Professor Layton and the Lost Future

Other changes indicate that Level-5 is paying attention to details. The memo function has been overhauled with a variety of pen colours and sizes, making the touchscreen much more versatile as a scratchpad. A fourth level of in-game hints has been added, deemed the Super Hint, a.k.a. the "Oh, for Pete's sake, we'll just tell you the goddamn answer already" option. Even the "CORRECT" (and dreaded "INCORRECT") title cards are redone as cute cartoons featuring some of the game's minor characters.

The story could easily stand on its own as an upscale anime mystery jaunt. After the prime minister disappears in a time-machine demonstration gone wrong, Layton and Luke travel to a different London 10 years in the future to see if they can track him down. To make matters more confusing, Future Luke joins Present-Day Luke as a second sidekick. Don't worry, the sci-fi gobbledygook is kept to a minimum, at the professor's behest.

Layton has other motives for pursuing the case. He believes that the long-ago death of his grad-school sweetheart, the woman he planned to marry, is connected to this latest incident. Until now, our hero has been little more than an amusing Sherlock Holmes knockoff. In Lost Future, the bucket-headed fellow with the pencil-point eyes acquires a humane vulnerability. He transforms from caricature to full-blooded character.

At this point in the series, it would be banal to note that the story and the puzzles of a Layton game are only tangentially related in terms of plot. When you have to solve a maths problem to make an angry rabbit move out of the way, I think we inherently understand that the cause-and-effect relationship there is whimsical at best.

But let's not be so naive as to think that the different pieces of the Layton games are operating on separate tracks. In fact, they cohere quite beautifully into an overarching world. The developers have a keen sense of their early 20th-century Continental aesthetic, and it informs every corner of the game, from the most epic cut-scene to the meekest checkers puzzle. Likewise, the thematic undercurrent of Lost Future never wavers in its celebration of mental agility and the joy of reason.

The game is all the better because it doesn't strain to give its puzzles a superficial connection to its script – I don't need to see that pointless struggle. Instead, Level-5 focuses on the more satisfying end of building a world where we can challenge our minds and enjoy a good yarn well told. That task is hard enough, even if Professor Layton and the Lost Future makes it look easy.