It is Layton, so it's nothing spectacularly different from what you may have already experienced in the series. That indeed is true, but this game even flaws at following the same formula from older games, some puzzles feel tired in their concept, because many of them try to present a solution that is "outside of the box" in that the statement from the puzzle is nothing but a trick that you must not fall into. This really gets tiresome sometimes and does feel overused. The story fleshes out Layton's past, which was unexpected, but the finale falls short from being a truly memorable plot because the pacing was nothing like well-distributed.

Another great entry in the series, now with charming 3D models. The jump on the 3DS brought some new positives, such as the new level of exploration in the areas and the new types of puzzles, but also some negatives such as some below average minigames and a chapter taking place in a dungeon which is a total shift in gameplay. This last negative is not as bad as some people say it is, though. All in all the positives balance out these negatives, creating an entry in the series that's neither the best nor the weakest. The same could be said about the story.

Miracle Mask kicks off with a strong premise - a magician who is able to turn people into stone and horses threatens to take down this game's version of Las Vegas with the power of an ancient mask, causing an old childhood friend from Layton to request his help in this dire situation.

The change to 3D wasn't as rough as I've heard people make it out to be and it doesn't take long to get used to. Maybe it's because I've played Layton vs Wright first? Either way, the art direction isn't the only big change in Miracle Mask. Puzzles have also undergone a major overhaul, they're less logic-based now and many play like little minigames instead, but there's also a fair share of some usual puzzle formats (sliding puzzles, geometry puzzles). The puzzles in this entry are alright, nothing really stands out here in an especially good or bad light. Side activities were meh, I didn't really warm up to the robot minigame or the rabbit theater, but the shop sidegame was a fun pastime.

Most of my issues in Miracle Mask stem from the narrative. While I don't think it's a bad storyline per se, I found the twists (especially the villain's identity) to be really predictable. Emmy as a character is rather sidelined here, which is a shame, since I liked her role a lot in Last Specter. Also the game also has a lot of reveals that go... absolutely nowhere? There's an entire exposition segment fairly early into the game, where Layton whimsically deduces three of the villains' magic acts in their entirety. Not soon after, the magician performs another magic trick and Layton is able to come up with the solution to what just happened about 5 minutes after the events. I don't know, but to me it felt like the game was cheapening those moments by nearly immediately resolving them on a whim later. Why even bother listing them in the "Mysteries" section of the game if you're not even given time to think about these mysteries yourself?

What really dragged down this game for me however, was the entirety of Chapter 6. Minor gameplay spoilers ahead I guess? So, you've been solving puzzles and collecting hint coins for the past five chapters now. Great, right? How about the game turns into a mystery dungeon game?! Not going into the plot specifics here, but for a specific cause, Layton needs to navigate a cave with multiple floors. You would think it would be a short segment, since this sort of gameplay is experimental and has never been in any of the previous games before. NO! Enjoy your nine floors of rolling rocks and avoiding mummies. And just so you know, every floor consists of a handful of these rooms and an occasional puzzle - featuring a mandatory puzzle with forced gyro controls. I really hope Azran Legacy doesn't try this approach of gameplay again and just sticks to point-and-click navigation with a puzzle here and there throughout the entire game.

Now onto Azran Legacy to get to know all these characters Miracle Mask throws at you at the last possible moment (to get you hyped? I don't even know anymore). Thanks for reading and forgive me the ranting review for once.

I mean, it's not bad, but I guess I just expect something a little more engaging from the Layton series. Big positives are the soundtrack and the one Shop minigame. As far as the plot goes, I don't exactly have high expectations for Layton plots because I understand that the games are for kids and that Unwound Future is too good to expect its quality every time, but this game's plot specifically spends a lot of time on the culrpit's identity, which is one of the most obvious plot twists in video games, instead of actually focusing on any of the more interesting mysteries around the culprit's means and motive. As far as puzzles go, I was actually rather disappointed by this game's puzzles. I noticed a particular trend in the puzzle design of this game, and they came up so often that I started referring to them as "intern puzzles". The formula is that there's some story problem laid out to make for the mechanics of a puzzle. Something like "This ant has to cross over a matrix of overlapping pencils to reach the other side, which single pencil can you pick up to give him a clear path?" And then there'll be a complicated matrix of overlapping pencils, 6 of which are colored. So you'll spend a few minutes tracing the potential paths the ant can go down, which ways get cut off, what would happen if you removed a pencil that was obstructing, what would happen if you moved a pencil to lift something on top of it, what would happen if you placed a pencil down elsewhere to serve as a bridge, etc. And then after a while you realize the ant is sitting on top of a colored pencil and that the answer is to lift that one up and just place it on the other side. Basically, the solution is to not engage with the puzzle created at all and to instead engage with the story that the puzzle is framed with. The first time you see this it's cute, a humorous little gotcha, but when it starts to feel like 10-20% of the puzzles in the game do variants of this trick, the game starts to feel a bit hollow. That's not to say there aren't any good puzzles, in fact I'd say the 3DS's hardware was used well on a number of them, but I guess they felt a bit... lazy? Like a "we've been doing this for 5 games" mentality.

definitivamente foi o meu Professor Layton menos favorito até agora, isso siginifica que ele é ruim? de forma nenhuma!
no início eu estranhei bastante a mudança pros gráficos 3D mas com o tempo dá de se acostumar e eles são muito mais expressivos já que se movimantam e gesticulam durante todas os diágolos.

a OST é incrível e maravilhosa como já é de prache da série, mas a história parece deixar um pouco a desejar com a revelação final sendo muito previsível (mas mesmo assim sendo emocionante e perfeitamente construída).

além dos gráficos, a mudança de gameplay também é de se estranhar bastante no começo mas com o tempo é bastante fácil de acostumar e esse novo estilo até tem algumas vantagens em relação aos títulos de DS.

This was the only Layton I had left to play, I didnt like the 3ds models at the time it released and totally forgot about it until a few days, it was really nice going back into the series after so long, so I may be a little bias.

I really liked the story, the tension and mistrust between some of the characters is really well written and the puzzles were great. The OST is amazing and I really love the city of Montedore.

The game has its flaws; chapter 6 is a 2-hour loop of the same puzzles over and over again, and you must go through it with the most annoying, nerd emoji, unbearable character i've ever seen in this series. Some of the mysteries are also quite obvious.

Great game overall tho

The fifth installment takes Layton in the series' most memorable setting yet brought to life by a (as per usual) stellar soundtrack and vibrant environments, even when the transition from hand-drawn 2D to a rudimentary 3D results in a noticeably rougher visual style, but the narrative within struggles to be interesting. New characters are shallow and the plot's mysteries are mostly either underwhelmingly predictable or have resolutions so ridiculously preposterous I'm inclined to call offensive. Puzzles too, while displaying the same charming creativity and variety they always have, too rarely offer a real challenge, at some points resembling minigames more than genuine brainteasers, making for the least entertaining and rewarding Layton game yet.