Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations - Review

New to Capcom’s “Ace Attorney” series for the Nintendo DS comes “Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations”. The game is a spin off of the original Ace Attorney adventure game series where you investigate different murder cases and defend clients in court. This time, however, the series shifts the atmosphere from the court room to the crime scene.

As the title suggests, you play as law prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, a previous rival to rookie defense attorney Phoniex Wright, who was the main character in some of the previous Ace Attorney titles. Like with previous titles in the series, the game features only five cases/episodes which are called “Turnabouts”. In each turnabout, you’ll play directly as Miles in a point and click adventure mode to investigate crime scenes, search for clues and evidence, and discover who the perpetrator is and their motive to the crime. Also new to the series is the new “Logic” feature where you must piece together bits of information you’ve found in your investigations to advance the plot.

Once you’ve gathered enough evidence, it all comes down to confrontations with the supposed perpetrator using “Rebuttals”, which are similar to cross-examinations like in the previous Ace Attorney titles. During these rebuttals, you can press the perpetrator for information or present evidence that could reveal further information or make the perpetrator confess.

For the most part, the game stays true to the series which can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Some of the new features don’t really add anything new; rather they just make gameplay more tedious. The overall story telling the game presents seems more like a cheesy soap opera than anything serious despite murder being involved in every case. Speaking of cases, solving each case doesn’t take too much thought to go through, especially during rebuttals where Miles will usually give off several “tells” in his dialogue that will give you a clue when you should present evidence. Even if you’re still stuck on certain parts, you can simply use trial and error to make your way through. Once you’ve gone through each incredibly lengthy turnabout you’ll have almost no reason to pick the game up again as there are no alternative endings to case, giving the game little replay value.

The Ace Attorney series has been a very niche game series with a moderate fanbase and fans of the series will find much to love with this new installment. Gamers that are new to the series, however, might want to give this a pass and try out the previous titles first.

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Pros:

A slew of new features such as “Point and Click” investigations
Excellent music

Cons:

Pacing is incredibly slow
Has almost no replay value