Miracle Mask kicks off with a strong premise - a magician who is able to turn people into stone and horses threatens to take down this game's version of Las Vegas with the power of an ancient mask, causing an old childhood friend from Layton to request his help in this dire situation.

The change to 3D wasn't as rough as I've heard people make it out to be and it doesn't take long to get used to. Maybe it's because I've played Layton vs Wright first? Either way, the art direction isn't the only big change in Miracle Mask. Puzzles have also undergone a major overhaul, they're less logic-based now and many play like little minigames instead, but there's also a fair share of some usual puzzle formats (sliding puzzles, geometry puzzles). The puzzles in this entry are alright, nothing really stands out here in an especially good or bad light. Side activities were meh, I didn't really warm up to the robot minigame or the rabbit theater, but the shop sidegame was a fun pastime.

Most of my issues in Miracle Mask stem from the narrative. While I don't think it's a bad storyline per se, I found the twists (especially the villain's identity) to be really predictable. Emmy as a character is rather sidelined here, which is a shame, since I liked her role a lot in Last Specter. Also the game also has a lot of reveals that go... absolutely nowhere? There's an entire exposition segment fairly early into the game, where Layton whimsically deduces three of the villains' magic acts in their entirety. Not soon after, the magician performs another magic trick and Layton is able to come up with the solution to what just happened about 5 minutes after the events. I don't know, but to me it felt like the game was cheapening those moments by nearly immediately resolving them on a whim later. Why even bother listing them in the "Mysteries" section of the game if you're not even given time to think about these mysteries yourself?

What really dragged down this game for me however, was the entirety of Chapter 6. Minor gameplay spoilers ahead I guess? So, you've been solving puzzles and collecting hint coins for the past five chapters now. Great, right? How about the game turns into a mystery dungeon game?! Not going into the plot specifics here, but for a specific cause, Layton needs to navigate a cave with multiple floors. You would think it would be a short segment, since this sort of gameplay is experimental and has never been in any of the previous games before. NO! Enjoy your nine floors of rolling rocks and avoiding mummies. And just so you know, every floor consists of a handful of these rooms and an occasional puzzle - featuring a mandatory puzzle with forced gyro controls. I really hope Azran Legacy doesn't try this approach of gameplay again and just sticks to point-and-click navigation with a puzzle here and there throughout the entire game.

Now onto Azran Legacy to get to know all these characters Miracle Mask throws at you at the last possible moment (to get you hyped? I don't even know anymore). Thanks for reading and forgive me the ranting review for once.