Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Switch Preview
Eagle-eyed players of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney trilogy that released in January would have noticed a gulf between its first and second games. Not only does it represent the gap of 6 years and a generational leap in Nintendo’s DS lineage, but also a change in writers and art direction. Ace Attorney wasn’t gone in this time however — it capped off its run on the DS with two Ace Attorney Investigations spin-offs. Instead of following defence attorney Phoenix Wright, these titles concern his prosecutor best friend-turned-enemy-turned-best friend again, Miles Edgeworth.
There are a few small changes over the original releases, but the quality of life additions are very welcome. These include the text log, autoplay (which automatically progresses through dialogue but also has an option that handles all gameplay for you), having all episodes and their chapters unlocked from the start, and a tick icon added to investigated areas, a returning feature from the newer Ace Attorney Trilogy. Otherwise, Investigations functions pretty closely to the main Ace Attorney games, the biggest difference being its gameplay is environment exploration during investigation phases, with the traditional point and click mechanic saved for close-ups of important areas.
As the game takes place entirely outside of the courtroom, cross-examinations take place as and when the game calls for it, which is a lot nicer on the pacing than the series’ in-universe rule of court trial time limits. The other main addition to both games is “logic”, in which notable elements of the case that aren’t quite understood yet are stored in Edgeworth’s mind. Two related pieces of logic are then put together to progress the investigation. Investigations 2 also adds Mind Chess, in which you choose to push forward or hold back on your line of questioning to press information out of people.
The redrawn sprites are a lot nicer too — the up-close shots are a lot more crisp and the environmental characters ooze beautiful amounts of detail in their designs and animations. Best of all though, they’re incredibly faithful and look just as I remembered them. If you’re not a fan, the player can opt to use the original sprites instead. The same goes for toggling the new music rearrangement pre-order bonus, though there isn’t a lot of it. Every sprite and cutaway drawing can be seen in the gallery, with all investigation mode sprites viewable in either art style. The gallery also includes a music player and concept art. My heart melted seeing the concept art for Ema Skye.
As for the games themselves, it’s been 14 years since the first game landed overseas. This collection marks not only the sequel’s first official release in English, but also the last of the 10 non-crossover games to be officially localised and readily playable on your modern platform of choice. It still feels like only yesterday that all Ace Attorney news was just the first trilogy being ported again and again, and now the entire series is finally more accessible than it ever has been. Despite the change in writers, everyone still feels like Ace Attorney characters. The few returning characters are just as you remember them while the new people you’ll encounter are equally as eccentric, with most characters bouncing off each other pretty well and adding dashes of humour to the case proceedings.
Investigations follows a string of seemingly-unrelated cases told in a non-linear narrative, while its sequel is told in chronological order with flashbacks to Edgeworth’s father’s time as a defence attorney. Both games share the theme of uncovering a grander scheme at work, but all cases tie into the games’ overarching stories a lot closer than other Ace Attorney entries, feeling a lot more focused on its plot as a result. Don’t expect short tutorial cases either; they’re shorter cases relatively but if you’re used to quick and easy tutorial cases from the mainline games, you’ll be surprised how much more substantial they are in Investigations.
Final Thoughts
It’s been a long wait for the Investigations games to receive more than half-remastered mobile ports but the wait is worth it. This collection is the way to experience Edgeworth’s side arcs, and with the series now completely available however you like, here’s hoping this is a great sign of new life for Ace Attorney moving forward.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection releases worldwide on September 6th and is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
About the Author
Dylan McCarthy PKA Alpine Escape, a music and sound design production student with a life-long obsession for video games.
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