Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo 3DS) review

[Golgo]

The long-awaited Western release of the union of Level 5's mystery/puzzle franchise and Capcom's detective/courtroom franchise is finally here, and it's terrific. As these games are so heavily story-driven it's hard not to spoiler, but suffice to say it starts off fairly conventionally with both sets of protagonists (Layton and Luke, Wright and Maya) doing their separate things, and you get a couple of hours of each of them working independently, which is fairly heavily 'tutorialized'. Then a certain scenario draws them in and whisks them magically away to a realm where the laws of logic, reason and cause-and-effect don't work quite as they are all used to, which means their views of the world and their skills of puzzling, deduction and argumentation are tested in more peculiar ways. It is only then - after several hours of play - that the two protagonists meet up and the two play styles of puzzle solving and courtroom cross-examination start to bleed into each other.

For some reason I haven't played either of these franchises since their first appearances on the DS as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Loved those games but have somehow dodged everything in-between so it all feels nice and fresh to me. Some reviews I've read say it's not as good as the best of each series and also that it's easier. The puzzles seem like decently-pitched and original head-scratchers to me, always themed to the character or scene you're interrogating, and the courtroom stuff also requires you to pay proper attention and choose your moments correctly. I managed to fluff the prologue trial entirely and get a Game Over!

The presentation is superb. Characters are varied and brimming with life, full of bizarre and even surreal idiosyncrasies, especially when courtroom witnesses get flustered; the animation is simple but effective; the backdrops are lush, varied and detailed and a joy to prod; the 3D effect is delightful. Let's hope Nintendo keep 3D in their future handhelds as when it's used as well as this it is utterly enchanting and makes the 2D versions seem dull and unfinished. They've kept the different visual styles of the two franchises intact (slightly more cartoony for Layton, slightly more realistic for Wright) but even when together in the same scene they don't feel jarring. Voice acting and music are also spot-on with the classic themes in place, and some cheeky musical cross-fertilization too (

->Open Spoiler<-

Wright's theme on Layton's accordian, for example

).

I'll try to post more as I get further in, but at the moment I'm really happy with it and I'm going to take my time to get fully immersed in this charming world...

EDIT: played further, more plot developments that are intriguing and surprisingly dark...

[Golgo]

Have pushed on a bit more, about 12 hours in and I'm still getting tutorialized here and there so it's a slow-burn game to say the least! Some nice new additions (at least I think they're new) to the trials in that you have to deal with group testimonies of several witness on the stand at once, and respond to how different witnesses react to each other's testimony and try to pit them against each other by finding contraditions between them. The whole court dynamic is changed in that the defendant is now presumed guilty until proven innocent, which seems to put much greater burdens on Wright and team. The scenarios are unusually grim what with the addition of insta-death penalties for the defendants, and there's been a few nasty executions which was quite unexpected given the overall light tone. The witnesses are a horrible, murderous bunch as well. Courtroom mechanic has the same niggles as I remember from first Wright game in that you have to present your evidence at precisely the point the game expects, which is not always the most logical. It would be good if they could work a bit of flexibility into this to allow for different ways of arriving at the solution, but anyway there it is. Back into a heavy puzzling section between trials now, and again they're really well integrated/themed with the fantasy/medieval world but are not especially challenging. Haven't needed to use a hint coin so far and have only fluffed one puzzle. Back to adventure.

[fuse]

Thanks for continuing to update. I really want to play this but there's still no bloody US release date!

[Golgo]

No probs, Fuse. Odd for the US to get it after Europe for a change. Anyway I'll keep chipping away and adding thoughts. The plot is developing into a terrific mystery yarn, don't know where the heck it's going...

[Golgo]

Just finished this and I massively enjoyed it. I feel it went on too long, though. My save topped 32 hours and it could have been wrapped up much more quickly and dynamically by eliminating a lot of the more rambling, repetitive chatter, which sometimes spoils the pace of the adventure:

"Come, my boy, a gentleman must always give assistance to a lady in trouble!""
"And I'm a gentleman in training, professor!"
"Indeed you are, my boy!""
"I'll give it 100, no 150%, professor!"
"Then let us proceed, but with caution."
"You can rely on me, professor!"
"Quickly then, there's no time to waste!""
"Yes, Miss X must be really worried!"
"I should say! Let us make haste, then, but again - I say - with caution."
"Lead the way, professor!"

Etc., ... the A button gets a right hammering.

Can't say too much about the plot for fear of spoilers, except that it keeps you guessing (reviewers, e.g. Eurogamer, who claim they'd worked it out 10 hours before the end are lying) and stretches credibility almost beyond breaking point time and again, but ultimately brings it round to a surprising and very touching ending. Some of the scenarios are brilliantly bizarre and near-the-knuckle, even in terms of sexual allusions. The puzzles were always enjoyable and well themed to the context of the story and environment and had very little repetition (although this may be down to them being fewer in number than a usual Layton game), but they were curiously patchy in terms of difficulty and always at their simplest - paradoxically - when you are getting near to the heart of the main mysteries. I don't have much of a head for logic puzzles but even I managed to complete all but two on the first try without needing hints. Finished with 188 hint coins un-used out of a total of 195 found, so that gives you a sense of how straightforward it is, and half of the ones I did use were for a single puzzle that - I will insist to my dying breath - is totally arbitrary and broken (

->Open Spoiler<-

No. 26: Mousequerade

).

I'd like to see a degree of flexibility added to the courtroom gameplay: too much relies on presenting the right evidence at the moment the game wants you too, and it would be good to be able to make your own way through the case. At points the rigidity of this system simply breaks the logic/narrative of the game: on one occasion I fluffed the delivery of the right piece of evidence (right evidence, slightly wrong time), leading to a conviction, even though prior events had proven the accused to be innocent. Cross-examing many witnesses at the same time was terrific fun, but you can imagine just how may hours the trials go on for!

There was good crossover between Layton and Wright in terms of plot and characters, with the pairs/sidekicks often getting parted and mixed up, but there was hardly any crossover of gameplay styles. Occasionally a logic puzzle would be dropped into a trial, and just once a puzzle required 'cross examination' of its (transparently simple) wording, but these felt tokenistic. To have, for example, a puzzle presented by a group of unreliable witnesses, each with their own contradictory advice on how to crack it, might have been one way to bring the two game-styles together more interestingly.

Artwork and music are absolutely top-notch from beginning to end, and once the game's over you unlock a very attractive 'suite' of music, art, film, and audio-clip galleries, as well as DLC content including production notes with early concept art/character models and new post-game story episodes with puzzles. Free DLC?! What madness be this?! Currently there are five of these extra episodes available in EU-land and twelve are promised in all. I'm too fatigued with Layton/Wright to have tried them yet, but their titles alone suggest funny new angles.

EDIT: finished the DLC, very amusing stuff and good puzzles. Mostly consists of the cast playing 'to camera' and taking the rise out of themselves, the script, the whole fact of the DLC being recycled bits that weren't good enough to get into the main game, as well as re-visiting scenarios from the game to point out and make fun of obvious plot holes. It's cleverly done. And here endeth my firstplay report. Enjoy.