It's been about two years now since I last played a Layton game. A friend of mine has been asking me to play the prequel trilogy for quite some time now and eventually I just felt like playing it. I'll start by saying that it was a good idea to have let some time pass between playing Unwound Future and this entry.

Last Specter is chronologically the first adventure of Hershel Layton and takes him to the foggy hometown of an old friend, where he's supposed to investigate the rampage of a supernatural being. Together with his new assistant and the mayor's son, the team encounters eccentric figures like the mysterious hooded Black Raven and a girl who's suspected to be a witch, dooming everyone who comes close to her.

As in the other Layton games, the gameplay consists of point-and-click investigations and puzzle-solving. The puzzle quality in this entry is solid and the difficulty is fine. In case you can't find a solution, Last Specter practically showers you with hint coins. I had about 130 left at the end of the game, so don't feel bad about using them! I'm pretty sure the original trilogy didn't hand out such an abundance, but I might be misremembering here. Either way, why is everyone so obsessed with puzzles in this town in the first place?

The narrative itself is intriguing, although rather compact. Game has a lot of "this is a prequel" moments, where you can find a reference to some characters from the original trilogy and even some direct cameos. However, Last Specter doesn't really go much in depth with those and shifts the focus to new characters instead - like Emmy, the professor's assistant. In my opinion she's a welcome addition to the main cast and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in the next games. Now, the twists are usually a big part of what I'm looking forward to in Layton games. They're usually a big shocker that's near unpredictable and totally alters your way of perceiving those games, but I can't say I had a moment like this in Last Specter. Without giving anything away, after a certain point in the story it's really easy to find out the twist by yourself, so at the part where the game explicitly tells you, it's not much of a surprise anymore. The reveal itself was alright, I just expected more out of a Layton game, especially after seeing what Level-5 did with Unwound Future.

Despite this, Last Specter is another well-rounded entry in the Layton series and now I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the prequel trilogy.

Professor Layton has been somewhat of a surprise success. Originally released when everyone was crazy for Brain Training games, Layton grabbed the world with his British-Japanese charm and still remains hugely popular – he even had a (straight to Blu-Ray) film, created by the same people who makes the wonderful animation for the games. The Spectre’s Call is the Professor’s latest (well, earliest) adventure, bringing about it’s own set of bizarre plot twists and lovely characters.

Prof Layton and the Spectre’s CallThe Spectre’s Call is the start of a new trilogy of Layton games, and takes place before any of the previous three. If you’ve yet to experience Layton yourself, the fresh start makes for the perfect point to jump into the series. After getting a letter from his good friend Clark Triton, Layton and his assistant, Emmy, head off to investigate mysterious happenings in Misthallery. A giant spectre, supposedly controlled by a flute, has been attacking the city. Thankfully, with help from the predictions of Luke Triton, nobody had yet been hurt. It’s up to Layton, Emmy and Luke to hunt down all of the town’s secrets to find out who, or what, is behind all this.

The Spectre’s Call brings about a lot of character development, which is further expanded by short story segments called “Episodes” that you unlock during the course of the game and can watch at any time. On top of the story of how Luke and Layton met, you’re also introduced to new main characters: The Professor’s new assistant, Emmy, and a fiesty Scotland Yard detective Inspector Grosky. There are also many other characters that are important to the story with their own interesting back stories. Not to mention Granny Riddleton’s cat, who collects all missed puzzles throughout this adventure.

In terms of gameplay, The Spectre’s Call doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It’s essentially a case of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Many of the puzzles will seem somewhat similar, the same kind of puzzles but with different answers. Veteran Layton players will breeze through the majority of puzzles, but one or two will still catch you out. That doesn’t mean that the puzzles have lost their importance – they’re still very much an important part of the Layton franchise. The story simply wouldn’t be the same without the puzzles.

Prof Layton and the Spectre’s CallAs with the previous Layton games, The Spectre’s Call also includes a couple of more substantial minigames: Toy Train, Fish and Puppet Theatre. Toy Train Gives you a square grid with stations and obstacles. You have a limited amount of fuel (one piece of fuel equals one square of movement) to get the train through all stations and to the finish point. Simple enough to start with, but deceptively tricky with the addition of moving obstacles and longer trains.

In fish, you have to place bubbles in order to bounce fish into coins. You have to work out a course that will collect all coins in a very short amount of time. It’s simple yet surprisingly difficult – it’s also something you’ll want to try and try again until you get it right. The final one, Puppet Theatre, is frankly an insult to anyone over the age of 10 who has an understanding of the English language. The game tells you a story, and you have to fill in the spaces using a list of verbs.

So, while The Spectre’s Call doesn’t expand on the gameplay, it’s still a fantastic new story and setting for the Layton franchise. The music and voice acting are as great as ever and the lovely hand drawn graphics look great no matter if you’re playing on the DS or 3DS. The pre-rendered animated cutscenes still have their lovely art style and sadly, end way too soon, as always. If you like Layton, the choice to purchase this is a no-brainer. If you haven’t tried it before, then this is the perfect opportunity to jump on board.

been a layton fan since I was like 7 years old and used to ask my dad to help me with the enigmas because I wasn't in that evolutionary stage to understand equations but it was a great expedient for my mother to give me gifted kid burnout so thank you for that level 5

that was umh why did I trauma dump

whatever this is the 4th installment in the series and being the game that came after the unwound future (my favorite one and I could talk about that game for hours) you would expect this even furthered the charm and mechanics and story beats

well there's none of that !!!!!!!!

this is actually a prequel for the main series so this means that they're gonna retcon the shit out if the original trilogy

story follows hershel layton titular character of the series and professor of archaeology of the University that probably have never seen him do a single archaeology 101 class and the students don't even know what his face looks like but I guess idk how he's getting his contributions paid but we will learn about that during the retirement arc

he's accompanied by emmy something shes fine i actually like her a lot who is his current assistant before luke comes up on a 20 minutes runtime and goes I can see specters and im kinda schizo hehe and thats the thing the actual story revolves around

gameplay wise this is basically just any other professor layton game but with some random shit added into these little enigmas due to technological advance thank you

and also the art style id probably the pinnacle of the entire series during the DS runtime because every single scene looks gorgeous the character models and animations are ever so charming and there's a lot of cutscenes and stuff its great it's so great

that's almost all the praise I can give this game though because in the other compartments like story it felt somehow lacking and also the twist is weird as fuck but whatever

I'm not gonna explain the entire story because I don't care its not that good anyway and there's a lot of shit thrown here but basically what happens is there's a specter roaming around town destroying all the stuff luke is the oracle some weird twist and the thinnest suspension of belief I've ever tried seen in my entire life and then the end luke is now laytons assistant the fucking end

and there's a dinosaur layton knows all about somehow and a terminally ill girl who gets cured magically this shit is so fuckijg fun

ok well it was a good game in the series anyway but its not up to par with the first games in the series

excited for the next installments and the new game in switch

also the fucking OPENING THEME IS A BLAST HUGHHHHHHH this shit shouldn't be this good I swear the music in this game is absolutely unrealistic and I can't believe they put this masterpiece in a game that had ⅕ greatness compared to the ost also the theme of the last battle was absolutely phenomenal a pity you had to listen to this while doing some boring and anticlimactic enigmas here and this game is a surely a damn ride

BABY LUKE I LOVE YOUUUUUU MY SWEET LITTLE CHILD BABY 😭😭😭😭😭

A fastantic entry in the Layton series. Telling the compelling tale when Luke and Layton first formed the iconic duo along with Emmy, all accompanied by a tremendous variety of challenging puzzles to scratch our head around. Having played the mobile versions of the previous trilogy, I thought it would feel rough around the edges playing on an emulator. However, this was not the case. The tactile controls are as intuitive as ever, and the only part where it ever felt uncomfortable were the cutscenes that had to be watched on a little screen. All in all, it is a game packed with details that shows how much level-5 has learned from the earlier entries. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I greatly recommend it.

116 solved, 4263 picarats, 122 hint coins

Perfection. This series has always had a spot in my heart. When I discovered the HD versions on iOS I got back into this series really hard, a series that really had a big part in my youth. Unwound Future will always have a soft spot, as it’s not only my first Layton game, but also the first game that made me cry, but The Last Specter was a glorious surprise.

Playing through the first trilogy of this series, you encounter a lot of the same stuff. You can even see puzzles having the same general idea; there’s a version of every puzzle from the first game in each of its successors. The first installment of the series’ prequel trilogy does something to improve the gameplay that gives it an inch on Unwound Future. It keeps the player engaged in a way that the others had trouble with. Pacing can be really tough in these games since the core gameplay revolves around taking a moment to decipher a brain-teaser. Puzzles can vary greatly in how much interaction they require from the player.

Here, there are some moments where the game asks you to remember things and deduce things, and answer a round of questioning from Layton as he walks you through an epiphany of his. This may seem simple, but it really engages the player into being involved in the progression of dialog outside of tapping the text-box whenever prompted with the end of a sentence.

Between these little tweaks, boundless content, and a finale that really made my brain AND my heart soar, this is my new favorite Layton. I wasn’t planning on attempting to play the two 3DS installments, but the closer I got to the end of this one the more I wanted to go for it. I’m so excited for the new Layton on Switch.

I remember playing the original trilogy and wanting more out of the Layton games. So when I found out the spectres call (name in Europe) existed I couldn’t wait to play it, and to find out it was a prequel to the main trilogy was even more interesting. Now I have a soft spot for this game, I had some great memories with it and nostalgia always blinds me with this game (probably why I prefer it to curious village).

The story is great, Emmy is a great new addition, and the puzzles are as great as ever! I love this game.

I have such intense memories of playing this game as a child, every single moment felt like déjà-vu. I also have a unique fondness for Misthallery as a setting, the mist and what we in Germany call Kleinstadttristesse (like, the unique melancholy of a small town) really elevate the mood of the entire game, I think. Other than that, the puzzles are nice, the vibes impeccable and the story good enough. Standout character is still Descole, whose slow introduction over the course of the game makes him the actual spectre looming over Misthallery, it's sad they toned him down in the later games.

I really wish they would drop the other two prequels and just keep this. They would have had to change the story a bit to a final result, but it would have been worth it.

This game also still has everything that made the Layton series so good. A beautiful artstyle, a good soundtrack, original puzzles, an interesting game world and a great mystery.

Is it just me, or did they stop using dark and melancholic locations (Folsense, the Layton Tower, the Tower of Saint-Mystère, etc.) after this game?

Something feels missing from the Last Specter, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. The story was kind of a mixed bag. Emmy's introduction was good, and I do like how it showed Luke and Layton's meeting, but certain elements feel kind of out of place. Layton's stories are good because they present you with these implausible and occasionally even impossible scenarios but tries to reinforce them with some amount of logical explanation, helping to ground them and allowing the player to feel immersed. In this game, it doesn't bother explaining as much and just kind of hands the player the straight fantastical elements without much reasoning.

The London Life side mode was fun for a bit, but it gets really repetitive after a while, so I ended up dropping it earlier than I was planning to in favor of just playing the main game.

The main-game has some of the best visuals of any Layton game, and some of the best game-play too. Later games on the 3DS upped the interactivity significantly, but this series just looks nicer in 2D than 3D, which in my opinion leaves this one as overall the best looking.

Unfortunately, the main story, while probably the most 'realistic' of any Layton game, just isn't as interesting as those in the first trilogy, and as the game is basically an interactive puzzle-book, it really lets this one down a lot. Similarly, a lot of the new characters feel more annoying than funny, although it does finally manage to feature a girl as a main character.

Adding to this problem, the London Life mode wasn't available in the UK-version, a criminal decision that has cost this game an extra star. I literally didn't get to experience half the game because they couldn't translate it for the rest of Europe. Thank god for piracy!