Layton Brothers: Mystery Room

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room
File:Mystery Room Logo.png English logotype
Developer(s)	Matrix Software
Publisher(s)	Level-5
Director(s)	Tatsuya Shinkai
Producer(s)	Akihiro Hino
Composer(s)	Yuzo Koshiro Takeshi Yanagawa
Series	Professor Layton
Platforms	iOS, Android
Release date(s)	iOS Android
Genre(s)	Adventure, Puzzles
Mode(s)	Single-player

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room (レイトンブラザーズ・ミステリールーム, Reiton Burazāzu Misuterī Rūmu) is a puzzle adventure video game for iOS and Android, published by Level-5. It is a spin-off of the Professor Layton series, starring rookie investigator Lucy Baker, who works with genius investigator Alfendi Layton, son of Hershel Layton, in the Scotland Yard's top investigation unit, the "Mystery Room". The game was released in Japan on September 21, 2012, and in English on June 27, 2013. An Android version was released on September 5, 2013.

Gameplay

The game is split between two distinct portions: investigation sections, and interrogations. Most of the cases follow the same routine, in which you are given the basic facts of the case by Alfendi Layton, then must investigate the crime scene using the Mystery Room's crime scene recreation device. At the start of the case, the player is typically given a set amount of time to do a cursory sweep of the crime scene, and then they must say who they think the murderer is based on instinct afterwards. Following things, they investigate further into area surrounding the crime (such as the motive, or certain puzzling aspects to the murder itself), finding evidence to back up points, and answering certain multiple choice questions. Once all the points of the investigation have been cleared up, the player then is able to interrogate the main suspect. During interrogations, a suspect's defense against the accusations is represented by a metal casing around their heart. As the player presents the correct evidence to back their accusations up and prove the suspect's guilt, the metal casing slowly breaks apart. When the suspect's heart turns to stone and breaks in two, then the player has beaten the suspect, although in some occasions, the suspect's metal casing is fixed (entirely or partially) after it has broken when he or she has something to say that tries to contradict the given evidence, only to break again when he or she has been proven wrong.

Development

File:Mystery Room Characters.png

The main protagonists of Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. Lucy Baker is on the left, Alfendi Layton on the right.

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room was announced at Level-5 Vision 2009 as Mystery Room, the first entirely original title in Level-5's Atamania series. In Mystery Room, the players would team up with detectives Poccho and Sly to solve crimes. A player could select which crime they would like to investigate from a list of crime reports. The game was originally designed for the Nintendo DS and was planned to be released in 2010. Level-5 had originally scheduled to show the game at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show but removed it from their schedule soon before the conference, throwing the game's fate into question. In May 2010, the developer published an update on the game's progress and announced that the game would be delayed until Spring 2011. Finally on October 15, 2011, the title resurfaced at Level-5 World 2011 as an iOS game titled Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. Though the game has been rebranded as a Professor Layton title, many of its original elements have remained intact, including the focus on solving mysteries.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 75/100 Review scores Publication Score Adventure Gamers Destructoid 8.5/10 Edge 7/10 Game Informer 7/10 GamesMaster 88% Hyper 6/10 VideoGamer.com 7/10 Digital Spy

The iOS version received "generally favorable reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)