Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright or a rather strange crossover.

Let’s start with the fact that this crossover was announced in 2010 by the studio Level-5 and CAPCOM. The game was riveted together in 2.5 years (then translated for another two years), they managed to remake it (just like with Prince of Persia: Two Thrones) and release on 3DS. Someday, I’ll figure out what the developers wanted to do initially, but the fact itself is that we would have an interesting and dark story about Phoenix and Layton. However, the game was remade and it shows.

And this moment is in the game, but seriously redone.

About canonicity. The game is canon… Only for Layton. For him, this adventure unfolds exactly between "Devil’s Box" And "An Uncertain Future". For Phoenix, this journey is not canon, but the game still takes place between the third and fourth parts (until that very moment). Question closed, let’s move on!

The plot begins with the unlucky Leighton student Carmilla trying to escape from the witches, in the arms of a young girl Espella. The witches still catch up with the fugitives, but Espella manages to run to Professor Layton. And then Phoenix Wright flies to London as part of an exchange program, all four (Leighton, Luke, Maya and Phoenix) end up in the mystical Labyrinthia and absolute chaos begins. There will only be spoilers further, so I will say one thing. After completing the game, when you learn all the secrets of Labyrinthia, you won’t believe the plot. More precisely, the ending of this story eliminates the plot in principle and makes it simply impossible. If you set some conditions at the beginning of the story, then you need to adhere to them, and not talk later with a guilty face "Oops!». Most likely, this dissonance is due to the fact that the game was still being remade. Or maybe, as one of my friends claims "Just in the spirit of the Layton games". Don’t know.

Gameplay. Since this is a crossover, the gameplay will include gameplay from Layton and Phoenix’s games. I didn’t know Layton before, only Wright. So solving puzzles, looking for hint coins and hidden puzzles was new. And logically, Phoenix’s gameplay should be familiar to me, simple and screaming as always "Objection!», but here Level-5 we turned around and did a couple of new things:

1) Layton’s hint system (collect a coin https://bombasticcasino.co.uk/games/ and you can get a couple of tips for a question "CHYADNT!?») entered the courtroom. That is, if you are unable to think at some point, then the button "Clue" to help you. They will tell you which statement of the witness to press, which item to choose to present it to the court (although you still need to choose from 3 options), etc. If in Phoenix you went through items for a long time and tediously, restarting the game a couple of dozen times, now there is no such problem. One coin and at least for a while you are saved!

2) Slightly reworked cross-examination. In the sense that now you are conducting “cross-examination” not only with one person, but often with 3 or more witnesses. You are required to understand which witness is holding back, keeping silent, or misrepresenting details. Often this scenario also happens: one of the witnesses may mention a fact that others will pay attention to. At this point, you can switch to another witness and ask him about the reason for the indignation.
Such mechanics greatly refresh the gameplay and make you think seriously. However, it’s strange that they cut out the microphone when you could say all the phrases yourself.

Objection will always help!

Since I made the game 99% Level-5, then the responsibilities for the engine, design, music, and voice acting fell on her shoulders. And this is where the problems begin.

Let’s start with the most painful part – design. Yes, design. And don’t tell me, “Well, there’s the same design in Leighton and everyone’s happy.”!». No. NO! NOOOOOOO. People, I understand crossovers, where the design of all the characters is brought to the same graphic style, but when I sit in the courtroom, I look at the cartoonish Layton, the slightly crooked Phoenix, the cartoonish inhabitants and the out-of-the-box design of the prosecutors of Labyrinthia… I want to tell the chief character designer to go to hell, because this is complete trash. You can’t make a game when your character designs vary from moment to moment. It just unsettles you and doesn’t let you concentrate on the game. The whole game I had the thought “Either take off the cross, or put on panties.”. In short, bad for the design of the heroes. But the design of the locations, on the contrary, is pleasing. Pleasant backdrops – from London, to the Labyrinthia, from thieves’ streets to the main square. It all looks just great!

Just don’t say that there is no dissonance?

However, in vain Level-5 made the game engine ourselves. It would be better to ask CAPCOM, good Framework on 3DS flies properly. What’s the problem? Yes, actually, the fact is that the game manages to lag for no natural reason. No, I’m not saying that this is the case throughout the game, but it’s quite strange that when large objects, effects or characters appear on the screen (especially close) the game starts to sag like that.

If I have almost no complaints about music (Because in general OST the game turned out great, with the exception of the compositions that play in Wright’s first case in England, since they are pretty shitty remixes of compositions from the first "Judicial somersault"), then there is only one and very weighty complaint about the voice acting – “Why are Maya, Phoenix and another young man from "First-class lawyer". Don’t get me wrong. Layton, Luke and the rest of the characters are voiced very tastefully, but that’s why Level-5 disliked Phoenix so much and, ESPECIALLY, the third character, whom I cannot name – I don’t know, but their voice acting is complete hell for fans of the lawyer. I thought the voice acting of Phoenix from the first Lawyers in Japanese is worse. How the hell was I wrong?!

So we get this sad picture:
-A good combination of the mechanics of both games, but the engine is crooked.
-A good script that destroys itself at the end.
-Good OST with some pretty schlocky tracks.
-Good location design, but completely random character design.
-And finally… Good voice acting for the characters, except for the three characters from Ace Attorney.

-Naruhodo, at least this time we will be from Japan? -No, Maya, even in the spin-offs we are Americans!

Having suitable material for a crossover on hand, Level-5 managed to crap in some pretty important places. More 5 from 10 I simply can’t put it. Okay, I’ll give you a point for Announcement of Truth. In total we have an estimate 6/10.