La única forma de poder jugar a un phoenix wright (desde la época de ds) en español de forma legal tuvo que ser a través de este spin off.

Oportunidad perdida para volver a poner a phoenix en el punto de mira añadiendo más idiomas.

El juego entretenido, tienes lo mejor de ambos mundos. Puzzle con Layton, juicios con phoenix donde hay varios testigos a la vez.

I really enjoyed this game. A crossover of this scale; just seeing Phoenix/Maya interact with Layton/Luke is so much fun. If I was younger I would have been floored by how cool it is.

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.

I am surprised at how enjoyable this game was for me. I had ignored it for a long time, thinking it was probably a pretty half assed crossover for the sake of brand recognition, going by what I had heard of it before. Definitely ran into a case of needing to form my own opinion. I am someone that's only barely into Layton games, as I only played Curious Village, but it still entertained me a lot.

From what I understand this is the first time either franchise went 3D, and with that in mind they did a good job, especially considering the art style had to account for both of them. Animated 3D models like what we find in the future Ace Attorney games but with drawn on 2D details that are more in the style of Layton games, with great backgrounds and courtroom design.

The music is great, compositions that remix and resemble older tracks from both franchises but in the fantasy theme, as well as totally new ones. It always fits and is a joy to listen to while going through the story.

I guess I should say, I didn't mind Phoenix and Maya being the dumber ones cause... they really are. The Professor and Luke drive a lot of the investigation, true, but Phoenix and Maya have a drive to the truth on their own which is what leads to their contribution. The title of "VS" is pretty misleading as it's largely a story about them working together, but I really enjoyed their dynamic. I appreciate how the fantasy elements are incorporated in a pretty natural way, and the resolution was surprisingly intense, I do think that this ranks as one of the top 3 stories in the Ace Attorney franchise on the 3DS alongside the GAA duology.

Gameplaywise we find a good balance of both franchises mixing, as the investigation parts are "Layton" sections where asides from gathering clues you solve puzzles to progress, and then we get to the courtrooms which are all just Ace Attorney gameplay. There's only 4 trials in the game, but they are really good and introduce new mechanics in the multiple witnesses interrogations that would influence the GAA games.

Sadly it's in the puzzle solving where the game has its big flaw, the puzzles are too simple and often easy. Even as someone that's not deep into Layton games I can feel how this aspect is underwhelming, especially when you can't fail like half the puzzles, including the final one that closes the game. Nevertheless, at least they never annoyed me, but their simple design keeps this game from being great at representing the Layton side.

All in all though I found this really enjoyable, many great moments in the story and fun to be had with the characters. It is also interesting how it clearly influenced Shu Takumi while making The Great Ace Attorney, and makes me wonder if it also influenced future Layton games. Either way, I really recommend going into this one with an open mind.

it's a decent professor layton
it's a decent ace attorney

which it's something neither series managed to be on 3ds

Ace Attorney, but British! I had never played a Layton game before PL vs PW, but this game left a very strong first impression with Layton trying to throw hands with a monster in the first 5 minutes. Going into the crossover, I was told it was much more of a Layton game than an Ace Attorney game. If that's true I'm excited to eventually get to the Layton 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.

I still feel very very mixed on this.
Is it a good idea: yes it is.
Does it work well: uh...it's mostly more Layton than Phoenix Wright. I felt it was 70% Laytonish an 30% Ace Attorney-ish.
Are the gameplay respected: well, the trials for Phoenix Wright I'd say yeah. The exploration it's all Layton which is fine since it works well.

But seriously: I don't want a Phoenix Wright game overly filled with puzzles that has barely anything to do with the real plot. For that I'll stick with a Layton game or something.

I'll have to finish to do proper objective conclusions, but it was light years away from the classic Phoenix Wright trilogy. Or, hell, to Apollo Justice.
And if we have to compare it with Layton I'm absolutely out since it's a series I was never very fund, even if I beat the original trilogy. But I guess the 2nd one still remains the best one.