Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

System: DS
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1

You can never really go wrong with the Ace Attorney franchise. Sure, it has all the elements of Capcom Series Stagnation (each iteration is barely an improvement over the previous), but the series has some of the most well written characters your ever likely to see in any video game, as well as some of the most emotional storylines ever. Any game that is written in such a way that you legitimately like the ‘good’ characters and utterly despise and cannot wait to defeat the ‘bad’ characters is alright in my book. That being said, the latest entry in the series – Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, aims to shake up the series, introduce some much needed elements to the series and overall, provide yet another compelling experience.

As the title suggests, you’ll be playing as Miles Edgeworth – the Perfect Prosecutor, as it were. As the game opens, he’s just returned from a sabbatical overseas to find a dead body in his office, and a thief holding him at gunpoint. From there, it becomes clearer that Edgeworth is wrapped up in a much larger conspiracy.

Playing as Edgeworth means that there’s quite a few changes from previous iterations of the game. For starters, the infuriating “Psyche Lock” and “Percieve” systems from previous games, respectively, have thankfully been removed. Though the biggest change to the game comes in the fact that the courtroom has been completely omitted from the game. There is not one moment where you’re in a courtroom, battling against another lawyer. While the courtroom stuff has been partially preserved in a new part of the game, it does kind of remove the drama of the story some. Not completely, but enough that it’s noticeable.

Effectively, there are now three major parts of the game now – “Investigation”, “Rebuttal” and “Logic”. Investigation sees Edgeworth and a partner move about a crime scene investigating a crime scene, finding clues and other irregularities in the crime scene. Rebuttal is the familiar courtroom cross-examination element, wherein Edgeworth argues against other characters. Logic effectively sees Edgeworth piecing together ideas to help with questioning, evidence and more. Overall, the game doesn’t feel as much of a visual novel as the previous games did (especially now that you are never in first person during any non-courtoom phases) and feels more like an adventure game, albeit with a lot more dialogue based stuff, as you’d expect.


The thing that’s truly remarkable about all this is that it still feels like an Ace Attorney game. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest because the game still has some of the more charming characters in the series to date, and brings back a lot of fan favourite characters to further sweeten the deal. That being said, if you were expecting a great deal to change due to the fact that you’re playing as a different kind of lawyer – don’t. It still feels a lot like the original games, and while the systems that plagued the previous games have been removed , a lot of what may irk players about the original games still remains – such as stupid logic, answers that are pulled out of the air, and much more.

As well as that, the addition of all the returning characters might also prove a stumbling block for newer players. It actually works to our advantages as Australians – as the majority of the returning characters are from the original Phoenix Wright title, and its first sequel, Justice for All (the second sequel hasn’t been released here). That being said, coming into it – you’re expected to know who they are, especially when they refer to specific histories and what not. Sure, it’s something that can easily be rectified by hitting up sites like Court Records or even a Wikipedia search, but for newer players, it may prove a problem.


Visually, the game looks great. The crazy, over the top animations that made Ace Attorney famous are present, and never cease to bring a smile whenever something happens. The characters are well designed, and still look great. That being said though, there’s something quite off about the sprites during the Investigation mode. It’s not that they look bad or anything, but they have kind of an off look to them.

It’s not the case aurally. Like the other Ace Attorney games, the soundtrack is great – really doing a great job of suiting the atmosphere and complementing the action going on. It’s not the best soundtrack in the series, but it’s certainly very good. All the voice acting and what not also works in its limited regard, and again, works well to complement the mood.



Score: 8/10 - Good Buy
Overall, Ace Attorney Investigations is a nice return to form after the disappointing Apollo Justice. While some of the more annoying elements of the previous games have been removed, and replaced with newer and much improved elements, the fact that the series reputation of sometimes ludicrous logic is still here is somewhat disappointing. That being said, it’s still a great game – the characterization is top notch, the music is great, the visuals are great, and it’s an enjoyable game all round. Definitely worth checking out – especially if you’re a fan of the other games.

Review by Jamie Galea (DarthHomer)