Americans Hate Tingle: The games, whilst not that successful in America, are at least successful inside Japan and Europe, with perhaps the exception of one country, Belgium. This has mainly to do with the fact that Dutch people in general like the series so much that Level 5 decided to give the series Dutch dubs to boost the sales in the Netherlands. Something Belgian people absolutely hated. In fact, the Belgian people that get interested in the series still don't want to buy it because that's how much they hate the work put into the Dutch dubbing.
Flora's unfortunately subjected to this treatment by a sizeable chunk of the fandom. Which doesn't even make sense, considering that she's Layton's adopted daughter!
Arianna. Sweet Lord, Arianna. The peck she gave Luke on his cheek would make some shippers wish she really was a witch so they could burn her at the stake.
Jean Descole was most likely created with this trope in mind. He is a Malevolent Masked Man who combines several clothing tropes and actually pulls it off. And his coolness goes up to eleven in Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva.
Don Paulo attempts this but, despite being an Anti-Hero compared to Descole (who is a turned villain), he does not make any smooth entrance or is cool in that regard, given how he tries to kill Layton and Luke with a ferris wheel, then a helicopter. Additionally an Incoming Ham.
Fanfic Fuel: Emmy addressing Leon Bronev as "Uncle Leon". They are not related, though — she just calls him uncle because he took care of her. Which means the Fanfic Fuel can proceed!
If you want some carbon-copy versions of Layton, check Namco's Treasure Report, or Konami's Zack & Ombra, both of them for the DS appearing after Specter's Flute came out, having the same interface, same cutscenes, same "Correct!" animation, same puzzle structure... Also, Level-5 with their own Atamania series, comprised of 6 puzzle games, with the seventh retooled into the iOSLayton Brothers spin-off after they bombed in Japan. Unfortunately, all of these games (apart from Layton Brothers, probably due to it having the Layton name to lean on) are a case of No Export for You.
There was even a Doctor Who video game which did this. No, seriously. Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth even copies the image sequence used at the end of puzzles, with the TARDIS replacing Layton or Luke.
One may argue that the Layton games are themselves this to the Brain Age series, as said by Level-5 developers.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is huge in Europe, selling as much as in the rest of the world combined. That makes the Bad Export for You only Europe got with Specter's Flute all the more jarring. To put things into perspective, the first game was released in Europe nine months after its American release. Due to its success, subsequent games were always released around one month after the American release, with Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask taking a two-day lead in Europe and culminating in Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy coming out in Europe in 2013 and in America in 2014.
Professor Layton. Layton and Randall, Layton and Luke, Layton and Flora, Layton and Future Luke, Layton and Claire, Layton and Emmy, Layton and Descole, Layton and Melina. You name it, it's out there. There is also now the possibility for Layton and Phoenix Wright.
Everyone in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, to various extents; Randall/Angela, Randall/Layton, Randall/Henry, Henry/Angela...It's all out there. Of course, the logical solution for a huge chunk of the fandom was to just ship them all together.
Magnificent Bastard: Jean Descole is Hershel Layton's older brother who became an archaeologist and criminal mastermind to take revenge on Targent for taking his parents away from him and his brother. Seeking to uncover the Azran legacies in order to reveal the civilization's secrets, he built advanced machines and manipulated others through blackmail, preying on a father's grief, and impersonating allies to get what he wants. In his civilian identity of Desmond Sycamore, he allied with Layton to oppose Targent, now led by their father, and unlock the secrets of the Azran before betraying him upon acquiring the key to the sanctuary. He ultimately takes a laser blast meant for Luke and sacrifices his life along with his brother to stop the Azran golems from destroying the world. Resurrected by Aurora, he parts ways with Layton on good terms and sets out on a new adventure with his butler Raymond by his side.
Spoiled by the Format: If several mysteries are not yet solved, you likely have a way to go, and you certainly do if not all of the mysteries have been found. Additionally, the number of puzzles for each game gives you some idea of how far you are when the number of a given puzzle appears.
You'd have to be genius to have enjoyed the peg solitaire puzzles, or slidingblock puzzles, among others.
The "How Old Is [some person]?" puzzles are murderous due to brutal wordplay, and are a nightmare for non-native English speakers.
Also the chess puzzles. "Here, this is an 8×8 chess board. Jump on every single space, and you can only move as a knight. Also, there is only one known way to solve this puzzle, and only one correct direction to jump for every single jump. To top it off, we've replaced your hints with random chess trivia that is no help whatsoever. Oh, quit crying, you wuss." There are easier variants but none of them (except for the first one) are that much easier and also suffer from the hints being useless. Luckily, by this point, the game has a memo function, which proves invaluable for planning the Knight moves before you try to put them into action. It actually makes life a bit easier.
The Chocolate Code in the North American version of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. This one wouldn't be so bad if the translators hadn't changed the hints so that they didn't reference the most significant part of the clue's illustration.
Layton 7 has gained this reaction from fans. As in... in name only to the largest degree you can possibly get, to the point of being a non-traditional puzzle game that doesn't star Layton, has a new art style and is presented as an old-maid game for smartphones. Layton is shown on one of the cards (along with Emmy and Luke if you squint)◊, but otherwise, there's nothing much about it.
The transition between 2d to 3d has removed alot of the "charm" classic Layton games had over other point-and-click adventure games. For instance, in place of beautiful hand drawn sprites you had crudely drawn 3d sprites. However, this opinion has faltered as the games got progressively better in presentation; but many of the original appeal of the series has been lost in a few ways.
Practically all the NPCs fall victim to this. Most of them are surprisingly well-rounded, have relationships with either each other or a main character, and even have their own situations Layton can talk to them about. And yet, once the story of whichever game they appear in is finished, they never appear again. In a way it’s justifiable in the first three games, since they’re not exactly "people" in the conventional sense (robots, illusions, and people kidnapped and duped into thinking they’re in the future, respectively), but come the second trilogy, there’s really no excuse for it at all. It gets a little better come the second trilogy, however, as with every chapter or area you complete, you unlock "Episodes" that delve into the backstories of the villagers, sometimes in extensive detail. Come Azran Legacy, each area you visit has a distinct NPC that'll guide you during your stay.
Some perceive Flora as this. While it is justified with her not being there for the beginning of the mysteries, and her character arc in Curious Village is finished, she still displays a cleverness when trying to follow Layton and Luke on their adventures, and The Unwound Future has her solve a handful of puzzles along with the rest of the crew. Beyond that, she's not very utilized at all (especially in The Diabolical Box where she is actually Don Paolo in disguise for most of the game), and spinoffs of the series like Mystery Room and Millionaires' Conspiracy try their damnedest not to say where she's gone, especially in comparison with her adopted siblings, Alfendi and Katrielle.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series makes you think it's rated E10+ because kids can exercise their minds with fun puzzles, has cartoon-ish style characters, and has white humor, so why they don't make it E instead of E10+? Because there are various types of crimes, as well as political subjects, some murder cases which turn out to be fake, an Omnicidal Maniac who used an Humongous Mecha to destroy and kill people, surreal and paranormal events, a connnection with the devil which turns out to be just the Herzen family heraldic shield, and HIGH amounts of Nightmare Fuel.
Layton himself becomes one over the course of the series as more of his backstory is revealed. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future reveals the love of his life was blown up, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask reveals his best childhood friend fell to his death and Layton couldn't save him, Azran Legacy reveals not only is Layton adopted and his real mother is dead, but his father and brother are criminal sociopaths, and Layton Brothers reveals his son is a violent asshole.
Flora falls into this. Her mother died when she was a baby; her doting father died when she was still a child; and she had to wait for an unspecified number of years for someone to come along and solve the riddle that would enable her to have a new life and family. And now she lives with Layton, who clearly loves her but is not the most, shall we say, effective parent. She comes across as being lonely much of the time.
What Could Have Been: According to ripped game-files from Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the game was quite literally meant to have been set in 1960, instead of the mish-mash of mid-20th century and later cultural phenomena found within the game. Regardless, this was done to make the settings of the game non-restrictive within a specific decade.
, where Layton is portrayed as an abusive psychopath and Luke as a puzzle-obsessed freak.
