4/5 ★ – blackade2000's review of Professor Layton and the Last Specter.

First time ever playing. Finished in 3 days, 100%ed in one more. First off we need to lay down the BIG facts, that being that this is the hardest fucking main theme in the series. And like, Layton games are literally Sonic but for (nerd emojis) in terms of music, so if I HAVE to stop at the menu for the entirety of the theme every time I start up the game, it IS the hardest theme by definition. About the game itself. It was... Entertaining. Which sounds like an insult, for a Layton game, but I genuinely don't mean that it is shit. It was well written as always, the new things that were added in suitcase mode were nice, many ideas about the plot were interesting so I did like it. Overall it was the easiest of the Layton games I played, even plot-wise, cause Layton especially kinda feeds the player quite a bit of the answers throughout the whole thing, not just the ending. I was able to understand many things by myself this time, so that goes to show how much simpler this plot was. It felt pretty much like a classic detective story, just a pinch more eccentric than your average one. The minigames were cute and the new episodes section gives insight about many characters, which I loved a lot tbh. Completing the object collection was nearly impossible tho cause unless you fuck around A LOT you won't be able to find one specific item. One of the new things I really liked about the suitcase was seeing Layton's thoughts in the mysteries section. About the plot itself: as I mentioned, it does work. It's pretty tame at the beginning, and as the investigation goes on and more stuff pops up it does get intriguing. The very last mystery of the game was very Layton-like and I loved it, so overall it was pleasant but something about the Last Specter didn't grab me completely. Maybe it simply felt like this title didn't aim as high as Pandora's Box and, especially, Lost Future, but it expands a ton on Layton's universe and it was a pleasure to play all throughout. Voice acting (Italian) on point as always. As the last couple of notes: the ost is very calming, which I guess contributes a lot to the experience being, as I said, pleasant. The new puzzle theme didn't scare the shit out of me, miracle. I deadass played half the time at night, all calm and shit, which is something that NEVER happens with Layton games. Solving puzzles and getting them wrong especially while it's dark around is like watching a horror movie by yourself while leaving the front door open. Lastly, this game has hints regarding the Layton movie (Eternal Diva), which I wasn't expecting, but was a very nice touch. So overall: pretty solid game, keeps Layton's reputation intact, definitely not the greatest title in the series, but it's a good sequel. Might not replay it in the future tho.