The Logical Leading Man
As a longtime fan of the Ace Attorney series, I completed the first Ace Attorney Investigations game shortly after its launch in the States back in 2011. I thought it was a refreshing take on the Ace Attorney formula and with Phoenix Wright’s adventures delving more and more into the supernatural with outlandish powers, I appreciated the more grounded story led by one of my favorite characters in the series, Miles Edgeworth.
When a sequel was announced, I was eager to play it until I heard news that it would not be getting a localization in the States. I was greatly disappointed to hear this and it was only thanks to the efforts of talents and dedicated fans that I was able to play it many years later via a fan translation patch.
Now Capcom is finally correcting their mistake by releasing both Ace Attorney Investigations on modern platforms in one remastered package and I was eager to check it out once more.
YOU PICKED THE WRONG OFFICE, FOOL!
MSRP: $39.99
Price I’d pay: $39.99
Platforms: PC, PS4/5, NSW, Xbox
Steam Deck: Played mostly on Steamdeck, verified and runs perfectly.
Played: 30~ hours
Miles Edgeworth is an exceptional prosecutor that has a penchant for getting involved with strange characters around the world. Even outside of the courts, he finds himself involved in one murder investigation after another and meets a mysterious young lady named, “Kay”. Little did he know that this self-proclaimed “Great Thief” would end up being the key to unlocking a part of his past he had long forgotten.
As typical of visual novel style games, Ace Attorney is all about the story and its characters so I won’t delve deep into any specific details, but I can definitely say that while some of the later chapters dragged a bit getting to the finale, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience from beginning to end. In fact, as I have already completed both games, I had planned to only play a few chapters from each of the games for the review, but I ended up finishing the first game in its entirety and getting pretty far in the second, with plans to finish it.
The charming cast of characters, many of which I adore and the story, even though I still remember certain important aspects of them, did not make them any less fun to go through once more. This was helped along thanks to the improved visuals as the high resolution 2D sprites looked great both as character portraits and as the sprites that I could control to move around in the environment. I’ve always said that I prefer the 2D sprites over the 3D models the series adapted later on and some of the best 2D artwork the series has to offer can be enjoyed here. I also appreciated the option to use the old 2D sprites itself which was a stark reminder of how much better things looked now.
Out of all the remasters, I feel they did the best job remastering/redrawing the assets in this game.
For anyone that has played an Ace Attorney game, the formula of investigating for evidence and pointing out contradictions testimony will immediately feel familiar and despite the game taking place out of the court most of the time, it flows in a similar fashion. Still, having said that, I appreciated the change of scenery and being able to move around in the environment instead of just going from one scene to the next, pointing/clicking on static images.
Edgeworth has the awesome powers of logic and common sense, which basically makes him overpowered in the Ace Attorney universe.
While limited, they also rearranged a few of the more impactful tracks in the game and I felt they picked the right ones as they came during the climax of the chapters, which hyped me up each time without fail. In fact, the rearranged tracks are so good that I wish the entire OST was rearranged in the same way. Still, even without that, the OST is still as wonderful as it was a decade ago.
There were also various bonuses like art galleries to look at all the neat concept art and a jukebox to listen to the fantastic OST. There was also an addition of autoplay which I kept on the entire playthrough which I appreciate since it saved my thumb from having pressing the same button several thousands of times and even though I did not use it, they also offered a story mode which would solve all the puzzles/make the right choices during testimony which is a great addition for those that just want to watch the story play out without having to think too hard.
MEEEEEE?!
Even though I still want Capcom to go the distance and really take the remastered Ace Attorney games to the next level by adding some level of VOs, the effort put into this remaster impressed me more than their previous attempts. As the games have aged very well, I’m just glad that all those that skipped Ace Attorney Investigations games or missed out of its sequel due to lack of official localization will now have the chance to experience a wonderful story that deserves to be remembered.
Fun Tidbit: Now the only Ace Attorney game that’s not on modern platforms is Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. While it’s not my favorite of the series, it’s still a solid entry that I would like to see given the remastered treatment at some point. I hope they can hash out a deal with Level 5 at some point to get that done.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
