As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Because Layton crying is exactly what we needed to end the series on.
Claire: We had so many... plans for the future. Do you remember, Hershel? I'll miss you, and our... unwound future.
Layton: You can't go! I don't want to say goodbye again! I can't! I won't!
Claire: ...I know you. You'll stay strong. After all... that's what a gentleman does. I must go now, Hershel. Thank you for everything. ...Goodbye.
Layton: You can't go! I don't want to say goodbye again! I can't! I won't!
Claire: ...I know you. You'll stay strong. After all... that's what a gentleman does. I must go now, Hershel. Thank you for everything. ...Goodbye.
Being the most personal story of the whole Professor Layton series, getting further insight into Layton's backstory leaves room to have this be the most heartbreaking installment.
- To start off, the Professor's backstory is surprisingly tragic! His girlfriend, Claire, who inspired his whole gentlemanly persona, dies tragically in a laboratory explosion. This is sad because throughout the games, Layton has always been the cool collected one with an almost OCD attitude about being a gentleman. So when you realize why this is, it's sad because Layton's calm cool demeanor is in reality a mask to hide how deeply he was affected by what happened.
- A small moment, but when Layton spots Claire in Future London for the second time and remembers how she gave him his trademark hat, it's followed up by a journal entry ("A True Gentleman"), in which the Professor starts to believe he really is becoming obsessed with changing the past, as his apparent future self has.
- Everywhere in the ending of the game:
- Through the entire game, Luke knows he's moving far away, but hasn't told Layton yet. Then he meets what seems to be his future self, which gives him hope that the time apart won't be long, and he'll be back before he knows it (possibly explaining why he never said anything before about moving). Then he finds out the future thing is all a huge lie, something he and Layton suspected the entire time anyway. So now there's a good chance he'll just never see his best friend again, or at best won't see him often - and Luke doesn't seem to have any friends apart from Layton and Flora.
- Not stated, but a bit of Fridge Logic suggests that this will also be hard on Flora, since she doesn't seem to have any friends besides Luke either.
- There's one point where Layton is explaining how he kept trying to investigate Claire's death, but he ends up getting severely beaten. The player is then treated to this
◊ image. To see the good Professor like that is very upsetting to say the least. - Dmitri's flashback to the day Claire died, after he arrived too late. God, he looks so broken during the entire scene.
- Clive's Motive Rant and saying that he was really hoping for the Professor to save him and that he actually did enjoy their time together.
- Not to mention the small flashback of Layton holding Clive and comforting him while trying to hold him away from the rubble that used to be Clive's home. "I have to go back! My parents are still inside!" Oh god, why?
- During the third-to-last cutscene, Claire says goodbye to the professor. "I don't want to say goodbye again! I can't! I won't!" All the more heartrending when you remember Professor Layton usually plays the part of the unflappable, unemotional English gentleman; for that one moment, the mask slips, and you get to see his heart in the process of breaking — and your own breaks with it. Worse, it's not just that his heart is breaking. It's that he's discovered that the woman he loved and lost was actually alive, just in time to lose her all over again. Most depressing Title Drop ever. Let's not forget that he also took off his hat for the first time in-game ever. The emotion in that scene multiplied leaps and bounds.
- Luke leaves Layton because his father got a new job, which is even more sad after you've played Professor Layton and the Last Specter and realize that Layton is also losing one of his best friends — Clark. That in itself is sad, but then Luke starts the waterworks. Layton tells him a gentleman doesn't make a scene in public, but Luke, the boy who has always done his best to be a gentleman shouts, "I'm sorry, but I'm not a gentleman yet!" He then leaps into Layton's arms while in fits of tears. After so much of their camaraderie, to see them say "so long" is heartwrenching.
- When you take into account that this is Layton's last appearance in the series chronologically, all of the above means his story has one, great, big Downer Ending.
- Through the entire game, Luke knows he's moving far away, but hasn't told Layton yet. Then he meets what seems to be his future self, which gives him hope that the time apart won't be long, and he'll be back before he knows it (possibly explaining why he never said anything before about moving). Then he finds out the future thing is all a huge lie, something he and Layton suspected the entire time anyway. So now there's a good chance he'll just never see his best friend again, or at best won't see him often - and Luke doesn't seem to have any friends apart from Layton and Flora.
