The Ace Attorney series is leaving the courtroom and taking justice to the streets. At Comic-Con International in San Diego, I had the chance to go hands-on with Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Yes, that title is quite a mouthful. Here's the skinny on the super-sleuthing adventure as well as the word from my chat with producer Motohide Eshiro on this new direction for the franchise.

Turnabout Bully

First, let's tackle my first impressions of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I bullied my way into the line to get my stylus going, as Capcom was giving away collectible tins and cell phone charms to everyone who played and the lines were several fans deep. To the twelve year-old I displaced I extend my deepest apologies.

The first of five episodes begins with the traditional "Turnabout" naming convention, kicking things off with Turnabout Visitor. It's a murder mystery of course, because investigating anything less exciting wouldn't do the series justice. What makes this game far different from the Phoenix Wright series is that instead of focusing on the courtroom battle this new entry is focused on criminal investigations. You see, in Japan it's possible for barristers to work side by side with the police to gather evidence and investigate crimes, essentially allowing them the opportunity to build their cases through their detective skills. Producer Eshiro-san goes into further detail on the legal system at play here in our interview on the next page.

Logical Turnabout

Miles Edgeworth will do plenty of investigating across these five chapters, and this particular aspect of the game is handled in a departure from what you've seen in the past Ace Attorney games. While the game still functions at a basic level as a point-and-click adventure mixed in with logic puzzles, the point-and-click stuff has been replaced by a new mode where you control Miles from a third-person perspective, moving him around crime scenes with the stylus or direction pad. When Miles comes across a section of each screen that can be interacted with, like something that can be examined or an NPC that can be talked to, a prompt on-screen allows you to do so.


In examining that first crime scene I was able to walk by the body and examine it, taking me directly to a second screen where I saw a close-up image of the victim. There, I was able to pan the area with my stylus, picking up clues. A new system in the game allows you to examine physical evidence in your possession and interact with hotspots on it, almost like you're finding clues within the clues. The idea is to gather as much information as possible by analyzing the story (and using your own powers of observation) to deduce where it is the developers have decided to hide what you're looking for.

The core gameplay then turns into the collection of clues and evidence, which then leads to the logic system. Miles Edgeworth isn't as hotheaded as Phoenix, but his cold, calculating approach often serves him well. It's his dependence on logic that drives his ability to win cases in Ace Attorney Investigations. When you gather pieces of evidence, eventually Miles will be able to link them together. You have to find relationships between the different clues and pieces of evidence, because trying to draw a conclusion from unrelated information will give you a "strike," much like when Phoenix made a bad call during cross-examination.

Turnabout Summary

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth follows a familiar format while adding a subtle new twist by taking the action out of the courtroom. It's the series' distinctive sense of humor and its lovable characters, like Miles, Gumshoe, and the Steel Samurai that will have fans coming back around for yet another series of adventures. I had the opportunity to chat with Producer Motohide Eshiro to get a few more details for you. Check out what he had to say on the next page.