Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Join forces with expert investigator Professor Layton and ace attorney Phoenix Wright in this unbelievable crossover adventure! Find out what new twists they bring to the courtroom as they solve puzzles and debunk witnesses’ lies. Cross-examine multiple witnesses at the same time to uncover the mysteries of the magical city of Labyrinthia. In a medieval town where the people live in fear of witchcraft and those who wield it, Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright, along with their assistants Luke and Maya, join forces to face a perilous journey filled with harrowing mysteries that cannot be solved with mere logic. Investigate the city of Labyrinthia and gather information from its townspeople by solving puzzles, then prove your client’s innocence in court. In new group cross-examinations, you’ll pit one witness’ testimony against another’s to get the story straight, then literally rewrite history alongside the greatest puzzle-solving duo Labyrinthia has ever known.
Also in series
Reviews View More
The gameplay is, as you'd expect, mixed with Layton and Ace Attorney. It's still mostly Layton-core but there are also courtroom segments.
The Layton gameplay is the same as ever, with puzzles that are mostly forgettable, but they give you an abundance of hint coins to speed things along if so desired. (they even work in courtroom segments!)
The courtroom segments are my favorite, mostly because of the new feature of having multiple witnesses at a time. It's a cool idea that works well; when cross-examining one person, someone else might have a reaction to them, which you can then follow-up on. I love it.
The medieval setting also brings some funny moments. (fingerprints are not a thing here, sorry Wright)
The story is decent. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it got too ambitious and sometimes ridiculous for my liking. The final chapter DRAGS on, with so many twists that I started to not even care anymore. Enjoyable, but nothing special.
The dynamic between Layton and Wright (and their assistants) are very fun. It made me like Layton even more, he's so cool. Wright feels like he took an even more comedic role with the butt of every joke, and Layton being here makes him look even less cool and Layton more charismatic than ever.
Sadly Maya barely does anything and is barely relevant to anything, and Espella (the main heroine) wasn't interesting.
Lastly, I played the English version and I thought the voice acting was very mediocre. Layton was the only voice I liked, Barnham's was pretty good too though.
Overall I would recommend this to any fans of both series.
The gameplay is split about 50/50 between the Layton and Ace Attorney styles. You get your Ace Attorney courtroom scenes with (what I'm assuming are the standard) exploration and puzzle solving playstyle from the Layton series replacing what would be the investigation segments from the ace attorney games. The two styles mesh pretty well, and kind of works like the investigation segments from Ace Attorney 1 with added puzzles.
While I think the two gameplay styles fit together for the most part, I went in to this game primarily as an Ace Attorney fan, and I'd being lying if I said I didn't miss some of the added investigation mechanics from AA 2 and 3.
The story is pretty good and the character writing is all super fun. I can't speak for the accuracy of the Layton characters' portrayal, but Maya and Phoenix felt like they were plucked right out of the original trilogy. The way the characters all meet each other is perfect too, super funny!
I thought the story was really interesting and well paced. The writers did a great job of continuously escalating everything and making each plot point hit really hard and crazy. I'm not sure it fully sticks the landing and I think the ending reveal kind of comes out of nowhere. However, the reveal is used effectively in the final courtroom segment, so it's not a deal breaker for me.
The court scenes are pretty good as well. I've heard the new mechanics come back in future AA games so I'm excited to see how they are further developed. The new courtroom structure was interesting as well, and I had a fun time adapting to the new type of logic used in the new setting. I think the middle court cases felt a little too formulaic at times, but they contribute to the story in an interesting way. The new prosecutor is fun too.
Overall the AA and Layton crossover is pretty fun. It's got a lot of fun character interactions and the story gets really crazy really fast. I don't think it quite sticks the landing towards the end of the story, but it's more consistent in quality than Apollo Justice and is still a crazy fun ride a majority of the time.