Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

A movie? For real?

I mentioned while playing the first game that it looked like some animated movie from France, and guess what, in 2009 they released a 1 hour and 40 minutes movie with professor Layton. Taking place after the Spectre's Call but before the Curious Village. I got it for the 3DS and a bit disappointing it isn't in 3d, but still, it worked fine for me. It isn't a video game, but since it is part of the series I thought it was good enough to put in the video game spot (as well as giving me a bit of a buffer as it is faster to watch a 2 hour movie and write about it than playing a 20 hour game). It looks like the games animated cutscenes and the music sounds like the Layton-soundtrack, and I really dig certain pieces of the original compositions. The story begins with Layton and Luke starting up Big Ben again after it was silenced by Don Paulo disguised as an old lady and we see inspector Chelmey and Flora once again, and then we are put into a flashback adventure. The professor and Luke has received tickets to the performance of a new opera from the main singer, a former student of Layton since she says she's been visited by the reincarnation of a dear friend of hers that died a year ago, daughter to the composer of the opera that retells the myth of Ambrosia who's inhabitants have taken the elixir of life to await the return of the beloved queen who died just before they found the elixir. But all the attendants are kidnapped as the opera stage turns into a ship and they are invited to a game of puzzles to decide who will be awarded eternal life. And inspector Grosky tries to apprehend the mastermind and fights of a bunch of sharks.

I still prefer Chelmey

I like the nod to different character that appears in the game series as they appear as background characters. For example the owner of the train in the second game is one of the opera goers. And many more. So continuing 12 people arrives on an island we find out is the island of Ambrosia. The rest have lost the puzzles and been sent back to town (and the first puzzle is showcased like in the game with a counter of 3 zeroes that then goes to the number, why there is 3 zeroes when there really is 5-6 puzzles in the whole movie including the prologue is beyond me). Meanwhile Emmy have been looking for clues in London and started searching the seas in a plane and picks up a stranded Grosky before reaching this island. After some more people is lost to the puzzles and we enter the castle (because there is always a castle in this series) we find out that the bad guy is, Descole the villain from the Spectre's Call. But he's not working alone. The composer has somehow together with Descole constructed an organ that can copy the mind of a person, in this case his deceased daughter and invited a world renown chess player to use as a vessel for his daughters mind before the machine goes down. But apparently it worked earlier as the daughter had been transferred into the opera singer as she allowed it and started to plan to stop her father from hurting anyone else (since he kidnapped girls in search for a perfect vessel and for some unknown reason believes this is the one). But Descole backstabs him and takes the daughter/opera singer since he needed her as the only one that could sing one part of a song to raise Ambrosia from the sea.

And a sword fight upon the top of a giant walking robot

But as usual Descole missed a part of the puzzle, the oldest trick in a Layton-puzzle, he didn't turn it upside down. But obviously Layton get this and I gotta say, I really like that music. Ambrosia rises, in anger Descole attacks Layton and causes the robot to rampage, causing himself to fall of and disappear. Layton, Luke and the opera singer jumps ship and meet up with Emmy, Grosky apprehend the composer and the dead women leaves the opera singer. Back to the present and the opera singer pays our heroes a visit. The End!

And Layton again build a machine out of things in a garden shed, he's freaking MacGyver

Overall, it feel like a Layton story, but I'm gonna say, there isn't enough puzzles in it which the counter is a proof of. In a game you go for around 150 puzzles, here they are 5-6 that can be seen as puzzles. Really, the Da Vinci code has more puzzles and really, a better way to handle a puzzle movie when you have a larger puzzle that you have to figure out bit by bit. But I guess the reason for missing that was to cram in so many characters, I mean 12? Beside Descole, Emmy and Grosky. You get snippets of why they go along with the eternal life idea and so, but it doesn't matter since the important one is the chess playing girl. And they got rid of 4 of them in one puzzle instead of a one by one that would have been the game version I believe. One by one they fall. One of them is even a mystery novel writer and I would assume that is a nod to Agatha Christie and "... then there were none". Still, it has its moments, like Grosky fighting the sharks, the end battle against Descole and the music. But the lack of puzzles does bother me, but I know its hard to incorporate it when they are more or less thrown at you in the games just by looking at things.