General Professor Layton thread

Basically what the title said.

...I'll start off, I guess.

• Does anyone know who that one guy is between Remy/Emmy, Yula/Arianna, Future Luke, Sharon and Claire is in Professor Layton Royale?
• Does anyone find Lani Minella convincing as Emmy, or is that not Lani voicing her? My opinion
  ^{From what I remember of the English dub for Eternal Diva, it sounds a lot like Emma Tate's Emmy.}
• Which name changes do you mind/not mind, and what names do you think will be changed? My opinion
  ^{Lando has a 50/50 chance of getting renamed to Orlando.}
• If Alphendi/Alfendi Layton is Hershel's son, then what happened to Flora? (For that matter, who's the new girl with Alfendi?)
• Does anyone know if Jenis/Jenice/Janice is in London Life (US) or Royale?

edited 26th Nov '11 5:25:13 PM by Enzeru

I started playing Unwound Future today. I wonder what the secret of Future London is this time. Though I'm getting pretty convinced here.

EDIT: OH GOD, THE LAYTONMOBILE'S DOWN!

edited 26th Nov '11 6:29:37 PM by Marioguy128

....Layton has a son?!

In Mystery Room, he does. At least two sons, if the title (Layton Bros.) is to be believed.

My personal theory thus far is that the game is an Alternate Continuity, possibly one in which Claire survived. Although Alfie's nose may call that theory into question, because look at that thing.

Okay so I got the whole series for Christmas, and I'll be playing them in order of release date(Village->Box->Future->Specter)

I bought Diabolical Box when it came out(I loved the train ticket puzzle) but I was a little confused about the characters and decided to trade it in, and just get the series whenever I could play all the DS games.

Well Gamestop had a B 2 G 1 on pre-owned games, and I managed to get the first three used and Specter new.

Now, I love brain teasers and riddles. We used to do them in Gifted all the time, and anything that makes me want to bang my head against the wall until I get an Aha! moment is genuinely fun to me. I also love quirky characters, mysteries, point and click games, European art(It has a distinct feel, and I've noticed people mention that when talking about the games), and anything of that nature. Plus I already know that, since I got about 5 hours into Box, I like the gameplay.

I should pretty much love the entire series, right?

And does Last Specter seriously have a 100+ hour RPG?

The Layton series shou

YMMV. I felt that after playing three games the formula was starting to get pretty stale. And yes, it comes with a second game, but it's not really an RPG, more like a Harvest Moon-style simulation game. Can't speak for the 100 hours, but I gave up within two or three of mind-numbing boredom.

Finally got around to playing, and finishing, Unwound Future.

Ahh... That was a good cry I had.

Heeeey.

I've never played a Professor Layton game, but I already love them for the art and the music alone! I want to buy one of the games for my mother's birthday*, but even though that's still a few months from now, I'm on a bit of a Layton trip right now because I saw the movie at a con today, so I'll go ahead and ask now: Which game would you recommend as an introduction to the series?

*Of course, I'll try out the game myself as soon as she's done with it~

edited 16th Mar '12 12:27:28 PM by Fawriel

I'd suggest playing them in order (Curious Village, Diabolical Box, Unwound Future, Last Specter) since there are a few Continuity Nods and Chekhov's Guns that span multiple games. You can complete each game without any knowledge about the previous ones, but there are a couple details in the stories of the later games that are just that much more awesome if you play the previous games first.

edited 16th Mar '12 4:12:24 PM by PoochyEXE

Hmm, I'm not sure if I should really start with the very first one, though... what little research I did indicated that the second one was a vast improvement over it? It may very well be that I won't buy the entire series, after all.

In that case, yeah, the second one had plenty of improvements over the first. If you're not sure whether you'll play the full series, you'll probably want to start with one of the later ones.

Gameplay wise, they're all nearly the same. Story wise, you should start with the first. Even if it's story isn't as good as the later games.

Future definitely has the best story in my opinion. It's also not totally dependent on knowing the others to understand, too, which is nice.

Who here has seen the movie, Eternal Diva? While I think the few puzzles are very creative and the story is as over the top as ever, the movie as a whole felt lack luster. I do think Eternal Diva was a good movie, but it felt like they could have had a better story if they stuck with the game format.

Granted, making a 90 minute movie out of a ~20 hour game can be pretty tough.

So I've finished Unwound Future, and the first trilogy along with it.

End game storyline-related questions on that game:

• Am I the only one who thought, upon seeing the related anime sequences: "Wow, looks like Clive has brought up a Metal Gear", and "The game creator must have been influenced by Miyazaki and his Laputa: The Castle in the Sky with the design of the flying Laytonmobile".

• It is just me, or Clive's Evil Plan is really retarded? I mean, since he has so much money he can build a whole city underground London and a Metal Gear, and has his entries in the world of medias, wouldn't have it been much simple for him to screw the rules with his money and connections, so he ruins Hawks and Allen's careers, and makes their lives a living hell?

Instead, he brings his anger, not only on both of them, but also on innocent citizens, making him a Hypocrite since he's making uninvolved people go through the same pain he went through.

Seriously, I can't understand how he can be a Draco in Leather Pants among some fans. At least Yomiel from Ghost Trick had a much better Freudian Excuse than that.

edited 26th Mar '12 11:37:24 AM by AceNoctali

I was under the impression that his main goal was to manipulate the scientists into actually inventing time travel for real and letting him have the first working time machine, and that ruining Hawks and Allen was a secondary goal. Although why he would create a Humongous Mecha and rampage through London is beyond me, that part of his plan was just plain nuts.

edited 26th Mar '12 2:18:35 PM by PoochyEXE

What's this? No discussion of Last Specter? Really? There has to be some sort of comment on the plot direction this time.

edited 7th Apr '12 6:06:30 PM by Tropernovan

I love the series, but for some reason I felt the Last Specter's story was missing something. It just felt a little weird to me. And Goosey was just very annoying.

The first three were brilliant, though. I can't decide whether I like Diabolical Box or Unwound Future better. The story is beautiful in the Diabolical Box, but then there's all the excitement in the Unwound Future. I'll just say it's one of the two.

To my understanding, Level-5 has a tendency to plan out series 3 games at a time. So I have a sneaking suspicion that Last Specter is setting up all sorts of Brick Jokes for the next two games.

edited 4th Aug '12 2:50:02 AM by PoochyEXE

I'm surprised they haven't announced anything about movie 2 or game 6 yet.

Layton Bros. Mystery Room announced for a September 21 release. Probably just the Japanese version, but we can at least hope the English translation comes soon.

Meh, I doubt we'll be seeing that or the mobage games go international.

Can't wait for Miracle Mask and the Choubunmei game, though! Haven't heard much news about vs Ace Attorney...

Sorta kinda old news, but vs Ace Attorney has a Japanese release date. November 29th.

Actually, Level-5 tends to be pretty good about at least planning to localize stuff, when it's on a console that's also popular outside of Japan (i.e. not Japan-specific cell phones). It just takes a year or two.

They've also dropped some strong hints at Vs. Ace Attorney coming to the US, although they haven't formally announced it yet.

edited 13th Sep '12 11:22:21 PM by PoochyEXE

Isn't mobage a mobile phone, though?