My professor layton thread!

[Abs.]

Alright I don't want the solution but I just wanted to vent here at how freaking insane that last parrot delivery task ("Hazel's Gift") is...

I can not figure it out

[ranger]

lol n00b ^

(lol I havent even gotten past like the first mystery yet)

[mangaluva]

I'm going to kill my boredom time before I get [/i]The Lost Future by replaying Pandora's Box. Swordfighting cutscene FTW ♥

[Yurikochan]

(From Unwound Future)

Spoiler:

Anyone else have an easy time with the puzzle that looks like words at first but is really a math problem because of the whole KID. = 1412 thing? xD;;

OMG I SO DID! I freaked out stupidly excited!

Spoiler:

I was like KID!

[ranger]

I've been busy with.. "snake? snake? SNAAAAKKKE!!!"

[mangaluva]

I saw the movie the other day, and my most abiding impression was.... SOOOOOOOOO PREEEETY ♥♥♥ I'm going to have to get dentures for my eyes, because there was just too much eye candy. Even the CGI was gorgeous ♥ The entire movie was awesome... (spoilered for spoilers and extensive gushing)

Spoiler:

First off, the artwork, throughout, was absolutely gorgeous. The animation was smooth and lively, the background scenery was detailed and beautiful, and even the CGI looked incredible. It looked like the uniformly amazing cutscenes from the games, only they somehow managed to make it better. My eyeballs have sinned greatly in the abundance of eye candy and scenery porn.

My ears aren't any better off. The musical score was just as incredible. When dealing with the riddles on the boat, they were timed by a short tune that was a souped-up version of the music box tune that plays during puzzles in the games. (The same tune was also reworked in a creepier way when they were discussing the little girl claiming to be Melina.) The opera music was beautiful as well, and the musical finale... well, the guy who gave a short speech before the movie (since it's part of the Scotland Loves Anime festival, there are speakers before everything) said that the ending was a little Castle of Cagliostro, and I could see that, but it also reminded me of the finale of Pokemon 2000, with Melody's ocarina melding into an epic orchestral version of Lugia's Song. When the Song of the Sea that Melina was singing was merged with the Professor playing the Song of the Moon and the Song of the Sun, the three songs made up a sweeping, haunting, epic piece that was merged with an incredible visual sequence as Ambrosia rose from the sea. I MUST find out if Mp3s of that song exist, because it was truly beautiful. All of the music was lovely, but this really stood out.

The story was clever too, if so very tragic. I was in floods when Melina was telling her father she was leaving. I particularly loved the scenes that showed Melina and Janice splitting, and aside from when they spoke, the two moved in perfect unison. The absolute heartbreak in Janice's voice when she said that Melina was gone didn't help. Of course, they then caused some serious mood whiplash when Inspector Crosky walked over to Melina's dad and told him he had to arrest him for kidnapping, because you can't help but laugh whenever Crosky speaks or does anything or when you just look at him, really XD

As always, the characters were all unique and lively and charming (Though I think I saw Mr Beluga in the Opera House at the beginning), but Crosky stands above them all. Here's a picture of him after being thrown overboard, swimming away from ravenous remote-controlled cyborg sharks and mad-scrambling his way back onto the ship.



Just look at him and try not to laugh. Just try it. I dare you. He was providing constant modd whiplash, because it really was incredibly difficult not to at least giggle whenever he was onscreen and being a bit mad, which he always was. (The other things that made the entire cinema laugh were whenever the Professor talked about being a "True Gentleman", whenever Luke failed- which the poor kid does a lot- and when Descolier was introducing his riddles as "Now it's time for puzzle zero-zero-two" and numbers would flash up exactly like the numbers in the games XD)

The puzzles were well-done too. They were solvable, but it wasn't like the movie did a Dora the Explorer thing and froze for a moment to let you figure it out. It jsut kept going, showing everyone pondering the riddle or puzzle. Sometimes, also, when the Professor was thinking about a really tough puzzle, everything onscreen except the Professor would flash away and you'd see little ghost-images of what he was thinking about. Then he'd open his eyes and point at something, just like when you solve a puzzle in the games. One time he did this was particularly funny- trapped in a shed with Luke and Janice, surrounded by ravenous wolves, the Professor was thinking about the things in the shed, and then walked over to the chainsaw. My brother and I were both like "CHAINSAW SOLVES EVERYTHING!" XDXD Which it did, but not in the way we were expecting. He did his McGuyver thing again, like in Curious Village, and built a helicopter in a shed. (WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS! XD)

There was a nod to Pandora's Box, too, and a particularly epic one. On top of a giant mecha-castle controlled by music, having just miraculously survived the epic explosion of said helicopter after flying right into a giant chainsaw about to hit Luke and Janice, the Professor got another swordfight. With a guy dressed as the Phantom of the Opera. Who had a real sword against the Professor's lead pipe. And it was AWESOME. It was even more amazing than his fight with Anton, and you know that's saying something.

All in all, INCREDIBLE MOVIE. I must find out if it's coming out on DVD. THE PRETTY MUST BE MINE.

Also awesome was my brother, who periodically hissed "TAP EVERYTHING FOR HINT COINS!" XDXDXDXDXD

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Cross post from ace attorney thread.

Hell yes. Let's just hope it has a less lame ending than Layton normally does.

edit: Video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gufhYicCUs4#ws

[mangaluva]

Because The Lost Future STILL hasn't been released in the UK (why can't it be the 22nd already?! Actually, I don't get paid until the 28th, so I still have to wait... T_T) I'll post a couple of cool AMVs I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK-x3-5T6eE#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVdABoJJ5Zw#

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

More infos

[mangaluva]

FINALLY got the third game. Haven't played too far into it so far, but main thoughts:

1. Future Luke is pretty cute
2. Layton is adorable when he blushes XD

Spoiler:

EVIL LAYTON. We're all going to die.

Also, I saw the movie in HMV for £12.99. GODDAMN WHY HAVEN'T I BEEN PAID YET?!

[Akonyl]

just got around to finishing the game, and:

Spoiler:

"We have to give clive a second chance! He isn't evil! Ignore the fact that his machine killed thousands of people!"

when you go to that length to get revenge, I'm pretty sure you're a danger to humanity at that point. :V

Also, I would've liked to see something done about bill hawks in the game itself, and not just veiled references from Chelmey.

And I was all :O at hatless layton.

[mangaluva]

Finished the game- STILL WANT TO CRY ABOUT IT.

Spoiler:

Claire. Just... CLAIRE. Oh dear lord. This was such a shitty thing to happen to them; Claire knew that soon she'd have to warp back to the moment that she dies horribly in an explosion, that she and the Professor will have to part again, and there's nothing anyone can do. There is no miraculous last-minute save this time. No making a helicopter in a shed WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS *shot*. Nothing I feel so badly for the Professor... poor man, losing her all over again... and the moment Claire used the title... "You won't forget, will you? Our shared past... and our... lost future..." that was the point where my mom walked in on me openly sobbing over my DS. Actual, chest-heaving, tears-running-off-my-chin sobbing.

Actually, the last part of the game was all-around pretty disturbing. Clive's visible mental breakdown(s - "IT WON'T END THIS WAY!") Followed by the giant destructor fortress of death... Seriously, I don't know how the crap Chelmley got all of the inhabitants out of the underground city in time, given how fast that thing came up and how quickly it started blowing shit up. And it certainly killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Londoners- the first leg that you see come out of the ground comes through buildings which are blazing with lights. People are still inside. Aside from Sophia and Baron Reinhold, I can't think of a single character who actually died in the games before this, and even they didn't die in-game. So this was harsh.

And while I do think that Clive's mass-murdering needed a little more consideration that it got, it was out of grief-rage, which is a perfectly understandable if not remotely condonable motivation. But that bastard Bill Hawkes murdered not only Claire, but a dozen other people, including Clive's parents, setting this whole thing off, and did it all for the money. Dimitri had expressed his concerns, he knew the experiment was highly dangerous, and he still went ahead with it. And he gets nothing but a subtle slag from Chelmey. He needed to be punished. Am I the onyl one who wanted the Professor to snap and slug the bastard? Really. That would have been even more awesome than his split-second Macguyver moment in the casino. He does break his calm reserve at a later point (and oh, didn't that just wrench your heart out and jump on it until every last tear was squeezed out?), and I really wouldn't have minded it being broken here. It was as bad as the ending of It's A Wonderful Life, where that mad old bastard Potter gets away with the monkey and no repercussions.

Oh, but then it had to get worse. Normally, Luke kind of annoys me. But after having just managed to collect myself, "I'm sorry Professor, but I'm not a gentleman yet!" made me burst right out into tears again. I was crying harder than Luke at this point. Seeing the Professor just standing and watching the boat sail away, all alone, having had to say goodbye to his love and now his best friend... (I mean, he still has Flora, but when has she ever actually counted?) My brain had to make this even worse by reminding me of a major angstfic I read once where Luke and Layton's reincarnations meet in the modern world and get fragments of their memories, where it's revealed that Luke died in a ship crash and the Professor went downhill hard and fast after having to identify his body and those of his parents. At the time, I thought the ship was just a random ticket to angst... I mean, the Professor gets a letter from Luke at te end so we know he's fine and all, but still... DAMMIT BRAIN!

Geez, I've been ranting. But I LOVED the game. Aside from those diabolical parrot puzzles. I've never had to refer to the internet before for a Professor Layton game, but those cursed things broke me.

[mangaluva]

I don't mean to double-post but this is an entirely different topic: I had not previously known that Luke had a different voice actor in the UK from the US. When searching for clips of the cutscenes to use in an AMV, The ones I came across for American, and now, annoying though it is, I appreciate Luke's UK voice a lot more, because DEAR LORD I don't think I've ever heard any voice I hate more than the one they gave him for the US. SERIOUSLY. I want to stab it to tiny pieces. It even makes that absolutely heartbreaking, sobbed final line of his in the second-to-last cutscene of the third game annoying. For once, thank heavens for localization!

[Abs.]

Luke had a different voice actor in the UK from the US.

Waaaaaaat

Why is this even necessary

[Akonyl]

Luke had a different voice actor in the UK from the US.

Waaaaaaat

Why is this even necessary

because we americans wouldn't be able to take the britishness of his voice, much like the various changes of harry potter. :V

edit: nobody saw that typo!