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Miles Edgeworth
A prosecutor is one who seeks the conviction of a defendant. However... I don't believe that's all we are.
Captivate 2009 Trailer

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (逆転検事 (Gyakuten Kenji); lit. "Turnabout Prosecutor") is the fifth game in the Ace Attorney series, and the first directed by Takeshi Yamazaki, with no direct involvement by Shu Takumi, who had directed the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy and was majorly involved in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Codenamed "NEW Gyakuten NOT Saiban" prior to its official announcement, it is a significant departure from the aforementioned past games, most notably in the fact that there are no playable trials, and the game follows the prosecutor Miles Edgeworth as he investigates various crimes. The investigation/trial paradigm that defined the previous games has been revamped: investigations have been made more interactive, with the player now able to move Edgeworth's sprite around the crime scene instead of using a cursor, and with the "Logic" feature added in by which deductions concerning facts can be made. Trials have been replaced with arguments, and transitions between investigations and arguments are more seamless than with investigations/trials.

A direct sequel to the game called Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit was originally released in Japan in 2011 for the Nintendo DS. On September 6, 2024, the two games were remastered and released globally as the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection.

Basic information[]

Investigations takes place in the two-month period between the events of Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice. It is more similar to "point-and-click" adventure games than the text-adventure style of previous games in the series. During investigations, characters appear as small sprites standing at a specific point in an area rather than as large sprites facing the player. Edgeworth and his various partners also appear in the same manner, and the player is able to move Edgeworth around freely. Many gameplay functions return in similar, if not identical, forms to those in the previous games.

The developers stated that they took great care in animating the characters correctly; for example, they tried to ensure that Edgeworth's running animations are "graceful, while exerting effort". Like the other games in the series, the player can access gameplay features via either the touchscreen or the buttons.

Gameplay[]

4719 - Ace Attorney Investigations - Miles Edgeworth (U) 55 25101

Edgeworth and Lang exchanging cards.

The game is centered around moving Edgeworth to different locations and interacting with different objects and people by examining the former and talking to the latter. The player moves Edgeworth around by touching a directional pad on the touchscreen or the physical d-pad. Edgeworth also usually has a "partner" who follows behind him as he moves around, and Edgeworth can converse with said partner by touching their partner icon on the touchscreen or pressing "Y". As in the core Ace Attorney games, the player can access an "Organizer" (the game's version of the court record) at any time and peruse evidence and profiles collected. There are two main phases of play in the game, which are equivalent to the investigation and trial phases of previous games. However, rather than abruptly alternating from one to the other, the transitions are seamless and the player is not necessarily in either phase at any given time.

In investigations, several modes of gameplay are available, including some that did not exist in previous games. Some areas, like crime scenes, can be examined more closely in a manner that is similar to the "Examine" function in the core Ace Attorney games. Occasionally, the player must look for a clue in an area that contradicts collected evidence and then press a "Deduce" button (or the "X" button) to select the contradicting evidence. Investigations also make use of a second "inventory", called "Logic", that stores important pieces of information that Edgeworth has found. Here, the player can combine two ideas to reach a conclusion. This can create a new piece of information or trigger some other event. Some investigation phases involve investigating a virtually reconstructed version of a crime scene using a gadget belonging to Kay Faraday called "Little Thief".

The other main phase of the game are "arguments", which are similar to cross-examinations in the core Ace Attorney games.

Episodes[]

The episodes in the game by gameplay order, with their chronological order in brackets.

List[]

  1. Turnabout Visitor (逆転の来訪者; lit. "Turnabout Visitor") (4): A murder occurs in Miles Edgeworth's office upon his return from working abroad that he must now investigate.
  2. Turnabout Airlines (逆転エアライン; lit. "Turnabout Airline") (2): While on a plane home, Edgeworth is accused of a murder and must find the real culprit in order to clear his name.
  3. The Kidnapped Turnabout (さらわれる逆転; lit. "The Kidnapped Turnabout") (3): While delivering ransom for a kidnapping, Edgeworth finds himself wrapped up in another murder as he meets a rival investigator and an old friend from his past.
  4. Turnabout Reminiscence (過ぎ去りし逆転; lit. "The Bygone Turnabout") (1): Seven years before the other episodes in the game, Edgeworth's first ever court trial is interrupted by the discovery of the corpses of the previous prosecutor and the defendant, seemingly killed by one another. While investigating with Franziska von Karma, Edgeworth has his first encounters with Dick Gumshoe, Kay Faraday, and an infamous thief known only as the "Yatagarasu".
  5. Turnabout Ablaze (燃え上がる逆転; lit. "The Blazing Turnabout") (5): A fire and double homicide at a foreign embassy leads Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Faraday, von Karma, and Shi-Long Lang to a final showdown with the Yatagarasu and the resolution of a greater conspiracy linking the previous four cases.

Characters[]

GK1 Relationships

A table showing relationships between characters.

Main characters[]

  • Miles Edgeworth is a renowned prosecutor who finds himself embroiled in an Interpol investigation into an international smuggling ring.
  • Dick Gumshoe is a bumbling but well-meaning police detective who assists Edgeworth in his investigations.
  • Kay Faraday is a teenage girl claiming to be an infamous thief known as the "Yatagarasu". She also assists Edgeworth via her gadget "Little Thief", which can create a virtual reconstruction of a crime scene.
  • Franziska Von Karma is the daughter of the late veteran prosecutor Manfred von Karma, as well as a fearsome prosecutor in her own right. She is currently working with Interpol to take down a smuggling ring.
  • Shi-Long Lang is an elite Interpol investigator who has the highest successful arrest rate out of all Interpol agents, mostly due to his methodology of "arrest first, ask questions later". He is well-known for his mass investigation tactics using a large team of 100 subordinates.
  • Shih-na is a seemingly quiet and unassuming woman who acts as Lang's second-in-command.
  • Tyrell Badd is a veteran police detective who is pursuing the Yatagarasu.

Other characters[]

For each episode, characters are noted as either debuting (first appearance, but appear in future episodes) or exclusive to that episode (first appearance and only appear in that episode). Characters noted as cameoing have all appeared in previous Ace Attorney games, but appear only as small, full body sprites that often cannot be properly interacted with in this game. Characters with no such notes after their name have either previously appeared in an Ace Attorney game and/or a prior episode of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

Turnabout Visitor[]

Turnabout Airlines[]

The Kidnapped Turnabout[]

Turnabout Reminiscence[]

Turnabout Ablaze[]

During credits[]

Development[]

Kenji

Logo for Gyakuten Kenji.

Ace Attorney Investigations- Miles Edgeworth logo

The English logo.

While developing the Nintendo DS version of Trials and Tribulations, producer Motohide Eshiro had the idea of making a spin-off series based on a major character in the Ace Attorney series.[1] He ran into Takeshi Yamazaki and suggested the idea to him, and Yamazaki agreed to work on it. In his blog at the official Ace Attorney website, Eshiro described it as a reckless suggestion with an inspiring, enthusiastic, reckless response. Daily meetings occurred soon after that.

Eshiro and Yamazaki quickly established an emphasis on the crime scene, rather than on the courtroom, for the game. Some points of contention during the "endless discussions" included the meaning of searching for contradictions in a crime scene, the possibility of playing as multiple different characters, and conveying an Ace Attorney game without the signature courtroom battles.

Director Yamazaki's original plan was to create a detective game starring Akane Houzuki (Ema Skye). However, producer Eshiro saw Reiji Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) in his mind as the main character of the detective game, partly because he was seen as a more popular character according to fan feedback,[1] and it was so. The game was developed as a follow-up and spin-off to the main Gyakuten Saiban series.[2][3]

Series regular character designer Tatsuro Iwamoto was the first major development team member to be recruited. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney character designer Kazuya Nuri would later be recruited to update some of the characters he had previously designed, though ultimately ended up designing several of the supporting characters, including most of the victims. Iwamoto and Yamazaki quickly began creating a new ensemble of characters. Mikumo Ichijou (Kay Faraday) was the first new character to be created for the game.[1]

Demos[]

A demo of the first case, Turnabout Visitor, was available to Tokyo Game Show 2008 attendees. In February 2009, it was added to the TGS website.

Comic-Con 2009, which was held on July 23-26, 2009, featured a playable demo of the English version of Investigations as well as the official North American and PAL release dates.

Another playable demo of Turnabout Visitor and Turnabout Airlines (the first and second case, respectively) featured on CES 2010, which ran from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10, 2010.

European release[]

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth wasn't translated in any non-English language. This was justified by the sales of the last Ace Attorney game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which were stated to be too low. This decision was met with disappointment from non-English-speaking fans of the franchise.

iOS/Android release[]

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth was released on December 8, 2017 on both iOS and Android. However, although the standard "close-up" sprites and location art were updated, the "zoomed-out" character sprites were directly ported from the original DS games, albeit scaled-up to match the rest of the game's elements.

Canceled features[]

One crime scene was indicated on a map that looked identical to the one used in Turnabout Corner to reveal the locations of the three minor crime scenes Apollo Justice was tasked to solve. The crime scene in question was shown to be located near the spot on which the Wright Anything Agency would have been. This crime scene did not make it into the final game.

A dolphin show attraction for Gatewater Land was planned in The Kidnapped Turnabout, including a dolphin trainer named Inukai Ruka, who would force Edgeworth to befriend a dolphin to get her to testify.[4]

Timeline[]

See also: Timeline

Excluding Turnabout Reminiscence, which takes place seven years prior to the main events in the game, the majority of the game takes place between March 12, 2019 (with Turnabout Airlines) and the trials of the main villains on March 17 of the same year at the conclusion of Turnabout Ablaze. Investigations features the shortest "present" timeline period in the series (i.e., excluding Turnabout Reminiscence).

Limited edition[]

The limited edition of Gyakuten Kenji in Japan included the following:

  • A pamphlet from the spring concert
  • A few character illustrations
  • A card case
  • An orchestra "mini album" (four of the tracks plus a bonus)
  • A DVD of promotional trailers

Gyakuten Kenji-themed Nintendo DSi[5] was also released.

Music[]

The Gyakuten Kenji Original Soundtrack was released on June 24, 2009 on two discs. Composed by both Noriyuki Iwadare and Yasuko Yamada, the cover was designed by Tatsuro Iwamoto, the game's designer and art director. It is the only game in the series to have a two disc soundtrack.

Another music disc, the Gyakuten Kenji Orchestra Mini Album, was released with the limited edition version of the game, and featured orchestral soundtracks based on music from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, as well as previous games in the Ace Attorney franchise.

Staff[]

Reception[]

In Japan[]

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A preview by the Official Nintendo Magazine prior to the game's release in Europe: "Ace Attorney fans should have no objections to the quality of what's on offer here."

Ace Attorney Investigations sold 172,000 units in its first week of release in Japan,[6] and 42,000 the following week.[7] In both cases, the game was the 2nd best selling DS title in Japan, after Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

In June 2009, an interview with Eshiro revealed that, considering the positive fan reaction to the game, another Kenji game would probably be developed in the future.[2][3] This eventually came to pass with Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit.

In the United States[]

The game received positive reviews from critics. Nintendo World Report gave the game 8.5/10 and said "Ace Attorney Investigations is quite possibly the best entry in the series, as it changes up the tried-and-true formula enough to keep it fresh, while retaining the style and witty dialogue of the previous titles." They gave high praise for the game music and art style, but complained a little on the method of controlling Edgeworth with the touch screen.[8][9] EuroGamer gave the game 8/10, praising the choice of Edgeworth as the main character and the new gameplay and character additions, on which they commented that "For all that's new, it's still faithfully an Ace Attorney game."[10]

GameZone's Steven Hopper gave the game a 7.5/10, saying "Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth gets props for changing up the setting and providing a new protagonist for the franchise. However, the gameplay is pretty standard for the Ace Attorney series, and brings with it the same flaws from other entries."[11]

Gallery[]

[]

Promotional artwork[]

Japanese images[]

References[]

External links[]

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