Like everything else good in this world, the next Professor Layton game is going mobile.
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I don't mean 3DS handheld 'mobile'--I'm talking smartphones. Siliconera reports that Level-5 announced during its "Level-5 Vision 2015 -The Beginning" even that next game in the series (titled Professor Layton 7 in Japan) will be a smartphone game.
A Professor Layton game is not inherently a bad idea on smartphones--the low-action, slow pace of the game would likely work well on mobile. But this edition seems to be taking a complete twist on what had been puzzle-solving adventure games, abandoning that style for what looks like a tabletop multiplayer card game. I don't expect fans to exactly embrace this news, and given the sequential title, it seems this will be the next main entry.
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Then again, maybe my skepticism is misplaced--people could be fine with this change! I do suspect it would see less criticism, though, if it was accompanying a traditional entry in the franchise rather than (as far as we can tell right now) replacing one. Mobile gaming is a great place to expand the series too--it's just a shame that the normal experience seems well-suited to smartphones, but is not making the jump along with the brand name.
