Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Review
Miles Edgeworth has softened up over the years, moving from stone cold Phoenix Wright rival to helpful ally. While I liked Edgeworth’s jerky side, it makes sense that Capcom transformed him into a relatable protagonist to carry his first solo adventure.
The more drastic change in this spin-off of the Ace Attorney franchise is a new zoomed out third-person perspective. Character sprites are animated well and actually show people interacting instead of simply describing what happens. Having direct control over Edgeworth’s movements in a crime scene feels more natural than tapping all over a room with the stylus. Investigations are contained to smaller areas this time around, which thankfully fixes the issue of forcing players to hike all over town to find that one person or piece of evidence needed to move the game forward.
The new logic system finds Edgeworth collecting clues outside of traditional physical evidence. For example, you’ll take note of a contradiction such as: “Why isn’t there any broken glass on the ground if this object supposedly crashed through the window?” Once a handful of clues are gathered, you can piece two together at a time. While it adds another perspective to investigations, I found the game’s logic a little too easy overall. It ends up being more of a process of elimination than true deduction.
While mechanics are certainly important, many fans of the series judge an Ace Attorney by its cast and plot. Without spoiling anything, I can say that the silly tone remains intact, and murder mysteries are just as ridiculous and tough to solve as ever. Myriad cameos and references pay fanservice in spades, however unlikely the setup. The new obligatory teenage girl sidekick, Kay Faraday, provides adequate spunkiness and causes Edgeworth to make his embarrassed face quite often. New rival Shi-Long Lang loves talking about wolves, hates prosecutors, and cares a little too much about his faithful team of 99 investigators. That said, I didn’t find Lang to be as compelling as previous foes like Godot or Franziska.
The overall plot didn’t pull me in as much as previous installments, either. Nothing is really at stake for Edgeworth personally in the final run. Usually, there’s a snowballing sense of urgency to solve the last case, but the end of Investigations just drags on. I enjoyed my time with Edgeworth, but it’s the weakest entry in the series
Products In This Article
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
