A fan-translation has revived the long-dormant Nintendo DS and mobile exclusive series Ace Attorney Investigations. This happened just days before Capcom officially acknowledged the game’s existence for the first time in 6 years on its 40th anniversary website.
The definitive HD version of Investigations 2 never had a Western release and wasn’t playable in English until now, but fans had been waiting for an official translation for years. Capcom released concept art and new HD trailers for Investigatons as an exhibit in the Capcom Museum, part of the company’s extravagant 40th anniversary website Capcom Town.
With Capcom suddenly paying attention to the game after years of silence, combined with the new fan translation that makes the best version playable in English for the first time, the Investigations games are seeing more attention now than they’ve had in years—and for good reason.
The Investigations subseries has been dormant ever since 2013’s gender-swapped ‘musical romance’ stage play, featuring Miles Edgeworth as the protagonist, but that didn’t stop Ace Attorney veterans from keeping the game’s legacy alive. One of the biggest examples of this is in the modding community, as fan translations are currently the only way English-speaking audiences can experience one of the best Ace Attorney games ever made.
The first game released on the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2009 and had an international release the following year, but the sequel, which initially released in 2011, never made its way to the West. Modders were quick to release a fan translation, as just three years after launch, English players could experience the elusive entry through unofficial means.
In 2012, Capcom released new versions of the first three games in the Ace Attorney series with new art for mobile, which built the framework for the Ace Attorney Trilogy on modern systems. In 2017, the Investigations games made their way to mobile, this time with upscaled sprites and entirely remade cutscenes. The new versions made various improvements to the original games, but perplexingly, Capcom didn’t translate the second Investigations game.
Recently, a modder called Mr.Akrasr, working with a dedicated team at Scarlet Study, announced that they were currently working on the Android port in 2022, using translations done by Auryn back on the DS in 2014. This mod released, coincidentally, just two days before the Capcom Museum update. Players can now experience a HD version of Investigations 2 while fan interest is at an all-time high. Understandably, this has fueled fans’ interest for an official remake.
Capcom hasn’t officially acknowledged the translation or disclosed any plans for a remake of the Investigations games. Hope is in abundance for fans, though, as a similarly quiet release happened for the Great Ace Attorney games, which received remade artwork and full translations for modern consoles in 2021.
The historical subseries initially released on 3DS and mobile from 2015 to 2017 without official English translations, but the widespread release of these titles shows that Capcom is willing to invest resources in projects beloved to the fans.
