Professor Layton


Professor Layton is a puzzle adventure video game series and transmedia franchise developed by Level-5. The property consists primarily of seven main video games, a mobile spin-off, an animated theatrical film, and an anime television series, while additionally incorporating an array of secondary titles and media, including a crossover game with Capcom's Ace Attorney series.
The first three games follow the adventures of Professor Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke Triton, while the subsequent three games and film are prequels, focusing on how Luke and Layton met and their original adventures; later installments also follow the escapades of Layton's children and their respective allies. Each title features a series of puzzles and mysteries provided by the citizens of locales that the main characters explore. It is not necessary to solve all the puzzles to progress, but some are mandatory, and at certain points in the game a minimum number of puzzles must be solved before the story can continue.
Layton series of games had sold over 18 million units by March 2023, retaining the title of Level-5's best-selling game franchise.

History

Conception

The idea behind the Professor Layton formula was a direct result of series creator Akihiro Hino's childhood love of Akira Tago's popular Atama no Taisou series of puzzle books, which have sold more than 12 million copies to date in Japan.
The main character of the original Layton games is Professor Hershel Layton, a renowned archaeologist and professor at Gressenheller University, as well as a polite and well-spoken gentleman. He is called to solve various mysteries in different places, due to his connections to various people and his wide range of expertise. The Professor is accompanied by his apprentice, Luke Triton, a cheerful and curious boy who brings a touch of humor to the story of Layton. According to Hino, Layton is partly inspired by the character of Phoenix Wright of the Ace Attorney series. Assessing the "good points" and "bad points" of the character, he developed Professor Layton. Luke and Layton's character designs, including the latter's iconic top hat, were the work of Takuzō Nagano, whose brief included the requirement of recognisability by form and colour palette, particularly at small sizes. The games were also inspired by the Indiana Jones franchise.

Games

  • Professor Layton and the Curious Village The first game in the series, released for the Nintendo DS in Japan on February 15, 2007, and localized for release elsewhere during 2008.
  • Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box The second game in the series, released for the DS in Japan on November 29, 2007, and localized for release elsewhere during 2009. The Japanese release featured an exclusive prologue, Professor Layton and London's Holiday, including twelve puzzles, several of which are from the first game, and a short storyline set in Professor Layton's London office, in which he reminisces about his previous adventures around the world.
  • Professor Layton and the Unwound Future The third game in the series and final part of the original trilogy, released for the DS in Japan on November 27, 2008, and localized for release elsewhere during 2010. This game is currently the last game in the series to feature the Professor, chronologically.
  • Professor Layton and the Last Specter The fourth game in the series and first installment of the prequel sequence was released for the DS in Japan on November 26, 2009, and elsewhere in 2011. It is, chronologically, the earliest game in the series. In Japan, North America and Australasia, the game also includes an RPG called Professor Layton's London Life, which was co-developed by the then-Brownie Brown. It was excluded from the European version due to "time constraints" surrounding translation.
  • Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask The fifth game in the series, released as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS on February 26, 2011, in Japan, releasing in Europe and Australasia on October 26, 2012, and in North America on the October 28, 2012, and taking place after Eternal Diva chronologically. The game was the first to feature a continuous daily puzzle service available through the Nintendo Network via SpotPass for a full year.
  • Layton Brothers: Mystery Room A mobile spin-off game starring Alfendi Layton, son of Professor Layton. It was released on the iOS App Store on September 21, 2012, in Japan, and on June 27, 2013, in Australia, Europe and North America, and received a worldwide September 9, 2013, release for Android systems. It marked Level-5's first foray into iOS games.
  • Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Announced on October 19, 2010, at Level-5's annual vision event, this game was a cooperative project between Level-5 and Capcom, and a crossover between the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series. It was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS on 29 November 2012, in Europe on 28 March 2014, a day later in Australia, and on 29 August 2014 in North America.
  • Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy The sixth game and conclusion of the prequel sequence, taking place after the planned second film chronologically, In a Nintendo Direct presentation on August 29, 2012, it was revealed by Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino to be the final Layton title to star the Professor himself as the protagonist. It was released for the 3DS in Japan on February 28, 2013, Europe on November 8, 2013, and North America on February 28, 2014.
  • Layton's Mystery Journey The seventh entry in the main Layton series follows a new protagonist, Katrielle Layton - daughter of Professor Layton. The game was released worldwide for mobile devices and on 3DS in Japan on July 20, 2017, with the North American/European 3DS release on October 6, 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was released in Japan on August 9, 2018, and in North America and Europe on November 8, 2019.
  • Professor Layton and the New World of Steam The eighth entry in the main Layton series, a direct sequel to Unwound Future, and the seventh to have Layton in a starring role, was announced via a Nintendo Direct on February 8, 2023 to be releasing on the Nintendo Switch. The game is set to be released in 2026.
Japanese audiences have also received several revisions of previously released games. Both Curious Village and Diabolical Box were afforded a "Friendly Version", in which all weekly puzzles were unlocked and furigana, absent in the first two instalments, added. A release of Curious Village was produced for feature phones, while Diabolical Box was also included in the "Level-5 Premium Silver" and "Gold" collections on Nintendo DS alongside another Level-5 game, Inazuma Eleven. Miracle Mask later received a "Plus" edition, featuring exclusive puzzles, game events and cutscenes in addition to mechanical improvements already seen in the international releases.
Internationally, Millionaires' Conspiracy was rereleased as an enhanced Nintendo Switch port boasting new puzzles, exclusive costumes, and all previous DLC. An enhanced mobile port of Curious Village featuring additional cutscenes and unlockable content has also seen a worldwide release, followed by mobile ports of the second and third games.

Cancelled and deleted

were made available in Japan, including a crossover with Kaitō Royale, but have since become unavailable after their distribution services were closed. Another game, initially planned for 3DS and mobile, dubbed Layton 7, was announced in 2013, featuring the Professor as a selectable avatar in a mafia-style social game. It was again presented at the 2015 Level-5 Vision, but failed to materialise within its release window and has since been removed from the company's website.

Future

Hino confirmed plans for another entry under the Mystery Journey banner prior to the release of Millionaires' Conspiracy, later suggesting that a game starring the Professor and based on his arc in the anime series would be the franchise's next installment.
In February 2023, a Switch-bound game titled Professor Layton and The New World of Steam was announced in a Nintendo Direct presentation.

Gameplay

The games employ an integrated structure of adventure-style exploration, dialogue sequences, and regular story-prompted puzzle solving. The player explores their environment in the manner of a point-and-click adventure game, using the touch screen to talk with non-player characters, learn more about the environment, or locate hidden secrets such as "hint coins" that may be used during puzzles. Often, when interacting with a person or object, the player will be presented with a puzzle, valued at a certain number of "picarats", a type of point system within the game. Solving the puzzle correctly will earn the player the full number of picarats, but a wrong answer will reduce the points by small increments with each attempt, until it reaches a minimal picarat number. In order to progress the plot, the player is required to solve specific puzzles, or to solve a minimum number of puzzles. If the player permanently leaves an area or otherwise significantly progresses the plot, puzzles they have yet to find and/or solve are regularly compiled and placed into a collection, often in the form of a "Puzzle Shack" owned by a character known as "Granny Riddleton", or with the aforementioned Riddleton's cat, "Keats", which they can return to and attempt to resolve later. Curious Village contains a total of 135 regular puzzles, while Diabolical Box contains 153, Unwound Future 168, Last Specter 170, Miracle Mask 150, Azran Legacy 165, and Millionaires' Conspiracy 185.
The puzzles take the form of brain teasers, most of which are only loosely tied to the plot, developed for the first six games under the oversight of Akira Tago, famous for his best-selling Mental Gymnastics series. They encompass a diverse range of styles, from logic puzzles to lateral thinking problems, mazes, math problems, sliding-block puzzles, and others. The games allow the player to bring up a translucent memo screen they can write on, using the stylus, to work out their answer before submission. If the player is stuck, they may spend one hint coin to receive a hint. Each puzzle has three regular hints available, and, from the third game onwards, feature "super hints" that tend towards nearly solving the puzzle for the player, but which can only be bought with two hint coins and after the three other hints have been revealed. The puzzles are not timed, though some require correct timing, and others, such as mazes and sliding puzzles, may challenge the player to achieve completion in a limited number of moves.
Each game features an additional set of three unique meta-puzzle minigames that can be accessed when the player has access to the pause menu "Layton's Trunk". These minigames generally require the player to complete specific puzzles in the game to receive items and/or challenges within the minigame. For example, in return for solving particular puzzles, characters in Curious Village will award the player with an item of furniture, which then must be placed within a set of apartments to Layton's and Luke's exacting desires; the minigame cannot be completed until all the furniture has been collected. Completing the story and minigames also unlocks a series of especially difficult puzzles, known as "Layton's Challenges". Prior to its cancellation, players of the four DS games could use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service to connect to the internet and access a "weekly puzzle" service, whereby they could download a new puzzle for each week following a game's release for a set period; later mainline 3DS games would expand on this with a year-long daily puzzle service via the Nintendo Network.