Another Code: Journey Into Lost Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

 

The original cover

The Sequel came to the wii in 2009 and begins 2 years after the original game and Ashley is visiting her father on a camping trip near his workplace but as soon as she gets off the buss, Richard Robins doesn't show up and a boy steals her bag. And from there it spirals away with mysterious secret agents, holograms, another ghost and a damn another... Another Machine. People gets shoot at, mass hypnosis, a company bankrupted by an evil CEO and so on. This game's story gets bonkers and it actually have less ghosts than the original. 

The boy is Matthew that have run away from his uncle to look for clues about his dad that disappeared 5 years ago. He was the CEO of a resort company that tried to develop the area around the lake that they are staying at, but got blamed for polluting the lake. Turns out that that the company Richard works for had created an Another machine that stored memories in liquid form that was polluting the lake, but the CEO covered it up by infusing memories into the townspeople so that they turned on the resort company. And Matthew was constantly... or rather from the background a couple of times, followed by a ghost who turns out to be his younger sister that he failed to save as she fell from the clock tower near the lake. That scene broke me as he learns the truth and breaks down, and then his ghost sister shows up and forgive him and that started the tears leaking and then a bright light and there mother that died in sickness shortly after the incident appears and takes the girl away and the floodgates are open. God Dammit!

That's the emotional highpoint of the game, the following part is running up and down a lab in water opening doors and such... sounds like the first Resident Evil Revelation game. It's bonkers since one of the more mysterious people in the game Ryan is revealed to be pretty much a manifestation of a boy that died 15 years ago as he was tested on by his father, the CEO to try to take him out of the PTSD that happened when his mother saved him from a car accident, but she died from that and caused Ryan to shut himself out of the world. So it's really sad, but there is a bit of botched moments. For example that father CEO, really isn't described as caring so much for his son, I gather that's how that is, but he is described by the computer Ryan that he only cared for the machine. Maybe it's hinting on the computer not getting the emotional investment the father put into it to save his son, but there is no break down scene, and the one Ryan tries to resurrect is Ashley's mother by overwriting Ashley's memories and not his father.  There's a disconnect there.

9 hours to play through so it's a bit bigger, but it's a lot more drama since there is more people around and I don't jive with that. Probably due to not connecting as well as with Matthew's emotional story. There's some stories they could have milked more, like Charlotte and her missing daughter that ran away with the photographer... I don't think we had a picture of them until the end? Come on, make me cry more damn it, make me feel something! Prove that I'm human... *ahem* Where was I? Oh yeah, overall a good collection, 16 hours total for both games. Second game was a bit harder on finding the origami cranes so I missed two of them. You really need both of them since if you haven't played them the second game gets a bit strange with the one ghost. I thought it was supposed to be more ghosts in the game, but instead we got holograms pretty much.

Read through the plot of the original version, and that seems to change dramatically, since there Ryan seems to be a real person and all is just an inheritance dispute... again. Yeah, the hologram story seems better now. Also, someone mentioned that Matthews ending wasn't part of the original game, but supposed to be a spin-off game with him as a main character, but since the company behind the game went bankrupt after this it wasn't meant to be so they pushed it in here. And it worked for me!

Another Code: Two Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

Should've known that her crying on the cover would indicate what I was gonna experience!

Continuing with the puzzle games I picked up this remake of one DS and one Wii game from the middle of the 2000's. Never played them before, but as soon I saw the trailer for them I just got a feeling I needed this. So after a month I started playing. So it start off with Ashley Mizuki Robins that the day before her 14th birthday have been invited by her father which she thought where dead to meet him on Blood Edward Island... charming name. It's an old island with a mansion and an abandoned mine where you solve puzzles... haven't I already played this game?

Well, she's there with her aunt, the aunt goes missing so Ashley has to look after her. After a moment she meets the ghost boy D that hangs around the mansion for 60 years. Together they uncover everything from D's family the Edwards that lived on the island and what Ashley's dad (Richard Robins) have been doing all along as well as the reason for Ashley's mother's death. Apparently D died by an accident as he ran from his uncle Henry that had been forced to kill D's father Thomas that in desperation tried to steal the inheritance of the family. Ashley's father meanwhile was working on a machine together with Ashley's mother, a machine called Another that was supposed to be able to erase memories in order to be able to cure PTSD and other trauma's... what ever it does, it sounds really bad for what it can be used to, creating false memories and all that. Especially when we are talking AI deepfakes and such? Of course Richard's assistant Bob was prepared to steal the machine and collaborated with someone to do so. He even killed Ashley's mother 11 years earlier.

I liked this game, it was a fun puzzler and I finished it within 7 hours. Puzzles on the easy side since you can photo anything (even though a 10 photo limit, but you can really see what you are supposed to photo). The most observant thing you have to keep looking for are these origami cranes you need to scan to get some information about Richard Robins, which I got all of them. The ending is kinda sad, but I think I foresaw it pretty early and since D's death was an accident I really can't say I felt the emotional strings being plucked so to speak. All in all I got vibes from the Famicom Detective Club and like that, there is a sequel that follows directly in this collection.

Phoenix Wright : Ace Attorney 3 - Trials and Tribulations (Switch)

The end of the beginning!

Third and last game in the original Ace Attorney Trilogy. Begins 5 years before present time where you don't take on the role as Phoenix, but Mia Fey defending Phoenix Wright from the accusation of murder together with Marvin Grossman by her side. There she exposes the vile machinations of Dalia Hawthorn, the demoness that have several people on her non-existent conscious. Really, half the cases seems to be either Fey or Phoenix Wright himself so I wonder what pays for all this?

Second case begins with not a murder case, but a case of the stolen family urn off the Fey family as it was being shown off in an exhibition. But the case turn bloody as a the same time as the theft an apparent murder takes place in the office of a security office. And they introduces the new prosecutor, Godot. So Phoenix gonna protect the man behind the mask of... Mask*deMasque. A very timid man named Ron Delite that apparently got himself married to the very carefree spender Dessie Delite... in her very nice biker outfit that... captures the curves... *ahem* What was I talking about?

I mean, look at her?

And it's also a blatant Columbo reference as to pin the theft on the culprit they use fingerprints from the investigator on the item from the episode with the art critic, you know the one where Columbo pulls out his hands wearing gloves during the gotcha-moment? Third case involve trying again to protect Maggy Byrde from being wrongfully accused of murder, this time in connection to loan firms, mobsters and computer viruses that destroys the police ability to work. Oh, and a phoney Phoenix Wright that put her as guilty the first time around. Fourth case is another look back where Mia defended Terry Fawles, a mentally challenged death row inmate that is accused of killing a police officer Hawthorne... wait, it's the same name as that other girl? And Edgeworth makes his first appearance in court as a prosecutor. No investigation in this one, but begins to tie the whole story together. 

Fifth and final chapter is the culmination of the series, getting references to all three games and solving mysteries unexplained. What happened to Misty Fey, Mia and Maya's mother? What is Morgan Fey gonna do to exact revenge on the main Fey family? We see Edgeworth and Franziska back in action as they duke it out in the courtroom as Phoenix lies in high fever at a hospital after falling from a burning rope bridge as he tried to reach Maya. So far he has broken through two doors and risked his life for her. It's a great ending and ties it all together... but I think prefer the ending case of Justice For All. Mostly since the threat level is there from the beginning. Maya's life is supposedly in danger from the moment she is trapped on the mountain after the bridge collapses, but it only gradually becomes apparent the danger she's in since we don't think the murder occurred there until the second day, and then the police already fixed the bridge. I mean, the assassin was there from the first 15 minutes of the case.

Overall, it doesn't have the low-point of the last game so it's on average probably better, but you get the same mechanic in case 3 where everything you press is a penalty, but I give it the benefit that the character in question is actually is someone "scary" so I buy that compared to annoying. And all the defendants are actually likeable. Which reminds me that I also have Apollo Justice on 3DS and I think I'm at the case with the mobster boy... *shudder*. Music is not as good as the second game, that one had force behind it. Also, I get the impression here is where they really upped the quirks of people in the court. The coffee-drinking Godot slowed down the game a bit more than earlier games and it will only accelerate from here when everyone is supposed to be doings quirks.

The trilogy overall, great. Although it's the same package as from the 3DS, they couldn't have thrown in concept art or such as they did for the Great Attorney games? It's a bit empty I mean. Been fun to revisit it. A problem though is that certain characters just disappeared after these games. Gumshoe that was there in the beginning haven't appeared beyond the Investigation games and a small cameo in Apollo Justice pre-present time case. Larry, Edgeworth and Pearl have made their presence known and even Maya. But the others? That was also fun to see characters appear again and again to build together the whole universe and I miss that. Hardly done by the characters in the new games either besides the lawyers. I think only Ema Skye would qualify actually. Well, summer vacation for 2022 is about to be over for my part so let's see what I figure out next.

Phoenix Wright 2: Justice For All (Switch)

Justice for one, justice for all
You get what you give when you've broken the law
Know what it costs before you commit
Don't start a fight, I won't let you win it

 The sequel. Begins with Phoenix getting hit in the head and having amnesia forcing him to relearn everything how it works against the starter prosecutor. Interesting enough it has a very peculiar cutscene in a dream sequence when Phoenix stands on a cliff and the judge strike him down while that horror music from Bach is playing. The rest is protecting this innocent police aspirant from the murder charge against her boyfriend. The real criminal was some paranoid scammer... which doesn't tie in to the rest of the game and is actually set between case 2 and 3. Mostly it's probably to keep Maya out of the way for reveal in the end. Which is nice since it's so fun to see them together again. 

Case 2 is their meeting each other again when a client of Phoenix requested a spiritual seance with Maya to get a dead nurse to admit to being responsible for 14 deaths at his hospital. Also have a nice cutscene with a car speeding though on the highway and crashing and exploding in flames with one survivor. This chapter is more learning about the Kurain spiritual technique that Maya uses to summon Mia. And introduce Pearl, Maya's cousin and probably the stronger medium since she actually is from the main branch of the family, but due to her mother's lack of spiritual power it was passed to Mia and Maya's mother who's been missing since the DL-6 incident from the first game. It sets up Morgan Fey as an arch-villain for this and the next game. It also gives us the psych-locks which is a mini cross-examination to learn secrets from people to get evidence or such to help in the trail. New prosecutor for the series is  Franziska von Karma that whips everyone.

Playing with hearts, is a dangerous game
So don't play with mine, I'll put you to shame
It's an eye for an eye, you're in a blind rage
And I'm standing my ground, no I'm not afraid

Case 3... pretty much seen as the worst case of the original trilogy. You have to defend a stage magician from a murder in the circus. Where you have an unfunny clown, an obnoxious ventriloquist and one episode in the trial where you can't press the witness (the clown) since he does a joke and you get penalised for it. Also, is it just me or is everyone fawning over the animal tamer a bit... gross? I mean, first off, she's 16 and the suitors range from 21 to 30... and to top it off, she appears a bit... mentally challenged? I didn't have that much trouble the first time playing and it's one of the more sadder episodes when it comes to why the murder happened. 

Then comes case 4, I would argue the best case so far. First off, it's the most callbacks to the first game, you're at the hotel where April May was observing the murder of Mia Fey. Powell, Oldbag and Lotta shows up and Edgeworth reappears with the greatest theme music in the series (for real this time). They use it like 4 times and every time it just pumps the mood. You have an assassin that kidnaps Maya to force Phoenix to defend the superstar actor so you have stakes in this. Franziska gets shot, Gumshoe gets fired and crashes his car racing to the courthouse with crucial evidence and Edgeworth returns to the prosector stand after spending a year away... I assume looking into the assassin's overall activities. This case, not a single bad thing about it. This is the high point of the game and I think my original statement included the whole trilogy. 

Sadly no extra 5th case in this version. But you got to search for electronic bugs in the final chapter which together with the blood and fingerprint in the last chapter from the first game would work for a detective series. I don't recall investigations worked like that, but that would have been fun. They introduced the ability to show people as well making it a more intuitive way to ask people about different people. Still the same thing with evidence that they aren't able to investigate them. Overall, the final case makes it wonderful, the second case you need to get the payoff in the next game, same thing with the first case since it affects another case in the third game. If you could I would maybe skip the 3rd case, but it has a point for a chapter in the newer games (I think it may have been one of the extra cases and not a main one, but it was so long ago I can't remember, probably with the murdering whale). 

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Switch)

 

Breaking the law! Breaking the law!

So I had to replay the Ace Attorney trilogy after playing the latest games in the series, and of course you start from the beginning. Which I apparently did in 2020 by playing the intro chapter and nothing more. Finished it in a couple of days and what a nice nostalgia ride it was. Last time was back in 2015... or maybe 2014, but I think I at the time still were rather close to play and release compared to now when I got something like 10 months of post already in the cue.

So, as I wrote back in 2015, the story of Phoenix Wright trying to help Miles Edgeworth leave the darkness that hangs above him, rumours of false evidence and so on. And now I watched a couple of Columbo episodes I can quite see a possible inspiration from that series. I mean, someone mentioned that Columbo was about an apparent bumbling police detective taking on the high and mighty who believed themselves to be untouchable by the law, and that premise is very much here. The defendant is someone everyone already dooms and it can't be that rich, famous or powerful person. So much so that I wonder if Gumshoe is actually an homage with the coat. The first chapter just establishing Phoenix, Mia Fey and Larry Butz in order to show off the gameplay. Second chapter is the death of Mia and the accusation against Maya Fey, Mia's sister. Third is the Steel Samurai episode that made me cheat my way through the whole game on the 3DS, which I didn't do this time (maybe due to having a save function that allows for easy retry, still got caught on some pixel hunting episodes). Fourth and final original chapter on the original GBA game is the trail of Miles Edgeworth. And I got a say, it feels rather short so I get adding another chapter for the DS version, but the ending feels right here. It's a bit like Ni No Kuni where there is a natural end, and then a tacked on chapter after for the upgrade to better console (in that case from DS to PS3). 

I'm not the only one seeing that right? He even have a dog!

Fifth chapter on the other hand is great. We have actual investigating to do. Ema Skye brings both finger prints and blood stains hunt, and to be honest I was listening to a couple of Gabriel Knight 3 playthroughs and I had some great cravings for that kinda gameplay. Of course Ace Attorney don't give the whole experience since it amounts to... what, 3 finger prints and 6 blood stains? They of course changed how it worked a bit since the 3DS had a touch screen as well as a microphone to blow away the dust, all changed to buttons now... thank god. Don't recall how often I had problems with the microphone not working correctly with the earphones plugged in. We can also investigate items in 3D which made it a lot more fun since otherwise the only thing you could do was press statements to change the meaning of evidence. The chapter also deals with corruption in the very top of the criminal law enforcement.

Bad things with it... I now get why I get the newer games to be a bit boring, they are so slow compared to this game. The statements fly by and it's easy to rush through if you press again and again. It doesn't work like that in the newer games, which is obviously blamed on the shift to 3d characters who has to show every quirk. I mean, Enoch in the Great Attorney 2 used what, like 15 seconds on every statement showing him doing the robot. You get the same problem here since they made a video tape I believe is made with 3d characters that move so slow and you can't fast forward enough. Other than that, it was a great game. The graphics are nice and the music top notch. Everything from the awaiting the trail to the piecing together to evidence to... wait, there's no Edgeworth theme here? Did they introduce it in the next game with Franziska von Karma's theme first? Well, that make me looks bad in the last post.

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve (Switch)

 

Wen er anfällt,
Dieser Hund von Baskerville, oh yeah,
Hat verloren
In dem Kampf um Baskerville, oh, yeah

So continued with the second game, not that hard when both are in the same application. Starts of back in Japan with Susato disguising herself as a boy in order to defend her friend who are accused of the murder of... the girl that murdered Dr Watson? All right! Turns out she was killed by a journalist who was a bit miffed that she was able to escape justice. Ok, it also tells us that the reason Susato was called back was a ruse by her father since he hadn't fallen ill, but apparently a report from the author guy was the cause for some reason. With that we get the retelling of the story that followed the not murder on Baily Street. That have to been cut from the first game since the colourful person appeared again and the not-murder victim turned in again. She still didn't die, although nearly took her own life. It ends with the loot from a burglar being found containing a jewel studded dog collar.

And the third one we have a mad scientist trying to create a teleporter, but the the financier is murdered. Turns out that the scientist is also an old classmate with lord van Ziek. There's bombs, a dead man arising from the grave, a tale of the Professor, the worst mass murderer in London, wax dolls and madam Tussauds and a man seeming to be half clockwork machine. And this is only the third chapter, it ends with Kuzuma returning from the dead and revealing that the Professor is actually Kazumas father. Gave me a bit of Professor Layton flashbacks with the exploding machine.

4th chapter and it's the death of inspector Gregson... wow, a prominent character in the games is killed and Barok van Ziek is the defendant? And this isn't even the last chapter? What will they do to top this? What we have is an international conspiracy with assassins, a cover up of a prison escape, falsified evidence in a ten year old case, the reaper of Baily exposed and so much more... and then the chapter ends midway and continues in chapter 5. Well that explains it. Too big for one chapter. What don't we learn here? Watson wasn't Iris father, but Klint van Zieks, the brother of Barok. Watson wasn't even Watson, but Susato's father was Holmes assistant. Klint was also responsible for the Professor, but coerced by Lord Chief Justice Stronghart, and the murderer of both Kazuma's father and inspector Gregson was the Japanese judge. The ending was a bit contrived though since it basically ends with Holmes, using a hologram to persuade Queen Victoria of Britain to sack Stronghart when he has the whole judiciary eating from his palm. The clearest form of Deus Ex Machina I've seen.

Together these two games are great, how they constantly spin back to the case of the professor, leaving more details as everything goes on, and letting it feel like Sherlock is pulling the strings behind the scenes to solve this 10 year old mystery. Individually... maybe the second one is better since it contains the heavy hitter cases that have the pay-off, but you need the establishing game. Also, strange that they did away with the jury in the last two chapters when it was a prominent feature for the game. Also, the music is a bit lacking. Not bad and I liked it, but there's something missing. In the other games one of the best tracks is the Edgeworth theme whenever it shows up (that become the theme for van Karma in the second game as well) and in the latest games the music with the thought thread was great in pumping you up, missed that kinda sequence here, maybe because the game was a lot easier so they didn't need to try getting people on the same page (meaning it was probably better telegraphed what to do). I frankly had only 2 problems and both was related to missing an item to investigate since it was obscured by things around it that also could be investigated.

Overall I liked them. The package also had some "Escapades" that are short stories taking place around the first game. Funny little moments like the discussion on different taxes... I'm a political scientist, of course I found the discussion of the absurd taxes to be interesting. Strangely non for the second game. Also, the game sets up the possibility for a 3rd game in the series with Sherlock and friends traveling to Japan it feels, but there is non after that and it originally came out in 2017, might we get a new game soon? It haven't even been a mainline Ace Attorney game either, or yet another Ace Investigation game.

The Great Ace Attorney 1: Adventures (Switch)

 

Nebel zieht in dichten Schwaden
übers Moor von Forrest Hill,
Grün-gespenstig grinst ein Irrlicht,
Es ist Nacht in Baskerville.

Well, another murder mystery visual novel played and what better than Ace Attorney, set sometime around the beginning of the 20th century as the young... well, Naruhodo. Bit more problematic to remember for me than Phoenix. First case is Naruhodo representing himself in court for acusation of killing a foreign professor in medicine, a John H. Wilson... it's supposed to be Watson, but due to draconic copyright protectors in the Doyle estate they decided to change it to get it released at all since I think I actually hear the real name of Sherlock Holmes in the trailers for the japanese original releases. Yes, Sherlock Holmes have a prominent presence in the game. Back to the trial, Naruhodo have only his friend the law student Asogi beside him (who feels a bit like Simon Blackquil from the last games), but after interference from another professor Naruhodo have to defend himself so that a failure to protect Naruhodo would lead to Asogi to not cancel the planned trip to Great Britain for an exchange student program between the empires of Great Britain and Japan. 

It turns out that Watson was poisoned by some new poison from South America that paralysed him by a student from Great Britain, but she had some diplomatic immunity that forced the Japanese to give her to the British consul in Shanghai. But Naruhodo is proclaimed free. So Asogi invites him as a stowaway on the trip to England, which starts with the death of Asogi and Naruhodo is once again blamed for the crime, until the detective Herlock Sholmes.... I'm gonna say Sherlock Holmes onward, even though the running gag of the german Herr Lock Sholmes is kinda funny and his judicial assistant Susato. So Naruhodo takes Asogi's place and the first trial they have to endure in London is protecting this rich Irishmen that been charged with murder and to top it all off is being prosecuted by the Repear of the Baily, the Lord of Darkness, Barok van Zieks.

Wer verbreitet Angst und Schrecken,
Wer vernichtet was er will,
Jeder sucht sich zu verstecken
Vor dem Hund von Baskerville.

Every defendant that faces the Grim Reaper ends up dead, even if they are cleared of all charges. Which is silly superstitious. Well, you get your client McGuilder off the hooks after some evidence have been made light... which of course is strange since it's a bit convenient, especially when the witness Gina Lestrade shows up with her pickpocket skills. Well, case closed and everyones happy. 10 minutes later the scene of the crime (an omnibus) is set a flame with McGuilder inside, too late to save. Damn.

Another case is clearing another japanese fellow who is apparently one of the most famous Japanese writer to have ever lived that lived in England for three years before returning home to Japan somewhere around 1907 or so, which gets strange since the game clearly puts him to be there only a year. Here Sherlock comes back and you are introduced to his assistant Iris Watson that writes the stories that are published in the magazines. Iris being the daughter of John Watson, the same Watson killed in the first case? Well, the author is cleared of charges after it turns out it was a domestic dispute that got out of hand and a knife accidentally fell into the back of an innocent victim. Which turns out to be the first victim to survive an Ace Attorney case I believe. 

The last case concerns defending Gina after being accused of killing a pawnbroker. Turns out it's a tale of governmental secrets, cold blooded revenge when it turns out the reason is that a perpetrator wanted a couple of discs for a music box encoded with logs of secret information in morse code. Information the perpetrator was supposed to sell to McGuilder through his father, but McGuilder killed him which was the first case and then faced revenge by being burned. After the trail Susato leaves back to Japan since her father have fallen ill, the same professor that interfered in the beginning of the game. Meanwhile they solve the morse code and the names Asogi and Watson turns up and here the game ends.

It was a fun game. They changed it up a bit with trying to solve Sherlock's flawed leaps of logic to make less courtroom cases. They also references a lot of Holmes adventure so I checked them up in a compilation of the greatest Holmes Adventure I have in my book shelf. The Speckled Band being the most fun since they poke fun of inconsistencies of the story, such as that the snake listened to whistling and was trained with milk or was incapable of climbing the wall. One problem though, as is it's clearly not a complete game. The murderer in the first game gets away, the message at the end of the last case is unsolved. A character appears in episode 3, but isn't referenced again (if I didn't miss something). Loved van Ziek, but his enigma in being gone for 5 years and suddenly appearing and taking these paltry cases Naruhodo is involved makes no sense. 

There's a sequel and luckily it's on the game. One problem though it's a bit often the game case is a locked room mystery and I find it a bit repeating. The several witnesses are fun and was used in the Layton and Phoenix crossover game earlier, which I played 7 years ago. Must be easier since I didn't look up any hints (or maybe save scumming helped with that). Also, the jury feels like a counter argument from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney where we needed to use a jury to convict the main bad guy, but here the jury is more of an hindrance since they interrupt all the time and is swayed by every little bit of change in the story. Interesting how the story also shows racism, arrogance of the great powers and how they bend the will of weaker nations around them.

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (Switch)

Fresh prints, not since
Watson and Mr. Holmes
Have two minds (two minds), so fine (so fine)
Looked under every stone
When you need some help to save the day
They're never far away

I went and played the other games at once. And it's a murder mystery at a school setting... first impression not that good. Doesn't help that the game, even though they are stand alone games, probably work better if you play this one first since it ends with the phone call that started the investigation in the other game. Here we begin with the protagonist running away from the police and runs in to Detective Usagi that takes him under his wings as his assistant in the detective agency. Then it kicks off when the body of a school girl is found in the river, the best friend of the girl who was your co-assistant in the Missing Heir.

The girls worked together in their detective club at school where she had stumbled upon the mystery of the girl who stands behind you, a ghost tale 15 years old that is connected to the disappearance of another missing school girl, who turns out to be the dead girls cousin. The girl disappeared at the same time a loan shark was killed and his son came into a great wealth. Meanwhile another victim of the loan shark killed himself. So that was 4 dead bodies before the game start. Two more bodies turns up, but I gotta say, the first game is better in that regard since they had the deaths spaced out so you got something here and there. I mean, the bodies doesn't come until the last hour of the game.

Also, Missing Heir had an interesting end puzzle where you traversed a maze with the help of a mirror and a poem. That was an actual puzzle, here was just triggering the right words to get to the ending. They also fixed the problem with spelling out the name of suspects and such by just giving you the list of names and choosing from there. Thank you for that. Apparently the game also track responses and such with ends with a compatibility chart with the assistant girl, doesn't evolve more than an extra cutscene at the end. But I give the game this, it was a memorable scene when you are cornered by the murderer and he lunges at you with a knife, cracking a mirror in the wall, shattering it. He turns around ready to strike again, and the damned skeleton of the missing girl from 15 years ago falls on to him.

I see you!

Jesus Christ! Is this really a Nintendo game? Now I get why it wasn't released in the West in the 80's. Usagi shows up with the cops and arrest the murderer. The ending makes it feel like a supernatural event. First game had shades of it, but more as superstitious nonsense. Here it has been hinted all around that her ghost haunted the school, and people have felt watched and uneasy and questions if she the first murdered girl possessed the second murdered girl. And then she turns up and save the day. Why isn't there a third game? I would loved a game set after Missing Heir with more supernatural things... or maybe I miss another game like Gabriel Knight and this come close to it. And maybe at least put them at 18 and up? I must clearly say that I don't see the Japanese police be all right with using 15 year old kids to get information from the teachers and students at the school, especially when we go to the more seedy parts of town with a... *ahem* "gentleman club". Maybe this is the real reason it never got to the west.

Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir (Switch)

 

Sometimes some crimes
Go slipping through the cracks
But these two
Gumshoes
Are picking up the slack
There's no case too big
No case too small
When you need help just call

So played through what I think is the first game in the series... well, not first chronological, but first released. A bit of a hassle. A remake of an old Famicom game from 1988, they spruced up the graphics and music and added voice acting and I gathered the girls voice actor from the detective agency is the same from a sattellaview episode. So that's neat. 

Story begins with the protagonist waking up after being rescued by a man near a cliff. You have amnesia and can't recall who you are so while going back to the cliff you meet a girl who recognise you. She works with you on a detective agency and helps you with your case where you were looking into a mysterious death of a chairwoman for a big company. So you restart the investigation as you can't remember anything, but then the suspects begin dropping like flies and all signs points to the family lawyer. I mean it, at the end we end with 5 murders, another person killed in self-defence, and two more dead in the protagonist parents thrown in for good measures (but that was before the game started). Great since the Midsummer Murders seems to be cancelled this summer as of writing (I guess Covid related from last year).

It was nice playing it. Interesting visual novel with pretty much one path forward where the most troublesome moment being trying to spell the name of the suspected murderer. I knew who it was, I just had some problem spelling so I looked it up. It would have been solvable if I could look into my notes during the input screen.

Story is engaging, but it's a bit too convenient in the end. Spoilers for anyone wanting to play the game, but the missing heir? Turns out it's the protagonist and the lawyer guy was was the first person you saw and he orchestrated it so that you would be there so he could get his hands on the symbol of the successor. And then your uncle shows up and rescue you in the last minute. He was also a lawyer and I thought he was the family lawyer, so oops on that. That and the police seems rather callous with a 17 year old kid looking at dead bodies and such. Well, there is another one so let's continue with that.

Laytons Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (3DS)

 

Let's solve a Mystery!

The latest Layton game from Level-5... that was released 2017 for the 3DS and that I played for 5 hours in 2018... and then didn't pick up again until 2022 when I finished after a couple of work days. I really should stop playing games for 5 hours and pick them up some years later. As mentioned, latest Layton game, but Hershel Layton isn't technically in the game. He is mentioned, but you instead follows his daughter Katrielle, her servant Ernest Greeves and the dog Sherl O.K. Holmes (aka Sherlock Holmes). It begins with Sherl asking Katrielle to find his owner (she can speak with animals, which is strange since that was Luke Tritons deal). But they get sidetracked with other cases that emerges for Katrielle and her detective agency.

So instead of a narrative that binds everything together it's instead divided into 12 different cases. There is some overlap with characters appearing in them and the events being referenced. The cases goes from find a pet, to solve a theft of a golden statue, find the vigilante Ratman that disappeared (a case filled with Batman references, awesome) to a case where Katrielle has to prove that she didn't commit the murder of a owner of a hat store (which you saw previously in the case where you tried to find a present to Inspector Hastings, this games bumbling police officer). The first eleven cases builds up a bit about the 7 dragons of London, a group of wealthy millionaires that contributed to London in different areas. One is the mayor, one is a shipbuilder, one owns the biggest bank, one is the owner of a newspaper and so on. And then there is a backstory time on how Ernest and Katrielle met as she cleared him from being accused of stealing some research papers on his first day at the University.

The last episode is pretty much the closest to the older Layton gamed high stake mysteries. Katrielle and the dragons are invited to the Richmond estate, the haunted home of lord Richmond that died ten years prior, but Lord Adamans have found the treasure there inviting the participants to solve the mysteries or lose their fortunes with Katrielle as the juror of the game. The dragons fails and then Katrielle solves the mystery and figures out who lord Adamans is. Turns out it was a fake name and that it really was the grandson Miles Richmond that have comeback to exact revenge on the seven dragons that got started by digging up diamonds on a mountain that was owned by lord Richmond. Miles in turn turns out to be... Ernest Greeves, Katrielle's servant. Didn't see that coming. 

Like usual it's all a big misunderstanding and everyone ends on good terms. The Dragons had tried to find Miles during all this time since Richmond gave them permission to use the land since he himself was so indebted that any fortune would be going to pay his personal debt so he wanted them to use it for the betterment of London... so a really big scam to get away from his creditors then. Decent story, but I guess a clearly stated goal of the game was to bring the series down to reality since they felt it had grown out of hand with those world spanning conspiracies and such. Which is a bummer for someone like me who liked that. A bit of a problem though with the cases structure, I much prefer a mystery that follows you all through out. It also becomes a problem that we never find Sherls owner, or where Hershel is since Katrielle mentions looking for him near the last cases. I mean, there really wasn't a conspiracy to be found in the game.

The puzzles then? Fine, I've gotten wiser on the gotcha moments when the answer is thinking outside the box. Apparently the designer behind the puzzles for the first Layton games passed away in 2015 and the game is dedicated to him and there is a new person on that, but it's fine. Feels like the other games. You also got mini-games like before, prepare the ideal dinner for a couple of characters, get Sherl to the end of the stage by pressing buttons and such and the last game being put jewels on display in order to sell everything in different stores. Small distractions, you can also decorate the office or get new clothes for Katrielle by finding red coins to exchange it for the clothes. 

Overall, works fine for what it is. There was a Switch release in 2019 of the game with something like 51 different puzzles, but not really enough to double dip in my opinion, especially when I can play all Layton games on my 3DS. Although, why it was released on the 3DS is a bit of mystery since it doesn't have any 3D-effects in it. Although I guess most games at the end of the 3DS era ditched the 3D. It's around 40 hours of total gameplay with the normal game and the daily puzzles which you earn points to unlock scenes and descriptions about the earlier games in the series. Well, time to get going on another game.

Radical Dreamers (Switch)

 

Hard to see how it is a Chrono Trigger-game at first glance.

Finally got Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, the remake... remaster... port(?) of the sequel of Chrono Trigger which I played before... a couple of times. Not only does it have the game Chrono Cross, but also the Satellaview-game Radical Dreamers. I almost bought a reproduction cart of that game, but decided to push it back since my assigned budget for video game expenses couldn't cover it at the time and this game was announced in the meantime. Which probably was lucky since my Retron-5 is a hit or miss with reproduction carts, especially games that officially wasn't released. And one of my sisters stills hogs the family Super Nintendo.

So what is Radical Dreamers? It's a visual novel game with random encounters where your action can get you killed in several ways, like being killed by monsters or traps out in the mansion where Serge, Kid and Margil (the thieving group Radical Dreamers) are looking for the jewel the Frozen Flame and the lord of the manor, Lord Lynx that Kid wants to kill. The first notion I got it was a Chrono Trigger-game (besides being bundled with Chrono Cross) was that they mentioned an army from Porre which was the southern continent of Trigger, and then it is revealed that the caretaker of Kid that was killed by Lynx was Lucca and that she gave the Time Egg (aka The Chrono Trigger) to Kid for safe-keeping. I also assume Magil is Magus since they look a lot like each other for the few instances of art that appears on the characters. The wikipedia article about the game also mention that Kid might be Schala as well, and that the Frozen Flame is part of Lavos and found in ruins from Zeal... I didn't get that dialog in the game, but since there appears to be 7 endings that might be understandable.

Was it a good game? Music is nice, you can't really talk about graphics but the art they show is wonderful and the story is rather good. Didn't die, but it appears to keep track on my health after battles and traps so it wouldn't surprise me. A bit short since it only took me 2-3 hours to get through without a guide (might have been faster if I would have mapped out the place). Now it's on to the real game in the package.

Murder By Numbers (Switch)

 

Miss Teri and her flying computer!

If you got tired on Ace Attorney you can always pop in Murders by Numbers. Picked it up at some Christmas sale on the eshop when I went home back in 2020. Finished it in November 2021 so I dropped it between that, mostly due to not finding the story that good actually.  

Story is that Honor, an actress in a murder mystery show is dragged into a real murder that she has to solve with the help of a flying computer named SCOUT. That continues for 4 episodes where they go through the Hollywood elite of San Fransisco, the LBGTQ-community and a shady mercenary group that has ties to the military that backed the SCOUT-project. And Honor's shitty ex-husband who tries to sabotage her life. 

I don't know why the story doesn't meld with me, maybe that it feels so over the top of liberal west-coast elite values that it's a bit virtue show of.  Then again, it's made by a British team so what do I know? But beyond that, the gameplay is rather fun. It's basically a visual novel where you gotta solve sudoku puzzles (well, maybe the correct term is picross) to get clues to continue the story. And I solved all of them. But the picture they show afterwards is rather hard to grasp what I actually was doing so no help there. 

It can be the ex-husband story line that really grind my gears when I think about it. Which is probably good story telling since you are supposed to hate that smug manipulative bastard, but it makes me detest the story, especially since Honor's mother constantly brings him in her life and such. Music's good though, but when it was one of the composer for the Ace Attorney-series, can it be bad? And I even recognised one of the landmarks mentioned, it was the bowler hat place, you know, the one Willie the giant picks up looking for Mickey Mouse in Fun and Fancy Free?

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, 9 Doors (DS)

Finally, got my hand on the first game in the series

So I finished of the trilogy, just like in the series ending at the beginning. This one I had to import since it was never released in Europe, but thank god for the region free DS and a American copy. As with the other games you start trapped in a room and have to escape and from there you learn that a bomb is within in you and you have 9 hours to find the 9th door that will let you escape. Together on this adventure is nine other people, June, your former classmate/girlfriend. Ace, the cool collected old man. Snake, the blind know it all. Santa, the white haired pretty boy. Clover, the sister of Snake and the girl from the second game. Seven, the amnesiac African-American (I think). Lotus, the walking fan-service and the ninth man... who gets blown up the moment he appears pretty much. You yourself is Jumpei, the only character that have appeared in all three games. And June is Akane that he kept looking for in the sequel and then tried to propose to at the end of the third game. And since playing these out of order I know she was the one responsible for the whole game. I didn't know why until this game though.

So basically it began 9 years prior when Akane, Santa (her brother named Aoi) and Snake had been kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company for illegal experiment in order to find those that could transmorph information between people. Seven was a detective that was able to track them down and trying to save them while Ace was the CEO of the company together with the 9th man who created the experiment. Akane was captured again and by communicating with Jumpei across time and space was able to escape so Aoi and Akane recreated the experiment to get revenge as well as save Akane. Besides these people two other is on the ship as well. Ace right-hand man and the companies financier. Both who met gruesome ends. 

Now, had I gone in blind and went from game to game I might have enjoyed it much more since they really perfected the gameplay. I felt it at times unplayable. You can't jump between scenes, you have to go from the start to the end (you can of course restart any time, but you have to redo the puzzles nevertheless). You can't write down codes or such in game and not a single document is saved in playthroughs. In the end I sat with a walkthrough to redo the rooms I've done the quickest possible way. At least there isn' any game breaking bugs like in the second game. The story works though, although it confuses me a bit in things they hinted in this game and completely dropped in later instalment. For example Alice (the character from the second game) appears here first as hinted to be a mummified woman locked in ice that de-thaws and releases her. And then as stated an important character in the second game and then she is dropped, even though she was a huge deal for two games. And I don't get Lotus character. She really doesn't have any important story element to her and she is the only one that isn't connected or know the other people in the game. I can't help but feel she's there for eye candy.

Looks good for a 40 year old

Apparently she was a mother to two daughters and they were used in the episode 9 years ago. I don't recall the game mentioning that? And she is also born in 1987... that hurts since every other character describe her as an old lady, but she is the same age as I will be when the game takes place in 2027. Well, at least that gives her a connection to the rest of the characters. Another thing that bothers me is that the abilities seems to shift in the other games. In those games the ability you possess enables you to jump between alternate timelines, but it seems more focused on shared information in this game. Certain characters store information in some kind of all-encompassing life force that other people can tap into anywhere and use it to their advantage or being mislead by the people send the information. It could be hinted that the ending with Jumpei saving Akane in the past hints on the larger scope, but it feels like the idea was evolving a bit. And now that is over. Now I got a real itch for a fourth game.

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

Great, 9 new characters to second guess during all the game

I just had to get more of the Zero Escape-series after Virtue's Last Reward and since there was no release for the original game I had to go for the sequel. And they went full 3D so the gore is amplified as well as more explicit than the other game. The music is the same and still creeps me out and beckons my interest in the mystery. Pretty much the same premise, 9 people trapped in an underground facility with bracelets on their wrists. The difference being that they are already assigned teams, Carlos, Akane and Junpei in C-team, Q, Mira and Eric in Q-team and Diane, Phi and Sigma in D-team. They have signed up for some Travel to Mars-excercice and after 5 days being locked up by someone wearing a plaugemask offering them a coin toss option. Guess right and they are free to go or get it wrong and play the Decision games with Zero II. I guess red and... wins the coin toss. Everyones put to sleep and let out and credits roll. That was easy.

Of course to really get it you have to explore all possibilities so lose that coin toss. The three teams are relocated to separate wards and after 90 minutes put to sleep by the bracelets as well as administrated a drug that erase their memory. Meaning you don't play the game linear as before, but jumps between fragments that appears if everything leading up to them are fulfilled. You all remember the first decision game since you are forced to vote for the two other teams and the team that gets two votes are executed. In the last minute you find that the dog from the training centre can go between wards and carries a container that you can send messages with so C-team who gets it first sends out instructions how to spread the votes. Your first choice is to follow the instructions or chose the other team more or less betraying them. And then you are put to sleep and depending on the decision of your current group and the other groups you get 4 separate outcomes. One of the three teams gets executed or the plan works and you are taken to a decontamination chamber where you again have to decide to either press a button that forces the other teams being showered with some acid that turns them to sludge that disappears in the drains. If no one presses it you end up with a [Force Quit Box] where you need passwords you can't access in that timeline so it's time to jump around.

So who are all these people? Carlos is a firefighter that entered the program to get $ 500 000 to cure his sister. Akane is the old woman from the last game that infiltrated the program with Phi and Sigma to stop the outbreak of Radical-6. A younger Junpei from the last game had tracked down Akane and followed her into the program. Diane is a nurse that tried to escape her abusive ex-husband and Mira and Eric are a couple... with problems one might say. Eric is prone to snapping and be very abusive which probably has to do with his abusive alcoholic father that entered some depression after his wife died and Mira... is a serial killer that rips peoples heart outs while they are still beating. And Q is some child with a huge helmet over his head he can't get off. And this is the simple story elements. In actuality Diane is the person Sigma modelled Luna from the last game after and is pretty much his lover. In this game it's also revealed that Sigma and Diane is Phi's parents that sent her back in time through an alien teleporter that was discovered in Germany in 1888. I see they went and threw away all of Knox commandments when doing this game. And she apparently have a twin brother named Delta. Phi is also patient Zero in the Radical-6 outbreak in the timeline following Virtue's Last Reward, but how that works I don't know since she must have been cured or maybe they didn't give her the disease like with everyone else since she was already infected and the reason she volunteered?  Akane is psychotic and bash Carlos to death at one point for killing Junpei in an AB-game. And Junpei doesn't get it better as he is carved up in different pieces and his head is put on a display in a freezer. And the boy Q is a robot without any head behind the helmet that Zero put there and get's the most tearjerking endings in the game, the first when he stays behind with the chained up dog Gab since he couldn't leave him in the shelter and then when he sends his conscious into a virtual reality where he gets to play out the life of the real boy he was modelled after, Sean who died from some incurable disease. And he gets to live in a happy family, go to school and have friends... oh boy, how can I feel so much for a robot AI within a game?

So you might be thinking, who's the mastermind behind this? Obviously it's Delta, but he is not 20 years old like Phi since both travelled through time to the year 1908, but Phi was teleported to 2008 after that so Delta is 124 years old. And he can read peoples minds and for a short while take control of a persons body. He calls it mind hacking. Apparently he was with Q-team all the time if I guess right, but he sits in a wheelchair and is supposed to be both deaf and blind. His reason is to force them to jump between alternative histories so he assure his and Phi's birth with their powers (Phi's being able to SHIFT timelines) and then making them all regain their memories and take the place of those winning the coin toss in order to fight for a better future since the Radical-6 plan was to stop a religious cultist engaging in a nuclear war killing all 8 billion people by leaving 2 billion people alive after the virus take care of the others. I assume they hint that yet another game where you have to take care of that person. Also Alice and Clover tried to get back to their time and K apparently shifted back in time and changed conscious with someone, but we don't know who. Now I really want to play the first game and I wonder if there will be a forth one.

So story is all over the place, but there is some problems with how the game plays. They made it worse. In the last game I could have the notes on the top screen so I didn't have to switch back and forth when writing passwords or such, but now I gotta switch. That annoys me to no end. Same with files so I can read the instructions while trying out a puzzle. Now I must read the files, jump out and open the notes and write them in. It's almost forcing me to pick up pen and paper like in the olden days. The big downside I gotta say. Otherwise a fun game.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

And yet another image that reminds me of Resident Evil: Revelation

I wasn't gonna get this game since I waited on the game Ever Oasis that at the point just had released on the 3DS and awaited my Amazon copy... but it for some reason ended up at my parents house instead of having to pick it up at the pick-up zone. Damn customer service, and I spent 2 weeks talking about how bad the Swedish postal service had become (helped by the news bringing up several other problems at the time). Anyway, I got this game instead as a quick point- and click puzzle game. And it was interesting, best described as a Saw game, but with characters I actually care about, except Dio.

Not that Dio

Story is that you, Sigma, gets kidnapped on Christmas Day 2028 and wake up in some underground facility together with 8 other people, Phi, Luna, K, Clover, Alice, Quark, Tenmouijo (?) and Dio. An AI rabbit explains that you have to participate  in the Nonary games thanks to Zero, the person behind the kidnappings. To pursued you to cooperate you all have a bracelet on your left hand showing a colour, a number, time and if you are pair or solo. It also contains two needles, one with a anaesthetic that triggers first and 9 minutes later injects you with a muscle relaxant that stops your heart and lungs and kills you. It will activate if you break the rules or the number on the bracelet goes to zero or below. The colour and pair/solo tells which group you are forced to play with and the time counts down to when the next door opens. In pair of threes you need to enter a room, solve a puzzle to get out and find a card key to enter the AB-rooms where you play Ally or Betray. It works like the prisoners dilemma and you play against the others in the group you entered the puzzle room with. So depending on which group you choose to enter the rooms with and if you vote ally or betray the story changes.

Do you trust any of them?

So the overall question is why are we here? Where are we? When are we? And then they add who is the old lady that was found dead in one of the AB-rooms. Who is K as he have amnesia and is draped in armour that won't get off? Who is Zero? And who starts to kill people in certain story parts? There's gonna be spoilers here. So Alice and Clover was kidnapped around Christmas 2028, put into sleep and transported to the moon on one of the moon bases there together with Phi. It's the year 2074 to be exact. Ten... and Quark arrived later in search of the old woman and K is a clone of you, Sigma who have aged 40 years and is the Zero behind it all... except it's your future consciousness that have switched place with your younger one in order to go back to 2029 in order to stop a virus infection called Radical-6 that causes suicide and blew all of the worlds annihilator reactors that have decimated the human population. Ten is the older version of the protagonist from the game prior, 999 where Clover also was part in. Clover now works with Alice as a terrorist counter agency in search of the Myrmidons where Dio is a clone of the sects leader's brother. Dio is also the one behind the murder of the old woman, which you can save by jumping back in time (with your conscious) and stop it from happening. The whole project have been to train Sigma and Phi to get stronger and being sent back in time to stop this. Phi is a volunteer from the people behind Zero. Also the current Sigma have lost both his arms and one eye failing stoping it before, but hope they will succeed this other time. Luna is a golem robot Zero built.

So a complete mindscrew. The biggest twist for me was that we were 40 years into the future and on the moon (I thought one moment we were on Mars since it's mentioned in story) followed by that Sigma is in his 60's. Mostly contributed by "a false narrator". He believed he was 20 something so I believed him. Which proves that the Knox ten commandment of a murder mystery doesn't apply here. Was rather obvious when we start bring in telekinetic people and sending consciouses back and forth through time. Overall I liked the story and game. The puzzles just about right difficulty for me and the story kept me constantly guessing what the deal was. Problems I have with it is that parts of the game is broken. It isn't recommended to save in the puzzle rooms since there is a chance that the save could lock-up and since there is only one save, you have to play the game all over again. Especially in the PEC room. I got there after 8 hour and did the save and had to play the game all over again. The PEC room is very prone to shutting down the game and/or console for some reason. It took me 4 tries to get past that room. Apparently that have made a HD remake for PS4 or something like that, but the 3DS double screen really helped with the puzzle's, especially with the note taking. Wish they could port over the original game to the 3DS.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

I got it, the final game in the series!

So I finally got around to it and got the last game in the series. And what a ride. It starts with the Professor, Luke and Emmy being taken to the town of Froenburg where an archeologist professor Sycamore have found a living mummy and needs the help of the professor. They find the professor near an cryogeneticfrozen girl hidden behind a wall appearing to be ice, but is actually glass. And as soon I see Sycamore I know the twist of the story... he's freaking Descole. A bit tipped off by his butler that I recall from the end of the last game. But as that ending set up, Descole isn't anyone to care about during the game since instead we have the military organisation Targent looking for the remnants of the Azran, a prehistoric civilisation that created futuristic technology but somehow disappeared from the face of the earth, the Atlantis myth pretty much. And that is something I really like. I liked it in Golden Sun, I liked it in Mysterious Cities of Gold and I like it here. It's a staple of fantasy, especially since Tolkien and the Akallabeth.

Professor Sycamore I assume

So they release the girl that don't have any memory so Targent arrives and kidnapps the girl and Layton and Sycamore chase after on "Sycamores" flying machine... this scene and music is amazing. And it's the beginning of the game. Well, Layton and Luke boards Targents ship and rescue the girl as they fall near a town with Azran connections that opens up a chart on where to find five eggs that will lead to the Azran legacy. So your on a world tour. And like in Mysterious Cities of Gold they find ancient artefacts of the Azran and showcases this ancient civilisation. I don't know why, but I really like it. So they find the five eggs, but for some reason one of them have been switched by Targent so they infiltrate Targent's main base. As you climb the tower... like any Layton climatic ending, you confront Bronev, the leader of Targent that tries to pursued Layton to join, but Layton resist because he's Layton and then... Sycamore appears to be Descole and steals the key that was formed by the five eggs... oh no, didn't see that *sarcasm*. They escape and travels to Froenburg and enters the hidden chamber again and there Targent, Descole and Layton have a standoff until... Emmy betrays Layton for her Uncle Bronev... That took me by surprise. No really, that was an interesting twist. Especially since they established her for 3 games and a movie. But that doesn't stop there. Emmy uses Luke as a bargain tool and goes with Bronev which leaves Layton and Descole as the only ones to stop Bronev as they figured out that the Azran Legacy can potentially destroy the world. The rivals find Luke after crossing a chasm and enters a maze with stone guardians. Descole breaks most of them, but one get ready to fire on Luke, but Descole jumps in between and yet another twist is revealed. Descole and Layton are brothers. And Descole is the real Hershel Layton as their parents were kidnapped by Targent and the older brother gave his name to his younger brother as he was adopted by his foster family that was introduced in the other 3DS game.

Best scene in the game, the attack of the flying machines

And that is not all. Apparently Bronev is their real father that went insane due to losing his wife and somehow climbed to the top of Targent. Layton and Luke continues and confront Bronev and Emmy at the top of the tower, but are unable to stop Bronev to put the girl in a sacrificial machine and, even if he hesitates for a moment, stabs a dagger in her heart. This actives the girls real function as the last created Golem of the Azran civilisation that went under due to giving the Golem sentient and still treat them as slaves so they revolted and crushed the Azran civilisation that in their final act locked the Golems away with the safeguards Layton traveled around to find. This is pretty much like the first season of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. Of course what they need to do is stop the machines heart by blocking the light it emits to some crystals. Layton, Emmy and Luke steps up to the task and even Descole appears again. But there is five lights and the girl can't enter the light due to being a golem so Bronev atones for his sin as all he believed in has proven false so he enters the light and stops the machine. The girl dissolves as she has fulfilled her purpose and Grosky apprehends Bronev as he have been chasing Targent all over the game. Meanwhile Chelmey was on a honeymoon toghether with his wife. A clever way to have him in the game while not interacting with Layton who he doesn't meet until Pandora's Box. The game ends with pretty much Emmy saying her farewell as she need to get away and the ending sequence is Layton and Luke travelling to a little town to solve an inheritance dispute which is the start of the very first game, the Mysterious Village. A really fun way to end the series and tie it together with all the games. Of course one point I thought that the game hinted toward the spider machine in the Unbound Future episode, but maybe it was mentioning the Spectre's Call. I was a bit disappointed in that it was rather short on the puzzle side. Really, apparently only 150 puzzles and they weren't that hard to find either. It says I got 149, but I don't know if it doesn't count the final game ending puzzle or not. Well, can't wait until Lady Layton releases.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Couldn't help myself, I had to play more of this series

Lucky I watched the movie before this game since some plot points appears here. But we begin in Monte d'Or, the city of miracles during a night parade. Layton, Luke and Emmy is investigating the city due to a letter from Angela Ledore, the  wife of Henry Ledore who founded the city on an oasis in the middle of the desert. The city is under attack from the masked gentleman who performs his miracles, like turning people into horses, petrifies them and giving life to paintings. Causing chaos and somehow have stolen the Mask of Chaos, an artefact which Monte d'Ors fortune is built on. The police can't handle the situation and have called in Scotland Yard and got... Grosky. And another investigator named Blom. And that's pretty much the basic plot. Solve puzzles and wonder around the city like usual. But there is an instance where we have an arcade section of riding a horse through the streets of Monte d'Or and at one point it turns into a Zelda dungeon crawl. And from here it's gonna be spoilers galore.

The masked gentleman

So the investigation first points towards the two richest men in the city, Alphonse Dalstone and Henry Ledore. Henry, Alphonse and Angela are childhood friends with Layton from the town of Sansbury, which Layton left after an accident which killed Randall Ascot, the heir of the richest family in town and the one that introduced Layton to puzzles and archeology. Randall was a pair with Angela and Henry was his childhood friend and more or less the family butler. Randall and Layton is on an expedition to find the Azran treasure, but a trap right before the treasure room causes Randall to fall into a chasm and is presumed dead. Henry joined a search party and found the treasure and used it to establish Monte d'Or and married Angela and brought the Ascot family with them. Doesn't help that they arrest Alphonse as a suspect and Henry's fortunes goes through the roof. You are pushed to believe that it's Henry that is the mastermind behind it to get rid of the competition and ensure his hold on Monte d'Or. Doesn't help that he looks like a villain.

First introduction, and the beard and eyes is villainous

But after playing the flashback episodes you can pretty much guess the twist and that is that the villain is Randall... or maybe Angela seeking revenge, but it was Randall who wanted revenge on Henry for stealing his whole life. And it's framed like that, but there is certain things that doesn't add up, like that the reward for finding Randall is gonna be payed out by Henry, the Ascot mother lives together with Henry and Angela and he still keeps memorabilia from Randall around like the robot toy Randall gave him when he just wanted to play with it, but the maid scolded him from taking master Randall's toys. No, another twist is the man behind Randall's rampage is Descole who manipulated him to try to find the mask of order and use it to activate the legacy of the Azran civilisation that lies under Monte d'Or that Layton finds and activates as a mean to protect the city from being overrun by an avalanche of sand Randall caused. After unmasking Descole he runs of and we are left to explain to Randall who had amnesia and the blank filled out by Descole to make it easier to manipulate him. And I don't know if it's due the emotional writing or that I finished it around 2 AM, but I couldn't stop tears running down my face. It's a tale of everlasting friendship when Henry waited 18 years for his master to return. He searched the ruins, built the city as a beacon for Randall to find his way home, he entered a false marriage with Angela to ensure she wouldn't be pushed by her parent to marry Alphonse, everything is written in his name so Randall is the legal owner of every asset of the Ledore family and in this cruel twist of fate Randall is the one that almost destroys it all. I'm so weak for this kind of story. They also roll out his mother in a wheelchair to see her long lost son. Also a reason I had to end it at night so no one could see me crying.

Oh god, I can hardly keep the tears in

The game ends with reconciliation and forgiveness and the credits roll. And afterwards we are treated to a little scene with Descole in the  desert at a secret vault, part of the Azran legacy, when he suddenly is surrounded by tanks and helicopter and approached by "the commander", a figure that was only shown together with inspector Blom and apparently is gonna be the next games main villain as he try to arrest and unmask Descole that is saved by his... butler? Apparently this vault is connected with the garden in Spectre's call and the Ambrosian island in the movie. Great, now I gotta buy the last game in the series the first thing when I got back to work at the 2 January (I wrote this right before the new year). A really good game, the puzzle's felt easier though, but at least I didn't had the silver balls from the last game, instead it's the damn tile laying puzzle to create certain figures. Just three of them thank god. Beside this you have a rabbit theater where you have to train a rabbit in different poses so the rabbit can act in a couple short stories. You have the boutique mini-game where you have to lay out items in an aisle so that the customer goes on a shopping spree to buy everything and the final one being a robot maze mini-game. Fun distractions.

Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories

Scully and Moulder

So while playing Spirit of Justice this other game was released which focused more on the investigation side... no, not Ace Investigation 2 with Miles Edgeworth (even though that would have been the best), but rather Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories. Two detectives investigating unsolved cases, a grizzled and lazy chief-detective and his female and energetic assistant. Together they try to solve the case of an hospital explosion that left one victim. Behind the facade of the hospital hides a story of hacker groups, corrupt hospitals and children dying for unknown reasons. The explosion was said to be caused by an accident, but just like in Ace Attorney... or any other murder mystery, an accident is actually always murder.

And I solved it after approximately 1 hour. That's not solving the first case, that was solving the whole game (consisting of 1 case, but still). Talk about shocking discovery after spending 40 hours on Phoenix Wright and finish a game after 1 hour. And it ends on a cliffhanger as well. Not that the story or characters are bad, I quite enjoyed it and I really enjoyed trying to figure it out... but it's so short and I've actually have more questions than answers. And if there ever will be a follow up sequel, do I have  to replay this game in order to get whats happening? And since this was released only a few weeks ago (as of writing), how long do I have to wait to get the full story?

For a short burst of investigation it works fine, but don't expect a long game as I did since that really backfires. Maybe buy it on a sale or something.