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Old 06-29-2013, 03:05 PM   #1
Talon87
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Layton Brothers: Mystery Room


Layton Brothers: Mystery Room is a mystery game for iOS. Despite being produced by Level-5 and officially being set in the Professor Layton universe, the game is much more similar to a title in the Ace Attorney franchise. It stars Lucy Baker, a recently-hired inspector, and Alfendi Layton, one of the best inspectors on the police force and to whom Lucy is assigned.

The game was just released in English on the Apple App Store on June 27. The (very short) prologue and two regular-length cases are available for free, but the remaining seven cases have to be purchased in two separate DLC packages if you want the full game.

I've only played the prologue and the first case. I can tell you that while the game is cute, I'm not compelled to spend more than a dollar or two tops on unlocking the other cases. And while the asked-for prices are close to that ($2.99 for Cases 3 thru 6 and $1.99 for Cases 7 thru 9), this game just isn't worth $5 to me. Your opinion may differ though.

What does the game have going for it? It's got a very cute atmosphere, for one. Lucy is really adorable, her overblown and eccentric English accent notwithstanding. ^^; And while the crimes in the game can be quite grizzly, the crime scene investigations feel like a fun classroom activity from elementary school.

What does the game have going against it? Well, for one, it's ridiculously easy to solve. I'm not sure how much of that was the game holding my hand on Case 1, and I'm not sure how much of that was the usual "the first case is always the easiest" routine, but after the game challenged me to guess who the culprit was with marginal evidence to work with (and I guessed correctly, it turned out), it then systematically held my hand and one step at a time had me re-examine the crime scene with it, all but spelling out who had done the deed. In this sense, it sort of felt like a mystery on rails rather than, like in Ace Attorney, an actual mystery for you to solve. A second problem I have with this game is just how short it is. Again, I've only played the one case, but I would say that I completed the case roughly 10-15 minutes after I started it. That's ... not very long at all. ^^; If all of the cases are going to be that short, then the money math comes out to $5 per 7 cases times 1 case per 15 minutes, or $2.86 per hour. Put another way ... they want $5 (which is admittedly not that much) but in exchange I'm only getting roughly 90 to 135 minutes of entertainment total. "The price of a movie ticket! " they might complain, and ... sure, I guess when you put it that way, it sounds much fairer, but ... no, I'm still not going to buy the DLC. Sorry. ^^; Finally ... I really don't care for the shoehorned-in connection with the Professor Layton universe. ^^; Alfendi looks nothing like Hershel Layton -- he hardly even looks like he was drawn by the same character designer! -- and so it really annoys me that they're arguing for him being Professor Layton's son. Worse still, the implication that Layton even had a son must either mean that he married (which sets me off for Game 3 reasons) or else that he had a child extramaritally (which is even worse for the good professor). But it isn't just the Hershel-Alfendi connection that bothers me. It's pretty obvious that Mystery Room is just riding on the Professor Layton franchise's coattails. Someone at Level-5 didn't think that the game could succeed on its own so they tacked on the Professor Layton label in the title. It just ... feels so very tacked on. And that's a real turnoff. There are no riddles in the game. There are no hidden coins to locate. There are no mini-games. Did I mention there are no riddles?

Despite the cons I've stated above, I would encourage every single member who has an Apple iPhone or iPad to check this game out. It's free to download and, like I said, the first two cases come free of charge. So you can at least have fun with two short cases for 20-30 minutes and then uninstall the app if you like. That's probably what I'll end up doing myself. But for those of you for whom the game is an iOS gem, I'd hate for you to miss out just because my criticisms drove you away. :x So check it out for yourself, free of charge, and make your own decision about whether the other cases are worth $5 to you or not.

Some additional sample pictures (non-spoiler):

Spoiler: show


This one shows you the image quality you can expect to find as you play the game's non-crime scene portions.



This one shows you what a typical crime scene will look like. The pixelated 3D graphics aren't quite as nice as their 2D illustrated counterparts but they're not terrible either. I'd say they're somewhere above the level you saw in Ace Attorney 1 Case 5 or in Ace Attorney 4 but not too far above. Very much still in that same ballpark, just much less pixelated.
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Old 06-29-2013, 03:35 PM   #2
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Like I stated in the two year old thread, this is one canon I refuse to accept. If he is indeed Layton's son it would break Layton's character in so many ways - why can't he be his brother, or nephew? Why does it have to be his son?

I had zero interest when it was announced and I have even less interest now, especially after reading your post.
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Old 06-29-2013, 03:44 PM   #3
Talon87
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deoxys View Post
Like I stated in the two year old thread
Whoops. Forgot we even had a thread before for this game. Well, it's yours and the staff's call. If you'd like, you can:
a) merge this thread into that one
b) leave both threads be since this one has the more fleshed out OP post

It is pretty funny to re-read my comments in that thread though and to see how many of the complaints voiced there returned in this latest post of mine here. I think I was even harsher there than I was here, damn.

Quote:
Originally Posted by deoxys View Post
this is one canon I refuse to accept. If he is indeed Layton's son it would break Layton's character in so many ways - why can't he be his brother, or nephew? Why does it have to be his son?
Yeah, I agree that the nephew angle would have worked best. (Not a big fan of the brother angle myself simply because it mutates Layton into the Mario of crimesolving now accompanied by his brother, Luigi Layton.) The son angle's about the worst angle they could have taken this in given how much it craps all over Luke and Claire.
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Old 06-29-2013, 04:49 PM   #4
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Nah, leave this thread. The other one was bunk and pretty lame compared to the layout and effort you put into this one and is best just forgotten.

> given how much it craps all over Luke and Claire.

And (Curious Village spoilers)

Spoiler: show
Flora. Flora is Layton's adopted daughter and was his protege until this shitstabber came into view. I would have possibly been accepting of the game if it were either Flora or Luke all grown up and taking over for the Professor themselves. Actually, I would have probably loved that.


This no name character completely ruins the story of Hershel and Claire. Ugh. I hate this. I could write a stern letter of disgust to Level-5...
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Old 06-30-2013, 12:03 AM   #5
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So, I just got this game for my iPhone but I have yet to play it. Even if I also don't agree with the "Layton's son" bit, I had to get the game because it still is Layton after all. *sigh*

The lack of riddles displeases me greatly :[
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Old 06-30-2013, 12:29 AM   #6
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I should offer a correction on what I said above. (I'll edit the post some time later.)

I think the first case must have taken me at least 30 to 40 minutes, possibly even longer than that. And the reason for this suspicion is that after I beat Case 2, I noticed that my total time logged playing was a few minutes over 2 hours. The second case definitely felt longer, but it didn't feel at the time like I'd been playing it for more than one hour. Not really sure how long I spent on either case, but regardless, it seems doubtful that I completed Case 1 in only 15 minutes.

If you assume the average case lasts one hour, then that's nine hours of gameplay, two of which are free and seven of which they want $5 of yours for. I'm still not inclined to pay for them (and I'll say why in a second), but as far as money arguments go, $5 for 7 hours of entertainment isn't a bad deal provided the entertainment's good.

That's kind of the game's problem for me. The entertainment just isn't there. When I play a Phoenix Wright game, I'm all like "FUCK ... YES " as I start it up. Even the very first one, before I knew much of anything about the series. The same is true for a Professor Layton game. Each experience is really nice. This game ... just really, utterly lacks that. It feels like I'm playing a Flash game. And not even the kind you find on a site like Newgrounds. More like the kind you find on an official site like a pokemon.com or pepsi.com or whatever. Well ... more like somewhere in between the two, if we're being completely fair. Anyway, the point is, it feels like a Flash game.

I think the main reason for this feeling is the ease (or occasional obtuse difficulty) of the game. For 90% of the case, I found Case 2 to be another mystery on rails experience. I wasn't so much solving the mystery as I was jumping through very obvious hoops. For 10% of the case, I was utterly stumped by what the game wanted me to explore and so had to resort to that age-old tactic that no Phoenix Wright fan enjoys having to resort to (yet many a fan is experience with): and that's just systematically clicking through all the available options one at a time until you find the right answer. But that isn't proper mystery solving. That's just brute forcing a solution. (I'll explain below which part stumped me.)

Spoiler: show
When the game asked me to find the true murder weapon towards the end, and it specified "Look for a sharp, pointy object", I was like "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... " And the reason I was like "Uhhhhhhhhhh ..." was because we'd already been told that the knives and the glass shards weren't it, and nothing else in the room looked like it could be sharp. So ... what did I do?

Guess #1: maybe the murder weapon was hidden in the toilet's water chamber? Nope.
Guess #2: maybe it's inside that folded up piece of cardstock? Nope.
Guess #3: uhh ... maybe I'm meant to try the knives again? Nope.
Guess #4: glass again? Nope.

At this point I just gave up and started clicking on everything. When I clicked on the clock, I honestly didn't expect it to work. And when it did work, I was thinking "Oh! She impaled him with the pendulum?" Never in a million years would I have thought that it was the clock's minute hand.

The case ultimately ends though on a really, really sour mystery-on-rails note, no matter how perceptive you were in the rest of the case. And that's because ...

Spoiler: show
... after you're told by Alfendi that it was "of course" the clock's minute hand which was the murder weapon, YOU FIND OUT THAT ALFENDI WAS WRONG AND THAT THE ACTUAL MURDER WEAPON WAS AN ICE KNIFE THIS ENTIRE TIME. What makes it so unappealing is that Alfendi's entire thought process about the true murder weapon unfolds a) at the last second of the case and b) is entirely out of the player's control. But really, the thing that turns me off about it is, WHAT IF SOMEONE HAD ACTUALLY GUESSED THAT IT WAS AN ICE KNIFE TO START WITH? That's a huge failing of the game right there. Someone could've thought, "Oh! I bet the cardstock was used to prepare a knife from ice!" Someone could've thought "Oh! I bet the pasta was a decoy and the boiling water was really used to melt the murder weapon!" But even if they'd thought those things, the game would've told them "WRONG! It was the clock, silly!" only to later tell them "LOL! IT WAS THE ICE KNIFE ALL ALONG! HA HA HA HA!" Fuck you, poorly-written mystery game. Fuck you.

Another thing which really put me off wanting to buy any of the DLC cases is ... well, a (imo) frankly stupid character development with Alfendi. It's a spoiler, so into the spoiler tag it goes.

Spoiler: show
His whole "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" deal is retarded. And making matters worse is that he's supposed to be the son of Hershel Layton. Which means that Hershel turned out this fucked up seed. Hershel raised a boy who would go on to become some sort of sick fuck who has a dark alter ego that secretly loves crime and cheers the criminals on (or so we're told). That's ... just ugh. I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT ALFENDI LAYTON. It's at the point where, like Deo, I outright refuse to accept him as a Layton. To me, he's just a guy who coincidentally shares in common the same surname as the Professor. No relation. To hell with this "I'm his son " bullshit. This entire Jekyll-Hyde crap feels like some garbage storyline I'd expect to find in a B-grade TV series.

The thing is though ... Lucy is still really cute. She's pretty much a gender bent Luke who's about ten years older.



I mean, come on. Lucy is rockin' that hairstyle and cap.

But that's not enough to save the game for me. In the end, I'm glad I played the two cases, sure, but I don't think I'll be paying to play more. If someone else here does though, I hope they find some really great mysteries down the road.
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Old 07-23-2013, 10:23 AM   #7
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Finally opened this app and played through the available cases (still wont buy the rest of it D

I had the same problem with Case 2 Talon xd;

After finishing it all though, I went to the wiki and searched up Alfendi and found out

Spoiler: show
that JEAN DESCOLE IS HIS UNCLE??????????????????????? THAT MAKES LAYTON AND DESCOLE BROTHERS-IN-LAW???? I'm not exactly sure where that particular info comes from so believe what you want but if it's true that's kind of mind-boggling @_@


Anyway, I'll refuse to believe Alfendi and whoever his brother is as Layton's sons canonically so I'll just leave them in some weird alternate dimension thing xd;
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Old 07-23-2013, 10:30 AM   #8
Talon87
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RaygeeDaisy View Post
I had the same problem with Case 2 Talon xd;
With where I got stumped and had to brute force the solution? With my disappointment in how the case ultimately ends (given what that means for perceptive players earlier on)? Or with Alfendi's stupid character development?
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Old 07-23-2013, 10:34 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
With where I got stumped and had to brute force the solution? With my disappointment in how the case ultimately ends (given what that means for perceptive players earlier on)? Or with Alfendi's stupid character development?
The former! I had clicked about half the available choices until BAM! it hit me and I knew where to look.

Man, I didn't see that character development coming xd; It makes me wonder how Layton dealt with Alfendi, if he even raised him at all :s All of this just wants to make me cry ;~;

Lucy Baker is pretty adorbs though, even if her way of speaking is a bit confusing xfd
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Credits to Charm for making this!


Come, my birdies!!!! Mwahahahaha!!!!!!


Thanks Pingu for being so nice and making me this~


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Old 07-23-2013, 10:45 AM   #10
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Regarding your spoiler from the previous post, I just realized the likely connection but it draws on spoiler information of my own. Click if you want to find out and don't plan to ever play more of this game, but don't click if you do plan to play more.

Spoiler: show
I read somewhere that Alfendi isn't Layton's son by blood: Layton adopted Alfendi. That doesn't change the fact that I still don't like it -- that he's supposedly Layton's son despite having turned out so bad -- but I imagine that your spoiler, about the blood link to Jean Descole, is meant to explain that away. The idea is probably this: Alfendi's blood father is Jean's blood brother while Alfendi's upbringing father was Hershel Layton. So Layton and Descole have no connection other than this, that Layton happens to be raising Descole's nephew.

Anyway, yeah, Lucy is a pretty darn cute character. Not a fan of her dorky, over-the-top English dialogue -- it doesn't even feel real! ^^; -- but I do like her personality and I sure do love her character design.
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Old 07-23-2013, 10:55 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Regarding your spoiler from the previous post, I just realized the likely connection but it draws on spoiler information of my own. Click if you want to find out and don't plan to ever play more of this game, but don't click if you do plan to play more.

Spoiler: show
I read somewhere that Alfendi isn't Layton's son by blood: Layton adopted Alfendi. That doesn't change the fact that I still don't like it -- that he's supposedly Layton's son despite having turned out so bad -- but I imagine that your spoiler, about the blood link to Jean Descole, is meant to explain that away. The idea is probably this: Alfendi's blood father is Jean's blood brother while Alfendi's upbringing father was Hershel Layton. So Layton and Descole have no connection other than this, that Layton happens to be raising Descole's nephew.

Anyway, yeah, Lucy is a pretty darn cute character. Not a fan of her dorky, over-the-top English dialogue -- it doesn't even feel real! ^^; -- but I do like her personality and I sure do love her character design.
Ah, I like that idea a lot!

Spoiler: show
I can see Layton adopting more than having an actual son xd; He already took in Flora, I don't see why Alfendi couldn't be the same! Still, there's the other brother to be dealt with too. Is he blood related to Alfendi or would he be a real son of Layton? We just don't knowwwwww


Dang it, gotta find a way to play Mask of Miracle....
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SHUCKS I GOTTA FIX THIS SOMETIME
~TL3~

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Credits to Charm for making this!


Come, my birdies!!!! Mwahahahaha!!!!!!


Thanks Pingu for being so nice and making me this~


Credit to TheKnightsFury for the sprite!

Fear my abnormally large signature~

Be Positive Ref~ I <3 you, Lonely Cubone and those who eval'd me~
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Old 07-23-2013, 10:59 AM   #12
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Finished the two cases, and what made me go "what?" was when they
Spoiler: show
announced the murderer. :p Really guys? For a second there, I thought the game was messing with my head, but noooo, they just went and transitioned into the heart breaking action. (Making the villain have metal hearts is dumb. I don't want to know who did it till, you know, the climax, and the heart makes it so I disregard every character as a possible villain until a metal heart character shows up.) Also, how am I supposed to guess that she used a ice blade? Seems farfetched, but I suppose a really clever criminal could figure that out :/
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