Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/YMMV

Take general series tropes to Ace Attorney, and take tropes specific to the Phoenix arc and Apollo Justice to those pages, please.

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• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Making Miles Edgeworth the star of Investigations rather than Ema Skye as originally planned was probably the best idea the developers ever had.
  • And recently the fandom's been going nuts over the appearance of a certain Mr. Shelly de Killer in the Ace Attorney Investigations 2 trailer.
  • Case 3 of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: you play as Gregory Edgeworth. Your rival for the case? Manfred von Karma. You even get to cross-examine him.
• Base Breaker: Kay, particularly among those who like the first three games best.
• Complete Monster: Both games feature one.
  • Quercus Alba, the corrupt ambassador of the country of Allebahst and the head of a large smuggling ring whose criminal activities have resulted in the country of Zheng Fa being driven to economic ruin. The other criminals of the game (except Lance, though his dad IS one of Alba's lackeys) answer to this guy. He is the one who ordered the deaths of Cece Yew, Deid Mann, and Byrne Faraday and killed Mask*DeMasque II and Manny Coachen with his own hands (well, with a statue and a knife, but you know what I mean). His reasons for these killings are as follows: Cece Yew and Deid Mann were witnesses who needed to be silenced, Byrne Faraday was a member of the Yatagarasu whose goal it was to expose his operation, DeMasque II was going to steal his fake statue and, with it, some plates used for a large-scale counterfeiting operation, and Manny Coachen because he ordered DeMasque II to steal it. Manny ordered the theft because he was planning to betray and usurp Alba and was unaware that the fake statue had been switched with the real one. He almost gets away with it due to Diplomatic Impunity, which is why confronting him and getting him to admit to his crimes proves...difficult.
  • Investigations 2 has the elderly Psychopathic Manchild Blaise Debeste, the corrupt chairman of the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee (as well as the former chief prosecutor) who gleefully drops casual death threats, suckers defendants into making plea bargains only for him to screw them over by sending them to rot in prison for life, and makes a living auctioning off crucial evidence on the black market. Blaise sided with the Bigger Bad of the story to assassinate the real president of Zheng Fa years ago and killed the reporter that witnessed the murder. Later on, he killed the reporter's girlfriend and framed Kay for it. He also gave Manfred von Karma the only penalty he ever got because he was caught forging evidence, despite the fact that Blaise helped von Karma with the evidence and is thus partially responsible for the DL-6 incident that shortly followed, with Gregory Edgeworth's death, Yanni Yogi's life being ruined, and Miles Edgeworth's horrible upbringing all indirectly resting on his shoulders. Additionally, he blackmails many characters in the series to work with him if they value their lives which include tampering with the crime scene and hiding crucial evidence. He even blackmails the judge Justine Courtney to get her to work against Edgeworth because he kidnapped her adoptive son. And let's not get started with the trauma he puts his son Sebastian through the entire game, who he constantly berates and tells in the worse way possible that all his achievements were because of his connections (and knowing that Bansai has a lot of connections with shady folks, one can only imagine what would have happened if they didn't comply) and not from Sebastian's hard work. Later on, he kidnaps his own son (but, to be fair, he was aiming for Courtney's son), and when Sebastian finally snaps out of his Heroic BSOD thanks to Edgeworth, when he tries to confront his father, he proceeds to humiliate his son even more in court to the point of disowning him in front of many people. And to top it off, it's hinted that he has both murdered his own wife and sexually abuses his son.
• Disappointing Last Level:
  • Compared to the other games in series, the final case is unusually long. It has far more chapters than any other case in the series. Just when you think it's finally over, it's not. Some fans have even criticized the finale for dragging out too long, and making the ending more tedious than satisfying, compared to the other games which arguably all had huge final boss takedowns.
  • Averted with the 2nd game's final case. It is paced much better than "Turnabout Ablaze", only having one real road bump near the beginning only because it was tying up the loose ends from Case 4 rather then dealing with the current murder at hand.
• Ending Fatigue: While you have to give the Big Bad of Investigations credit for being so tenacious, two full gameplay segments devoted just to cross-examining Alba is too goddamn long.
  • The entire last case can be considered to fall into this (it is the game's ending, after all). As Edgeworth himself says halfway through the case:

Edgeworth: It's almost enough to make one completely mentally exhausted.

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Colias Palaeno is rather well liked due to being genuinely helpful and cooperative to Edgeworth's investigation, as well just being a Nice Guy.
• Escapist Character: Kay Faraday is what many Edgeworth fan girls dream of being. She's a cute 'modern-day Robin Hood' and gets to play assistant to Edgey, who feels a deep connection to her because of the parallels between her father's death and his. She's also Gumshoe's very best friend.
• Even Better Sequel: Gyakuten Kenji 2 aimed to be bigger and more dramatic than the original, evident by the "final case" feel that the first case of the game was shooting for (and achieved).
• Foe Yay: Shi-Long Lang and Edgeworth in Investigations.

Lang: (to Edgeworth) My ignorant little pretty boy.

• • There's also Edgeworth and Calisto Yew.

Ha ha! You're sending the biggest chill down my spine, Edgeworth..!

• Funny Aneurysm Moment:
  • Any time in the fourth case where Edgeworth defends Manfred von Karma's actions.
  • And in the sequel, Tateyuki makes several jokes about Von Karma upon his introduction. Even Gumshoe considers them this. Turns out he was invoking this trope deliberately, as he still belives Edgeworth and von Karma are Not So Different.
  • To a lesser extent, that ice cream salesman. He waits just long enough to convince you his is just a cameo appearance...
• Harsher in Hindsight: Many people considered the reveal in the Apollo Justice game that Ema failed her exam and thus didn't achieve her dream quite harsh. With that knowledge, play Case 3, where she appears as the same highly ambitious Genki Girl she was in the first game.
• Hell Is That Noise: Quercus Alba's villainous objections. Von Karma's in the sequel.
• Internet Backdraft: The sequel not being released in the West due to the first Ace Attorney Investigations selling poorly. Fans are still clamoring for it to come stateside. At least a Fan Translation came over.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • In the first game, Calisto Yew is able to slide off most accusations with either a bored stare or a fit of laughter, and even though she eventually breaks down, she doesn't really break. In fact, rather then surrender after her confession, as every other villain does, she pulls a gun out to escape. Twice. She was the one who infiltrated the Yatagarasu and destroyed the group from the inside out. "Calisto Yew" even turns out to be a false identity. She sets up prosecutor Byrne Faraday to be accused of being the Yatagarasu by criminal, Mack Rell, before murdering them both, quickly placing suspicion on Detective Gumshoe when deduced that the two couldn’t have killed each other. Even when Edgeworth reveals that she’s the true murderer, she manages to trick Edgeworth into giving her the Yatagarasu’s key, her true objective, before escaping arrest. She goes on to create another persona - Shih-na, an enigmatic right hand woman to Shi-Long Lang - while acting as a mole within Interpol and leaking information to the smuggling ring. When Quercus Alba murders the traitorous Manny Coachen, the spy creates a fire in order for the two to move the corpse between embassies to create confusion of where the crime scene occured. After Shi-Long Lang saves her life from Tyrell Badd, the spy gracefully accepts defeat and out of gratitude, gives information to Edgeworth to help him discover the truth about the case.
  • The second Investigations game gives us:
    • The nefarious yet affable Simon Keyes is a circus animal trainer who poses as an innocent defendant while truly manipulating the entire game's events from the shadows. In the first case, he orchestrates a staged assassination attempt on President Huang's body double to tempt someone into committing murder, even getting Shelly de Killer involved. In the second case, intercepting the correspondence between a blind assassin and a friend who had betrayed him, Keyes tricks a woman into killing his former friend, and after unwittingly being arrested for the murder, convinces Miles Edgeworth to go against the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee (PIC) and defend him in court. In the fourth case he sets up the Chairman of the PIC to kill an attorney, then has Edgeworth — who has been stripped of his Prosecutor Badge — defend the amnesiac Kay Faraday for the murder to get the chairman proven guilty. Even when defeated by Edgeworth in the end, Keyes congratulates his Worthy Opponent and ultimately succeeds in "taking care of" all of his own and Dogen's enemies.
    • Shelly de Killer is hired to assassinate President Di-Jun Huang of Zheng Fa, which only ended up getting the assassin's left arm injured by bodyguard Ethan Rooke. Learning of the President's planned speech at Gourd Lake, as well as a planned staged assassination attempt, de Killer bandaged his wounded arm and hid a knife inside the dressing before infiltrating the site posed as ice cream vendor "John Doe," waiting to turn the staged assassination into a real one. When caught in the act by Edgeworth, de Killer agrees to help Edgeworth' investigation just to find the real President Di-Jun Huang. Once satisfied with the investigation's progress, de Killer made his escape by turning out the lights on the President's plane and knocking out all those present, and before Edgeworth passed out, de Killer informed him that he had not killed Ethan Rooke, as he respected him far too much, and left his trademark calling card before fleeing to the other side of Gourd Lake, which was devoid of any police presence to stop him. He makes a return by the end of the game, intent on taking Simon Keyes' life for revenge but ultimately being able to see reason when Edgeworth talks him down from carrying out the deed.
    • Katherine Hall from the third case was the assistant to her adopted father Jeffrey Masters and a fan of Pierre Hoquet's art. After Masters was convicted for a murder he didn't commit by Manfred Von Karma, Katherine took matters into her own hands and hid the body of Hoquet still frozen by the true culprit to throw off the time of death, in the autumn constellations room in the Zodiac Art Gallery and set a poison gas trap involving two lethal chemicals for anyone who dared to obtain the body nearly killing the culprit, Dane Gustavia and endangering the public. When that failed to get Gustavia convicted, she dumped the frozen body in the fountain. Despite cooperating with the investigation, Katherine still held a grudge against Gustavia for getting away 18 years ago and when he was imprisoned gracefully gave herself up to be imprisoned for her attempted murder so her adopted father could be free. While not an inherently bad person, Katherine lost faith in the law shortly before the infamous Dark Age of the Law, and did what she had to, to ensure justice was served.
• Memetic Badass: Detective Badd. He might as well be the Chuck Norris of Ace Attorney.
• Memetic Mutation: Quercus Alba is evolving!
• Most Annoying Sound: Quercus Alba and Calisto Yew's Objections are both particularly annoying, as Alba's is really low and demonic whilst Calisto's sounds just whiny and weak. Not to mention the sheer lack of any personality or interest in the latter's voice. Portsman's coat swoosh also falls into this for some.
  • In the sequel, Blaise Debeste's frequent weeping is constantly leading to him emptying his goggles with a splash, which some hate as well.
• That One Boss: Dammit, Quercus! This guy has to be the most annoying boss-examination ever.

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