This was my first meeting with Professor Layton directly. I heard this was a good beginner game for both Layton and Phoenix. So I thought I can jump in without playing Layton games. I was wrong...

after playing Layton games and looking back to this game... This was a Layton game from beginning to end. Phoenix and Maya just feels like a guest characters with how only Layton progresses the main story. Oh also this game have the worst parts of the Layton games.
-Clusterfuck and needlesly complicated story? Check.
-Strangely convoluted family relationships? Check.
-The people that we need to "care about" other than the Phoenix and Layton team feels boring and cliche? Check.

So why the high praise then? It's a crossover game that's why.

Is there a no valuable part of this game? There is and it's called "golden court"(chapter 4) and suprised the hell out of me with how emotional it was. Also the only part that I felt like Shu Takumi involved in with how logic focused it was.

I still can't believe Shu Takumi worked on this with how it turned out.

Note: if you dislike some of the voices like me, there is an undub(japanese voice) patch at the web. Use it if you want