Every case in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection ranked from worst to best

The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection has a lot of great cases, so we've ranked them all

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection / Capcom

Ace Attorney Investigations may have unique gameplay mechanics compared to the rest of the series, but the stories within are very similar to what you’d expect from an Ace Attorney game. With Edgeworth as the protagonist, we get a slightly different perspective on this weird world and the justice system within it, where there are always more stories to be told.

There are ten cases across the two games in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection and we decided to rank them all from worst to best based on writing quality, overall relevance to the story, and how the gameplay flows with things like puzzle solutions and pacing. Naturally, this list will spoil every case across both games, so be warned.

AAI 1 Case 3 – The Kidnapped Turnabout

The Kidnapped Turnabout / Capcom

I spent a lot of my Ace Attorney Investigations Collection review talking about how AAI 2 is a lot better than its predecessor, and this case is a good encapsulation of all the ways that AAI 1 falls victim to the worst aspects of the Ace Attorney series.

The case is convoluted, to say the least. We have three people staging a fake kidnapping to get ransom money then all turning on each other in cases of mistaken identities and twists that, while fun in the moment, seem unnecessary when you look at the bigger picture. It has the least relevance to the overall plot as well, aside from introducing us to Shi-Long Lang.

Plus, like a lot of cases in the first game, it drags on for too long. After you’ve gone through the entire case and solved every mystery, the section where you have to go back into the haunted house is completely pointless and has some of the most nonsensical puzzle solutions in the game. If it had been cut short just one chapter earlier it would’ve been so much better.

AAI 1 Case 5 – Turnabout Ablaze

Turnabout Ablaze / Capcom

While I just ragged on The Kidnapped Turnabout for bad pacing, Turnabout Ablaze is by far the worst-paced case across both games that should’ve ended about three chapters earlier than it does. It keeps pulling Ace Attorney’s lamest trick, where you’ve completely beaten the villain and proved it’s them, but they pull out some utterly BS thread that forces you to go down a whole rabbit hole of pointless arguing before they finally admit defeat.

It stinks of the team designing a puzzle they were really proud of, but not having any interesting way to make the story last long enough for it to fit, so instead they just have the villain decide that actually you haven’t won for no real reason.

That said, it gets the nod over case 1-3 because it is the finale of the first game, meaning it finishes off Kay’s Yatagarasu arc in a satisfying way, even if it’s not as big a part of the finale as I wanted it to be.

AAI 1 Case 1 – Turnabout Visitor

Turnabout Visitor / Capcom

There’s nothing especially terrible about this one, it just has the same issue that every first case in an AA game has – it’s more of a tutorial than an interesting story. To make things easy it reveals the true culprit to us in the opening cutscene which removes any intrigue from solving the mystery, and all of the gameplay is pretty easy as it’s designed to teach you how to play. It’s necessary that the game have a case like this, but other AA games have done it a lot better.

AAI 2 Case 1 – Turnabout Trigger

Turnabout Trigger / Capcom

Funnily enough, I have very similar things to say about the first case of the second game too. However, it gets placed above case 1-1 due to a more interesting story. It falls afoul of the tutorial bug, but with a longer runtime, it can give us a fun mystery to solve too – if only because it doesn’t give away the culprit immediately.

On top of that it gives us a lot of questions about where the game’s overall story will go with Shelly de Killer’s involvement and foreshadowing that will become crucial in the game’s final case.

AAI 1 Case 2 – Turnabout Airlines

Turnabout Airlines / Capcom

The second case of the first game is one of the few times where I think AAI 1 gets the pacing just right. As the second case, it doesn’t get too carried away with itself, sticking with fairly grounded puzzle solutions that don’t require the story to drag on for longer than it needs to. The narrative moves through distinct phases too, with you first having to prove your own innocence, then getting Fransizka involved to learn about the wider picture, before finally narrowing in on the culprit.

It’s not the most exceptional case ever, but it’s a solid story that meets expectations nicely.

AAI 2 Case 2 – The Captured Turnabout

The Captured Turnabout / Capcom

This case pushes the boat out a little more in terms of complexity compared to case 1-2, and it almost starts to stray into “too long” territory right at the end, but the quality of writing just about saved it from getting tiresome.

Here AAI 2 gets into full swing putting all of its characters in place and the story really starts to shine because of it. Introducing Eustace Winner and Verity Gavélle as your prosecutor antagonists makes it a very important case, with both characters making an immediate strong impression as antagonists that are irritating in just the right way.

The solution to the mystery is a little convoluted, but the game does a good job of walking you through each step, never asking you to make a ridiculous leap in logic like some other cases. Plus, like a lot of AAI 2 cases, it subtly foreshadows the finale in clever ways that you won’t fully notice or appreciate until you’re there.

AAI 1 Case 4 – Turnabout Reminiscence

Turnabout Reminiscence / Capcom

While it’s sat between two cases that drag on for much longer than needed, Turnabout Reminiscence is the perfect length for what it is and manages to tell an enjoyable story in the process. Here we finally start to get some answers about the Yatagarasu mystery, while still keeping us in the dark about the full truth that the finale will uncover.

Plus, we get a lot of juicy background stuff for each of our characters like Kay as a child, Gumshoe as a junior detective, and most importantly, Edgeworth while he was still the arrogant protégé of Von Karma. The core puzzle is just complex enough to be fun to solve without tipping over into the ridiculous and gives the game a lot of momentum going into the final case.

AAI 2 Case 4 – A Turnabout Forsaken

A Turnabout Forsaken / Capcom

One of the few knocks I could make against AAI 2 is that Kay doesn’t have much of a story in this game. With her being such a heavy focus in the first game, she takes a bit of a back seat here to all of the new characters and even Edgeworth himself. That said, if you’re looking for more great stuff involving Kay, this case is where you’ll find it – even if she isn’t technically herself for most of it.

Aside from that, it sets up a fun mystery and paces itself well, with lots of main plot threads being pulled upon, giving us major developments like Gavélle’s face turn and Eustace’s slow realization that he’s just a pawn in everyone else’s games. Chairman Winner is a great villain that you immediately want to take down, and they struck a good balance of having him be a master manipulator while remaining fallible to Edgeworth’s brand of truth-seeking. Plus, we get the biggest shock of all when Edgeworth decides to forfeit his prosecutor’s badge, which is a major breakthrough for the character.

AAI 2 Case 3 – Turnabout Legacy

Turnabout Legacy / Capcom

When it comes to overarching plot developments, this is one of the juiciest cases of the entire series. The unique format immediately makes it stand out, with you attempting to solve the case both in the present as Edgeworth, and in the past as his dad, with each time period offering different perspectives on the crime. It also lets Edgeworth try his hand at being a defense attorney which plays into his internal crisis over what to do with his career.

The self-contained story of the case is really good too. The dual time periods let us get more development on these one-off characters than usual, and even when the mystery is solved, the weight of that time still hangs in the air. Plus, it continues AAI 2’s excellent trend of putting vital pieces in place for the final case without you even realizing it.

AAI 2 Case 5 – Turnabout for the Ages

Turnabout for the Ages / Capcom

This is the finale for both games and I’m pleased to say that the team absolutely nailed it, and I think this stands as one of the best cases in the entire series as a result. Most importantly, every single case from the game up until this point matters in some way. It doesn’t suffer from the problem that a lot of Ace Attorney games do, where there’s at least one case that could be cut without making a difference to the main narrative.

As a result, we get a heck of a lot to play with, uncovering the weird mysteries on the movie set, discovering the true identity of Shaun Fenn, and the true motivation behind the way Gavélle has been acting for the whole game. That thread in particular leads to a fantastic courtroom scene where we have to extend the trial and stay the judge’s hand until they are no longer in a vulnerable position. It then climaxes in Eustace finally being able to reject his father, suddenly becoming one of my favorite characters in the game – something I didn’t see coming at the start.

Once that’s out of the way we get to dive into the mysteries of Zheng Fa and the fake president, which also gives us closure on Shi-Long Lang’s story that has been bubbling away across both games. The section where you have to argue with the idiot reporters about monsters being real is silly, but it recovers nicely as we realize the true culprit has been in front of us the whole time.

The final showdown is a great sequence, and finally finds the perfect way to pace these sequences. Simeon does keep pulling on seemingly insignificant threads to worm out of being defeated, but it doesn’t drag on for too long, and once you’ve reached this point all of the solutions are right in front of you, making it incredibly satisfying to bat away every one of his arguments and put him away for good.

It’s a spectacular way to cap off one of the best Ace Attorney games ever made, which is why it’s such a great thing that the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection has officially translated it into English for the first time.