Certainly better than the first game. I think this is probably the most consistently solid game in the series maybe beating out 3. There's no cases I would say are outright bad. The second case is probably the weakest link, but even then it's important to the overall plot. Something I really like in this game is that every case links to the rest somehow very concretely. Everything has a setup and payoff, there's nothing that goes forgotten really (until the Apollo trilogy, that is lol). The translation was a little amateurish around the start (I counted a good few "It can't be helped"s), but as things went on the only things that were noticeable were formatting issues, which I assume were faults of having to mod the game for the translation anyways. I wonder why this game wasn't translated officially, really. Did the first game not sell well or something? Either way, I think a lot of missteps from the first game are corrected, even though a foreign country is involved one of the first logic chess segments you get to do is about extraterritorial rights, they knew it was a contentious ending for the first game. Speaking of logic chess, it's a fun mechanic, it kind of reminds me of the active debates from Danganronpa but a little less hectic. The first game was missing something like that. There's still plenty of cameos but they feel more deserved than in I1, half the cast isn't callbacks this time! And it actually sets up Edgeworth's character in an interesting way and sets him up for what he would later do in the Apollo trilogy later on. Really wish any of these characters reappeared. Imagine a more mellowed out Kay being Edgeworth's future assistant once she gives up the thief gig eventually (since it implies that she'll do so at the end of the game) like that'd be good, right? I'm not crazy! Or have Debeste cover one of the DLC cases or something to show how he's far more competent as a prosecutor now and has learned to earn his title of The Best. A lot of dropped balls in the series later on. Either way, very good, I liked it a lot, and knowing the future of the series I wish they did more with the pins it set up.

Can you believe that they made like, a really really good third case? It's probably one of my favorites, it's insane.

At the time of writing this, this is up there for being one of my favorite games in the Ace Attorney series by far.

Investigations 1 was basically the setup game for this masterpiece. That game had to setup the foundations for the gameplay mechanics, and the cases and stories were a bit weak in retrospect.

With Investigations 2, they already had the gameplay that they needed so they could focus on the characters and story. And boy did they execute it really well.

I love how all the cases and characters were connected to each other throughout the story. Not a single case was wasted, as this game also effectively broke the 3rd case curse (where the 3rd cases in Ace Attorney feel like filler and are disconnected from the narrative). Investigations 2 also has one of the coolest and clever plot twists ever in the series along with a really good antagonist to boot.

There a few things I wish the game could have done better, but none of those complaints dragged down the game for me at all.