Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is a 2009 adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2009, and internationally in 2010, and later for iOS and Android in 2017. It is the fifth game in the Ace Attorney series, and is set between the events of the third and fourth games, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
While previous games in the series focus on defense attorneys, Ace Attorney Investigations has the player control prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who investigates five cases that tie together to form an overarching story about a smuggling ring. The game consists of investigation phases, in which the player investigates crime scenes in search for evidence, and rebuttal phases, in which they confront other characters, to hear what they think has happened; the player is able to use evidence to find contradictions in the characters' statements, to get closer to the truth.
The game was directed by Takeshi Yamazaki and produced by Motohide Eshiro. Eshiro had come up with the idea of a new adventure game about Ace Attorney characters while working on Trials and Tribulations, and Yamazaki had the idea to have it be about deductive reasoning and crime scene investigation. The game was specifically designed to be different from previous Ace Attorney titles, with a larger focus on the environment. The development team had originally considered using Ema Skye, a character from earlier games in the series, as the lead character, but used Miles Edgeworth instead because of his popularity. They aimed to have players be immersed in the game and feel like they are Edgeworth, as opposed to previous Ace Attorney games, where they felt players merely could identify with the lead characters; to do this, they included direct control of Edgeworth, and a gameplay element that involves connecting his thoughts.
It was met by generally favorable reviews, with a common complaint being that rebuttals at times devolve into trial and error. The game was one of the best selling games of 2009 in Japan, while Western sales were described as "poor at best". After the game's release, a manga series based on it has been released. A sequel, Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, was released in Japan in 2011. Both games were remastered as part of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection compilation release in 2024.
Gameplay
Ace Attorney Investigations is a single-player adventure game in which players control prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who investigates five cases. The game is mostly presented from a third-person perspective, occasionally switching to a first-person view when examining evidence. Each case involves playing through several investigation phases and rebuttal phases.
During investigation phases, players control Edgeworth directly, either with the D-pad, or by sliding the map that is displayed on the bottom screen. The player has Edgeworth walk around crime scenes in search for evidence; they also meet witnesses and suspects during these phases, who they can talk to. As Edgeworth notices various things in the crime scene, they are saved as Edgeworth's thoughts. Using the "logic" function, the player can connect two such thoughts to gain new information; for instance, by connecting two bullet holes with a gun that has only been fired once, Edgeworth will conclude that two guns must have been at the crime scene. At some points, the player is able to control a cursor to examine parts of the crime scene; by using the "deduction" function at these points, the player is able to point out a contradiction between the crime scene and evidence. If the player successfully points out a contradiction, they gain access to new information. At certain points, a device called Little Thief can be used to create hologram reproductions of the crime scene; by investigating these reproductions, the player can discover new information that would otherwise be hidden. As more evidence is uncovered, the hologram is updated. After having examined an area sufficiently, the investigation phase ends, and the game moves on to a rebuttal phase.
The rebuttal phases work quite similarly to the cross-examination phases from the original games. A witness or a rival character provides their idea of what has happened. The player is able to press them for details, and can present relevant pieces of evidence that contradict what the witness or rival is saying. By doing this, the player gets closer to the truth; it is through confronting suspects during these phases that the player solves the cases. Upon solving a case, the episode is cleared and a new episode is made available to the player. If the player makes mistakes throughout the game, such as presenting wrong pieces of evidence, attempting to connect two thoughts that do not match up, or making incorrect choices, a green gauge called the Truth Gauge decreases, representing Edgeworth getting further from the truth. If it is completely emptied, the game ends. By clearing an investigation phase, half of the gauge is restored, and by clearing an episode, the gauge is restored completely.
Synopsis
Setting and characters
Ace Attorney Investigations takes place between the third and fourth games in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The story is split into five episodes, each focusing on a different crime; though told out of sequence, the cases tie together to form an overarching story revolving around an international smuggling ring. While previous Ace Attorney games feature defense attorneys Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice as the lead characters, Ace Attorney Investigations features prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who was Phoenix's rival in previous games. Among the supporting characters are Kay Faraday, who claims to be the Yatagarasu, a legendary thief who works to expose illegal corporate dealings, and detective Dick Gumshoe, Edgeworth's long-time partner. Recurring rivals of Edgeworth's are Shi-Long Lang, an Interpol agent from the fictional country of Zheng Fa who bears a fierce hatred of prosecutors and the courts after his family's reputation was tarnished by a corrupt prosecutor, and his assistant Shih-na. Other characters include prosecutor Byrne Faraday, detective Tyrell Badd, and defense attorney Calisto Yew. Returning characters from previous Ace Attorney games include prosecutor Manfred von Karma and his daughter Franziska, and forensics student Ema Skye.
Plot
Cohdopian Embassy secretariat Manny Coachen is accused of murdering Cece Yew, a witness who was to testify against a smuggling ring. Prosecutor Byrne Faraday and detective Tyrell Badd attempt to convict Coachen, but he is acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Feeling that the justice system is powerless to those who stand above the law, Faraday, Badd and Yew's sister Calisto start stealing corporate files detailing illegal or unethical activities and sending them to the media under the alias 'Yatagarasu'.
Three years later, another murder occurs at the embassy. During the trial, in which Faraday is the prosecutor, suspect Mack Rell claims that Faraday is the Yatagarasu and ordered him to commit the murder. A recess is held to replace Faraday with another prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, due to this accusation; before court reconvenes, both Rell and Faraday are found dead. Edgeworth discovers that Calisto murdered Faraday with Rell's help, then killed Rell and made it look the two had killed each other. Calisto claims to be the Yatagarasu as well as a member of the smuggling ring before fleeing. Faraday's daughter Kay is comforted over his death by Edgeworth and detectives Gumshoe and Badd; she believes her father to be the 'true Yatagarasu', and vows to one day catch Calisto (the 'fake Yatagarasu').
Seven years later, while Edgeworth is traveling on an airliner, an Interpol agent investigating the smuggling ring is murdered during the trip. Upon landing, Prosecutor Franziska von Karma arrives and explains that she is working with Interpol to expose the smuggling ring; she and Edgeworth discover the murderer to be flight attendant Cammy Meele, who is working with the smuggling ring. After landing, Edgeworth is contacted by businessman Ernest Amano, whose son Lance has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Edgeworth reunites with Kay, who calls herself the Yatagarasu. They discover the body of Amano family butler Oliver Deacon, and find Lance who identifies Deacon as one of his kidnappers. As Edgeworth investigates the mystery, he meets Interpol agents Shi-Long Lang and Shih-na, who believe that Amano's business group is involved with the smuggling ring; the ring's counterfeit money has ruined the economy of their home country Zheng Fa, so they seek to bring an end to the ring. Edgeworth learns that the kidnapping was a ploy by Lance to get money from his father, and that Lance killed Deacon after the latter had attacked him.
Evidence is found tying Amano to the smuggling ring, and Lang brings him in for questioning. Returning to his office, Edgeworth is confronted at gunpoint by an unidentified man and then finds the body of Detective Buddy Faith inside. He determines that the murderer was Jacques Portsman, a prosecutor working for the smuggling ring who broke into Edgeworth's office to steal evidence from Byrne's murder case, murdering Faith after being caught; however, Edgeworth works out that Portsman was not the man he encountered at gunpoint.
The next day, the countries of Allebahst and Babahl, which formerly made up Cohdopia, prepare to announce their reunification when their shared embassy is set ablaze and two people are killed. The bodies are found in the embassies' respective offices; one of them is Manny Coachen, now the secretariat for Babahl. After investigating, Edgeworth exposes Shih-na as Calisto in disguise; she admits that she attempted to frame Kay for Coachen's murder but insists that she did not murder the secretariat. As she is taken away, Badd reveals that he has since figured out that "Calisto Yew" was an alias (Cece didn't have a sister), and that she became part of the Yatagarasu on orders from the smuggling ring's leader. He also reveals that he was the one who confronted Edgeworth in his office – he was looking for the case file covering Cece Yew's murder.
Edgeworth discovers that the smuggling ring's leader is Quercus Alba, the former Cohdopian and current Allebahstian ambassador, who committed both murders to cover the smuggling ring's tracks. He intended to frame Coachen as the smuggling ring's leader as Coachen had plotted to seize control of the ring himself. After Lang gets Alba's diplomatic immunity revoked, Edgeworth proves his guilt and Alba, Amano and the other smugglers are convicted.
Development
The game was directed by Takeshi Yamazaki and produced by Motohide Eshiro, with character designs by Tatsuro Iwamoto, and music by Noriyuki Iwadare and Yasuko Yamada. Eshiro got the idea to make a new game featuring characters from the original Ace Attorney games while working on Trials and Tribulations. According to Eshiro, the game was made for portable play, and has an interface that uses the touch screen; as this could not be replicated on other platforms such as Xbox Live, he said that the Nintendo DS was the platform that was best suited for it, and that no ports to other hardware were planned.