Partial Review: Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth

Leave it to a good localization team to make this guy’s name sound awesome in America as it does in Japan (in Japan it’s Mitsurugi Reiji)

This is the first of the Ace Attorney series that I have actually played. I had just been watching play-throughs of the other games, seeing that they aren’t too bad.

For uninitiated. Miles Edgeworth is the childhood friend and rival of the original protagonist, Pheonix Wright. Miles is probably one of the best characters in the franchise, being smooth talking and very sharp (…excusing the pun in his name EDGE/POINT GET IT).

So ultimately Capcom figured they should give him his own game, and so they did.

Story:

Having completed 4/5ths (four of five cases) of the game, the story is not too bad. Whilst not relying on character development the story makes do with simple characterization and allows the player to focus more on the mystery aspect.

You don’t feel a sense of attachment to the characters, but most of them have a aura of coolness that keeps them in your mind at least.

Like the previous games, there is an over-arcing story that ties all five cases together. This follows Miles’s involvement in the investigation of a smuggling ring, and a mysterious vigilante that is trying to expose it (I should write movie summaries).

Mechanics:

Unlike the previous games, Investigations actually features some section where you physically move around other than click “go here”. I think this is a bit of an improvement over the other games because seeing controllable sprites on the Nintendo DS makes the game a bit more appropriate for the platform.

Like the previous games you have to display evidence and such. Knowing what evidence to submit is sometimes not as obvious as I would hope, (ie. the game makes you have to think). Though this is actually a good thing in retrospect.

Music:

Having listened well to most of the series’s discography. I say that this soundtrack is probably one of the best.

The games before it (other than the fourth game Apollo Justice, which many people have trouble accepting, which I’ll sympathize with) all had a particularly noticeable MIDI background music. The music in Investigations sounds a lot more “real” and more orchestrated.

The 2009 version of Announce the Truth is quite beautiful. Whilst the newest “Objection theme” doesn’t disappoint. Though some of the MIDI-ness is still there, and it also does not disappoint.

Overall:

As part of the Ace Attorney series, I say this game makes a great addition. Of course this is the first one I played, but the experience has been quite enjoyable, so I’ll just pray that no-one yells at me for being wrong.

I would complain that there is apparently no way to change the text-speed, which is kind of weird considering the game is like 98% text and I am a fast reader. However it is not as bad as the massive annoying nature of Hotel Dusk which features much slower text which really breaks the follow of the gameplay.

For any person who wants a simple visual novel, I would recommend this. The plot is not horribly complicated, but this game is a really nice way to pass the time.