Ace Attorney Investigations 2 learned from its predecessor's mistakes and shines brightly from correcting them. Unlike the first one which had many points where the story dragged hard, this game's pacing flows smoothly throughout its five episodes.

New to this game is Logic Chess, which is basically the protagonist Edgeworth's way of perceiving the opponent's secrets, along with his flow through the conversation with the opponents to expose the secrets they're hiding.

It's a pretty genius game mechanic from a writing perspective because it showcases Edgeworth as a master conversationalist. The first Investigations game used basic logic to solve puzzles which in turn made every other character around Edgeworth all seem like they are suffering from brain damage.

With logic chess, it shows that the other characters aren't incompetent and that Edgeworth is just that good at listening and using the opponents' words against them. It really hits home on the fact that Edgeworth is really good at his job, as well as making sure that other characters don't suffer from suddenly being forced to be dumbed down to let the protagonist shine.

The logic when presenting evidence is very straightforward, aside from very few instances where I did save before presenting evidence. The previous game suffered from having far-fetched logic shoehorned into the evidence you're presenting and made it seem like Edgeworth was phoning in the logic.

I don't think you need to play AAI1 before playing this game as this one does a decent job of reintroducing the characters from the first one, but it helps tremendously to know certain things that carry over to this game. It's just a shame because the first game drags pretty hard while this game is actually good.

There's certainly a lot of quality here, with a banger OST, interesting new characters, a very natural progression of Miles' character, and legitimately investing mysteries, but the feeling of the writing being dragged out that is prevalent for most of the game brings those positives down with it. At too many times AAI2 will decide to focus on aspects of the story or mystery at hand that aren't as important as the game makes them out to be, throwing in way too much exposition and flavor text that leaves me thinking, "just get to the point". Definitely worth playing and is overall satisfying, I just wish it trimmed out some of the bullshit and was a few hours shorter because too often does AAI2 feel like it's meandering.

Even with its faults it is a pretty good continuation of AAi1 with some great new characters

Gameplay/Mechanics l 7,5/10
The main addition to the mechanics in this game is logic chess,and i thing is pretty fine,a little to easy,but is interesting.

apart from that the gameplay is unchanged from AAi1,and if you want to know what i think about the gameplay,i think is slightly better than the trilogy,sure there arent any point that is as intense as being in trial,but investigations are much more interesting and less boring now that you are doing detective work.


Graphics/Aesthetics l 8/10
There are no changes from AAi1.

It maintains the ace attorney aesthetic and gives you a 3d view for the characters and the stage,i really like it.

Sound l 8,5/10
Really good soundtrack and maintains the music timing and sound effects during dialogue that made the sound design in AA so good,my only problem is that for some reason in my emulator the sound where slightly delayed.

Story:Characters/Writing/Lore l 7,75/10
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Even though i have problems i will later mention,it still has some of the magic ace attorney writing,it has an interesting story that expands five cases and i really liked most of the new characters example:Courtney,likeable caring mother ,Ray,even though he has the annoying pervert trope he is a really interesting character that has a deep connection to edgeworth past and to his father and is a really understanding person and sebastian an inexperienced prosecutor who is treated like an useless chump but eventually proves his worth against his father,we also get to play as gregory and that is really cool.

My biggest problem with the story is the writing of some characters,to be more exact the writing of edgeworth,gumshoe and kay.

Lets start with kay,my biggest problem with kay is that she just isnt interesting,she feels just like a less charming and charismatic maya,i dont hate kay or anything but she is nothing special,and her chemistry with edgeworth just feels slightly forced,i like much more her chemistry with gumshoe.and she is just kinda there,she doesnt really serve a purpose in the story and the majority of her character arc is in the first aai.

Now gumshoe,imo the biggest offender of the three,he,in the original trilogy,was at least on my top 3 and i love him,and in the investigation games he still kinda has his charm but is character depth just isnt there,he doesnt really feel like edgeworth friend or colleague,he feels more like his lap dog,even though i like their chemistry.
and for some reason in the investigation games their turned up his relationship with edgeworth to 11,fixing his room,doing everything he can for him and it just feels off,in the original trilogy sure they were good friends,but we see that gumshoe had a life outside of edgeworth,but in investigations not so much,it goes to a degree that it feels like he is gonna die if he cant work anymore with edgeworth,and again that feels weird because in the og trilogy he seen that he was perfectly fine without edgeworth.
And apart from that we dont learn that much new about him,the only noteworthy things is that,1.we learn how he met edgeworth,2.we see his relationship with kay and 3.we see his relationship with badd,and his badd relationship barely has any exploration apart from like 7 lines of dialogue,and his edgeworth relationship is something we already basically new,and actually the three of those were mostly explored on the first aai1 even if they were barely explored there too.
The only thing we kinda know new in this game about dick gumshoe is a little more about his relationship with kay and his reason for being a detective.first lets talk about his reason for being a detective,he talks about this on the grand turnabout and he says that (SPOILERS) he will not know what to do,then later he says that he can do investigations alone (something that was already know from the og trilogy) and later he works anyway for edgeworth even though he doesnt have his badge and the end,so all that was for nothing,he said something we already knew for no resolution.
Now onto his relationship with kay,and im actually realizing that this was explored mostly on the first game,so in the end in this game we dont learn anything new from gumshoe even though he has plenty of screen time.
Also they for some reason dont use his new beige jacket,making the payoff from t&t useless.
Another problem is his relationship with edgeworth in itself in these two games,edgeworth treats him really badly (even more than normal) and gumshoe still idolizes him like nothing is happening.

Now onto edgeworth,my biggest problem with him is that he just feels flavorless,in the trilogy edgeworth was so interesting,you seem him going through his emotions,when he is uncomfortable,when he is doubtfull,when he is confident,when he is impatient,and his sprites where more vague making it more versatile and feel more real,but in the investigation games he has like 5 or 6 sprites and they look really similar,like you have the neutral,two smugs,a glare and an uncomfortable one,and they just feel less real,maybe i just really loved edgeworth old sprites,but their new sprites dont even hold a candel to them.
And even putting that aside there are even more severe problems,most importantly the way he is written,the creators were scared that edgeworth wouldnt be likeable as a protagonist,so they made him more like a ¨hero¨ and imo that didnt work one bit,edgeworth has been reduced to a goody two shoes that searchs the truth,he cant do nothing wrong and the rest of the characters just suck up to him and no matter what happens he will always come out on top,most of what made him an amazing character on the trilogy is kind of gone.

Also another problem i have with the writing is the time frame of all the events,it takes place like a week after the fist one and the events of this 35 hour game last like 6 or 7 days,it makes everything feel unrealistic and we dont see that much growth from the characters from the first game.

Another little problem that i have is badd speech pace,to many.......,every time he talked it.........was............like.............this and it was really annoying.

Another problem is that i feel sebastian is thrown out to early in the final case and for the amount of develoment he gets could have been used more,but i guess that comes from the messy state of the final case.

character tier list aai1 and aai2:https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/ace-attorney-investigations-characters-4985/3736732

Lenght of the game/Content:Cases l 8-8,25/10
Sure,the game is overly long and so are the cases,but the fact that the cases are all overall pretty solid and they all share one big story makes up for it.
There is no s tier case but is solid all across the board

CASE RANK:SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

5:Turnabout Target
Pretty easily the games worst,its just kind of boring,i know ace attorney doesnt have great opening cases most of the time,and this just follows that rule,is beyond mid,at this point i didnt really care about knightley nor the president nor the accused reporter or the mistery,but i dont think it was an awful starting point for the game.

4:The Imprisoned Turnabout:Now i like this case,really fun stage,fun new characters,good mystery i didnt though right away that it was patricia,i like the cameos,just solid,maybe a little too long if i have to put it down.

3:The Forgotten Turnabout
Great setup for case 5,launches sebastian and courtney arcs,kay not having her memories is a cool concept,edgeworth giving up his badge was a pretty,interesting especially franziska and gumshoe reaction to it,i think blaise is a decent villain i especially like his relationship with sebastian (character wise obv),while the mistery is nothing mindblowing i think this case is better than the imprisoned because it has more personal stakes to it

2:The Inherited Turnabout
Its just really fun to play as gregory,there really isnt that much more reasons to this case to be over forgotten but its just that fun playing as gregory with young ray,this case is ray arc ending and is where edgeworth arc gets going really,its also cool how things of the past take a new use on present day.

1:The Grand Turnabout
Sure this case is scatterbrained and messy,but it ends most arcs pretty well,it has a good mystery,interesting culprit,and it just has some of the greatness that makes end cases so good on ace attorney

Investigations 1 & 2 case tier list:https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/ace-attorney-mainline--investigations-cases-87808/3736322

Playability l 3/3
Game works as intended with no bugs

OVERALL
Sure i may my problems with the game pacing,writing and characterization but i have to admit it is solid

Strong 7 to Light 8

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is an oddity. A never-localised sequel to the worst entry in the series, it held many conflicting expectations for me before I went into it. I certainly didn't hate the first game, it was often painfully mediocre and overly drawn out but it went some way to satisfying that Ace Attorney itch. The sequel though had been sold to me as the potentially the best in the series, a landmark achievement in fan-localisation and and a total improvement on its predecessor. After over thirty hours, I'm not sure I can entirely agree...

I really, really wanted to love this game. There was plenty of stuff in the first Investigations that was interesting, but what that game needed more than anything was refinement. The new mechanics weren't fleshed out enough and there were too many characters, and too much arguing on technicality rather than substantial gotchas.AAI2 does not agree though, instead adding more of everything. As well as the logic system and deeper investigations from the first game, we now have logic chess - a system that boils down to a really crappy version of the psychic locks from the AA trilogy. It never felt like a substantial challenge, always playing out like a glorified flow chart where victory was all but confirmed. The puzzles in Ace Attorney are usually at their weakest when they rely on multiple choice questions, so having a puzzle mechanic that is entirely comprised of them is such an awful idea.

Perhaps I'm being harsh there, logic chess definitely does not comprise much of the game's runtime. You don't spend more than two to three hours in it over the whole game, but honestly, that is part of the problem with it. The same problem exists for the investigations and logic connection systems (both returning from AAI). You simply don't use them enough for them to ever advance in complexity. I maybe had to use the deduction mechanic less than ten times across the whole game, no more than two or three times per case, and the logic system is always so easy it feels like a patronising attempt at making me feel included. Difficulty is a big problem here across the board, with constant flashbacks and hint dialogue bombarding you every other time you're called upon to solve a tricky puzzle. AAI2 is far and away the easiest game in the series, while still having twists that feel convoluted and at times nonsensical.

But puzzles are only one ingredient of the Ace Attorney recipe, perhaps less important than the other major component: the story. Improvements have been made from the first game, but at a cost. There are more characters than in any other AA game, with genuinely interesting new characters like Ray Shields being joined by a cavalcade of familiar faces. It's admittedly quite nice seeing returning characters like Frank Sahwit, but some of the choices are odd to say the least. Was anyone crying out for the return of Lotta Hart or Regina Berry? They're pleasant surrpises, but they detract from the stories and arcs of the new arrivals like Justine Courtney and Sebastian Debeste. The final case suffers the most from this bloating, the final scenes of which have a comedically large ensemble stuffed on to the DS screen. As much as I love them, did Franziska and Lang need to return? Why is Kay still so prominent when Ray is supposed to be the new foil to Miles? I like fan service (when it's done well) as much as anyone, and I tolerate it more than I would normally with the Ace Attorney games, but here it actively detracts from the story being told and the arcs we're supposed to be invested in.

This is normally where I would say at least the presentation is at its best as usual. Apollo Justice is a very flawed game, but it still has best-in-show music, character design and animation. I'm afraid that AAI2 is a mixed bag. Some stuff here is great, better than the previous game at least, but some sprites here are awful. Blaise Debeste and the President are particularly horrible designs, featuring ridiculous muscles in skin tight suits for seemingly no reason other than "look cool", and both have breakdowns that beggar belief. The Ace Attorney games normally feature designs that are a little silly and over the top, but in AAI2 they're downright cartoonish. Don't even get me started on Justine Courtney's gravity-immune boobs.

It probably sounds like I hate this game, but I honestly didn't. The translation work here is astounding, it feels completely in line with the style of the first game and I didn't notice any lines that felt out of place (nor even any typos). You can tell how much love has gone into this fan-effort and I'm glad that it exists, because I don't think Capcom will ever localise the game officially. Outside of that, it's really the third case in the game that saves it for me, and is leagues better than the other four. It's almost entirely new characters and has a totally new structure for the series, with a constant switching back and forth between past and present. The conclusion is still a little convoluted and silly, but it was a great case that only makes the rest seem all the worse by comparison. Play this if you've played every single other Ace Attorney game and are still dying for more, otherwise, probably give it a miss.