This is as creatively bankrupt as it gets. From the outset this game just looks like an incredibly mediocre Layton game, but when you actually play it it's almost remarkable how poorly thought out it really is. It's not even mediocre, it's straight up bad.
Layton games are carried by three things: Fun puzzles, intriguing stories and mysteries, and charm. Layton's Mystery Journey fails in every one of those categories. The puzzle designer for the rest of the series, Akira Tago, unfortunately passed away before this entry was released and it shows. The new puzzles are terrible, either being incredibly mundane and pitifully easy to the point where I solved a few on accident, or having downright stupid solutions. Trick question puzzles are common in this series, but Mystery Journey uses them in the worst way possible. As an example, one puzzle requires you to look at a stack of boxes on a picture on the top screen from an isometric perspective and then input how many squares are in the image. This puzzle type has been used before so LMJ took the creative liberty of making it suck balls. The solution to this puzzle is simply one, because the only actual square on the top screen is the picture displayed! Didn't you know that bro?! Aren't we so clever hahahahaha we should make more puzzles where the solution doesn't require any critical thinking and the answer is just 1 or 0!!!!
When I first played Curious Village I interacted with every last object in the environment I could because I wanted to find puzzles and hint coins. I thought the puzzles were fun and satisfying. Here however, at a certain point I deliberately avoided interacting with anything that could trigger an optional puzzle because of how unfun and frankly moronic they were. If you make it where I want to inspect everything as little as possible in your adventure visual novel then you've failed miserably.
If the puzzles didn't tell you to quit then the story will. There is no overarching story, just individual hour long cases that have the depth of a toilet bowl. The mysteries are incredibly obvious and uninteresting because they have no longer than an hour to get fleshed out. Why am I supposed to care about these 7 millionaires if each of them have no more than an hour of screen time and have as much character as a stale piece of bread? Not even like the main cast is much better, there is never any attempt at character development outside of a twist villain who gets to be a villain for 5 minutes and does literally nothing in that timespan. Instead of spreading the game thin by making 12 individual stories why didn't they just make one continuous one to let characters develop and bigger mysteries take shape?
There is nothing positive to take away from this game. Even from a visual standpoint it's not even that impressive compared to the previous titles, same goes for the soundtrack. Also, London is such a stale setting for a game like this. Every other Layton game had memorable locations to serve as the stage for each mystery, meanwhile here all you get is more British dick riding. Look guys it's the Big Ben!!! The Thames!!!! Isn't this place so cool?!?! Even though literally every other game or movie that takes place in London feels the need to shove those landmarks down your throat. It turns otherwise cool places into tired set pieces that makes each game that includes them blend in with one another. Unwound Future took place in London, but it was complimented by a future London with different visuals and locations that made it into a more hostile setting. The final case has a cool mansion serve as the final location, it gives off some Diabolical Box vibes, but it still could've been cool if more than an hour of the runtime was spent there.
I can't think of one good thing to say about this game. I know some might think I'm over exaggerating, but as someone who doesn't have as much free time as he used to, I value the time I spend with every game I play. I want there to be something to take away from each experience so that ,even if the game is bad, there's some aspect or part of it to think about that makes me not regret playing it. There's nothing interesting about Layton's Mystery Journey. Absolutely Level 5's worst work yet and I hope it never gets topped. Level 5 is a studio I have a ton of respect for, their games are incredibly ambitious and charming, sometimes too ambitious to the point where it causes problems (Yo-Kai Watch 2, Azran Legacy, etc.). But at least the heart is still there. There is no ambition in Mystery Journey. It's a pathetic attempt at trying to appeal to a larger market of mobile gamers that probably would've preferred a regular Layton game anyway.
Level 5's greatest asset and weakness is their ambition, but what do you get when that ambition isn't there? You get nothing, and the worst thing you can do with your time is play a nothing game.
I hope New World Of Steam is good : (
Layton games are carried by three things: Fun puzzles, intriguing stories and mysteries, and charm. Layton's Mystery Journey fails in every one of those categories. The puzzle designer for the rest of the series, Akira Tago, unfortunately passed away before this entry was released and it shows. The new puzzles are terrible, either being incredibly mundane and pitifully easy to the point where I solved a few on accident, or having downright stupid solutions. Trick question puzzles are common in this series, but Mystery Journey uses them in the worst way possible. As an example, one puzzle requires you to look at a stack of boxes on a picture on the top screen from an isometric perspective and then input how many squares are in the image. This puzzle type has been used before so LMJ took the creative liberty of making it suck balls. The solution to this puzzle is simply one, because the only actual square on the top screen is the picture displayed! Didn't you know that bro?! Aren't we so clever hahahahaha we should make more puzzles where the solution doesn't require any critical thinking and the answer is just 1 or 0!!!!
When I first played Curious Village I interacted with every last object in the environment I could because I wanted to find puzzles and hint coins. I thought the puzzles were fun and satisfying. Here however, at a certain point I deliberately avoided interacting with anything that could trigger an optional puzzle because of how unfun and frankly moronic they were. If you make it where I want to inspect everything as little as possible in your adventure visual novel then you've failed miserably.
If the puzzles didn't tell you to quit then the story will. There is no overarching story, just individual hour long cases that have the depth of a toilet bowl. The mysteries are incredibly obvious and uninteresting because they have no longer than an hour to get fleshed out. Why am I supposed to care about these 7 millionaires if each of them have no more than an hour of screen time and have as much character as a stale piece of bread? Not even like the main cast is much better, there is never any attempt at character development outside of a twist villain who gets to be a villain for 5 minutes and does literally nothing in that timespan. Instead of spreading the game thin by making 12 individual stories why didn't they just make one continuous one to let characters develop and bigger mysteries take shape?
There is nothing positive to take away from this game. Even from a visual standpoint it's not even that impressive compared to the previous titles, same goes for the soundtrack. Also, London is such a stale setting for a game like this. Every other Layton game had memorable locations to serve as the stage for each mystery, meanwhile here all you get is more British dick riding. Look guys it's the Big Ben!!! The Thames!!!! Isn't this place so cool?!?! Even though literally every other game or movie that takes place in London feels the need to shove those landmarks down your throat. It turns otherwise cool places into tired set pieces that makes each game that includes them blend in with one another. Unwound Future took place in London, but it was complimented by a future London with different visuals and locations that made it into a more hostile setting. The final case has a cool mansion serve as the final location, it gives off some Diabolical Box vibes, but it still could've been cool if more than an hour of the runtime was spent there.
I can't think of one good thing to say about this game. I know some might think I'm over exaggerating, but as someone who doesn't have as much free time as he used to, I value the time I spend with every game I play. I want there to be something to take away from each experience so that ,even if the game is bad, there's some aspect or part of it to think about that makes me not regret playing it. There's nothing interesting about Layton's Mystery Journey. Absolutely Level 5's worst work yet and I hope it never gets topped. Level 5 is a studio I have a ton of respect for, their games are incredibly ambitious and charming, sometimes too ambitious to the point where it causes problems (Yo-Kai Watch 2, Azran Legacy, etc.). But at least the heart is still there. There is no ambition in Mystery Journey. It's a pathetic attempt at trying to appeal to a larger market of mobile gamers that probably would've preferred a regular Layton game anyway.
Level 5's greatest asset and weakness is their ambition, but what do you get when that ambition isn't there? You get nothing, and the worst thing you can do with your time is play a nothing game.
I hope New World Of Steam is good : (