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kjorteoSeveral years ago, I was playing a game called Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, the third in the Professor Layton series. I'd known by this point to expect pain. The first two games had established a very clear pattern of being a stock brainteaser collection with a plot wrapped around it. ("We have to get into the criminals' hideout, but the guard won't let us through unless we can solve this block puzzle in under ten moves!") However, they had also established the pattern that said plot hits hard. Much like the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, there are two types of people: Those who would not expect these games of all things to contain anything that would make you cry, and those who have ever actually played one.
While I was playing Unwound Future, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me. It blindsided me; she had hidden and lied to me about a lot of things and I'd been completely oblivious to them, until she dumped me just as I was contemplating proposing. Those who knew me at the time probably remember how long it took me to recover from that.
Meanwhile, I had gotten just far enough in Unwound Future to have a vague guess where this could be going: there were flashback scenes involving Professor Layton's long lost former love, who even looked and sounded like my now-former girlfriend. (They even had a similar-sounding accent!) It was enough that... well, my clanmates would call this "Too Real." I put the game on the shelf for years, because I knew this was going to hurt and I just couldn't handle it at the time.
I'm okay now. There was a long recovery, but I did it and I'm on the other side of it. At this point, that I decided it would be good to dust off and finally finish this. Once there was enough distance that I could handle it, doing so became a matter of closure.
Unfortunately, after all that intro there, I really don't have a whole lot to say about the game itself. I mean, it's a Professor Layton game. It's puzzles and crying. Anything I could say would pertain to the latter and be a massive spoiler. I will say that this game was excellent, though. I do love this series, and this may be... hmm. I want to say that this one might be my new favorite entry so far, but Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is kind of hard to top. Let's just call it a tie for now, but it's hard to overstate what an accomplishment it is to be in that same tier.
Was I right in setting Unwound Future aside for this long? Ahahaha oh God yes are you kidding I would have died. But... I'm glad to be here now, after everything. I made it, it's over, and I can breathe a sigh of relief at that, while also basking in the accomplishment of having gotten here. Few things satisfy like a puzzle solved, after all.
(Footnote: I'm counting this one as 100% complete enough after doing all the story puzzles + all of Layton's Challenges + the Hidden Door. The Weekly Puzzles have gone the way of FF3DS Mognet and are no longer possible to do because, you know, Nintendo WFC.)
(Footnote 2: Unwound Future has a gruff anthro bunny in it for exactly one scene and I have no idea why, but I am absolutely not complaining. <3)
While I was playing Unwound Future, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me. It blindsided me; she had hidden and lied to me about a lot of things and I'd been completely oblivious to them, until she dumped me just as I was contemplating proposing. Those who knew me at the time probably remember how long it took me to recover from that.
Meanwhile, I had gotten just far enough in Unwound Future to have a vague guess where this could be going: there were flashback scenes involving Professor Layton's long lost former love, who even looked and sounded like my now-former girlfriend. (They even had a similar-sounding accent!) It was enough that... well, my clanmates would call this "Too Real." I put the game on the shelf for years, because I knew this was going to hurt and I just couldn't handle it at the time.
I'm okay now. There was a long recovery, but I did it and I'm on the other side of it. At this point, that I decided it would be good to dust off and finally finish this. Once there was enough distance that I could handle it, doing so became a matter of closure.
Unfortunately, after all that intro there, I really don't have a whole lot to say about the game itself. I mean, it's a Professor Layton game. It's puzzles and crying. Anything I could say would pertain to the latter and be a massive spoiler. I will say that this game was excellent, though. I do love this series, and this may be... hmm. I want to say that this one might be my new favorite entry so far, but Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is kind of hard to top. Let's just call it a tie for now, but it's hard to overstate what an accomplishment it is to be in that same tier.
Was I right in setting Unwound Future aside for this long? Ahahaha oh God yes are you kidding I would have died. But... I'm glad to be here now, after everything. I made it, it's over, and I can breathe a sigh of relief at that, while also basking in the accomplishment of having gotten here. Few things satisfy like a puzzle solved, after all.
(Footnote: I'm counting this one as 100% complete enough after doing all the story puzzles + all of Layton's Challenges + the Hidden Door. The Weekly Puzzles have gone the way of FF3DS Mognet and are no longer possible to do because, you know, Nintendo WFC.)
(Footnote 2: Unwound Future has a gruff anthro bunny in it for exactly one scene and I have no idea why, but I am absolutely not complaining. <3)