It wasn't broke, and thus they didn't fix it; If I had to describe this game in a single sentence, that would be it. For those unfamiliar with "Professor Layton", this is the third entry in a cute little stylus-only game series, where, like the popular "Nancy Drew" games, you solve an overarching mystery as you passively walk around town, poke at random things for clues, and talk to people.
Unlike "Nancy Drew", however, there is zero challenge in where to go next, who to talk to, and how to progress. This is actually more similar to "The Island of Dr. Brain", for anyone who's actually heard of that. All real challenges in the game are presented as a series of varied brainteasers, such as sliding blocks, mazes, word puzzles, trick questions, and other things you might expect to see on the back of a cereal box. This may initially sound like a major turn-off for people who don't generally play puzzle games. Such was the case for me; I gravitate heavily towards more exciting genres such as platforming, racing, or action-adventure, so when I was gifted the first game in the series, "Curious Village", I wasn't expecting to like it all that much.
Little did I know how hopelessly glued I would be to my DS for the next few days.
While there were some rare cases where ambiguous wording had me crying foul, on the whole the puzzles in this series are quite good, and the third entry doesn't disappoint. There is a wide variety of puzzles to solve, and for people who can't --or don't want to--figure out certain types of puzzles, there is a generous hint system in which you trade "hint coins" for a series of hints that slowly nudge you in the right direction. New to this game is the addition of a fourth hint, the "Super Hint", which costs two coins and virtually gift-wraps the solution for you. Hint coins are scattered everywhere on the map, so unless you're really abusing the system, or never bother to poke anything with your stylus, you won't likely find yourself running out. Also new to this game's puzzles is an upgraded memo system that allows the use of different colors and pen widths.
As is par at this point, there are three optional minigames accessible in the trunk; a "Mad Libs" style story book where you place stickers to create cohesive stories, delivery quests in which you place bungee cords to bounce a parrot to a goal, and a series of top-down maps in which you guide a toy car and collect items. They're all cute and welcome additions, and while the parrot one may test your patience, none of them are complete duds like "Diabolical Box's" tea minigame. In my humble opinion, the only good thing about that one was the hilarious failure dialogue.
This game series is very addictive not only because it encourages the "just one more puzzle" mentality, but because of the presentation. There are few genres where presentation is of comparable importance to gameplay, and this is one of them. Like the last two games, the environments are presented as charming 2D paintings, the townspeople all have unique quirks, and all music is generated almost exclusively with some combination of piano, music box, violin, and...accordion. To Level-5's credit, they managed to make yet another default puzzle theme unobtrusive enough that you don't feel the burning need to mute your DS after you've been stuck sliding blocks around for thirty minutes straight.
And then there's the story. While playing these games, I often question myself whether I care more about progressing the story so I can play puzzles, or breezing past the puzzles so I can see what happens next. "Unwound Future" follows the adventures of Layton and Luke, intrepid alliterative duo and blatant Sherlock/Watson homage, as they receive a cryptic letter signed by Luke himself, ten years in the future. As usual, following this one little lead brings our heroes into a much larger mystery, with many parallel oddities looming over it. What follows is an intentionally bizarre tale filled with plenty of plot twists, violations of common sense, deep soul-searching, and flagrant abuse of the number ten.
Like every other aspect in this game, the story has a much higher degree of polish than in previous titles. There are plenty more fully animated cutscenes (think Ponyo), and plenty more fully voiced lines of dialogue. The writing is genuinely funny and often self-referential, and the plot is certainly engaging, though as usual, you'll need to willingly suspend your disbelief at some of the more nonsensical things that happen. This being the conclusion of a trilogy, some questions you might have had left over from the first two games get answered, and the stakes are also raised higher than usual.
I can't say much more about what actually happens in the story for fear of spoiling it, but I must warn that they took the general tone of the past two stories and injected it with bovine growth hormones. Yes, that means it's funnier and more mysterious and more epic, but this also means it's darker. Significantly darker. Hoo boy. I'd actually suggest heeding the E10 rating on the package. The writers pulled this off in part by making this adventure very personal to our heroes themselves, and for the first time, you actually get a glimpse into Layton's backstory. The result of all this includes some surprisingly upsetting implications and a whole lot of emotion near the end.
Now, I am aware that the majority of human beings worship fiction that yanks their heartstrings to the Seven Wonders of the World and doesn't bother to neatly replace them afterward. If you're one of those people, fear not; you'll love "Unwound Future". But if you're a freak of nature like me, who would rather be able to sleep peacefully after beating a game at 1AM on a work night, then don't say I didn't warn you. And I'm the person who fell over laughing at the end of "Titanic". True story.
If this were an RPG or really almost any other genre, I wouldn't have even bothered warning you all about this. But to those who hadn't seen the trend in the first two games' stories, the idea that a cutesy and wacky puzzle game could be so emotionally impacting will come as a shock. Yes, the main character is a tea addict with no outdoor voice, an absurd top hat, and tiny black eyes that look like they belong on a teddy bear. Yes, you will empathize with him. No, I have no idea how they pulled that off.
Angry ranting from my still-raw emotional wounds has now concluded. Despite my rage over it, it really is a well-done game in a well-done series, and I don't think it deserves less than five stars. If you're looking for a different kind of game experience, and can handle being forced to think to progress the story, then I'd definitely recommend it.
Besides, I can't not recommend a game when I went out and bought the sequel shortly after beating it. Here's hoping for a Smash Bros. cameo.
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Customer reviews
not quite as good as the first two
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2010
This "Professor Layton" game is not quite as good as the first two. The puzzles are not as hard and the story seems a bit more contrived. However, I still played the entire thing and will play it again.
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2010
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