Gyakuten Kenji 2 is an adventure game in the Ace Attorney series; it is a sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. The player once again controls prosecutor Mitsurugi Reiji (known as Miles Edgeworth in English), and must solve a number of murder mysteries. The story begins when the visiting president of the nation of Zheng Fa is shot by an assassin; Miles’ discovery of the truth behind the assassination gets him involved into a complex web of intrigue, which he will solve over the course of five chapters.
Just like in the previous game, the player often must investigate areas and examine all suspicious places, as well as talk to people. Evidence found and placed in Edgeworth’s organizer can be compared with the examined objects to deduce something about the case. Newfound facts and ideas are placed in the “Logic” section, where the player can link related ideas to gain a better understanding of the case and progress in the game. Edgeworth will also listen to people’s “Arguments” about how the crime happened, and provide “Rebuttals” by proving them false with evidence. Making mistakes decreases Edgeworth’s “life bar”, and if it runs out completely the game is over.
New to this game are the “Logic Chess” sections, where Edgeworth manipulates tight-lipped people into divulging their secrets. Logic Chess is done in the form of a dialogue tree, where the player must choose the correct thing to say, or sometimes say nothing and wait for the opponent to calm down. By carefully choosing the right questions, the player can lead their opponent into contradicting themselves and saying more than they wished, until all of their secrets are revealed. Each Logic Chess sequence is divided into a number of parts, and each part has a time limit. Choosing the wrong option restarts the part and deduces a large amount of time from the clock. Running out of time forces the player to restart the part and takes away a part of the life bar.
