What has four legs in the morning and two legs in the afternoon?
That's right! It's the Layton games! The Curious Village crawled so that the Diabolical Box could run.
Almost every aspect of the prequel is improved on. The primary for me was the puzzles being more intertwined with the game progression and the mystery. It's less "this reminds me of a puzzle" or "prove me you are the real Layton" and more like you are solving problems to discover something or find a new lead. It's hard to explain but in the last game it almost feels like you are watching a movie but every 5 minutes a sudoku appears in the screen and you must solve it if you wanna keep watching.
It's a minor thing but I also like that the sprites aren't looking directly at my soul and face each other like they would in a conversation. The scenario are also a upgrade because you explore more scenarios than just a village. The Molentary Express is really elegant and gives me more of the London atmosphere, Dropstone is a charming bucolic village but where you spend the most time and is the most interesting location is the town of Folsense. The lights and the sense of decadence really sells it for me.
The mystery of the Elysian Box is also more intriguing than the Golden Apple and the narrative flows better. I still can't decide if I like or not the resolution but it works in the theme and the message. The Diabolical Box is a lot about greed, decadence and letting the past go.
The puzzles I feel that are also more fun this time, maybe because it seems to have less math and sliding boxes. For the chess puzzle, The Knight's Tour was a lot harder and more unfun than Too Many Queens and I couldn't solve Disappearing Act 6 by myself, but it was still nice.
I also want to talk a bit about Layton and Luke. They have a dinamic like Sherlock and Watson in a sense. Layton always seems to be two steps ahead of everyone but keep it to himself and it's almost like a hero in old stories, where he is a perfect being able to do everything. Luke is more naive and sometimes is almost like the voice of reason not buying some bs or being like "it's really the time for a puzzle now?". They are really good at being those archetypes but I wonder if there are more to them than this. In two games they have basically no character development and we don't see that many facets other than the regular one. I'm not saying that this is bad and it must change, it's just something that I would like to see being worked on in a interesting way.
I have high hopes for the next game because it seems to be a fan favourite and is the last main series game chronogically. Trials and Tribulation is the game that elevates Ace Attorney to a masterpiece level and it would be nice if the Unwound Future does the same for this franchise.
That's right! It's the Layton games! The Curious Village crawled so that the Diabolical Box could run.
Almost every aspect of the prequel is improved on. The primary for me was the puzzles being more intertwined with the game progression and the mystery. It's less "this reminds me of a puzzle" or "prove me you are the real Layton" and more like you are solving problems to discover something or find a new lead. It's hard to explain but in the last game it almost feels like you are watching a movie but every 5 minutes a sudoku appears in the screen and you must solve it if you wanna keep watching.
It's a minor thing but I also like that the sprites aren't looking directly at my soul and face each other like they would in a conversation. The scenario are also a upgrade because you explore more scenarios than just a village. The Molentary Express is really elegant and gives me more of the London atmosphere, Dropstone is a charming bucolic village but where you spend the most time and is the most interesting location is the town of Folsense. The lights and the sense of decadence really sells it for me.
The mystery of the Elysian Box is also more intriguing than the Golden Apple and the narrative flows better. I still can't decide if I like or not the resolution but it works in the theme and the message. The Diabolical Box is a lot about greed, decadence and letting the past go.
The puzzles I feel that are also more fun this time, maybe because it seems to have less math and sliding boxes. For the chess puzzle, The Knight's Tour was a lot harder and more unfun than Too Many Queens and I couldn't solve Disappearing Act 6 by myself, but it was still nice.
I also want to talk a bit about Layton and Luke. They have a dinamic like Sherlock and Watson in a sense. Layton always seems to be two steps ahead of everyone but keep it to himself and it's almost like a hero in old stories, where he is a perfect being able to do everything. Luke is more naive and sometimes is almost like the voice of reason not buying some bs or being like "it's really the time for a puzzle now?". They are really good at being those archetypes but I wonder if there are more to them than this. In two games they have basically no character development and we don't see that many facets other than the regular one. I'm not saying that this is bad and it must change, it's just something that I would like to see being worked on in a interesting way.
I have high hopes for the next game because it seems to be a fan favourite and is the last main series game chronogically. Trials and Tribulation is the game that elevates Ace Attorney to a masterpiece level and it would be nice if the Unwound Future does the same for this franchise.