Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (6th September 2024)

[Julius]

Well, it happened. 

Capcom have been really on top of it on Switch this gen! 

Also confirmed for PS4, XBO, Windows and Steam. 

Edited June 18 by Julius

[Jonnas]

Guess this means I'm replaying AAI, huh? That's fine, it's got some excellent music.

*fingers crossed* Please fix the issues I had with that game...

[Dcubed]

Patience pays off!

So hyped to finally get to play AAI2!

Now that the entire series has been remade and released in English, surely a proper AA7 has to be coming next!?

[Ike]

39 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Guess this means I'm replaying AAI, huh? That's fine, it's got some excellent music.

*fingers crossed* Please fix the issues I had with that game...

Like a new ending to the last case? I hated how that went. I don't think think they should actually change it though.

39 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Patience pays off!

So hyped to finally get to play AAI2!

Now that the entire series has been remade and released in English, surely a proper AA7 has to be coming next!?

They did announce AA7 didn't they and I just didn't make it up, right?

[Jonnas]

2 minutes ago, Ike said:

Like a new ending to the last case? I hated how that went. I don't think think they should actually change it though.

I just want Edgeworth to stop throwing away evidence during the middle of his cases I'd like changes to the writing as well, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Ike]

For some reason, only the PS4 version is getting a PAL physical version.

[Glen-i]

14 hours ago, Ike said:

For some reason, only the PS4 version is getting a PAL physical version.

Eh, par for the course with Capcom these days. They've been quite adamant about not bothering with PAL physical releases lately.

[Ike]

7 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Eh, par for the course with Capcom these days. They've been quite adamant about not bothering with PAL physical releases lately.

I was surprised they even bothered with a physical release this time, and the fact that it's the PS4 (with it being last gen and all...).

Also, a demo is available. Save transfers over.

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Ace-Attorney-Investigations-Collection-2589276.html

 

[Glen-i]

Booted up Investigations 2, mostly to see how it compares to the fan translation. Done the first case so far.

So far, as far as name changes go, the fans have it. Not a strong opening move from the official localisation. Gonna put this in spoilers for obvious reasons.

Spoiler

There's 4 new characters introduced to the series here. The fan translation obviously keeps any legacy character names (Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Kay, etc.) the same, so no need to focus on them.

In the fan translation, the journalist character was called "Nicole Swift", the official name is now "Tabby Lloyd". This is the one example in this case where I think the official localisation is better by far. That is a great Ace Attorney style name, and props must be given to it.

The rest of the names? Ehhhh...

"Ethan Rooke" is now officially "Bastian Rook"
And "Horace Knightley" is now "Bronco Knight"

I know Ace Attorney is not subtle about it's punny names, and Investigations 2 is jam-packed with so many Chess related ones, but couldn't they have done a better job with the surnames? It's a bit too on-the-nose, y'know? Still, Bastian is a better choice than Ethan, and at least they tried to maintain the horse pun with Bronco. Horace feels like a more natural name, but what can you do? The fans hit upon a perfect name there.

And then there's "Di-Jun Wang", whose official name is "Di-Jun Huang". I legit thought they didn't change it from the fan name when I saw that, but no, they did change one thing. Gotta give it to the fans there. They clearly localised it well.

So 3-1 to the fans.

Also, I found a typo in the official script, that didn't take long. Wouldn't be Ace Attorney without it! The fan translation is typo free, which ironically, gives it away that it's not official.

BTW, were Selfies a thing in 2011? Might be my age speaking, but I wanna say they weren't? This official localisation mentions selfies, but I can't help but feel that if the original DS game was localised back then, that word wouldn't be in it.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

BTW, were Selfies a thing in 2011? Might be my age speaking, but I wanna say they weren't? This official localisation mentions selfies, but I can't help but feel that if the original DS game was localised back then, that word wouldn't be in it.

Sounds like it's time for me to put on the mask and adopt my role of Resident N-E Youngster. 

As someone who started high school in 2010 and so would be pretty much the perfect age to assess this in terms of it being a "thing" – I think it was probably on the verge of becoming a thing, but wasn't actually yet a thing, you know? At least over here in the UK it hadn't really cemented itself I feel, I imagine unless you were really brushed up on social media (and tech?) at the time it seems unlikely you'd have come across it in 2011 from what I remember. 

People might have already been calling them selfies elsewhere in the world, but I wouldn't say it was a commonly used word to my ear until around halfway through my time in high school, which would make sense looking up the UK release dates for both Instagram (2010 on iOS and 2012 on Android) and Snapchat (2012 on Android and 2013 on iOS) and also considering that the first "selfie" cameras in smartphones apparently came along and was popularised with the iPhone 4 and HTC Evo G4 (damn, been a minute since I've thought about HTC), early 2010s was the right breeding ground for the word to embed itself culturally I feel, but I wouldn't say it was firmly established as a term until 2012/2013, obviously anecdotally, but I think backed up by it being added to the Oxford Dictionary as the word of the year for 2013. 

(to...myself? More of an asterisk for clarification I guess?)

That being said! Where's Ace Attorney actually suppose to be based? In my head the US makes perfect sense because of the character looks and the way they speak (and how gosh darn Hollywood the drama comes off as being), and I feel like it's possible the term became popularised in the US and Japan a bit before it did over here? Can't help but also just wonder if the localisation team are around the age where they'd be questioning the same thing, but also yeah now I'm just curious about where the series is meant to be located... 

 

Also, thought it would be a fun fact to share, but in my nosing around I came across this (from Wikipedia, where else?):

Quote

Selfie culture became popular in Japan and then other East Asian countries in the 1990s, starting with purikura booths and then front-facing camera phones. However, it was not until the 2000s that selfie culture was popularized outside of East Asia.

Not sure if they referred to it as being a "selfie" at the time (doubt it) but there's just something about the idea of 90s Japanese salarymen trying to take selfies with, say, a life-sized Tifa or Neo cutout in the late 90s which makes me chuckle 

Edited September 6 by Julius

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Can't help but also just wonder if the localisation team are around the age where they'd be questioning the same thing, but also yeah now I'm just curious about where the series is meant to be located... 

See now, that's quite fascinating. In Japan, it's very much meant to be set in a fictional Japan. The court system is heavily based on it (Less pointing and fighting game sound effects, mind you).

But when we got the DS version localised, the American team Capcom used decided to take some liberties, you know, to try and make it more appealing to us lot in the West? For the first game, it mostly worked. Even with a spirit medium-in-training playing second fiddle to Phoenix himself.

But then it sold better then expected, so naturally, Capcom localised the two sequels, and well, those games steadily lean more into the Japanese aspect more heavily, which kinda left the Western localisers written into a corner. They doubled down, still insisted that it's set somewhere in LA.

Eventually, the fans started cottoning on, but considering how completely insane the series can be. It didn't feel totally out of place, really. In fact, a lot of people found it endearing, and would delight in poking fun at it.

I still quote "Eat your hamburgers, Apollo" to this day! Such a good line.

Apollo Justice (the game that comic is based on) decided to just roll with it. There's a place called "Nine-Tales Valley" that's a town of Japanese immigrants, who also happened to have some ancient yokai spirits immigrate along with them. (That's canon! As far as the English version goes, anyway) Now it's just part of a running gag, and everyone digs it. Honestly, after Spirit of Justice, I'm kinda convinced the developers are amping up Japanese culture references just to watch the Western localisation team try and explain it off.

Edited September 7 by Glen-i

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Where's Ace Attorney actually suppose to be based?

Japanifornia.

Glen-i already explained it pretty well, but yeah, it's fitting a round Japan peg into a square California hole. It's hilarious.

Incidentally, every reference to the United States from the JP version suddenly became a reference to "Europe" or "Germany" after localisation. It's wild.

47 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

For the first game, it mostly worked.

Funnily enough, the first game still contains one of my favourite instances of "this was clearly written in Japan". When the characters absentmindedly forget for most of the day that the 25th of December is a special occasion. Because it's such a minor holiday, you see.

Another good one is when Athena only has a vague understanding of what Saké is, because she's too European. And then the entire American court berates her for her cultural ignorance.

[Ashley]

13 hours ago, Glen-i said:

See now, that's quite fascinating. In Japan, it's very much meant to be set in a fictional Japan. The court system is heavily based on it (Less pointing and fighting game sound effects, mind you).

But when we got the DS version localised, the American team Capcom used decided to take some liberties, you know, to try and make it more appealing to us lot in the West? For the first game, it mostly worked. Even with a spirit medium-in-training playing second fiddle to Phoenix himself.

But then it sold better then expected, so naturally, Capcom localised the two sequels, and well, those games steadily lean more into the Japanese aspect more heavily, which kinda left the Western localisers written into a corner. They doubled down, still insisted that it's set somewhere in LA.

Eventually, the fans started cottoning on, but considering how completely insane the series can be. It didn't feel totally out of place, really. In fact, a lot of people found it endearing, and would delight in poking fun at it.

I still quote "Eat your hamburgers, Apollo" to this day! Such a good line.

Apollo Justice (the game that comic is based on) decided to just roll with it. There's a place called "Nine-Tales Valley" that's a town of Japanese immigrants, who also happened to have some ancient yokai spirits immigrate along with them. (That's canon! As far as the English version goes, anyway) Now it's just part of a running gag, and everyone digs it. Honestly, after Spirit of Justice, I'm kinda convinced the developers are amping up Japanese culture references just to watch the Western localisation team try and explain it off.

Makes me want some jelly donuts 

 

[Dcubed]

So I just beat AAI 1 again.  Thoroughly enjoyed my time, meme final case and all.  Really great playing it again after all these years

So now I'm finally starting AAI 2 and I've just gotten up to the first save point in case 1 and...

Spoiler

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! IT'S SHELLY DE KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Game's off to an explosive start, especially for a long-time fan!

[Dcubed]

Just finished Case 3… fucking hell! What an absolute bombshell of a case! SO damn good!

This game is 100% pure dynamite so far.  Might well be amongst the very best games in the entire series; absolutely trading blows with Trials & Tribulations at this point!

I can’t believe that this game actually manages to live up to the 13 year long hype! It makes GAA look like utter cack in comparison!  Just absolutely A-grade stuff all throughout!

This game is so good that it actually retroactively makes Dual Destinies better… being this game’s direct follow up.  I suddenly have a newfound respect for DD and how its own localisation skirted around how AAI 2 never came out in English originally.  If things are going where I think they’re going, it suddenly explains a LOT about DD’s direction…

Edited September 29 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

And that's the end.  Yup.  This is the best game in the Ace Attorney series, Trials & Tribulations has officially been beaten.

Spoiler

Simeon Saint... Simeon bloody Saint.  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!?!?

How did they manage to turn that joke of a character into a psychopathic mastermind!? It's brilliant!

It's also crazy to me that the game is just full of absolute A-grade villains.  De Killer, Kanis, Gusto?, Excelsius?, Saint? They all manage to share the spotlight and somehow rank amongst the series' very best!  It's a murderer's row of absolutely stunning villains from start to finish!

Also, how the hell did they actually make me feel sorry for Eustace!? That utterly useless dweeb? Dang... they hit you hard in the feels for him! Kudos!

The new mechanics are pretty great too.  I really like Mind Chess, and I can see how it evolved into the Logic Line as seen in Dual Destinies & Spirit of Justice, though it's perhaps a little underutilised here? I do feel that they could've gotten a bit more mileage out of it here, but what's here is brill nonetheless.  Likewise, I also like the video tape examination mechanic... even though it makes no sense to be able to zoom in with HD clarity on an old VHS tape 

The game is just so well written overall.  You can tell that the game really benefitted from that extra development time just being focused on crafting a good story with interconnected logic, instead of trying to rewrite the game engine and reinvent the codebase from scratch.  It really benefitted from being able to use AAI's existing assets as a starting point, as the developers just focused on making crazy complex interconnected cases...

Accurate depiction of the writer's room for AAI2

Even the usual "filler" cases end up feeling like what would've been a Final Case in a previous AA game.  Just insanely interconnected and convoluted logic patterns that incredibly all somehow came together in the end; with literally 4 CASES HAPPENING SIMULTANEOUSLY!! Just nuts! The writers must've gone completely insane planning this all out!

And OH MY GOD!! You get to play as Gregory Edgeworth!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! The whole dynamic of Edgeworth jumping back and forth between the prosecution and the defence had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, even though I already knew how it'd all turn out in the end (having already seen him become Chief Prosecutor by the end of DD).

I do wonder if the game's overarching theme of children struggling to live up to their predecessors/parents isn't the developers projecting somewhat though? Given that this game came out in 2011, at a time where Capcom were bleeding a huge amount of their most senior talent to places like Platinum Games and Nintendo, where Capcom were struggling with the transition to HD development & the big company-wide push for westernisation of their games, and at a time where Shu Takumi had moved away from the Ace Attorney series.  If that was indeed the case, then Takeshi Yamazaki and his team needn't have worried; because they surpassed the master.

This game is like a hydrogen bomb that goes off constantly from start to finish.  WHAT A GAME!

The fact that we had to wait 13 years for it to get a western release and localisation is utterly criminal.  The fact that it actually managed to live up to 13 years worth of hype is the greatest accomplishment of all.

Edited October 7 by Dcubed