Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

With the switch to the far more powerful 3DS, sadly I think that the Professor Layton series lost much of its charm. Though the story was relatively strong, I enjoyed playing through Miracle Mask far less than any of the previous titles. Firstly, the attempt to replicate the eccentric sprites in polygons doesn’t work too well, and they simply look a bit clunky and unpleasant compared with their hand-drawn counterparts. Secondly, the desire to use the big top screen for the main action means a rather disjointed control system where the bottom screen is used to control a magnifying glass on the top screen. With an additional press required to bring up that magnifying glass, and then the slight difference in screen sizes meaning precision is often not quite there. Being able to simply tap on the screen where you want to inspect feels so much better – and the simplicity meant the game was much more snappy and fun to play.

Which is a shame, because the actual gameplay part – that is to day, the puzzles themselves – improved in presentation terms. It’s just that the main draw of Layton games are always the story that drives the player from puzzle to puzzle. The story itself is also a good one – after the last game covered Luke’s past, now we have a follow-up that through flashbacks shows us Layton’s. And it’s a lot of fun. It kicks off with Layton fencing his friend Randall (épée of course – he’s a gentleman!), and we soon find out that at this stage, the Professor is a decidedly un-academic young rebel with a big ole head of hair. He and Randall go on an adventure, exploring old ruins, and inevitably disaster strikes and sets up the modern-day story. So we have the fun of a mystery with a masked man (not very mysterious), the fun of Layton reuniting with childhood acquaintances – some of whom are a little awkward with him – and a kind of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien scenario only in the end prizing loyalty that goes almost ad absurdum.

All this takes place in the desert of the UK, which as I know from Million Arthur is in the midlands.  

Fun while the set-up was, though, the game itself was a bit of a grind, especially in what should have been the exciting section of exploring the ruins. The game threw away most of its best gimmicks – like a horse-racing minigame – right at the start and while the bunny mini-game was adorable, getting things wrong on it meant having to watch a whole sequence again and the other mini-games were very tedious. The robot one was both ugly and absolutely no fun. I ended up resorting to a guide to finish the absurd hidden puzzles for that one, too – but I could really have just left them.

 Things end fairly neatly for the story, but ultimately there’s a cliffhanger, and it feels slightly cheap how the good guys just don’t mention Descole again after he slips off.

I’ll certainly be playing the other Layton games, but this one was the first one that was really a disappointment. I hope they’ve refined things for the next one.