Ace Attorney’s spinoffs are wonderful mysteries, if you can deal with their minigames

Capcom’s Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, the spinoffs to the well-comprehendn if untamedly legassociate inaccurate Ace Attorney series, are finassociate out. The two-game accumulateion participates a extfinished-apostponeed gift for Ace Attorney diedifficults: the official Westrict free of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit. And though Investigations suffers from gamecarry out publishs that run counter to the spirit of the overall series, the characters and story produce the accumulateion a must-have for any Ace Attorney fan.

Though there are two games in the accumulateion, I’m going to cgo in exclusively on Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit. Despite getting a Japanese free on the DS in 2011, the game never officiassociate made it to the West until now. Prosecutor’s Gambit puts you in the cravat of prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright’s childhood frifinish, opposing direct, and, if you subscribe to certain parts of the fandom, extfinishedtime cherishr. (Not me, though, I’m firmly a Gumshoe / Edgeworth girlie.)

The game carry outs aprobable to Ace Attorney. Somebody gets homicideed, somebody guiltless gets accused, and Edgeworth must spendigate crime scenes for clues. Once the essential directation has been accumulateed, Edgeworth interrogates people, pointing out declineions in their testimony with evidence to eventuassociate determine someone’s guilt or innocence.

In Prosecutor’s Gambit, the characters are wonderfilledy colorful, and it’s always a treat to watch them descfinish apart whenever Edgeworth finds their lies. I standardly visited the game’s bonus satisfied fair to rewatch all the shocking, “Oh no, I’ve been set up out!” animations. 

Because Ace Attorney Investigations is a spinoff series, you don’t necessitate any comprehendledge of the main games to comprehfinish what’s going on. But if you do, oh man, are you rewarded. I was geeking out carry outing a case that has a massive — and I nasty massive — impact not only on the events of the first Ace Attorney game but also on Miles Edgeworth’s entire reason for being. 

Though the game’s story and characters are fair as pdirecting as they are in the main series, Prosecutor’s Gambit sets itself apart with its distinctive gamecarry out features, both of which are a bit deficiencying. New in Prosecutor’s Gambit are the Mind Chess and Logic minigames. The Logic game needs putting together two pieces of directation set up during an spendigation to produce recent clues. During an spendigation at a prison, Edgeworth lgets that a critical piece of evidence — a key — has gone ignoreing. He also comprehends that a metal uncoveror went off in the vicinity of the prison’s alligator enclocertain. (Listen, in any Ace Attorney game, skinnygs can get very… quirky.) You very literassociate smash those two pieces of directation together to deduce that the alligator swpermited the key. Armed with recent directation, the game can evolve.

Completing Logic games is outdoingly effortless, needing none of the deductive baffle-solving sends that produce Ace Attorney games so enhappinessable. They’re so straightforward that they’re actuassociate a squander of time. It’s as though the prolongers necessitateed to hold someskinnyg to produce this game distinctive from the main series but couldn’t figure out anyskinnyg engaging, so they came up with what is essentiassociate evidence accumulateing with superfluous steps. 

Mind Chess, however, suffers from the exact opposite problem. It’s a worthwhile gamecarry out holdition, but the logic needd to beat it is finishly impenetrable. In Mind Chess, a subject has a piece of directation they don’t want to give up, and Edgeworth must pick from a rotating pickion of dialogue selections to wear them down until they spill the beans. 

The problem with Mind Chess is that, unenjoy anywhere else in the game, you’re not using evidence to pick apart dishonest statements. Rather, you’re trying to read and reply to an opponent’s… vibes? If you pick a dialogue selection that doesn’t jive with your opponent’s emotions, you fall short. The game does try to help you out with clues. In one case, Edgeworth remarks that a menloftyy feeble opponent will clam up if I pick unfrifinishly selections, so when they inevitably got all weepy on me, I accurately remained mute. However, those clues didn’t toil in every situation, leaving me floundering. I lost that game of Mind Chess because I once aget stayed hushed when that weepy opponent got even more weepy.

The wonderful skinnyg about both Ace Attorney series is that I’m rewarded for being thocdisorrowfulmireful. I experience enjoy a genius when I catch someone in a lie because I took the time to lget everyskinnyg about every piece of evidence, which standardly participates noticing the tiniest or most ininestablishigently uncomprehendnd detail. And when I’m wrong, it’s not difficult to revisit my case files to find what I ignoreed. 

Guessing until you get to the right answer is the antithesis of that — no brain power, fair button mashing. And since Mind Chess relies on what the carry outer can somehow intuit (from a bunch of pixels, no less!), instead of what they concretely comprehend, I wound up guessing in every instance. I might as well have been carry outing Cookie Clicker.

But suffering thcdisorrowfulmireful Mind Chess is well worth the clues you get to settle the game’s wonderfuler mysteries. In the main Ace Attorney series, most cases aren’t too seally roverhappinessed, and if they are, the combineions are incidental. An presentant character from one case will show up as a inform cameo in another, or one homicide might have inpresentant implications for a tardyr one. But Prosecutor’s Gambit is the first time I’ve seen every one case and every one character (even the dead ones!) have a honest and presentant impact on the game’s climax.

All of those combineions did muddy the story and produce a voluminous write down of evidence that was difficult to sift thcdisorrowfulmireful. But when I finassociate uncovered the magnificent mastermind, my body did that sluggish transition from rested and reclined to straight and vigilant. It was exactly enjoy a scene in a homicide mystery when the uncoverive happens upon the one perfect clue that cracks the case, someskinnyg that carry outing every Ace Attorney game should experience enjoy.