Katrielle Layton deserved a better video game

 When my wife, then fiancé, wanted to bring me back to the world of video games, two of the things she did was get me a DS and a copy of Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Worked like a charm.

The game is a collection of puzzles that are strung together by the story of Professor Hershall Layton (an archeologist, gentleman and the possessor of one devil of a top hat) and his assistant Luke Triton investigating a mysterious town. Unlike many games that have puzzle-like elements, the action stops in the Layton games and you actually solve a puzzle that has little to do with the actual story.

For me, at least, the Layton games were right hot stuff.

Earlier this year, we decided to try out Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy, the seventh main game in the series. Professor Layton has mysteriously disappeared and his daughter Katrielle has taken up the mantle of the detective and puzzle solver. It started out on the 3DS but was also released for the Switch.

Critics viewed it as one of the weakest entries in the series. And I have to agree.

From what I read, it is the first game that didn’t have Akiro Tago work on the puzzles, on account of him passing away. And the puzzles are definitely weaker. More than that, instead of one fairly serious story, it’s a collection of fairly light hearted stories. The story elements lack the weight and gravitas of the earlier games.

But…

We did still have fun.

And it comes down to this. Even a weak Layton game is still a Layton game. Better than nothing is a very weak argument but it is an argument. 

But, while the puzzles aren’t the best, I could forgive that. The story is what really drags the game down. While the Professor Layton stories were bizarre to the point of nonsensical, they still had drama in the context of the settings. Not only is this game broken down into individual, only loosely related, stories, some of the cases would fit right into Richard Scarry’s Busy Town Mysteries. While a couple of the cases are more serious, the overall tone feels like the intended audience is small children, not a general, all purpose audience.

The funny thing is that the three main characters all have the potential to carry a much stronger story. The story we were given made both my wife and I rush through the story elements so we could get to the puzzles.

All said and done, I’d recommend the first two Layton trilogies to anyone who likes puzzles without qualification. Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy, on the other hand, gets lots of qualifications. It is okay as our seventh Layton game but it shouldn’t be anyone’s first.