Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Clive a tortured soul who did what he did because he saw it as the only solution, or an entitled brat who wanted to see the world suffer the same cruel fate that he did just so he could feel better about it?
Ass Pull: The Reveal is perhaps as ridiculous and implausible as the original premise. There's no such thing as time-travelling to Future London, rather it's just a secret underground elevator that descends into a fake city that's as a big as the actual London! Built entirely by a rich orphan boy! And in less than a decade! Hey look, the orphan boy has a giant robot!!
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The shooting scene in the casino has little bearing on the story and ends with Layton somehow constructing a makeshift coin gatling gun.
Fanfic Fuel: Chelmey heavily implying that he's going to arrest Hawks sometime later. Given Hawks' sheer Scrappy status due to him being a Hate Sink who's sadly also a Karma Houdini by the end, fans have jumped at the chance to elaborate on such a potential Catharsis Factor.
Inferred Holocaust: A Humongous Mecha bursts through an underground cavern and high above London, then proceeds to shoot at will on the city. Thousands presumably die. Then the same mecha falls through the hole it created and explodes in mid-air, completely incinerating the fake London underneath it, but apparently having no further effect on the city above, despite it actually being closer.
Jerkass Woobie: Subject 3 vehemently rejects pity and is not exactly civil to most people, but has suffered a great deal during his past, especially during the experiments.
Memetic Mutation: SWIGGITY SWONDON, LET'S DESTROY LONDON.Explanation How fans have come to describe Clive's ultimate plan, given that it's jumping to an extreme out of the blue in spite of its reasoning, making the curtness of the meme all the more appropriate.
The Scrappy: Bill Hawks manages to be an unhealthy combination of Damsel Scrappy, Hate Sink, Karma Houdini, and Hypocrite. The guy is essentially responsible for most of the game's conflict, exemplifying the Corrupt Politician trope that most people usually hate, yet you spend much of the game trying to rescue the bastard. And yet Clive somehow lets him get away with it, too!Also, he's ugly. He may have been an intentional Hate Sink right from the start, but a Hate Sink is supposed to ultimately suffer for the audience's pleasure — something which Hawks avoids, and therefore just being an unpleasant source of burnout.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Flora and Clive. The ship potential is there, but they don't interact much unless you count Clive kidnapping Flora.
That One Puzzle: "How Many People?", where you have to calculate the number of passengers on a bus, with the catch that you have to include the one telling you the puzzle. Fair enough. However, the one telling you is the conductor, while you also have to include the driver. This is not at all intuitive for people who have never driven on a double decker bus, not to mention that bus driver and bus conductor would seem to be the same thing. The American version changes the conductor to a tour guide for this reason.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: More than a few players have expressed disappointment that Future Luke, Future London and the evil Future Layton that ruled it were all an elaborate hoax and not real, especially since time travel ends up being real anyway.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Big BadFuture Luke (or to be more accurate, Clive Dove) is this. While his backstory certainly is a tragedy, many people find his actions not to be justified. Despite knowing who hurt him all these years ago, rather than simply plotting revenge against that person, he decides to drag people who have done nothing to him into this conflict for no good reason. He not only betrays his partner, but his goal results in crossing the Moral Event Horizon by attempting to destroy London and killing an unidentified number of people, unless the buildings he destroyed were conveniently empty. While his target, Bill Hawks, is universally disliked and gets away from his crimes, Clive had his choice to not stoop as low as Bill in trying to execute his revenge.
is pretty great. It has an orchestra mix violins, piano and accordions, among other instruments, to create a tragic song.