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Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (NA) |OT| A puzzling delay

This was probably one of my favorite scenes in the game. It was an unexpected poignant character moment surrounded by insanity in true AA fashion.

If there's one thing this game excels at, it's capturing the relative insanity of both series without one really overpowering the other. It's just the right amount of Layton and Ace Attorney silliness.
 
(Chapter 5)
Playing the turnabout sisters theme when talking about Maya...

I seriously need a hug.

b48.jpg


Just finished the game. I really liked it overall but yeah they went full on Layton at the end there...

I hope they do another. And I hope we get it a lot quicker than this one.
 

duckroll

Member
There's DLC? What's inside?

It's not really DLC, but rather free timed unlocks every week. The content includes bonus episodes which take place after the game (don't expect anything serious, it's written in a self-aware meta way, and is just a bonus for fans) and bonus art galleries.
 

carlsojo

Member
There are some pretty huge plotholes that I never saw resolved. Off the top of my head,
who knocked out the cook on the ship who was attacking Espella? I assume Darklaw but I have no idea how she got on the ship or knew she was there. What in the blue hell happened to Carmine Accidenti? How did he get to Labyrinthia/how did he manage to leave? How did his car get smashed up by the statues?
Oh well, as long as I don't think about it too much...

The other disappointment were the
breakdowns, or lack thereof.

All in all it was a fun game, and I'd love to see them do another crossover.
 

duckroll

Member
There are some pretty huge plotholes that I never saw resolved. Off the top of my head,
who knocked out the cook on the ship who was attacking Espella? I assume Darklaw but I have no idea how she got on the ship or knew she was there. What in the blue hell happened to Carmine Accidenti? How did he get to Labyrinthia/how did he manage to leave? How did his car get smashed up by the statues?
Oh well, as long as I don't think about it too much...

It was Darklaw who attacked the cook to protect Espella. She knew where she was once she found out the Espella on the bridge was a fake. There was only one ship passing through at the time. She got on the ship right after Layton and Luke were "sucked into the book".

Carmine was in hospital. They already said the injuries weren't serious. He got to Labyrinthia on a cargo ship and took Espella away on it. They mention this during the final case. He's a detective so presumably he was actually investigating the company.

As for the statues... well... that's explained in the second bonus episode in the extra features. It's... really stupid. Lol. :)
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Near the end of the story, this line cracked me up.

*Layton shows the picture*
Maya: But, professor. This is supposed to be mid-evil times, isn't that against the rules?
Phoenix: Meh, who cares.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Just finished the game, was a lot of fun. Don't know where I put in the AA series. One thing I didn't like about the story was
how Layton seems to figure out everything so quickly and easily, it really felt like Phoenix was just along for the ride. Sure he was never meant to e there, but at least give him a chance to figure a few things out on is own.

This game left me wanting to play a Layton game. I only played the original on the DS. Any suggestions?
 

duckroll

Member
If you only want to play one Layton game, I would probably recommend the third one as the all round best entry in terms of story, length, etc. The 6th one is the prettiest and has the most content though. But the final few hours are pretty bad!
 

MrBadger

Member
Just finished the game, was a lot of fun. Don't know where I put in the AA series. One thing I didn't like about the story was
how Layton seems to figure out everything so quickly and easily, it really felt like Phoenix was just along for the ride. Sure he was never meant to e there, but at least give him a chance to figure a few things out on is own.

This game left me wanting to play a Layton game. I only played the original on the DS. Any suggestions?

Unwound/Lost Future is by far the best Layton game I've played. (for the record I've played all the prequels, half of Diabolical Box and none of Curious village). I'd put its story, especially the ending, up with Wright's best. As far as I can tell, the originals are rather standalone, except the recurring characters. The prequels all have an overarching plot so if you play them, start at Spector's Call/Last Spector.

If you only want to play one Layton game, I would probably recommend the third one as the all round best entry in terms of story, length, etc. The 6th one is the prettiest and has the most content though. But the final few hours are pretty bad!

Don't get me started on Azran Legacy's ending…(Spoilers for that game)
It spends the entire game focusing on other, irrelevant stuff, then remembers it's meant to conclude the Layton series so bombards you with twists out of nowhere right at the end. It happened so fast that I don't think even Layton cared that Descole was his long lost brother and Bronev was his estranged father. Oh, and Emmy is a Targent spy.

Decent game over all, but they really should have paced it better.
 
I'm going to parrot the "if you want to play one layton, play Layton and the Lost Future/Unwound Future".

The game is quite a lot better than the other laytons in terms of plot (In fact, it's the only one I would recommend really paying attention to the plot at all), and the puzzles are pretty good too.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Started the game today and I'm about 1.5 hours in. Already feeling a "I just want to play Ace Attorney" sentiment before I got to the first trial. Hopefully I can tolerate the Layton bits later on.
 

K-A-Deman

Member
I can agree the ending was a tad too Layton for some people's taste.
Minus the whole TOWN BURNING DOWN THING. I've not yet played the prequel trilogy, but is that also Layton or more of a Wright backstory thing?
 
I can agree the ending was a tad too Layton for some people's taste.
Minus the whole TOWN BURNING DOWN THING. I've not yet played the prequel trilogy, but is that also Layton or more of a Wright backstory thing?

I think of it as
the "how" of the twist is more Layton and the "why" is more Wright.
 
It's not really DLC, but rather free timed unlocks every week. The content includes bonus episodes which take place after the game (don't expect anything serious, it's written in a self-aware meta way, and is just a bonus for fans) and bonus art galleries.

I'm not seeing any DLC via the game or Eshop. Is it available in NA?
 

K-A-Deman

Member
I think of it as
the "how" of the twist is more Layton and the "why" is more Wright.

makes sense to me.

I am a little dissapointed it all turned out to be grounded; I would've liked to have had a case where the Professor had to accept that there was no concrete explanation for everything.

Also, as funny as it was to have Nick as the butt of one last joke, maybe some acknowledgement that his inclusion shook things up would've been nice.

I still say it was a solid crossover and a pretty good entry in each respective series, but the blinders are coming off now.
 

Tenck

Member
On the gold case and I couldn't help but laugh when they asked
Mr. Cracker
to testify. What a curveball.
 
On the gold case and I couldn't help but laugh when they asked
Mr. Cracker
to testify. What a curveball.
Eh, I didn't really see it so much as a curveball as a callback to that case in the original Phoenix Wright game where they had a similar "witness" testify...
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Aww so Layton is
the one who gets turned to gold? I was hoping to do a whole trial as Layton.

Does that ever happen later?
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
It's almost a little too dark. The conclusion is so cruel that I started to get suspicious that something funny might be going on.
Same honestly. Part of that is that its a Layton game of course, but I'm expecting some Scooby Doo Doctor Who shennanigans
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Lol, you're just blazing right through the game. So are you enjoying it more than PW: DD?

Yeah, and honestly I think its just the pacing. I didn't realize till I started this game how much of a craaaaaawl DD was, at least Case 2. Both in the overall pacing and especially in the text speed
 

Sadist

Member
Same honestly. Part of that is that its a Layton game of course, but I'm expecting some Scooby Doo Doctor Who shennanigans
We've fucking time travelled Raggy

Cool to see North America GAF enjoying the game. It's been months since I completed the game, but reading through the spoilers it surprises me how many details I still remember. The amount of Layton and Ace Attorney is just right.

About the end of the game:

I expected several folks to be a bit miffed about the Laytonesque ending. I kind of expected it after the second trial, but I still enjoyed it.
 

spiritfox

Member
Except it's NOE's translation so unless NOA (or Capcpom USA) is not doing anymore translating, we'll never hear the voice again.
 
Wait wait wait

You get picrats based upon how well you do during the trial segments? I always make sure to have a perfect score at the end of every Layton game and I have a save in the middle of the trial after having a misclick >:[ NOOOOOOOOOOOO

*resets game*
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Wait wait wait

You get picrats based upon how well you do during the trial segments? I always make sure to have a perfect score at the end of every Layton game and I have a save in the middle of the trial after having a misclick >:[ NOOOOOOOOOOOO

*resets game*

I just blew four penalties because when I thought I had something the first time I apparently centered my circle like five pixels off from the target zone and spent the next three penalties thinking I was on the wrong track

So I already said fuck it
 
I must say besides for that the game is excellent, it does feel more like a Layton game then an Ace Attorney game but that's fine with me as I love both franchises and I think they compliment each other really well. Also if I had to pick one franchise to take the lead I'd want it to be Layton because of how much voice acting and all the anime scenes they have compared to Ace Attorney. Yeah AA5 did have a bit of this but it just left me wanting more
 

duckroll

Member
I must say besides for that the game is excellent, it does feel more like a Layton game then an Ace Attorney game but that's fine with me as I love both franchises and I think they compliment each other really well. Also if I had to pick one franchise to take the lead I'd want it to be Layton because of how much voice acting and all the anime scenes they have compared to Ace Attorney. Yeah AA5 did have a bit of this but it just left me wanting more

The story and presentation is definitely more Layton, but I think the further you get in the game, the more you'll feel that the heart of the gameplay is more slanted towards AA. It's an interesting balance. The anime scenes are off the charts in this game though. The best stuff I've seen in any Layton game by a large margin. Kameda really went wild with the action and effects. :)
 
Just picked it up. Visually this game is striking, and the music is classy, especially the remixes of the Ace Attorney music. I have all the Layton games but the puzzles make me feel stupid so I haven't gotten into them so much, haha. This has me hooked to my 3DS.
 

MrBadger

Member
ALL OF THEM. This was the worst.

Layton games usually have big, silly endings ]but the issue here is that it didn't feel planned and it felt like they made up the ending halfway through so they made up an excuse for every death and magic spell which still didn't explain everything, like Layton's intro segment and the wall portals in chapter 4. With Layton, the big, stupid twist usually feels intentional and doesn't leave you asking more questions than it answered.

So I agree.
This is the worst ending and really not "typical Layton" like everyone says it is.
Great game besides that though.

Here's a question: are there any games in the Layton series that don't have a ridiculous plot twist at the end?

One comes to mind but I'll spoiler tag it.
Miracle Mask. The big mystery is who the man in the mask is and the resolution doesn't involve a big coverup, a fake city or a giant manatee.
 
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