It's not so much that the nonsensical story annoys me, I still love the games.
It's more that they have a lot of the ingredients to have a really good mystery story, where there are enough clues for you to work out what's going on, and try and solve it as you are playing along.
Whilst there are often hints about what is going on, it's all set in a world where if someone disappears for a few seconds, then they have probably been replaced by a perfect replica robot. Or some bizarre fumes can cause people to have exactly the same illusion for no reason.
Presumably how they come up with the stories is come up with an idea for an interesting setting/plot, then take a lot of drugs and come up with an ending.
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
I really want to click those story spoilers, but I haven't played the diabolical box or this yet, and I really don't want to mess the story up for myself.
I clicked some spoilers because I am basically not terribly interested in Unwound Future or the Layton brand of nonsensical puzzling that I end up resorting to cheating to solve anyway.
Still, I might still play it to hear more of that delicious Yuri Lowenthal fake Brit Prince of Persia accent.
Ithe Layton brand of nonsensical puzzling that I end up resorting to cheating to solve anyway.
Are you saying the puzzles are nonsensical? Because that doesn't make any sense at all outside of a few corner cases (and it's gotten better as the series progressed).
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
I guess I cheat some. I try to do the puzzles without any help and without using hint coins...but if I just can't figure them out I'll use the hint coins...then once I have figured out the answer, I reset the machine. :P
I clicked some spoilers because I am basically not terribly interested in Unwound Future or the Layton brand of nonsensical puzzling that I end up resorting to cheating to solve anyway.
Still, I might still play it to hear more of that delicious Yuri Lowenthal fake Brit Prince of Persia accent.
Dear friend,
"resorting to cheating" is, I am afraid, and indictment of yourself, and not the puzzles.
Sure there is one or two puzzles every games that I feel is written in a misleading way, but by and large the games are extremely logical, charming, inventive, and awesome.
...
But seriously you people who think the fiction here is compelling need to get out more. I enjoy it, but its nothing special. Guy wears a hat and has manners, hijinks ensue? No thanks.
I clicked some spoilers because I am basically not terribly interested in Unwound Future or the Layton brand of nonsensical puzzling that I end up resorting to cheating to solve anyway.
Still, I might still play it to hear more of that delicious Yuri Lowenthal fake Brit Prince of Persia accent.
Dear friend,
"resorting to cheating" is, I am afraid, and indictment of yourself, and not the puzzles.
Sure there is one or two puzzles every games that I feel is written in a misleading way, but by and large the games are extremely logical, charming, inventive, and awesome.
...
But seriously you people who think the fiction here is compelling need to get out more. I enjoy it, but its nothing special. Guy wears a hat and has manners, hijinks ensue? No thanks.
Meh, I like the plots, settings, and characters well enough. I think they're charming. I'm not going to claim they're the second coming of Shakespeare or anything, but I'd likely enjoy the movie. I can think of worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
For a game it has a pretty fun and interesting story and narrative.
I finished this game a few days ago and it's still on my mind. Usually I forget about a game immediately after I finish it, but this one has stuck around and made me yearn for the sequel. I loved the character development, and the story was really fun. The puzzles were probably easier than previous games or maybe I've gotten smarter.
I wasn't bothered by Flora. She's not really in the game enough to get that annoying.
Anyway I already saw the movie in Japanese and it's pretty good but I'd prefer it in English. However apparently the US Layton and the UK Layton have different voice actors... so even if I import the DVD, it won't have the voices I'm used to.
I've heard it explained that when they did focus testing of the games in the UK, English people flat out hated Luke's voice for sounding fake, so they redub Luke in every game..
After hearing both versions, I have to conclude that the English are off their bloody rockers, because they both sound virtually identical to me.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
It's subtle, but the EU one does sound more like a native speaker. Even so, it's not really apparent enough to warrant a complete redubbing. Focus testers are so fucking weird sometimes, I swear.
Cherrn on
All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
Thinking back I have to admit that both my wife and I reacted with loud hilarity at how terrible Luke's (US version) voice was when we first heard it. But then hearing the redubbed EU version I'm fairly certain our reaction would have been exactly the same.
You laugh, you say 'haha that's terrible,' and then you swiftly get used to it and move on because Americans putting on bad fake British accents are far from an uncommon phenomenon in our daily media intake. I suspect the focus groups only got as far as that first reaction.
I found Luke's voice in the first game grating and the voice in the other two games unremarkable in either direction.
Also if they're going to bring Flora along for every game why don't they just have her solving puzzles along with Luke and Layton instead of doing nothing?
I went back and solved all the missing puzzles and weekly puzzles from Curious Village and Luke's voice definitely improves in the second and third game. Watching that video, I think I prefer the US voice but it's not much a difference really.
Ok, so I figured "Future Layton" was really Stahngun from pretty early on, but do they even mention the name "Alan Dimitri" prior to the reveal? Also, suddenly, a Don Paulo. Everywhere.
Ugh. I was enjoying the story right up until it decided to take that backflip into the cement.
Ok, so I figured "Future Layton" was really Stahngun from pretty early on, but do they even mention the name "Alan Dimitri" prior to the reveal? Also, suddenly, a Don Paulo. Everywhere.
Ugh. I was enjoying the story right up until it decided to take that backflip into the cement.
Ok, so I figured "Future Layton" was really Stahngun from pretty early on, but do they even mention the name "Alan Dimitri" prior to the reveal? Also, suddenly, a Don Paulo. Everywhere.
Ugh. I was enjoying the story right up until it decided to take that backflip into the cement.
It gets weirder, I promise you.
I don't mind weird. I'm fine with weird. I don't like them inventing plot on the fly.
See, I caught the "little Luke" thing, but let is slide as him being old and senile. But the Dean being bald? What a fucking lame dick move. There was a wonderful opportunity there to let the PLAYER know all these details and work it out themselves, but no, Layton solves the puzzle because he's withholding information from the player. Fuck that noise, that's just bad writing.
Ok, so I figured "Future Layton" was really Stahngun from pretty early on, but do they even mention the name "Alan Dimitri" prior to the reveal? Also, suddenly, a Don Paulo. Everywhere.
Ugh. I was enjoying the story right up until it decided to take that backflip into the cement.
It gets weirder, I promise you.
I don't mind weird. I'm fine with weird. I don't like them inventing plot on the fly.
See, I caught the "little Luke" thing, but let is slide as him being old and senile. But the Dean being bald? What a fucking lame dick move. There was a wonderful opportunity there to let the PLAYER know all these details and work it out themselves, but no, Layton solves the puzzle because he's withholding information from the player. Fuck that noise, that's just bad writing.
There's a part later where Layton goes on and on about something that has never been mentioned before.
This isn't the type of mystery that you can solve yourself.
Okay so the thing I don't quite understand is why Bill Hawks volunteered to try out the time machine in the beginning of the game (reluctantly, but still). He knew better than anyone how dangerous it was. I don't think publicity is a good enough reason to get into a machine built by a guy with a good motive for revenge. Did Bill not know that Stahngun is Dimitri? Even so, that's just stupid.
Also, I remember Luke says to Big Luke that he must know how it all turns out because he experienced it all in the past. Big Luke says that although he was once Little Luke, Little Luke won't necessarily become him. I thought this was pretty smart and I figured it meant that the future wasn't written in stone. Later, Future Layton's whole plan falls apart because he didn't know what colour pen Layton had in his pocket. You'd think that Clive and Dimitri would've been on the same page when it came to the rules of the future. "I don't know what colour pen you have because you're only in the future because of me in the first place. This is the first time this event has happened," he could say. I don't know; maybe I misinterpreted something.
You wouldn't remember something as trivial as the colour of your pen ten years ago anyway. According to Layton (or Don Paolo, I guess) Future Layton would remember the colour pen that Past Layton had because ten years ago he has asked Future Layton the colour of his pen resulting in an event that caused itself. I've gone cross-eyed.
And I think as soon as Future Layton is revealed to be fake, Future Luke would be questioned as well. I didn't think they were really in the future and I especially didn't think Future Layton was real. After he's revealed, I knew Future Luke couldn't be real but they don't deal with him for a long time. Maybe Layton had it all figured out by this point and nobody else caught on.
And last, I thought it was funny that Layton knew everything about Clive, about how his parents died in the time machine explosion and how he was adopted yadda yadda. But Layton was surprised to find out that Clive was the same kid he comforted on the day of the accident. I thought that was obvious.
I love this game and I show my love by disecting it.
Okay so the thing I don't quite understand is why Bill Hawks volunteered to try out the time machine in the beginning of the game (reluctantly, but still). He knew better than anyone how dangerous it was. I don't think publicity is a good enough reason to get into a machine built by a guy with a good motive for revenge. Did Bill not know that Stahngun is Dimitri? Even so, that's just stupid.
Also, I remember Luke says to Big Luke that he must know how it all turns out because he experienced it all in the past. Big Luke says that although he was once Little Luke, Little Luke won't necessarily become him. I thought this was pretty smart and I figured it meant that the future wasn't written in stone. Later, Future Layton's whole plan falls apart because he didn't know what colour pen Layton had in his pocket. You'd think that Clive and Dimitri would've been on the same page when it came to the rules of the future. "I don't know what colour pen you have because you're only in the future because of me in the first place. This is the first time this event has happened," he could say. I don't know; maybe I misinterpreted something.
You wouldn't remember something as trivial as the colour of your pen ten years ago anyway. According to Layton (or Don Paolo, I guess) Future Layton would remember the colour pen that Past Layton had because ten years ago he has asked Future Layton the colour of his pen resulting in an event that caused itself. I've gone cross-eyed.
And I think as soon as Future Layton is revealed to be fake, Future Luke would be questioned as well. I didn't think they were really in the future and I especially didn't think Future Layton was real. After he's revealed, I knew Future Luke couldn't be real but they don't deal with him for a long time. Maybe Layton had it all figured out by this point and nobody else caught on.
And last, I thought it was funny that Layton knew everything about Clive, about how his parents died in the time machine explosion and how he was adopted yadda yadda. But Layton was surprised to find out that Clive was the same kid he comforted on the day of the accident. I thought that was obvious.
I love this game and I show my love by disecting it.
Foolproof way the entire plot could have been unraveled in 10 minutes.
Layton: "Big Luke, I have but one question, which will determine if you really are Luke from the future."
Future Luke: "Ask away, professor."
Layton: "The golden apple. What is it?"
Future Luke: "Uhhh..."
Present Luke: "Oh snap!"
I remember thinking about that after I beat the game.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
0
SenshiBALLING OUT OF CONTROLWavefrontRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
Man, got this today, and all the tiny touches made to the art and stuff makes me very happy, especially since I completed The Diabolical Box a few days ago.
also god I hate the EU Luke even though he actually sounds british (still sorta seems like they're forcing the accent, though). US Luke is a bro
I just finished Diabolical Box, now moving on to this one.
What the heck is up with that Diabolical Box explanation.
So everybody in town was a hallucination, as Layton said "the town and its people." How were they able to impart new information to him? I guess none of them were particularly helpful. So he just dumped all his tea on the ground? People "gave" them diary keys, scraps of a photo and hamster toys when really they were just finding them lying around? They had to get meat to bribe a dog when it was really just a rotten bone to bribe a dog skeleton?
Actually that does make the photo system a little more interesting, finding differences between pictures you take and the "real" world. It's not like they depict 50 year differences, but the subtle things you could take to mean that their heads are a bit messed up.
Nobody was really there except the old guy? Was his butler really there? In the ending scenes we see what looks like a reunion of him and his butler in the other town. It would make some sense that he wasn't really there because we didn't see anything of him as they escaped the castle. But if that's the case, how did the guy live there by himself? What did he eat, who did the maintenance? I guess there was a carriage that went to and from the castle, unless that was a hallucination too? It probably was, given that there was a lake in the way.
And if the butler wasn't there, how would he have told Layton and Luke about that secret door?
How in the world was there enough hallucinogenic gas to last 50 years in a completely even spread across the whole town?
The people themselves are real. If you recall the dialogue, some of them mention that they seem to be getting tired a lot faster. Their actual bodies aren't performing to the level their hallucinated bodies should.
The people themselves are real. If you recall the dialogue, some of them mention that they seem to be getting tired a lot faster. Their actual bodies aren't performing to the level their hallucinated bodies should.
So they're hallucinating their own bodies; do we see their actual bodies, or hallucinated bodies? Because if we see them as they were 50 years ago, a lot of the people there should be dead, since they already look old.
And I'm supposed to believe that none of them has any concept of time? The 10 year old looking kid hasn't been celebrating his birthdays for 50 years and wondering why he doesn't get any older, and nobody mentions this to anyone else?
At the end, we see the town suddenly decay, none of the lights are lit. So everyone was hallucinating the lights in their houses, and they were actually fumbling around in the dark the whole time?
Posts
It's more that they have a lot of the ingredients to have a really good mystery story, where there are enough clues for you to work out what's going on, and try and solve it as you are playing along.
Whilst there are often hints about what is going on, it's all set in a world where if someone disappears for a few seconds, then they have probably been replaced by a perfect replica robot. Or some bizarre fumes can cause people to have exactly the same illusion for no reason.
Presumably how they come up with the stories is come up with an idea for an interesting setting/plot, then take a lot of drugs and come up with an ending.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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Argh. :x
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Still, I might still play it to hear more of that delicious Yuri Lowenthal fake Brit Prince of Persia accent.
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Are you saying the puzzles are nonsensical? Because that doesn't make any sense at all outside of a few corner cases (and it's gotten better as the series progressed).
I aint losing my coins! :x
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Dear friend,
"resorting to cheating" is, I am afraid, and indictment of yourself, and not the puzzles.
Sure there is one or two puzzles every games that I feel is written in a misleading way, but by and large the games are extremely logical, charming, inventive, and awesome.
...
But seriously you people who think the fiction here is compelling need to get out more. I enjoy it, but its nothing special. Guy wears a hat and has manners, hijinks ensue? No thanks.
猿も木から落ちる
猿も木から落ちる
Meh, I like the plots, settings, and characters well enough. I think they're charming. I'm not going to claim they're the second coming of Shakespeare or anything, but I'd likely enjoy the movie. I can think of worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
I quite loved the silly plot of the first game.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
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Add me!
I wasn't bothered by Flora. She's not really in the game enough to get that annoying.
Anyway I already saw the movie in Japanese and it's pretty good but I'd prefer it in English. However apparently the US Layton and the UK Layton have different voice actors... so even if I import the DVD, it won't have the voices I'm used to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veTZBlHraDw
Although I've always imported so American Luke is what sounds right to me now.
After hearing both versions, I have to conclude that the English are off their bloody rockers, because they both sound virtually identical to me.
You laugh, you say 'haha that's terrible,' and then you swiftly get used to it and move on because Americans putting on bad fake British accents are far from an uncommon phenomenon in our daily media intake. I suspect the focus groups only got as far as that first reaction.
Also if they're going to bring Flora along for every game why don't they just have her solving puzzles along with Luke and Layton instead of doing nothing?
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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So I guess I will import the DVD after all!
Also, man I love this series. I'm nine hours in to Unwound and I dont want it to end.
INSTAGRAM
Chapter Nine Spoilers:
Ugh. I was enjoying the story right up until it decided to take that backflip into the cement.
It gets weirder, I promise you.
I don't mind weird. I'm fine with weird. I don't like them inventing plot on the fly.
This isn't the type of mystery that you can solve yourself.
Also, I remember Luke says to Big Luke that he must know how it all turns out because he experienced it all in the past. Big Luke says that although he was once Little Luke, Little Luke won't necessarily become him. I thought this was pretty smart and I figured it meant that the future wasn't written in stone. Later, Future Layton's whole plan falls apart because he didn't know what colour pen Layton had in his pocket. You'd think that Clive and Dimitri would've been on the same page when it came to the rules of the future. "I don't know what colour pen you have because you're only in the future because of me in the first place. This is the first time this event has happened," he could say. I don't know; maybe I misinterpreted something.
You wouldn't remember something as trivial as the colour of your pen ten years ago anyway. According to Layton (or Don Paolo, I guess) Future Layton would remember the colour pen that Past Layton had because ten years ago he has asked Future Layton the colour of his pen resulting in an event that caused itself. I've gone cross-eyed.
And I think as soon as Future Layton is revealed to be fake, Future Luke would be questioned as well. I didn't think they were really in the future and I especially didn't think Future Layton was real. After he's revealed, I knew Future Luke couldn't be real but they don't deal with him for a long time. Maybe Layton had it all figured out by this point and nobody else caught on.
And last, I thought it was funny that Layton knew everything about Clive, about how his parents died in the time machine explosion and how he was adopted yadda yadda. But Layton was surprised to find out that Clive was the same kid he comforted on the day of the accident. I thought that was obvious.
I love this game and I show my love by disecting it.
Foolproof way the entire plot could have been unraveled in 10 minutes.
Future Luke: "Ask away, professor."
Layton: "The golden apple. What is it?"
Future Luke: "Uhhh..."
Present Luke: "Oh snap!"
I remember thinking about that after I beat the game.
also god I hate the EU Luke even though he actually sounds british (still sorta seems like they're forcing the accent, though). US Luke is a bro
What the heck is up with that Diabolical Box explanation.
Actually that does make the photo system a little more interesting, finding differences between pictures you take and the "real" world. It's not like they depict 50 year differences, but the subtle things you could take to mean that their heads are a bit messed up.
Nobody was really there except the old guy? Was his butler really there? In the ending scenes we see what looks like a reunion of him and his butler in the other town. It would make some sense that he wasn't really there because we didn't see anything of him as they escaped the castle. But if that's the case, how did the guy live there by himself? What did he eat, who did the maintenance? I guess there was a carriage that went to and from the castle, unless that was a hallucination too? It probably was, given that there was a lake in the way.
And if the butler wasn't there, how would he have told Layton and Luke about that secret door?
How in the world was there enough hallucinogenic gas to last 50 years in a completely even spread across the whole town?
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
And I'm supposed to believe that none of them has any concept of time? The 10 year old looking kid hasn't been celebrating his birthdays for 50 years and wondering why he doesn't get any older, and nobody mentions this to anyone else?
At the end, we see the town suddenly decay, none of the lights are lit. So everyone was hallucinating the lights in their houses, and they were actually fumbling around in the dark the whole time?
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Yeeeeeeeup.
Here's one entry that made the "best of" article:
But I almost shit my pants when I saw today Capcom is making a Layton vs. Phoenix Wright game.