Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

[Talon87]

... came out today in North America. 8O How did this slip past my radar? I've been waiting for this game since before Game 2 came out in North America last year. To the store!! Time to verify the game's release! (Note: CNN writes that it isn't out until tomorrow, but Wiki says it came out on September 12 ... which is today.)

trailer (Japan release, Jpns) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjpdZmGyHMc)
trailer (Japan release, Jpns w/ decent English translation) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ED_EJwJR4)
trailer (North America release, English) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYRxOEwKXAk)

I am stoked. :D Big fan of the first two games' stories, cannot wait to meet Claire and find out what hers and Layton's backstory is in full.

[Doppleganger]

I've heard a lot about this franchise, due sadly in part to a most aggravating poster called Inspector Chelmey on Forumwarz.

Now I'm confused. Is the game Japanese? I was always under the impression it was English-developed. Is the series one of adventure games like the titles produced by LucasArts of old?

[Talon87]

The games are of Japanese origin. The main characters are English.

The English language localizations are very popular in part because they feature Layton, an Englishman, speaking in English rather than in Japanese or in some other language.

The games are not like LucasArts' adventure games. Both are adventure games, I suppose, but one does not make me think of the other.

Trailer for Game #1 (English-language vers.) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZOAqRdDBU)
some gameplay (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnflujF2vzs) (sorry for annoying voiceovers, but every video on Youtube which shows some gameplay has them. I screened for the least annoying I could find, and this was it. :cry: )

For more information, check out the thread I wrote a few years back on Game 1. (http://forums.upnetwork.net/showthread.php?t=713)

[Talon87]

You can find gameplay samples on the official site here: http://professorlaytonds.com/curiousvillage/

Go to "Gameplay" and scroll over to the 3rd and 4th bullets. The videos are very tiny resolution but you should be able to tell what the gameplay looks like from them. (It's all in real-time, or so I believe from what I saw whilst skipping about.)

[ZoraJolteon]

>my ears when Luke's American voice.
ragejosie.png

[Copygoo]

Can't believe I missed this. Will certaintly buy it very soon, love the games. I hope Flora plays a bigger role in this game though.

[Talon87]

So how's the game? GREAT. :D

If you loved the first game, and if you felt disappointed by the quality of the puzzles and of the story in the second game, then you may be like me. And if you're anything like me, then you will love the new game. Unlike in Game 2, the puzzles feel very fresh. Also unlike in Game 2, I have yet to see more than two of the same puzzle in the game and I'm already a decent way in. (8 of the 10 mysteries have been identified and 6 of the 10 have been solved.)

But the biggest pleasure, undoubtedly, has been the story. While any story dealing with time travel is subject to nerdy scrutiny about temporal paradoxes and the like, getting over that is fairly easy when the presentation is an absolute treat. I don't want to spoil too many details, but suffice to say that after the events of Game 2, Layton is more than a little skeptical about the claims that he's in the London of ten years from now; and it's an absolute treat as a reader-player to watch that mystery unfold. Superficially, you know you're in Future London. But having been through Game 2, you keep saying to yourself, "Are we, though? Are we really?" And it's just sheer suspense, progressing from one clue to the next, trying to figure this mystery out.

Best moment so far: definitely, hands down, the scene where Layton sees Claire for the first time in years, freezes, Luke calls out to him, Layton is unresposive, and then suddenly Layton's mind takes him back to the night he almost proposed to Claire. Or at least, that's what I took the scene to mean -- it was intentionally vague, so it's open to interpretation. Anyway, that scene had me fangirl squealing for a good bit. I'm a sucker for this stuff. And it was such a touching scene. Especially since ... well, that'd be saying too much. :oops:

[Blastoise]

So how's the game? GREAT. :D

If you loved the first game, and if you felt disappointed by the quality of the puzzles and of the story in the second game, then you may be like me.

Meh, the stories have always been the weakest part of the Layton games IMO, because they quickly veer wildly into "fucking stupid" territory.

Game 1:
VILLAGE FULL OF ROBOT VILLAGERS, LOL

Game 2:
HALLUCINOGENIC GAS, LOL

...yeah. The plots in general (if we overlook the gamey "no one will help me unless I do their math homework" stuff) don't jive with the sober, logical thought the games demand of you.

[Talon87]

I thought Plot 1 was good. R____ v____gers was neat imo. Particularly for the implications it had for Flora's childhood and view of the world and the impact Layton's taking her back home with him and Luke would have on her.

Plot 2, I agree, was "Dull ... dull ... dull ... okay, looks like it's about to get goo-- WHAT THE FUCK. D:" But I don't get angry about it like some people I know. Like my friend irl, who was downright pissed off and now refuses to touch Layton 3 because of it. Honestly, I'm more upset with the fact that we spend the first 75% of the game outside the main city than I am upset with the h________ g__.

But anyway, so far Game 3's story has put the other two to shame. It's real fun. It's just as mysterious as Game 1, maybe a little more so, but it feeds you 10x the substantive clues that Game 2 did. It has a lot of throwback references to events in the first two games, i.e. fun cute fanservice moments. It's just been a blast.

I know you may think it strange, but I'm by no means the only person who prioritizes the story of the Layton games over the puzzle-solving. There is a reason, after all, for the creation of Layton films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Layton_and_the_Eternal_Diva). Obviously there's a market for it, or so they believe.

I enjoy the puzzles, don't get me wrong. But it's the story that made Game 1 an A-rank game for me, not the puzzles; it was the promise of a good story that got me to insta-buy Game 2 (sigh, letdown); and it was the hope for a good story that got me to buy Game 3 (success! :D).

[Talon87]

9 and a half hours in. (Where I am = exiting Chinatown, heading for the Thames again.)

Many of the puzzles this time around are easier than what we found in the previous two games; but they're honestly much more fun to do. They don't feel tedious. A lot of them are like riddles rather than algebra homework or spatial reasoning, and even the easy ones (e.g. "If a boy is the 8th child of ten, [lots of red herring math], what is the gender of the 3rd youngest child?") are still amusing. So far, I've only seen one "get the ball out of the box by moving blocks one at a time" puzzle. Thank God. -_-;

The game has boatloads of character development compared with the previous titles. The music is (for the most part) superb. Just a few minor complaints ...

(1) the annoying bee who replaces Granny Riddleton. His speaking bits are really annoying. However, LOL what happens to him once you reach the end of one particular alley in Chinatown!

(2) Flora's English voice actress is different from the first time around. Or so I think. Anyway, whether she is or she isn't, the voice actress is pretty bad. Not as in "I'm a weeaboo, she is inferior to the Japaneez seiyoo" bad, but as in "Man, this woman is getting on my fucking nerves, and it's not her lines that are doin' it! >_>" bad. Disappointing, but not a game-breaking deal.

(3) The music which plays during puzzles in this game is probably the most annoying of the three games'. While the rest of the soundtrack in this game is a pleasure to listen to, the puzzle music makes me turn my DS's volume down to 0 every time.

Small complaints next to all of the great stuff I've enjoyed here so far. :D

[Talon87]

movie I just saw moments ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTvg9NJIosw)
(major spoiler? certainly a spoiler of some size)

Re-watching it, I laughed just as hard as I did when I first saw it. The bit where he runs right off the ledge into the water is priceless. The follow-up bit where both Layton and Claire are like "Huh?" just adds to its hilarity.

I was hoping for a rivalry between the two men which didn't involve Claire, e.g. the Holmes and Moriarty rivalry of "who is Britain's most brilliant mind?", but I saw it coming and it's not bad.

The game's plot details are beginning to be revealed in full focus and so my expectations are starting to be let down ... but only ever so slightly. The game is still way up in the stratosphere compared with the disappointment of Game 2's plot. I just didn't like what they decided in the end to do for this game's main villain's identity and (more importantly) his agenda. After all ...

Three unrelated guys all having a crush on the same girl is just a bit too much. :roll:

Dimitri: I loved her the most! I don't see any of you trying to build a time machine so you can travel back in time to the moment of her death and save her!

Don Paolo: I beg to differ: I loved Claire the most! Hershel stealing her away from me is what turned me evil! Evil, man! I went evil for this girl!

Dimitri: Uh, yeah, well, so did I. What do you call abducting all of these scientists and the Prime Minister? Charity work?

Don Paolo: Well I'm more evil than you are!

Dimitri: Are not.

Don Paolo: Am too!

Dimitri: Are not!

Don Paolo: Am too!

Layton: Uh, you two just had a crush on her without ever asking her out. She was actually my girlfriend. Y'know, for several years? I was even going to propose to her the night before--

Dimitri, Don Paolo: You stay out of this, Layton!


I mean: yeah. It's a bit goddamn absurd. :roll: :lol: Two guys, fine. Three guys, that's way too many. And when only one of them was even ever actually in a serious relationship with her, then hell yeah three is too many.




EDIT: Well, 14 hours in, and I got to the part which follows "LIE". (The mine detection puzzle.) Suffice to say, I was totally wrong about the main villain! LOL
I had no idea it would be that person. I suspected that he would prove to be an accomplice villain given his occasionally ungentlemanly behavior, but to think that he would be the head honcho pulling even Dimitri's strings ... that's just wow. Completely caught by surprise by that one.

Also ... LOOOOOOL NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :lol:
Blast, you were right: the game is the third in the series to have a LOL WUT plot twist. ^^;

However, like Game #1's, I really don't mind this one too much. I can't say I like it (as I did Game #1's), but nor do I dislike it (as I did Game #2's). It's in the middle ground.

Oh well. ^^; Maybe next time we'll finally see the supernatural make its way into the Layton series of games as permanent plot details instead of only temporary ones. hahaha

[Talon87]

I beat the game earlier today. And it definitely wound up being the best Layton to date. :D

Regarding that "LOL NOOO" business from yesterday ... :)
It turns out that there really is time travel in this game after all! :D It's just not all we'd thought it to have been. Claire did in fact travel into the future -- specifically, she traveled ten years into the future on the day of the accident, arriving at our present time. She spent several days/weeks in her future before being pulled back into her original time -- and, moments later, being killed by the blast from the time travel machine she and the other scientists had constructed. Her tearful farewell to Layton occurs right as she's fading from our time and returning to her own, knowing that upon her return she will more or less die instantaneously. It's pretty dramatic.

And it made for one HELL of a sad second-to-last scene! :lol: :cry:

This was my longest Layton playthrough to date. I spent one hour avoiding the final movie sequences, going around town trying to solve puzzles in order to secure the last item I needed for one of the mini-games. If you count that hour, then it took me seventeen hours to beat this game. Otherwise, it took me sixteen hours. This counts all the time I spent playing mini-games in the suitcase, so your results may greatly vary. But for comparison's sake, I think I beat the previous game in under 12 hours and the first game in just under 13. This game felt longer than the other two while I was playing it: and I guess it turns out that it was longer after all!

Level-5 does it once again. :D Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute will be an insta-purchase for me, just like this game was and the game before it. I can't wait.

[Copygoo]

I finally received my copy, and I've just entered the clock shop. Loved what happens to Stachen, and the rest of the game is great too.