Review #740: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

 The miracle maker

 Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask marks an important moment for the series, the moment it went 3-D. Graphics never mattered for games like the Layton series, but trust me, the new dimension breathes new life into its world, and it's gonna be hard to go back.

 The story picks up sometime after The Last Specter, with Layton travelling alongside Emmy and Luke. Their dynamic is as engaging as ever, although I felt like Luke and Emmy took a backseat to Layton and his antics. And there's a good reason for that, since this game delves even deeper into Layton's younger years, long before he met Claire. Half of the games chapters are spent with Layton joining up with people from his past as he tries to uncover the mystery behind the Masked gentlemen, while the other half of the chapters retell how Layton lost his best friend and drifted apart from his other friends. It's an interesting narrative, although I can't help but feel like I would've liked to see more of Emmy and Luke. This is the longest Layton game yet, although it only contains 150 puzzles. There are also 364 downloadable puzzles, but they are divided into 20 or so different types of puzzles.

 As mentioned before, the new graphics are gorgeous, featuring well-made, colorful character models against beautiful hand-drawn environments made up of multiple layers for an added feel of depth. The backgrounds and characters are very sharp, making it a pleasure to look at. The exploration interface has been tweaked for the better, now you enter and exit examination mode, while you travel between areas by tapping on the bottom screen. It's very simple and intuitive. Sadly, the Puzzle interface has been made a bit less helpful. Puzzles now default to the "submit" section on the bottom screen, while the upper screen holds an image that, most of the time, must be examined to solve the puzzle or riddle. So where's the actual text for the riddles? Well, you have to tap a button to display it or hide it. And it might be a while before you notice that you can place it on the upper or lower screen. Regardless, no place feels comfortable. Put it up, in order to take notes as you read and you'll miss out on the image. Put it on the bottom screen and you can't take notes. It really highlights the elegant simplicity of how the previous games managed to place everything you needed in a comfortable, accessible way. It's not something you can't get used to, but it's something that worked much better in previous games.

 The puzzles themselves felt a bit more forgettable than the ones from previous offerings. I can't exactly speak for everyone, but I felt like these puzzles weren't very memorable. Sometimes, after you successfully clear a puzzle, there won't be an explanation for the solution, which means that you could get the answer by accident and not get a proper explanation on how you were supposed to figure it out. It's rare, but it's something that put me off the few instances it happened. The final past-chapter is a mini dungeon-like minigame that has no place in Layton. You must dig for puzzles and coins, while dealing with simple boulder-pushing puzzles. What makes it unbearable is that pretty much every time you enter a new room, Young Layton and his pal Randall will take a few seconds to state the obvious. I just wanted this entire chapter to end.

 As for the minigames, we have a Robot-grid movement puzzle set that was alright, a Shop minigame in which you must arrange items following a set of rules in order to get a customer to buy everything, which was incredibly fun, and, lastly a Rabbit Theater minigame, that has a dumb rabbit-petting system in order to teach the rabbit tricks so that you can then pick for him to use in a play. It was pretty boring.

 Layton's jump into 3-D was a total success, the game is gorgeous, and despite it being a launch game in Japan, it still is one of the best looking games in the system, from both an artistic side and a technical side. That said, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask feels like one of the weakest entries yet, with forgettable puzzles and a poor puzzle UI when compared to previous games. Come what may, I'm rooting for Azran Legacy to make the most from this new engine while tweaking what didn't work from this one. Reception for that game was mixed, but....
 6.5 out of 10