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[Formless]

I feel like this game needs to come with a sticker or something saying 'heads up: this is a Layton game.'

Honestly, when people say 'I like Ace Attorney but I've never played a Layton Game, should I play the crossover?' tell them no. Do not encourage them. Most of the negative impressions of this game come from these people.

I loved this game the whole way through; but I was a fan of both series already, so I was expecting a Layton Plot.

Spoiler

I think playing Layton Games primes you to expect the magic to be fake. All game I was like, well geographically everyone was in London, neither Wright Games or Layton Games have witches and magic; there's gotta be something going on. So the revelation of all the magic being staged felt natural. I think if you come into this game with less Layton experience you're more likely to say oh okay, magic, I'll go with that, and then be disappointed when it's taken away.

Actually this was my first Layton game and I still really liked it. I dunno, I guess I already suspend my disbelief when playing these types of games already.

 

[MrBadger]

Do Layton games also tend to contradict themselves and leave giant plot holes in convoluted explanations to justify everything that happened leading up to the ending, even though the fundamental premise of the series seems to be about using one's head and utilizing logic to find the reasonable solution to things with a Sherlock Holmes-like main protagonist?

Because it's not the plot twist that was the problem. It was how unabashedly terribly executed it was, as though the writers rushed at the last minute to wrap things up and said "screw it" to everything that happened in the game previously because there was no time to carefully think things through. It's an insult to the player's intelligence; I don't see how being familiar with the Professor Layton series alleviates that unless that series also has a tendency to insult the player's intelligence.

Seriously. it's not too Layton, it's just shitty writing. They could have had the town being fake in a way that wasn't just them trying to find an excuse for every instance of magic. The only real issue with crossing the two characters over is Layton is too smart, whereas Wright just bluffs a lot.

I feel like this game needs to come with a sticker or something saying 'heads up: this is a Layton game.'

Honestly, when people say 'I like Ace Attorney but I've never played a Layton Game, should I play the crossover?' tell them no. Do not encourage them. Most of the negative impressions of this game come from these people.

I loved this game the whole way through; but I was a fan of both series already, so I was expecting a Layton Plot.

Spoiler

I think playing Layton Games primes you to expect the magic to be fake. All game I was like, well geographically everyone was in London, neither Wright Games or Layton Games have witches and magic; there's gotta be something going on. So the revelation of all the magic being staged felt natural. I think if you come into this game with less Layton experience you're more likely to say oh okay, magic, I'll go with that, and then be disappointed when it's taken away.

I don't think that's really true, because this game has very simple puzzles for Layton standards and Layton's segments just feel like the investigation segments of Wright's games. And they were always rather slow and at times boring anyway. The negativity comes from the ending sucking, and people can like or dislike Layton and agree on that.

 

[NotLiquid]

The game introduces one interesting new idea (mob trials) and completely shits on it by having every god damn part of it be telegraphed in a way less subtle than Phoenix's hair. First they put a loud exclamation sound, then they give the character a voice clip, then they get an exaggerated animation, then for good measure they have an exclamation mark on the touch screen. I hated how dumbed down it was and how it didn't trust the player's own perception.

It doesn't even combine the two game play styles that smoothly, Layton's puzzle segments are easier than ever and kind of a chore to go through. There's only one moment in the game where they try to cross over the "ideas" of both games and it's never explored again.

The writing is good but the scenario is pretty terrible. It really doesn't bring out the best of both characters, and most of the new ones are unlikable, including the one that's center to the plot. The whole PTSD thing with Espella felt like an annoying roadblock to the story which is ironic since AA5 did a similar thing with Athena and made it work so much better. And yes, the continued lack of object permanence in the Layton series really makes the finale a massive disappointment. The amount of willing suspension of disbelief that this game requires is ridiculous.

It was easily the most let down I'd been with a game in a long time. It's a lower-tier Layton game that happens to have Phoenix in it.

 

[Zakard]

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Enjoyed it way more than Dual Destinies to be honest. The story was typical Layton so I expected something like that. Overall a good game. I would love to see a sequel.

 

[The Technomancer]

I didn't mind the actual mechanics of the ending that much (I mean, its not that much more ridiculous than the ending of Layton 3. Its really not) but I agree there was a severe lack of actual drama around the ending events

 

[Lupin the Third]

Have you played AAI2? Because if you have, then I don't know what to say. If you haven't, then you should so you can retract that statement. AAI2 is up in the top tier for me with AA1+3.

No, I haven't played AAI2 because AAI got so boring I didn't even finish it (unlike every other AA title, sans DD which I've only recently started). Maybe they should've started with AAI2. Again, kinda had my fill of Edgeworth and the AAI system wasn't as compelling to me as the standard AA setup.

 

[Dangerous1992]

i didnt' like the ending either, the problem is, i expected something more in line with the recent layton games. But they went full layton 1-3 ending remix for the ending of the crossover and that was disappointing.

i enjoyed Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy a lot, especially because they had refreshing ideas and not an "everything is fake" ending

 

[Miker]

No, I haven't played AAI2 because AAI got so boring I didn't even finish it (unlike every other AA title, sans DD which I've only recently started). Maybe they should've started with AAI2. Again, kinda had my fill of Edgeworth and the AAI system wasn't as compelling to me as the standard AA setup.

Yeah, I didn't like AAI either - it's down there with the first three cases of AA2 for me, but I loved AAI2. The pacing is so, so much better, the new characters are great, and everything comes together beautifully at the end. It's one of the most satisfying endings to any game I've played, AA or otherwise.