At last, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy comes full circle

I wanted to see Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy end many times since picking it up and putting it down for the last two-plus years, but it seemingly refused to do so. It kept pushing its closing moments and credits further away. The game continued warning me that there was no turning back only to then reveal that, yeah, you can totally turn back to find those hint coins and last remaining puzzles or just meander aimlessly from region to region. I will freely admit that I didn’t help thrust this story to its resolution after I discovered what the whole World Times side quest was all about–don’t worry, I’ll explain more a few paragraphs down–but man, this was all a little drawn out.

First, a refresher on the story. Trust me, I needed one after frequently walking away from Layton’s sixth adventure, and the game even provides you a short summary each time you return, to get you back to speed. Right. The mysterious organization called Targent wishes to use the ancient civilization of the Azran’s mystical power for itself. Targent’s rival and everyone’s favorite mask-wearing, self-proclaimed scientist Jean Descole also wants to harness this power. Neither should wield it, naturally. Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy begins with Layton, Luke, and Emmy boarding the airship Bostonius and heading for a place called Froenberg. The three of them received a letter from Professor Desmond Sycamore, an eminent archaeologist, who believes he has found a so-called living “mummy.” Upon arrival, they meet their mummy–Aurora, a girl frozen in ice, closely connected to the Azran civilization.

The story has its moments. I particularly liked searching after the five Azran eggs and seeing where each egg was hidden and how to get it in our meaty paws. For instance, in the jungle village of Phong Gi, the chief of the tribe is only willing to give up his egg to the gang if they can make him laugh. Contrary to that tone, in the windy village of Hoogland, the group learns of a tradition where young women must be sacrificed in order to appease a wind god; thankfully, they discover this is not actually happening and that an Azran machine was creating the stormy winds. Each egg-acquiring section are good, interesting accounts, with many memorable characters taking center stage when Layton isn’t solving a puzzle or two. I will quickly say and not get into spoilers, but the last act of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is one twist after another, to the point of ridiculousness. It was the closest the game has come to basically being a TV soap opera’s series finale, and no, not in a good way. Sorry, the Emmy thing was too much. I understand this is the last game to star the top hat-wearing gentleman and they probably wanted to go out on a bang, but there was too much bang.

Okay, now let’s chat puzzles. Mmm. If you’ve played a Professor Layton game before, then none of what is here will surprise you. There are mazes, math equations, general deducing, and some guess-work. I hated the ones where you have to recreate a picture using colored blocks and layering them on top of each other, but those are few and unessential. Of all the entries I’ve touched, which include The Curious Village, The Last Specter, and The Miracle Mask, I have to say that this one had the least exciting mini-games to engage with, and that’s saying a lot because one of those mini-games is basically playing dress up, the only thing I cared about in Grand Theft Auto V and one of the main driving forces behind my time with Disney Magical World 2 now. Anyways, there’s Nutty Roller, Bloom Burst, and Dress Up–I completed none of them, but came the closest on the last item. As always, there’s plenty of hint coins in the environment to pick up and use at your discretion; I haven’t felt shame using them for many years now.

So, this whole time, as I’ve been playing Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, one of the sections in Layton’s trunk continued to update with new details–World Times. These are newspaper clips, often popping up after you finished visiting an area, telling some strange side story of an event or character. I swore I thought they were merely cosmetic, there to make the world feel realer, bigger. Nope. They are basically side quests, which lead to more puzzles and unlockable clothing for the dress-up minigame. See, the problem is that I never went back to any of the story locations after completing them, assuming they were good and done, drained of every hidden object, hint coin, and character interaction. Well, I was wrong, and so a large part of my going back to this game involved tracking down every single World Times quest and completing it, which added to its length for sure.

The animated cutscenes continue to be beautifully done. Every time one came up, I’d get real excited and hold the Nintendo 3DS firmly in my hands and slightly closer to my face. They are heavy on action and scenery, which is a great break from the more stilted, and sometimes overdrawn, dialogue-heavy sequences where Layton is trying to get Luke or Emmy to figure out what he already knows. I really should, at some point, track down Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva simply to marvel in these moments for longer than a few minutes. I mean, if truth be told, the puzzles sometimes are just the means to another gorgeous cutscene.

Well, that’s that. I played the very first game in the series, and then the entire trilogy of prequels. Which is rather fitting, as the end of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy goes right into Professor Layton and the Curious Village, bringing everything full circle. That connective tissue between the two games feels really special, and makes me think about that first adventure differently, knowing what I now know about Layton, Luke, and even Emmy, though she’s obviously not there for their trip to St. Mystere. I have no immediate plans to find copies of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, especially since a GameStop employee rudely spoiled how the final chronological game in the series concludes. Still, obviously, the best game in the franchise is London Life, and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

2016 Game Review Haiku, #80 – Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

Find ancient relics
Awake civilization
Use lots of hint coins

–

Here we go again. Another year of me attempting to produce quality Japanese poetry about the videogames I complete in three syllable-based phases of 5, 7, and 5. I hope you never tire of this because, as far as I can see into the murky darkness–and leap year–that is 2016, I’ll never tire of it either. Perhaps this’ll be the year I finally cross the one hundred mark. Buckle up–it’s sure to be a bumpy ride. Yoi ryokō o.

Not defending the use of drones in Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

I’d worry that throwaway on-rails action sequences at the beginning of the latest mysterious story are becoming a trend in the new Professor Layton games on the 3DS, but it sounds like Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is to be his final adventure, and so that nips that theory in the butt. I kind of don’t believe this is the end for our top hat-wearing detective, but then again, Nintendo loves to ignore beloved characters from time to time. Regardless, these over-the-top sequences are jarring and contradictory to the series’ quirky charm–i.e., everything else–but shooting drones was at least more enjoyable and involving than guiding a horse down Monte d’Or’s winding streets.

But before I get to talking about shooting down drones in a child-friendly, cute and colorful Professor Layton videogame, let me first give y’all the setup. Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is the sixth–and possibly last–adventure. The game opens with our constant prequel trilogy cast of Layton, apprentice Luke, and assistant Emmy Altava heading to the exotic locale of Froenburg, summoned there by Professor Sycamore to assist him in reviving a long-dead civilization. At this point, I’ve played an hour or so, and now know exactly what this Sycamore character wants Layton to help him with, but anything further story details are unknown to me. Unfortunately, some nefarious fellow–who I won’t name–and his goons are also hot on Sycamore’s tail, ready to cause trouble and steal things that aren’t rightfully theirs.

Which leads us to the chase sequence. This time, instead of riding a horse and avoiding barrels, you are piloting the airship Bostonius, in quick pursuit of he-who-will-not-be-named. To slow you down, you-know-who throws out drones to attack your ship, and you must shoot them down. Now, because this is a handheld puzzle game, you’re not pulling left trigger then right trigger to take them out. Instead, you have to figure out which correct drone to shoot through a puzzle, and you shoot them by dragging the cursor over the selected one and tapping on the touchscreen. Some sections ask you to select the one unlike the others, and another might have you tapping them in a specific order. I failed a few parts, too, but the action kept going, so this seems like just fodder, something to do during an action scene instead of simply watching a beautifully animated cutscene. In truth, I’d prefer the latter.

But really now, there’s just something so charming and comforting about these games to me that I can deal with a silly throwaway tapping sequence. The music is bouncy and less like Chrono Cross this time around, and I’ve gotten so used to the 3D models now and Layton and Luke blinking that I don’t even remember how it used to be. I also love the menus and everything in Layton’s trunk and each puzzle, which I never rush through, even if I can guess the answer right away. I guess I’m trying to savor each second.

And just like with Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, along with all the puzzles found in the main game, you can also connect to the Nintendo Network in order to download additional puzzles. For a whole year. These puzzles are made available weekly for a year following release, with seven puzzles made available each week; there’s some new categories to learn, as well as a few repeats from the previous edition. I am not excited to the see “bounce the ghost light off the mirrors” puzzles back for another swing.

So yeah, I’m excited to see more of the story unfold, so long as there are no more pointless action sequences wedged between intelligent sleuthing and being thorough on every scene for hidden hint coins and special items. I suspect I’ll even be sad to see it all end.