The stereotypical English gentleman, who enjoys solving puzzles and drinking tea known as Professor Layton is back once on the Nintendo 3DS in one last adventure. If you've never played the Professor Layton series it’s all about the brain teasing and puzzle solving when you come across the series either on the Nintendo DS and 3DS consoles. Azran Legacy's story take place after the events of The Miracle Mask, Professor Layton, Luke and Emmy come across a new adventure that will take them around the world and uncover the truth about the Azran Legacies, what power it can do and very little information on a mysterious girl named Aurora that has no memory of her past.
Gameplay: If you've played the past games you should feel right at home with Azran Legacy each puzzle will have a set of picarats from little as 30 up to 50 picarats if you get the correct answer right you'll get the picarats but if you fail the puzzle once or twice the picarats in each puzzle will decrease but not that much. There are a variety of puzzles from writing a number down or choosing an answer from A-D or completing a mini-maze puzzle, there's over at least 165 puzzles on the main story but however the game itself has more than 500 puzzles at once and a nice send off to the series as well.
Like The Miracle Mask was you are using the touch screen to move around and investigating, you can search the area by tapping on the micronizing glass and search for clues or talk to the town's people. You can also use the touch screen to move around by tapping on the mapped icons throughout the city, hint coins are scattered almost everywhere which can be useful when it comes to puzzles.
Hint coins make a return again which can be used to spend on giving you hints on how to solve the puzzle straight away but some hints on certain puzzles don't really give you any help at all. Another thing that may annoy a few 3DS owners out there or anyone new to gaming that if you are writing a number down it might not recognise your handwriting. Some puzzle's you'll be using Memo quite a lot for taking notes down for various puzzles which might be handy if you've stuck on a puzzle.
Graphics and Sound: Once again Azran Legacy uses the same graphics and animation they've used for Miracle Mask from the 2D styled Layton games from the DS system, everything is in 3D from its environments, characters, and even its mini-games are in 3D. When using the 3D on your 3DS everything does pop out of the top screen which makes it really impressive to see, seeing Professor Layton pointing his finger at you after solving a puzzle is really impressive. You've still got the same text-dialog when it comes to cutscenes and talking to town's people and the main characters. Most of the places you'll be travelling around the world are in different environments from London to the Deep Jungles to the Paradise Islands most of the locations you travel are impressive to look at in a point and click game.
The Anime cutscenes still make an appearance at various parts of the game, making almost perfect as a good film or Anime series if there was one, it's also the same if you have the 3D turned on it makes it more impressive to watch. There's quite a few puzzles that also have some good 3D effects, even though that they are in 2D you can see some of the puzzles or people or animals moving across on the top screen.
Voice acting still remains for its main characters which the series has always been great for in the series, quite a few new faces and old faces make an appearance at various part of the game. Soundtrack does a nice job too making you more focused on its puzzle and hearing a few odd tunes once again making it feel you welcomed back to the series or ready for another puzzle.
Overall: It can take at least more than 20 hours to get through the main story however the more I've progressed in the game I didn't want to put the game down most of the puzzles were fun and addictive. Even the mini- games can be fun too from dressing-up characters, to rolling nuts or making your garden grow. The first time ever in a Layton game you can StreetPass with other 3DS users if they have this game you can be able to share treasure hunt challenges with other players, receive challenges yourself and also exchange ratings. And plus the Daily Download Puzzles make a comeback too where you can download a puzzle every day for a good year so you will be coming back for more every time.
I am sad that the Professor Layton series has come to end but hopefully this won't be the last time we ever get to see Professor Layton on a handheld console.