Mr.Deflok's Profile

I'd been tossing up getting this for a while, and have had high recommendations from gamers I respect, so when I finally took the plunge I you can imagine how severely disappointed I was to find that Layton was an average game.

Layton could've been an awesome game instead if it were a point and click type adventure. The presentation is excellent but the "Oh hello, can I tickle your fancy with a puzzle, good sir?" and "Oh ho ho, you cannot be THE Professor Layton! A puzzle to test you! Yes! En garde!" every time you take a step forward is quite frankly ridiculous.

This is Brain Training wearing a disguise. Looks hot, but is the same thing underneath. Don't get me wrong, I like Brain Training, but that's because Brain Training doesn't pretend to be something it's not.

The trouble I found with Layton is that it feels like a Frankenstein monster animated from two seperate games. One half adventure (like a point and click), one half puzzler (like Brain Training etc). The mesh didn't go so well with me which is largely due to the fact that the puzzles pose no relevance to the narrative. There are a few which do, or try to, but the rest are just random brain teasers.

I can compare Layton to one of my favourite games, The World Ends With You because it does what Layton, to me, failed to do, that is create a smooth fusion of different styles of gameplay.

The game has excellent presentation and a vast amount of appeal but without smoothly bringing together these two distinct types of games (which by nature and tradition are always full of character and depth) I think the developers set their ambitions too high. I look forward to hearing more about the sequel, but this iteration in the series is definitely one I can do without.