The professor Layton franchise has been around for a couple of years and managed to conquer the hearts of many puzzle fanatics. The combination of a thrilling story, gorgeous visuals, and challenging puzzles worked like a charm, resulting in one of the most popular puzzle franchises ever created. Today, it’s time for a new generation to meet the Layton family as Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – Deluxe Edition lands on the Nintendo Switch.
Not a new entry
As the hardcore fans might already know, Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy isn’t a new entry in the franchise. It released on mobile platforms and the Nintendo 3DS a couple of years ago. Although it’s not a new entry, it’s one of the better ones in the franchise for sure, featuring the young daughter of the infamous professor as the leading character:
The story has one theme, but is split up in 12 unique cases. The main quest is Katrielle looking for her father, but along the way she solves cases with the same intellect as her father. Her trusty assistants are also able to solve puzzles- if you happen to stumble upon one. When you examine the environment with your magnifier, sometimes it will turn red and a riddle is presented. These are mostly harder than the main case you’re working on. Likewise, you can interact with strangers who will give you riddles and puzzle for your solving pleasures.
The clues themselves are presented as a puzzle. You fit together the pieces to solve the case. It’s a cute metaphor that works great in this context. Once the puzzle is completed, the case is classified and you’re onto the next case, by first watching a cut scene leading up to it. You get some interesting information and exposition into the story from these cut scenes. They serve as a break between chapters, a moment for you to reflect and get ready for the next set of brain scratching puzzles.
Read more about the actual game in our original review of the Nintendo 3DS version here.
The Nintendo Switch version
Since this is a port of the original game, it’s mostly the same as what you played before. This still is the same story as before, featuring (mostly) the same puzzles as before, now playable on the Nintendo Switch for the first time. Since the Nintendo Switch version is the second Nintendo version, it’s easy to compare it to its predecessor. As you can read in our initial review, we adored the 3DS version although it suffered a bit from the hardware’s limitations. Being ported to the more powerful Nintendo Switch immediately fixed our main issue.
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy looks incredible on Switch and it runs fluently, without any frame drops or performance issues. It’s good seeing this game at its full potential and the combination of the gorgeous cut scenes and the sharp puzzles really results in a fun experience. No longer will you be looking at a small screen, this version is playable in both television and handheld mode, all offering the same great gameplay experience. I started playing it in television mode with my Joy-Con controllers and loved the vibrant colors and adorable cut scenes. Just like before, the game got translated into a lot of languages and they really went to extra mile to make everything as immersive as possible. It takes a while for the story to finally kick off but after the lengthy tutorial, you’re in for a great time! As if playing in television mode isn’t good enough already, the game truly supports the handheld mode too, which is crucial for Nintendo Switch Lite owners.
The solution is just a touch away
As a true handheld supportive game, Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – Deluxe Edition does everything you would expect it to do. You can easily interact with the puzzles using the touch screen, giving you more freedom while solving the puzzles. Although the television mode really makes the game shine, I preferred playing it in handheld mode after a while. It’s a lot more natural to solve the puzzles with the touch of your finger. Connecting the dots or inserting certain solutions is a lot easier on the touch screen and it’s great to see how well it all works. This in combination with some important extras really makes this the definitive edition and truly results in the Deluxe Edition.
In this version you’ll also be able to encounter some new or refined puzzles compared to the 3DS version, resulting in more hours of puzzle cracking and more things to unlock. It also comes with some additional costumes free of charge, even including some priorly paid ones. It’s really great to see that the developers went the extra mile to ensure hardcore fans some new content. Searching for the hidden coins in order to unlock additional costumes was never this satisfying. At its core, it’s still the same game as the 3DS version but the team added enough extras to make it worth your time and money for sure.
Conclusion:
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy is a great addition to any Nintendo Switch library and it’s one of the best puzzle games you could get in stores. It’s not entirely new but it adds enough fun new content to justify its price. This really is the Deluxe Edition and if you’re into challenging puzzles, this is a must-have game for you!
