ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS RETROSPECTIVE

In celebration of the AAI collection finally coming out on all devices today, I decided that I'm going to repost my thoughts on this game from...elsewhere, AND update it with my new thoughts as I play through the rest of the first game and AAI2 FOR THE FIRST TIME, EXCITING! I picked it up on switch because it was very important to me to play it on a device that was most similar to its original presentation and the handheld Switch felt best. On my original re-playthrough I left off on Turnabout Reminiscence, and THANK GOD this collection lets you pick not just by episode, but by CHAPTER?? I'm sure that's probably standard in the remasters, but it blows my mind to think you don't have to replay a whole episode just to see one part like before,,, revolutionary. Anyways without further ado here is a brief look into my history with this collection!

 

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Or AAI1 as I've been calling it, means a lot to me because it's the only ace attorney game I own, and when I was younger I combed through it METICULOUSLY trying to save funny and resonate dialogue to tell my friend about later on. The ace attorney games are already an investment and a half (this game alone is like 15 hrs I believe?) So as you can imagine after going through it to such a degree, I had no desire to replay it for a long looong time. Fast forward many years later after I've forgotten next to everything, and I'm ready to play it again and give my adult opinion on it!!
 
The Investigation series is different from the main series in that the gameplay has a more active focus on detective work and investigating crime scenes! There are two main styles of gameplay: The investigation portion, where you take control of Edgeworth around a small walkable area at or around the crime scene, and discover evidence and strings of logic that can later be connected to strengthen your understanding of the case and progress further in gameplay via a little matching mini game (There will be moments where you feel like you investigated everything and still aren't progressing, and then realize you have logic you probably didn't connect.) I LOOOOVE to walk-around and see Edgeworth's little overworld animations. He does the same gestures that he does in the character portraits, it's such a cute detail and I always smile when I see it!
I have to admit...I really really love this gameplay loop even more than the original 😭 Being able to walk around, even if it's a small area, really makes you feel like you have an active role in figuring things out. DON'T GET ME WRONG. I think the main series does fine enough with this and it's extra impressive considering it's a full VN, but god. The added RPG elements in this series really makes it stand out in a good way to me!
 
I also love that the cross examination portions can happen to you at any time, unlike the main series where it's a fixed loop of investigation and courtroom scenes. The utilization of the kangaroo courts in this game felt very intentional...it allows Edgeworth to shine more than a official court setting would because, as you'll soon see, in most of the cases of the first game, the murder has been pinned on an innocent party and Edgeworth becomes relentless in his pursuit of the truth to clear their names. This can ONLY be done in such a wild west informal setting because otherwise, Edgeworth would actually be forced to prove the guilt of the innocent parties like he does in the main series. The way the games are structured allow him to follow his heart, which leads to some surprisingly touching and vulnerable moments from him.
 
Something else to note is that cross-examining almost feels like mini boss encounters with its randomness, which adds to the RPG feel and it's so satisfying to take people down a peg when they think they have everything figured out lmao. (I am using random very loosely here, they are 100% scripted so it's not like you're getting dragged into one when you aren't ready, but you never really know where the story is going and when you'll have to destroy someone with epic facts and logic so the gameplay styles meld together in a way they don't in the main series.)
 
Speaking of logic, the logic mini game is an interesting addition to the game! It's a clever way of making sure the player has an adequate understanding of the case by connecting trains of thought with Edgeworth in real time. All you do is match statements that seem like they correlate with one another and it will give Edgeworth a eureka moment that reveals some context you were missing. I think there's only been once or twice where I had to raise my eyebrow at this mini game cause the connections were a little out there, but overall I LIKE IT.
 
Relatedly, I noticed in this game they leaned way more into Edgeworth's defining characteristics being "truth and logic", he can only work with the facts presented to him in a case and feels it's time wasted to entertain any hypotheticals beyond that. It's the one thing Phoenix has over him that allows him to win in court I think. A guy as tunnel-visioned as Edgeworth just never really stood a chance against someone so willing to "cross examine the parrot".
 
OK now that the gameplay is all squared away I will talk about my feelings towards each of the cases.
 

Table of Contents


ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS 1

Turnabout Visitor

"A murder occurs in Miles Edgeworth's office upon his return from working abroad that he must now investigate."



The tutorial case!! And keeping in the tradition of these cases we see who the murderer is in the opening cinematic. You can tell they expected you to have some knowledge of these games going in though, cause for a tutorial case it had a decent twist that kind of throws you for a loop until you realize along with Edgeworth what's going on.

Definitely feels memorable to me as far as these first cases go. The killer is a prosecutor peer that was trying to steal documents from Edgeworth's office and ended up killing his detective accomplice in cold blood when he caught the prosecutor in the act and was trying to figure out wtf he was doing.

One of my favorite gags from this case was a moment Edgeworth asks the prosecutor (who by the way, is trying REALLY hard to to convince everyone that he just lost his best best friend in the whole wide world :(((( ) why he keeps calling the dead detective "Jim" even though his name WAS NOT THAT AT ALL, and the guy is like "Oh because his actual name didn't sound good when paired with mine lol. But Jim does, so I assigned him Jim <3" HSJDJFUIDKF DERANGED BEHAVIOR. Good case, interesting tutorial level! Not much to say about it otherwise!

 

Turnabout Airlines

"While on a plane home, Edgeworth is accused of a murder and must find the real culprit in order to clear his name."



WHEW OK THIS ONE IS. SOMETHING. Easily double the runtime of the first case which was about an hour by itself, so it's nothing to sneeze at! In this one we go back in time to Edgeworth's return flight home! The plane experiences some wicked turbulence that makes him pass out (Earthquake trauma 🥺) and when he wakes up he discovers a dead body in an elevator and the victim's wallet is in his pocket?! One of the two flight attendants on board stumble on him and immediately accuses him of the crime so you have to fight to prove your innocence and then find the real culprit who is actually the remaining flight attendant.

I'M MIXED ON THIS ONE I THINK? It was a fun time, but I can't help but feel like some of the reasoning was a streeetch that only works cause the game made it work. Not the end of the world, but I was definitely like "You could argue more with Edgeworth on that one methinks". Also there is one part that I remember driving kid me insane because IT WAS NOT STRAIGHT FORWARD AT ALL, literally such a small overlookable detail and I would not blame someone for getting stuck just from how it was structured. I was surprised I figured it out this time around with no help. (I will not be using a walkthrough at all for any of this btw, we will fail like men if that's what it takes.)

Highlights of this case is that there was some nice Edgeworth moments in it;; I loooove seeing his softer side and he was very gentle towards the innocent flight attendant (the one who initially accused him) whom the guilty one was trying to throw under the bus for the crime. Everyone else was like...trying to interrogate her for answers and basically thought she did it. Even when it looked super bad for her, he just wanted to talk to her like a human being.

Very cute moment where the innocent flight attendant designed a suitcase that Edgeworth straight up said was hideous to her face (I laughed-?) but then when she offered him one at the end as a sign of her thanks for clearing her name, he was mortified but still took it cause "It's impolite to decline a lady's gift". BITING HIM. THROTTLING HIM. WHATEVERRR <3

OH BTW FRANZISKA WAS IN THIS ONE AS YOUR MAIN OPPOSITION BESIDES THE KILLER AND I LOVE FRANZISKA. SOOO funny how Von Karma is straight and none of his pupils are because she is definitely a lesbian <3 She has a whip that she only attacks men with. This can not be a coincidence,,, Screamed when she was mad at Edgeworth and whipped GUMSHOE instead. He was in thagomizer range.

 

The Kidnapped Turnabout

"While delivering ransom for a kidnapping, Edgeworth finds himself wrapped up in another murder as he meets a rival investigator and an old friend from his past."



Augghh so this one was a bit everywhere for me and ultimately I wasn't a huge fan of it >__< I really do believe in 3rd case syndrome now because this has been a consistent issue not just in this series but ones inspired by it too (Danganronpa...) The 3rd trials always end up being very weak or just straight up bad. I think this one was more the latter.

Lots of poor direction in this one wrt what evidence they wanted you to present at what time. I hate presenting evidence without knowing why, but I found myself doing that multiple times with this one when I haven't had to do it before in the game. (Maybe this is their way of mounting the difficulty??? I suppose I'll have more to say on that as I play through the next case.) Having to open the walkthrough was really frustrating- but I know if I didn't, I would have been super stuck cause the answers they wanted were just not within my realm of reality despite my solid understanding of the case, and also the last third of the case is very punishing cause they don't refill your health through the whole thing so I was one wrong answer away from dying for over 1 hr.

I will say I found the twist of this one to be fun- which was that the "victim" being kidnapped actually staged the whole thing with his girlfriend and butler to get ransom money out of his rich dad to pay off a debt lmao. But god, there were so many other variables that weakened it narratively. I was losing my mind that Ema happened to be in town and had the EXACT gadget that they needed to further the case. "Oh, we need to check for footprints" "Wow, lucky for you I have my footprint analyzer spray that highlights the tracks you spray it on!!" And can't forget that Kay had a virtual reality computer that can recreate crime scenes and the people in them in perfect detail depending on what information she types in because why wouldn't she!!

There was also a B mystery where the butler was the girlfriend's long lost father the whole time and he couldn't tell her because he had to keep his identity secret since he was a felon? 🧍(he died btw)

The abundance of details to juggle and barriers to overcome made this case drag on way longer than it needed to and every time a new piece was revealed that made us go back to the drawing board, I was just like "Suuuure?" This wasn't helped by the fact that I felt very little for the featured characters, the chapter really didn't give me a reason to connect with them at all between the weird age difference jokes (WHICH WAS NOT JUST FROM OLDBAG BTW, the girlfriend's whole thing was trying not to be smitten for Edgeworth even though the victim was her boyfriend and Edgeworth is much older than her) and the fact they were just. Flat? Annoying?

They really tried to pull out a sad backstory for your rival right at the very end to give him some undeserved depth and it came off so funny to me like. "Oh, the opposing wolf investigator was so antagonistic to you the whole time cause a single prosecutor dishonored his family name and now he hates all the courts and all prosecutors." Literal prosecutor killed my grandma moment with sad music and everything. I'M SORRY MY GUY, BUT I KIND OF DON'T CARE. We clearly had the same goal and you've done nothing but get in my way and waste my time!!!! The lady assistant that followed him around and had no personality beyond fetching things for him was more compelling than him and she barely said 5 sentences 😭

Highlights of this case: I freaking love Kaye and Edgeworth's dynamic, they play off each other really well. She also knows exactly what to say to tease him and he 100% deserves to be humbled, by a KID no less, so that was great. It was revealed at the end that they have HISTORY?? I completely forgot about this, but next case we are going back in time 7 years to see how Edgeworth met Kaye and Gumshoe YAAAAY.

Gumshoe as always was an MVP. The police force was eating out of wolf guys palm in this one, but Gumshoe apparently has a little group of loyal cops on his side that were willing to break the rules for us just cause he asked them too. ACAB, but if it wasn't for Gumshoe we would have been screwed. I just think Gumshoe and Edgeworth's friendship is cute lmao.

 

Turnabout Reminiscence

---Stay tuned!!---

 

Turnabout Ablaze

---Stay tuned!!!---

ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS 2

 

Comments