October...The spookiest 30-31 days of everyone's lives. And I have come to make it worse. What's spookier than a skeleton? Well, nothing honestly. But ghost stories come close right?...Right? Well too bad, the ghost story comes WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT! Let me just dust off this book I found in the Layton section...What's it called. Backstory: The Prequel Trilogy? Oh well.

Can you feel it? The setting of a new game that takes place a few years before the original installments; do you know what that means? Yes, a new Layton series! It’s a prequel trilogy, to be exact. This game has more puzzles than ever…Chronologically. And, it answers a few questions fans have been asking for. Like: “Why is Layton walking around with that kid?” “What will we do since we can’t have Don Palo as an enemy anymore?” Well, just wait and see.

But enough of that, let’s delve into the spooky mystery of…The Last Specter!

Graphics: 10/10

You know how I always say in my Layton reviews that the Graphics get better? Well, meet the pinnacle of beautifully hand-drawn areas, cutscenes, and sprites of a few fine townsfolk. There is lots of time, and care given to the locations here. Whether the Campus borders of Gressenheller University, or the lovely canal filled town of Misthallery. It’s full of lovely sights along with equally beautiful, and fitting, music. The cutscenes aren’t much different from Unwound Future in terms of animation. But they are a bit cleaner, and have some more to them. The Puzzle screen gets a bit of a remodel also. It has a new song that plays while you’re solving the puzzle, and it uses new “characters” that you’ll always see in the image that goes along with each puzzle.

Sound: 10/10

Beautiful background music that fits each scene, and tone almost perfectly is a staple of the Professor Layton series. This game lives up to its expectations very well. It has lots of catchy background music you’ll hum to for weeks to come. The voice acting is very good also. The quality of it hasn’t changed much from Unwound Future, but there really isn’t a way to improve it more.

Addictiveness: 7/10

Like I’ve said in every Layton review thus far, there is TONS of addictiveness…the first time you play. Then you know everything, and all the answers to the puzzles, so there isn’t much else to do unless you find that you’ve forgotten the answers.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! There is a completely separate game alongside this one in the cartridge called Professor Layton’s London Life. It’s your Animal Crossing-style game, but with more Layton characters.

Story: 8/10

Long ago in a lawless age, a pack of bandits invaded a small village. Amidst the chaos, a young farm-girl played her flute to drown out the madness. As the music whirled high into the sky...A GIANT SPECTER APPEARED! She begged the specter to destroy the bandits. The specter swiftly obeyed, and then vanished. The town was saved, and the people rejoiced. And the girl knew whenever there was trouble, she needed only to play the flute, and the specter would appear again.
Fast foreward many, many years later... A young college history professor named Hershel Layton. He had a knack for solving puzzles, drinking tea, and working until he fell asleep at his desk. But then he got a letter from a friend of his named Bill Triton. He’s the mayor of a town called Misthallery. Misthallery has legends of a Specter that defended the town at the call of a special flute. But, now, the town is being attacked by said specter. But spookier still, Bill’s son, Luke seems to know where the specter will strike next. Spooky huh?
On his way there, the Professor meets a girl named Emmy Altavia, who was hired to be the Professor’s assistant who is as proficient in punches and kicks as she is in puzzles and archaeology. She and Layton investigate the town, with the help of Luke. But there are talks of a witch being behind the whole ordeal. But is that really the truth? Or is there something far more sinister going down.

Depth: 8/10

There are hint coins scattered everywhere, just waiting to be found. Alongside them are hidden puzzles, and a new mechanic; collection pieces. Hidden puzzles are exactly what they sound like. Puzzles that you can’t find by talking to people. Hint Coins can be used to buy hints for puzzles, with each hint, more hint coins are spent. So use them wisely. Collection pieces are simply little trinkets scattered everywhere. They can be hard to find though. They don’t contribute much, but it’s a nice side-challenge. There are also three minigames here also: a fish, a toy train, and a puppet theater.
In the fish game, you place bubbles to reflect the direction of the fish. The object of the game is to collect all the coins in it’s tank. The fish bounces off of walls, and bubbles you’ve placed.
In the Toy Train, you place tracks to get a train through every station on the board. But you need to watch out for cars, other trains, and also your fuel.
In the Pupper Theater, you need to place in the right words in the story, so it makes sense. It’s almost like a reverse of the Sticker Book in Unwound Future.
In all the minigames, to get more words or levels you need to solve puzzles in the main game.
Another thing worth mentioning is, in the Trunk section (Where you save or play minigames) is a journal. In the journal you get little updates as the story progresses. And each page gives us Layton’s view, and thoughts on what has been happening so far. It’s just a nice little gimmick.

Difficulty: 6/10

Puzzles are as fickle as…Something incredible fickle. One puzzle can be a cakewalk on planet easy, and the next one will take you an hour or more to solve. And so it has, and always shall be: the way of the Professor.
But on a less crazy sounding note, the shifting difficulty of this is a weird thing to rate. Your own intelligence determines how hard the game will be. And, hint coins will bail you out if you really can’t do it.
Trying to find all of the collection items can be a bit of a pain though, because there is only a rare chance that you’ll be notified by Toppy (Luke’s pet mouse) if a collection item is in your current location.

Bonus / Things Not Covered:

- You get a nice introduction to Luke and his background. As small and odd as it is.

Pro: The game has some legitimately fun puzzles. And of course puzzles you’ll be stuck in until you solve them.

Con: Most of the Episodes (Little side stories that don’t always have much relevance to the plot) are really hard to unlock. I beat the game, and solved what I think is all of the puzzles, and I’m still missing a few.

Pro: We get introduced to Emmy, an awesome ally for the Professor; and an equally awesome villain, . Who is a bit more of a threat than the masked shenanigans of Don Palo.

- An easter egg in this game shows that it’s set right before the movie (Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva) took place.

And this concludes today’s review. While not quite as big as Unwound Future; this has a great story, and scale of where you can go, and what to do as well. It’s extremely enjoyable, and also a good game to start if you were going to play a Layton game for the first time.