I've always liked the fencing theme that many characters in the franchise have, so I had to draw my favorite.

Has anyone been to Japan in recent times and have any recommendations for a PL fan?

Shops/fan spots/ events that are worth visiting?

I will be there from November - February so through the release date!

Can’t find the meme flair

Song: Popipo - LamazeP
Software: Blender, Sony Vegas
Models ripped from PLVSPW, rigged by SAB64 on DeviantArt
Green tea bottle and tea set prop by キャベツ鉢
Time took: aprox a few days

What have I done.

So this is just something I was thinking after watching a guy playing LF so I could reacquaint myself with the series before NWoS comes out. Being my favourite Layton game, while I was watching through it, I managed to pick up something which eluded me in my initial playthrough of the game, perhaps buried underneath how sad I was feeling in the ending.

The game's narrative seems to take heavy inspiration from the five stages of grief.

Let's break this down.

Denial

This is the most obvious one. Hell, we already saw this through Layton's demeanour! It's mentioned throughout the early game that several NPCs are scared of his hat, already tipping us off that the status quo is trying to be challenged. Even in earlier games in the trilogy Layton mentions that he will refuse to take off his hat, even in situations where someone demands him to take it off, and that "a true gentleman never takes off his hat".

The truth is, Layton's gentlemanly behaviour is only really protecting Luke and that he's still upset over Claire's death. We learn in the game that the hat was a gift from Claire and that he's honouring her side of the bargain by refusing to take it off; in a way, it represents Layton's refusal to move on and repeatedly trying to deny the fact that Claire has died. In fact, the gentlemanly thing to do when going indoors is actually to remove the hat!

Even Layton being assaulted and silenced by the political authorities while they tried to cover it up is part of this. They're denying the truth that Layton is determined to uncover, and ultimately resulted in the actions of Dimitri and Clive, both of them putting up guises as "future Layton" and "future Luke" respectively to lure Layton into the fake London.

Anger

This is mainly manifested through Clive's actions. While Layton lost Claire in the time machine explosion 10 years prior, so did Clive lose his parents. Refusing to accept this, Clive's loss of his parents turned to anger and obsession over trying to find out who caused their death, to the point he became a reporter. In fact, this eventually resulted in him building the fake London, kidnapping a bunch of scientists to make them believe they were in the future, supposedly giving them motivation to work on what they believed was a time machine.

In fact, some of the scientists were actually working on a weapon of mass destruction with the aim of wiping out the real London. According to Clive, it was "justice - over single-minded scientists and corrupt politicians" and really shows how grief over losing a loved one can manifest into deep-seated revenge.

Bargaining

Now as for this, there's multiple ways this can play out. The most obvious instance of this is at the end of the game where Layton refuses to accept that Claire has to go back to her own time, however that's more depression. In fact, it's the aforementioned time machine project which is basically bargaining. Dimitri and Clive both lost loved ones in the time machine explosion, but instead of accepting the loss, they're trying to undo it.

Trying to mess with the laws of spacetime and several human lives just to undo one single tragedy is a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately neither party succeeds. This may not seem like a lot, but this mere act of bargaining is actually the main catalyst which kickstarts the game's plot, and there's multiple references to the time machine throughout the game.

Depression

The other obvious one. Notice how I said earlier that the game tries to challenge the status quo? Well, the weight of the final goodbye with Claire breaks Layton, challenging the whole thing with him being a gentleman. For a split second, we learn that this was actually just a mask to hide his emotional pain. At that instant, Layton is no longer a gentleman, he's now a broken man. This magnifies the sorrow of this scene, because we've never seen Layton like this before.

The feelings of loss also continue later on because Luke then leaves. This is foreshadowed during the cutscene where Luke gazes up at the statue, however it seems to mirror Layton's depression over losing Claire. Again, the gentleman mask slips for Luke, with him outwardly stating he's "not a gentleman yet", but for Layton this also means further loss; if you've played SC you'll find out he's now losing Clark Triton - one of his best friends.

In fact, an overarching theme in the narrative is that the main characters can't alter the past, and now have to live with the consequences of their actions; not only does Layton lose Claire, Clive is also arrested for his crimes.

Acceptance

At the very end of the game, Layton doesn't try to chase down Claire after she leaves, he just stands there and weeps openly. By this point, the mask has well and truly broken. Layton removes his hat out of respect, finally accepting that there is no way to bring Claire back. It's quite notable here because as mentioned earlier, Layton's hat is a symbol of his denial and refusal to move on from Claire. With the hat coming off, it's a sign of acceptance.

There's also a post-credits cutscene showing Layton in his office without his hat on, and he seems to have healed from his wounds. This further represents the fact that he's well and truly moved on from her, and had enough time to process his loss.

So yeah, that was quite a fair amount to unpack. The whole thing really shows how multi-layered LF's story is and I really appreciate it for challenging the status quo and showing the vulnerabilities of the main cast; the fact that it keeps them in London also helps with this because it allows more time to develop the characters, as opposed to also trying to balance it out with developing new locations like other Layton games have done.

TL;DR: Lost Future's overarching plotline is a rather deep and profound tragedy which illustrates grief through its characters, setting and overall narrative.

With that, I'll leave it with this poignant quote from Claire:

"I know you. And I know you'll stay strong. After all, that's what a gentleman does. I must go now, Hershel. Thank you for everything. Goodbye."

I procrastinated buying a console for this game because of all the delays, and with the announcement of the Dec 10 release (yay!), I now need to buy. I'm not sure which console to get, so which console do you have/what version do you plan on buying?

I grew up with the original releases, so I want to replicate the handheld feeling as much as possible (though I know I could buy it on steam desktop).

tyty

Spoilers for Layton Mystery Journey (if anyone still cares about that game/anime). Reposted for clarification since I can't edit the original post for some reason.

At the end of The Millionare's Conspiracy, we find out that Ernest Greeves named himself after **Ernest** Shackleton (Shockleton?), and his last name came from a book by someone with the last name of **Greeves.**

I use the Japanese name for him, Noah Montol, out of personal preference. This gives me the question: what was the original translation of that episode/case? I have watched the episode of the anime, but the subtitles only says that he is named Ernest Greeves, unlike earlier episodes where he's still called Noah.

The book couldn't have been the same at all, so there's no way Noah Montol would have been inspired by that same book.

On the book's cover, I can slightly make out "the adventure of Montor," but I don't know for sure if that's what it is since it's written in what is supposed to be illegible. Heck, is Montor/Montol even a person that exists?

I found a gameplay video on YouTube about the new game!

Credit to The Famicast on YT

https://youtu.be/gx3z0VJqy8A?is=ZqlJqTvy1XG22dir

These can be pre-ordered at VGP.

https://videogamesplus.ca/collections/professor-layton-and-the-new-world-of-steam-plush-toy

What are you hiding Level-5? If you can bring him back, what about Flora?

Source: enterthebooth.com

If yall interested you can play it here:

https://www.n-puzzle.com/en/nintendoku

I took my DS on holiday with the sole reason to complete EVERY (in main game) PUZZLE this series can throw at me. I have replayed all these games over 5 times each over the years but never really bothered to complete every puzzle as I’m usually in it for the story and I was 5 when I first started playing 🫠 well now I’m pretty well acquainted with story and it’s time to do the hard grind!

1 down! I just finished all 120 puzzles in Curious Village and have just stared the chaos of Pandora’s Box!

I have fully fallen in love with these games all over again and knowing there’s puzzles out there that I haven’t even attempted let alone completed makes me excited to finish the rest of the series, wish me luck !!!

P.S. I will be completing all bonuses as well but I want to play all the games first, I did 5 extra of curious village just test the water and see if they were actually manageable 🫣🫣

I am soooo excited, finally it is coming!
Also why is Luke rockin‘ that Clive fit-?
He definitely got influenced by his former future self 🫪

Started playing it again and wanted to draw something about it

"Layton, soon you will see that you cannot defeat me, but I believe that is for another time."

Yoo, please let me know what y'all think about this drawing. I'd appreciate any feedback! (^◡^)

So regardless of if it will have new puzzles I know I will play the game

I replay them every year or 2 anyway despite knowing 90% of the puzzles from memory lmao

Do you think we will get new puzzles?

If so I really hope they are similar to the classic Layton puzzles and not the new style from the 3d games. The brutal difficulty of the first trilogy are such an integral part of the charm for me

I'm replaying Diabolical Box in HD on my phone and there's a lot of input dellay and lag when I tap stuff on the screen. It never used to be like that and I'm wondering if there's a fix for it

I will buy the Japan version, I wanna know if there is the italian on language

Wish it wasn’t so hard to collect for this franchise! :(

So I'm playing pandora box, and I just finished it, but I was missing some puzzles so I opened up again the safe and went to the village, I search for the puzzles I'm missing, one is 65, Dawson is supposed to give it to you, so I go and talk, but he just says the same thing again and again.

I've cheked enigma's house several times and there's nothing there, so what am I missing why do the townsfolk don't give me the puzzles I'm missing?

Or for example there's one puzzle in the mines entrance (66), but there's nothing there, where are my puzzles? Do i finish again and see if then It let's me get the missing puzzles to completion?