Professor Layton Vs Ace Attorney

I'm into getting deeper into the story now, and dare I say it? I'm not currently gripped. There seems to be a depressingly large number of bland characters in the Layton bits, in particular. Fingers crossed it all drops into place soon. I fear Ghost Trick set my standards impossibly high for this outing.

I have to both agree with you, and say that it didn't get much better for me. I know that ZJ loved it, but for me, the characterisation was disappointing - even more so than Layton's usual outings.

Finished it! Started it on Saturday, and was gripped the entire time. A lot of late nights spent playing this game until I was too tired to continue.

I didn't have my hopes up for this (as you can tell from my posts previously), but I really was pleasantly surprised. The court scenes were some of the best I've played, in part due to their involvement with the main plot and the topsy turvy rules of their world, but also because of the presentation. AA5 may have had great animation, but Layton Vs AA has the better camerawork and soundtrack. It brings real tension and grandeur to the courtroom revelations and battles, and the option to use hint coins ensured it never held back in presenting you with a few problems to solve.

What wasn't so great was how it all wrapped up, which, while not a bonkers as say, Layton's revelations, was a bit on the convoluted side and I didn't find myself being blown away. Still good, mind, but for me the game peaked around chapters 4 and 5, or the second major case in Labyrinthia.

The Layton puzzles were too a letdown, too few of them relying on logic (I think I only used the scribblepad once!), but still decent nonetheless.

But best of all was how satisfying it was as a crossover: it was really endearing to see Layton and Wright (and their respective apprentices) interact with each other and combining Layton investigation with Wright court battles turned out to be a great match. Takumi's writing in particular shone through in the script, and particularly through Wright and Maya's interactions.

Oh, and Barnham was a great character despite what Balladeer says -- it was great to have a prosecutor who is to the point, and in the interests in finding the truth, rather than someone who talks nonsense and repeats the same (unfunny) jokes again (Blackquill from AA5 was the worst offender for that there).

The whole thing reminded me how great Phoenix and Maya were as a pair. The AA series has yet to create anything close to their magic.

Anyway, it's still an on-going concern as the extra DLC chapters (mini-chapters, really) drop in. They're mostly really strange, as the fourth wall appears to have crumbled...

Wait - there are more of them?  

Finished this last night and I'm devastated that I've got nothing to look forward to (any time soon at least on the AA front) from either series. I think overall it felt much more like a Layton game with AA bits. I think the Layton bits felt very Laytony whilst the AA bits were a bit cut down. Very good though and it has reignited an urge to play PW trilogy again.

That was my opinion, yes - apart from "very good". It had a bad Layton story, not up to the emotion of Lost Future or Azran Legacy say. It didn't help that I approached it hoping for equal parts of both.

I think aiming for Lost Future is optimistic at the best of times. I never expected the very best as it had to compromise. I do wish they had a few past characters in there as that's always a strong point in both series. I'd say it's probably better than Layton 4 though.

So is apple-bobbing in acid.

If it couldn't do a good Layton, it should at least have aimed to be a bad Wright. Instead it makes JfA look like Ghost Trick.

Maybe that's why I didn't finish this then.. I got a bit in and got over the Layton bits