Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy

Layton's Mystery Journey is the point of change for the popular adventure/ puzzle series. Even though Level-5 tried hard to retain the essence of the franchise we can’t overlook the unnecessary repetition of many puzzles and the fact that Kat is not as a charming character as her father was.

Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaire's Conspiracy is a good installment in the series even if we would have loved a more breathtaking main quest, but on the other hand the content is pretty impressive.

Layton’s Mystery Journey is an entertaining game for fans that did not play the mobile version and newcomers alike, that will approach the series with a much more "pop" main character. Anyway, it's the most weak title in the series, specifically story-wise. A real shame.

Gameplay is basically the same as we are used to.

After six successful games and a brilliant spin off, the Layton saga begins anew with this episode, but the end result it's not on par with the quality level we were used to. It's simpler, a little shorter and, more than this, it's double the price if compared to the identical mobile version.

Carried by the Layton family's experience in mystery, Katrielle starts her detective career with modern resolutions, such as the episodic investigation proceedings. But the cases and their protagonists ultimately lack depth, while the whole plot looks like a long introduction. The puzzles and mini games also appear less inspired, or bold, since Kat solves the most relevant riddles by herself anyway. Let's hope that she's keeping more tricks in her hat for the upcoming adventures.

The Layton legacy continues with an endearing new lead and lots of new puzzles, but relatively few new ideas.

Layton's Mystery Journey is a lot of fun, and Katrielle is just a better character than her father is, but this journey is a lot more predictable and less memorable than the Professor's best.

This is a game with a great variety of quality puzzles, an interesting plot and whose audiovisual environment is bursting with quality, even if the difficulty level is not on par with that of previous games in the series.

This is a good puzzle game with fun characters and beautiful surroundings, but the level of the old Layton games is still a lot better. The quality of the puzzles has decreased and the story simply does not stick.

Another portion of puzzles and riddles for those who want to meditate a bit about games. Maybe with a little worse repertoire and characters, but still funny enough and colorful. [Issue#279]

Having to drone through shallow plots and mysteries that the player figures out ages before Katrielle does just left me wanting to skip directly to the next puzzle or go back and play a much better Layton game. As mentioned, the puzzles and world are as marvelous as ever but I just can’t see myself recommending it to anyone who hasn’t already exhausted every other Professor Layton game first, especially when the physical copy is releasing at twice the price of the mobile version. I hate that I didn’t properly enjoy this entry and will just continue to hope that more Layton games (and movies please!) will come in the future. After all – a true gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved.

Kat may be a Layton but she's far from the Layton everyone knows and loves. Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy feels more like a pale imitation with glimpses of the greatness that has come before. There's a ton of potential here and the adventure is still enjoyable, but just falls short. It holds a lot of promise for the future, at least, and the story wraps up with plenty of questions unanswered. Level-5 is clearly ready to keep this story going; however, hopefully it is with something much better and more deserving of the series' lineage.

Factor in the rather obtuse nature of the puzzling and the uninspiring cast and you’ll find that there’s a lot to be disappointed with in this return for the famed puzzle series.