Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

Not counting the alternate-world Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, this game is the last in the Professor Layton series that has so far been released. It’s also the last in the ambitious prequel series, which also includes the Eternal Diva film and follows the impact of the uncovering of various sites built by the Azran, an ancient and technologically advanced race reminiscent of how the people of Mu are often depicted in Japanese media.

Though it seems a little odd that none of the monumental, world-shaking events of this game are referenced by Luke and Layton in the games that chronologically follow it, and the people close to the characters’ hearts aren’t so much as mentioned again, such is the nature of prequels and I don’t have any real complaints about that. There are some fun things done here, too, like the frequent appearance of Inspector Chelmey as a background figure, usually facing away from the camera, off on a grand tour with his wife.

The Azran Legacy was certainly my favourite of the series on the 3DS. While the polygonal characters still lack the charm of the hand-drawn sprites, they’re rather better-done and closer to the original than in Miracle Mask. The interface was a little less clunky and the animations were a little more versatile. On the downside, the game had by far the least fun collection of minigames of the entire series – none of the three were remotely enjoyable, being an ugly nut-rolling game, a frustrating and dull flower-blooming game and a rather arbitrary and charmless dress-up game. There’s also a small Streetpass game that was largely about memorizing the locations of random things, but in effect was mostly about waiting for the nice people who’d set challenges that could be completed on one or two screens.

But the game itself is what matters, and it was an entertaining and fun one. Unlike the other games, it doesn’t restrict its location, but takes place in multiple countries around the world, all of which are very cliche in the most charming way. It starts in an oddly slow and dull way, unlike the grand goings-on that open Miracle Mask, but after the prologue in a frozen town and a rather dismal fishing village are out of the way (plus another visit to London), the entertainment level goes up drastically and is sustained better than any of the previous games through variety.

The games have always showed a fun, highly romanticised view of England, but this time Layton, Luke and Emmy travel the world – and the worlds they visit are all just as fanciful and over-the-top. There’s a wonderfully classic Western town full of cowboys, where the local problems are sadly solved thanks in large part to Luke’s talking-to-animals magic powers, one of the elements of this series I like the least. There’s a hidden village in a rainforest, where the funny-looking mushroom-haired denizens are pointedly light-skinned. There’s a funny creepy rural town in thrall to the local priest and archaic traditions, a slightly Wicker Man­­-esque community I honestly didn’t expect from Professor Layton. There’s a sunny vaguely Spanish resort town packed with touristy goods. And quite interestingly, there’s a pseudo-Arab town with headscarves and turbans aplenty.

This time, more than a mystery, there’s a straightforward adventure with a shadowy, heavily-armed organization competing with our heroes on a collection quest. Of course, the organization is largely represented by a manzai comedy duo who are completely incompetent, because after all if a small army with machine guns just cornered our heroes there wouldn’t be much of a story. Things never feel very high-stakes, but then, the usual charm of Layton games is that they’re quite restful.

At the end, things do come to a head and there are such dramatic episodes as a fellow scientist seemingly getting shot in the arm and Layton hang-gliding off the top of a huge building, but what really makes the story satisfy is an extended sequence of twists. I was feeling clever for figuring some of them out – but the sheer profusion of them meant I was surprised! For example, I saw the truth behind Sycamore coming from the start, but didn’t expect the truth behind Descolé. The flashback of the defining moment in his life was cliché but satisfying. I also didn’t see Emmy’s decisions coming, nor the origins of Bronev, even if I knew what to expect with Aurora. Oh, there’s something that’s always satisfying about representatives of an ancient, mysterious civilization speaking in a lilting Irish brogue.

In terms of the puzzles, nothing felt very innovative here, but there were some very fun ones to solve and nothing was ever too hard, except of course the usual absurd (optional) final hidden puzzles.

I don’t know how much more Layton we’re going to see. I don’t know if most of Level-5’s resources are now going to be diverted to the monstrously popular Youkai Watch series – pun intended. But I’ll certainly be having fun with Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright and hoping for plenty more to come.