Layton's mystery journey - Katrielle and the Millionaires' conspiracy
Summary
Layton’s Mystery Journey- Katrielle and the millionaires’ conspiracy is the seventh installment in the platform spanning Layton puzzle game franchise. It is the first to feature Katrielle, a new character and the originally titular Professor Layton’s daughter. As per previous incarnations of the series you uncover a mystery through point and click interactions with other members of the cast, and by resolving riddles/brain teasing puzzles presented by aforementioned cast.
The lack of an overarching (and normally buck wild) storyline that was a key feature of the original DS games is gone, replaced with pretty medocre plots. The lack of this central core of the original games means this game lacks something essential despite some positive updates from the older games.
My expriences of the game
So chances are that you read the summary above and are already feeling the vibes of this below image.
And before you ask, that’s not the original character skin, yes I did spend the in game clothing currency to buy her the old Layton outfit to in some way engender in me the old game’s spark. Sigh, yes in this female led game we have a new feature of yay new wardrobe options, which was never considered for the original male led game. It feels gendered, but I don’t know whether I’m being paranoid. Does it make a difference to the game either positively or negatively? No. Does it perpetuate a stereotype that women are exclusively interested in fashion and style? I guess it does on some level, it’s not the most agregious crime out there, but it rubs me up the wrong way. More on this later.
(Yes you do, Katrielle)
If you’re into puzzle games as a genre I would be shocked if you had never played a Professor Layton game before. If you haven’t and you think puzzle games might be your thing I beseech you to buy a second hand DS and play from the first incarnation Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Of the entries that I have played (1, 2, 3 and 4) all follow the same format. They are obstensibly a point and click adventure. You travel through a hand drawn world, with interesting character design via arrows to left and right of screen, randomly clicking elements of interest in the landscape. These may gain you a hint coin, a puzzle to solve, or an interaction with a character that tells you more about the underlying story of the adventure. A log is kept of key questions and answers during the ongoing mystery.
So I know that I have high expectations for this game. The third in the Layton franchise, Professor Layton and the Lost/Unwound Future (depending on your region) is one of my all time favourite games. There were a lot of reasons why. I love the puzzles themselves (even if they can be frustrating when you just don’t understand what they’re asking for and all the hints just say the question again in a different way). The cut scenes and art style I think are beautiful. I love the whimsy of being set in England but not quite England. There were number of twists in the story which I didn’t see coming (I mean they were completely mad why would I). Weirdly I found it really meaningful that the introduced love interest was a bookish scientist who always had her hair in a low pony-tail (which I was obviously nothing like and for which I did not suffer low self esteem). Okay even weirder I had a massive crush on the completely fictional Luke from the future. I would play the game with the sound on in hopes I’d get to hear the snippets of his voice when he announces he solved the puzzle. I don’t know maybe it was those sexy knees jutting out of his weirdly victorian school boy shorts. Actually the music is awesome. It’s got a slight amelie concertina vibe that goes with the whimsical setting, there’s an action scene where the music absolutely slaps. Ultimately the story has an emotional core around the relationship between the Professor and his apprentice Luke which hit me in the feels. The ending is so poigniant and subtle. I’m actually starting to cry thinking about it now.
Okay so me embarrassing myself about what I found enjoyable about the third game aside, I really was excited for Katrielle. I haven’t played a new Professor Layton game in years. I had the week off from work. I was going to settle in and enjoy. Sure I had high expectations, but I wanted them to be met. I wasn’t going into this excited to bash my new game.
The opening of the game was so perfect. It’s a beautiful set of cut scenes in the typical Layton animation style showing Katrielle getting ready for the day. It’s just blissful watching her have breakfast, water her pot plants. The sort of cottage core aesthetic sort of soft gentle life. She has a bike (I have a bike). She lives in London (I live in London). She has a pot plant (I have a pot plant). She lives alone (I currently also live alone). She has breakfast (I also eat breakfast). I AM ON BOARD. It’s just so pretty and quaint and makes me feel all wrapped up and warm inside.
We’re introduced immediately to a talking dog. I’m like okay, weird but not outside the realms of where Professor Layton has tread before. We’re going to keep the Dog as an overarching story, there’s going to be some terrible talking animal factory which in the finale Katrielle will infiltrate. Exciting. However, this doesn’t seem to go anywhere, and when another odd thing in the first case turns up as a “tied up loose end” in the cold case log in the game menu I started to be suspicious that the normally key element of the franchise, an overarching adventure that keeps me hooked may be missing. With enough cursory googling I think it’s safe to assume part way through that the short case by case stories are the only story I’m getting. It’s a real shame because as said the adventure element kept me hooked and made investigating the puzzles worthwhile. You have a fill the blanks puzzle instead of the log book for recognising how far through the case you are, which removes some of the mysery element.
The new characters all have very charming designs. I do like Katrielle best, and they’ve done a good job moving away from Professor Layton. Considering the enigmatic character of Layton it seems strange they chose for her to be his daughter when she could quite easily be an apprentice. That aside, she is charming. I’m not especially enamoured with one of her key characteristics being that she eats a lot. It reminded me of The Take’s 2019 youtube video essay on the Cool Girl trope in media. Whilst there are many women who enjoy food and in sizable quatities as Katrielle appears to, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and maybe many of these women retain the slim figure that Katrielle presents, this is often in media framed as an attribute that makes these woman stand apart from more regular women. This won’t be the only attribute, hence why I don’t think that Katrielle’s preference for food is that damaging an attribute to have. However, it feels like cheap and lazy character building. I have to click through way too many speech bubbles about the food she’s going to eat. As a story teller you have to ask is this purposeful? Unless in a later case she gets the clues because she loves food, which I think unlikley, I’m going to say no. This is another way that this game and its treatment of the female character in a way different to the male characters of previous games rubbed me up the wrong way.
There are a number of key recurring side characters. One of these is Inspector Hastings, who has a thick cockney accent (one of many male characters in the game with such).
The cockney accent was a feature of the police detectives in previous games, but because they were set in fictional places in England, I could imagine that in this fictional land people you meet on the street still talk with a thick cockney accent. This game is so explicitly set in London that I’m having a harder time squaring the England as caricature with my own experiences. It was a bit too much. It meant it was harder to believe in the story.
There is also the talking dog called Sherl. I find all his speech bubbles incredibly tedious. He just belittles and mocks all of the other characters but especially Katrielle. His voice acting is also braying and aggressive. I would happily have him written out.
There is also a meek mannered love sick stooge called Ernest who seems to fulfill the role vacated by Luke, Layton’s apprentice.
The dynamic feels strange. Whilst there doesn’t outwardly appear to be anything wrong with Ernest, Katrielle appears to not return his affections but keeps him around as unpayed labour. Having experienced besotted and boring young men; in my head Ernest has taken on their boring and discomforting presence. Sherl the dog persistently pesters Katrielle to throw the man a bone (pun intended by the game) and she probably should cut him loose rather than string him along, but the game frames the interaction as Katrielle should give into being loved by this man. He persistently attempts to invite her into romantic rendevouzs and it makes me uncomfortable. There’s no reason in the game for Katrielle to turn him down, so it can’t help but be framed as Katrielle being silly for not going along with it. I’m totally reading between the lines and definitely placing too much of my own experience onto this, but she clearly isn’t interested and being confronted with a persistant admirer is an uncomfortable experience. You don’t know what to do because women are given repeated examples in popular media where being dismissive is at best ignored or at worst punished. This game’s key dynamic is negative and uncomfortable, replacing a teacher-apprentice dynamic which was often described as mutually beneficial and a comfortable friendship. If anyone sends me Layton/Luke slash fic I will vomit. That is a child and a university professor, can you let things remain innocent please.
I tried hard to come up with positives. I don’t want this franchise to disappear, I think they made a blip and they’ll get back on form (please). There are some elements that improved on earlier games. Travelling around in game they’ve made a lot easier. Whereas before I had to laboriously walk through each still to get anywhere, they now have a map that allows you to bypass areas to get from A to B. I like that rather than randomly clicking all over the page with the stylus there is now an audible sound and colour change to the cursor when there’s a part of the screen to investigate further. This makes using the new Switch controls much easier. There are more colours to pick from on the memo pad during puzzles. The music is still great. The character designs are still diverse and interesting. The puzzles continue to be inventive, copious and achievable. All the cut scenes continue to be beautiful.
I could probably have got past all of the weird low level gender politics. They mostly rub me up the wrong way rather than prevent me from enjoying the game. I think the main problem is the lack of an overarching adventure. All the cases feel like inconsequential drabbles. Maybe that will change as I progress further in the game, but I have my doubts.
Score
Cooperative N/A
Story 2/10
Fun 3/10
Afterword
I was surprised by the depth of my feeling about this disappointing entry into the franchise. I wanted more vindication for my feelings so I went looking for if anyone had done a video essay on the franchise. I found this underwatched video which goes into this game and past games in more depth. It does spoil some of the details about the ending of the game and some of the puzzles so be warned. The essayist has a more potent dislike for Katrielle the character than I did. I think they’re right about the change from Professor Layton uncovering puzzles for the joy of puzzles and out of gentlemanly duty, to Katrielle’s preference for gut feeling accusations being a negative and strange one. I thought it was an interesting break down into all of the ways that this game was flawed that extends my own arguments and is worth the watch.
I’m also disappointed that he includes the news that there will be no more Western localised Professor Layton games.