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Professor Layton and The Miracle Mask |OT| This Is Another Layton Game (But In 3D)

Puzzle: e because he's just trolling?

Wanna say f but it seems too obvious
tumblr_m270v9RQLj1r1rrxzo1_r1_250.gif

Frankly i'm embarrassed

Oh it would be nice if the person was trolling but...
I have had a DS for a few years now but of late the only time I have used it has been to play the Professor Layton games. However after buying the new game I discovered I could not use it on my console. It may have been slightly naive of me not to realise there was a difference between the standard DS and the 3DS but I feel it should be made clearer!! I think it is totally ridiculous that the cartridges for the 3DS have a small bump on them so they can not fit into a DS! I refuse to spend £135 on a new console just to play one game and the game will be going back!!! Total profiteering from Nintendo
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
brilliant stuff

haha, you got a few laughs over here!

Yah know what, I'm not suprised in the slightest. The amount of people who are realising at the till that this is 3DS only is amazing. I guess it's the first big game that a lot of causals would buy to be released exclusively on the 3DS.


it could be, but so then games like NSMB2 shoulda gotten the same bad reviews, and there are none. My guess is that a lot of adults bought this, either for them or their children, and had a tragic surprise
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
To counteract the one star reviews, I just gave it a 5 star.

This is an amazing game. Layton's move to the 3DS has really given the series a new lease of life. Ignore the one star reviews - they are no reflection of the game's quality, just disappointed people that didn't realise that a 3DS game only worked on a 3DS. It's the equivalent of giving a Blu-Ray movie one star because it doesn't work with a DVD player.
 

Neiteio

Member
I'm really excited to finally start my digital copy of Layton once I get a moment where I feel like I can relax enough to enjoy it. :) I've been chipping away at NSMB2 in spare moments -- I'm really surprised how great that game is, given I never particularly liked the "NEW!" series, and I'm glad I got it as a companion title to Layton. Their tabs are sitting all cozy-like together on my 3DS Home Menu. :)
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.

Thoraxes

Member
So anyone else have any kryptonite puzzles in these games? telling me to cut a piece of oddly shaped wood into two identical shapes is always one of my "good god no!" moments, the bloody chessboard one with a similar theme here divided into 4 was killing me even with the ruddy super hint, trying to visualize this stuff in my head damn near hurts.
Also Get the ball out and its many variations, they certainly earn their wages in hint coins.

Oh and anything maths because fuck maths.

Tangled-shit puzzles always get me. Maybe it's because I have bad eyes or something, or because my clear vision range without glasses is stupid, but I have a hard time getting my eyes to focus on the mess properly to decipher them.
 

protonion

Member
18 hours in. The game is loooong...
I can totally see what the twist will be (since the beginning actually), but still I can't wait!

I really dig the way they did the wifi puzzles this time.
 
Thus far I've dumb lucked three puzzles by complete accident, the first one was the sharing the load 1 where I managed to guess the correction solution on my first attempt (it's a trial and error puzzle). The second and third puzzles I dumb lucked were both slot machine puzzles. Both times I entered a random number, spun it twice mostly looking for the pattern, both times my random number ended up being a correct answer.
 

zroid

Banned
Insane Amazon Review update:

There's now 7 one-star reviews. Seven!
Also, if you want to see how deep the 3DS-only disgust goes, look at this thread.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Will-this-g...d_dp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B004JHY40C

Completly outraged that you cannot play the new professor leighton game without upgrading to a 3ds ,what about all the folks who only have a ds and ds lite ect ...........totally unacceptable !!!

Yeah...

I wouldn't be surprised if there were an actual "Professor Leighton" game on iOS
 
Just completed the main game, will have to sleep on it before I figure out how I rank it compare to the others in the series, but I really enjoyed it.
 

Neiteio

Member
I'm like eight puzzles in on this, my first Layton game, and it's GREAT! I really like the professor's personality, how he's all about elegant gentlemanly solutions, lol. I spend a lot of time scouring each area for Hint Coins, but I've only used one for the puzzle with the
circus troupe silhouettes
. So far I've got all the picarats, save for a few I lost on one failed attempt... I like how there are also 3D objects to find and add to your collection, and how the game tracks the mysteries and story developments in the journal. The game is very user-friendly, and has a cool progression between cutscenes, investigating the environment, solving puzzles, and playing the occasional minigame. Charming world with charming characters, a really smart script, great voice acting, gorgeous music, slick cel-shaded graphics, great 3D effects... The game has it all. Going back and forth between this and NSMB2 with the occasional Raid session in Revelations = gaming bliss!
 
Going into the end of the game, I would have given the story a 5/10. The obvious twist happened, it all seemed so boring and blah. But then! They kept explaining past the obvious twist and my man tears flowed and I now consider the story a 10/10, second only to unwound future in layton stories. Seriously people, don't judge the story by the obvious twist we all identified by chapter 2. It has so much more to offer *sniff*
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
This sounds like a puzzle.

Gaf Puzzle 01
Angry Amazons
25 Picarats

Six Amazon customers are disgruntled about the situation surrounding Professor Layton and the miracle mask and have thrown out 1 star reviews.

Customer A: I have two disappointed teens! How dare Nintendo make this game require new hardware in this economic crisis.

Customer B: I can't get my daughter this game for Christmas, they need to make an ordinary version, GUTTED!

Customer C: It looks like my days of purchasing new games are gone, disgraceful Nintendo.

Customer D: I've been waiting SO LONG (what a year?) only to find out it's on the DS3?!

Customer E: Buyer Beware! They put a bump on top of the cart so you can't put it in a standard DS, how shady.

Customer F: I can't get the daily download to work, i'm upset as this is considered a selling point.

Can you figure out which one of these customers has actually played the game?

Hint Coin 1:
Read the description carefully

Hint Coin 2:
DS3 is an anagram of something but what could it mean?

Hint Coin 3:
There seems to be a link between 5 of the customers, so whoever falls outside the pattern must be the one.

Super Hint:
F actually has a 3DS and is talking about the game itself, it may just be this chap.

Any challengers?
Bravo, sir!


I'm like eight puzzles in on this, my first Layton game, and it's GREAT! I really like the professor's personality, how he's all about elegant gentlemanly solutions, lol. I spend a lot of time scouring each area for Hint Coins, but I've only used one for the puzzle with the
circus troupe silhouettes
. So far I've got all the picarats, save for a few I lost on one failed attempt... I like how there are also 3D objects to find and add to your collection, and how the game tracks the mysteries and story developments in the journal. The game is very user-friendly, and has a cool progression between cutscenes, investigating the environment, solving puzzles, and playing the occasional minigame. Charming world with charming characters, a really smart script, great voice acting, gorgeous music, slick cel-shaded graphics, great 3D effects... The game has it all. Going back and forth between this and NSMB2 with the occasional Raid session in Revelations = gaming bliss!
I feel the same way about Layton. It does make my 3ds a complete bundle of joy that I always carry around with me. For me though, that bundle includes platformers and puzzlers - Mutant Mudds, VVVVVV, ML3D, Pushmo, Layton and a myriad of eShop titles.
 

Kouriozan

Member
Going into the end of the game, I would have given the story a 5/10. The obvious twist happened, it all seemed so boring and blah. But then! They kept explaining past the obvious twist and my man tears flowed and I now consider the story a 10/10, second only to unwound future in layton stories. Seriously people, don't judge the story by the obvious twist we all identified by chapter 2. It has so much more to offer *sniff*

I cried too at the end of unwound future, it'll be very interesting.
 

redcrayon

Member
Layton has been one of my favourite bits of the gaming calendar for a while now, I've really enjoyed this one, and still have 350-odd puzzles to go!

Some of those amazon reviewers are unbelievable.
 

protonion

Member
Those puzzles that you have to put square tiles on top of each other to make a picture, are impossible for my brain. The third one has also useless hints! Thankfully it's optional.
 
Those puzzles that you have to put square tiles on top of each other to make a picture, are impossible for my brain. The third one has also useless hints! Thankfully it's optional.

That 3rd puzzle was ridiculous, eventually I found the best way to solve it was to start with the upper left corner. Once it was correct the rest of the puzzle was easy to fill in. Personally I'd take 1 million more title stacking puzzles over one more sliding block one <_<
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
That 3rd puzzle was ridiculous, eventually I found the best way to solve it was to start with the upper left corner. Once it was correct the rest of the puzzle was easy to fill in. Personally I'd take 1 million more title stacking puzzles over one more sliding block one <_<
The sliding blocks one in the Museum has been the highest-rated one I've seen yet, and for a good reason too - took me a darn couple of hours to solve! It was a brilliant puzzle, though.
 

duckroll

Member
This game is worth it for the Legend of Zelda inspired dungeon alone!

There was nothing remotely inspired by Zelda in the ruins. In fact, out of the 5 Layton games I've played, the ruins chapter is the worst thing ever. It was long, repetitive, boring, and mostly just bad. The only good parts where the puzzles, and I don't mean the crappy rooms where you push rocks or trap mummies. Garbage imo. I'm glad I cleared that chapter and I hope I never have to play anything like it again in the Layton series.
 

BowieZ

Banned
There was nothing remotely inspired by Zelda in the ruins. In fact, out of the 5 Layton games I've played, the ruins chapter is the worst thing ever. It was long, repetitive, boring, and mostly just bad. The only good parts where the puzzles, and I don't mean the crappy rooms where you push rocks or trap mummies. Garbage imo. I'm glad I cleared that chapter and I hope I never have to play anything like it again in the Layton series.
Umm.. okay. I liked the puzzles (got stumped a couple of times), and it was a nice change of pace, I thought.

Inspired by Zelda? Well the perspective, the shovel (digging and refilling holes), the floors (B1, B2 etc), the switches, the puzzles (Ocarina ice-block pushing, etc), the mummies, the boss arena, the ambiance... I'd say it was a clear intentional lift.
 
Any variety gained through the ruins section is swiftly squandered by repetition, one can only perform so many tedious and basic block pushing puzzles before just wanting it to end already.
 

duckroll

Member
Umm.. okay. I liked the puzzles (got stumped a couple of times), and it was a nice change of pace, I thought.

Inspired by Zelda? Well the perspective, the shovel (digging and refilling holes), the floors (B1, B2 etc), the switches, the puzzles (Ocarina ice-block pushing, etc), the mummies, the boss arena, the ambiance... I'd say it was a clear intentional lift.

If they intended for it to be a copy of Zelda, they did a piss poor job of it. I guess that's par for the course with Level 5 though. :p
 

Glass Joe

Member
I enjoyed the dungeon part as a change of pace. Till it kept going on and on. And on. Not terrible but it overstayed its welcome.
 

duckroll

Member
I enjoyed the dungeon part as a change of pace. Till it kept going on and on. And on. Not terrible but it overstayed its welcome.

Yes, I think if they had 2-3 floors, it would be a fun mini-game distraction. But it just went on.... and on.... and on.... and it was all the SAME thing. I was actually jumping for joy whenever I dug a puzzle up, because at least it's a REAL change of pace. :p
 
If that's one with spike mummies and the switch in the top left then you can trap one and then just lure the others out to follow you in a conga line, when you hit the switch they vanish anyway.
 

duckroll

Member
Finally beat the game. About 22 hours. Really fucking long. The ending was pretty good. The post-credits scene was even better. Lol. The conclusion to the series in the 6th game is going to be.... really something. Lololol.

Now to go back and clear all the remaining stuff!
 
Finished the game. Some quick thoughts:

Good:

- The transition to 3D is great. It's not perfect, the characters are not quite there, but the backgrounds look amazing. Very detailed, full of personality and it gives the series a fresh look. I think the diorama look in particular is just super nice to look at.
- Some of the best music the series has to offer. Robot minigame music, anyone?
- Sweet ending. Yes, it's predictable, but the way it plays out is enjoyable and pretty cute.
- The teaser for the next game was neat. Throwing a tiny bit of the family-friendliness out of the window. :p

Bad:

- The ruins were boooring. I appreciate the idea, but there was just way too much hand-holding, dialog and repetition. It also controlled badly. The pacing was just off in every way.
- The story had a couple of lows that were just not very interesting. The game is also very long, so it felt like a drag at times. You could probably remove about three to four hours to make the plot tighter without losing anything of significance.
- The formula is getting a little bit old maybe? Yeah, I dunno. I don't feel very negative about the existing formula, but I do feel like some changes would have been nice.


Overall, it's a totally solid Layton game. I rank it below The Unwound Future and The Curious Village and above the other two.
 

duckroll

Member
Cleared all the puzzles in the game, finished all the main minigames, unlocked all the Top Secret content.

Things left to do:
- Working through the unlocked bonus levels for the robot game.
- Getting perfect scores on the horseriding minigame.
- Daily puzzles!

I have to say, in terms of quality of content, the bonus stuff in Miracle Mask is MUCH better than the previous games imo. The Daily Puzzles are really nice, and I like themed puzzles. The robot minigame was less interesting initially, but the bonus levels are REALLY fun. Horseriding is kinda garbage though. It would be better if you could just use the d-pad instead of stupid sliding controls.
 

Neiteio

Member
I just started Ch. 2 on this, my first Layton game. Great stuff so far. I'm about 13 picarats short of what I could've had if I'd done every puzzle so far perfectly. If at the end of the game I come up short in picarats, is there like a way to grind for more or something? I'd like to ultimately unlock all the Top Secret stuff.
 

duckroll

Member
I just started Ch. 2 on this, my first Layton game. Great stuff so far. I'm about 13 picarats short of what I could've had if I'd done every puzzle so far perfectly. If at the end of the game I come up short in picarats, is there like a way to grind for more or something? I'd like to ultimately unlock all the Top Secret stuff.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that it's designed such that you can still unlock everything if you complete every single puzzle with the bare minimum. Doing better just means that you should have more stuff unlocked when you beat the game, before you go looking for all the remaining puzzles.
 

Neiteio

Member
I'm not 100% sure, but I think that it's designed such that you can still unlock everything if you complete every single puzzle with the bare minimum. Doing better just means that you should have more stuff unlocked when you beat the game, before you go looking for all the remaining puzzles.
That sounds great -- can someone confirm this? I wouldn't be surprised, given how thoughtfully designed the game is so far, but I'd still like to confirm. Also, what's with the bonus content you can only access with the password from another game? What kind of bonus content is it?
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Seeing the fallout on Amazon.co.uk and now Amazon.com too (people are actually attempting to saw off the 3DS cartridge tab to get it to play on the DS!) makes me think that Nintendo missed a trick by not releasing a Layton 3DS bundle. Many people have become aware that the 3DS is a new console because of this game.

Neiteio said:
That sounds great -- can someone confirm this? I wouldn't be surprised, given how thoughtfully designed the game is so far, but I'd still like to confirm. Also, what's with the bonus content you can only access with the password from another game? What kind of bonus content is it?

Judging from previous games in the series, you should have no problem. The bonus content usually turns out to be
a sliding square puzzle featuring an image from the previous game and/or prototype sketches of characters
 

M3d10n

Member
Seeing the fallout on Amazon.co.uk and now Amazon.com too (people are actually attempting to saw off the 3DS cartridge tab to get it to play on the DS!) makes me think that Nintendo missed a trick by not releasing a Layton 3DS bundle. Many people have become aware that the 3DS is a new console because of this game.

Just goes to show how much Nintendo reached into non-gamers with the 3DS. The notion of games being made for newer hardware which cannot run in older hardware is alien to them. I vaguely remember some people being shocked by the fact that the games for different CD-based platforms weren't compatible with other platforms back in the early 32-bit era.
 

zroid

Banned
Seeing the fallout on Amazon.co.uk and now Amazon.com too (people are actually attempting to saw off the 3DS cartridge tab to get it to play on the DS!) makes me think that Nintendo missed a trick by not releasing a Layton 3DS bundle. Many people have become aware that the 3DS is a new console because of this game.

I just lost it
 

Eyothrie

Member
So I now have Miracle Mask and badly want to play it. But I also have The Last Spector, which I haven't played yet.

Would I miss out on much story, characters, etc etc if I skip The Last Spector for now and jump right into Miracle Mask?
 
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