What Makes a True Gentleman? (Professor Layton series spoiler free!)

    In the year 2008, Level-5 dropped a little game on Nintendo DS titled Professor Layton and the Curious Village.  I didn't hear anything about it at the time, save for a button that was given to me at Wal-Mart of all places with the box art on it. Over the years, however, this series that started with a curious village ended up being something of a cult classic. Though Professor Layton will never get the same amount of recognition as Mario or Crash Bandicoot, I think his games are really something special, and throughout all 7 of his adventures (8 counting Layton's Mystery Adventures, starring his daughter), the series maintains that level of wonder. It's a weird series for sure considering I'd say the gameplay is the least compelling part of it, but that makes it sound bad, so allow me to explain this puzzle of a franchise today. Get your top hats on, because I'll be your guide around these mysteries as we traverse all kinds of frontiers, curious villages, and perhaps even the future.

These two are always on the case!

What's the story of this Professor?

    The Professor Layton series is an interesting one not only in how its gameplay is laid out, but even in the relationship between the two main characters. All of the games in this series revolve primarily around Professor Hershel Layton and his Apprentice, Luke Triton as they go on extraordinary adventures around various different locales. The opening of most of these games play out a lot like Sherlock Holmes stories in that each game begins with a letter from Luke to the player, explaining that this is the most recent adventure that they had been up to, setting up the flashback of what Luke had just done as the actual game. The games are all just recollections of Luke's experiences, but he's established as a reliable narrator right away, and the framing device certainly doesn't overstay its welcome, as it's usually only brought up in the beginning. Luke's little connection with one John Watson is far from the only Holmes-esque connection, however. Every entry in this series begins with the professor getting a random job assignment that at first, neither Luke or the player of the game understands just what is so strange about it. The first entry in the series begins with a letter to the professor telling him of a mysterious treasure in the town of St. Mystere. This seems like it could just be a hoax or even a piece of junk mail, but the professor takes off at once, already realizing the potential for mystery. As this implies, the professor is always one step ahead of everyone else, and though this is definitely sounding just like the detective who resides in 221B Baker Street, there is one very important fact about him that makes him far different from Sherlock. He's genuinely kind to people and wants to help, and more than that, takes Luke along on his adventures because he wants to train him not only how to be a great adventurer and detective, but how to be a true gentleman, as he is. He's always encouraging to Luke and looks out for the kid who occasionally has a tendency to feel overwhelmed. They make up a great duo of characters with the calm and collected Professor Layton and the energetic and easily excited Luke.

    This series is laid out in an order similar to how Star Wars worked. The first game that was released, The Curious Village, is actually the fourth game in the order of the timeline. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the last game in the franchise in terms of timeline (as well as my favorite one) with Professor Layton and the Lost Specter being the first, even though it was the one released after Unwound Future. The first four games in the series were released for Nintendo DS, while the final two and spin-off Layton's Mystery Adventures were released for 3DS. Wait... but four plus two is six... didn't I say there were seven adventures? That's because the seventh one is an animated movie called Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. While this movie could be viewed as a standalone movie in its own right, it does technically fit into the series at large. It's a really good movie, and captures the tone and emotions of the characters in the games in a much more successful way than most video game movies do, presumably because this is an original story for the characters instead of just being a movie based on the first game in the series or something like that. I was blown away when I was playing the last game (in terms of release anyways), Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, and a character actually made reference to the events from the movie. It was a really cool moment, and though I loved the movie even if it wasn't canon, it made it even more satisfying that they fit it in somehow.

Spoiler free starters!

    Alright, I said I would try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, so I'm only going to be talking about the beginnings of all of these different games, hoping to peak your interest with only the inciting incident and not spoiling all the crazy twists and turns along the way. I may make another post where I talk about things that happen if there's enough interest, but I think it'll be fine to do it this way for now at least. The series starts in Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which begins with a little car winding down a narrow country road. Professor Layton and Luke are traveling somewhere when Luke asks the professor why they're going to solve an inheritance dispute. The professor tells him that a very wealthy man, Baron Reinhold passed away and in his will, he left strange instructions. "To anyone who can locate the Golden Apple, an old Reinhold family heirloom which is somewhere in this village, I offer the entirety of my estate." The issue with this is that no one had heard anything about this treasure prior to his death, so they weren't sure exactly what they were looking for, and thus no one was able to find it. Professor Layton was contacted by the man's widow, a Lady Dahlia, to investigate the situation, which is what brings the two to the village in the first place. Layton smells a deeper mystery involved here somehow, and simply couldn't resist the call to action. After all, "A true gentleman never refuses the requests of a beautiful lady." The second game, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, begins with a newspaper article saying that Professor Layton's mentor from when he was in school has passed away. Professor Schrader writes a letter to Hershel to talk about the Elysian Box, an artifact that is said to kill anyone who opens it, which he has gotten his hands on, and soon enough, the word comes of his passing. This event leads them to a whole other mystery, which may or may not include a vampire! This original trilogy wraps up in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, which begins with another letter, not from a past connection this time, but from a future one. Luke Triton, the professor's apprentice has sent a letter from the future, which seems like it could be a junk letter, but the professor takes it very seriously. Future Luke needs help from his old friend to solve some issue in the future, or else the world is in grave danger. This third one is my favorite in the whole series, I have to say, so I'm really not going to spoil anything more than that.

    The fourth game is the first one in the prequel quadrilogy (I guess you would call it, since it includes a movie). Professor Layton and the Last Specter follows Hershel following up on a letter that was sent by a former student of his who happens to be the father of one Luke Triton. He's the mayor of a village that gets attacked every night by a ghost if the letter is to be believed. Luke believes he has some connection to the specter, and things get a little wacky in this one. I feel like the prequel stories are a bit weirder than the original three games, but they're still definitely good. The next game in the series, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, takes place in a desert city that supposedly sprung up because of one miracle which was granted, and now, a masked figure who can walk through the air has appeared and begun to threaten the people of this community. It's up to Layton and Luke to once again get to the bottom of this impossible occurance and save people from a shadowy threat. The movie, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, begins with Luke and the Professor getting tickets to see a musical that a former student is the female lead in, and after that all kinds of crazy things ensue. It's 90 minutes long and free on Youtube, so I would highly recommend it, especially if you like animated movies, or if you want a taste of the weird world of Professor Layton. There are some things that you wouldn't understand without playing any of the games, but I'd say it largely stands on its own. The final game in the franchise is Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, but honestly I can't even talk about it without giving spoilers for the other three adventures in this prequel timeline. Suffice it to say that it has a lot to do with the hidden mysteries from the prequel timeline. I can't talk much about Layton's Mystery Journey because I haven't played much of it, but it is a spin off game of sorts where you play as the professor's daughter and there's some mystery about Professor Layton going missing somehow.

Some of the wacky and weirdly charming characters of this series!

    There's a lot to say about this handheld series, and truly I haven't even touched the surface of the charm and lovable characters in it. The villains in these games are even interesting, though I don't really want to talk about them either, as that would be pretty confusing out of context, due to many layers of spoilers. More than the characters though, the setting acts as a character by itself a lot of the time. The locales that you traverse are bizarre and at times almost like something out of an Escher painting, lots of architecture that you could never see in real life because it just would just collapse. This series is really special to me and I hope if you've played any of it or seen the movie, it holds a special place in your heart as well. For what starts out as a simple story always manages to almost move me to tears by the end.

    Professor Layton is a character that I really love, and though his games aren't really being made anymore, I sure hope he'll be able to don his top hat again someday. I'd certainly be there for it! There's little wonder as to why Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was such a hit, as all of the characters worked so well together, and it was also incredible to see Phoenix learning how to do puzzles with the help of Hershel, or to see the both of them yelling out "Objection!" at the climax of a case. It was a fantastic game which stemmed from two fantastic franchises. That being said, the entire Professor Layton series is amazing, especially for something that had its first four games on the Nintendo DS. It was incredible to have any kind of voice acting on DS, with the tech limitations and all. It's amazing that the voices sounded so good and the music did too! Pull up Professor Layton's theme on Youtube and you're ready for an adventure, along with so many other tracks. Top hat's off to you, Professor Layton. Hope to see you again some day.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I love this series a lot, and I hope that you've enjoyed reading about it. I may do more posts on this series, I'm not sure, but suffice it to say that I still have a lot of thoughts on this franchise. It's interesting, because I'm truly not a huge fan of puzzle games in general, but the stories are all good enough to always pull me in. Thanks again for reading and until next time, I've been your Self-Proclaimed Gentleman Puzzle-Solver. Have a great week!