Farewell....Professor Layton.....

Back in 2008, my favorite developer, Level-5, released "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". At the time, they had only JRPGs for Sony systems in their catalogue, so this was unexpected. Right from the very first minute, I fell in love with this series. Its mix of point and click adventuring and brain teasing puzzle games is still unlike anything out there. But, of course, it wouldn't have been special if it wasn't for the whimsical and touching stories and lovable characters. Over the years, the games have always been some of my favorites. Everything about them is impeccable, but you can always check my reviews for details.

I still stand by the fact that the original trilogy is one of the best in the history of entertainment. Each game expanded upon the previous one to remove any flaws and improve/add to the quality, culminating in the masterpiece that is "The Lost Future", my favorite overall videogame on its console.

The prequel trilogy and the "Eternal Diva" movie carried that level of quality into a more mythical direction, focusing on the archaeological discoveries that made the professor famous. Since we didn't see him do anything archaeology-related in the original trilogy, it was a great way to continue the series without having it repeat itself. It introduced new characters and revealed more about the pasts of old ones. When the second entry arrived for the 3DS, it brought some welcome gameplay variety, but the visuals were a bit on the unpolished side.

And now we arrive at the final game in the series, 5 years after it all started. Is it the grand finale we wanted? Let's take a look:

The Story:

The game takes place a few months after the last game, and as its title implies, it answers questions left open about the ancient civilization of the Azran, which was a big part of the previous game. Joining a fellow archaeologist that has found something that can help Azran research, the professor, his assistant Emmy, and his apprentice Luke set off on a journey around the world to find 5 Azran artefacts that can unlock their secrets. While "Miracle Mask" shook things up in the gameplay department, this game does it in the story structure. In the other 5 games, the story followed a very linear path despite the twists, but now the story follows a structure very similar to certain non-linear RPGs or Adventure games that have various subplots with a chronology that depends on the order you visit the various places. Eventually, you go back into a linear path towards the climax, which is the best since "Lost Future". The writers take full advantage of the fact that it's the last game to pull the heartstrings of fans with lines like "One last puzzle, for old time's sake" and subtle metaphors in the narrative. All the character arcs end with an incredibly satisfying payoff and the final revelations will leave fans blown away by how well crafted they are. The ending leaves us a very positive and satisfying message that really makes any fan feel warm inside. As expected, the game is full of references to the other 5 games, some obvious, some more subtle. The final after credits cutscene in particular is one of the best ideas the writers had, and its nostalgic meaning will leave long-time fans with a big grin on their faces.

Overall, it's a lovingly crafted conclusion. It's not the emotional powerhouse that "Lost Future" was, but you can tell that's not the point. It's a nostalgic, warm and very personal experience for fans. It's like Level-5 conceived this as a love letter to the fans.

10/10


The Gameplay:

Azran Legacy takes the gameplay from Miracle Mask and leaves it for the most part untouched. The variety of gameplay styles is gone, but the airship used to travel the world allows for more variety in the areas you explore, and this time there's a bigger focus on online features. You can collect objects in every area and use them to create puzzle challenges for friends to enjoy. Aside from that, it's the same formula of point and click adventuring and puzzle solving that the series perfected in Miracle Mask. The only weaker aspect is the minigames. They're not very interesting in comparison to the ones in previous games.

9.5/10



The Audio:

Tomohito Nishiura once again brings his immense talent to the table and gives us another brilliant soundtrack filled with warmth and whimsy. The voice acting is sublime, as always; every actor nails his/her performance and sells you on the humanity of characters.

10/10


The Graphics:

Miracle Mask looked quite good, but you could tell the artists were still figuring out how to translate the world of Layton from 2D to 3D. Character models didn't look as good as they should, and the backgrounds looked a bit mundane. Azran Legacy, however, is a whole different story. The new 3D character models are perfect replacements for the 2D sprites. They clearly took great care to make them look as good as they should have looked in the first place. They're also much better animated, full of subtle touches that further help make every character charming. The backgrounds also look amazing. At first they felt like 2D backgrounds, as I didn't think 3D environments could look this gorgeous on the 3DS. It's a shame Miracle Mask couldn't have this level of beauty.

As always, the animated FMVs look fantastic and are very well directed.

10/10

Final Grade: 10/10



And so we reach the end of this 5 year journey. Goodbye, Professor, it was a huge pleasure to solve puzzles with you, travel with you, laugh with you and cry with you. I will forever cherish all those memories for the rest of my life. Thank you.

Fortunately there is a second movie being made, so I know I will eventually be able to see you once again....Surely...Someday:

As for Akihiro Hino and all his staff that put their heart and soul into all these games, all I can do is bow, salute you and clap my hands. You are fantastic artists and you should be proud of what you accomplished here. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for reading, see you next time ;)

Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies Review

At the same time that the upcoming crossover with Professor Layton was being developed with Shu Takumi himself writing the story, Takeshi Yamazaki(Writer and Director of the Investigations spinoff duology) took it upon himself to create the fifth entry in the series. Yamazaki proves with this one that he is the right man to take over for Takumi. Let's take a look:

The Story:

Taking place a year after the fourth game, Dual Destinies introduces us to new characters including another young apprentice named Athena Cykes who joins Phoenix's agency. Phoenix, Apollo and Athena will partake in 5 cases filled with intrigue, emotion, and comedy.

The story is absolutely fantastic. Aside from the usual twists, character-driven humor and intrigue, there's a much more emotional story being told here thanks to the fantastic new characters, with newcomer Athena Cykes being the standout character. Another great improvement is how the script's logic is miles better than previous games. Aside from maybe 2 or 3 braindead moments, the script always makes sense in the context of the series.

The only problem resides in the second case. It's not that it's bad or anything, but its quality pales in comparison with the rest of the game. Its nature feels very out of place in the game and the fact that it almost has no impact on the main narrative unlike the other cases doesn't help.

But despite that, this is without a doubt the best story in the series. The emotional depth and brilliant writing far outshines the problematic second case.

9.5/10


The Gameplay:

Dual Destinies takes the core gameplay from the previous four games and puts its own twist on things. Aside from the obligatory menu-based evidence presenting and witness pressing, We now have analytical psychology. Athena's ability to detect how a person is feeling when testifying gives place to cool moments where you compare their testimony with what they feel to uncover their lies.

There are also some gameplay refinements, like being able to save at anytime during the game, making the save system work exactly like emulator save states and a dialog backlog keeps the player from getting lost as a cause of how convoluted the plot gets.

With these changes and improvements, it's safe to say this game is also the best in the series gameplay-wise.

7.5/10


The Audio:

The music is made by series veteran composer Noriyuki Iwadare and just like the rest of the development team, he outdid himself. The now fully orchestrated tunes sound fantastic and help enhance the story tremendously. The voice acting is also quite great. Every actor fits his role perfectly, specially veteran Wendee Lee as Athena.

10/10


The Graphics:

Since this is the first 3DS entry, a visual makeover was needed. Fortunately the artists did a fantastic job of turning all the 2D backgrounds and sprites into fully 3D objects without sacrificing a single bit of charm, as the much more fluid animations are still done in the same style as the previous games.

The anime FMVs by BONES(Animation studio famous for their work on Fullmetal Alchemist) are the star of the visual presentation. Brilliantly animated and well directed, they feel exactly like you're watching the fanbase's wet dream of an animated adaptation made real.

10/10


Overall, with a story brimming with emotional depth and intrigue, fantastic presentation and improved gameplay, Dual Destinies is everything an Ace Attorney fan could want and more. It's a brilliant game with a ton of love and thought put into it.

Final Grade: 9.3/10


Join me next time, as i return to the Professor Layton series one last time to review its big finale. See you then ;)

Ace Attorney Retrospective - Apollo Justice

Finally the 4th game in the series was released exclusively for the Nintendo DS. It takes place 7 years after the last game with a new protagonist. Let's take a look:

The Story:

7 years after the last game, Phoenix Wright is no longer a lawyer because of a mysterious case that had him lose his badge. He takes a novice defense lawyer under his wing, who is wondering how his mentor lost his job. The story is of course great, full of memorable characters and interesting twists.
The only downside is that Apollo is too similar to Phoenix personality-wise, despite his interesting past.

8.5/10


The Gameplay:

Using the same engine as the DS remakes of the original trilogy, the game uses the same formula, but this time we get the same touch screen mechanics from the extra case of AA1 DS for the entirety of the game. You examine evidence, dust off fingerprints and find bloodstains using luminol spray.
Aside from that it's still the same basic menu based gameplay.

6.5/10


The Music:

The music is done by various Capcom composers, including Akemi Kimura from "Justice for All" and even the series creator himself Shu Takumi. It's as always great at enhancing every moment in the story.

8/10


The Graphics:

Once again using the same engine and style from the previous games, we have a 2D world filled with great sprite animations that sell the player on the personalities of the characters.

10/10


Overall, Apollo Justice is a sucessful attempt at starting at bringing new life into the main series.

Final Grade: 8/10


All i gotta say is, bring on Dual Destinies Capcom.

Ace Attorney Retrospective - Investigations

As a break from the courthouse, I thought reviewing the first spinoff in the series before the most recent main entry would be nice, especially when you consider its plot takes place before it. While Shu Takumi worked on the 4th entry in the main series, a separate team worked on this spinoff starring Miles Edgeworth, the prosecuting lead character of the series. Instead of being about winning trials, this game feels more like you're playing as a detective, but it still uses the core elements of the series to do it. Let's take a look:

The Story:

While in another country, Miles Edgeworth finds an old acquaintance of his that asks for his help in finally arresting someone who has escaped them in a case that took place seven years ago, and has been found again. He agrees and together with his trusted assistant Detective Gumshoe, sets out to solve this case once and for all.

Once again we have a great story full of twists and turns, interesting new characters and great suspense. Following in the footsteps of the previous game, the main plot is told over the course of all 5 cases, helping the overall pace of it. It is also has the best writing of the series yet. Aside from one particular situation, I couldn't find inconsistencies as blatant as the original trilogy usually had.

Overall, it's yet another great story.

8/10


The Gameplay:

This game still uses menu based mechanics to present evidence during testimonies, but this time we have actual control of our characters during investigations. We walk around and collect evidence and find logic chains, which are ideas that can be combined through the "Logic" menu to come up with new theories or uncovering new evidence altogether. There are no trials, so all confrontations with criminals are done face to face with them somewhere relevant to the case, as a detective.

Overall, it's a fresh change of pace for the franchise.

6.5/10


The Music:

The composer from the previous game Noriyuki Iwadare returns to make the music, and this time he has help by Yasuko Yamada. The soundtrack is the usual catchy fare this series is known for, and it's done just as well.

8/10


The Graphics:

Once again using detailed 2D sprite animations and backgrounds, the game keeps up the appealing visual style of the series.

10/10


Overall, this spinoff is a great addition to the franchise. It has everything that the series is known for while putting its own twists on things.

Final Grade:  8/10


Join me next time when i finish this retrospective by reviewing the most recent entry in the main series: Apollo Justice.  See you then ;)

Tales of Xillia Review

After Team Destiny brought the series back into form with Tales of Graces f, it's Team Symphonia's task to make the Tales' series 15th anniversary game, and this time they have Team Destiny's help. Let's take a look:

The Story:

This game has two main characters: A young man named Jude Mathis and a woman named Milla Maxwell. At the beginning of the game, you can pick who to play, and the story will play through his/her perspective. Both of them accidently meet during a lab accident and end up being chased by the military. After learning of Milla's identity as the lord of spirits on a mission to save the world, he joins her on a journey to destroy a mass destruction weapon made by human scientists.

The story is very good. It starts off slowly, especially on Jude's side, but when it picks up, it gets quite interesting and keeps a good pace. The cast is also quite likable, each having their own arcs explored in both the main story and in side-quests. One thing I particularly like is how subtly the game handles character development. The game does a great job of avoiding character flashbacks and having too much exposition, while still having just enough info about the characters for us to understand their plight.

One disappointing thing about the story and characters is how, with one exception, they don't have the emotional depth that helped make Graces great. This is my biggest disappointment, since I was hoping we would see some Team Destiny elements.

But despite that shortcoming, it's still a very good story with a likable cast.

7.5/10


The Gameplay:

Team Symphonia takes their Vesperia battle system and expands upon it even further. This time, the focus is on the new linking system. Each character can link with another party member, unlocking certain team combos, special partner skills and boost skill sharing. One downside to the linking system is how both members always share status effects, so the player will have to be careful with it.

Our character development system this time around is the Lillium Orb. Every time a character levels up, he gains grid points, which can be used to unlock nodes in a grid reminiscent of FFX's sphere grid. There's always a good amount of choices on what nodes to unlock, which gives the player the ability to unlock nodes for stats he might need first.

It's also quite pleasant to see that there's a bigger focus on exploration than in Graces. There's no world map and the structure is similar to Graces, but the overworld areas are way bigger and full of hidden spots to get cool items. The dungeons also have detours with hidden chests that usually have great stuff. This is a game that rewards curious players for exploring.

The side quests pleasantly take a cue from Graces. Once in a while, a skit will warn you of a side quest. Most of them tell stories of their own that further develop the characters and give us more insight into the world of the game.

My only real problem with the gameplay is the Shop Expansion system. Both in the field and after battle, you'll receive materials that can be turned into exp points to level up each of the four shops, which are always the same everywhere. The only way to buy new items is to level up these shops. Fortunately, the game is incredibly generous with materials. As long as you don't rush through the game, you will probably never run out. My problem is that this doesn't add anything to the game. It's not challenging and it doesn't improve from how shops are usually done anyway. It's just busy work.

One thing I'll admit I'm disappointed in is how there's a lack of Team Destiny elements in the battle system. I still think Graces has the best battle system in the series with more unique, strategic and intuitive mechanics than Team Symphonia's system. It makes me wonder what the point of both teams working on the game was, since 90% of this game clearly screams "Team Symphonia".

Still, the gameplay is fantastic on its own merits.

9.5/10


The Audio:

After a period of mediocrity, I can happily say that Sakuraba has given us his best Tales soundtrack since Abyss. Most of the tracks do a great job of being epic and creating atmosphere.
The vocal song is decent and the voice acting is for the most part very good.

7.5/10


The Graphics:

Finally abandoning their dated visual style from before, Team Symphonia creates appealing and colorful textures and models. The animation is also the best the series has ever had. The animated FMVs are gorgeous as always.

It is worth noting that this was also a collaboration between the character designers of both teams, Kosuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata. As a result, we get very well designed characters.

Monster design is also quite good.

8.5/10


Overall, Xillia is a great game that was clearly crafted with care and skill, even if it didn't quite live up to its potential.

Final Grade: 8/10


Join me next time when we go back to the Ace Attorney retrospective. See ya then ;)

Ace Attorney Retrospective - Trials and Tribulations

While the fourth entry in the series was being developed this time for the Nintendo DS, Capcom released a DS remake of the final game of the original trilogy. Let's take a look:

 The Story:

The story takes place a year after the previous game, and it doesn't disappoint. Aside from cases 2 and 3, which despite their quality, are there mostly for filler purposes, there's a main plot that goes through the entirety of the game and involves a lot of what happened in the past of our main characters. It all builds into an absolutely brilliant final case that is full of twists and turns and serves as a fantastic way of ending the trilogy. Aside from the already expected leaps away from logic during cases the writing is phenomenal and keeps you engaged.

9/10


The Gameplay:

The gameplay is the exact same as the previous game, no differences at all, which works, since it's not really a focus.

6/10


The Music:

The music this time was composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, and succeeds at maintaining the level of quality from the previous games, doing a great job enhancing the story experience.

8/10


The Graphics:

Once again we have 2D backgrounds and sprite animations that create an anime look.
Character design is as always creative, comical and varied.

10/10

Overall, it's the best game in the original trilogy that serves as a great example of why this series is so beloved.

Final Grade: 9/10


Alright, next is my review of Tales of Xillia. See you then ;)

Tales of Vesperia Review

Tales of Vesperia was the last game in the Tales series to be made before both development teams started working together to insure higher quality games. It is also the game the acclaimed Team Symphonia made before the upcoming Tales of Xillia. It is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the series. I personally...disagree. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, not at all, but I think it's overrated. Allow me to explain:

The Story:

This game tells the story of a young man named Yuri Lowell, who one day gets arrested for stealing something from a noble to give to his poor friends in town. While escaping the royal castle's prison, he comes across a noble young woman named Estelle who asks him to help her escape the castle. After returning to town, both discover that someone stole an aqua blastia (the town's water source). Both leave the city and set out on a quest for Yuri to find the thief and for Estelle to see the world.

I find this story bad. For the first two thirds of it, barely anything happens aside from long winded exposition about every detail regarding how this world's primary resource, blastia, works, and for the most part, it ends up being unimportant. I didn't really remember it by the end of the game and it still made no difference to me. At the beginning of the last third, a plot twist finally gives us a villain. It's really disappointing, though, as this villain is a character that was barely in the game and has nothing to do with the story; the game just suddenly tells us he's the villain because he wants to take over the world. No build up, no foreshadowing, nothing. This is terribly paced and poorly done storytelling.

As for the characters, they have strong personalities, making them likable enough, but the overly expositional script hurts their development severely, since all they talk about is blastia. At the final third of the game, the story starts pretending their bonds are strong because of what they've been through, but it doesn't work because we never saw these so called bonds grow. Most of the character interaction comes from skits, and they're still not all that good in this game.

Overall, it's a bad story with good, but still thin characters.

5/10


The Gameplay:

This game is the perfection of the 3D Tales formula started in Symphonia. It has the best world map of the series, and the real time battle system from Abyss returns, now better than ever. We still have basic attacks, Artes that consume TP, and the Over Limit gauge, but now we have the "Encounter Link" mechanic. If multiple groups of enemies are in close proximity when a battle starts, the battle will contain all the enemies, which will make grinding for EXP easier.
The skill learning system this time around is taken straight from Final Fantasy IX. Weapons have skills that can be used when you have them equipped, but if you gain enough Learning Points in battle, you can learn them and keep using them even without the weapon equipped. It's not original, but it works.

Overall, the gameplay builds up on the working formula of Team Symphonia's previous games while adding in some new things.

9.5/10


The Audio:

As always, we have Motoi Sakuraba doing the music. After making great soundtracks in previous games, it's disappointing to hear such a bland soundtrack in this game. The tunes are technically well written and I do like some of the battle themes and the victory fanfare, but the soundtrack is too unmemorable and generic to be called anything special. The vocal song is....OK, I guess. The voice acting is very good, we have Troy Baker as the protagonist and the overall cast does a good job bringing life into the characters. Though, sometimes it's hard for them to shine when they have to read the boring script that was given to them.

6/10


The Graphics:

After trying a different visual style in Abyss with negative results, the artists returned to the cel-shaded style from Symphonia. I'm all for that, but very few things were improved to make use of the 360's capabilities. Cutscene animations are...good for a previous gen console, but since this is a 360 game, I was expecting something better than this. The backgrounds also don't look all that impressive either. The game that followed this one, Graces, was a Wii game and it had more appealing graphics and more detailed animations, so what's this game's excuse?

Fortunately, the anime FMVs, once again made by Production I.G, look fantastic as always.

Character and monster design is as appealing and varied as ever.

7/10


Overall, Vesperia has enough good stuff in it to be a very good game, so it's not like it isn't worth playing or anything. But it certainly falls short from the standards Team Symphonia set with their previous two games, mostly because of the story.

Final Grade: 7/10


All i can say is, i hope Team Destiny's assistance in developing Xillia helps to bring us a game that really impresses people. I'm hopeful, since Graces was a great game. See you next review ;)