Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations is a spinoff to the wildly acclaimed series Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Investigations is an adventure style game published by Capcom and released in February 2010. Despite being titled as Ace Attorney, Investigations takes a different turn from its counterparts because it does not carry the visual novel feel that the others are known for. With such a drastic game-play change, is it advancing the series in the right direction?
Main Plot:
Miles Edgeworth returns from an overseas trip only to find a dead body in his office. Thus begins the long and arduous journey to find out the true meaning behind the events of late.
Game-play:
A touch based game where you control Miles and move around areas looking for clues to help solve the case at hand.
Why it's special:
As mentioned earlier, it is the first spinoff game for the main antagonist of Phoenix Wright. Fans get to see Miles in a new light and take control of his cases. Also this game is special because it diverges from the standard game-play in favor of a new style.
Plus One:
The cast: While some older faces make appearances in this game, there are a lot of new members who take center stage. It is exciting to see new faces because it leads to new interactions that haven't been explored by the main series.
Humor: Just like all other Ace Attorney games, Investigations does not skimp on the humor. From the mild chuckle to leaving a constant smirk on your face, Investigations does well in keeping the story light at all times.
Game-play: It does seem like the producers put a lot of time and effort into making it work. Surprisingly, it works despite being such a change from the other games.
Locations: One thing that other Ace Attorney games suffer from is the lack of different locations. Investigations keeps things new by introducing different areas to explore within cases.
Minus One:
Length: Many times Investigations felt drawn out. There are times within a case where it becomes clear who did it and what their motivation was, yet the case continues. It boarders on the point of frustrating because there is nothing to do to advance quickly.
Story: While overall decent, the story seems to be lacking that true Ace Attorney feel. Perhaps this is best explained by the lack of Shu Takumi, the creator of Ace Attorney. Shu has directed every other Ace Attorney game except for Investigations. There are some points where it feels like the creators did this as an experiment rather than putting their full effort into it.
Cases: Similar to length, the cases are drawn out. In addition to being drawn out, some of the cases are rather simple. This is probably due to the writing not being top notch.
One for all:
While by no means a bad game, Investigations fails to live up to its Ace Attorney name. Investigations is a game for the fans, those that closely follow the series will enjoy the game but those that aren't such diehard fans will find it lacking. What seemed like could be a proper sidestory turned more into a simple experiment.
Post script:
Some may already know that Investigations has already seen a sequel in Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Investigations 2 was released in February 2011 in Japan but has yet to see a release in the U.S. Capcom has stated that they have no plans to bring the sequel because of poor sales. This is hard to accept as a fan of the Ace Attorney series because that means we don't get to see what happens next. A shame that Capcom isn't being loyal to the fans loyal to them.
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