While it's the easiest game in the series to date, this game delivers much of the charm the series is famous for.
Set in an ambiguous time period shortly after the Ace Attorney games that starred Phoenix Wright (I think), we join Miles Edgeworth, Wright's friend/rival, as he's just trying to get back to his office only to get pulled into one crime scene after another. Heck, even his office becomes a crime scene. The poor guy can never catch a break. Thankfully, he's got the power of (in?)disputable logic on his side, which is necessary to connect all the disparate elements and evidence he finds on a particular scene. Joining him are some old faces, including the ever-faithful Detective Gumshoe, and some new ones, including "master thief" Kay Faraday and, as the requisite rival, Shi-Long Lang, an agent from Interpol who has a bone to pick with prosecutors. In a pure bit of fan service, a number of former witnesses make appearances in this one in roles that range from wrongfully-accused to strictly cameo (poor Winston Payne...).
As far as the story is concerned, the game starts out somewhat weak and builds up to... slightly strong? Edgeworth can be best called the Straight Man of the Ace Attorney series (though advocates of bromance might scream an objection to this), so in order for him to succeed as an interesting character, he has to have some strong personalities to play off of. There aren't many of these in the beginning of the game, but thankfully, they make their appearance around the third case, and this is where the game begins to pick up. Edgeworth plays particularly wonderfully off of Kay. The cases provided on this outing are never particularly boring, though they don't come out terribly strong, either. They will, along with a nice musical score, satisfy most fans of the series, however.
Another plus-factor for the series has to do with the new investigation system. Investigation segments were easily the least-exciting aspect of the previous Ace Attorney games, always being second banana to the court scenes. Here, the ability to walk around the actual scenes in a third person view that harkens back to the good ol' "Adventure Game" days gives some much needed life and freedom to the procedures, and the Rebuttal segments draw an easy parallel to the expected courtroom drama. Miles, as mentioned before, uses logic to string together facts of the case along with the usual spray of evidence and profiles. This game noticeably cuts back on the odd mysticism vibes of previous games and delivers some good old fashioned police work that may please those who like their investigations more down to earth.
Rebuttals are still not a REPLACEMENT to the expected courtroom drama, though. Fans may end up missing the courtroom showdowns that are the staple of the series but are for the most part absent here (one case takes place in a courthouse, I guess, though not while court's in session). Also, they and others will certainly notice the lack of difficulty in this game. Perhaps it's just the effect of being Edgeworth, the perfect prosecutor, but no one is going to have a problem connecting these strands of logic together: The game simply provides way too many hints to help you along and makes its solutions all too obvious. The only time you'll get tripped up is when the usual problem of the series emerges: Sometimes the strand of logic you follow isn't what the game wants you to follow, and finding your way to the game-approved strand can be an ordeal. It's nothing new to the series, most certainly, but it's always frustrating to encounter. Barring that, though, this is easily (lawl) the easiest game of the five currently released, making this game seem more like an interactive storybook than an actual game that tests your logic.
Thankfully, though, the game is still strong enough to carry itself quite well, and will definitely give fans and newcomers alike something nice to chew on while they wait for the next more-traditional outing of the series. If they replaced the investigation segments of the previous games with the gameplay exhibited in this game, that would be a change we could all get behind. As for Edgeworth himself, he can clear my name - or prosecute it - any time.