Finally finished. I enjoyed it, but I think the ending went off the rails quite a bit.
I have a few points that stood out to me. Obviously all spoilers:
I should add that all of this comes from someone who never played a Layton game before, so take my ramblings as you will. Maybe this kind of thing is par for the course of that series.
While I can't say that I disliked the game, I think there's a lot wrong with it.
I have a few points that stood out to me. Obviously all spoilers:
- I didn't really like any of the new characters specifically for this game. Espella felt too plotted and really quite uninteresting, while Darklaw and the Storyteller -- probably the two most fascinating characters in the game -- were not utilised to their fullest. On the other hand, Inquisitor Barnham kind of felt like he was simply taking up space, and was completely eliminated from the proceedings when the actual focal characters needed to take the stage. I think ultimately this was because the game focussed on the crossover aspects between the two universes clashing rather than the world they inhabited and the people in it.
- Phoenix and Maya's voices were not good.
- The game's puzzles felt easy, and the court cases weren't as exciting as I'd like.
- The game was too scared to really do anything permanent. The permanence of the murders and witch executions were undone with the trap door and the forest outside of Labyrinthia, and even before that it was patently obvious that would happen once Layton and Maya were "killed" in their own respective way. Also, when the Storyteller announced he had "an incurable illness", only for him to mention a cure a few seconds later, I felt like the game was always looking for a way to cop out of anything really consequential. It made the whole thing feel insincere.
- The twist that it was all just "science" was as unconvincing to me as Layton was unconvinced that magic was real. A lot of the stuff that was supposed to be magic, but a deception, was actually just as fantastical and magical as the mystery of the town was supposed to be, and this just added to the insincerity of the whole thing. Clanging of perfect silver making people unconscious? The inability for people to see perfect black? The fact that a perfectly black material exists? Cures for incurable illnesses? Vague "substances" in the water that conveniently allow for both the hypnosis poison and the "condition" involving clanging perfect silver? Invisibility cloaks? It doesn't strike me as any more convincing than magic is and I left feeling kind of cheated.
- The only thing that felt particularly convincing was Newton Belduke's suicide over the horrible things he'd done, but that's only the case if you suspend your disbelief long enough to accept that what he did was even plausible in the first place. The subsequent revenge plot by Darklaw -- while not unconvincing -- felt bolted on at the end and I didn't really care because much of the cast were uninteresting.
- The bit with Edgeworth at the end was splendid.
- Phoenix and Maya's voices were not good.
- The game's puzzles felt easy, and the court cases weren't as exciting as I'd like.
- The game was too scared to really do anything permanent. The permanence of the murders and witch executions were undone with the trap door and the forest outside of Labyrinthia, and even before that it was patently obvious that would happen once Layton and Maya were "killed" in their own respective way. Also, when the Storyteller announced he had "an incurable illness", only for him to mention a cure a few seconds later, I felt like the game was always looking for a way to cop out of anything really consequential. It made the whole thing feel insincere.
- The twist that it was all just "science" was as unconvincing to me as Layton was unconvinced that magic was real. A lot of the stuff that was supposed to be magic, but a deception, was actually just as fantastical and magical as the mystery of the town was supposed to be, and this just added to the insincerity of the whole thing. Clanging of perfect silver making people unconscious? The inability for people to see perfect black? The fact that a perfectly black material exists? Cures for incurable illnesses? Vague "substances" in the water that conveniently allow for both the hypnosis poison and the "condition" involving clanging perfect silver? Invisibility cloaks? It doesn't strike me as any more convincing than magic is and I left feeling kind of cheated.
- The only thing that felt particularly convincing was Newton Belduke's suicide over the horrible things he'd done, but that's only the case if you suspend your disbelief long enough to accept that what he did was even plausible in the first place. The subsequent revenge plot by Darklaw -- while not unconvincing -- felt bolted on at the end and I didn't really care because much of the cast were uninteresting.
- The bit with Edgeworth at the end was splendid.
I should add that all of this comes from someone who never played a Layton game before, so take my ramblings as you will. Maybe this kind of thing is par for the course of that series.
While I can't say that I disliked the game, I think there's a lot wrong with it.