Acquisition #135: Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS)

Can you believe I recently picked up the North American, rather than the European, version of Professor Layton and the Last Specter?

I ask that because, as some of you may remember, I bought the Euro releases of the professor's previous puzzling adventures. (Photos of these purchases can be seen here, here and here.)

This time around, though, I went with the North American iteration because it contains the "Professor Layton's London Life" side attraction that, sadly, is nowhere to be found in its foreign counterpart.

Speaking of "London Life," that's the only part of Last Specter I've spent time with thus far.

Why? Well, because its graphics look a lot like those of Mother 3 (a very good thing, obviously) and because I've heard that its gameplay calls to mind Animal Crossing. How could I resist, right?



Despite the fact that, on paper, it sounds like something that would suck up all of my time, "London Life" has me feeling a bit conflicted at the moment.

Oh, I absolutely adore its aesthetics, and the soundtrack is, quite literally, music to my ears, but I can already sense--after spending just a few hours with it--that "London Life" is going to transition from "charming time-waster" to "tedious fetch-quest-athon" sooner rather than later.

Still, I'm enjoying it right now. And it's not like I only bought the Last Specter for this retro-tinged piece of bonus content.

So, I'll keep at it until it's squeezed me dry and then switch over to the main mode, which I'm sure will both entice and confound me much like its predecessors did.

See also: Previous 'Acquisition #123' posts

Professor Layton's London Life is going to look great, at the very least

I don't know about you, but the main reason I'm looking forward to Professor Layton and the Last Specter's North American release on Oct. 17 is that it will include a "100-hour RPG" called London Life.

Actually, the word on the street is that London Life isn't really an RPG. A much more accurate way to describe this unlocked-right-from-the-start bonus content, it seems, would be to call it a two-dimensional Animal Crossing clone that looks like Mother 3 and stars characters from the Professor Layton series.



Thankfully, those assertions seem to be at least partially supported by the trailer above, which hit YouTube yesterday thanks to the folks at GameXplain.com.

How many of you are planning to pick up a copy of this, the fourth installment in Level-5's Professor Layton series? Also, to those of you who answered in the positive: Are you doing so because of London Life, or is that just the icing on this pixelated, puzzling cake?

See also: 'Let's Play: Which Box Art is Better? (Professor Layton and the Last Specter edition)'

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Professor Layton and the Last Specter edition)

On Oct. 17, the fourth installment in the Professor Layton series will be released in North America. Thirty-nine days later, on Nov. 25, it will be released throughout Europe.

A lot of changes have been made to this Level-5-developed title since it hit the streets in Japan two years ago. For starters, there's its name. In Japan, it was called Reiton Kyōju to Majin no Fue, or Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute, when it hit the streets in 2009. When it arrives in North America next month, however, its box art will bear a new title: Professor Layton and the Last Specter. Finally, European fans will have to search for an altogether different name--Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call--while scanning store shelves for the game.

The fourth Professor Layton title's name isn't the only thing that has been tweaked in the last two years. Its cover art has been changed, too.

For the sake of comparison, here is the Japanese version's box art:

This, on the other hand, is the art that will grace the cover of the North American release:

Finally, there's the European version's box art:

Which piece of box art to you like best? Also, which title--Professor Layton and the Last Specter, Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute or Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call--do you prefer?

My response to the second question: Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute. My response to the first question: The North American box art. I like that the logo is more prominent than it is on the Japanese cover, and I also like that the orange band along the bottom is much smaller on the North American cover than it is on its Japanese counterpart.

See also: Previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

Set aside two copies of Professor Layton and the Last Specter for me, will you?

Actually, make that one copy of Professor Layton and the Last Specter and one copy of Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call, if you don't mind.

The first game is the North American version of the fourth entry in Level-5's vaunted Professor Layton series, by the way, while the second game is the European version.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter's Japanese cover art. 

Why am I buying both? Well, I'm buying Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call, which will be released on Nov. 25, because I (strangely) prefer the alternate art that graces the covers of the Euro versions of the Professor Layton games to the art that graces the covers of the North American and Japanese versions and I'm buying Professor Layton and the Last Specter, which will be released on Oct. 17, because apparently it's going to be the only English version of the game that will contain Professor Layton’s London Life, a 100-hour RPG (developed by Mother 3-makers Brownie Brown) that I believe unlocks after you finish the main adventure.

I'd prefer to buy just one copy of the game (that being Spectre's Call), to tell you the truth, but, alas, I absolutely must experience the much-talked-about London Life. So, two copies it is.