Phoenix Wright, was released in 2009 (or 2010 in English). Despite following fan-favorite rival prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, the game did not sell well, especially in the West. And so, although Capcom released a second Investigations game, was never localized. After the Great Ace Attorney games were finally adapted for release outside Japan in 2021, Investigations 2 remained the only game in the series that did not have an official worldwide release.
It makes some sense. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworththe first of two games in the collection, is, by all accounts, basically good. It’s fun to get a peek into Edgeworth’s mind after three games with him as a rival and a side character. The ability to walk around crime scenes and counter arguments in modern ways is a fun twist on the standard The best lawyer formula.
But it understandably didn’t land as well as the main trilogy. The pacing — especially in one infamous argument near the end — isn’t great. Some of the plot points are convoluted, and the timeline can be strenuous to follow. And most of all, it lacks the personal stakes that mark the best parts of the series as a whole, and that made Edgeworth a fan-favorite character.
And yet its continuation, Ace Attorney Investigations: The Prosecutor’s Gambitis a surprisingly good video game.
I should have known that by now. I played fan location shortly after it came out, and I played it again less than two years ago. But playing this modern version still surprised me somehow. Maybe it was Capcom’s decision not to release it, assuming there must be a good reason for it, even though I had fun myself. Maybe playing the much less coherent Apollo Justice trilogy recently threw me off guard. Maybe the awful ending Chronicles of the Great Ace Attorney made me naturally distrust late-appearing locations. Whatever the reason, I was completely surprised.
While I’ve always liked it, after rewatching it in its entirety over the past few days, I now think, The Prosecutor’s Gambit may be the best game in the series outside of the main trilogy.
It’s still best to play both, even if the changes made to the collection don’t fix the issues with either. Miles Edgeworth. The modern chibi character portraits are adorable; I liked them much more in-game than in the promotional materials. (Edgeworth, despite having a barrel-sized chest, has the worst chibi design of them all and looks like he’s about to fall over. Plus, in the text, he’s a frowning, sunken-eyed character and shouldn’t look cute, which is a problem the franchise has struggled with since the original Trilogy (The remake removed all of its imperfections.)
There are some quality of life changes, too. The story mode, which lets you see the game without having to solve any of the puzzles, is a nice addition to the series that has been slowly added to each re-release, saving you the frustration of getting stuck (which I’m sure happens at least a few times in the game). There are also modern gallery elements and music, which are nice.
Image: Capcom
But The Prosecutor’s Gambit steals the show. None of the problems of the first game in the collection apply here. The Prosecutor’s Gambit It is well paced and plain, and contains all the character traits that Investigations 1 missing. In fact, it’s a much more direct continuation of Edgeworth’s story from the original Ace Attorney trilogy than Miles Edgeworthno matter what the name or order of their release suggests.
It’s also perhaps the most thematically coherent Ace Attorney game, even taking into account the original trilogy, which is otherwise easily the best-written entry in the series to date. The Prosecutor’s Gambit uses the storyline of Edgeworth’s father’s death introduced in the original The best lawyer to make a game that’s all about parenting, mentoring, and building the path you want to take through the world, and that sticks to that with a cohesion unseen anywhere else in the series, weaving nearly all of the story threads into one thread.
The official localization is also very good. It’s strange to see characters given modern names (Sebastian DeBeste, I’ll never forget you), but when you compare them directly, it’s clear that the professional translation is better. The lines are less literal and sound more natural. Some characters also have more distinctive gimmicks, like Eddie Fender’s lines using his “quote, unquote” animation, which didn’t make it into the fan localization. There are one or two things I found worse about this version than the fan-made one, but with so many diminutive decisions to make, that’s always going to be the case.
The existence of an easily accessible, professionally located Investigations 2 truly makes the series complete. People can finally see Miles Edgeworth in his full glory, including a modern mechanic introduced in 2: Mind Chess. This is perfect for him! This is fucking stupid! It’s a ton of trial and error! This is so, so Ace Attorney in every way, good and bad!
I am so content that this series is officially finished. And I am so glad that The Prosecutor’s Gambit is really, really good. And if Miles Edgeworth not quite up to the same standards, well, that’s part of the experience.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection will be released on September 6 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. The game was reviewed on PC using a pre-download code provided by Capcom. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
