Professor Layton and the Last Specter Member Review for the DS

Another puzzling adventure with Professor Layton
 
The Last Specter is the fourth game in the series, but the first one storywise.
Following the same formula as in the other games, there’s a mystery that only a person like Hershel Layton can handle. The game is story oriented, so I don’t want to spoil much about it. Let’s just say it’s really Laytonesque.

The art of the game has kept the quality from previous ones, but this time with a little more interaction with it. Some stuff really breaks when you touch it, fish jumping in the water and other movement that makes the world feel more alive. The characters have conversations about the stuff you see. There’s also some hidden objects to collect. They could have added much, much more of this though, because most of the time you feel like poking a painting.  Maybe in the next game?

I love the music in Layton games and Last Specter is not an exception. It’s charming, relaxing and if you close your eyes you could imagine yourself in a café in some small European village.
The game is still not fully voice acted and is only present in cutscenes and conversations important to the story. It sucks, but I guess it’s because of DS cart limitations and the massive amount of dialogue in the game. Now for one of the biggest gripes I had with the game. Luke’s voice actor has changed! That’s just unforgivable.

Anime styled cutscenes look and sound really good. Fluid animations and nicely drawn scenery and details. It’s almost like ripped from a full movie.

Did you know the game has some puzzles too? Actually a lot of them. They come in all types, shapes and forms (yes even in the sliding kind). The puzzles lack any kind of connectivity to the story which is a bad design choice from Team Layton.
 It was the same in the previous games too, there’s always few puzzles that are connected to the story, but the rest feel like they’ve been quickly grabbed and tagged along from some magazines brainteaser pages.
 I hope they could do some extra work next time to fit the puzzles correctly in the game. It would make the experience much better and add some feel of a real case on hand.

Take your time. This game is not enjoyable in a rush or you’ll miss a lot and just get a headache. Make a cup of tea and find a comfy position by the fireplace. Only then will you be a true English gentleman.