First Look at Professor Layton's Last Adventure [Professor Layton]

Professor Layton’s adventures are coming to an end, apparently. And they announce that fact proudly in the demo for Professor Layton and the Legacy of The Advanced Civilization A (レイトン教授と超文明Aの遺産).

The story features the dandy English gentleman and his two assistants, Luke and Emmy on an adventure to solve the mystery of the “Living Mummy.” The playable demo on display at Tokyo Game Show 2012 consisted of the opening movie and about 10 minutes of gameplay to give a taste of how the new game will be, which if you’ve played any of the previous games, is not a great change from the past.

The opening animation shows, in regular spectacular Level 5 quality, Professor Layton and his assistants boarding an airship to visit Layton’s colleague, Professor Sarhaiman (サーハイマン English name unspecified) after Layton receives a letter regarding a mysterious “Living Mummy.” The trio arrive in a mountain city to begin their search. From there, the game is a standard Layton game, consisting of basic point-and-click mechanics. Here and there, characters will give you random puzzles to solve, many which often have nothing to do with the story in progress but will be required to progress the story nonetheless. In the demo, I managed to find 3 simple puzzles during my brief play. Layton and co learn that there are a group of men in black suits in the city who seem to be searching for something. The trio soon find a mysterious cave and as they find their way in, the demo comes to an end, once again announcing that this is Professor Layton’s last adventure.

Professor Layton and the Legacy of the Advanced Civilization A is pretty much a Layton game and follows the formula that has already been established. In fact, aside from the plot and the fact that they are parading it as Layton’s last adventure, it’s hard to think of what is different about this game compared to its predecessors. Perhaps it’s because this is the sixth Professor Layton game, but long-time fans may feel that the puzzles seem to lack imagination. Of course, the puzzles in the demo were only just the tip of the iceberg, so there should be more variety into the game.