3.5/5 ★ – DarrensTrashBag's review of Professor Layton and the Last Specter.

The start of this new trilogy is a bit disappointing, so far the best parts are the new characters. I liked the conflict with Luke and his father and how Layton got to meet Luke. I liked Arianna and Tony's story of being alone after their father passed. I like the secret story about Chelmey's past. Emmy is very likable, she is kinda like Kay Faraday from Ace Attorney. Grosky is the best character so far. The settings once again are cozy with relaxing music to back it up. For the new villain, I like his performance so far but he is not captivating me so far with who he is. He isn't like a cartoonish villain like Don Paolo was. But I am optimistic how how they will take him for later games. Ok now stuff I hated. The puzzles in this game are so far the worst, there are a lot of "gotcha" puzzles that don't tell you a part of the puzzle that is required to know for the solution. A majority of the puzzles are just forcing the player to use algebraic equations. A few slide puzzles, but one is too many. The climax was very lacking. I know that this is the first in a new trilogy so it would not be as batshit insane as Unwound Future was but it was still very dull. Of course the specter was just a robot. Of course the Butler did it, technically. Of course the police was involved. The only surprising thing was that Descole took the appearance of Doland and trapped him and Luke's mom in their celler. I felt like only Don Paulo could disguise as other people. I thought bringing in the Loch Ness monster was just stupid. It was like when they actually had aliens in Indiana Jones. Overall characters were great, story was great until the climax, puzzles sucked, world was cozy and interesting. 70/100