When Do The Ace Attorney Investigations Games Take Place In The Timeline?

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• Before Investigations

• The Investigations Series

• After Investigations

Summary

• Ace Attorney Investigations 1 and 2 provide a bridge between the original trilogy and Phoenix's disbarment.
• The games offer tightly-woven mysteries and unforgettable characters for newcomers and fans alike.
• Edgeworth's journey as Chief Prosecutor intertwines with Phoenix's resurgence post-disbarment in the Apollo Justice Trilogy.

The Investigations Collection represents pure wish fulfillment for the Ace Attorney fanbase. Sure, the first standalone journey with prosecutor Miles Edgeworth has been available in English since 2011 – yet, alas, its sequel was precluded from Western shores until now due to middling sales figures.

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Now that Investigations 1 and 2 have been finally reunited - and in a sumptuous HD package with all manner of bells and whistles, at that - many players will be picking 'em up for the first time. The Ace Attorney saga is a twisting, interconnected narrative spanning decades; so you'd be forgiven for not being quite sure where Edgey-poo's titles fit in. Let's button our cravats and clear the air!

As you'd likely imagine, this article will be dealing with some major spoilers, both concerning the Investigations duology and the other games in the Ace Attorney franchise surrounding it. Newcomers ought to tread with caution – you can't sue for spoilers!

Before Investigations

How Does The Ace Attorney Series Begin?

Thankfully, placing Edgeworth's games in the timeline is made simpler by the fact that, broadly, you can separate it into two eras. The first is the period that covers the OG Ace Attorney trilogy on GBA and DS; so that's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Justice For All, and Trials And Tribulations.

Long before players could don the reddish-mauve coattails of Miles, they were getting to know his closest friend (and lifelong workplace rival), Phoenix Wright. The face of the franchise, good old Phoenix is a greenhorn attorney who gets by more on his talent for slamming desks and bluffing than any sort of legal acumen.

How Are Phoenix And Edgeworth Connected?

His unique approach makes sense when you realize being a lawyer wasn't always Phoenix's dream. Originally, he wanted to be an art student; but when Miles became estranged from him in their youth, and entered the legal profession, he decided to take the bar exam and start accepting cases indiscriminately, in the hopes he'd eventually wind up opposite his old mate. Really though, Phoenix: a phone call would have worked just as well, and would have saved you the tuition fees.

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Ultimately, Phoenix and Edgeworth do end up facing each other in the courtroom, numerous times – and over the course of the trilogy, Miles' carefully cultivated cold exterior begins to chip away. Not helping matters is his adoptive father, Manfred von Karma, being indicted for the murder of his biological father, Gregory Edgeworth. It takes the combined efforts of Phoenix and his spirit medium assistant Maya Fey to close that traumatic case for good.

By the conclusion of Trials And Tribulations, Edgeworth has reassumed his place in Phoenix's friend circle; albeit it doesn't make him any less irritable when he's phoned at 3AM and informed he's got to fill in for Phoenix because he's gone and chucked himself off a bridge. The life of a prosecutor!

The Investigations Series

What Happens In Miles Edgeworth Investigations 1?

We now come to the Investigations subseries, which neatly sequesters itself between the original trilogy and the gigantic 7-year timeskip following Phoenix's disbarment. In fact, Investigations 1 and 2 take place mere months before the forged evidence scandal that would paralyze Phoenix's career for almost a decade.

If you want to get really specific, all the two games' events occur in March 2019. That's right, the Ace Attorney timeline runs roughly parallel to the real world – but it's also a universe where VHS tapes continued to see use well into the 2010s and mobile phones remain of the flip variety in 2027.

In short, don't go in expecting too much realism. The poor Capcom writers were just guessing back in 2001!

Investigations 1 is a pretty intimate affair, examining a series of local cases that only really spiral into a bigger conspiracy at the last moment. Edgeworth is approached by Kay Faraday, daughter of Byrne Faraday, a lawyer with whom the Edgeworth clan has a history. Together, they resolve a diplomatic dispute concerning the Principality of Cohdopia, and blow the lid off a smuggling ring in the process. All in a day's work.

What Happens In Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2?

If Investigations 1 was the amuse-bouche, then, Investigations 2 is a smorgasbord of Ace Attorney goodness. Featuring the most tightly knitted mystery in the entire series, as well as a cast of eccentric characters it's positively criminal we haven't seen since, it's not to be missed for anyone with even a passing interest.

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Picking up shortly after the first game, Edgeworth and Kay find themselves embroiled in an international cover-up that's inextricably linked to the past case that turned Manfred von Karma to the dark side, and ultimately cost Gregory Edgeworth his life. There are murders on cookery shows, assassination attempts in airfields, rogue journalists, unhinged circus performers, and far more besides. The jaw-dropping reveal of the kingpin mastermind is worth the price of admission alone.

All of this is why it was such a blow that, until 2024, Investigations 2 was shackled to Japanese territories. A truly phenomenal fan translation picked up Capcom's slack in the intervening decade; and frankly, many of the character names it came up with are held in far greater esteem than the 'official' ones (we're sorry, but Sebastian DeBeste will never, ever be 'Eustace Winner.' Really now.)

After Investigations

A couple of months after Edgeworth's investigations wrap up, Phoenix becomes the subject of a scandal when he's manipulated into presenting forged documents at a high-profile trial by Kristoph Gavin, a conniving rival attorney. We're then blasted forward seven years, where the reins of the franchise are (temporarily) handed over to loudmouth Apollo Justice, a young protégé at the Wright and Co. Law Offices.

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This second trilogy, officially dubbed the 'Apollo Justice Trilogy' (even though he's only the main protagonist for one of the three) consists of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Dual Destinies, and Spirit Of Justice. Phoenix has his badge back by Dual Destinies and returns to the spotlight, but Apollo's ever-mounting cache of backstories remains a consistent focus.

As for Edgeworth, after the events of Investigations 2, he became the Chief Prosecutor, and was responsible for pulling the strings that led to Phoenix reigniting his career and taking down Kristoph Gavin. He's less of a presence in this trilogy than the original, but he pops up from time to time for fanservice-y cameos, now sporting a very swanky pair of glasses. In Spirit of Justice, he wastes no time chartering a private jet to fly to Khura'in when he hears of Phoenix's legal troubles there – a friend to the end.

The only other corner of the Ace Attorney universe worth mentioning is The Great Ace Attorney, a prequel set in the Japanese Meiji era that deals with Phoenix's ancestors. It's so far removed, by literal centuries, from the core timeline that it's scarcely notable for this discussion, but we thought we'd acknowledge it!

You can safely assume it's the very first episode of the saga, and will remain so... unless Capcom one day decides Wright has some roots in caveman society we ought to be aware of.

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