The Ace Attorney Investigations video games are the focus of a new special exhibit on Capcom Town, the company’s 40th-anniversary website. The Apollo Justice Trilogy remaster that will be released next year will be partially promoted by this, but it seems the fans wanted it that way.
Fans of Ace Attorney were asked in a poll which main character they would prefer to represent them in court: Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Ryunosuke Naruhodo, or Miles Edgeworth. According to Nintendo Magazine, fans of Phoenix Wright’s best friend, archrival, and official love interest, Edgeworth, were able to propel Edgeworth and, by extension, his relatively unnoticed spin-off duology Ace Attorney Investigations to the top of the poll:
The Nintendo DS exclusive video games Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and its follow-up were released in 2009 and 2011, respectively. The games borrow many characters and ideas from the primary Ace Attorney series, but they change up the gameplay a little bit, playing more like point-and-click adventures than visual novels. This is why Edgeworth occasionally appears as those adorable and hilarious little sprites, stills of which are now on display as part of the show.
Investigations 2 was never made available outside of Japan, but a well-liked fan translation in English (starring professional voice actor SungWon Cho as Edgeworth, no less!) has contributed to both games achieving cult status among the series’ international fanbase, though opinions on whether AAI2 is the best or worst Ace Attorney game ever seem to be sharply divided. Everyone seems to agree that when creating your tier list.
Further oddities on display in the exhibit include key art, design documents, trailers and promos, and a few other random oddities, such as a poster for a third entry in the Investigations sub-series, a 2013 stage musical with an all-female cast and a plot that relies heavily on time travel. Yes, this was a real show that Capcom officially licensed, though its relationship to the game canon is unclear.
Even though this isn’t the eagerly anticipated announcement of an Investigations remaster, there are still good reasons to be hopeful. Following the relaunch of the original Phoenix Wright trilogy on Switch, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles was finally released in 2021 on a global scale, showing that Capcom appears to be on a bit of an Ace Attorney revival kick right now. The Apollo Justice trilogy news was swiftly followed by the remaster of Shu Takumi, the series creator, on-theme side-project Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective that came out earlier this summer. Investigations will then be the only non-crossover Ace Attorney game that is not currently available to current players.
Additionally, as this poll blatantly suggests, all of those devoted Edgeworth supporters must have a remarkable amount of purchasing power. What do you say, Capcom? Your release schedule for 2025 must still have some room to please a few extremely specialized nerds.
