The Endgame: Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright

Story Completion: 100% (duh)
Puzzle completion: 100%
Total Play Time: 24:38
Total Picarats: 4475
Hint Coins Remaining: 162

WARNING: This post contains spoilers that WILL reduce your enjoyment of the game should you choose to play it. As a courtesy to my tiny readerbase, the spoilers have been blanked out.

When I first heard this game announced a number of months ago I was naturally very skeptical; take one of my most loved franchises (Phoenix Wright) and combine it with another franchise which to be honest is probably a lot more popular in the public eye (and more well known!). Nevertheless the game pulled off its surprising choice of crossover very well to create a game I was pleasantly surprised to play and with a story that's just as enthralling as any Professor Layton game I've ever played if not even more so.

Dreams will come true for fans of both games, Phoenix and Maya posing after solving puzzles? YES. Layton and Luke shouting OBJECTION? YES. YES. YES

You'd probably ask me how on earth two such different characters (from opposite sides of the world, no less) could wind up in a crossover like this without at least one of them feeling out of place or the whole thing feeling too forced, but I have to give credit to the story-writers, they pulled it off and very well at that. Both sections feature introductions based somewhat separately from each other to help you get a grasp of controls, before Layton and Luke, and then Phoenix and Maya are sucked into what appears to be a magical book that tells the story of a town called Labarynthia, where magic and witches are real? It's a very Layton-esque story line so you'd be forgiven for thinking Wright seems a little in the wrong kind of game. Can you figure out how he fits in yet? No? I'm talking about witch trials, and they suit him so well.

Despite my enjoyment of the game I do have a number of qualms with it however. Firstly, the professor Layton sections; they're executed very similarly to the existing 3DS Laytons, which is fine, though the controls aren't ideal they are functional at least, and aside from the somewhat pointless inclusion of Layton's 'zoom in' mechanic which is used ONLY once in the tutorial and ONCE in one of the games closing chapters, it had the feel and the enjoyment of a real Professor Layton game.
The Phoenix Wright sections in my opinion were beautifully executed, the cases were just as convoluted as any classic Wright case should be and the new mechanics (such as questioning up to 10 witnesses at once and presenting some evidence in the form of entries from the grand Grimoire, a magic encyclopedia) work very well and show just how well Wright has been adapted for the story.

I know this game will spawn crossover fanfic that could be pretty much considered canon now, and I don't like it.

The interesting thing about this game though is that it doesn't really fulfill the depth of the standalone games, take for example the puzzles from Layton's parts, they just really aren't as hard as a true Layton fan would want, most of them are unfailable (i.e you can play and play them and a real mistake will put you back a step or to the start rather than costing precious picarats) and are just about moving something up, down, left and right until a condition is fulfilled. The Wright sections despite still being great are also a LOT easier than they should be, with the ability to use hint coins basically telling you exactly what you need to present and where, plus the amount of evidence in the Court Record never exceeds 10, whereas some cases in Wright's stand alone games could feature 25 in there at once! Yes, although the game's mechanics may seem half-arsed to some, the story more than makes up for it, and it is very, very dark.
I can't deny that I felt genuinely shocked at multiple points throughout the story, be it the guilt inducing animations that show the people you convict of being a witch being locked in some kind of iron maiden and cast into a pit of fire, and especially when [it happens to Maya], not to mention the shock you get when [Layton is turned into a golden statue... AND his right arm breaks off]. I mean, you know there's no way these things could actually have happened, but it's enough to catch you off guard [perhaps because you were expecting someone else to be the victim?] and is truly a sign of how well Capcom and Level 5 have crafted the story.

The endgame sections I have to talk about in a yin-yang style. The last trial was pretty difficult and full of (occasionally predictable) surprises, and int he end did a good job of explaining everything, even if some ideas are a little far-fetched. The final Layton section left a lot to be desired in my books though, the standard big tower at the end where all the answers are revealed contained only three puzzles, all of which we're sickeningly easy and pretty much the same, needless to say I was disappointed.

The are a few things the game seems to fail on explaining, for example I'm still not sure why Espella (that's this girl here, main heroine) becomes like a brainwashed zombie half the time whilst nobody seems to be possessing her, and how the hell did they get sucked into the book in the first place!

Regardless, I have very happy with the overall quality of the game compared to my initial thought that it would probably be a lot worse. Die had fans of either series may struggle to like the other half and be disappointed with the sections that they enjoy the most. If you're a fan of both like me, you'll probably get a lot of enjoyment out of it as the characters and overall styles of the Wright and Layton games have been molded together perfectly like the pages in a book and the 'feel' of the games combines like that perfect blend of coffee. In addition, players who have yet to experience either game should fine the combination makes for a spectacular entry-level experience and I would definitely recommend it if you've been looking to play either game to prepare you for the greater depth offered by the full standalone titles.

TL;DR: I got carried away writing. It's puzzlingly good, no objections here. Buy it if you've been looking to try either but haven't yet. Falls flat compared to the standalone titles in places, but excels in others. Recommend.