So I got access to Gyakuten Kenji 2, AKA Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (AAI2) with the English patch because Capcom never exported the game. I played it over the past few days and beat it yesterday.
I'll admit when I first heard about the game coming out, I wasn't optimistic because I had pretty meh feelings about AAI. Upon a later replay/rewatch some of my meh feelings softened, but overall it's a lower-ranking game for me in the series. It was mostly because I felt AAI could be pretty heavy-handed, and the rivals just didn't intrigue me that much. Plus all the character shilling for the main characters and the utter flanderization of Gumshoe.
AAI2 though... It's really a shame it never got exported because it may be one of the best games in the entire franchise. It's not free of issues, but given how the strong the title is, for the most part they're pretty easy to forgive.
So I'll talk first about a general feel of the game that does not include spoilers. Then I'll talk about specifics and spoilers in a later spoiler box.
So, one thing I was worried about when I first heard about the game was some of the teasers showing that they were revisiting old scenes and themes from previous games, and it felt like nostalgia milking to me. While I think it's true they did milk nostalgia a bit, they were a lot less heavy-handed about it than the previous game. The game this time understands that you already know the meaning, so they made the reactions more low-key or more subtle in how it was incorporated into their characterization. So the nostalgia moments overall felt more like continuation, and it actually made the 'verse feel more real.
Brief (very minor) spoiler for that regarding the first case:
So remember when I made this off-handed joke?
Also, the thought of Edgeworth returning to Gourd Lake... oh mai.
Kay: Oh, boats! I've always wanted to go on a boat ride. ...Hey, Edgey--!
Edgeworth:
Absolutely not....It turns out that yes, they did have a conversation about boats and they basically said that. xDD But it was a lot more subtle. I don't have the exact quote now, but it was basically:
Kay: "Seeing this boat gives me an idea. Let's go on a boat trip to the ocean someday, Mr. Edgeworth!"
Edgeworth: "Go by yourself."
So I had a little laugh that I was kind of prophetic, but I'm glad it was more subtle. xD
The cases were really strong throughout the game! One of the cases that seems to be considered a weak point case, I remembered enjoying. One case I felt more ambivalent about still had strong enough moments that I can forgive the weak moments. The game was also better about having an arc; I didn't feel like any of the cases or major moments accounted to filler. This is one thing that separates this entry from the other games in the franchise, as each entry before felt like they had at least one filler case.
Characterization I'd say was really strong for the most part, and I think they fixed the issue with flanderization and characer shilling. I think there was one major character I didn't enjoy so much for writing reasons, but that requires getting into specifics.
Logic Chess is a new mini-game, and it's a really good mini-game! It reminds me a lot of Psyche-Locks, but relies on talking points and strategies instead of evidence, and it feels like a realistic way of bringing out conversations from people. (Don't worry, you don't need to know a thing about chess to play Logic Chess.) Edgey also helps you at the beginning of each round by telling you what he wants to accomplish at that point and gives hints to what kind of response may be warranted. (Do you press the points? Do you back off and let them talk? What's warranted when they're agitated?) As a social luddite who needs to be reminded that body language exists, the hints helped me. They could still be a challenge at times, though. (Though there are points where the answer is obvious. Some of the possible responses are... really mean. xD )
This game drops a lot more references to the original trilogy and AAI, though I wouldn't say they were heavy handed about it; like I said, it felt more like in-universe continuity. That said, if you haven't played the other aforementioned games, you might be a little lost here. If you have played/watched those previous games but not this one and you're thinking about trying it, and you ever somehow get the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend it!
Okay, now for the specifics. AAI2 SPOILERS ACROSS THE SKY. (Also I get really rambly.)
So the overall plot is about Edgeworth going through an early mid-life crisis after past misdeeds come to haunt him and his dad's old coworker re-enters his life and pressures him to continue his father's legacy. I'd say it's a decent continuation of his characterization, even though I know exactly how it ends. How it gets there, though, is pretty interesting!
...Well, almost. One weak point about the game is how they handle people getting onto his case for past or suspected things; namely the P.I.C. Obviously that organization ended up being Super Corrupt (another arc to the game), but I'm more referring to the relentless pursuit of a man who's doing his job, over a thing that happened within the game that was pretty understandable, when he had plenty of past misconduct from before the first game that they could get onto. Or heck, even his use of illegal evidence in AAI in order to stop a criminal. If they were implying it, I think they implied it too hard. Judge Courtney pretty much refused to explain her reasoning (beyond one point) for why she was so gung-ho about ousting Edgeworth, and it just felt like she hated him for the sake of hating him. To the point of using any dirty tactic just to one-up Edgeworth. It made her an incredibly annoying character up until the end of the 4th case and beyond, and even then only because Plot happened.
(And as we learned. Considering it turned out she joined the P.I.C. to expose the organization's corruptions, she was its strongest voice (besides Blaise) and pretty much didn't question a lot of the decisions they made. x'D )
But you know how Dual Destinies was obsessed with the Dark Age of the Law? I feel this game was a lot better at showing a Dark Age of the Law. What Dual Destinies only talked about, AAI2 showed. Forging evidence, hiding important details, making others take the fall, sometimes outright erasing people for a cover-up, employing and manipulating unqualified people to better control the legal system or force an outcome, and that feeling of not being able to take matters to the police because of the feeling that they'd just become your enemy too?? That's dark. It's almost like this game is what Dual Destinies tried to be, but didn't have the nuance to do it.
(I mean, Blaise Debeste all but said that he erases people once he finds them inconvenient, and it's all but implied that he erased his son's mother. Holy crap??
I wonder what the circumstances were. Maybe it happened while Sebastian was young and thus didn't have much trauma over the loss, or maybe it happened later when Blaise was going to bribe Sebastian's way through Themis to keep him as a pawn and the mother tried to stop him? Hard to say; we don't get more details on her than that, and it's implied from Sebastian's reactions that this was a long while ago.)
Anyway, Blaise Debeste is terrible and may be worse in personality than Manfred von Karma. (Debatable, though.) I disliked (and suspected) him the moment he first walked into the game, disliked him more throughout the game, and I'm with everyone else in being horrified that he publicly humiliated, bullied, and broke his son's spirit just because he was becoming inconvenient. Even Manfred ensured his daughter grew and learned and treated her more as a successor than a tool. (It helped that she was smarter, but it's implied that Sebastian would've performed fine from the start if his opportunities to learn weren't stolen from him.)
Soyeah, Sebastian. It was refreshing to see a newbie teenage prosecutor in the game who performed exactly how you would expect from a newbie teenage prosecutor. It gets tiring to watch prodigies. xD But I never liked the other characters teasing him from the start, especially when they always told him to shut up whenever he was actually being productive. I tolerated it because I could tell from the writing that this wasn't going to go unaddressed, and wow did they ever address it. His breakdown in case 4 and 5 were gut-wrenching and I'm just glad he was able to get an actual helping hand and find some stable ground for himself, plus show that he can be competent if given the chance.
Another reason I find his character interesting is maybe because some parts of his behavior remind me of me at around his age. (Though hopefully I wasn't as clueless as he was through a lot of the game, and I did earn my grades.) I was kind of one of those egotistical people who prided myself on doing well academically and thought myself as smarter than I was. Plus, I could be clueless to adult situations sometimes. xD (Just maybe not to that degree.) And to an incredibly smaller degree, I do relate a bit to parents doing things for me, either well-meaning adult things or one parent being on an ego-trip and trying to take over a thing to my detriment, that thus rob me of the opportunity to learn. Though unlike Sebastian I eventually had the sense to go "stop helping me!!". xD But I guess Sebastian wouldn't think that considering how much he looked up to his adult figures that ultimately were just using him.)
Anyway, he may have been a joke character at first, but I really enjoyed where his character arc went. (And his Logic Chess segment was a really good use of Logic Chess. Even if it felt incredibly intense whenever I messed up or was running out of time on one round.) My only regret is that we don't see him at full competence with Epic Background Music for more than one scene, said scene which is interspersed with more tears because one does not simply get over a breakdown in a short time period while prosecuting his dad. But his character arc also feels wrapped up and there's a good idea of where he'll go from here, so the writer in me almost doesn't want to touch it. The other side of me doesn't mind seeing what he grew into after 8-ish years.
...Anyway, those rambles aside (sorry notsorry). This story could've had the subtitle of Father's Day, because wow at all the daddy issues in this game. It just. Does not stop. I liked seeing the spectrum of fathers and father figures, though; I appreciate the nuance.
That said, I think the third case villain felt a bit heavy-handed. I had a feeling it was him the moment I saw him, but I kind of hoped it wasn't because it's kind of an unfortunate design for a villain. I wonder if maybe the reason the villain was shown to be as treacherous as he was is because of just how many major cases this case is tied to, including the DL-6 incident. Which is kind of unfortunate, I was kind of hoping for a villain of that class with a bit more nuance. He didn't have to be the Biggest Bad (and he wasn't; there were a lot of contenders for that in this case), but at points it seemed silly. Like, dude. Your elementary school aged son, who comes to every competition to help you out, didn't show up on one competition day and has been missing ever since, and your first thought was to feel betrayed and disown him and not "oh my gosh my son is missing??". Especially since it turns out that his son got into an incident where he almost died. It kind of felt like they were writing him to be hatable. (But then, they did the same thing for Blaise.)
Other villains. The second case villain I feel I should've learned more about than I do. I get her motive in case 2. But in the whole overarching conspiracy I wonder what her motive was. Greed? A cushy position? Maybe that's all it was. The case 1 villain and his overall prominence in the game was interesting, although his gun-behavior made me very uncomfortable, and I say that as an American in a state where gun ownership is common. xD von Karma is von Karma. In case 5, while it was only speculation, the would-be murder on the rooftop is one you would think would be caught right away, but maybe the would-be killer would have enough power to just wipe away the evidence, given all the corruption in the system. The other villains I don't have much to say about, except...
The mastermind was great. The reveal of the mastermind was great. My mental "OH NO" once I realized who the mastermind is was great. It's interesting to have such a fun, smart, obviously-evil mastermind, and yet you can't help but easily see his motive. (Well, besides being a jerk.) It makes a strong case for Edgeworth's realization at the end that maybe he wouldn't have been so messed up if he could've trusted in the legal system; AKA a good prosecutor. Maybe the mastermind still would've been manipulative, but I feel he wouldn't have been as bad if he wasn't left alone with only an assassin as a father figure and a heart bitter for revenge. Heck, Gustavia's life seemed fairly clean after the murder; you could even argue it was a murder in self-defense. And the 'crime' that instigated it was pretty minor and fully understandable given his situation. (Still a jerk for abandoning his son.) So maybe the mastermind would've been the same and just been kind of a hidden jerk but with no motive for murder, if his life had just been normal. A character assassination of sorts, and itself a tragedy. And it's really nice to see the game's take on that.
(Also, the mastermind's sprites are a real treat.)
(Also also. Funny story. I did get a brief glimpse of the end-game villain's sprite from somewhere, but not a close look. I got a general sense of pink clothes and a clown outfit. Yet despite this, I wasn't spoiled on the identity of the mastermind. (Or if I was I forgot it.) I figured out who it was at around the same time as everyone else. And by the time you see the mastermind in his clown outfit, you've already figured out that he's the mastermind. So when he appeared in his outfit, I went "ohh, I've seen you before, there it is.")
Case 5 had so many profiles and so much evidence, dang. x'D
And and. Um. I guess I don't have anything else right now. Just as well as I want to get ready for bed. There's a lot to unpack in this game, as you can see, so maybe I'll revisit the specifics another time. For now, dang, a lot of good story points to think about.
