Wow, I went into this game already knowing it was the Professor Layton game that everyone raved as the best of the best, and they weren't kidding. In fact, when a friend told me this was one of the best video games they ever played, I went ahead and bought and played the first two in order to fully enjoy Unwound Future, and I'm so glad I did it.

This game is beautiful in story, fully having me enthralled with Layton's past and his love life. The twist at the very end where Celeste really was Claire all along had me crying along with Layton. Luke bringing up him leaving at the end felt like it came out of nowhere in the game, but I was so emotionally invested I really didn't care. It felt right.

I never imagined a Professor Layton game to affect me so emotionally, everything in the story so perfectly fell into line for me. It had me completely enthralled wanting to hear more. I didn't care that I could tell from the start that "Future Lucas" obviously had ill intentions, but I honestly didn't care to see how predictable that was. I was invested.

The gameplay was also just a great improvement, having mini boss battles in the moment so perfectly engrained to the puzzle system, and having the final bosses of the game actually feel the pressure of a final boss that the earlier games were missing.

Why a 4 over a 5 though when everything seems so perfect? Well, to be completely honest, some of the puzzles annoyed me in that they were less so puzzles and more so making kids do basic algebra in order to solve them. A large amount of the puzzles I felt involved having to do math which honestly... good on them for making such a great educational game. Additionally, the story IS all over the place, but is charming enough that I was able to brush it off a bit. Though, I can't blame people for being annoyed at the mess of it.

I finished the game 10 minutes ago and am already recommending it to everyone I can. An amazing conclusion to the original trilogy.