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Post by Omni on Jun 10, 2011 1:56:19 GMT -5
Only played about 5 hours worth of the first game, but I'm enjoying it so far.  I like a lot of the puzzles. A number of them I can solve without much trouble. There are some that really get me, though, namely the 'find the correct-but-crazy-complicated path' types so far (mostly).  Don't think I'm far enough into the plot for it to suck me in, yet, but I'm wondering what comes next... what might get me to that 'really excited about events' feeling. Actually, at the moment, I feel I've got a much better idea at what's going on than the characters, so... kind of a self-spoiler thing.  I'm generally better at solving puzzles than making them. Though for the fun of it, I did still make one for you guys.  A girl likes to wash her dog once a day, every day. She buys a 25 ounce bottle of pet shampoo. This bottle has a pump that dispenses one-tenth ounce of fluid with each pump. However, it has one little flaw: Due to the length and positioning of the intake-tube for the pump, the pump will not be able to suck up the last 1.4 ounces of shampoo.
The dog is the right size to use exactly two pumps worth of shampoo with each wash.
How many days will she be able to wash her dog before she has to buy a new bottle? EDIT: Adjusted some numbers. |
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Post by Gelquie on Oct 26, 2011 2:49:00 GMT -5
Oh man, I just remembered. For those who don't know, Professor Layton and the Last Specter came out last week in North America.  Those in Europe will have to wait until November 25th and those in Australia have to wait until December 1st. But still. Can't decide whether to wait until Christmas break to get the game or to just get it right away. I'm leaning towards the latter because I'm a huge Professor Layton fan. xD Meanwhile, I'm going to be spoiler-avoidant. |
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Post by Lizzie on Oct 26, 2011 14:58:28 GMT -5
why am i not a part of this
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Post by Nut on Oct 26, 2011 14:59:52 GMT -5
Those in Europe will have to wait until November 25th Weird, that's what I thought too, but I saw it at the store today and I thought I must have been mistaken about it getting a later release date here. Huh. Actually, I just finished Lost Future a couple days ago, and I picked up a used copy of Curious Village today--in English! (The old save file it came with was from a player who only got three hours in; I wonder if it was a little kid who didn't know English very well and had difficulty reading the puzzles.) I much prefer the English voice actors to the Dutch ones (not that the latter are bad exactly, but the British accents are completely lost, and Luke's voice tends to be gratingly squeaky), which may be an incentive for me to pick up Last Specter soon before it gets translated. For some reason I have a really hard time finding Pandora's Box in English, more so than the other titles; I may just skip that installment, because after hearing the English voices I don't know if I want to go back. ...Then again, I am still playing these more so that I can look at the cartoon art and watch the cutscenes than for gameplay-related reasons. <_< I enjoy puzzles and all, but the main thing I enjoy about these games is seeing the characters interact and looking around the environments.  After playing through the ending, I agree with Komori's spoiler earlier in the thread. I would have much preferred it if they had stuck with the original idea of time travel instead of trying to provide a "rational" explanation. It's fun to read about implausible fantastic concepts, but implausible mundane concepts just ruin the suspension of disbelief. Besides, the whole detectives-uncover-logical-physical-explanation-for-seeming-fantastic-phenomena thing has been done so many times before... and I thought it was a bit silly how everyone was impersonating other people. But I guess after building an entire functioning city underneath London, it's not too much extra trouble for Clive to go around cosplaying as Luke. But the story was still engaging despite its implausibility, and I liked watching the ending cinematics. |
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Post by Komori on Oct 27, 2011 12:34:30 GMT -5
Oh, I thought there was a Layton fanclub, but then I couldn't find it and thought I was just getting my memories mixed up with the Ace Attorney club. XDDDD I just wanted to say that I got Last Specter a week ago. Yay! I'm really loving the London Life rpg game it's got in it, it's just super cute, and has so many references to the other games. <3 The main story is also pretty good. However, I have this feeling that I actually know the solution to the mystery, which has never happened to me before in a Layton game. I don't know if it's because I've played three others before this and I'm starting to recognize the pattern, or if this story is just more predictable than the last ones. Of course, I haven't reached the ending (or heck, even made it out of Chapter 2), so I could be completely wrong. In fact, I hope I'm wrong. :3 For some reason I have a really hard time finding Pandora's Box in English, more so than the other titles; I may just skip that installment, because after hearing the English voices I don't know if I want to go back. It's called The Diabolical Box in the US, so maybe you could try searching for it by that name? :3 (Personally, Diabolical Box is my fave of the three. Mostly because Anton is HAWT.) |
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Post by Nut on Nov 2, 2011 15:17:49 GMT -5
It's called The Diabolical Box in the US, so maybe you could try searching for it by that name? :3 (Personally, Diabolical Box is my fave of the three. Mostly because Anton is HAWT.) (I'm currently thinking that Curious Village is going to end up being my favorite, as for some reason I'm finding the puzzles more engaging from the get-go. They seem more varied somehow than the ones in the third game, but maybe that's just because I haven't gotten far yet.) I suppose I could look into American suppliers as a last resort, though I'd rather see if I can find it around here. :3 (Also, I just realized that Luke's US and UK voice actors are different, so switching to an American version might leave me with the same problem now I've gotten used to the British actor. xD) It's odd though because it's not too hard to find English copies of the first or the third game in stores here. I just found out, though, that for some incomprehensible reason the European release of Last Specter (titled Specter's Call) is going to completely exclude the London Life RPG, which is quite a downer. :/ It's making me want to go back to the store and see if that copy I saw last week is still there--I'm pretty sure that was actually called Last Specter, and I'm wondering if it was an imported copy that someone traded in, or if we got the same version as the Americans somehow. Either way, I feel bad for Layton fans in the UK and/or the rest of Europe; I can't understand why they'd entirely remove a huge chunk of the game like that. :< |
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Post by Komori on Nov 3, 2011 7:34:07 GMT -5
o.o I'm surprised that they'd need to re-dub a voice actor when they're speaking the same language. They leave Layton alone? Yeah, that's... inexplicable. XDDDDDDD
And the London Life RPG isn't in it at all? I mean, the Japanese version made you have to unlock the RPG at the end, rather than giving it upfront like the US version. That's really bizarre. Unless they want to sell it separately or something? That too is inexplicable. ._.
EDIT: Found a good voice-comparison video. One will obviously be biased towards whichever voice they heard first. :B But it's weird hearing Luke so high-pitched and girly. XD
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Post by Nut on Nov 3, 2011 12:42:26 GMT -5
o.o I'm surprised that they'd need to re-dub a voice actor when they're speaking the same language. They leave Layton alone? Yeah, that's... inexplicable. XDDDDDDD And the London Life RPG isn't in it at all? I mean, the Japanese version made you have to unlock the RPG at the end, rather than giving it upfront like the US version. That's really bizarre. Unless they want to sell it separately or something? That too is inexplicable. ._. EDIT: Found a good voice-comparison video. One will obviously be biased towards whichever voice they heard first. :B But it's weird hearing Luke so high-pitched and girly. XD I'm just as surprised. xD It's really confusing when they make changes between the US and EU English versions of games (I suppose it's probably got something to do with the different localization teams); I remember when Zelda: Spirit Tracks came out, and there were a bunch of towns and bosses that had different names in the US and EU versions (one town was called Whittleton in the US and Mayscore in the EU, a boss was named either Cragma or Vulcano, a main character called either Byrne or Staven, and a number of other things like that), which made talking about the game online quite confusing. I finally adapted to the American names because I saw them more often online, despite having played the European version. And yeah, London Life isn't in it at all: I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with the amount of time it would take to translate the RPG into several different languages for a simultaneous European release, assuming it has a lot of text. I read on Nintendo Life that they didn't want the game to be delayed: Layton is already pretty text-heavy and I can imagine them not wanting to bog down their translation teams even more. Still, I think I'd have preferred a delayed-but-complete game to one with missing content. Haha, I guess Luke does sound kind of squeaky and girly any way you look at it. xD Listening to the comparisons, I just realized his Dutch voice is actually deeper than either of those (though that might just be because of the low-in-the-throat gutteral sounds), but for some reason it bugs me more, because then when his voice does occasionally jump up, it sounds more incongruous and/or falsely enthusiastic. And he usually just says "Oh no, was it really wrong?" when failing a puzzle, which just doesn't seem to have the same personality as stuff like that genuinely morose-sounding "I've let you down, Professor." xD |
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Post by Gelquie on Nov 3, 2011 16:04:30 GMT -5
The "no London Life" thing sounds really unfortunate for the European fans. :< I know it's more work, but how different can it be from the US version? I hope they at least release a future version with London Life. (I wonder what it's like... I'll find out when I get there.) And yeah, they apparently have a different voice actor for the European Luke than the US one because it turned out a lot of the European fans hated Luke's voice in the US version. xD They thought it sounded way too exaggerated and not true of his voice. (Although admittedly, the EU voice of Luke does sound more girly. And isn't Luke supposed to be 13 in the first three games? xD Listening to the voice though, as much as I prefer a slightly deeper voice for Luke, I do prefer his accent to the US version.) There's also the whole "Clive" and "Klaus" thing when it comes to differences between versions. The name "Clive" only appeared in the US version while the Europeans and the Japanese got "Klaus". I don't know why they changed it for the US version. ?_? |
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Post by Komori on Nov 3, 2011 22:09:08 GMT -5
Oh, so the "European version" of the game would be not only English, but French/Spanish/German/etc too? I guess then that would make sense... there's an awful lot of text in London Life. XD;;
GLQ: Maybe because Klaus makes me think of Santa Claus? I've never heard of any person actually named Klaus besides him. ^^;;;
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Post by Nut on Nov 3, 2011 23:46:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I think the accent more than the intonation is why I prefer the EU Luke, come to think of it. xD Oh, so the "European version" of the game would be not only English, but French/Spanish/German/etc too? I guess then that would make sense... there's an awful lot of text in London Life. XD;; Yeah, I'm frankly surprised that they have a separate Dutch translation at all, as games don't usually get translated into such a relatively minor language. European DS games often come with about five languages on the same game card, and the language you play in will be the language your system is set to, but Layton seems to get individual translations. He was called Clive in the Dutch version also. Klaus sounds really stereotypically German to me, but I've never met anyone with that name either. xD |
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Post by Komori on Dec 3, 2011 19:07:10 GMT -5
So, I just watched the Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva movie. ;D It was pretty cool to see a full-length movie, and not just the animated bits between puzzles in a game. I think the voice of Luke is the EU version. Or at least, done in that squeaky girly-voice style. :B You get used to it after a while, but I still would've preferred the Luke I know. Also, it incorporates the puzzle-solving gameplay from the games fairly well, for a movie. :3 Not super clever, but it was pretty fun to see the game puzzles used in the context of the story, and not just "Oh that reminds me of a puzzle!" The story takes place after the Last Specter, but I suppose before the first trilogy, since Emmy and Officer pompadour-guy are in it. In typical Layton fashion, the solution to the mystery is way more far-fetched than the mystery itself. And I felt the climax borrowed too heavily on climaxes from some of the other games, rather than doing something completely original. And the answers had so many "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat" moments. I guess I wouldn't recommend it for people who aren't used to the Layton universe, but it's definitely awesome for Layton fans.
:/ That robot looked very stupid. Come on, it didn't need the doofy face.
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Post by Nut on Dec 27, 2011 6:17:43 GMT -5
I unfortunately can't comment on the movie because I haven't seen it yet (though I'm really looking forward to getting around to it--I think the animations may actually be my favorite parts of the games, so an entire movie's worth of that sounds like a dream come true), but I just finished The Curious Village and I wanted to say somewhere that I really, really loved it! I kind of wish I'd played it first because I think I appreciate The Lost Future more now that I know the series' origins. And I want to run right out and buy the second game now, haha. (Out of curiosity, about how long is the second game compared to the others? I noticed that it took me approximately half as long to play through The Curious Village as it did for The Lost Future, and I think I actually preferred the shorter length. Or maybe I was just being slow the first time.) I really liked the entire mystery around Flora and the Baron's family. That was what kept me interested throughout, not the kidnappings or the treasure hunt, and I liked how things resolved for Flora. But my favorite parts of the Layton stories are the character interactions, so I almost don't care what kind of preposterous explanation they come up with at the end. xD And now that I've come to expect it, it almost adds to the charm. I appreciate Don Paolo's role in Lost Future much more now that I've seen him introduced here, too; I thought he kind of came out of nowhere when I played Lost Future, but in retrospect I'm glad to see him back in the third game.
...Seriously, though, with the kind of storytelling talent they use for the better part of the games, I'm convinced they could come up with much better plots if they stopped feeling the need to whip out these absurd large-scale conspiracies. I'd love to see a game that just focused on character interaction and discovering mysteries about people's lives or pasts; it wouldn't have to be a giant grand-scaled fantasy. But oh well, I guess that's part of the series. xD |
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Post by Komori on Dec 27, 2011 13:58:39 GMT -5
I think the Layton games have gotten longer in puzzle quantity and length, so I'd probably anchor the second game right in between the first and third. This fourth one, Last Specter, definitely feels the longest thus far, but it might be that I'm playing it in shorter bursts over longer periods of time. (But I think it still boasts the most puzzles of all of them)
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Post by Gelquie on Mar 23, 2012 14:00:23 GMT -5
Revive because I beat Specter's Flute a while ago. (Strange habit of mine: if I think a title for a game in a different country is better than the one in my own country, then my brain tends to automatically call it by the other one rather than my own country's title. xD I also call the third game "Lost Future". The other two games I call by their US title, though.) Anyway, I overall enjoyed the game. Though either the puzzles were harder or I'm getting rusty with puzzles. But I didn't like the wording of some of the puzzles; some of the puzzles that weren't meant to be trick question puzzles felt ambiguously worded compared to previous games, such as in the instructions. It was only a few but... It annoyed me. As for the plot itself, it was rather fun. Remember when I said that there's usually one thing about the plot that I can't figure out no matter what? In this game, it was Loosha's existence. I figured that the specter was a robot, but I'm not sure if I could buy the idea that the whole specter was Loosha fighting the robot; it seemed too solid and in one piece for that. (There was also the whole existence of the friendly giant sea monster thing, but I was never really a fan of those kind of stories. ^^; Just a personal preference thing of mine.) Also, poor Luke. :< I really felt for him in this one. (Speaking of Luke, though, it seems that his ability to "talk" to animals is getting more and more supernatural. How do you determine from mouse squeaks the name of a road? xD ) And Levin Jakes needs to be whacked on the head with a baseball bat. Repeatedly. And the disguises still continue to be ridiculous. Mind, the black raven costumes I could see being designed to be taller than the person wearing them. But how does Descole fit in a disguise that small? And then he just appears to put on a hat and he suddenly comes back up to normal height? xD ...I know. I learned to ignore these things throughout the series for the most part. But it doesn't cease to bother my brain about it. xD Speaking of Descole, I do like him as a recurring villain better than Don Paolo from the first series. It feels like he can be taken more seriously. He's also quite stylish. I wonder what his story is? ...Darnit. Now when the third game comes out in Japan, I'm gonna have to do a blackout of Layton-related searches because the third part of each trilogy usually answers that question among other big ones and I don't wanna be spoilered. xD Then again, that goes for every game I haven't played yet. Mask of Miracle is still not released outside of Japan, but Wikipedia says that may happen sometime this year. No report of when, though. |
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Those in Europe will have to wait until November 25th and those in Australia have to wait until December 1st.
