Surely Someday

「凄いや、ラピュタは本当にあったんだ！」 

『天空の城ラピュタ』

"It's amazing... Laputa really does exist!"

"Laputa, the Castle in the Sky"

Have I ever mentioned that my favorite movie is Studio Ghibli's Laputa, the Castle in the Sky? I don't mean animated movie, or movie from Japan. Just my favorite movie of all time. I'll admit that a lot of that is nostalgia talking, but no matter how many times I watch it, the movie never bores me, with romantic elements like air pirates, girls falling out of the sky (literally) and grand castles floating in the sky. I probably watch the movie at least once a year, but I still get all excited when the movie shows the legendary floating island of Laputa for the first time.

Young Luke Triton finds a similar legend in his "Legendary Mysteries", a book on legends from all over the world. The wandering castle is said to be floating in the sky, appearing all over England. And also, right above Luke's head. The castle disappears just as fast as it appeared though, and puzzled by this, Luke hopes his mentor, the famous archaeologist Professor Layton, will be able to explain this mystery to him. However, it appears that more people have seen the castle: Layton is asked by his old friend Andrew Schrader to find out what happened to Thomas McLuhan. McLuhan disappeared while on his way to his family home up in the north of England, leaving only a letter saying he saw the wandering castle and plans to go there. Layton, Luke and Layton's somewhat bumbling friend Jeremy Campbell decide to travel to the north to unravel this mystery in Layton Kyouju to Sayamoeru Shiro ("Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle").

Level-5's Professor Layton franchise is one of the more surprising hits of the last few years, as the games starring the English gentleman professor are built practically entirely out of puzzles and riddles. Sure, Layton and Luke are always on a different kind of adventure, be it investigating a curious village, or being aboard of a spooky Orient Express-esque train, but in the end, it's always about the puzzles. You see that, Luke? That reminds me of a puzzle. You shall not pass! Unless you solve this puzzle! It's too late, I switched on the Doomsday Device! But you can switch it off with a puzzle! I wish the real world worked like this. And despite the games being essentially big compilations of puzzles, they have been consistently extremely succesful all over the world, and have also spawned other media like theatrical releases and novels.

(And while I am describing the games as puzzle collections and thus may sound dismissive, I have enjoyed all six of them. Well, all except Miracle Mask. Sorry. Heck, I even played the spin-off game)

The games consists mostly about puzzles, but the story is basically a mystery story, in a very broad sense of the word. The world of Professor Layton is a steampunk end-of-century England, with a dash of fantasy, so as myseries, the stories are seldom fair to the player, but they are presented as detective stories. One could say that Professor Layton is more about a detective (Layton solving puzzles and mysteries), rather than really being a fair detective story itself. That didn't stop the professor from doing a fantastic crossover game with one of the greatest detective game franchises ever, though.

But back to the Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle. It's obviously a spin-off novel (set after Professor Layton and Pandora's Box, for those interested), written by mystery writer Yanagihara Kei.  The book is aimed at younger readers (children~young adults), something facilitated by the narration by the professor's young apprentice Luke. As a boy's adventure with a bit of mystery, a bit of science fiction and a bit of fantasy, Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle is really amusing.  The professor and Luke act like they do in the games, and the mystery they try to solve (the floating castle), is definitely something that fits in with the rest of the series. It's a fun adventure, and like the games, things keep moving and new story developments are presented to you constantly as other wind up, keeping momentum right until the end. You don't need to have extensive knowledge of the games either to dive into the book (you could even do without easily), so a lot better than something like Danganronpa/Zero (also a spin-off of a game). Like the Layton games however, you shouldn't expect a fair play orthodox mystery: expect science fiction and fantasy-esque twists and turns, but that's part of the package.

And Professor Layton wouldn't be Professor Layton if you weren't presented with a puzzle once in a while. At certain points of the story, the reader is presented with a puzzle like in the games (for example, one early puzzle is a coded message). This is fun in theory, as it feels like one of those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style stories, but you don't actually need to solve these puzzles to continue with the story and they feel kinda artificial in the story. Granted, that's also the case with the puzzles in the games ("Thanks for opening the door. Hey, that reminds me of a puzzle"), but in the games, you have to solve at least some of them to continue. Here you can just turn over a page, and you'll have Layton saying "every puzzle has an answer!" (but not really commenting on the puzzle in detail).

But what am I complaining about? As a Professor Layton novel, and as a children's mystery novel, Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle is quite fun, doing every thing you'd expect from something with the professor's name on it.

 Original Japanese title(s): 柳原慧　『レイトン教授とそまよえる城』

To Switch a Witch

"If she weighs the same as a duck..... She's made of wood"

"And therefore?"

"A witch!"

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Many moons ago, I bought my Nintendo DS for the sole purpose of playing the courtroom battle detective game Gyakuten Saiban / Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney after seeing this awesome trailer. And then I switched over to a DS Lite, put gave clear instructions that 'my' DS has to play at least one Gyakuten game once a year. And once again, I bought a new game system to play one game.

Professor Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban (Nintendo 3DS) is a grand crossover between Level-5's Professor Layton series and Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban series, the former being a quirky adventure game built around the premise of solving (mostly non-story related) puzzles, while the latter is an adventure detective game built around the premise of courtroom battles. And I like both series. So there was no way I was going to miss this release. Especially not when I heard that Takumi Shuu, the original creater / scenario writer / director of the main Gyakuten Saiban series was involved with the scenario.

The game starts with both professor Layton (and assistant Luke) and ace attorney Naruhodo (and assistent Mayoi) getting involved with a mysterious girl called Mahone in London. After their respective encounters with the girl, both the Layton and Naruhodo duo end up in a mysterious place called Labyrinth City, a medieval town where magic and witches exist. Mahone ends up being arrested for suspicion of being a witch (with her seemingly incinerating two robbers with fire magic according to the witnesses) and it is up to Naruhodo to defend Mahone in the Witch Trials. And Layton is there solving random puzzles and the mystery behind Labyrinth City, like he always does.

This game really did it right by making witch trials its subject, because it is a theme that fits both the Professor Layton and Gyakuten Saiban series. What's more, it brings all kinds of new elements to the familiar courtroom battles of Gyakuten Saiban that really make it a must-play for fans of the series (the Layton part of the game is sadly enough not as interesting, with few interesting puzzles). I already wrote about how detecting works within the Gyakuten Saiban games (multiple times by now), so I will mostly look at the new things here.

And witches are definitely new. Whereas in the main Gyakuten Saiban series, you are 1) trying to prove your client's innocence and 2) trying to find the real culprit, you are doing something completely different here. Technically, Mahone is tried for being a witch, not for killing two men with magic. Naruhodo thus isn't trying to find the real culprit (witch) or trying to prove Mahone didn't kill anyone, he has to proof that Mahone isn't a witch. Which requires quite a different approach to the trials.

One might also wonder, how does a detective game work in a fantasy setting where magic and witches exist? (It is actually a bit like this) Well, by having rules to magic (akin to how alchemy works in Fullmetal Alchemist). In Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban, there exists three conditions to magic: a witch must be holding a staff as she casts magic, she must say the proper enchantment for it to work and the staff she is holding must be equiped with the proper magic stone for the type of magic she wants to cast. These conditions form the foundation upon Witch Trials are based.

The clear rules to witchcraft is what makes Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban work as a fair detective. While set in a fantasy setting, Takumi Shuu made sure that the player knows what is possible (and not) even in a world where magic exists, thus preserving a fair-play setting. Like I mentioned in my review of Mori Hiroshi's Subete ga F ga ni Naru, not knowing what is possible can have great effects on how one perceives/enjoys a certain detective story. A bit back a Guess the Criminal script presented at the Mystery Club also revolved around the existence of youkai and such, but the clear presentation of the rules of the game made it a very enjoyable story.

Abstractly seen, the whole witchcraft setting isn't that different from what you usually do in Gyakuten Saiban though: like always you're on the lookout for contradictions made by witnesses by comparing testimonies with evidence. This time however, Naruhodo is also in possession of the Complete Works in Witchcraft, where you can check what rules exist for the different kinds of magic. What is considered common sense, might be different in a world where witchcraft exists, but it is the same logic with which you find the real murderer (witch) in this game.

The other big difference in the Witch Trials compared with the main Gyakuten Saiban series is the mob examination. Instead of listening to each witness' testimony after another, you are now forced to crossexamine multiple persons at the same time, with sometimes extra people suddenly dropping in and out! It is supposed to emulate the chaos Takumi envisioned when imagining how a witch trial would proceed, and it works. Witnesses react to each other's testimonies, resulting in some very unpredictable trials. Suspense in its storytelling has always been a staple of the Gyakuten Saiban series and it is only strengthened by the mob testimonies.

It's because of these additions that the Layton part of the game feels underwhelming. Whereas the courtroom segments (i.e. the Gyakuten Saiban part of the game) have all kinds of new things, the Layton part of the game (exploration of the town, solving logic puzzles) features nothing new. In fact, it's not nearly as interesting as a real Layton game, as this game features fewer and easier puzzles compared to full-fledged Layton titles.

Though I have to admit: the new elements in the courtroom segments aren't always used as effectively as I would have liked (especially the Complete Works on Witchcraft feels underused) and the last trial segment is too long and not particularly interesting actually. The Gyakuten Saiban part of the game reaches its climax relatively early in the game, sadly enough.

Some other non-detective points of interest: the game has great production values, as expected from Level-5 (responsible for main programming). Animated sections, music, voiced lines. Seeing Naruhodo as a 3D model (instead of sprites) actually works and the orchestrated music is simply amazing (seriously, I want this running in the background if I ever get to accuse someone of murder). Too bad they used Narumiya Hiroki as Naruhodo's voice actor though: he played a solid Naruhodo in the live-action movie, but he just doesn't work as a game/animation voice actor. It's been a while since I heard such boring voice-acting (well, April actually).

Anyway, this is must-play material for fans of both series, naturally. It especially poses interesting stuff to Gyakuten Saiban fans, as expected because of Takumi's involvement with the development, but Professor Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban also serves as a great example of how to effectively present a fair detective story within a fantasy setting.

Original Japanese title(s): 『レイトン教授ｖｓ逆転裁判』