Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

With their third Professor Layton game being released just one week ago and at least three more in the works or already released in Japan, it seems as though Nintendo and Level-5 are showing no signs of slowing down with their adventure/mystery/puzzle solving hybrid anytime soon, and I for one am pretty glad about this fact. Unwound Future is, bar none, the quintessential Layton experience, even as the formula is starting to show a little bit of wear around the edges. For now, though, this is the Layton game to get.

As always, you play as Professor Hershel Layton, archaelogy professor (just like Indiana Jones!) and puzzle-solving afficianado. Layton and his apprentice, Luke (who at this point in the series is about thirteen-years-old), receive a mysterious invitation to a time machine demonstration. Something goes horribly wrong, though, and the British Prime Minister goes missing. Adding to the confusion is the fact that a letter, purportedly from Luke ten years in the future has arrived, requesting the Professor's help in toppling his greatest threat yet – himself, ten years in the future. It's an interesting premise, and one that has a number of really well-done twists and turns, coupled with some of the greatest writing and characterization in video gaming.

I'll say this now – I think that as a character that I can identify with, Professor Layton is probably my favourite. His witty and charming dialog as well as how dapper and thoroughly gentlemanly he is goes a long way to making him a bit of an anomoly in gaming – that is, a character who is respected, well-adjusted, charismatic and whose main characteristic is intelligence, rather than the size of his roided-out muscles. In this particular installment, the Professor gains more depth than is shown in any other game. Namely, the player is given insight into Layton's past as he's just starting out as a professor, and interacting with his now-dead sweetheart Claire, who plays quite a major role in the plot of the game.

There's one scene in particular that stands out as being particularly touching, one that fans of the Layton series will adore. Presented in glorious feature-film quality animation, Claire presents Layton with part of his trademark look – his top hat. Layton here is presented as a slightly awkward, shy young man, and it's quite the contrast to his usually calm demeanour. This is presented in a way that is consistent with the characterization of the Professor while recontextualizing the way that the player has to consider him. It's totally brilliant.

The presentation of the game – beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds, characters, and animated cutscenes – remains entirely in tact. Probably the reason why Level-5 can keep churning out these games is that they are recycling assets from games past. When those assets are as gorgeously realized as these ones, though, one can hardly blame them. It would be interesting to see them switch up the presentation a bit in future games, but it's hard to deny that the visual combination works. Moreso than that, the Layton games have some of the best soundtracks in gaming, ranging from jaunty accordion tunes to haunting music box-esque numbers. It all plays into the atmosphere of the game – charming and slightly whimsical, with just a hint of malice underneath the surface.

It's interesting to see a Japanese take on a character who by all rights is quintessentially British. The game does use a Miyazaki-esque drawing style, but the game still manages to capture that ineffably British sensibility. I think the reasons for this are pretty evident, mainly that the developers are wearing a lot of influences on their sleeves. The British gentleman who solves mysteries is of course straight out of Conan Doyle, but the game's sepia-toned nostalgia and keen eye for class constructions are perhaps a nod to Dickens. Certainly very different sources of inspiration than most video games.

Of course, one must not forget the inspiration for the gameplay, and it's here where I think the Layton games have always struggled a bit. They're games that have great visuals, great stories, great music, great characters, and probably the very best puzzle-solving gameplay on the market. But the developers haven't yet found a way to fully integrate these things, meaning that all of the puzzles you solve only have a cursory connection to the overarching story of the game's main mystery.

There are far too many examples of really, really terrible segways in the game. Layton will see a banana peel on the ground and say, "That banana peel reminds me of a puzzle I once heard…" Or a man (who actually probably has the saddest story in the game, as he was kidnapped and taken away from his family, and forced to dig holes for the main evil organization in the game, the Family) who has nothing to do all day but think about his kids and make puzzles all day. "My kid used to swim a lot. That reminds me of a puzzle." It goes on and on. I'd say only maybe 25% of the puzzles have a good connection to the story, and when they do, it feels a lot more rewarding than these puzzles that are in the game merely as brainteasers.

The problem that I struggle with is, how to deal with the ambition of the series? It could have simply been enough to include a bunch of brainteasers on a DS cartridge and called it a day, but Nintendo and Level-5 have always been more interested in including these puzzles in the midst of a really involving story. Does the fact that the two don't integrate particularly well count against the game when literally no other puzzle game does this? I'm not so sure.

Now don't get me wrong though – most of the puzzles in the game are really great, and since I love doing puzzles, the ones in these games stand head and shoulders above most games in the puzzle genre. They're written by Akira Tago, who is extremely well-known in Japan as the author of the millions-selling book series Mental Gymnastics, and the puzzles are almost always interesting and require logic and lateral thinking to get by. The presentation here is brilliant as well, and take good advantage of the DS's touch screen capabilities. Some puzzles might require you to do a traditional sliding tile puzzle, using the stylus to drag around pieces, or another might require you to do a logic puzzle, allowing you to make use of the "memo" function, which lets you write notes on the screen.

This is essentially unchanged from the first two games, though, so basically what you're getting with Unwound Future is more puzzles and a new story. Nintendo is a company known for overhauling their series on a regular basis, so it's a little weird to see them play this series so safe. It's hard to deny that it's a formula that works for making fun games, but this a series that I could see going to the next level if they could tie everything together and change up the formula a little bit. But Unwound Future is the very best of the traditional Layton games. It's extremely enjoyable, and really, there's nothing better than spending a few days with the Professor.