Ace Attorney Investigations 2:
Just finished this after the release of the full English fan-translation patch.
I'll preface this by saying that many people that have played the game are saying that they would rank it as one of the better AA games, and that my issues with the game are not related to the quality of the translation.
I commented once that Ace Attorney Investigations 1 was my least favourite game in the series, to the extent that I actually lost some of my enthusiasm for the series. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 did not improve on any of the issues I had with the first Investigations.
Gameplay wise, AA2 is almost identical to AA1 - you gather clues by moving Edgeworth around a map, use "Logic" to make connections, and "cross-examine" witnesses and suspects. Little Thief, a machine that can simulate scenes of the past also returns. The new gameplay mechanic in AAI2 is "Logic Chess" - when Edgeworth doesn't have the evidence to interrogate someone, he now plays a mental chess battle with them. Logic Chess sections are timed, and consist of Edgeworth throwing questions and statements from a list of choices at the opponent. Edgeworth can pick up "clues" from statements made by his opponent, and use them to ask additional questions. If you try to pursue a line of enquiry that is "locked" before getting the clue, you'll lose time since you aren't told straight away that you don't have the clues needed to proceed, but rather the questioning will proceed (with the timer going down) until you reach the exact moment that the clue is needed to proceed, and then Edgeworth will mention that he can't proceed. When you do get the clue needed to open the locked line of questioning, it starts from the beginning again. Also, the opponents in Logic Chess will often become emotional, and you'll have to decide when to question the opponent, or to wait until they've calmed down. Selecting an incorrect question/statement, or waiting/questioning at the wrong time will lead to a penalty to the time bar. Luckily, the time bar is quite long.
The Environments in AAI2 feel even smaller and claustrophobic than those in AAI1 - you are constantly limited to one area, and can only move to the next area as the plot demands. As an example, in case 2 of AAI1, at times, you could move around to different parts of the plane. In AAI2, the second case takes place in a building that has a workroom and a corridor. You start off in the workroom, and the game won't let you move into the corridor until you have found everything in the workroom. Once you've done that, the plot moves you to the corridor, and then won't let you go back into the workroom, even though there's nothing plot wise that prevents you from doing so. This does help streamline investigations though.
The Storyline honestly seemed a little mediocre as well. I think a part of it is the characters. They aren't unlikable so much, but there was only one character that I actually sort of had any emotional feeling for.
Edgeworth is, my opinion, a poor choice for the main character (I recall reading somewhere that Ema was originally going to be the main character.) His internal struggles, both in AA1 and AA2, really feel like it's just rehashing his development from the original trilogy. It's hard not to start feeling a little impatient when he starts contemplating how the truth is the most important thing in a court of law after the amount of times it's already been done. Without trying to spoil anything, I think going deeper into the theme of how even those that are the most fervent believers in the truth will lie to protect those they love would have been more interesting, and could have made for a more emotional story.
Kay honestly feels a little "tacked-on", and also doesn't really seem to get much development.
The main rival was, for me, the most bland of all the main rivals so far. I thought Simon Blackquill was a little too normal for the series, which is known for it's quirky characters, (though I did think he was a good prosecutor) but even he had his moments. As an opponent, the rival isn't the worst, but there's never really a feeling of victory when you disprove their arguments.
This is a trend that I felt followed with the culprits. The culprits of cases three and four didn't really put up that much of a fight, and the case five culprit didn't last that much longer. The culprits of cases one and two seemed to last longer and be more intense, but that may be more due to the length of these cases. Long cases themselves aren't a problem, but there's part in case one especially that just comes across as padding.
One thing that I feel this game did improve upon at least as far as AAI1 goes - the culprits are considerably more fleshed out.
This review is entirely critical, but AAI2 in itself isn't a bad game, it's just when put up against the other games in the series (even AAI1), it's lacking.
One thing that I did like that I feel hasn't really been done in the AA series so far:
Case Five spoilers: