As with previous Professor Layton games, Unwound Future is an adventure game where the player solves puzzles offered by local citizens to progress the story forward, through dialogue and around 32 minutes of full motion video. The player moves about the game through still images of locations. The player can use the DS touchscreen to tap on non-player characters to start a dialog or to obtain a puzzle, and also can search anywhere on the background for hint coins, with some areas needing to be tapped several times to reveal a secret hint coin or puzzle. Puzzles are brainteasers of many varieties, including visual, math, and logic. There is no time limit to solve puzzles, and the player can get up to 3 hints at a cost of one hint coin each; a new feature in Unwound Future is a "super hint", costing 2 coins, that can only be bought after the other 3 hints have been revealed, but that nearly reveals the puzzle's solution. If the player is correct in solving the puzzle, they gain a number of "Picarats", a form of currency within the game. Guessing the incorrect answer will reduce the number of picarats the player can get on subsequent attempts. Players can visit certain areas in order to play undiscovered or unsolved puzzles that are left behind as the story progresses.
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This review contains spoilers
Layton games utilize the DS perfectly without ever feeling gimmicky. The moment to moment gameplay is point and click, which translates really nicely to the stylus. And being able to draw out or write my thoughts down on the screen works really well and isn't something you can translate to another console with ease. It's nice that they've made mobile ports for these games and all, but man nothing beats playing on the DS.
I think overall the puzzles here present a good amount of challenge, and it definitely takes a bit of time to get used to the game's language or the way it wants you to think. If a puzzle seems too simple, it usually is and there's some other layer that you aren't considering. In the beginning, I was going pretty slow with the puzzles, but for the last couple of chapters I was able to think through them really quickly. It's a pretty nice progression, and it definitely feels good to be able to fly through the late game.
I also thought the writing was really solid. They did a great job at making a unique story with all kinds of twists and turns. I constantly found myself wanting to keep playing to unravel more and more of what was going on, and I never would have guessed how things ended. It reminds me a lot of mystery novels where you as the reader constantly want to figure things out before the other characters. It's also a really heartfelt wrap-up to the initial trilogy and they did a good job of giving Professor Layton some real depth.
Unwound Future definitely does have its shortcomings in a few areas though. Finding every puzzle as you go means interacting with and talking to every NPC. It's never fully obvious when an NPC has a new puzzle for you, and it can be a little bit frustrating when you have to quickly tap through a dialogue you've already seen. It would definitely be nice if there was some kind of indicator of puzzle before you initiate conversation, however I get that this might break the immersion or cause the player to miss certain story elements.
I also think that there's certain sections of the game where the balance between plot and puzzles just isn't totally there. Like in areas like the pagoda it makes sense to have a puzzle gauntlet as you navigate up to the top. But other times they will just flood an unrelated area with puzzles, and I end up getting pretty sidetracked clearing them all out. I don't mind the puzzles, but I think Layton is at its best when it interweaves story beats with the puzzles. If they wanted to add in this many puzzles, I do wish that they would have added another plot beat or some kind of red herring to help space out the puzzles and keep me more engaged.
But these are really just minor nitpicks, and all in all I would highly recommend this game. It's important to know that this game does have a slower pace, and the gameplay is a lot less involved on the technical side. But the writing is super solid and the puzzles are satisfying to solve!
This review contains spoilers