Putting the above aside, I am indeed quite familiar with the Layton and PW games. I do not put the original Layton games into this category because they are more puzzle-centric than mystery-focused. And to my knowledge, all of the crimes in any of the PW games can be replicated irl. Bashing me about something I said about this game, misrepresented or not, is fine, but please do not bash a series which is founded upon detailed storytelling mechanics. To your point about disregarding the developers, I don't see how I've done that when all I put into question was the game's level of difficulty, which hopefully you'll realize isn't something that I alone have questioned. Obviously my views are biased because I only "boastfully" completed what you told me were the two easiest missions in the game, but I clearly asked you for more information regarding the latter missions. I certainly admit that I was wrong about the durations in which I completed the missions, but I still don't see why you're targeting me. Apparently all help nowadays come with a side of ingenuous troll. If anyone at all intelligent were looking for information regarding the game, they'd look at the posts ANSWERING the questions, and not the ones ASKING them. Oh and by all means please monitor me on my other posts. I don't know what you want to accomplish my tagging me, but I've been on these forums for over 4 years, and, while I certainly don't have nearly as many posts as you, I've never once flamed or been flamed like this. As to the game's latter cases, I have purchased them and they are indeed more challenging, but my original issues still stand. A crime-buster with no consequences of failure still seems half-assed, whether or not the developers are brilliant on their other titles.
I'm stuck on case 7 with the books, I can't seem to figure out the correct sequence. I've gotten the goblets already and I know about the clock. I tried some combinations, but given that the number of possible combinations is big, I'm asking for some help here. Initially I tried to do a diagram like for amino acids and dna nucletodes but then I remembered that dna uses a sequence of three 'letters' not 4. Edit: nm, I got it figured out.
Up to case 5 so far. Great game! Loving it so far, though I do hope the cases get more elaborate, difficult and longer with the increase in number. Like, at least not being able to pick out a culprit right by just being presented with the profiles. Also, wouldn't have terribly minded some sort of penalty system, like Lucy having an encased heart-thingie like the suspect or something. While Ace Attorney's 5 penalties were brutal, the complete lack of something similar makes Mystery Room almost too easy, especially coupled with the relative easiness up to where I've progresses so far
Which category you'd personally put the games in is largely irrelevant: as I said, all three series revolve around broadly outlandish characters, situations, problems and solutions, which remains the case. The crimes in this Layton Brothers game are no more or less implausible than any committed in the 80s murder mystery shows from which the game is derived. It's not as if the Phoenix Wright games get a pass in the "reality" stakes (even setting aside ghosts and such); the entire courtroom section revolves around catching out witnesses who are allowed a ludicrous and utterly unrealistic number of chances to revise, retract, alter, correct, add to, backpedal from, and completely contradict their own testimony. You're certainly the only person who has deliberately misrepresented the precise length of time the cases in the game take to finish, which does show a lack of respect for the developers. If I chose a game and started claiming things about it that were demonstrably untrue, as you did here, immediately I would be being unfair to the developers, as you were here. You're not going to be able to twist this situation in your favour; just own what you did and let it go. There's no "flaming" here. If you don't want to see posts in this thread correcting your misinformation, then don't post misinformation. One act resolves the other.
There are two issues at play here, the first being that "too easy" only really applies if you're not having trouble with the cases themselves. If you're not actually able to figure out the mysteries, and are resorting to cheesing the game through brute-forcing the answers, that's not a case of the game being "too easy", it's a case of the game not punishing you for finding it too hard, which is not quite the same thing. The other issue is the cases themselves, which I find do take a little bit too long to ramp up overall and are almost too straightforward for my liking (but then I personally find the Phoenix Wright games much the same); I'd like to see any potential sequel involve more of the gameplay and story elements from the later cases, especially cases 7-9, which introduce new mechanics and form one single larger case. Level 5 could add an "expert" mode that gave the player a limited number of attempts to answer questions posed, but if a person is already able to solve the cases without brute force, it wouldn't make any difference to them, and if a player is already unable to solve the cases under their own steam, are they really likely to switch to a mode they know in advance they wouldn't be able to complete? We don't tend to classify games that let you cheese your way through by saving/reloading every ten seconds as "too easy" either, just because they don't rely on artificial checkpoints instead.
Finished this game and loved it. I took issue with only a couple of things: first, that the game has difficulty accepting similar answers along the correct track. I have difficulty pulling specific examples out of my head at the moment, but I know a few times along the way I had a good sense of what was going on, but couldn't find the right thing to click on because it was slightly ambiguous what the game was looking for at that point in time. Actually, because of that, I'm quite relieved that the game allows unlimited chances to be wrong, because what's "right" can be overly specific at times. Phoenix Wright games have the same issue, and since you can take "damage" there, that can lead to a lot of unneeded frustration. I know a lot of people just save a lot in Phoenix Wright, too, in which case it pretty much amounts to the same thing. The other issue I had was that when you get stuck, the game is really unhelpful about what you should be looking for. Something along the lines of the mainline Layton games' hint coins, maybe? I don't want the logic given away, but something to push you toward the right track a little that doesn't involve randomly poking objects. I'm pretty sure this is why some people in this thread are going around guessing wildly, too. The game's more satisfying if you figure it all out, but sometimes you're just on the wrong train of thought. Anyway, this had my favorite plot and characters out of any Layton game, although it didn't make me cry my eyes out like Diabolical Box's ending did. It's lighter than Phoenix Wright games, but so is the pricetag, and at least it doesn't go into ridiculous spirit-channeling territory (or the utterly absurd plots of pretty much every other Layton entry).
Touch Arcade forum's Game Of the Week Poll - June 27, 2013 Layton Brothers Mystery Room was nominated as a candidate for Touch Arcade forum's Game of the Week. Final voting is occurring over the next 3 days here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=194573
I do think that mindset plays a large role in these sorts of games; for example, to me personally not a single investigative element I was tasked to discover in this game seemed like it came out of left field, and every clue and answer felt intuitive. I don't think I ever felt like I was at a loss for what to do next, or couldn't figure out what I was supposed to find, do or say; in general, I just did what I would do in real life in those situations. To that end, I truthfully would like to see examples from cases people had trouble with, just to see the different trains of thought being employed and perhaps point out where they were going astray. I do think that working as an investigator in real life and having a decades-long love of mystery novels, TV shows and games has perhaps helped to permanently ingrain a mindset for instinctively recognising and solving these types of problems, though. ^_-
I disagree. A continue option of the most recent save is common in many games nowadays. It'd save you more than just one tap. You'd tap start to turn on the menu from the main screen, tap continue, then confirm. That's something worth being bothered by when you compare that to what you have to do now. The way it does it now takes about 6 taps literally as opposed to what I said above which is 3 taps. And there's a load time when you enter the case select screen that isn't taken into account. And I didn't say remove the original option but a continue is what I want. The original option is good for switching the profile or going to a different case.
Right now once you're at the case menu, you choose a case, choose "reopen", and then confirm that choice. That is one more tap. Again, PW doesn't use player profiles, while this game does. A "resume most recent case" option doesn't make sense before you've chosen a player profile, because you could end up playing somebody else's game (which defeats the whole purpose of having distinct profiles in the first place). In addition, once you've selected a profile you don't need to do so again for the rest of your play session, so it's not as if you're doing this every time you want to play a case.
I think for me it was less an issue of "I have no idea how this could be done", but that I thought of something that was somewhat different from the actual answer and since the game wasn't very specific with feedback, I couldn't tell if I was on the wrong track or if I happened to be picking the wrong thing. One example that sticks in my head is in the last case, where Spoiler I figured out how he got across the gap, but thought that you had to somehow point out his method within the investigation mode itself. This was somewhat compounded by the fact that simply jumping across looked implausible to me, so I assumed he used some tools which would be scattered across the area, and this was further justified by the random objects strewn about. In the end I was thinking of all kinds of weird combinations of objects he could have used to get across but couldn't figure out how to progress the game, finally just went ahead with the questioning, and picked the ivy (since that was the obvious starting point). I was really surprised when that was all it took. I think given the amount of time I was spending on that bit, if some kind of hint was available I would have just gone ahead and used it, then realized that I already had everything I needed. Considering the point of the main Layton series is to solve puzzles and the hint coins there make that a bit easier by pointing you on the right track, I don't think it'd be inconsistent with the philosophy of the series for this game to offer hints for stuck players on a limited basis.
This one was actually the only time the game gave me reason to pause, and for the exact same reason it tripped you up: Spoiler unlike in every other case, finding the evidence doesn't fill in the note in the deductions section to show you've found the appropriate clue. The ivy was the obvious method of crossing, yet the game doesn't provide any feedback to show you'd solved that mystery. This particular oversight really is closer to being a bug than an issue with the game's overall design, however, and it is the only time it happens in the entire game. Can you recall another situation where you thought the game was ambiguous about what you should be doing, looking for or responding with next? I can't think of one, which is why I ask; I found the pattern of clues, evidence and feedback to be intuitive, logical and self-evident, which to me suggests that if somebody gets stuck, it isn't because of poor design on the game's end (aside from the above situation in the last case, which seems highly likely to catch most players out). Every single piece of evidence, suspect profile and statement in the case files already has a free optional hint associated with it which allows you to consider its relevance in more detail if you're still uncertain about the situation, and honestly, beyond those clear hints it's hard to imagine a next level of assistance other than just giving you the actual solution outright.
Appletini, let me say that I don't consider the game to be significantly flawed; I loved it and it has my vote for game of the week (and this week has a lot of strong contenders!) But I maintain that an optional hint system would make it better--maybe not for me and you, but in general. First, again, this is ostensibly a Layton game, even if the gameplay is vastly different. It's always been a series trademark that the puzzles give you all the information you need, but hints are there if you need them. There are people who solve all the puzzles without the assistance, and there are those who could use a push in the right direction (maybe only for certain puzzles, too). The games have always catered to everyone, and just because you find the cases straightforward doesn't mean everyone does. Seeing how some people are basically brute forcing, clearly it's not evident to all, and maybe a hint for just a section of a case will motivate them to think about what's going on overall instead of guessing. Second, it's flavor-consistent. Alfendi is usually present and you're more or less playing Lucy, and Al tends to already know what's going on. I think realistically speaking if she was stuck, he'd throw her a bone. Of course, there's one part of the game where you probably wouldn't be able to rely on this, and hints should probably be taken away for that part, too. Third, yes, that last case, which I think we already agree on. Any sort of feedback would have helped, it doesn't have to be a hint system, but if there was one it'd save many players some headaches. Fourth (although I guess this is really half a thing after the first one), it's worth considering that people play this game for different reasons. The characters and plot are pretty worthwhile on their own, and maybe some people will just want to see what happens. I don't think there's a need to force a specific way to play on people, especially when the alternative is apparently random guessing. All that said, I think I recall running into some trouble in case 6, but I'll have to play through it again to remember where. It wasn't nearly as bad as case 9's anyway.
No it isn't. I said, hit the start button to open the menu, then hit a CONTINUE button, then hit confirm. That's only three taps. You're adding in other actions when the point of my recommendation is only to play your latest game as quickly as possible. Consider video games equivalent. You can load multiple save games and one can be someone else's but many of them have a "CONTINUE" button on the main screen so you can just start up immediately. If you're sharing with someone you should know that they could have been playing before you so you can load the game the normal way. Even though you're arguing that profiles changes it, a continue button for the most recent game is fairly normal.
There already is an optional hint system in the game that provides the things you're requesting in your post, though, which is why I ask what exactly it is that you expect from a new one above and beyond that which is already provided in-game? And that's exactly what he does in the optional hint system that is already in the game. I'm a little confused as to whether or not you're aware of this feature, because you're arguing for something that already exists, with elements that already mirror your wishlist. No, I'm pointing out what is required for this to work with the game as it is now. Either we're disregarding the player profile section, in which case it is three taps, or we're taking the player profiles into account, in which case a "continue" button simply will not work with the way the game is currently set up. If three people have profiles set up for the game and I hit a hypothetical generic "continue" button that takes me into somebody else's profile and case, at best I've just wasted extra time going back to the intro screen and then manually choosing my profile, and at worst I've potentially ruined somebody else's game if I started mucking around with it, especially if we were playing the same case and I didn't realise it immediately. It doesn't matter how many times you argue that a continue button would work just as long as you disregard the separate player profiles, because you can't disregard them. Multiple saved games on a single profile aren't comparable or relevant, and the idea that you should just keep a record of who was playing what last on the device is inane. You're asking for the implementation of a pointless feature with a good chance of causing confusion, all for the sake of saving you literally three seconds the very first time you boot up the game each session.
The hints for evidence bits tend to be some combination of what was said when you first encounter the object and the description that's already there. Good for a refresher, but very different from a hint that provides insight directly on the current game objective. Even if you think it can't be done without straight up giving away that part, from a game design standpoint it's better than having players brute force (and that mirrors the "super hint" in the other games). It'd be a pretty clean approach to have both the hint coins and picarats from the other games appear, with a picarat penalty for incorrect guesses.
Need help. Can't figure out the inconsistency for the statements of the witness in mafia case. I think I got which statement but I can't figure out what evidence.
I would argue that it is a translation error because they chose dialects that are not familiar to their audience. They wanted to convey a certain meaning with their choice of dialect, and that's not working out, which makes this a bad translation.
