06-29-2013, 03:05 PM | #1 |
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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
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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. |
06-29-2013, 03:44 PM | #3 |
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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. 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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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 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... |
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 :[ |
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 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 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 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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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 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; |
07-23-2013, 10:30 AM | #8 |
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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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07-23-2013, 10:34 AM | #9 | |
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Quote:
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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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 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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07-23-2013, 10:55 AM | #11 | |
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Quote:
Spoiler: show Dang it, gotta find a way to play Mask of Miracle.... |
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