Professor Layton and the Lost Future

Or the Unbound Future in America, the Pal title has a bit more edge to it in my opinion

Third game and I think I begin to get a hang of it. And so you expect the normal thing doesn't appear to be and so on and non-murders and what not. So we start with a buss ride in London and retelling of an event couple of days earlier during the show case of the worlds first time machine, constructed by... some guy. Layton and Luke are present as well as Inspector Chelmey and Barton together with the prime minister of Great Britain, Bill Hawks. He holds a speech and then gets pulled into showcasing the machine. And the thing blows up.

Wow, 5 minutes and they blow up the prime minister

The scientist and workers all disappears in the blast and a short while later Layton receives a note from Luke, sent 10 years into the future that instructs them to find a clock shop in London where they have a time machine set up as a portal through a worm hole in time. Through the looking glass and Layton and Luke is in the London of the future, a dystopian city ruled by the mafia led by the fearsome, cold-hearted and puzzle obsessed archeologist, Mr Herzel Layton!?! They end up in a casino where they met the Luke of the future and as they try to find the future Layton. On their way out they get cornered by the Family that starts to shoot at them and Layton responds with an on the fly machine gun loaded with casino coins or tokens.

Mobsters, blown up prime ministers and a dictator Layton and the current Layton even uses a weapon, damn!

After getting away you all conclude that Future Layton is in Chinatown, but the professor decides to travel back to current day in order to get some facts about certain details of the mystery and by mistake brings with him Chelmey, Barton and Flora as he tries to get information about a mystery of an explosion 10 years ago. An explosion from an earlier attempt to build a time machine that caused the death of 11 people, one of the casualties being Claire, Layton's girlfriend. Which could explain the drastic change of behaviour since we also learns that some of the worlds greatest scientists have disappeared, several in the fields concerning time travel. After some snooping around you enter the pagoda where future Layton is said to reside and you climb the tower. Very reminiscent of the end games of the two earlier games. You enter the final room at the top and confronts this Layton, and it appears it's not (duh!), it's the scientist from the beginning who had a fake name and really was Dimitri Allen, the scientist working on the time machine that killed Claire, who also was his assistant, together with Bill Hawks who he has tied up. He drops a cage on you and gloat over his victory over the intelligent Layton when the professor takes of his hat and...

Wait... WHAT!!!

It turns out that the professor in order to get the upper hand enlisted the master of disguise, Don Paolo... or as we get to learn, Paul. And we finally learns his motive, he was a student at the same university as Layton, but one class higher and had a crush on Claire so when he found out about her and Layton he vowed revenge. And still he helps Layton in this game. Really, as an arch-nemesis he fails on so many levels, but it is rather fun to have him around. Layton steps forward, saves his friends and challenge Allen, but he escapes with Bill Hawks and the others escape during a secret passage. They regroup and search for a hidden facility where the time machine is being built. In the meantime Layton to make sense of a woman he has seen all over the future London who looks just like Claire. They enter the facility and met up with the scientists that have been kidnapped, but are again cornered by the Family, but they escape with the help of Celeste, Claire's sister that have followed them through time in order to uncover the mystery of her sisters death. You escape the facility and enters the Families main base... a restaurant by the Thames. The bartender is none other than Dimitri Allen, but Layton reveals the biggest twist of them all. The future London is all an lie, an underground cavern under London where Allen constructed a replica of London to trick the scientist to help him build a time machine. The time machine in the clock shop is nothing else than an elevator. But not only that, Allen is just a pawn in the hands of the true criminal mind. The Future Luke... or more correctly Clive... Clive Dove I assume. Unbeknownst to Dimitri he has constructed a weapon to show people like Bill Hawks that forced the test of the time machine 10 years ago so he could sell the engine which killed all those people, two of them being Clive's real parents. Hawks hushed it up with his new found money and later rose to the post of prime minister. Clive kidnaps Flora and starts to bombard "Future London" while making it's way up the real London.

Great, Clive's weapon is the spider from Wild Wild West

So Layton and Luke enter the machine with the Laytonmobile Don Paolo constructed. That is, you drive up a hill so you jump atop one of the legs and from there enter the construct. You rescue Flora and with the assistance of Celeste who boarded it with Don Paolo's flying machine locates the generator in order to short circuit the machine to stop it from wrecking havoc. But, the generator is wired to a machine measuring the heartbeats of Bill Hawks who is trapped in the generator so you have to wire it to a clock that will give you 10 minutes necessary to short circuit the engine. They escape to the Laytonmobile and tries to drive down the failing weapon, but they fall of the rail and as they tumble down Layton pushes a red button Don Paolo showed him (not when I was watching I assure you) and it of course turns into a flying car. Celeste jumps of to rescue Clive who lies unconscious in the control room. Layton drops of all passengers and heads back to rescue Celeste and Clive. All are saved, Clive is arrested... and I assume Dimitri as well, but we don't see it. And now yet another twist is revealed. Celeste is really Claire who was sent 10 years into the future, but only for a brief time and she is about to return to her real time... right before the explosion that will kill her. Ending credits and the next sad scene as Luke is about to travel with his family across the Atlantic leaving Layton and London behind. Gee, sadness all around. 

I know I joked that the other games missed murdered people and pulled a Disney revival on those who appeared to die, and pretty much expected the same so you can't fool me with "blowing up" the prime minister, but 11 dead people. And they stay dead... well except Claire, that lives during the course of the game although is technically already dead. Also the ending hint on a future game... but I know that the 3 other games in the series is a prequel trilogy so they must have changed plans. Still, only got one more game and the question is when I will get my hand on the 2 3DS games.