Saturday, January 21, 2012

Professor Layton and the Last Specter

Hello all! It's been quite a few months since I last posted, hasn't it? Anyway, today I am going to talk about my latest craze, Professor Layton!

I got the latest game, Professor Layton and the Last Specter (or, the Specter's Call, or the Specter's FLute, depending on where you live). The plot surrounds this town that is supposedly haunted by a specter that, according to legend, used to protect the town from invaders, whenever summoned by a flute. Professor Layton, a true British gentleman, top-hat and all, is asked by his university friend, Clark Triton, to investigate.

Just as the professor is leaving in the Laytonmobile, he is intercepted by the spunky, terrible driver, Emmy, who turns out to be his new assistant. I'm not kidding when I say she is a terrible driver. She nearly T-Boned the professor on her scooter! Please be careful in the future, Emmy!

When our heroes arrive at the town, Misthallery, they are shocked at the fact that Clark claims not to have written the letter the professor received. However, the contents of the letter are still true. Plus, there seems to be some sort of oracle that can predict exactly when and where the specter will strike next. The professor's intuition acting up, he goes upstairs to meet Luke, Clark's son. It turns out to be that Luke is the oracle, and wrote the letter to Professor Layton, wanting outside help on the mystery. Prequel Luke is very stoic at times, and wears odd-looking suspenders instead of his sweater vest combo we're used to. His latest prediction is that "Very soon- the world will end." Gasp!

Will our heroes solve the mystery of the specter? Will Arianna, Luke's pseudo-girlfriend whom we meet later in the game, ever talk to him again? or will Emmy get distracted by Aunt Taffy's candy while the whole town gets destroyed?

Overall, I liked this game OK. It didn't quite live up to the other games, in my opinion. Well, it's sort of hard to top, or even match, a game as good as the Unwound Future. The explanation didn't have the same absolutely-ridiculous quality that the last games did. It did have some ridiculousness, but not much. Some of the puzzles are real biters! Watch out for puzzle 170- it's got TWO PARTS!!

Oh, and I found an Easter egg within the game. After a while, eventually you will get special dialogue between Emmy and Aunt Taffy: Aunt Taffy says that if Emmy runs around the entire market within a minute, she'll give her candy, against her no-selling-candy-to-adults-policy. Do it, she really WILL give you candy! Just don't tell anyone...

Bye!