Colin

There's a demo on steam, gogogo

(Devs, please add Death Race)

[DS: 2011, Fan Translation 2015]

Hot on the heels of finishing the first game, I launched into the second one, which is, as of 2023, the only unlocalized game in the series. Allegedly it was due to the team splitting up shortly after the game's completion, but who knows. Many of the names that will follow are the fan-localized name followed by the (Original Japanese name). I'll primarily be using the english names.

The game itself is very similar to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. The main series's point and click adventure interface is largely replaced with a stage-play walkabout, whereupon you maneuver Miles (Or whomever you're playing as) to areas of interest. Occasionally the up-close investigation screens return to play, as you may be called upon to examine certain areas or deduce facts from them. You also have Edgeworth's "Logic" mode, where he connects facts or questions in his head in order to produce new leads.

Cross examining is now treated as a back-and-forth between Edgeworth and whomever he's speaking to, but is largely unchanged for anyone who's played any Ace Attorney game. There's a new "Logic Chess" mode, which complements Phoenix's Psyche-Locks and Apollo's Tell Spotting. In this mode, you are having a timed conversation with a character, while watching them for giveaways as to whether you should press them, wait a moment, or present "Clues" gathered during the dialogue. Each time you successfully defeat them in conversation, you remove one of their pieces off of the board. Repeat until they're left with nothing and you win!

One of the strengths of this spinoff's structure is that they only ever leave you in an area where there's evidence to be gathered or presented, meaning you don't have to jump between fifteen different screens ever trying to find the one person you need to talk to or thing you have to click.

The mechanics of this game are solid, but they're showing their age by this point, as the dialogue can proceed at a sometimes glacial pace, and there are still one or two leaps of logic that you're required to make, meaning you can be stuck on screens walking around and trying to find any new dialogue before advancing. This is par for the entire series, though, so it's not like you'll find any new frustrations if you've played the previous games.

As for the story, it's a good one. Miles finds his prosecutor's badge on the line as he tries to unravel an international conspiracy and undo grave miscarriages of justice. He is rejoined by Dick Gumshoe and Kay Faraday, who provide assistance and commentary. Another new friend to the group is the apprentice to Edgeworth's late father, Raymond Shields (Originally Tateyuki Shigaraki). He adds another spin to the dynamic, as someone unafraid to call out Edgeworth for his muddled prosecutorial past.

This opens the door for a wide variety of excellent character moments for Edgeworth, as he struggles with the legacy of his father, Gregory Edgeworth (Whom fans of the series will know was tragically killed many years before). This even allows you to learn about the previously unknown details of the DL-6 incident and how it came to be that someone had it out for Edgeworth's father.

Along the way your rivals are a judge, Justine Courtney (Hakari Mikagami), a judge obsessed with obeying the "Goddess of Law" and her will. Never far behind is her pet prosecutor, Sebastian Debeste (Yumihiko Ichiyanagi), equally obsessed with being "De Best" in all things; instead, he is constantly exposed as being a complete dunce.

Across the game's 5 cases, you will meet with characters from the first game, such as Shi-Long Lang, the lone wolf interpol agent, and Tyrell Badd, as well as characters from other cases in the Ace Attorney series, such as Ema Skye, Larry Butz, and Franziska von Karma. There is particularly great characterization for Franziska as well in this game, as she contends with the sullied reputation of her father and Edgeworth's mentor, Manfred von Karma.

That doesn't mean the new characters are slacking in interesting quirks and great writing. Each case introduces a handful of NPCs that are true to the series's wacky form. Even the most evil antagonists have a funny side to them in this game. Almost every character's animations are stuffed with personality that shines out as you verbally corner them.

To avoid going too deep into spoilers, as this is a mystery game, I greatly enjoyed the reveal of the Biggest Bad and his relationship with the other characters. I'd have straight up never guessed it until the reveal, even though the evidence was gradually stacked up in front of me. The game does a great job at providing you many of the facts but leaving the conclusions up to you before the story gets to them. Suffice to say, defeating the last character was a delightful victory, as his breakdown animation (A series staple, watching your opponents melt down as you've worn their last thread away) was one of my favorites.

My criticisms of this game are few, but significant unfortunately. The pacing can be downright oppressive at times, as you s u f f e r through the slow bipping sound of text that cannot be sped up or skipped in any way (I'd understand not letting it be skippable, but at least trust me with the dialogue speed, game!). Conversely, the game has this annoying habit of pausing for an animation to play, which I'd originally guessed was an engine limitation, but immediately was proven wrong. While I understand giving Edgeworth a moment to make that gloating head shake of his after a good Objection, making characters pause to pick up a dropped bowl, or do a little dance at you in the middle of normal dialogue is annoying, to say the least.

The other major criticism is that the series tradition of trying to pick what evidence to use when gets a tiiiny bit annoying here. The Fan Translation actually makes it fairly clear what evidence to use during Cross-Examination, but outside of that, you're essentially left in the dark. If you're lucky, the first mistake you make will be followed up with "Hmm... I should try to prove they were actually able to open the door!" or some similarly helpful advice, but other times you'll just be treated to Edgeworth sweating and going "I meant to say, uh!" or something.

Still, as long as you're diligent about saving, you'll never lose TOO much progress by making mistakes, as the game's very generous with refilling your health bar (Or, mental health bar? Truthometer?). Every investigation, every Logic Chess, and every chapter transition gives you a bump in health when completed.

All in all, this is one of the better games of the series, but it's showing its age now, carrying with it a great deal of the minor irks and irritations of previous DS titles. Hopefully jumping into the 3DS era comes with a few quality of life improvements from here on out!

If you're an Edgeworth fan (Or a Gumshoe fan!), this one's worth checking out. Track down the fan patch today!

I love walking around in dark souls and tears of the kingdom and finding a random jumble of rocks and trying to figure out what the fuck it was.

I wanna look at strange stuff on the ground and try to piece a story together. What is it, why is it here, what destroyed it, and when.

Gimme.

S'been a while! I've played some STUFF.
Game time has decreased somewhat due to life situations, but I still managed to snag a lot of time for games. The 3DS's natural home is on the train and by goodness I'm making use of it. Steam deck also helps me capture a bit of playtime in bed, but some of these games are so chonky they deserve the full beef of the PC. Check it out!