Fans of the iconic courtroom comedy visual novel might think they’ve caught up with Ace Attorney by now. Even if you never picked up the series during its original 2001-2017 run, Capcom’s admirable interest in preserving its old flagship games means you’ve had ample opportunity to play the Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright trilogy, which arrived on then-modern consoles and PC in 2019, and finally Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice earlier this year. Since 2021, you can even play Ace Attorney: Grand Era, a prequel duology that many fans were sure would never be officially localized outside of Japan.
But if you’re a newbie, there’s one game you may not have played – or maybe even an old-school fan – that Ace Attorney Investigation: Edgewortha game that still fails to appeal to a modern audience, thanks to its release relying primarily on a dwindling supply of second-hand Nintendo DS cartridges (although at least you can play it on mobile devices). Today marks the 15th anniversary of the game’s initial release in Japan, and for us die-hard Ace Attorney fans, it seems fitting to celebrate, and while we’re really grateful for the current bounty, we’d also really like to see the next remake of the game, from Capcom, please
For the benefit of new players, this two-part spinoff focuses on protagonist Wright’s childhood friend, turned professional rival, turned friendly adversary, turned possible love interest, and no, seriously, they’re not even trying to hide their leanings towards this character anymore: Miles Edgeworth. (In case you’re wondering, the second Ace Attorney game—which shouldn’t be getting our attention too much, since it’s not a birthday—came out in 2011 and, aside from a half-dozen in-browser treasures, remains the only Ace Attorney game never to have been released outside of Japan.)
Capcom making a spin-off game about Edgeworth was a smart move for a number of reasons, chief among them being that Ace Attorney fans absolutely adore this guy. You can argue about whether Phoenix or Apollo is the best series protagonist, but you’ll hardly hear anything disparaging about Edgeworth because he’s consistently better than both of them.
Freed from the requirement to be a character that the general audience could identify with, Edgeworth is Edgeworth from the start: suave, no-holds-barred; a bit of a nerd once you get to know him a bit; a bit morally questionable, but you can change him. No, really: his character is substantially developed, quickly moving from a villain to a more clearly defined heroic figure, as it becomes clear that players of the first game responded well to him. A byproduct of this is that it quickly gives him a sense of depth that other regular characters in the series take much longer to achieve.
It’s no surprise, then, that when the idea of a spinoff was mooted following the conclusion of the original Ace Attorney 3 trilogy, plans to give the role to Wright’s one-time assistant Ema Skye were quickly shelved in favor of Edgeworth taking the spotlight.
Ace Attorney 3 relegated Jackie Chan to a handful of required mentions, but Edgeworth wasn’t the only main supporting character to get a chance to be a main character: the spinoff also focused more on Edgeworth’s sharp-toothed adopted sister, Francesca von Karma, and his idolized lackey, Detective Gumshoe – which, incidentally, marked the last major appearances for both characters, as they were both removed from the main storyline after the time jump between the trilogies.
Although Edgeworth rather unceremoniously deprived Emma of her chance to become Ace Attorney’s first female protagonist, she still gets a fair amount of screen time; in flashback chapters, young Edgeworth and Francesca serve as teenage assistants to their evil father and lawyer mentor, which leads to a surprising reappearance of Ace Attorney’s original villain, Manfred von Karma.
In other words, unless you’re a die-hard Phoenix fan who won’t accept any alternatives, Investigations is an all-around crowd-pleaser: offering shameless fan service without sacrificing any of the signature touches that made the series so beloved. Despite being the first Ace Attorney game not directed by series creator Shu Takumi, you’ll find many players rank Investigations as the best game in the series.
So, assuming Ace Attorney 7 continues its record-breaking run that hasn’t been announced in the near future, this milestone birthday is the perfect time to (re)discover the Ace Attorney spin-offs — advice that applies equally to fans of the series and Capcom themselves, by the way.