Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

I'm nearly finished with it (I'm in the "explore every place in the universe to catch the few puzzles I've missed" phase just before the end of the game), and it's AWESOME. The plot is much bigger in scale than before, and at least one of the major twists took me completely by surprise.

I have to say, though, that there's a lot of running around in the beginning that felt a bit pointless ; but once you finally reach the Chinatown dungeon, the plot becomes a fun roller-coaster.

I'm as far as Chinatown. I'm picking up on foreshadowing of SOMETHING, but I can't tell what. I just hope the future doesn't turn out to be another hallucinogenic trip...

edited 21st Nov '10 7:41:28 AM by occono

Just started the game. Poor Stachen, denied of teaching us how to find hint coins.

^^ It ain't. The writers got creative in this one.

Awesome.

OK, I got to the big twist reveal, unless there's another at the very end of the game.

What? It's all an underground set? But......they're outside! There's a sky! Is everyone working for Dimitri? Even the girl who flirted with Luke all the time? WHAT?

THANK YOU. I'm glad I'm not the only one who realised that that makes no frigging sense. I haven't actually finished the game, partly because the twist annoyed me so much, but from what I understand, what you're asking about never receives any sort of explanation, either.

And I thought the twist at the end of Diabolical Box was daft.

I always maintain the idea that no matter what strange wondrous improbable/impossible thing a Layton game has, the explanation is even stranger.

Yeah, I think the game would've been much better if they'd stuck with it being the future. The way it actually turned out shattered my suspension of disbelief like glass being sung at by Pavarotti.

I thought the robots were even more stupid.

edited 12th Jan '11 1:44:05 PM by Marioguy128

Definitely, that annoyed me so very much, it's why I couldn't appreciate the story despite all the character development that Layton got.

By "that", I take you mean the twist in Unwound Future, rather than the robots?

Personally, I think the robots twist is by far the least ridiculous in the series. The one from Diabolical Box was unbelievably Fridge Logic-y, because it was never explained properly; I think the intent was that everyone (or at least some of the people) in the town was real, just fifty years older than they looked, but then...doesn't that mean that they've been eating food that's gone off for years? And bathing in baths that don't work? How does it work!?

And the twist in Unwound Future was just asinine. It's as though the head of the writing staff fell asleep one night while watching The Truman Show and when he woke up decided that it would be a good idea to incorporate it into the game. It also makes an absolute nonsense of the villain's plot. Think about it: you want to brainjack a man in order to use his memories as part of your time machine. You've already successfully kidnapped numerous scientists, as well as the bloody Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. You decide that the best way to get this man's memories would be to get your assistant to pretend to be the older version of his assistant from the future, and send a letter to him saying that the future is in peril. You then trick him into using a giant lift by claiming that it's a time machine, and then try to convince him that the fake future you've set up is ruled over by an evil version of him who is a mob boss and lives in a Pagoda. You make him go through an absolutely absurd rigmarole to get him to said Pagoda, in order to force him to wear a pair of glasses that will...steal his brainwaves or something. Dimitri, did it ever occur to you to JUST KIDNAP HIM AS WELL!? Any plan that involves the words "I'll get my accomplice to pretend to be an older version of his assistant from the future" is a STUPID, STUPID PLAN! I know Allen is supposed to be insane with grief, but even he should have noticed that the plan was absolutely absurd. Yes, I'm still annoyed about this.

edited 13th Jan '11 8:05:34 AM by Idler20

But it was all Claus' idea. He basically pumped it all in Dimitri's head, while making Dimitri think that HE was the mastermind. All so he could build his giant mecha while Dimitri was busy playing with Layton.

But why did Dimitri agree to that when he could've easily accomplished his goal of getting Layton's memories by doing something that wasn't flagrantly ridiculous?

Because he was completely deluded by his position. Claus could go ahead and say "We'll let them swim a bit through the Thames now and have them collect 3 frogs."
and Dimitri would say "OF COURSE!" And, if you'd ask me, Dimitri did have a knack for doing things the flamboyant way. Case in point, DAT PICROSS MAP. I loved that.

edited 13th Jan '11 9:11:35 AM by Ralphrius

In that case, new question: why did Clive/Claus suggest such a ridiculous plan to start with?

In the end, you can probably expect me to answer it all with "Because it's Layton, logic need not apply."

But let me try. Because he needed the scientists for developing his mecha. It's been a while since I played it, but he needed the scientists for that mecha, and he needed Dimitri's cooperation to keep them in check, so... ... Okay, dammit, it's been too long, so I can't really figure out why. It's Layton, logic need not apply.

I know why Clive/Claus suggested the plan in general. It was just the ridiculous "trick Layton into thinking Dimitri is an evil future version of himself who has become a gangster" part of the plan that I didn't understand.

And yeah, you're right that logic generally is a bit lacking in the Laytonverse, but...how ironic is that? The games are all about using logic to solve puzzles, but they never bother to use any logic in their own plots.

Also, "Clive inherited a lot of money". Enough money to build A GIANT SUBTERRANEAN CITY with no-one noticing? REALLY!?

Okay, I'll go and try to calm down now.

edited 13th Jan '11 9:25:32 AM by Idler20

We should really know better than to play Layton games for the plot by now, though :/

Actually, as ridiculous as this is to admit, the plot and atmosphere is one of the main reasons I do play them. I actually get frustrated with the puzzles very easily.

Me too, but with Unwound Future, I ACTUALLY went to play it thinking "Oooh, what incredibly ridiculous plot twist will THIS ONE have? Is the FUTURE gonna be fake or something?

- later -

I TOTALLY CALLED IT! :D

I think Unwound Future is the only story that I've ever encountered that makes less sense for not having time travel in it. I just think it smacks of Mandatory Twist Ending: they felt that they had to shoe in a plot twist, even one that made no sense whatsoever. That's especially evident when you look at the fact that once the twist is revealed, there isn't even a cursory attempt to explain all the stuff that the twist renders nonsensical. It's like they accidentally spliced two stories together.