Highlights
- Ace Attorney Investigations Collection completes the series’ remaster efforts, making way for Ace Attorney 7.
- Ace Attorney’s rising popularity stems from successful remasters and localization efforts by Capcom.
- With increased global accessibility to the series, Ace Attorney 7 is now anticipated as the next natural step.
Ace Attorney 7 has been highly requested and rumored for several years at this point. Speculation surrounding a new mainline game grew exponentially when a remastered collection of the original trilogy made it to consoles in 2019. However, this bombshell was only followed by further remasters and localizations, but the announcement of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection has reignited old rumors.
Once the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection releases in September this year, Capcom will have completed its recent efforts to localize and remaster every single Ace Attorney game. This has been a huge blessing to existing fans of the series, often serving them with games that were never accessible worldwide. With the entire series now available to play, Ace Attorney 7 seems like the next natural step.
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Why Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a Big Deal
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is set to correct the troubled history of this major Ace Attorney spinoff, and that’s exciting.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Pave the Way for Ace Attorney 7
Ace Attorney Speculation Had Nearly Quieted Down
Ace Attorney leaks have circled the topic of Ace Attorney 7 for quite some time. In fact, many rumors that signaled a new mainline game was coming down the line also correctly predicted the upcoming wave of remasters. More time passed with no further mention of the game, and the discussion around the next Ace Attorney game seemed to have officially come and gone.
By all means, the Ace Attorney collections have still been a massive success for the series. These efforts have granted existing fans access to previously inaccessible games like The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, while also bringing in some of the largest numbers of new fans the series has ever enjoyed. In retrospect, it’s clear that gauging and subsequently increasing the appetite for Ace Attorney was Capcom’s entire goal in the first place. With this goal accomplished and then some, now is certainly the time to revive old speculation.
Ace Attorney’s Remasters Have Made the Series More Popular than Ever
Ace Attorney was initially conceived in part because it would be such a cheap project to produce. Its charming characters helped the series to catch on more than developers ever expected, skyrocketing the series from a modest visual novel to a household name. While it may not have reached the heights of other Capcom franchises like Monster Hunter or Resident Evil, it still managed to pioneer within its own genre for years to come.
Although nothing good ever lasts forever, there was a time when fans of the series may have felt this principle didn’t apply. Ace Attorney rode the success of the first trilogy for quite some time. Capcom featured Ace Attorney characters in a number of crossovers, developed two major spin-off series, and capped it all off with a sequel trilogy starring an entirely new protagonist. Unfortunately, this momentum began to slow down shortly after, and only picked up again within the last few years.
At this point, Ace Attorney hasn’t simply outrun its original scope. Now, more than ever, the Ace Attorney series is on the cusp of returning to the height of its popularity. Capcom’s recent “Super Election” popularity poll indicated that Ace Attorney is on the rise both domestically and worldwide.
Ace Attorney 7 is the Natural Next Step for the Series
The recent rise in interest seems to have naturally followed renewed access to even the series’ most obscure games. Although the remaster of the original Ace Attorney trilogy was serving an existing audience, many subsequent projects cultivated new fans for games with no prior global release. These efforts in tandem make it seem as if developers may have paved the way already.
The original rumors that predicted Ace Attorney 7 may have simply been wishful thinking. After all, it’s been a number of years since then and no announcement has happened. By contrast, the anticipation for Ace Attorney 7 has only grown in the meantime. This continued clamoring has been met with further silence, as Capcom showed its priority was to simply bring old Ace Attorney games to new audiences.
However, this mission to remaster the series will be complete as soon as this year. After the release of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, there will be no backlog of Ace Attorney games to keep reaching into. If developers want to take advantage of the renewed audience that they have cultivated over time, Ace Attorney 7 is the only way forward for the series.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
First released in 2001, the Ace Attorney series gave birth to the Courtroom Battle genre of text adventure games. Phoenix Wright passes the torch on to Apollo Justice in this collection of 3 games, which traces Apollo’s growth as a lawyer as he navigates the Dark Age of the Law.
- Top Critic Rating
- 81
- Critics Recommend %
- 90