Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations

[-Mark-]

I've got past that point and can't easily go back. Dunno if I missed it or can't remember, just tell me. D:

Incidentally, I was very happy to see

Lotta Hart

return in Turnabout Ablaze, even if it was only a very minor cameo. Along with Oldbag she's probably one of my favourite supporting characters. But that might just be because I love Turnabout Goodbyes so much. X3

Edited February 22, 2010 by Mahzes

[SuperLink]

I've got past that point and can't easily go back. Dunno if I missed it or can't remember, just tell me. D:

Nick, Maya and Pearls!

Not too weird when you consider the fact that AAI is set about a month after AA3

Edited February 22, 2010 by Lyra

[-Mark-]

Epic. X3

Now, how did I miss that? D:

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

As expected, this game was so epically awesome that I temporarily left the Internet to go clear it. Just got done today. ^^

I'll hold off the spoiler discussion around these parts until people have had more time to clear it, but personally I'm pegging AAI as just slightly inferior to T&T on the Scale of Ace Attorney Quality and that's only because of the climax to the final case being a bit... limp. Only a bit.

Nevertheless, this game is amazing and everyone should play it.

[Sean]

Haven't beaten it but a few things:

- Detective Badd is ace. If you don't think so, you're wrong.

- Second best Ace Attorney game. I base this not only on the sheer quality and engagement of the cases, but because Edgeworth's tactics are completely different from those of Phoenix's. It's much easier to figure out things in this game because Edgeworth doesn't rely on the bluff tactics that Phoenix is famous for, meaning there aren't as many times in which you have to blindly waltz into an argument and hope for the best. I got stumped on a couple parts in the latter half of case I-3, but that's it. Not nearly as frustrating as JFA or T&T (fuck you, Godot).

[-Mark-]

Again, I still haven't finished it yet, but personally I've still got it pegged as either my least favourite or second-least-favourite in the series. D:

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike any of the Ace Attorney games, it's just the fact that I felt the first few cases (second and third in particular) were so weak really drags the game down overall, no matter how awesome it gets afterwards.

It's funny, actually. Despite being something of the black sheep of the Ace Attorney family plot-wise, I'd say that Apollo Justice is one of the most consistent games. In my opinion, most of the Ace Attorney games have at least one arc in them that's somewhat average/ mediocre/ uninspiring, regardless of how epic the game is as a whole. Whilst I think the second arc in Apollo is probably the weakest in the game, it's still better than what I found to be the weakest arcs in other games.

It's a shame though, because AJ doesn't really have any high points to rival those found in the first or third games either, which keeps it from greatness despite not having any low points, either.

At the moment, my views on the individual AA games are as follows:

Phoenix Wright: Epic start, good middle arcs, epic epic EPIC ending (not counting Rise From The Ashes, which I'd still rather consider a standalone arc than part of the first game)

Justice For All: Average first arc, good throughout and just falls short of epic at the end. Nothing particularly bad about it, but nothing outstandingly brilliant either.

Trials and Tribulations: Nice start, average/ decent middle and good/ epic end.

Investigations: Decent start, average/ bleh middle and (from what I've played so far) epic toward the end.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Mahzes

[SuperLink]

Done fourth case. After what Mahzes said I was a little disappointed for most of it.

Everything seemed to be going pretty predictably, but towards the end, literally the last few minutes of the case, that's when things started to get pretty epic for me.

I also find it hard to believe that Edgeworth never recollected upon this case before if it was so important to him.

I really liked all the characters in it, but my biggest problem was with Yew, her laughing was very unrealistic to the point it seemed like quite a forced character trait. I know that's not a big deal with most AA stuff, but it's nice when the character traits seem more natural, y'know?

However unless Case 5 changes my mind I'm going to say this is my least favourite AA game. Of course there's a very good chance the last case will change my mind, because AA conclusions are known for being incredibly awesome right? Also Jake:

You said Edgeworth doesn't use bluff tactics, but there's a point in Case 4 where he definitely does just that to drag out the truth; it's a legit tactic, but clearly Edgeworth isn't above it.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Lyra

[Sean]

Ah, but you see, that was the work of Bratworth, not Edgeworth after his ~*~character development~*~.

I meant how this game relied far more on logic-piecing than blind leaps of faith like the Phoenix games did. Basically it's far more simpler to figure out things in this game, and far less frustrating - and it's not because the writing and story have been dumbed down in the least. The game as a whole has been going pretty well for me.

I'll reserve official judgment until I finish case I-5 (which I'm about two-thirds into), but this game has proved to me to being among the best of Ace Attorney. After the underwhelming mixed bag that was AJ (good characters, poor story execution), it's nice to see another game that rivals T&T in quality, though perhaps lacking in epicness. AAI hasn't disappointed me in the least, and I'm enjoying it too much.

[-Mark-]

Right, just finished the game. :3

I'd have to disagree with your statement saying that there's less blind leaps of faith in this game. Maybe slightly less, yes, but they're still there in all their frustration-inducing abundance later on in the game.

I seriously think the biggest thing that the Ace Attorney series needs is some sort of hint system that should give you more and more clues (eventually practically telling you the answer) if you get stuck over and over on a piece of testimony. Not sure about everyone else, but ultimately I play (and love) the Ace Attorney games for their plots, and nothing breaks up the flow of it quite like getting absolutely, positively stumped and stuck at a vague and/ or stupid bit of logic. The way I see it, the game should get more and more lenient depending on how badly you get stuck (say for example, how many times you fail at a certain bit)- I'd say if you fail the same part say, 5-10 times, it should practically give you the answer.

But anyway! Onto my overall views of the game;

I'd say the fourth arc was still my favourite. Fifth was very nice indeed still, although as someone else said, I think it did sort of peak at its high point a while before the ending- as such, the final hour or so didn't feel quite as epic as it perhaps should have. It did tie everything together rather nicely at the end, although ultimately I still think that the second and third arcs (third in particular) were decidedly average.

For me though, I think one of the highlights of the game was realising the connection between

Calisto Yew and Shih-na

. But yeah, fourth arc all the way for me. I liked how the fifth game wrapped everything up, but like I said, I think it paced itself a little awkwardly and left the ending feeling a little less epic than it should have.

Not sure where I'd place this in relation to the rest of the Ace Attorney games- I certainly enjoyed the Phoenix Wright, Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice more than this, not so sure about Justice For All though. Maybe tied with that.

[Sean]

AAI practically gave away the answer to tons of puzzles in the game, I honestly only had real difficulty figuring things out in some parts of the latter third of case I-3 as well as one or two points in I-5. It was much easier to decipher puzzles in AAI than it was in JFA/T&T and I have very few, if any, complaints about this game's difficulty.

I-5's ending was epic, but it dragged on longer than it should have.

Anyway my current stance on the series is that T&T > AAI > PW1 >> AJ >>> JFA.

[Pelly <3's U]

I have a test on Monday so this game is going to be my treat when I'm done

DDDAAAMN IT FEELS LIKE FOREVER D;

[SuperLink]

Currently in Middle - Part 1 of Case 5, yeah I've been progressing slowly but it's been hard to concentrate today.

Liking most of the characterisation so far, the way things are going it's shaping up to be a great case. I just noticed last night that the sprites may look lovely, but the animations in Apollo Justice were of far better quality. Why is that? Just makes this one feel lacking.

So yes right now my order of favourite to least favourite AA games goes:

T&T > AJ > JFA > PW > AAI

Right now I doubt that's going to change. AAI will need to impress me some more to outdo Turnabout Goodbyes and Rise From The Ashes.

I know what you're thinking, how can you like JFA more than PW, but "Farewell, My Turnabout" is possibly my favourite case in the whole series. No other case ever got my heart pumping like that one did, it was truly epic and completely unpredictable.

It was the ultimate decisive evidence that in AA, it doesn't matter if a case is "filler" or not.

PS. Anyone notice how Gumshoe is way too stupid in this? He wasn't nearly this stupid in AA1, and in AA2 and 3 he had some incredibly epic moments.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Lyra

[Sean]

Maybe he seems stupider because he's a bona-fide ally of yours this time around, whereas in PW he was supposed to not help Phoenix but was always helping him anyway, lol.

I stand by Gumshoe's shining moment in AAI to be his utterly adorable friendship with Kay.

[SuperLink]

I stand by Gumshoe's shining moment in AAI to be his utterly adorable friendship with Kay.

Hardly anything to brag about compared to some of the amazing shit he pulled off in Farewell, My Turnabout though.

[Sean]

No, this was better.

[SuperLink]

No, this was better.

Well this isn't going to go anywhere Dx

One brings out the best of Gumshoe's childish side.

And the other brings out the best of Gumshoe's do or die kicking ass side.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Lyra

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Could it simply be that someone doesn't have to be badass to be awesome?

Especially when it's not a character's strong point.

Caring Gumshoe >>>> Asskicking Gumshoe

[SuperLink]

I wouldn't use the word "badass", it's more like:

"Lalalalala- hey oh holy shit that guy is actually a pretty awesome cop when he puts his mind to it"

I just really like stuff like that. It makes me really appreciate him. Without him

Maya would be dead

.

[-Mark-]

One thing that irks me with AAI is how little it seems to take advantage of the DS like Apollo Justice and Rise From The Ashes did.

Yeah, they mention fingerprinting and luminol tests and whatnot, but you never actually do them in this game. They're just automatically done for you. Also, whenever they show 'CCTV footage' in AAI, it's just still pictures, despite both Rise From The Ashes and Apollos Justice having instances of full, actual video (especially RFTA, actually).

Along with Lyra's aforementioned animation issue, it does make the game seem somewhat technically unimpressive.

[Sean]

Honestly, those luminol tests, etc. weren't really fun to begin with.

And yeah, Gumshoe does have tons of awesome moments throughout the series (rescuing Phoenix and Maya, among other instances), but he's so cute when he's a caring big lug.

[SuperLink]

Honestly, those luminol tests, etc. weren't really fun to begin with.

Oh I love them so. Also the sprites and little 3D scenes were great in 1-5/AJ, you gotta admit.

Which reminds me, earlier I made an assitant list.

Assistant Usefulness TierList:

God Tier:

Ema

High Tier:

Kay

Mid Tier:

Maya

Low Tier: Trucy

Assistant Cuteness TierList

God Tier:

Trucy

High Tier:

Ema

Mid Tier:

Kay, Maya

That was fun. Also opinionated, but yeah, Ema is awesome.

[SuperLink]

Sorry for the bump, but I finished Case 5 late last night, so I figured I'd post my impressions.

Alright, I'm both impressed and disappointed. While I wasn't expecting it to be like the old Ace Attorney games, it was quite a lot like them, minus the court cases. Unfortunately despite the cases being well thought out, they're just not as exciting as those from the other games, and there seem to be very few "edge of seat" moments.

The final case, imo, doesn't even begin to compare to Turnabout Goodbyes - Farewell, My Turnabout - Bridge To The Turnabout - maybe even Turnabout Succession in terms of how exciting things can get. Case 5 spoilers:

Also, the conclusion really drags on and on and on, it seems a bit artificial and almost like an "imitation" of the other games' epic moments. You know the bit, where you're against Alba, and after every single "cross examination" someone yells "HOLD IT!" then *SHOCK... SHOCK... SHOCK*. Yes. They did that in the other AA games, but you don't need to do it to death.

AAI also reuses a disappointing amount of plot elements and ideas from other games in the series, they might be references, but when it comes to your game's plot, references aren't the best way to fill it up. The whole game reaks of Masque DeMask with the whole thief thing going on Case 4 and 5 spoilers:

and the last couple of cases give us a Dahlia-alike as well as a Deus Ex Machina style "mastermind"

. Also Case 4 spoilers:

I refuse to believe that with key words like "Faraday" and "Yatagarasu", Edgeworth still can't remember who Kay was in Case 3, especially since that case clearly made an impression on him and Franziska. An impression we never heard about in AA1 through 3. He must have an awful memory.

That said, I did really like the new main characters introduced in AAI. Unlike past assistants, Kay has no problem with being genuinely helpful, Lang is a cool guy, and other characters like Shih-na, Yew and Badd were very well done too. Except for Yew's laughing which I found to be a bit of a forced character trait.... I'd really like some of these characters to appear again, and some even show signs of being in future games, be in spin off or mainseries. I-5 spoilers:

I mean it's quite obvious Lang will appear again, seeing as he gets a cliffhanger of sorts (why does he hate prosecutors huh?), but Badd was awesome and because of his "cop-out" (LOL! XDDDDDD) I doubt we'll ever see him again

Lastly the cameo roles from familiar characters. There are a lot of them, and unfortunately I think the writers went out of their way to include some of them, that just didn't fit in. Case 3 spoilers:

Ema for example. She got the best of 10 minutes screentime, doesn't really do much, and suddenly gets called to help Lang, and then is never heard from again for the rest of the case.

I-5 spoilers:

On the other hand, Maggey, Meekins, Larry, and Oldbag got the same kind of roles they usually had, no biggie.

Concluusioon~

AAI is a very awesome imitation, it doesn't feel canon, but hopefully its events will be recognised in future AA titles which will rectify its importance in some ways. For me, as awesome as it was, I didn't feel glued to my DS as often as I had been with previous titles. It just felt more like an appetiser. D:

tl;dr awesome game, but not exactly AA (to be fair, pretty damn high) standards.

Having a different head writer will do that to a spin off.

PS

Who the fuck was that Proto Badger then?

EDIT: Oh and how could I forget, like mentioned before, the sprite animations, and lack of any CGI cutscenes or investigating things like luminol, footprints, or rearranging crime scenes, all gone. This game would have worked nicely enough on the GBA, the music and sprite quality is all that tells me this is a DS game.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Lyra

[Sean]

I was thankful that Capcom cut the bullshit by just skipping the mini-games in AAI. As for taking advantage of the DS, I just wish they added a fifth case to JFA. T&T didn't really need another one, but it wouldn't have hurt either. And of course, having only four cases made AJ feel extremely short.

Also...

Proto Badger was probably the bellboy. Same vibes and mannerisms.

[SuperLink]

As for taking advantage of the DS, I just wish they added a fifth case to JFA. T&T didn't really need another one, but it wouldn't have hurt either. And of course, having only four cases made AJ feel extremely short.

To be fair, I think the cases lengths even out. Case 1 and 2 on AA1 were pretty short, so 1-5 is justified. Also JFA's cases are longer in general, Case 3-4 was incredibly short and was really just like a prologue/explanation for 3-5, and every case in AJ was pretty damn long, even the first case was huge compared to first cases in every other game.

In comparison, AAI's cases are all pretty short with the exception of I-5.

So yeah while JFA is the weakest game overall in the series, Farewell, My Turnabout is so amazing that I really don't care.

[Frobman]

I beat the game a few days ago, and I have to say I liked it a lot. The cases, the stories, the solving (which I found was less hassling than the previous ones, but I did fumbled many times in the last case due to rushing and low concentrations, but still managed to beat it).

The new characters were all fun and enjoyable, too, especially based on their little quirks and interactions. I certainly want to see both Kay and Lang in later games. And of course more Edgeworth and Gumshoe dynamics, which I have to say what I liked alot about this game (or rather, Edgeworth interacting with anybody who gets on his nerves)

And am I the only one who liked the last case, despite messing up on it a lot? In particular the ending of it, trying to pin the guy anyway possible, and all the supporting characters come to save the day. Although I'm sure this happened in other games, I think it was this game that went out of it's way to include more saves from the rest of the cast than the others, making it feel awesome for me.

Ah well, that's just me.

All in all, I found it enjoyable and engaging, and would probably place it as one of my favourites alongside T&T. Now to await future games to come.