| Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle | |
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Japanese Cover Art |
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| Developer(s) | Level-5 |
| Publisher(s) | JP Level-5 NA Nintendo EU Nintendo[1] |
| Designer(s) | Akihiro Hino |
| Series | Professor Layton |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Release date(s) | JP February 26, 2011[2] NA TBA EU 2012[1] |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle, Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) |
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| Media/distribution | Nintendo 3DS Game Card |
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle (レイトン教授と奇跡の仮面 Reiton-kyōju to Kiseki no Kamen) is a puzzle adventure video game developed by Level-5 as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. The game was produced by Akihiro Hino and composed for by Tomohito Nishiura. Akira Tago provided the game's puzzles, of which there are 150 in addition to 365 made available for download via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game's ending theme, "Mysterious Flower", was composed by Yumi Matsutoya.
The game is the fifth in the Professor Layton series,[2] and the second in a prequel trilogy detailing the past of Hershel Layton and his apprentice, Luke Triton. The game is set in a mysterious town called Montdol, taking place a year after the events of the fourth game Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and its accompanying movie Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. It is the first game in the series to be rendered in 3D.
Mask of Miracle was released as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, and was the best-selling game on the day of the system's launch, selling over 117,000 copies. It is scheduled to be released internationally by Nintendo during 2012.
Contents |
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle is a puzzle game presented in the style of an adventure game. The player controls the actions of a group of protagonists as they move about the city of Montdol. While moving about town, players encounter several mysteries that are solved as the main plot progresses.
While investigating the town or interacting with non-player characters, the player will often be presented with a puzzle and asked to solve it. Puzzles can be accessed at any time. If at any point a puzzle should become unavailable in the main game, it will be moved to another location to give the player another chance to find it. Completed puzzles can be played again at any time in the puzzle index, a menu available from the title screen.
Players are also capable of connecting to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in order to download additional puzzles. These puzzles are made available weekly for a year following release, with seven puzzles made available each week; in all, 365 puzzles can be downloaded. Puzzle packages are downloaded automatically via the Spotpass function of the Nintendo 3DS.[3]
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Professor Layton series chronology |
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The Last Specter |
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle primarily takes place one year following the events of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, in the fictional city of Montdol. Montdol, sometimes referred to as the city of miracles, is a sleepless, European-inspired town in the middle of a carnival as the game begins.[4][5] Legends state that the town was created with the power of the Mask of Miracle, an artifact capable of granting wishes to the person who wears it.[5] The mask has been donned by a man known as the Miracle Gentleman, who has used the mask's power to transform people into things such as statues and horses.[1]
Parts of the game are flashbacks to eighteen years before the main story, focusing on an archaeological expedition led by Professor Layton and his friends while in college.[5]
Professor Hershel Layton, his apprentice Luke Triton, and his assistant Emmy Altava, are asked to visit Montdol via a letter sent by Sharon Leidle, a university friend of Layton. She requests his assistance in solving the mystery of the Mask of Miracle and putting an end to the strange occurrences that have recently plagued the town.[5] As Professor Layton, Luke, and Emmy arrive in the town, an inflatable clown falls from the sky; when the dust clears, some of the townsfolk have been turned into statues.[5] The Miracle Gentleman appears on a rooftop, laughs, and then grows wings and flies off; Professor Layton and company give chase to him on horse.[5] Eventually, he vanishes in midair, leaving the group to investigate the city and ask the remaining townspeople what just happened.
Mask of Miracles was overseen by Akihiro Hino, the CEO of Level-5, and directed by Jun Suzuki.[6] The game's puzzles were created by Akira Tago, author of the Atama no Taisō (頭の体操, Mental Gymnastics) series of puzzle books, who had also created the puzzles for the previous games in the series.[6]
The game was first announced as a Nintendo DS title at the official launch event for Professor Layton and the Last Specter, where it was scheduled for Japanese release during Q3 2010.[7] Hino promised that Mask of Miracle would bring major changes to the series' gameplay systems, and said that the trilogy was imagined with a second movie to take place after Mask of Miracle.[7] Although artwork, a logo, and the setting of the game's story were given, the game was not demonstrated at the event.[7]
After seeing the Nintendo 3DS, Hino systematically shifted projects from other systems to it, in hopes that Level-5 would be recognized as a firm part of the image of the Nintendo 3DS system.[8] Mask of Miracles was one of these projects. Though the game was originally built in 2D, it was made to look "psuedo-3D"[8] for Nintendo's E3 2010 presentation. After seeing what other publishers had produced for the system, however, Hino decided to completely remake the game in order to use the systems's unique qualities.[8] He expressed his belief that the game would be the "best in the series so far", and that the game felt like "something completely new, something no one's ever seen before".[9]
At a Nintendo press event later in 2010, the first trailer for Mask of Miracle was released along with screenshots, demonstrating the graphical and gameplay overhauls that had taken place over the system's switch to Nintendo 3DS; the previous games' hand-drawn 2D sprites had been replaced by 3D models, areas of the game could now be examined in a 3D perspective, and several puzzles took advantage of the 3DS' features, including its motion sensor.[10] Despite the game's new visual style, the appearance of the series' animated cutscenes remained intact, albeit rendered in 3D.[10][11] Another trailer was released at Level-5's 2010 "Vision" event, revealing the Japanese voice actors, the game's ending theme, the plans for the game's puzzle downloading service, and the game's second timeline, following a younger Professor Layton in high school.[6]
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle was first released in 2011 as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS within Japan. It sold about 118,000 copies in its first weekend, making it the system's best-selling title upon its release.[5][12] A tentative English title for the game, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, was provided at E3 2010; however, there has been no further news of the game's North American release. In late 2011, a European trailer for Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call alluded to a fifth entry in the series being released for Nintendo 3DS in 2012; this was later confirmed in a press release, where the game received its second tentative title of Professor Layton 5.[1][13]
The game scored 32/40 in Famitsu, who praised the game's investigation mechanics but said that the puzzles did not make enough use of 3D.[14][15] IGN said that the game was "perfect for a portable system"[5] and said that the game's puzzles remained surprising and well-designed despite being the fifth entry in the series; however, they expressed disappointment at the long wait for the game's localization.[5] Andrisang states that, despite the changes made to it, the game still feels like a Professor Layton game.[11]
The game's soundtrack was composed by Tomohito Nishura. Unlike the other titles in the series, no official soundtrack has been released for Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle.
The game's ending theme, entitled "Mysterious Flower", was composed by Yumi Matsutoya.[16] Her 2011 album Road Show features a music video for the song animated in the style of Professor Layton, adding her into cutscenes from the game.[16]
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