Enter 19th century Europe and the world of Doctor Jean-Pierre Lautrec. He's a brilliant, eccentric, sarcastic professor with few friends but a healthy obsession for solving mysteries. One day, a woman named Marie visits Lautrec bearing a curious gadget. The mysterious map that the gadget displayed seemed to point the way to a fantastic hidden treasure belonging to Louis XIV of the House of Bourbon, a dynasty that had collapsed a century earlier. As they search for the treasure, they find themselves targeted by a mysterious man named Vidocq. They are blocked at every turn by the Knights of the Iron Mask, a mysterious group of men with iron masks and claws. Work as Doctor Lautrec, aided by his perky and emotional sidekick Sophie, to unlock the mysteries within and search for the lost treasure of Louis XIV. Search for clues, solve puzzles to unlock new mysteries and gain more information as the quest continues. The story is told in both 2D and uses the power of the Nintendo 3DS in 3D to enhance game play giving gamers the ability to look around for clues like they're in the game. Immerse yourself in the world of Doctor Lautrec where mystery and adventure can be found around every corner.
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Let’s start with the treasure battles. These are highly convoluted, poorly explained, and simple to a fault. You fight your treasures known as Treasure Animatus, so think an archeological version of Pokemon. The whole battle system is based on a hierarchy like Humanoid is stronger than Avian which is strong that Aborheal etc, but the chart and symbols don’t make any sense. You place each treasure on a pedestal, but some are cracked which will give you random effects both good and bad. Once you place a treasure you can no longer use it which is completely out of standard RPG battle rules. You can only equip three treasures before entering a dungeon if you equip the wrong ones you have to leave and do the dungeon all over again. It is very important you explore the entire dungeon because you need to find gems and tame other smaller Animatus for the boss. Most Animatus can be tamed by bringing their health in a blue range. If you kill them they become extinguished and can’t be used for battle.
This all sounds very simple but is actually really complicated when you play. Even after reading in-depth guides online I still didn’t get it. The most frustrating part, and why I quit after 5 hours, is that you will solve the mystery to get to the dungeon only to realize that your Animatus isn’t strong enough to fight the boss. Sophie will tell you before entering the dungeon how your Animatus will fair because she can sense the boss. If you can’t do any quests you have to buy resurrection stones to bring your Animatus back to life but they are very expensive, so sometimes you will be screwed. Those gems you collect, that aren’t killed in battle, at the end of each dungeon are turned into experience points that go toward your Animatus. If you get stuck on a boss that kills all your gems except the one you will never be able to level them up.
So, you will run around solving all these boring quests just to realize you can’t do that dungeon. The quests involve running around a map to different blue pins and listening to various dialog. Rarely will you get to solve an actual puzzle. The puzzles involve using the touchscreen but aren’t very interesting. Matching words on a crossword puzzle style grid, making shapes fit on different shapes, a Minesweeper style mini-game that makes no sense, spot the difference, and a few other boring puzzles. These are far and few between and the only break from the monotonous mystery solving.
Once you get into a dungeon you have to push blocks around, avoid enemies, and dodge traps to get to the various Animatus. The AI is really stupid here because you can push blocks right in front of them and they won’t notice, but run behind them and they chase after you reset the whole room. These dungeons are not fun and a complete pain to complete.
Between all this nonsense are huge strings of dialog and cut scenes. The anime style ones are nice to look at, but the 3D ones are just awful. The voice acting is really good, but some of the characters are just not interesting to listen to or get to know. The only reason to keep playing it to find out more about the interesting characters and story, but the game is so frustrating to play you will give up quickly. (Just a side note: My rental copy had two saves of only 54 minutes and 90 minutes. That’s how frustrating this game is).
Overall, Doctor Lautrec has a great story and characters, but the puzzles are boring and spread too thin. The 3D effects alone are minimal and don’t really add anything to the experience. The worst part about the game is the confusing and terrible Pokemon rip-off battle system. I actually can’t even recommend this game to anyone except hardcore puzzle fans.