AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I noticed we don't have a thread dedicated to it even though there's multiple games in the series and a crossover. I confess, I've only played the first two games, but I want to talk (and by that I mean rant) about my experience while playing, so here's goes.

The series as a whole has a sort of charming whimsical nature. The music is well chosen and the character designs are distinctive an unique. The epic moments got my heart racing and many of the puzzles are appropriately challenging. But there were frustrating moment even outside of the puzzles.

Curious Village
When the game opened, I could see there was an underlying mystery. As a die hard Phoenix Wright fan, I love mysteries. I could see the classic set-up: the isolated village, the enigmatic rich man and his family, the rumors of his inheritance. (I pretty much knew his daughter was the Golden Apple the moment she was mentioned, but that's not important here.) Even the reveal that Inspector Chelmey was Don Paolo made me feel like I was participating in an Agatha Christie novel. But then came the scene with the mysterious man with the bag. "Gears at the scene," I thought to myself. "They look like the gears near the relative's dead body! Hey! Maybe he was a robot! HA HA! MAYBE WHOLE TOWN IS ROBOTS!" I got quite upset I was when I found out my off-hand joke was correct.

I mean, yeah, there were hints set up before hand. I wouldn't have been able to make that joke otherwise, but they defied what I thought were the limits of the world. As far as I knew, it took place some time in the past with technology in line with the history of ours. Maybe if they introduced a blatantly clockwork pet or maid running around the house, I could have an easier time accepting it. Would have established Layton's world as more steampunky/clockworky than ours.

Diabolical Box
Unlike the previous one, the twist felt completely, totally, 100% out of left field, even with the hints they gave. Everyone's been inhaling gas that make everyone hallucinate the exact same thing?! And let's not forget about Don Paolo's appearance. I think Hiimdaisy put it best. I also don't approve of Professor's apparent negligence of Flora.

Like I said, I haven't played any of the other games, but people have told me that the twists are just as stupid. I get that it's supposed to be a whimsical series for children and the underlying mystery is supposed to take back seat to all the puzzles, but is it really too much to ask for more credible endings?

I played one of the games for a while, but those sorts of puzzles just aren't fun to me. I enjoyed the heck out of ghost trick though, so I guess professor layton just ticks the wrong boxes for me. The story sounds neat though. Should I give the games another try?

I finished the Diabolical Box and liked it a lot. Geeze, that ending had me tear up. My only complaints arehow come we never got to see Katia's mom? The true daughter of Sophia and Anton?! We could've at least seen her face for crying out loud, she's the whole reason why Sophia left in the first place! Also, I don't remember, but couldn't they have wrote letters and been like "hey everything's fine, I was having a baby, come and visit!"?? BUT, I still love the game so much. The art and story are great. And the puzzles were super fun.

And then I played the Unwound Future and was hit with so much emotion and love for the game. We get to see Layton without his hat! THE BIGGEST PUZZLE EVER HAS BEEN SOLVED! Also, I totally ship Flora and Clive together. No shame. Okay. Slight shame. Kinda wish she wasn't always kidnapped and stuff. Plus, the puzzles are harder and more interesting. It's pretty freakin ridiculous that there's a WHOLE CITY BENEATH LONDON AS AN EXACT REPLICA though, considering there is a huge mishmash of trains beneath the city already. And that whole thing with Clair pretending to be Celeste was stupid. JUST TELL LAYTON, OKAY? SAVE TIME, PLEASE.

I have The Last Specter, and I'm close to beating it, but I can hardly bring myself to. The puzzles are more challenging this time around. But, I mostly haven't beaten it cause I got super OCD on having 100% completion on puzzles. It's an alright game, I don't know I'm not super into this one. I still love the scenery and music and stuff, but the puzzles just make me frustrated that I can't get them right. Also, I'm sad that Flora isn't in it, even though she didn't do much of anything except for Unwound Future. Actually solving puzzles! Yay!

Funny how sometimes when the game plot twists with "Oh don't be silly it wasn't actually X, it was Y!" X actually feels like the more sensible answer.