Professor Layton refers to a series of puzzle adventure games for the Nintendo DS/3DS (1-4 on DS, 5-6 and vs Ace Attorney on 3DS), produced by Level 5 and distributed by Nintendo. In additional to the games, a feature-length film has been produced that directly follows events in the fourth game.
Season 1 consists of three games and follows Professor Hershel Layton and his assistant Luke Triton through a series of stories full of puzzles and adventures. They are joined by Flora (Aroma) in the second and third games.
1: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
2: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (aka Pandora's Box)
3: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (aka Lost Future, Last Time Travel)
Season 2 consists of three games and a movie. The series takes place several years before the events of Season 1. Layton meets Luke Triton in game 4, and is also joined by Layton's assistant, Emmy Altawa.
4: Professor Layton and the Last Specter (aka Specter's Flute) - GAME
4.5: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva - MOVIE
5: Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle - GAME
6: Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies - GAME
Crossovers
Level-5 and Capcom collaborated to produce a crossover of their popular Layton and Ace Attorney series. Appropriately enough the game is titled "Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney" and is available for the Nintendo 3DS.
Story & Playability
This is a review of Professor Layton 6. The game is currently available for the Nintendo 3DS in Japanese.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies (Layton Kyoujyu to Chobunmei A no Isan) is the 6th game in the Professor Layton
series (not counting the Ace Attorney crossover). It is the final chapter in the prequel trilogy of Layton games (which
started with game 4/Last Specter) and marks the final game where Layton himself will be the main character.
The game starts when Layon receives a letter from fellow archaeologist Foster Sahaiman, telling him of a "living
mummy" encased in ice. Further investigations show she may be the key to understanding the Azran civilization which
died out millions of years ago, but whose ruins dot the world (and are the key to the mysteries in games 4 and 5 as well
as the movie.) But Sahaiman and Layton aren't the only ones who want to unlock the Azran mystery; the Targent
Syndicate is also afoot, hoping the knowledge of this long-dead culture will give them great power, while Jean Descole
wants to be the one to unlock the puzzle for dark reasons known only to himself. The chase to understand the Azrans
sends Layton all around the world -- along with London you get to visit 8 different cities with their own people and
personalities, greatly expanding the world of Layton. You meet lots of new people, but plenty of characters from earlier
games show up in various supporting roles; both Luke's and Layton's parents appear in London while Inspector
Grosky is running about trying to chase down the Targent Syndicate; even Inspector Chelmey shows up (although he is on
his honeymoon and not in any official capacity.)
The story pacing is a little looser than in previous games; the first 3 chapters set off a sharp chain of events, but
chapter 4 is sort of a freeform chapter, where you have to travel to 5 cities to recover some Azran artifacts. You can
visit these cities in any order and the stories in each are unrelated to the others. Once you recover the 5 artifacts
the game quickly gets back on track and takes you to the final showdown and reveals the truth of Azran, why it
disappeared millenia ago, and what its legacy means for mankind.
This is a game of endings, of wrapping up all the loose ends and mysteries introduced in Last Specter, Eternal Diva and
Miracle Mask. We finally get to learn the histories of Descole, Emmy and Bronev, and get to see more into Layton's
past as well. Most of the revelations were a great surprise to me, and add a lot of nuance and depth to the characters,
helping to flesh them out more. The ending is bittersweet, with Emmy parting from Layton and Descole heading off to
adventures untold. The second season of Layton did a great job building up a new cast of characters but must say
good-bye to most of them, as only a few return in Curious Village, the next game in the Layton timeline (the final scene
of the game is the first scene of Curious Village, and ends with a "To be continued".)
Sadly there won't be a continued, at least not for Layton himself. After 7 games and a movie I got pretty attached
to him, and I am sad to see him go. This game gives him a grand send-off and is a must for anyone who has played Layton
4 and 5.
Level-5 seems committed to getting their games out for Western markets, so it should be simply a matter of time before
this game will be available in English.
tl;dr: If you have played Layton 4 and 5, PLAY THIS GAME. If you haven't, um, why are you starting with the last
game in the series?
Rating: 9
Graphics
The artwork for Layton 6 takes the foundations built up in the previous 5 games and expands on them. Similar to the 5th
game, the world and characters are presented in 3D, but there are some subtle improvements. The scenes which you can
explore with the magnifying glass are more expansive and have a lot more depth; the scenes are generally twice as big as
what you can see when you initially arrive. They are also active and interactive. Weather effects are more pronounced
and a lot more things move in the background -- on a busy London street you can watch numerous cars and buses pass
through an intersection; a variety of fish swim by in an aquarium. Finding hint coins, collectibles and puzzles involve
poking through more things -- sometimes you have to tap on several items in sequence to get a coin. This makes the world
more inviting, as if the warm earth tones and hand-painted styling wasn't enough.
Character design is typical of a Layton game -- colorful, unique individuals with exaggerated features are the norm.
They are rendered with 3d sprites and are always in some sort of motion, whether its Remi taking photos of a scene or
Sahaiman puzzling through the latest riddle. This along with the more active scenery makes the game feel more organic,
not just a few flat characters on a flat background.
Cut scenes are excellent; Level-5 has become quite good with their animation, which mix the hand-painted scenery with 2d
cel-shaded characters. There are quite a few animated cut scenes; in the middle of the game they are fairly short and
basically just quickly set a stage, but there are a number of longer animations at the start and end of the game that
bookend the story well.
tl;dr: Like the other Layton 3DS games, but better.
Rating: 8
Sound
Voices for the game are solid, which is expected considering we've been hearing the same actors in these roles for
so long. Layton is the polite gentleman, Luke the energetic pupil, Emmy the confident assistant. Bronev is the gruff
adversary, while Grosky is the rough but kind-hearted policeman. New characters are a little shakier; Sahaiman is a
researcher who is almost as smooth as Layton but Aria (the Azran messenger) is soft-spoken and shy, even when she's
supposed to be emotional. Like the other Layton games, most of the voice work is concentrated at the start and end of
the game, with vast parts of the middle unvoiced. This is likely due to the space constraints of the 3DS cart, but it
would always be nicer if more scenes were voiced.
Nishiura Tomohito is the composer for the game, the same as the previous Layton games. Like the previous games the
soundtrack has a European feel to it with an emphasis on accordian, flute, piano and violin. Some of the songs are a bit
moodier as the tone of the game is a bit darker than the previous two. There are numerous pieces which are renditions of
existing tracks (a string-heavy variation of London 3 plays when exploring London, and Layton's theme gets reworked
again) while some pieces are new (including the puzzle music.)
The ending theme, Surely Someday, is similarly a soft, sad ballad which continues the feeling of the bittersweet finale,
and is a nice way to complete the game and series.
tl;dr: Pretty much exactly like all the other Layton games. What were you expecting?
Rating: 7
Fun
This is a review of Professor Layton 6. The game is currently available for the Nintendo 3DS in Japanese.
If you hadn't noticed from my reviews of the previous Layton games, I am a big fan of the franchise. This game was
a Day 1 purchase and I had big expectations for it based on all the trailers Level-5 published. Part of me is sad that
I've come to the end of Layton's story, but Level-5 handled it well and brought closure to all the major
elements introduced in the second trilogy. The ending was deeper (and a bit darker) than I expected, considering the
franchise's track record of overly complicated endings based on someone pulling cheap tricks. The revelations in
the last two chapters kept hitting out of left field; once the obvious revelation was done with the rest were not
anything I had expected, and it was great fun learning about everyone's history.
The main meat of any Layton game is its puzzles. There are 150 puzzles in the main story (a standard amount) with some
puzzles unlocked upon game completion. There are also daily DLC puzzles for a year, adding almost 400 more puzzles to
the repertoire; some puzzles are similar to the DLC puzzles from game 5 but some are in a new format. Additionally there
are 3 mini-games which are further puzzles. Let's just say you'll have a lot of brain teasers to get through.
The puzzles are also quite a challenge; far more challenging than the ones in the Layton vs Ace Attorney game. Most
puzzles are math, logic, or spatial; the game no longer has any 'name some obscure object this clue is trying to
describe to you' so you don't have to worry about vocabulary anymore. There is also a section of the game
where you have to solve puzzles in a timed situation, which helps break the monotony of stacking boxes or balancing
weights. As always, if you get stuck you can spend hint coins to point you in the right direction.
The game is a bit longer than the previous Layton games due to the freeform nature of chapter 4. My game timer is 24
hours (twice as long as it took me to go through games 4 and 5) but I did spend a lot of time hunting down as many
puzzles as possible. And some of the puzzles took me a long time to figure out. None of the hours felt wasted, and there
is still plenty of game left to enjoy as I go through and search down more collectibles and puzzles I missed.
Layton's story may finally be over, but the ups and downs the series and this game went through make it all
worthwhile.
tl;dr: The game 6 I was hoping for. Layton fans should mark their calendars for whenever an English date is
announced!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find a replacement for this Layton-sized hole in my life.
Rating: 9
Final Verdict
8.5000 (very good)
Reviewed by Tama-Neko, Mar 30, 2013