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This article contains information from the unofficial English translation patch for Gyakuten Kenji 2.
AAI2Coverenglish

Owing to the lack of an official translation of the Japan-only Gyakuten Kenji 2, the information and names in this article come from the unofficial English translation patch known as Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Prosecutor's Path. More information on this can be found here.

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Raymond Shields
Miles, the path you choose... That's up to you.
Gyakuten Kenji 2 December trailer

Gyakuten Kenji 2 (逆転検事 2 Gyakuten Kenji 2, lit. "Turnabout Prosecutor 2"), also referred to as Ace Attorney Investigations 2 by Capcom staff, is the sequel to Gyakuten Kenji (known as Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth in English) 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.

Since the 2021 release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Gyakuten Kenji 2 is the only main game in the series to remain a Japan-only title. 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."[1] 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."[2] 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.[3] Svensson reportedly attempted to convince Capcom to greenlight Ace Attorney Investigations 2 for another medium,[4] but left Capcom on July 11, 2013 due to staff reorganization.[5] In lieu of an official release, an unofficial English patch of the game has been developed under the name Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path.[6]

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 Imprisoned Turnabout. The police dog Missile is also used as a gameplay during The Imprisoned Turnabout. Ema Skye also returns to re-introduce luminol and fingerprint testing in The Forgotten Turnabout, and instances of video inspection are also included in The Imprisoned Turnabout and The Grand Turnabout.

Logic Chess[]

Gyakuten Kenji 2 features a new gameplay element called "Logic 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[]

TwoPaths

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 Gyakuten Kenji 2.

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 Prosecutorial Investigation Committee intended to weed out and replace prosecutors who are judged to be incompetent or acting inappropriately. Judge Justine Courtney is mysteriously sent to cases that Edgeworth is investigating and attempts to replace him with a younger, less competent prosecutor named Sebastian Debeste. 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 Raymond Shields, a defense attorney who used to be an assistant to Edgeworth's father Gregory Edgeworth and has taken over the Edgeworth Law Offices after his death. Shields offers the younger Edgeworth the chance to follow in his father's footsteps and become a defense attorney.

Episodes[]

Timeline[]

Main article: 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[]

GK2 Relationships

A table showing relationships between characters.

Major characters[]

Gyakuten kenji 2 mugshots by tokyosoul95-d3bgn0t

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 The Inherited Turnabout, which follows the investigation into his final case.
  • Raymond "Ray" Shields - a laid-back defense attorney who was Gregory Edgeworth's assistant when he was younger.
  • Justine Courtney - a no-nonsense judge who seems to want to take away Miles Edgeworth's prosecutor's badge and ability to investigate cases.
  • Sebastian Debeste - a laughably incompetent prosecutor whom Courtney wishes to replace Miles Edgeworth with.

Returning characters[]

Turnabout Target:

  • "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 Huang was made during the latter's speech.

The Imprisoned Turnabout:

The Inherited Turnabout:

  • 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.

The Forgotten Turnabout:

  • 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.

The Grand Turnabout:

New characters[]

Turnabout Target:

  • Di-Jun Huang - president of Zheng Fa with a secret.
  • Nicole Swift - a reporter who regards Lotta Hart as her mentor. Her Japanese name is a pun on "hurry", which is fitting for her spontaneous personality.
  • Horace Knightley - one of the president's bodyguards. A man who likes to play chess and is rather liberal about playing with his gun.
  • Ethan Rooke - another one of the president's bodyguards and the victim.

The Imprisoned Turnabout:

The Inherited Turnabout:

  • Jeffrey Master - a famous pastry chef considered the number one in the world and starred in the TV show Piece of Cake, where he would sing and dance while making confectionery items. The prime suspect in the IS-7 Incident and Gregory Edgeworth's client.
  • Katherine "Kate" Hall - Master's servant, housekeeper, and co-star on Piece of Cake.
  • Delicia Scones - a pastry chef who is much older than she appears.
  • Dane Gustavia - a pastry chef whose creations are delicious, but have terrible design.
  • Pierre Hoquet - the victim in the IS-7 Incident. He is actually a sculptor, and went by the pseudonym "Isaac Dover" in the dessert-making competition.

The Forgotten Turnabout:

The Grand Turnabout:

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.[7][8] Development started on September 2009; the developers went to a "training camp" to talk about the game all day for this purpose.[9] A 3D environment was used as a basis for the 2D pixel art.[10]

100909famitsu01

Famitsu magazine page announcing Gyakuten Kenji 2.

An entire episode, which heavily involved John Marsh and would have been situated between The Imprisoned Turnabout and The Inherited Turnabout, 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 The Forgotten Turnabout and The Grand Turnabout. Di-Jun Huang was not supposed to die originally, but the changes resulted in him becoming the victim of the final episode.[11]

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.

Localization[]

AAI2Coverenglish

Fan-made cover for the English fan translation patch.

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".

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".

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.

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.

Unofficial translation[]

GY2 Fan logo

The logo made for the patch

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.[6] On June 14th, 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

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[]

[]

Promotional artwork[]

References[]

  1. March 18 Q&A with Snow and Sven
  2. Christian Svensson. Why Aren't You Localizing Ace Attorney Investigations 2? Capcom Unity. Retrieved on 2011-05-24.
  3. Ishaan. From Resident Evil To Asura’s Wrath, Capcom’s Plans For Next Year. Siliconera. 2011-12-09. Retrieved on 2011-12-18.
  4. Wooster. Liars and Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Court Records. Retrieved on 2012-04-18.
  5. Campbell, Colin. Capcom hit by layoffs, senior VP Christian Svensson out (update). Polygon. 2013-07-11. Retrieved on 2014-05-01.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Auryn. Ace Attorney Investigation (2): Prosecutor's Path FINAL [RELEASE. [1]. Retrieved on 2014-6-15.
  7. 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.
  8. Tuesday. "Hey...We may get another GK game!" Court Records. Retrieved on 2009-06-29.
  9. JapaneseGIRL. Gyakuten Kenji 2!!!! Court Records. Retrieved on 2010-09-19.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Sega Developing Ace Attorney Investigations Attraction AAI2 Fan Translation: Full Patch Released! (BETA). June 14, 2014. Court Records forums. Retrieved on November 11, 2014.
  13. Japan Gets Ace Attorney Investigations 2 In Four Flavours
  14. Anoop Gantayat. Sega Developing Ace Attorney Investigations Attraction. February 3, 2011. Andriasang. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.

External links[]

Official website[]

Trailers[]

Misc.[]

Localization petitions[]

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