shockingly if you do an HD remaster of a masterpiece of mystery storytelling, give it a gorgeous new coat of paint, really banging rearrangements, then FINALLY make it accessible by putting it on all modern consoles after it was locked only to DS and iOS

you get fucking peak fiction all over again, but now for everyone

play this game. it's a masterpiece in every way

ok fuck two puzzles but whatever that's minor in the grand scheme of things

this may get knocked down in future as im replaying the series

i grew up w Layton on the DS so this was an absolute nostalgia trip, i love how gorgeous this looked & sounded in HD, and even though i apparently remembered EVERY twist it still was great cause this game is a master of foreshadowing and it was neat seeing how it all builds up to the reveals

logic puzzles im godlike at, fuck the maths ones and REALLY fuck the sliding block ones 🔥🔥💯💯💯

i find the funny sausage man funny and this game oozes charm. onto playing pandora on my 3ds because i somehow still own that! ill miss the HD

was super excited to play a game directed by both Uchikoshi and Kodaka and the music in this game slaps, the dialogue is cheesy but endearing, the characters are fun, the sun and moon character designer worked on this and it shows, and the story is above average with some minor issues. so you'd think i liked this game right? well uh Unfortunately, it's got straight up some of the worst gameplay and level design i've played in recent memory to the point where it made a short game take me almost a whole year to beat cause i was getting so annoyed and didnt wanna come back to it

over the last few weeks i was stubborn tho and decided i WOULD beat it and so i did! & yeah uh this game kinda sucks. i hate to admit that when it's made by two of my fave directors but the story isn't amazing enough to make up for the fact that the game is clunky w bad design :(

I will LITERALLY pay them money to stick to visual novels

The best game in the original trilogy by a long shot. While the first is the only one that's truly a solvable mystery from start to finish, this one is still a lot more solvable than 2.

It's also the one with the deepest, most emotional story; the best voice acting (Miller puts in his best performance yet by far, actually making Layton feel more fleshed out); best OST; generally great puzzles; and overall feels like the most complete game. You can tell this was meant to be the last game, though I am very much happy we got the prequel trilogy, plus a new sequel incoming!

Just an absolute banger.

And yeah, I still weep at the ending.

My only real criticism is that between everyone pining for Claire and how this is the best Flora is treated (and it's still not great...), the treatment of women in this game definitely could do with some improvement. Claire and Flora are, at least, great characters from what we see of them at least. And I wouldn't call this game or series misogynistic or anything like that, I just wish Flora had more to do, and Claire wasn't just the motivation for everyone ever.

oh and i love don paolo he funny

note that I've not played the post-game or special world at all yet!

this game is SO close to being peak. I love the unhinged creativity that this game has for the most part. the animations and sound design are so charming, and the level design is amazing as are the physics

but man. some of those badge II levels are goddamn frustrating and shitty honestly. and people weren't kidding about how disappointing those boss fights are! the final one especially was a cool concept for a fight but such a let down from what I had hoped and expected

still though, 2D mario is back baaaaybeeeeeeeeeeee

Breath of the Wild was my 6th favourite game of all time and my favourite Switch game by a longshot.

Tears of the Kingdom makes it look like a demo in comparison. Here's my full thoughts, copied straight from my Twitter thread:
BOTW's first 10-50 hours has a magic that I thought was impossible to capture. TOTK not only recaptured said magic as best as it could, but throughout still wow'd me even near the end of the game. there were many points where the magic was lost ofc but it oft returned. and that alone is incredible.

while I miss the melancholy of BOTW's world, the fact that TOTK's is more lived in shows a world in recovery and that people try and bounce back and heal, and I think that's beautiful

I loved the story. theres not loads of depth to it but I think they found an amazing way to tell a more traditional Zelda story while still keeping to the format of BOTW's structure. it does lead to some weird moments if you don't do things in a set order (I knew where Zelda was while the story had Link say he didn't lol) but it kept me engaged and got me emotional at many points. sometimes I wanted to actually continue w the story and not just explore! and that's huge!

between the story and the fact that the world is more lived in, it meant there was more to do in this than BOTW, and while I'm not the type of player to complain about BOTW being "empty" or whatever, I think having so much in the world in comparison is why I have a higher play time and also why having it be the same Hyrule never gets stale. it never feels exactly the same

new mechanics rock!

i love all the new abilities a lot, and exploring the depths and sky islands are fun; though i admit both are a little more barren than id like and i wish there was a little more to do in both, especially after the first 10-20 hours

i love recall to undo my mistakes

one thing that definitely lost its magic for me was ultrahand. it's still an awesome mechanic but i stopped using it for creative solutions like halfway/three quarters through and really only used it as intended near the end or in shrines

but i think im just not creative enough

while i don't think this is a perfect game, i do think it's a masterpiece and easily my game of the year, and the best game ive played on switch.

to recapture even some of the magic of BOTW is a miracle. to make BOTW look small and like a demo in comparison? genuinely incredible

tl;dr: I cried a few times and the final boss was cool, as was the rest of the game. 10/10 what else can you ask for in a game Huh Bud