The Ace Attorney Series

I liked Investigations, but I didn't like how whatever-those-were-called-parts were pretty much same thing as court in previous games and I didn't find Gumshoe jokes funny.(seriously, does someone actual find that kind of jokes funny?? Why do developers always continue doing those kinds of jokes?...)

I thought that AAI was pretty good, but even I thought the shoehorning in of main AA characters was pretty forced. I mean, why on Earth would you include Ema Skye in a case when all she's going to do is use "Find Footprints With A Black Light" spray and vanish five minutes later?

There was also the usual fridge logic in the investigation that makes you do a facepalm, but what ever.

What really bugs me is Takumi's attitude on him saying that he considers the AA series done with AJ. Are you kidding me? If he just wanted to take a break to make other games, that's perfectly fine. I'm waiting for Ghost Trick, but considering that AJ ended with too few resolutions and a huge question mark for Phoenix's character... to say that Takumi thinks the series is done is a huge Wallbanger in my eyes. It just seems that he doesn't want to be meddled more and just wants the series to go away.

Yowch... I was pretty disappointed with AAI. It felt really forced and weird to have courtroom antics outside a courtroom. I was hoping they'd either get back to their roots with another AA, or really play up the "investigations" part of it a little more thoroughly.

I'll actually go as far as to call AAI my 2nd favorite in the series after T&T. And not just because of the fanservice (though it helped)

the last case was pretty exhausting though, about as exhausting as the last one in PW 1

I really enjoyed AAI. Probably quite a bit more than I did AJ, though I'd like to replay that sometime to see if I feel the same on a second playthrough as I did the first.

So, really, this, combined with the fact that Takumi seems interested in bringing an Ace Attorney to the 3DS makes me feel like it'd be silly to have any issue with an AAI 2. Plus, going off a screenshot I saw for it, Shelly De Killer's showing up again. I'd love to see what they do with him, as I always wondered if he'd ever get brought to justice.

And as far as Takumi supposedly wanting to stop...I'd say if he did want to end it, I'd rather he did that than work on a series he had no interest in carrying on with. I certainly would hope it wasn't the case, because I love Ace Attorney in all its forms (even Apollo Justice I liked on some level). But if he didn't want to work on it, it seems unfair to get upset at him for having feelings about the series he made and wanting to move on.

edited 13th Sep '10 12:45:00 PM by DrPravd

Can someone link to the screenshots? The link in the IGN article doesn't work for me for some reason. Nevermind, found the link myself. Look like we'll get to confront Shelly in the flesh.

edited 13th Sep '10 12:48:33 PM by WUE

New Trailer for AAI 2.

SHELLY DE KILLER YES

Also, DAT MUSIC. Oh man, if that's the new Cornered! theme... 8D

edited 29th Sep '10 3:53:41 PM by Electivirus

Gotta say, I'm linking the new animations used for Little Thief's activation sequence.

When the inevitable orchestral album is released, that song had better fucking be on it. =d

I'd have to agree with Rebo. While AAI has a really interesting set of gameplay mechanics, the storyline stagnates and just shoehorns heaps of characters into it. There is zero character development for Edgeworth (think about how every AA game has Phoenix undergoing some degree of character development- becoming a formidable lawyer in 1, realising that winning isn't everything and that lawyers and prosecutors need to team up in 2, rising above his mentor in 3 and realising that the law system is completely broken in AJ) In fact Edgeworth seems to get derailed with that decision in the last case that seems so out of character (you know the one)

Oh and for some reason the game glorifies Von Karma and no one brings up what he did. Normally this would be for spoiler reasons, but this game is pure continuity porn so it has no excuse to have everything BUT this development that dramatically changed Edgeworth's past.

Finally, AAI seems to be positioned in the timeline in such a way that it doesn't need to address any of the developments that lead into AJ which felt really lazy and quite half assed on the writers' part.

AAI 2 looks decent, a chance to get revenge on De Killer is awesome. Other than that, I'm interested in what new gameplay mechanics they introduce but otherwise would much rather prefer AA 5 (if they're waiting for the 3DS that's fine, but I still want further development on Apollo's part)

I recall that Takumi said that Edgeworth would get some character development in this game. So he seems a bit aware of that problems with the first AAI.

I'd really love it if they finally showed what happened to Edgeworth in AAI 2. Did he die (I hope not)? Did he leave to help Phoenix fix the courts? (explains how a disbarred lawyer had enough influence to change the entire court system)

I'd also like to learn about Kay's Yagaratsu plans. It seems like it could be very important in AJ 2.

WOOT!!! SHELLY DE KILLER WITH ICE CREAM CONE AND PINK JACKET(or whatever that was called)

...I hope Investigations 2 got less Fridge Logic...

^^Takumi is involved in AAI 2? I thought he had little involvement in AAI? Well, that should be sweet then. My Real Daddy and all that

Sorry my mistake. Takumi not involved.

In fact Edgeworth seems to get derailed with that decision in the last case that seems so out of character (you know the one)

To be fair, regarding that, it's not like Edgeworth used the stolen evidence in court. He displayed it in an interrogation environment to see what the killer's response would be. That's not a violation of evidence law.

I actually didn't mind that Edgeworth didn't get much development, because I felt that the main purpose of the game was to just watch Edgeworth as an already-complete character. All the really important development of his character occurred during Phoenix's games anyway.

That person Edgeworth was facing off with in the chess environment is his new rival. He/she is obsessed with the use of computer technology to crack crimes, and Edgeworth will have to teach him/her the hard way that a computer's logic is no substitute for a human's.

^ while using Little Thief to crack cases.

I don't mind if the prosecutor for a given case isn't a total Jerkass. To me, the true rival of most cases isn't the prosecutor so much as the murderer (especially in 2-4, 3-5, and any case Kristoph appears in).

The murderer and prosecutor in 3-5 were one and the same.

Apparently, in Edgeworth's next game, his rival is actually a female judge who wears something over half her face, not the man/woman from the trailer. Awww, my wild mass guessing has already failed. They should use the technology-obsessive idea for the next prosecutor in the main games.

I too felt Manfred von Karma was completely wasted in AA:I. If you're going to drag out such a pivotal and important character, why relegate him to a handful of unimportant scenes? He practically defines the person Edgeworth became before meeting Phoenix again. And to me, that was the crux of my issues with the game - the continuity was just there for the sake of having moments of recognition of a familiar character. Nobody really developed, not Edgeworth, not Kaye, not the side characters, not the established cast. I was really looking forward to some actual insight into Edgeworth and, say, his relationship with von Karma or Franziska, but it felt like they just didn't care. Hell, even the reuse of his fear of earthquakes was played out wrong. In T&T, it's used for genuine character drama and his reaction to being felled by it was quite moving. In AA:I, it's used as a minor character quirk that he just blows off, even though he's arguably worse off this time.

Speaking of, I never really liked how the series as a whole doesn't quite address how royally screwed up Franziska should be. Did they seriously have nothing to say about the situation with von Karma after the first game?

I have to question why a judge should even be involved in an investigation. Doesn't snooping around for the criminal destroy any pretentions of being unbiased.

Rule of Funny.

^^^ Well, nothing really important could happen with Von Karma, because that would destroy the impact of Edgeworth learning about how he really is in the first game.

As for Franziska, to the series's credid, they did have Maya assuming that her "revenge" in the second game was revenge for what happened to her father.

I hope if Fransizka shows up in AA-2 she finally accepts what her father has done and gives her condolences to Edgeworth.

I think maybe they deliberately avoided any hints at what Von Karma did because they wanted to make it an Elephant in the Room. It's on everyone's mind, but no-one will acknowledge it because it would involve dredging up something incredibly traumatic for both Edgeworth and to a lesser extent Fran.

I really hope we do actually get a return to Apollo Justice at some point; enjoyable though it is playing as Edgeworth, Apollo deserves his own arc. And I miss court.