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.
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.