Where to start: Professor Layton

Hey there Duders,

I bought a 3DS a couple of weeks ago and I really want to get into the Professor Layton games. My question is, where should I start? I've seen Professor Layton And The Mask of Miracle on sale, is that a great game to start on? Help me out, please.

They've all got a continuing story of sorts, so I'd start with the first one, Professor Layton & the Curious Village. It's still a really good game.

Curious Village is the place to start. It's also the best of the ones I've played. Diabolical Box is an excellent sequel. Unwound Future jumps the shark but ends the first trilogy so you might want to play that if you play the first 2. The Last Specter was good too and starts a new trilogy. Haven't played any of the 3DS ones but I wouldn't start in the middle of a trilogy.

I also recommend going with the original trilogy as well, though Curious Village is pricy if you're looking for a new copy. Also, I believe one or two puzzles in Diabolical Box and Unwound Future require the user manual to solve, but you can just FAQ them and move on.

I think the puzzles were best in Curious Village, though I liked the plot in Diabolical Box more even if it's a little farfetched. Unwound Future's puzzles, to me, were the weakest of the bunch. The story had potential, but the reveal was disappointing, though the game was still enjoyable overall.

Curious Village for sure. That game oozes with charm in a way that none of the other ones managed to match (in my personal opinion). I bet you'd be able to get it for dirt cheap now too.

But honestly, it probably doesn't matter. There's a little bit of continuation in the story, but you won't be lost if you jump in at the later ones. If Miracle Mask is the one you can get most easily, then get that one, and pick up the rest later

Begin at the beginning: pong.

@mosespippy said:

Whaaaaaaat.

The twist conclusion of Diabolical Box is patently absurd, even by Layton standards. It's not even remotely plausible. The scheme in Unwound Future (and the first game for that matter) is very elaborate, and would require a level of wealth and conspiracy that is almost completely unattainable, but it's technically possible, if highly, highly impractical.

Don't get me wrong, the puzzles are still great in Diabolical Box and I like the art and dialogue and everything, and it has some cool twists up its sleeve, but the actual explanation at the end is incredibly farfetched. I don't want to get into further details since it would spoil the plot, unless you want to start a spoiler-block-laden reply chain.

Curious Village

I will absolutely start a spoiler block reply chain. All these games have preposterous mysteries. It's possible to have a town of robots.It's possible to have a mining town devastated by the mine's hallucinogenic byproducts. Those are things that can happen in reality. The mystery is solved using logic and reasoning. You would then expect that the preposterous mystery in the third game would not involve an equally preposterous conclusion. You would think it would disprove the existence of time travel like the previous game had disproved the existence of vampires. Instead, Layton's girlfriend actually does travel time.

The existence of a 1:1 scale replica of London, built underneath London without anyone noticing is also nuts. The amount of money required would be several million times what it would cost to make a village of robots. The amount of labour, materials and time required is even more unobtainable than the money it would take. But then the villain's robot comes up through the ground into actual London and crushed buildings full of people. It's completely bonkers.

So much as Unwound Futurebreaks the cardinal rule of there being some non-fantastical explanation behind everything, I think it's fine because the time travel didn't actually figure into the villainous plot in any way, and really existed just to give Layton an emotional goodbye he wasn't afforded in the original accident. They didn't have to add fantastical elements just to explain the big scheme, and everything Claire did could've worked just as well if she were just an informed long-lost never-mentioned sister. Sure, the giant fake London under London is completely ridiculous in an enormous Truman Show sort of way, but it's technically doable.

But man, Diabolical Box? The hallucinogenic gas is like the worst explanation for everything. How does the gas hallucinate people into death? And then Schrader doesn't get killed by it and was conveniently just in a coma? I'll give the game that sure, everyone arriving at Folsense would expect the town to be functional and lit. But why do Layton and Luke never have contradictory hallucinations of the townfolk, when they're all just figments of their imagination? Why does Fredrich (the founder of the Molentary Express, he takes on some other name once he left Folsense) not have differing townfolk hallucinations from the others, since he might personally remember some of them from his youth? Where do the "real" characters even get the rumour that Anton is a vampire? The only person who ever passes the rumour onto them is hallucinated townsfolk, since I don't think "Anton is a vampire" is in the recorded history of Folsense you gradually fill in (whatever that collectible is about Anton and Sophia's romance) nor does Fredrich or Chelmey or anyone real invent the rumour to my recollection. If the townsfolk are all hallucinations and telling Layton and Luke and whoever what they expect to find, why do they all independently assume Anton is still a young man and thus a vampire? Why not assume him to be a regular old man, especially once they establish he is the older brother of Fredrich?

While the first and third game's "build a giant fake town" is preposterously expensive, at least it would basically work the way the game shows it to work, as long as they somehow kept the secret safe. Even if this silly hallucinogenic gas just made you see whatever, that's like the shittiest plot device from a terrible Star Trek episode, and only works if there is like one isolated character. It seems ridiculous that all of the real people in Folsense wouldn't at some point have contradictory hallucinations, since there is no "master" version of the story that is guiding all of their hallucinations.

lol at everyone saying how unrealistic everything is, what do you want a gritty realistic Layton instead?

But OP if you wanna get into them start at the start with curious village, if you are committed to playing the series it'll be interesting to see how the games changed over time starting from the first one.

Curious Village is great, played it last year and was a lot fun with an interesting story.

Professor Layton cannon goes:

Last Specter, Eternal Diva (movie), Mask of Miracles, Azaran Legacy (next month), Curious Village, Diabolical Box, Unbound Future, Layton Brothers (that iPhone game).

The Phoenix Wright/Layton crossover is as of yet unplaced in the time line, and there are a few novels in Japan. As someone who has been following the series since it came out, its worth playing Curious Village first, going to Unbound Future, go to the prequel trilogy, and then play the spin offs. The prequel trilogy (really a quartet with the movie) has so far fell far behind the original trilogy in terms of per-game story, but has a much broader arc, and the movie is arguably the best installment in the trilogy.