First of all, have some epic music:
Not entirely sure yet where I would rank Ace Attorney Investigations in the series. (Right now I am near the end of the final case, although I am sure there are more twists to come because the latest victory came WAY too easily. Also, a twist happened that I called all the way at the end of the fourth case. It feels good to be the one predicting these things for once!) Part of what makes it difficult for me to really compare this game to the others is that it is different in feel to the Phoenix Wright/Apollo Justice games ... I didn't think taking the game completely out of the court room would make a big difference, but it does, at least for me.
I had a difficult time getting into it at first. Part of what makes the Phoenix Wright stories work, for me, is that the investigations serve to build the suspense to crazy levels before all the tension is released during the trials -- you get the clues beforehand, but because of the nature of the way Phoenix works his cases, it's almost impossible to know how everything connects together before the trial begins. In Ace Attorney Investigations, however ... I don't want to say there is no tension, or less tension, but it's definitely different -- there is a more logical progression to the stories as Edgeworth connects everything that is going on and solves the cases on the fly.
It's a much smoother sort of progression than in the other games, which is probably why it took me a couple of cases to really appreciate that. It probably helps that case three is where the crimes take a step up in terms of complexity (and four and five are much more complex than three, as well). But the way the stories unfold in Ace Attorney Investigations is a bit more polished, I guess, because it's the classic scenario of being out in the field discovering everything. I don't know if anyone else who has played the game so far feels the same way; however, I did grow to appreciate it eventually.
The difficulty of the game is a strange point as well. I don't know if I am just really used to the logic of the Phoenix Wright-style games by now, if Ace Attorney Investigations is easier than the other games or if Edgeworth's focus on logic actually does make each case unfold in a more precisely logical way (maybe it's a combo of the three), but there haven't been any frustratingly tough bits that take some ridiculous thinking to uncover. I've been stuck exactly once so far, and there have been a few other times where it has taken me more than one guess to get the right evidence for the situation. For the most part, though, I can follow the story's line of thinking fairly well.
I'm definitely not complaining about that at all, haha. It feels good to be able to say, "Oh yeah, I see where the game is going with this" and find evidence out in the field and have a good idea of where it is going to fit in. I love the Phoenix Wright games, but sometimes there are points where the logic is just absurd. There haven't been any moments like that in Ace Attorney Investigations; yeah, there are points that unfold in a convenient way (it is a mystery, after all), but they're well within my suspension of disbelief. That's one place where the game really excels.
The cases are pretty good, for the most part. Case one is OK as far as first cases go -- it's tough to outdo Apollo Justice's first case, and this doesn't really try to do that, but it does do a decent job of setting up the rest of the story. Case two is just OK, as well. I like some of the characters in it, but the mystery isn't that exciting. At that point I was still getting used to the game, too. (At least it has Franzy.) Case three is pretty good; decently complex, and it introduces a few more of the game's main players. Cases four and five are both awesome. They don't touch my favorite case -- Justice for All's finale -- but they are definitely worthy additions to the finales of the other games (and I still have to finish this last case, too, remember ...).
Character-wise, I really like a lot of the new characters introduced in this game. Kay Faraday is absolutely adorable. I love her poses where she imitates Edgeworth without him noticing lol. She has a good amount of spunk, too. I thought Apollo Justice's Trucy Wright was just OK as the Maya stand-in, but Kay is great. (Too bad it takes her until case three to appear ...) Shi-Long Lang is a solid adversary for Edgeworth. He's probably the least memorable of the legal antagonists, but he's cool in his own way, even if he is kind of a dick, haha. (Personally, I think Klavier Gavin is the best of the legal "villains" -- his relationship with Apollo is pretty interesting.) There are a couple of characters introduced in case four who I think are pretty awesome, too, and for vastly different reasons, but I won't talk much about them because it's all spoilery stuff.
The character designs are really good too. Is it just me, or is every woman in this game really, really, really, really ridiculously good-looking?[/Zoolander] Egads! This game really made me waver in my devotion to Franzy. Even Maggey Byrde is really hot! Who saw that coming?? Also, this game has me convinced that Gumshoe is moe. Don't you just want to hug the poor guy all the time? And the way he protects Kay so selflessly -- and stupidly -- in the fourth case is just too heartwarming. And I couldn't stop awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwing at Gumshoe saluting Edgeworth and cementing his eternal loyalty to him at the end of the fourth case. Oh, Gumshoe. <3
This is getting close to tl;dr territory (if it hasn't passed that already), so I'll just comment on one other thing: I like all the random cameos and references to the other games in the series: There's of course the reappearances of characters like Franzy and Gumshoe throughout the game (along with Wendy Oldbag, Larry Butz, Ema Skye, Lotta Hart (as a background character who presumably submits a piece of evidence in case five), and even Mask DeMasque (?!?!?!), but there's also fun stuff like the random digs at Phoenix, callbacks to previous cases in the series (including a hilarious line about how often people seem to "fly" in these games), hints about future events (especially prevalent in case four *shakes fist at Von Karma*), and so on. Such a smorgasbord of fanservice for Ace Attorney fans.
Anyway, even though I had somewhat of a mixed opinion of the game at first, I've grown to love it as much as the other games in the series. Not at all unhappy to have bought it (even as a present for my brother :p).
EDIT: Beat the final case this morning. As expected, there was definitely more -- much more! -- to come after the point I was at when I posted yesterday. Good, exciting ending, and the Big Bad is as much of a smug jackass as the other villains in the series.
