Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy Review

Two words sum up the newest Professor Layton outing: Still fun.

A quick breakdown for those who have never played a game in the Professor Layton series. They are puzzle-based adventures and feature cut-scenes done in western style animation sequences reminiscent of Tintin cartoons. The cut-scenes themselves are also fully voiced.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is the sixth game in the Professor Layton series. In the timeline of the story, it takes place just before the first game. As the last game in the prequel trilogy, Azran Legacy it has a lot to live up to.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is visually clean and interesting. Each screen of every town you visit is bright and energetic. The game might be designed to appeal to children, and it will certainly do that, but I found myself admiring the detail placed in every area. The vibrancy of the art and character designs are interesting as well as quite varied. As a result of this, every character feels unique Surprisingly, no one feels recycled at any point. Which having never played a Layton game in the past, I fully expected to happen. It was a pleasant surprise to see no recycling of models.

The voice acting is an interesting aspect of the game. The lines and delivery are cheesy and cutesy for every single scene. Even scenes that are serious and dramatic have a schmaltz to them that normally I wouldn't find appropriate. In the Layton games cheese is expected and yet still heartwarming. Christopher Robin Miller provides the voice one more time for the eponymous hero. The likability of the good professor comes through Miller's portrayal. He's polite, thoughtful and co-operative. He also happens to be quite stalwart which adds to his charm. The rest of the cast are generally well acted, though Aurora is predictably stiff and only comes to life at the end of the game. Towards the end, the twists come fast and furious. They could easy descend into over the top silly, but decently acted scenes generally keep things from going too overboard.

The animated sequences are beautifully rendered. They do a great job of bridging gameplay and the plot especially when they need to drop more plot info that would be too cumbersome for normal dialogue. When I said earlier they are much like the Tintin cartoons of old it really shows in action sequences and when you solve puzzles.

You are given a great deal to look at and poke through early on within the trunk. The trunk is where recaps of story elements, the minigames, previously completed puzzles and your collection of hidden items can be found. Recaps come in the form of Layton's Journal as well as a section referred to as Mysteries. Layton's Journal is fairly straightforward, but Mysteries is interesting as concept to me. It shows you the ongoing mysteries of the plot in the form of a single image, and updates them as new information is revealed. The visuals in these images are very much in the style of greek black-figure pottery. With black being used to depict the person's features and colour being used as a highlight to draw the eye to the person's significance. It's a clever way to further integrate archaeology (albeit in a cursory fashion) into the game.

Also accessed through the trunk are several recurring mini-games introduced early on, two of which are a great deal of fun Those games being Blooms and Shrooms, and Nut Roller. Blooms and Shrooms has you restoring life to a fading garden via engineering a chain of events. Nut Roller is pretty much just that, and its way more fun than the name indicates. The third, of the dress up variety (cleverly titled Dress Up) is at best tedious and at times exhausting. Early on in the game you might be lacking an item not mentioned prior by the 'client'. Which is a strange issue to have in a game where everything is so thought out and meticulously planned. Outside of that, there isn't much to complain about in Azran Legacy. This in fact might be my only genuinely negative point on the entire game.

The Layton games popularity and longevity rely entirely on the strength of their puzzles. In this game they are integrated a sight better than in previous outings. You'll still have situations where they still run right past ridiculous. For instance some characters might be irritated with you and then demand you help them solve this puzzle they are holding! When it happens you can't help but laugh at the absurdity but it keeps things light and fun. At times you will certainly find yourself laughing at how poorly integrated puzzles are, and at other times you'll be impressed how they work them in.  Many of the puzzles feel fresh and clever. A few are somewhat recurring but mostly in the ideas and methods of thinking they introduce.  A few challenges do return with increased difficulty. Some will experience a significant jump in difficulty. If you ever get so stuck that you just can't solve the enigma in front of you and the hints aren't getting you anywhere, you do have the option to skip most puzzles. The required ones are rarely extremely difficult. 

A couple puzzles have trick answers, and isn't always clear when you are supposed to shirk the game structure. Those moments are quite rare, thankfully. In one such instance, knowing the answer is somewhat impossible. After you get the answer, it's clear how it works, but knowing to when to do that is the problem. I wish I could say more without spoiling the puzzle, but thems the breaks. Luckily, those who have trouble or need a nudge, the game gives you hint coins. Hint coins can be found throughout each town by interacting with the environment. Figuring out solutions is something that is consistently rewarding in this game. At some point everyone will need to stop and think very hard. Hard enough that strangers might stare at the quizzical look on your face. You might even write down possible solutions. The game provides a memo function which makes a number of puzzles much more manageable, and saves you from lugging around a notebook. 

Occasionally action sequences are woven into your next puzzle, dodging enemies becomes the problem and solving it extricates you from their clutches. The first 'action' puzzle stands out as it has you 'shooting' down drones that are chasing your airship. It's odd because the sequence is very different from the rest of the game. It's also a stark contrast from the rest of the series generally having Layton succeed using his brains as opposed to force.

Speaking of force, this game's story was a fair bit darker than I expected. Layton's enemies are repeatedly discussed as vicious and heartless. They make it clear that killing any of the characters would not be a bump in their plans. That's pretty terrifying from a children's game perspective. They show up and shoot their guns with reckless abandon a couple times. Which is a couple times more than I expected. Also the implications of the story in regards to the Azran people and what happened to them just adds to that. That's something I won't spoil for you. However, one instance of a fairly mature theme is cleverly averted in regards to a ritual sacrifice, but I won't ruin that for you either. 

This game series started off as a way to draw in casual players who bought Brain Age on the DS. Story and voice elements were made to entice them into staying for a full game. From those roots the Professor Layton world evolved to have an entire mythology and developed world built around it. Endearing characters, and clever, rewarding puzzles are not a bad thing to be known for. This may or may not be Professor Layton's last ride, no one has said anything definitively either way, (as of press time rumours are swirling about this being the last Layton game proper) but it's a great one to go out on.

Final Verdict

9/10

A copy was provided by company to the writer for review.