Hands on with Ace Attorney Investigations Collection - Preview
After three other Ace Attorney collections, including one whole collection not previously available in English (Great Ace Attorney), it is Miles Edgeworth’s time to shine again. Capcom have not only brought back Ace Attorney Investigations, but they have translated the sequel and bundled them together.
AA: Investigations was always an interesting spin off, with the focus now on the main antagonist of the original Ace Attorney/Phoenix Wright Trilogy, Miles Edgeworth - the stuffy but dedicated prosecutor.
A murder in Miles’ office kicks off this story, and in true Ace Attorney fashion there will be plenty more murders to investigate and wrongfully accused people caught up in it all. This initial case opens up into a much bigger story involving a smuggling ring and a mysterious thief. As this is a narrative-based game I don’t want to delve too much into the story, but it’s a refreshing take on the AA series from around that time (the original was released after Apollo Justice). Honestly coming back to the first AA: Investigations I had forgotten how nice it was to get more time with some AA mainstay characters, such as the ever-downtrodden Detective Gumshoe and others I don’t want to really spoil in a preview (yes I’m aware the game came out well over a decade ago!). For new and long term fans it is a fun walk down memory lane in a way, revisiting these characters and getting more time with the dynamics we only had a glimpse of from Phoenix Wright’s perspective.
Whereas the mainline Ace Attorney games are usually divided between investigation and court, the early part of AA: Investigations is away from the courtroom shenanigans completely and is a fairly different appoach from the other AA games. For example in the investigation phase you directly control Miles around the crime scene and accessible areas, providing a different viewpoint than the usual first person view of the mainline AA games.
A mechanic unique to the Investigations game is the Logic system. The Logic section is where Miles gathers information through investigation and conversations, gathering up into a series of puzzle pieces. Your job is to connect two pieces of information to make breakthroughs in the case.
Something else you’ll be doing over the course of the game is using the Deduce mechanic. Deducing is a quite small portion of the cases so far, and is another one that plays a part in other AA games. It’s essentially pointing out an inconsistency in a scene or evidence and presenting your own evidence to make your deduction with.
Then there is the Rebuttal. This is where Miles needs to press for information and present evidence that contradicts someone’s rebuttal or testimony. Really this is pretty standard Ace Attorney stuff, only it’s not sitting in a courtroom cross-examining someone. It’s at this point I was quickly reminded how hit and miss the series logic could be back in the earlier games. It is easy to present the right evidence during a rebuttal, but because there’s two similar vague statements it can be trial or error if you’re presenting the evidence to the correct statement.
For the preview I don’t want to delve into the second game because honestly I want to save something new for the review, and also I want to finish the first game before jumping over to the sequel. Rest assured I will discuss both titles plenty come review time.
The Ace Attorney games are difficult to preview, especially when you can technically play the original game on mobiles. However the two most immediate changes or upgrades to this collection are the option for updated visuals from the original's more pixelated versions, and the option to choose between a new arranged soundtrack or the original. The new updated character art is lovely, Capcom aren’t doing basic pixel smoothing here. All of the characters are surprisingly detailed and well animated.
If you don’t want to navigate the old school trial and error puzzle solving, or just want to enjoy a more relaxed time just experiencing the story, you can activate Story Mode. This appears to let the game run its course to an extent. It does note that doing this will make it impossible to get some of the in game achievements, fortunately those don’t seem to actually gate you from any content.
In keeping with other AA collections there is also a gallery for game art and promotional art, as well as fairly comprehensive character art and animations. With a music player to enjoy the original and arranged tunes that come with the game, a good addition when the AA games music is pretty catchy.
If you’ve been waiting for an Ace Attorney: Investigations re-release then you’re already sold on this. If you’re more recent to the Ace Attorney series you should definitely get this too. Stay tuned for the review where I will also look at what the included sequel adds to the collection, and if it is a good follow up to an enjoyable Miles Edgeworth-focused AA game.
Ace Attorney: Investigations will arrive on September 6th for Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
