The Ace Attorney series has been in its remaster phase over the last five or so years, bringing all of the previously handheld games to most modern consoles and PC. This has been a great chance for players to catch up on the series that missed out on the earlier DS and 3DS days, while also giving us some games that Western audiences never had a chance to play in the past. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles collection finally localized two previously Japanese-exclusive entries in the series, leaving only such exclusive left at that point. While fans await a new entry in the series for the first time in a long time, Capcom has delivered what should be the last remaster collection for the series at this point, unless we get the Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton crossover, with Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, including yet another game never localized outside of Japan.
Objection!
Phoenix Wright is the titular protagonist of the majority of the Ace Attorney mainline entries, except for when Apollo Justice stepped in for him. He has always served the role as defense attorney, which pitted him against rival prosecutor Miles Edgeworth in his first entry. Edgeworth made quite the impression and ended up serving as more of a friendly rival in future entries before getting his own series of games in 2009 and 2011. The first of these games, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, released for the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2009 and was subsequently localized in 2010. However, it’s sequel, Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit, was not so lucky and has been an exclusive to Japan until now.
As the original two games in this collection were on the Nintendo DS, the visuals obviously needed to be upgraded for this new collection. Just like we have seen in the other Ace Attorney collections, the visuals are very crisp and clean. The animated images of characters are very lively and add a lot of comedy and levity to the game at times. This art style carried over very well from the DS version, as it was pretty standard animation and obviously got a bit of a facelift along the way for this collection.
The biggest change though is with the new HD visuals for the character models when in the investigation segments or just showing the character models in general outside of the animated images. The DS pixel art sprites look very dated by now when upscaled to a much larger screen, which is why the game revamped these character models from the original sprites. However, those that have a love for the classic style can swap back to these from the main menu. You cannot do this mid-game, but as long as you save and return to the main menu, you can swap to the classic style sprites and reload your save and it will utilize them instead. I always love when games include features like this, but honestly I found myself using the HD visuals the majority of my playthrough.
Similarly, the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection also made some changes with the music selection in the game. From the pause menu at any time, you can swap between the default Arranged soundtrack or the Original soundtrack. Just as it sounds, the Original option includes the soundtrack just as it was on the two DS releases. The Arranged option on the other hand mixes up some of the tracks with some new orchestral arrangements that were created more recently and woven into the game’s score seamlessly.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth was Edgeworth’s first solo outing and actually did quite a good job at making it feel different enough from the other entries in the series up to that point, while also still having many familiar elements. As a prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth steps out of the courtroom and as the title indicates, investigates each crime. Finding evidence is always a part of the Ace Attorney series, but here it is even more vital. The basic gameplay structure across each of the episodes in both games is that you take on a new case, while still having an overarching story, where you must find evidence and interrogate suspects or witnesses out in the field for information. Gone is the courtroom and now you take the investigations on the road to wherever the case takes you.
Each episode is split into sections, some of which are dialogue only where you get to make dialogue options and even interrogate people’s rebuttal statements, alibi statements, and more. As always, the key is to find contradictions in their statements by pressing for more information and then presenting evidence that contradicts said statement. The various evidence can be found in a few different ways as well. One way it’s given to you is just as part of the introduction of the case or occasionally at other points, but the other two methods are much more important.
The first way is through the true investigation sections where you get to move Edgeworth around in the crime scene area provided and click on interactive objects or people. Sometimes these interactive spots provide you with nothing, sometimes they give you evidence, while other times they open up further and let you investigate more. When the latter happens, you can often find other interesting things to interact with, including dead bodies and other evidence that is left behind. I really did enjoy playing through these investigation sections, though I do wish there was a little more to find sometimes.
Then comes the new way to get evidence, through logic. By bringing up your Logic menu, you will have certain pieces of information that you’ve collected in your investigation that don’t quite help on their own. This is where you must select two of these puzzle pieces and connect them together to unlock additional evidence. The puzzle piece aesthetic is simply superficial, as there is no way to tell if evidence is connected until you try it. There are some of these are that are very obvious, while some require some thinking to see why they would be connected. You have to be careful though, as connecting the wrong pieces will hurt your Truth Gauge, just like with any other incorrect deductions in the game.
Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit maintains the same gameplay system as the first game, while also adding in a new mechanic known as Mind Chess, where Edgeworth tries to catch the opponent in checkmate during an interrogation. This varies from the usual cross-examination style system pulled from other games, as here the goal is to take out the person you are interrogating’s chess pieces. This is done by either going on the offensive with certain dialogue choices or choosing to bide your time when they opposition is on the offensive, often letting them play right into your hands. By getting clues through these discussions, you can knock out their chess pieces and eventually reach checkmate against them. I did quite enjoy this addition in the sequel, though like a lot of the rest of the game, it’s definitely a lot of trial and error at times.
Compared to many of the other Ace Attorney games, this collection was my first time playing not only the previously un-localized sequel, but also the first game. As my first playthrough of both, I greatly enjoyed the story of both entries. While it wasn’t on the level of The Great Ace Attorney series narratively, which I still think may have the best story in the franchise, I really had a good time with both games in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth takes place between the third and fourth games in the Ace Attorney series, bringing in familiar characters such as Detective Gumshoe. The game starts with Miles Edgeworth returning back to his office from a work trip to find a dead body in his office while also being threatened by an armed gunman in the darkness that quickly makes their escape. This quickly thrusts Edgeworth into investigating this case. Like most games, the cases themselves are typically self-contained with an overarching story that manages to connect them and that is no different here. The main story in the first game is quite entertaining, as Edgeworth ends up going after a mysterious smuggling ring and also introduces a thief character that plays majorly in the second game named Kay Faraday.
The second game picks up only a week or so after the first game and returns Miles Edgeworth and both Dick Gumshoe and Kay Faraday in major roles in a story that starts with an attempted assassination of Zheng Fa’s president. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit features not only dangerous cases and enemies for Edgeworth to go against in his investigations, but also has an antagonist rival in Judge Verity Gavelle. Gavelle is going after prosecutors that are corrupt and Edgeworth ends up getting right in her crosshairs regardless of his allegiance to the law. I thought the story in the first game was quite good, but the narrative of the sequel really elevated things and is now one of my very favorites in the series.
There are some people that would love to just experience the story of the Ace Attorney series but without the rigmarole of having to present evidence and really play the game itself. For this reason, Capcom included in past collections an option for what is known as simply Story Mode and it is back once again. This can be selected from the options menu and basically puts the game on auto-pilot for those that would prefer to play that way. I’m of the mindset that I want to play the full experience for the game, but it’s still a great addition to make the series more accessible to others since the stories are always very enjoyable.
One aspect of the collection that I am not a fan of is that the two games feature a shared save state system. This means you could accidentally overwrite your save from Ace Attorney Investigations while trying to save your game in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Considering there is no crossover between the two games, there is zero reason the save system should have been shared between the two to allow for this to potentially happen.
Besides the two games in the collection, the only other feature is the Gallery. The Accolades section serves as an internal achievement system that correlates with the actual achievement/trophy systems on platforms that support them. As you play through both games, you will unlock in-game illustrations that are viewable via the Photo Album and character bios that are viewable within the Character Compendium. The Documentation section is quite neat, as it includes in-progress character art designs and some special artwork as well. Lastly, the Gallery has a Music Collection section as always for you to listen to all of the tracks across both games, including the aforementioned orchestral arrangements.
Verdict
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection may only have two entries in it compared to three in most of the other collections, but the two games included are well worth it by themselves. Not only do the two Investigations games have compelling stories and cases within it, but they also have arguably the best gameplay in the entire series. While the courtroom structure of the mainline games is also great, both Ace Attorney Investigations 1 and 2 were so refreshing for their mix of in-the-field investigations and interrogations with people. The only downside is that it can start to feel a bit like trial and error with presenting evidence, but that is something you come to expect with the Ace Attorney series. Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a must play for fans of the series, especially with the second game never being localized before, but it also is a great starting point for people who have never played an Ace Attorney game due to the standalone nature of the two included entries.
Score: 9/10
Pros:
- Compelling stories in both games
- Option for modern visuals or pixel art
- Investigations are refreshing change for the series
- Brings a previously non-localized game to the US
Cons:
- Sometimes feels like too much trial and error
- Shared save system could cause problems
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
