Post by: NdIGiTy on October 23, 2012, 11:21:44 AM
The real puzzle is why it took so long.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/32212
Staring down a heap of puzzles is a new experience for me—the last matchstick puzzle I bested was a barside distraction in Hotel Dusk.
So it's with some hesitance that I enter the Professor Layton series with the latest entry (and the first on 3DS), Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.
I've meant to jump into the steady stream of Layton games since the beginning (2008's Professor Layton and the Curious Village). I don't know what went wrong, but here we are, over four years later, with me not having touched a single one.
I actually thought last year's Last Specter would break the streak: in addition to the standard Layton package, it included Layton's London Life, a simple, Animal Crossing-esque RPG with a Mother 3 aesthetic, co-developed by Brownie Brown. It seemed like a whole lot of a good thing. Perhaps too much, as it turned out—I never found the time for it, and so the Layton train rumbled by for yet another year. But now I'm making amends, and jumping on with Miracle Mask.
I'm excited, but do I have reason to worry as I finally break into the series? In all likelihood, no. I think I'm shrewd enough to unwind even the hottest riddle the game will throw at me.
But suppose it's the most aggressive Layton yet—maybe they've rounded the corner from innocent cleverness into pure bastardry? Let's look at the progression. It began, innocently enough, with just "curious," and a village, but accelerated into "diabolical," started unwinding the future, dealt with ghosts, and now messes with miracles. How will I fare? Only time—and maybe some hint coins—will tell.
Lend me your wisdom, Professor.
Post by: NWR_Neal on October 23, 2012, 11:32:25 AM
At this point, barring a bomb of a game, if you like Layton, you're going to keep getting them. It's more important to see how lapsed Layton players or fresh meat react to the game. I'm sure we'll have a Connectivity segment where Patrick and I just convulse and take a week off because we're so glad to have another entry in the series.
Post by: leahsdad on October 23, 2012, 06:01:22 PM
You will love the game, and you should really consider going back and playing the other games in the series. The stories are entertainingly ludicrous despite being formulaic (i.e. crazy premise is twisted, and fully explained in a satisfying way, by an unbelievably and exponentially even crazier ending). But probably my favorite aspect of the series is that each game is, basically, puzzle pornography.
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on October 23, 2012, 06:57:53 PM
I was pretty late to the Layton party myself. I played through what I guess might be called the first Layton Trilogy (i.e. Curious Village, Pandora's Box, Lost Future) in the space of 6 months in 2011. I really enjoyed the games but also was a little burnt out by them (which is understandable given the nature in which I burnt through them).
I'm looking forward to playing The Last Spectre, but am not quite ready to go back to the series. Lost Future was kind of a mind f***, but in the best way possible.
Post by: Ras on October 24, 2012, 03:00:56 AM
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on October 24, 2012, 03:25:56 AM
Post by: ymeegod on October 24, 2012, 03:33:12 AM
What pisses me off is the few questions that get lost in translation, so in other words--broken questions where you have the right answer yet the game continues to tell you differently. There's always 2-3 of these (out of a 100+ puzzles) that drive me nuts.
Post by: leahsdad on October 24, 2012, 05:46:12 PM
I'm looking forward to playing The Last Spectre, but am not quite ready to go back to the series. Lost Future was kind of a mind f***, but in the best way possible.
OMG. Lost/Unwound Future was AMAZING. Definitely the absolute best of the original trilogy. The quality of the puzzles was much better in that one---no stupid little "Oh, there's a picture hidden in this painting, circle it!" bull-crap. And no more matchstick puzzles!
And the story is great. For those who haven't played it, basically, the premise is that Layton gets a letter from Luke 10 years in the future about needing help to save future London. Sound pretty crazy and implausible? The actual ending is so much crazier, it can only be expressed and quantified in scientific notation.
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on October 25, 2012, 01:27:15 AM
For me though, I still think Curious Village is my favourite in the trilogy. That perhaps has more to do with how I approached the games than it does with their relative qualities though. By the time I got to Lost Future I think the law of diminishing returns had kicked in. The series was very much a known quantity to me by that point, so for all of Lost Future's storyline twists, I had become somewhat desensitized to Layton's particular brand of crazy. I knew there had to be a silly explanation for Future London, and that it would likely come out of nowhere, and that's exactly what happened.
Looked at objectively, yes Lost Future is the best of the three, but it wouldn't be my favourite. Curious Village was a delightful surprise while Lost Future was an expected refinement.
Post by: King Bowser Koopa on October 27, 2012, 09:59:33 AM
Sure - play this, but try to hunt down the others and finish them. These aren't Mario games where you can instantly assume "Bowser's kidnapped Peach, various levels to complete before she's rescued. Mushrooms will be eaten along the way".
The Layton games are small pieces of a continuing saga overall and there will be times when events or characters are mentioned and you'll be confused if you haven't played the others.
Post by: Mop it up on October 27, 2012, 01:48:11 PM
