Hypothetical Ace Attorney Investigations 3 Pitch
I don't know how this crossed my mind, but it did and I want to just rant about it for a hot minute.
Now most of the Ace Attorney games aside from the original trilogy are rather contentious, ranging from whether or not the stories, character developments, mysteries and lore can hold a candle to the OG 3 to the validity of their very existence when the trilogy was good enough on its own, so maybe suggesting that a third Investigations game should be made is going to rub some people the wrong way. That said, I hope even those of you who hate these games will want to hear me out.
So the Apollo Justice trilogy brought Phoenix back for a few more rounds (a few too many depending on who you ask) and got him this whole new band of characters to deal with (Apollo, Trucy, Athena, Klavier, Blackquill, Rayfa...) without fully losing sight of the original crew by maintaining the Judge and Charley the potted plant as well as bringing back Maya, Pearl, Ema and Larry by the end and getting Edgeworth to pop in for Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice after his absence in Apollo Justice because Capcom understandably doesn't want to find out what excluding the most beloved character in the franchise for three whole games might cause.
That's already the majority of the original main cast to help Wright Anything Agency through the dark age of the law, but I can't help but feel someone's missing...hmm, Mia hasn't been channeled in a bit but I'm not too mad about that since it showcases how Phoenix has grown beyond the need to have his mentor posthumously save his ass constantly...I don't particularly miss Winston Payne...Kay, Shi-Long, Badd, Eddie, Eustace and Verity are more Investigations-characters than anything...is there anyone left who had severely reduced presence in Investigations 2 and promptly never appeared again?
Here's the pitch: it's the tail end of the Dark Age of the Law. The events of Spirit of Justice are keeping everybody else busy leaving Franzy and Scruffy to be the ones dealing with mysteries to solve through Logic and Mind Chess. The remaining distrust towards the law system after all of the court shenanigans over the last few years even after our heroes' efforts to reform it in Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies and Investigations 2 has caused Franziska to go through a personal crisis and take a sabbatical from prosecuting to find herself. Miles can't be there for her thanks to Wright's misadventures in Khura'in and his purge of the Prosecutor's Office requiring his full focus, but he doesn't leave his adoptive sister out to dry by getting his reliable underling Inspector Gumshoe to accompany and watch out for her.
From there, the two of them end up investigating into a bunch of murder incidents that turn out to largely be interconnected, just like in the previous Investigations games except far better than Investigations 1 because the killers are less crap. It will feature, among others:
. A character development arc where Franziska comes to terms with herself and her father's misdeeds (ain't no way Samson Tangaroa and Gregory Edgeworth were the only innocent victims of Manfred's actions) as Gumshoe helps her navigate a law-loathing Japanifornia;
. The story behind Larry Butz's Franzy's Whippity-Whip Trip picture book, showing just how Phoenix and Miles' dumbass childhood friend got the most belligerent person in the court system to let him feature her as a story character (probably helping out with a case or smth);
. A delightfully cute moment between Dick and Maggey Byrde that makes Fran roll her eyes, only to have it thrown back into her face by Gumshoe when she gets a similar moment with Adrian Andrews;
. The triumphant returns of Eddie Fender, Kay Faraday and Eustace Winner to help with a few cases;
. And a whole bunch of comedic moments where Gumshoe and Franziska just naturally bounce off of each other.
It's a bit of a lacking pitch, I know, this was pretty much born from the desire to see Franziska and Gumshoe run the show after noticing their absence from the AJ trilogy. Yet, I feel like the baseline of things is strong enough to develop the story further into a more complete plot. What do you guys think? 👨⚖️👉
