{"id":128731,"date":"2022-10-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-138770"},"modified":"2022-10-08T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T14:00:00","slug":"talking-point-professor-layton-and-the-lost-franchise-where-did-the-beloved-puzzle-series-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/10\/08\/talking-point-professor-layton-and-the-lost-franchise-where-did-the-beloved-puzzle-series-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: Professor Layton And The Lost Franchise: Where Did The Beloved Puzzle Series Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Level-5<\/a>
Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, my gaming experience was all about learning to become a gentleman. This was a central topic which ran throughout the Professor Layton series. If Professor Hershel Layton wore a trench coat, I wore a trench coat; if he drank fruity tea, I drank fruity tea; if he was reminded of a puzzle during the most inappropriate of times…well, you get the idea. This is to say that the Professor Layton games were a huge part of my formative gaming and indeed, my self-education. So why is it that, today, my views of the series are so often tainted?<\/p>\n

The answer may be found in the last title of the series: Layton\u2019s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires\u2019 Conspiracy<\/a>. This a game that, regardless of its merits, never sat well with me. There was no Hershel, no Luke, no aggressively brilliant jazz score. It wasn\u2019t a Professor Layton game \u2014 to my mind, at least.<\/p>\n

This week marked the five-year anniversary of Layton\u2019s Mystery Journey\u2019s US and European 3DS release. It also means that it has been five years since we last had an original Professor Layton title on console \u2013 longer still if, like me, you struggle to include Mystery Journey with the other mainline games.<\/p>\n

Is it fair to say that all hope of another Layton entry is gone and, if so, is it fair to blame Mystery Journey? This is a puzzle indeed, and, as I learned from the master of etiquette himself, a true gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved…<\/p>\n

Level one of Level-5<\/h3>\n
\"Level-5<\/a>
Image: Level-5<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to solve the mystery of the lost franchise, we must go back to the beginning. The year was 1998 and former Rivershillsoft employee Akihiro Hino formed a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment to work on projects for the PlayStation 2, if he did so under his own company brand. Choosing a name to reference the highest mark on a Japanese report card, Level-5 Inc. was born and, after working on projects such as Dark Cloud<\/a>, Dragon Quest VIII<\/a> and Rogue Galaxy<\/a> with Sony, the studio began self-publishing games by the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n

Keen to cash in on the adult-oriented audiences that Dr. Kawashima\u2019s<\/a> giant floating head had brought to the DS, Level-5 began working on a title that would work for children and adults alike. The kind of game that your Grandma can buy you for Christmas and<\/em> have a crack at herself after polishing off a glass of sherry.<\/p>\n

It was in this process of development that one of the all-time great duos were formed. Much like Mario and Luigi, Mario and Sonic, or Mario and, err, Rabbids (?), Akihiro Hino enlisted the help of puzzle book writer and real-life quizard<\/em> Akira Tago to help birth a franchise that was both fun and (in the loosest sense of the word) educational.<\/p>\n

Building a true gentleman<\/h3>\n
\"Professor<\/a>
Image: Level-5<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The finished product was not just one, but six games (and a crossover, a feature film, a manga series, mobile app, and enough Stove Pipe hat merchandise to send shares through the roof). Professor Layton and the Curious Village<\/a> was released in 2007 to deservedly high acclaim. The puzzles were fiendishly puzzling, the central mystery was genuinely mysterious, the top-tapping jazz score from Tomohiro Nishiura provides one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time, and P.A. Works provided feature film-level animated cutscenes. Feature. Film. Level.<\/p>\n

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Saving the main theme until the big finale is a bold move Nishiura, but it gets me every time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original trilogy was so eagerly met that the trio of prequel games was quickly released in the following three years (Professor Layton and the Spector\u2019s Call<\/a> on DS, and both Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask<\/a> and Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy<\/a> on 3DS). It is true, each entry does get somewhat wackier than that which preceded it (this is a series that genuinely moves from an inheritance dispute in game one to \u2014 SPOILERS!<\/strong> \u2014 literally resurrecting the dead<\/em> by game six), but that was part of the series\u2019 charm. Professor Layton was a household name, and this silly little franchise could run forever, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong. Excluding Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney<\/a>, which would release in Japan in 2012 before a Western localisation landed monstrously late in 2014, we haven\u2019t seen our top hat-wearing, Laytonmobile-driving, tea-drinking Professor in near enough eight years.<\/p>\n

And, unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will ever see him again.<\/p>\n

The rise and fall of Level-5<\/h3>\n