Professor Layton and the Last Specter is the first game in the prequel trilogy for the series and it wastes no time letting you know how much more expansive and immersive the world has gotten since it's inception. This map and it's characters feel incredibly lived in, and full of personality. That's the first thing I noticed starting this game and it's what hooked me immediately, and that's what I must really applaud this game for. Out of all the Layton entries, this game has one of the most interesting and engaging introduction chapters out of the series thus far, and quickly it became my favorite entries. HOWEVER, this changed over the course of the game's story. As the game creeped closer and closer to it's conclusion I quickly realized that the ending felt incredibly rushed. It felt like it moved a breakneck pace from Layton and crew not clear on what was going on in the town to having it all pretty much figured out in the span of like a chapter which felt kinda off considering the mysteries felt more gradually revealed in previous games. Despite this it didn't hamper my experience at all as I still found the origin story of Luke and Layton's friendship to be incredibly compelling as watching Luke start off as a weary and cynical shut in, blossom into an excited and cheerful boy felt natural, and heartwarming. The gameplay remained mostly the same however I felt there was slightly less puzzle variety out of previous entries, but that could just be me. The focus seemed to be mostly on math puzzles and less on logic puzzles which sucked for me considering I'm not good at math, like at all. Despite this I really enjoyed my time with Last Specter, and I'm excited to see the overarching mystery of Descole play out for the remaining 2 games in the main series.