Video Game / Professor Layton and the Last Specter

aka: Professor Layton And The Spectres Call

Known as Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call in the UK and Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute in Japan, this is the fourth game in the quirky Professor Layton series, and the first in the prequel trilogy.

Layton is called by Clark Triton, Luke's father, to investigate the mysterious specter that appears every night in Misthallery. After reaching the city shrouded in mist, Layton finds out that many mysteries hide the truth of the city and its inhabitants...

It was followed by Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. There's also an animated feature set between those two, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. It was feared that the game was never going to be released overseas, but it was eventually released in October 2011.

Please place series-spanning tropes on the main Professor Layton page, and London Life-specific tropes in its designated folder.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter provides examples of:

A-L

• 100% Completion: Throughout the game you will build a "collection", little odds and ends you acquire by accomplishing puzzles or just clicking on random hiding places, in a manner reminiscent of the previous games' Gotta Catch 'Em All minigames. The difference here is that completing your collection of more than 20 items achieves absolutely nothing... except this trope.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The city has pipes and water all over the place that are connected in long networks of pipes that are seen sticking out from the edges of the street. There's a Black Market right below the market area that is accessible through the sewers.
• Action Girl: Emmy Altava. She'll roundhouse kick criminals back to last week and can leap from rooftop to rooftop to chase after the Black Raven.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: This hilarious exchange when you examine the floor at the Third Ridge:
  Emmy: I stepped on a nut!
  Luke: I stepped on a bolt!
  Professor Layton: Oh dear. I seem to have stepped on a hexagonal spanner.
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed. Evan Barde, Arianna and Tony's father, was kind and loving to his children; however, he seems to have earned the ire of many residents of Misthallery by charging them exorbitant rates for rent. As a result, when he was killed accidentally in a fall, many of them cheered - causing his distraught daughter to feel tremendous resentment toward them.
• Background Music Override: The climax of the game has, in lieu of the normal puzzle theme, "Theme of the Last Battle" play while you're puzzling the antagonist into submission as well as during the intermittent cutscenes.
• Baker Street Regular: Besides Luke, the Black Ravens become valuable assistants to Layton, rather similar to the Trope Namer.
• Benevolent Boss: The leader of the Black Ravens, Crow, is this. Bonus points for all of them being children running a black market.
• Big Bad: The mastermind behind the town’s invading specter, Jean Descole, who is disguising as Luke's butler after capturing the real one.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted with Tony, who is very protective of his older sister. He spreads the rumors of the 'calamity witch' by painting a 'witch's mark' on the homes of anyone who speaks ill of Arianna. The homes bearing the mark are then destroyed. This leads the people to believe that speaking ill of the 'calamity witch' will bring ruin upon them. Of course, it also leads Arianna herself to believe that she really is a witch.
• Bittersweet Ending: Though the main characters find the Golden Garden, which eventually cures Arianna of her sickness, they reach it at the cost of Loosha's life. Considering Tony and Loosha had been her only friends for nearly a year when everyone, including Arianna herself, thought she was a witch, it's more than a little heartbreaking to see Arianna begging Loosha not to go.
• Black Market: What's so special about this one is that is being run by children and not adults, and is hidden below the sewers.
• Block Puzzle: The final puzzle of the game is a two-part Marathon Puzzle in which the goal is to get two blocks into two corners. Do it once, and Layton points out that the player isn't done yet, and the player is taken to a second puzzle to do it again, with no breaks and no extra hints. Altogether, under the best circumstances, the whole puzzle will take at minimum 178 moves to complete, but unless one looks at a guide, it will take more. Hope you didn't make any plans tonight, or you feel like keeping one DS plugged in and unable to play anything else until you finish it.
• Bookworm: Olga, the librarian of the city, is so obsessed with them that she dreams of having a house stacked to the roof with books.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Compared to prior games which featured each a very challenging final puzzle, Last Specter makes it even worse by making the final puzzle two slide puzzles in one, with absolutely no hints for the downright evil second puzzle.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Heroic variant; Layton doesn't remember coming to Emmy's rescue when she was falsely accused of pickpocketing, but she was so impressed by his gentlemanly heroism that she decided to become his assistant.
• The Butler Did It: It turns out that Luke's loyal butler is the mastermind behind the specter and its attacks. But it quickly gets subverted once it's revealed said butler is Descole in disguise, having imprisoned the real one and Luke's mother in the wine room.
• Call-Back:
  • The last unlocked episode includes a reference to the accident that killed Claire in the backstory of Unwound Future.
  • One of the papers you can investigate in Scotland Yard contains a picture of Prime Minister Bill Hawkes. Emmy comments that she doesn't like him all that much.
  • In the cutscene where Loosha and the kids break open the floodgates, you hear the title screen theme from Diabolical Box!
• Catchphrase:
  • Whenever someone comments that Bucky getting a boat to where they are seems implausible/unfeasible/whatever:
    Bucky: The word [X] isn't in Bucky's dictionary, and shouldn't be in yours, either!
  • "That's Goosey!"
• Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: At the end of the game, Luke catches Professor Layton's sleeve, complete with Hidden Eyes, and asks Layton to take him along as his apprentice.
• Chekhov's Gun: You can check up the steam car factory and learn about some of its background very early on, but its importance to the storyline is only made clear later.
• The Chessmaster: Descole is the one behind the specter rampaging the city's streets at night.

• Combining Mecha: Descole's digging machines combine to form one large machine which serves as the final boss.
• Conveniently Empty Buildings: Thanks to Luke getting messages out to the townspeople through Doland, no one is injured. But it turns out that Luke wasn't always right, and 'Doland' evacuated the people to prevent them from realizing the specter's identity.

• Cool Train: The train toy you get from Bucky is just like the car mini-game in Unwound Future.
• Cover Drop: That golden pattern on the title screen is pretty cool-looking, I guess... Wait, hold on, it's the entrance to the Golden Garden and the final story puzzle!
• Creepy Child: Upon meeting Arianna face to face, she's got a dark shade over her eyes that points out her status as the city's resident witch girl. The dark shade goes away once she finds out she isn't a witch.
• Cross-Dressing Voice: The Bardes' old gardener sure does have a rather feminine voice for his age... It's then justified after Tony takes off the costume.
• Cute Kitten: Granny Riddleton's cat Keats, who happens to keep all the puzzles you skipped or couldn't find between chapters.
• Cute Witch: Arianna, known as 'the calamity witch' by the townspeople. At least she thinks the "witch" part applies.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Compared to the other chapters where Professor Layton is the main character, Chapter 6 has you controlling Emmy, who has gone to London to retrieve some information. You later switch back to Luke and Layton to see what they're doing while Emmy is in London.
  • The episodes that are unlocked show little scenes involving daily characters during, before, and after the main story takes place. If you get all the puzzles you get the last one which reveals Chelmey's past and why he's so dedicated to his job. This is also the only way of seeing how Emmy and Layton met.
• Distant Finale: Only in the form of an art piece, but once you solve all the puzzles, you get a picture of the game's cast members in the time of the first trilogy. Luke is in his first trilogy clothes. Flora can be seen in the background, talking to Luke's parents. Arianna and Tony are noticeably older.

• The End of the World as We Know It: Luke has prophetic visions that correspond to the specter's arrival. In reality, he actually has been keeping tabs on the water levels of the canal, gets advice from adorable little mouse friends, and his thinking of Armagedddon stems from the old legends of the specter. In truth, he didn't have to be so melodramatic about it.
• Expy: Jakes's son slightly resembles Homer Simpson, except a bit fatter...

• Fangirl: Hanna is one for Inspector Groskey. An episode shows that she was completely upset about where her life was going to until Groskey came in attacking a local thug; cue Love at First Sight.

• Fish out of Water: Literally speaking; the fish you own is this game's method of finding hidden coins. It will tell you by defying the laws of physics and splashing in midair over the place where a coin is hiding.
• Foreshadowing:
  • If you enter the building under the arch long after it has been destroyed in Highyard Hill, you'll met a woman named Naiya. When you talk to her, she mentions an opera house built over the sea. Professor Layton comments he would like to go to a place like that someday.
  • In a sort of retroactive (unless you hacked the game or live in Europe) foreshadowing, the Hidden Door in this game that opens with a password from Miracle Mask includes concept art for Eternal Diva.
  • One of the villagers mentions that 'kids run wild in this town'. They run a black market.
• Forging the Will: Chief Constable Levin 'Third Eye' Jakes changes the will of Mr Barde (the primary landowner of the town) to leave the majority of Misthallery to Mayor Triton, Barde's only friend, as part of Jakes' plan with Descole to become Mayor and find the Golden Garden.
• Forgotten First Meeting: The day that The Professor saved Emmy from going to jail caused enough of an impact on her that she trained to become his apprentice years later, but for the Professor, it was Tuesday. Apparently, she doesn't mind if he doesn't remember, she just happy to be going on an adventure with him.
• Get on the Boat: Bucky is an avid boat owner that takes you anywhere in Misthallery that's close to a river. It's Fridge Logic once you realize his services extend to the old bridges to the town and market that are clearly not very close to the river down below. Lampshaded when Layton and Emmy comment on how unlikely each new location is.
• Good Morning, Crono: In the opening cutscene of the game, Layton is shown sleeping on the couch until Rosa wakes him up.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: All right, Arianna, let's hear the truth about what's going o- wait a minute, why is there a dinosaur in your lake?!
• Hand Wave: How does Bucky get his boats though narrow canals, up cliff faces, and through roads? Please, Bucky doesn't know the meaning of the word infeasible.

• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Loosha basically kills herself breaking down the dam to reveal the Golden Garden, so that Arianna can use it to cure her illness.
  • In the episode "I, Of the Yard", Inspector Gilbert took a bullet for Constable Chelmey when the latter rushed ahead during a crime chase.
• How We Got Here: The beginning explains how Emmy, Layton and Luke are waiting for the specter, and then flashbacks to how they got there, and then continues onto the plot thereafter.
• Humongous Mecha: The excavation robots all join together to make a big one for Descole to use to destroy the city.
• I Have Your Wife: The source of poor Clark Triton's grief through much of the game, thanks to Descole.

• Ineffectual Loner: Once he starts to see his father's strange behavior and develop suspicions about his mother's "vacation," Luke shuts himself in his room for most days during the start of the game. Once he teams up with Layton, though, Luke plays a role in finding the truth.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: A surprisingly spoiler-free AND murder-free version occurs when Layton and co. are looking for some medals with certain parts of a raven on them. One of the kids you confront says "We don't know anything about a medal with a raven's tail on it!" To which Layton replies "I never said anything about a tail."
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Misthallery's police force has multiple officers named Chippe, who all look alike. Apparently, only some of them are related to each other, and while Jakes can't tell them apart from each other, the rest of the townsfolk can.
• Kill It with Water: Loosha uses this to stop Descole's machine after it gets back up to its feet.
• Latex Perfection: The scene in which Descole unveils his disguise is actually a cutscene, but staged in such a way that the viewer can't see how the disguise could have been applied. At least some must be curious about the matter, since Descole and Doland have completely different body types.
• Laughing Mad: Jakes pulls this out rather fast after meeting him. Also Brock, who you meet early-game after his house blows up.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Goosey has a strange hobby of hiding around Misthallery. Just like Hazel in Unwound Future, Goosey likes to hide beyond the side of your DS.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: At one point, Emmy heads back to London on her own to gather some important documents for Layton (and solves several puzzles along the way). After her segment, the game goes back to focus on what Layton and Luke accomplished during her absence.
• Lighter and Softer: The game is significantly less dark than the third, partly because it's a prequel and its events don't raise the stakes as much as its direct predecessor. It has still some violence, especially during the Spectre's scenes.
• Long Song, Short Scene: Descole's Theme is one of the most popular songs in the series, with a breathtaking orchestral version used in the release trailer in lieu of the game's official theme. However, it's used in exactly one short conversation, which segues into the next cutscene so quickly most will only hear the first third of it. Fortunately, it sees plenty of usage in Eternal Diva.
• Loves Me Not: One of the puzzles involves a young man who bought three flowers from a florist to predict with: one for the standard question, one for happy or unhappy, and one for the gift to give his sweetheart. Your job is to pick the set of flowers that give the best result for him. The prediction for the gift is to buy her a bouquet. The puzzle solution notes: "It seems reasonable that a florist would want the man to buy another bouquet right?"

M-Z

• MacGuffin: The Specter's Flute (an ocarina). It doubles up as a Memento MacGuffin that Arianna's father left behind after getting it from the Black Market.
• Magic Music: The Specter's Flute is said to call the specter to protect the city. However, seeing as how said specter is destroying the city it's supposed to protect, the music is deadly. This stills holds true, somewhat. The music helps to calm Loosha so that she doesn't go to fight the "specter" everyone is so afraid of.
• Marathon Level: Puzzle 170 is two sliding block puzzles in one. Sliding block puzzles in general take a while, and both of these involve moving not one but two blocks to two goals. There is no intermission between the two, either, and there are no hints for the second half. Furthermore, both of these would alone be the two most difficult puzzles in the series separately.
• Metapuzzle: The minigame Puppet Theater consists of a theatrical event where a puppet has to perform actions and gestures that are consistent with the events and situations of the story that is being narrated. These actions, in turn, are available for use by solving several puzzles located across London and Misthallery, so it's recommended to solve them in order to have a greater selection of actions before playing the minigame. Afterwards, the player has to figure out which action corresponds to each event over the course of the story and its chapters; this is important because the puppet's performance has to receive a perfectly positive review in order to win the minigame as a whole.
• Missing Mom: Clark tells Luke, and anyone else who asks, that his wife Brenda went out of the city, but Luke suspects she left Clark because she went away without telling him where she actually went. The whole time, she is being held captive beneath the wine room with the family's real butler.
• Must Have Caffeine: Emmy starts slow in the mornings:
  Unnhh... braaaaains... Or at least some tea, please.
• Nostalgia Level: After debuting in the series with Unwound Future, Scotland Yard makes a return in this game (since it's a prequel to the original trilogy, this marks the location's first chronological appearance).
• Obviously Evil: Third Eye Jakes. If the exclusive Laughing Mad scene after meeting him didn't give it away...
• Obfuscating Disability: The apparently deaf Clarence.
  Of course I hear you, woman! I'm deliberately obtuse, not deaf!
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Jakes does this to Arianna when he "arrests" her as the supposed mastermind behind the Specter's rampages throughout the town, which makes it even more obvious that this is essentially a kidnapping, not a sincere effort at upholding the law.
• Perfect Play A.I.: Some of the puzzles feature an opponent, and they will always make the ideal move in their circumstances. It's up to you to make the right moves so that they can be defeated.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • After you finish your business in London, despite never needing to return for plot-related reasons, you can go back there via car to get any puzzles you missed, so the trope's actually averted here.
  • Played straight with hint coins; after the first hotel room gets destroyed, you can no longer return for them if you didn't pick them up the first time around.
• The Pollyanna: Even after his house was completely demolished by the specter, Brock takes a positive attitude to it... a bit too positive.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Luke freezes up a bit (and blushes like crazy) when Arianna gives him a good-bye kiss on the cheek.
• Pulling Themselves Together: During the final battle, Layton, Luke, and Emmy manage to deactivate Descole's Combining Mecha and smash it to pieces. Unfortunately, it effortlessly reassembles itself immediately afterward, forcing Loosha to resort to Kill It with Water.
• Puzzle Boss: Descole's mecha is fought by solving 6 puzzles while Background Music Override is in place instead of the usual puzzle theme.
• Race Against the Clock: Jakes gives Layton and Emmy 24 hours to pack up and leave town, then sends some goons to "encourage" them to hurry it up almost immediately afterward. Fortunately, Emmy is more than capable enough to fend them off. He then has them arrested at the next specter attack.
• Red Herring: Luke's door puzzle features numbers from 1 to 7 on various things around his door. The correct answer is to do nothing, and he admits to putting them there to see whether Layton would be fooled.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: The Black Raven pulls this off while being chased through the marketplace alleys, much to Layton's consternation. Justified, as it's later revealed that there were multiple Black Ravens present.
• Shout-Out:
  • The old lady selling candy right outside the market is appropriately named Aunt Taffy.
  • Emmy pointing out a (step)ladder, calling it a ladder. It's a shame there's no one to argue it with.
  • The Black Ravens are an obvious reference to The Thief Lord. The Black Raven even wears a similar mask!
  • That flute looks rather familiar as well... ^note When compared to Saria's Ocarina, not the actual Ocarina of Time itself. It is explicitly called an ocarina in the English translation.
  • The boxes that pop out when you find a collection looks like "?" boxes.
  • There's a character named Mido who's obsessed with nature and the color green...
  • Emmy questions why Luke has a mouse in his pocket, and says that his ability to understand animals sounds like something out of an insane asylum.
• Smug Snake: Jakes. Even the Big Bad calls him an "ugly, little man" and a "small-minded dullard" during the climax.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Barde was never very popular, and when he died the townspeople had no problem with commenting on how he had it coming, right in front of his body - and his grieving daughter. Small wonder Arianna became a recluse after that.
• Spider Tank: The villain run a factory that makes these. The finale involves defeating one.
• Stock Ness Monster: Loosha hides in the lake next to the mansion, but the difference is that some people know of its existence. It looks like a big sea lion, though.
• Street Smart: The children populating the market. It's exaggerated once Layton finds out they also run a Black Market.
• Stealth Pun: All but one of the regular police in Misthallery look alike and are named Chippe. The one who isn't? He's called Fische. Fish and Chips, get it?
• Strong Family Resemblance: Turns out Arianna and Tony's father looked a hell lot like Tony. Although you can see him during the party (he's seen talking to Clark) in the flashback when Arianna meets Luke, there's no indication of his identity. You can only connect two and two together in the credits.
• Supreme Chef: A scene played in the credits shows Layton and Rosa complimenting Emmy's superb cooking.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: is a prequel, and therefore set before Layton meets Inspector Chelmey or Don Paolo. So there's a different Scotland Yard inspector and deranged supervillain.
• Sweet Tooth: All the kids in the marketplace LOVE Aunt Taffy's sweets (and Emmy wants to love them, if only Taffy would let her buy some). It's a very important hint regarding the Black Raven's identity. Well, a mistake on Tweeds' part.
• Tareme Eyes: Arianna switches between this type of eyes and Tsurime Eyes depending on her mood.
• Third-Person Person:
  • Wherever you need to go in Misthallery, "Bucky's there!"
  • "That's Goosey!"
• Unexpected Inheritance: For some unknown reason, Barde bequeathed ownership of Misthallery not to his children, but to Clark. Subverted; Descole had Jakes alter the will as part of his master plan.
• Unlockable Content: The bonus game Professor Layton's London Life, which is only available after the main game is completed. It has no connection to the main game; it's a sprite-animation style sim game which features characters from all of the games which existed to that point. It's not available in Europe.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Arianna, before her father's death. When she heard the townspeople muttering about how glad they were to be rid of him and how he deserved what he got, she developed a powerful resentment and isolated herself on the family estate.
• Unwitting Pawn: Clark's adoration for his family is exploited by Descole and his cronies, and so he remains silent to prevent the bad guys from hurting his family on the spot.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Closed Factory is the main facility where the Big Bad creates Spider Tanks, and the climax has Layton confronting one of them.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Repeatedly examining the candles near Arianna's room gives us this:
  Luke: Ouch! That's hot!
  Luke: These are really hot!
  Luke: Hot! Hot! Hot!
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once you beat Descole in the final battle, he declares that this isn't over, leaps off the mech... and supposedly scurries away. While Layton and the others are staring maybe a few feet away.
• Violation of Common Sense: Go right ahead and hit that Plunger Detonator some idiot left lying around at the archaeological dig site. It'll let you find silver ore for your collection!
• Waiting Puzzle: Luke warns you that you can't do anything to solve his puzzle. The trick is he means it literally; don't do anything.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Luke and Arianna, although both tend to overreact to unfamiliar situations like most kids their age.

---

Packaged in with some (though sadly, not all) versions of the game is a bonus role-playing game called Professor Layton's London Life. You take on the role of a resident of Little London, which is entirely populated by sprite versions of characters from all of the existing Layton games. As you dwell amongst the characters, you are assigned small quests, usually in the form of acquiring a specific item for a specific individual or delivering a message from one character to another. Certain of these quests make up a storyline, which must be completed to win the game, involving Professor Layton, Luke, Flora, Inspector Chelmey, Don Paolo, and a strange mystic artifact which may or may not have something to do with fairies and/or The End of the World as We Know It.

Tropes appearing in London Life

Professor Layton's London Life provides examples of:

• 20 Bear Asses: Several quests, usually those involving fishing or flower picking.
• Abhorrent Admirer: If the player gives him a Love Potion (as required by one quest), Gordon will come on to the player, regardless of gender. Likewise, regardless of gender, the player can expect their avatar's happiness to be cut in half.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • The town's called "Little London" in the NA localization. There are also references to the "Tiny Thames," "Reduced Rome," and "Big Britain."
  • The three buildings in which your avatar can live are "Humble Homes," "Darling Dwellings," and "Royal Residences."
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Fulfilling some of the quests assigned to you by other characters in Little London will earn you articles of clothing your sprite can wear.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Fulfilling some of the quests assigned to you by other characters in Little London will earn you furnishings, draperies, wallpaper, and other accessories for your little domicile.
• As You Know: In the department store, the receptionist explains that the floor numbers follow the English system of the bottom being the "Ground Floor" and the "First Floor" being the next one up; and that this is different from America where the bottom one is the "First Floor". She then wonders why she's telling you this, as everyone in Little London is English anyway. Oddly, she refers to it as an elevator in this speech, rather than a lift. This is especially and cruelly ironic considering that London Life was removed in the EU release, thus making US/JP import of the main game the only way any Brits could actually actually play London Life.
• Backdoor Pilot: London Life is really this to Level-5's Fantasy Life.
• Bag of Holding: The Mini Chests. The woman selling them even lampshades how it doesn't make sense that they can hold objects bigger than themselves.
• Bat Family Crossover: This is the only format in which it's possible to see characters from all of the PL games which existed at the time, and watch them interact with each other too. For instance, the museum curator (from Last Specter) becomes friends with Katia Anderson (from Diabolical Box), and Ingrid (from Curious Village) rents a room to Dr. Stahngun (from Unwound Future).
• Beneath the Earth: Where you must go to fulfill the final quest of the main story.
• Betting Minigame: At the casino, you can play Higher or Lower against Mark in order to earn as much as 32,000 Wealth (based on your luck and how much you bet in the first place).
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Your success is measured in "Happiness" and, to a lesser extent, "Wealth."
• Call-Back: The museum is basically one big giant room full of these to memorable puzzles from the original Layton trilogy.
• Captain Ersatz: Invoked by name in the title of one quest, "Ersatz Krantz." Krantz, the hotel manager, asks you to pay a visit to Mr. Beluga in his place.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Puzzlette, much as she is in the main games where she appears. In particular, see what happens if she should catch you picking flowers.
• Deadpan Snarker: Whoever writes the Little London Times has elements of this. "Demonic voices? Or just Hazel being paranoid? We'll let you decide what's more likely, Dear Reader."
• Dress Code: In the London Life game, your character will not be allowed inside the classier establishments of Little London unless his or her outfit has a sufficient Formality score. The way the system works, you can get away with stuff like wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses in a fancy restaurant just so long as the rest of your outfit is nice enough to make up for it.
• Escort Mission: A handful of quests involve taking a character to a location he or she wants to visit but for one reason or another can't reach alone.
• Extended Gameplay: London Life is a 100-hour RPG. And it's advertised as a bonus feature. Good gravy!
• The Fair Folk: Deke thinks there are fairies in the park. And he just might be right.
• Fake Longevity: Of the 100 promised gameplay hours, most of them are going to be spent working if you want to earn enough wealth to purchase the Golden Gloves, which cost 99,999,999 wealth. And since the gloves serve absolutely no useful purpose, it feels like a bit of a rip-off.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Trying to pick the flowers outside the house where you find Puzzlette is a harmless example:
  "Picking flowers without permission is a crime! It's called... misdemeanor... floral assault... WITH MALICIOUS INTENT!"
• Fetch Quest: Many of the quests given by the townspeople involve collecting and bringing back particular items.
• Fishing Minigame: Resolving some of the quests involves catching specific fish.
• Good Feels Good: Your character's signature trait is the fact that he/she runs around all day doing good things for other characters (in other words, fulfilling the quests). This is given as the exact reason why you are the only one who can save the world.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the main story, Flora and Lady Dahlia are prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to prevent The End of the World as We Know It. Fortunately, Layton figures out what really needs to be done and stops this from happening - with the player's help, of course.
• Hopeless Suitor:
  • Rory spends all day, every day, standing outside the train station waiting for his girlfriend. Occasional quests involve you getting him something to eat since he won't move.
  • Belle, from Unwound Future, for "Fluke".
    "Belle + Fluke 4ever"
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Part of the game's main story.
• An Interior Designer Is You: You can decorate your room according to various themes, such as Cute, Modern, and Elegant. Other characters may be your roommate, but will only stay if the decor is to their liking; different characters prefer different styles.
• Loose Canon: This game throws characters together without regard for the main games' canon. Their personalities remain intact, but, for example, none of the Curious Village characters are robots.
• Love Potion: Granny Riddleton will make one upon completion of a certain quest.
• Luck-Based Mission: Fishing and flower-picking both fall into this. You may find yourself screaming at the game for the amount of Not!fish and hazards that can occur while fishing (such as losing your fish or your line snapping), or for things like getting stung by a bee. If you chose "Child at Heart" for your character trait, it's even worse.
• Money for Nothing: Eventually, you will have much, much more wealth than you can logically spend on anything, except the above-mentioned Golden Gloves.
• Plot Coupon: The Queen's Blood ruby. It's supposedly cursed to boot.
• Rainbow Speak: Most speech appears as white text on a black background. However, if a character speaks to you in red text, your happiness will drop - and the longer their speech, or the more angry they are, the more it will reduce your happiness. Conversely, if a character speaks to you in green text, your happiness will be restored. You have absolutely no control over how they will speak to you, and of course each quest can only be resolved in one way. The most you can do to protect yourself is to avoid speaking to members of the Family except when required to do so by a quest.
• Regional Bonus: Both played slightly straight (for North America and Australia) and inverted (for Europe). Though the game was included with the Japanese version, Professor Layton's London Life required clearing the game to play; it's unlocked from the very start in the North American version. However, the game is completely removed from the European version - even the English-speaking ones, including the people who actually live in London.
• Royal Blood: According to the curse on the Plot Coupon, a female descendant of the royal family will die if it's destroyed. Flora is the daughter of a Baron...
• Rummage Sale Reject: It happens when you're trying to have enough Formality or whatever to get into places or have enough Cool that the Goddamn Bats don't hurt you as much.
• Ship Tease: The game actually hints, very slightly, at the possibility of Luke/Flora. He's genuinely upset when you tell him that he's forgotten to meet her as he promised. Later, when he realizes she's been abducted (as part of the main storyline), he's absolutely outraged and declares that he will make the guilty party "pay dearly, or my name isn't Luke Triton!"
• Shop Fodder: Bruno will buy anything (except items vital to completing the main storyline) that you don't want to keep, including picked flowers and caught fish. Conversely, many of the 'worthless' items he sells - such as the Broken Compass - are actually sought by other characters and form the basis of quests. Laurel, another shopkeeper, won't buy things from you but sells a few other 'worthless' items that you also need to buy for quests.
• Shout-Out:
  Thief! We hates it forever!
• Socialization Bonus: Shipley allows players to trade items through Tag Mode, but more importantly, Segal runs a Social Club that allows the player to see their friends' London Life avatars. Shipley also hints that a special character appears if you interact with the Social Club at least ten times. This is Future Luke, who then takes up residence at the casino.
• The Unreveal: After you fulfill the last quest of the main story, Layton answers all of Luke's questions, except for one. He refuses to explain how he knew that the comet was coming and what needed to be done.