A different kind of Ace Attorney game starring Edgy boy himself.

This game replaces Phoenix and Maya with Edgeworth, his new companion Kay and sometimes Gumshoe! I miss Gumshoe so much...

Other than that, the biggest difference about this one is that it completely drops the trial half of the Ace Attorney games and instead it's just uuuh... The investigation.

For that, this is probably the Ace Attorney game that has left less of an impact on me, since the trials are some of the most memorable parts of the Ace Attorney games.

That is not to say this is a bad game! It's still really enyojable imo. If you like these characters, the Ace Attorney style of writing and this weird world they have constructed; chances are, you are still going to have a fun time with this one.

Idk what Capcom's deal is with these games specifically tho. Release the damn sequel overseas so I can play it you fuckers!

throughout ace attorney, there is the “bubbly loud girl ” (BLG we will call them) character to assist the main character. maya, trucy, athena (kind of, i guess she’s a protagonist but also there’s too much going on to make her actually feel like one). kay is also one of these. but honestly, i think this BLG tope works least well with edgeworth. her antics and jokes just don’t bounce off him that well and make their relationship feel not that special when it’s easily compared to other BLG. to the point that i think it actually tanks the overall quality of investigations— not that this story is kino regardless, it’s a fun little game, but it feels like nothing special, and i think kay’s characterization is no small part in that.
i think miles needed a mean girl or a girl who makes little to no jokes but has her own kind of quirk about her. basically franziska. they are funny all the time and gumshoe could have been the government mandated joke machine.

i do like kay though. do not get this twisted

Having played the rest of the games in the Ace Attorney franchise, I was excited to finally start the pair of Investigations games. After starting, I couldn't shake a feeling of deja vu and by the end I was convinced I must've actually played my original DS copy before and just forgotten.

That aside, the game was a lot of fun. It delivers on the appeal of Ace Attorney games where you can solve some interesting mysteries while meeting some zany characters, but with a nice enough twist that you're not doing it in a courtroom. It really offers the game something unique from the rest of the series and gives it its own pacing. My main complain would be the early cases are too easy and the final case is a slog. It literally is just too long, since the actual scene and circumstance of the crime are clever.

La saga de Ace Attorney se había vuelto tan popular rumbo a finales de los años 2000, que Capcom había empezado a trabajar en un spin-off sin Phoenix Wright, protagonizada por el personaje de Emma Skye, que, eventualmente, se transformó por el favorito de todos: Miles Edgeworth.

El juego te vende que es diferente a los otros, no solo porque se llama "Investigations", sino porque aquí sí controlamos al personaje en un escenario, el cual puedes explorar más libremente, en vez de estar anclado a la perspectiva ominosa más "visual novel" de la saga principal. Sin embargo, eso se traduce en prácticamente nada distinto, y el loop de juego es bastante similar al de la saga principal de Ace Attorney. Investigas, y luego te metes en una pelea verbal. El cambio más importante es que igual coleccionas pistas que debes conectar usando "lógica", cuyo concepto me parece increíble, pero que luego no se aprovecha tanto como me hubiera gustado.

Realmente, el problema más grande que tiene Investigations es narrativo, y no tanto porque la historia me parezca mala. Es más, pensé que siendo el primer juego escrito por Yamazaki, quien toma la rienda a partir de este juego (aunque no de todo porque Shu Takumi siguió trabajando en juegos de la saga), me parece que a nivel de PLOT, el juego es muy interesante. El problema real, y que mucha gente menciona de este spin-off, es que se alarga mucho todo el rato. No sé si es por el loop, por el hecho que no sabe medir bien cuándo ya fue tiempo suficiente para amarrar el caso, o bueno, algo tiene, pero varias conversaciones se llegan a sentir muy alargadas.

A mí sí me gustó el caso de los Badgers, porque amo el diseño de los Badgers y me dan mucha risa. Repito, diría que a nivel argumentativo todo me gustó, pero el juego sería mil veces mejor si durase 1/3 menos de lo que dura, a mi parecer.

¡Seguiré con la saga Ace Attorney!