[Opinions] Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

(I know there's already a thread about this game, but it's tool old and it's kind of different what I want to talk about here)

Introduction

It's been a while since the fifth Professor Layton game came out and probably most of you have already beaten it.

Layton is asked to find out what is going on the city of Monte d'Or by his old friend Angela Ledore. This city, which just came out of the desert, is suffering from the miracles of the Masked Gentleman. This man is wearing the ancient Mask of Chaos, which is said to grant powers to the user of it. There are lots of puzzles awaiting to be resolved, which will lead you to the answer of this mystery.

So, I made this thread to discuss what you think about Level 5's new 3D game and what's your opinion on it. Although it's supposed you're going to tell your experience after beating the game, if you're going to talk about something very important in the storyline, please use spoiler tags.

My opinion

This is the game I have least enjoyed. The exciting thing about P. Layton games is that in the end, you always get surprised because something you didn't expect just happens. Yes, the key of Layton games are the surprise (aside from puzzles, of course), which I didn't seem to find in this game. I could foretell what it was going to happen all the time, and this obviously made the end very boring. I must say I expected the surprise they always give us, but it looks like this time they forgot it. This to be told about the storyline.

About the puzzles, as usual, I enjoyed them a lot. I can spend hours trying to figure out how to solve a puzzle before buying any clue (I end up buying a few, though :P). And the minigame I most liked it's the Toy Robot (the music in the background while you are playing Toy Robot is just amazing).

The last point I'd like to talk about, the music. I'm always marveled about Professor Layton background music. I can say that I stopped playing about half an hour just to listen one of the songs (I always do this with every Layton game). I'd definitely go to a Professor Layton music concert if I had the chance (and if it existed).

Now, let's hear about what you have to say.

I always like the Layton games and this one was no different. I played the hell out of it when I got it and had 100%'d it pretty soon after.

I'm not really a huge fan of the jump to 3D models--I found it kind of jarring. It worked alright but I thought the 2D sprites in previous games were far more charming. Also some visual puzzles were crazy easy if you turned up the 3D slider which seemed a little unfair to people who can't/won't play with the actual 3D option turned on. This didn't detract a whole lot from the game for me, but I never did get used to it.

I didn't really notice the music as much in this entry but it wasn't bad music or anything. Just not as amazing as I remember the first two games' OSTs being. (I absolutely adored them but they're the only ones I've listened to outside of the game. D:)

Plot was alright. I agree that the twist (was it even a twist this time?) was way obvious, but at the same time, I didn't mind it all that much. I think some of the twists in previous games were just so ridiculous and over-the-top that it didn't feel like there was any real progression to that part of the story. I don't really like prequel stories that much because all of what we learn in this game seems out of place since Layton never mentions any of it in previous games. It just comes across as weird.

But the puzzles! I really liked the puzzles this time around. Most of them were fairly easy, but not so easy that they weren't fun. I loved the shop minigame in the briefcase and I still find myself going back into the main game just to redo those occasionally. And the daily puzzles have been great! I'm so impressed with them. I was so sure I'd find them boring and give up on them pretty quickly but I've actually been checking as regularly as possible and keeping up pretty well since I like them so much (I have to borrow my flatmate's 3DS to play this).

Lightning said:

Also some visual puzzles were crazy easy if you turned up the 3D slider which seemed a little unfair to people who can't/won't play with the actual 3D option turned on. This didn't detract a whole lot from the game for me, but I never did get used to it.

Click to expand...

That was my first thought when I heard a new Layton was being developed for 3DS "Will the puzzles be easier if 3D is enabled?", but, to be honest, I haven't found yet any puzzle which becomes easier if you have the 3D slider turned up. If you remember at least one, could you tell me? I'd like to try that, I'm really curious about it.

Lightning said:

I didn't really notice the music as much in this entry but it wasn't bad music or anything. Just not as amazing as I remember the first two games' OSTs being. (I absolutely adored them but they're the only ones I've listened to outside of the game. D:)

Click to expand...

After I beat the game, my first impression was "It looks like this time there hasn't been much variety of music" but when I looked for some information about the OST of the game, it had even more soundtracks than previous games so... I don't know what to say XD

It looks like the next game will be about the vestiges found in Layton 4, Layton 5 and the movie "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva". I might be watching the movie to understand better what the next game will be about.

By the way, that old thread was mine.
Anyway, it was so plain obvious who the mask gentleman was, it wasn't even funny. The puzzles also had less of a challenge to them, and like you both said, there weren't many different music tracks. I didn't find this game boring in the slightest, just less interesting and leass challenging,
SPOILER WARNING!

Overall, I enjoyed this game very much, and if I were to score it, I would give it a 8/10.

Xeninacra said:

That was my first thought when I heard a new Layton was being developed for 3DS "Will the puzzles be easier if 3D is enabled?", but, to be honest, I haven't found yet any puzzle which becomes easier if you have the 3D slider turned up. If you remember at least one, could you tell me? I'd like to try that, I'm really curious about it.

Click to expand...

This isn't really spoilery since I don't give an answer but I know some people might not want to know anything so random puzzle goes under a spoiler, haha.