Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (逆転検事 2 Gyakuten Kenji 2, lit. "Turnabout Prosecutor 2") is the sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and the sixth game in the Ace Attorney series of video games. Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, Detective Dick Gumshoe, and self-proclaimed "Great Thief" Kay Faraday reprise their roles as main characters in the game. Motohide Eshiro, Takeshi Yamazaki, Minae Matsukawa, and Noriyuki Iwadare also reprised their roles as producer, director, art director, and soundtrack composer, respectively.
It was the last Ace Attorney game on the Nintendo DS, released in Japan on February 3, 2011 mere weeks before the release of the handheld's successor, the Nintendo 3DS, and never released in other languages. Eventually, a worldwide remaster was announced on June 18, 2024 as part of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection alongside its predecessor, marking it as the last game in the series to be released outside of Japan.
Gameplay[]
All of the main features seen in the previous game have returned, including the investigation/argument structure, the logic gameplay mechanic and Little Thief. Little Thief itself has been given updates such as the ability to recreate an area in multiple instances of time. In addition, the metal detector seen in Turnabout Goodbyes and Bridge to the Turnabout returned for The Captive Turnabout. The police dog Missile is also used as a gameplay during The Captive Turnabout. Ema Skye also returns to re-introduce luminol and fingerprint testing in A Turnabout Forsaken, and instances of video inspection are also included in The Captive Turnabout and Turnabout for the Ages.
Mind Chess[]
Prosecutor's Gambit features a new gameplay element called "Mind Chess". When interrogating a person who refuses to testify, the background changes to a chessboard with chess pieces, as if Miles Edgeworth and the other person were in a mental chess match. Similarly to the magatama feature in Phoenix Wright's games, this feature is used to pry secret information from various people. However, instead of just presenting evidence, the player is presented with two or more options at each decision prompt.
There is a time limit to this mental exchange; when it expires, the opponent will change his or her mind and not entertain Edgeworth further. This emphasizes the need to analyze the situation quickly and adapt to each opponent's personality. For example, against a cautious opponent, one may want to ask a question that they are guaranteed to answer. Through this, Edgeworth can slowly gain information needed to "win".
When the opponent makes a suspicious statement, a chess piece icon appears next to one of the choices, marking it as the critical "move" to make to knock out one of the opponent's pieces. Edgeworth can either choose to pursue this or choose to wait to get into a better "position" in the "game". By choosing incorrectly (i.e., waiting for too long or striking too soon), Edgeworth risks incurring a penalty to his time limit.
Story[]
A screenshot from the second trailer, depicting Edgeworth's dilemma. Edgeworth's inner struggle between his existing prosecutor career and an opportunity to carry on his father's legacy is a driving force of the overall plot of Prosecutor's Gambit.
The story mainly revolves around Edgeworth's struggle to determine the meaning of his job in relation to finding the truth behind a collection of cases. This is exacerbated when he becomes a target of the so-called "Prosecutor Purge", an inquisition conducted by the Committee for Prosecutorial Excellence intended to weed out and replace prosecutors who are judged to be incompetent or acting inappropriately. Judge Verity Gavèlle is mysteriously sent to cases that Edgeworth is investigating and attempts to replace him with a younger, less competent prosecutor named Eustace Winner. Edgeworth himself risks his badge in order to continue his quest for the truth. In the meantime, he faces a personal conflict when he meets Eddie Fender, a defense attorney who used to be an assistant to Edgeworth's father Gregory Edgeworth and has taken over the Edgeworth and Co. Law Offices after his death. Fender offers the younger Edgeworth the chance to follow in his father's footsteps and become a defense attorney.
Episodes[]
- Turnabout Trigger (逆転の標的): An assassination attempt on a foreign country's president leads to the death of one of his bodyguards. Edgeworth is sent in to investigate the incident.
- The Captive Turnabout (獄中の逆転): The murder of the previous case's culprit in jail leads Edgeworth to investigate as he first comes under fire by the Committee for Prosecutorial Excellence.
- Turnabout Legacy (受け継がれし逆転): Edgeworth gets mixed up in an incident that is connected to his father's final case before his death 18 years ago. Parts of this episode are played from his father's perspective.
- A Turnabout Forsaken (忘却の逆転): An amnesiac is accused of murder after being kidnapped, and Edgeworth is forced to make a life-altering decision.
- Turnabout for the Ages (大いなる逆転): A murder and a kidnapping lead to the resolution of a case from 12 years prior, which allows Edgeworth to uncover the mastermind behind the game's events.
Timeline[]
Dick Gumshoe's age is given as 32 in the Tokyo Game Show demo, and the demo case occurs on March 25, which puts the full date of the first case at March 25, 2019, ten days after Turnabout Ablaze.
Characters[]
A table showing relationships between characters.
Major characters[]
The various character mugshots in the game.
- Miles Edgeworth - a prosecutor who serves as the game's protagonist.
- Kay Faraday - the self-proclaimed Great Thief "Yatagarasu".
- Dick Gumshoe - Edgeworth's bumbling detective partner.
- Gregory Edgeworth - Miles's father, who was a talented defense attorney until the DL-6 Incident. He is playable in parts of Turnabout Legacy, which follows the investigation into his final case.
- Eddie Fender - a laid-back defense attorney who was Gregory Edgeworth's assistant when he was younger.
- Verity Gavèlle - a no-nonsense judge who seems to want to take away Miles Edgeworth's prosecutor's badge and ability to investigate cases.
- Eustace Winner - a laughably incompetent prosecutor whom Gavèlle wishes to replace Miles Edgeworth with.
Returning characters[]
Turnabout Trigger:
- "John Doe" - a suspect who claims to be a simple ice-cream salesman.
- Winston Payne - a prosecutor who was present in the audience when the assassination attempt on Di-Jun Wang was made during the latter's speech.
The Captive Turnabout:
- Regina Berry - a witness who is an animal tamer with the Berry Big Circus.
- Shi-Long Lang - an elite Interpol agent now apparently bereft of his usual team of 100 subordinates.
- Frank Sahwit - a convict who was previously seen in The First Turnabout.
Turnabout Legacy:
- Tyrell Badd - a gruff police detective heading the IS-7 Incident investigation.
- Manfred von Karma - a feared legendary prosecutor who tried to obstruct Gregory Edgeworth's investigation.
- Larry Butz - a childhood friend of Miles Edgeworth's who frequently changes jobs and girlfriends.
A Turnabout Forsaken:
- Franziska von Karma - a competitive young whip-wielding prosecutor working with Interpol who is Miles Edgeworth's former mentor's daughter.
- Lotta Hart - a hot-tempered photo journalist who is always searching for her next scoop.
- Ema Skye - a forensics-obsessed teenager.
Turnabout for the Ages:
- Penny Nichols - a stage-hand with Global Studios.
- Will Powers - an actor with a gentle personality, but always given roles that hide his face due to his imposing appearance.
New characters[]
Turnabout Trigger:
- Di-Jun Wang - president of Zheng Fa with a secret.
- Tabby Lloyd - a reporter who regards Lotta Hart as her mentor. Her Japanese name is a pun on "hurry", which is fitting for her spontaneous personality.
- Bronco Knight - one of the president's bodyguards. A man who likes to play chess and is rather liberal about playing with his gun.
- Bastian Rook - another one of the president's bodyguards and the victim.
The Captive Turnabout:
- Fifi Laguarde - the director of the prison and detention center.
- Simeon Saint - a man whose actions are reminiscent of the Three Wise Monkeys.
- Rocco Carcerato - a boxer convict with a pet polar bear cub called Teddy.
- Bodhidharma Kanis - a feared blind assassin who works alongside his large black dog Helmut, but is now imprisoned thanks to Miles Edgeworth.
Turnabout Legacy:
- Samson Tangaroa - a famous confectioner considered the number one in the world and starred in the TV show Bake 'n' Bop, where he would sing and dance while making confectionery items. The prime suspect in the IS-7 Incident and Gregory Edgeworth's client.
- Judy Bound - Tangaroa's servant, housekeeper, and co-star on Bake 'n' Bop.
- Delicia Scone - a confectioner who is much older than she appears.
- Carmelo Gusto - a confectioner whose creations are delicious, but have terrible design.
- Artie Frost - the victim in the IS-7 Incident.
A Turnabout Forsaken:
- Florence Niedler - a nurse at Hertz Hospital.
- Hilda Hertz - the elderly director of the Hertz Hospital who sometimes acts as a coroner for the police.
- Excelsius Winner - former Chief Prosecutor and Eustace Winner's father.
- Rosie Ringer - the victim and a defense attorney.
Turnabout for the Ages:
- Shaun Fenn - a bratty child actor.
- Alf Aldown - the victim in the SS-5 Incident and former boyfriend of Rosie Ringer.
Development[]
After the release of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, an interview with producer Motohide Eshiro revealed that he had contacted main series producer Minae Matsukawa offering his services in developing a new Ace Attorney game, in response to the positive fan reaction to Ace Attorney Investigations.[1][2] Development started on September 2009; the developers went to a "training camp" to talk about the game all day for this purpose.[3] A 3D environment was used as a basis for the 2D pixel art.[4]
Famitsu magazine page announcing Gyakuten Kenji 2.
An entire episode, which heavily involved Shaun Fenn and would have been situated between The Captive Turnabout and Turnabout Legacy, was cut from the final game due to Eshiro's concerns about the story being too long. Subsequently, the final episode was split into what became known as A Turnabout Forsaken and Turnabout for the Ages. Di-Jun Wang was not supposed to die originally, but the changes resulted in him becoming the victim of the final episode.[5]
Demo[]
At Tokyo Game Show 2010, a demo of the first case was available. This demo became playable on the official website in December 2010.
Post-release[]
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Fan-made cover for the English fan translation patch.
The game had a long history of remaining a Japan-exclusive title prior to its eventual worldwide release. On March 18, 2011, during a live streamed Q&A session with Capcom employees, upon being asked whether "Ace Attorney Investigations 2" would be released outside of Japan, Christian Svensson (then senior vice president of Capcom USA) replied, "No. Sorry about that."[6] He later clarified on Capcom's forums, "The costs of localization [on the Nintendo DS] are higher than the forecasted return. [...] I realize there are fans who would like to have this and I'll be sure to explore ways that could happen viably in the future with our strategy and R&D teams but no promises."[7] In the wake of petitions to have the game localized, Svensson mentioned that niche titles like Gyakuten Kenji 2 could be good candidates for digital distribution.[8] Svensson reportedly attempted to convince Capcom to greenlight Ace Attorney Investigations 2 for another medium,[9] but left Capcom on July 11, 2013 due to staff reorganization.[10]
In March 2011, Capcom's Christian Svensson stated that there were no plans at the time to release Gyakuten Kenji 2 in regions outside of Japan. In an interview with Siliconera in December 2011, Svensson stated that the potential for a downloadable, digital release of Gyakuten Kenji 2 exists, but that he couldn't say that it definitely would happen, and that "conversations are ongoing internally about how to address the audience that's clamoring for more Ace Attorney goodness".[citation needed]
In a live "questions and answers" video in January 2012, Svensson again said that he had not given up on trying to get Gyakuten Kenji 2 released in the West, that conversations remained ongoing, and that he was "cautiously optimistic that some day, that content will exist in the West in some form." In March 2012, he once again said that an English release of the game was "an open discussion point", and that he hoped that "the fans are still patient with us".[citation needed]
In August 2012, a Capcom employee said that if Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD, an iOS remake of the first three Ace Attorney games, was a success, it would increase the chances of getting Gyakuten Kenji 2 localized.[citation needed]
In September 2012, when asked if high sales of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney HD Trilogy and the then upcoming Nintendo 3DS title Gyakuten Saiban 5 (later localized to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies) would help sway a decision about localizing Gyakuten Kenji 2, Christian Svensson said that the game "isn't being held hostage so please don’t read this that way but if they do well, they certainly can’t hurt". He also added that the sales forecasts for Gyakuten Saiban 5 were high compared to how well previous entries in the series had done commercially, which was necessary in order to get it released in the West.[citation needed]
Unofficial translation[]
The logo made for the patch
In lieu of an official release, an unofficial English patch of the game was developed under the name Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path.[11] In September 2013, a GBAtemp user named "Auryn" released the first English translation patch for the game. The initial patch translated the first two cases, with a second patch containing a fully translated third case late released in March 2014. In June of the same year, an update with the two other cases were released, with additional information stating that the developer would try to optimize the patch size on a later date.[11] On June 14, 2014, the full patch was released.[12]
Editions[]
- Gyakuten Kenji 2: The standard edition, which contains just the game with no extra content.
- Gyakuten Kenji 2 - Collector's Package: which contains the game, an orchestral soundtrack CD composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, a promotional DVD, and a booklet with an original manga penned by Tatsuro Iwamoto.
- Gyakuten Kenji 2 - Extended Edition: which includes the game and a Miles Edgeworth figurine.
- Gyakuten Kenji 2 - Limited Edition: which includes all of the above.[13]
Reception[]
Gyakuten Kenji 2 received a 8/8/8/8 score from Famitsu, for a total of 32/40.
Theme park attraction[]
Gyakuten Kenji in Joypolis logo.
Sega built a theme park attraction called Gyakuten Kenji in Joypolis (逆転検事 in ジョイポリス) in its Joypolis theme park, which is dedicated to the Gyakuten Kenji games. Each visitor is given around 20 minutes to investigate a crime scene and look for clues.[14]
Anti-piracy measures[]
The file used to run Gyakuten Kenji 2 contains some anti-piracy measures that detect the legitimacy of the file and attempt to impede the gameplay if the file is deemed unauthorized. Unauthorized game files are typically ROMs ripped from the game cartridge. For this game in particular, dialogue text is converted into an unreadable font normally reserved for the Borginian fictional language, and organizer descriptions are replaced by Xs. The unofficial English fan patch overrides these measures.
Gallery[]
Logo[]
Promotional artwork[]
Gyakuten Kenji artbook
References[]
- ↑ Kawasaki Masaitirou. "最初は「逆転刑事」だった？ 「逆転検事」開発スタッフに聞いた開発秘話から今後の展望まで" ("Was it going to be "Gyakuten Keiji" (Turnabout Detective))? Development secrets and thoughts for the future from the Gyakuten Kenji development team"). 4Gamer. Retrieved on 2009-06-29.
- ↑ Tuesday. "Hey...We may get another GK game!" Court Records. Retrieved on 2009-06-29.
- ↑ JapaneseGIRL. Gyakuten Kenji 2!!!! Court Records. Retrieved on 2010-09-19.
- ↑ Ash (2016-08-10). "Project X Zone 2: Brave New World. Cross Talk Interview With Developers From Different Companies Part 3 (2015)". Gyakuten Saiban Library. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
- ↑ Ash (2022-05-21). "[Mari-Detective] Brimming with memory-filled stories the fans had longed to hear! A report of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Special Court, where the new title Gyakuten Saiban 5 was also announced! (2012)". Gyakuten Saiban Library. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
- ↑ March 18 Q&A with Snow and Sven
- ↑ Christian Svensson. Why Aren't You Localizing Ace Attorney Investigations 2? Capcom Unity. Retrieved on 2011-05-24.
- ↑ Ishaan. From Resident Evil To Asura's Wrath, Capcom’s Plans For Next Year. Siliconera. 2011-12-09. Retrieved on 2011-12-18.
- ↑ Wooster. Liars and Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Court Records. Retrieved on 2012-04-18.
- ↑ Campbell, Colin. Capcom hit by layoffs, senior VP Christian Svensson out (update). Polygon. 2013-07-11. Retrieved on 2014-05-01.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Auryn. Ace Attorney Investigation (2): Prosecutor's Path FINAL [RELEASE. [1]. Retrieved on 2014-6-15.
- ↑ Sega Developing Ace Attorney Investigations Attraction AAI2 Fan Translation: Full Patch Released! (BETA). June 14, 2014. Court Records forums. Retrieved on November 11, 2014.
- ↑ Japan Gets Ace Attorney Investigations 2 In Four Flavours
- ↑ Anoop Gantayat. Sega Developing Ace Attorney Investigations Attraction. February 3, 2011. Andriasang. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.
External links[]
Official website[]
Trailers[]
- Tokyo Game Show 2010 trailer (with English subtitles)
- Second trailer
Misc.[]
- Wikipedia page
- Court Records news page
- "Official GK2 Information Thread" on the Court Records forums
