Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

It took me a little longer but I finally completed the final game in the original Layton trilogy on my phone. It is interesting to me that the entire trilogy is based on three different ways there are entirely different and fabricated worlds created.

The unwound future starts when Luke gets a letter from his future self. They then head to a clock shop from which they are transported to the future and meet Big Luke. In this future, Layton has become a gang boss and they need to band together to take him down. Meanwhile, Layton sees someone who looks like his old, dead girlfriend who died in an explosion. Eventually though, Layton from the past figures out that Big Luke is actually a rich villain who is trying to get all of the scientists working on time travel together to then blow them and the city up. Additionally, the woman Layton sees is revealed to be his old girlfriend who was temporarily sent to the future but she then almost immediately like degrades. Layton advocates for Big Luke on the grounds that those scientists killed his parents with their experiments, and they all return to London. The game ends with Luke moving with his parents to the US and being separated from Layton.

There are some big highs and lows of this game to me. I hate that Layton and Luke deceive Flora and leave her behind somewhere. Honestly throughout the series I wish Flora was better incorporated, Layton supposedly adopted her so he might as well act like it. I also think it’s a little lame that the London of the future is actually a huge underground bunker that Big Luke dressed up all fancily. Seems a little farfetched, but the last game had hallucinogenic gas so guess it’s relatively reasonable. It does give some fun spaces to explore. Also the poor keeper of the lost puzzles, Granny Riddleton, is replaced not once but TWICE! And that feels ridiculous.

A high though is the treatment of Big Luke with compassion at the end. Layton saves his life as a child, and then again here in the game by advocating for him. It’s a nice message and I love that the game ends on that. Because it is aimed at kids doing puzzles, it’s important to know that you are allowed to grieve but also that it cannot consume you like that. Fault can be leveled at people without having to resort to revenge.

Anyways, this is a delightful little trilogy. I don’t think there’s other Layton games for the phone which is sad, but there’s a brand new one coming out soon that I am very excited for!