Operation Backlog Completion 2024
Sep 292014
 
PL vs PW ending demotivational poster

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has been out for a whole month. Many more people have finished it now, and I’ve had time to think about it…. and its ending.

When I finished it, I praised it as “an almost perfect game” and named its ending as the major problem. Since then, my view of the ending has softened.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. The ending is still bad. Do a search for “Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright plot holes,” and you’ll see I’m not alone. It has so many problems, it’s actually funny, but it can also teach us some important lessons about writing stories.

(If you want to avoid Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright spoilers, you should leave now. Everything from this point on will include major spoilers.)

1. Don’t Introduce Plot Points with No Purpose

PL vs PW Storyteller's terminal illness

aka the Storyteller’s incurable illness

We’re jumping ahead of ourselves here, but once all the ridiculous plot holes and “explanations” have been revealed, Arthur Cantabella (“the Storyteller”) reveals that one of the reasons he chose then to end the Story is because he’s sick.

Very sick.

In fact, he has an incurable disease, much to Espella’s horror.

Contrary to what some fans say, this actually was foreshadowed. There’s a scene earlier in the game in which the Storyteller appeared to be in pain. When I first saw it, I wondered if he was dying.

The problem is that as soon as he’s revealed this tragedy to his daughter, he announces that a cure has just been discovered, and he’s going to have surgery soon!

Really? What was the point of that? It gives him a reason to end the Story, yes, but something else could have been used. (Like, I don’t know, realizing that the witch trials were actually causing psychological harm to everyone in the city, including Espella?) If they wanted to take this path, why not actually have the Storyteller die? It would have been more meaningful, and made it seem less like he got away with everything without any consequences.

At the very least, he could have said he thought he was dying and just recently found out about the cure. The way he breaks the news to Espella makes him even more of the jerk.

Bringing it up like this makes it feel like it was just there for shock value. It could have added an extra layer of depth to the ending, but instead it was just a pointless plot element.

2. Complete Your Character Development Arcs

Phoenix and Barnham forest confrontation

Everyone wanted to punch Barnham by this point

You know what I love in stories? Redemption.

Few things are more satisfying to me than to watch an antihero or outright villain question his/her actions and switch sides.

I also like knights and swordsman, so I was interested in this guy back when I didn’t know much about him except that he looked like he’d wandered in from Fire Emblem. (No, I haven’t played any Fire Emblem games yet, but that’s still what I thought when I got my first good look at our new prosecutor.)

When I actually got into the game and met Inquisitor Zacharias Barnham and watched him condemn screaming witches to be burned alive, I thought, “Oh, this guy is a redemption story waiting to happen.”

And he was. Uh, sort of.

As the story goes on, Barnham slowly progresses down the path of character development. When his actions inadvertently lead to the apparent death of one of our heroes, he helps the others escape. He starts searching for the truth. He insists Espella be treated with respect and announces that she’s innocent until proven guilty, which is a wild way of thinking for an Ace Attorney prosecutor.

Then he’s accused of treason, thrown into the dungeon, and doesn’t appear again until the final cutscene. Oops. So much for the rest of that character development.

I almost wonder if some of the lines about him being fair and just were added to make it seem like he was a wonderful guy all along, y’know, instead of someone who sent people to their horrible fiery deaths.

It’s as if they didn’t know how to include him in the final act of the game, so they just decided not to. They wrote him out of the plot and left his character development arc unfinished.

3. Actions Have Consequences

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright leaving Labyrinthia

Why are you all smiling??

I like happy endings, but Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright’s ending was so happy, it annoyed me. All of the villains are sympathetic, everyone reconciles their differences, the Storyteller’s incurable disease is curable, no one died, and everyone’s going to live happily ever after.

I’m sure Kira won’t have nightmares about being burned as a witch now that her memories are restored!

The Judge, Barnham, and the other Inquisitors won’t suffer knowing they condemned so many innocent people to death!

Jean Greyerl won’t become suicidal…. again!

Neither will Espella!

Eve won’t have trouble coming to grips with the fact that she accidentally killed hundreds of people!

And isn’t it so wonderful that the Storyteller can live a happy, guilt-free life now that everyone is free of his brainwashing and he can just shut down the mind control experiment he and Umbrella–excuse me, Labrelum–did for the government?

Speaking of which, for those of you who have played Professor Layton and the Unwound Future…

Click for Unwound Future spoiler
Are you shocked the government supported such a project? Don’t be. Due to this game’s placement in the Professor Layton timeline, Bill Hawks was involved in politics when Project Labyrinthia started, and prime minister for a good portion of its duration.

These people have gone through so much psychological trauma, and no one’s even going to mention it. I know Layton stories like their sympathetic, redeemable villains, but even those villains usually go to jail. No one in this game retained their villain status by the end, and there isn’t even a hint that the Storyteller is going to pay for his morally questionable (and by “questionable,” I mean “wrong”) actions.

Let’s not forget that the people who originally joined the experiment were willing to have their memories wiped. Some of them may have to deal with the memories of a horrible life before all the witch-burning trauma.

And did they make it clear that Shades who “return” get their old lives back? Or is there a chance that we’ve got some women out there who were both Inquisitors and witches across the course of the ten years?

The Storyteller’s plan is absolutely horrible. Instead of getting actual therapy for Espella after she believed she wiped out the town, he decided to mind-wipe her, brainwash her, cut her off from the real world, and create a fake world around her where young women are regularly burned alive. Sure, I mean, what better way to recover from serious trauma than to live your life afraid you might be accused of being a witch and burned alive? That’s horrible!

Yet at the end of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, everyone smiled and hugged, and all the trauma was neatly pushed aside.

4. Be Careful With Science

Vantablack, or pure black

Even if I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t see THROUGH it.

I can suspend my disbelief a lot when it comes to science in fiction, especially video games… and especially something like Professor Layton, which is probably going to toss around some vague science to work with its absurd plot twists.

So, I have no problem with PL vs. PW saying something in the water makes everyone fall unconscious if silver strikes silver. I’m fine with the area having amazing plants that create mind-control drugs that erase memories, give people new memories, and brainwash them. I was willing to accept science-driven invisibility cloaks, and I applaud them for incorporating “pure black,” because even if we can’t make stuff that’s pure black yet, scientists are getting closer.

Using pure black for invisibility, though… doesn’t work. If you’re hypnotized so you can’t see a specific color, that doesn’t mean you can see through objects of that color. When Labyrinthians looked at invisible cranes or Shades, they wouldn’t have been able to see what was on the other side.

(I’d have been fine if Layton’s pseudo-science said the cloaks bent light.)

But now we’re getting a little too close to the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

5. Watch Out for Plot Holes!

Ending twist of PL vs PW

…because it makes no sense at all.

Plot holes aren’t unusual for a Professor Layton game. They’re almost a tradition. Ace Attorney has a few here and there, too. Just about everything does. But this game took the plot holes to whole new levels.

Let’s ignore science and accept that if you’re hypnotized not to see pure black, a pure black object is invisible to you. That raises some questions.

  • Why don’t the invisible people and objects cast shadows?
  • Why can’t anyone hear the Shades’ footsteps or breathing?
  • Why doesn’t anyone run into all the invisible CRANES AND MACHINERY around town?

And what about magic? All right, the invisible Shades run around after witches. When the witch casts a spell, they fake the spell, ringing a silver bell to knock everyone out for the more complicated ones. Now we have more questions:

  • Ignaize: how do they know what the witch was aiming at? For example, how did they know Kira was targeting Robbs and Muggs, and not Espella?
  • Goldor: how long do they have to keep them unconscious to make an entire statue? If Layton’s was made in advance (implied since the Storyteller called him in to meet with him), how did they know the exact position he would be in at the time?
  • Godoor: do they knock the witch (and anyone else around) out, cut out part of the wall, revive her, and then when she’s finished, knock everyone out and keep them unconscious until they can fill in the hole?
  • Granwyrm: possibly the most problematic of the bunch, how did the Shades create the illusion of a giant fire dragon eating the Storyteller?

A lot of these are usually answered by “hypnosis/brainwashing.” They were hypnotized not to walk into pure black objects. They were brainwashed so they imagined the fire dragon. All this does is hand wave the plot holes in a pseudo-scientific form of A Wizard Did It.

The greatest irony, of course, is that this is the logical explanation… as opposed to the structured, rule-based magic system with its own encyclopedia. We just can’t accept that magic is real, says the spirit medium! There must be a logical explanation, says the boy who can talk to animals!

Really?

And let’s go back to the Shades knocking people out by ringing their silver bells. Why does that work as a time skip for these people? Labyrinthians are knocked unconscious, and when they regain consciousness, it seems to them as if no time has passed at all. Why don’t they ever remember lying on the floor and getting up? Why do they all wake up at the same time so no one sees someone else unconscious?

A common argument is that they’re just put into some sort of a daze or trance. That doesn’t work. Ten years before the game takes place, Espella and Eve rang the Bell of Ruin and were knocked unconscious. Espella was on the ground, opened her eyes, and looked through the grating to see the fire dragon.

Some people claim it’s just because it was such a huge bell, and the little ones the Shades carry put people into a daze, except…

Barnham lost consciousness in PL vs PW

When Barnham followed the “Great Witch” through the forest, she knocked him out. He remembers falling unconscious.

More importantly, he was facing her at the time, about to draw his sword, so she couldn’t have used a drug the way she later knocked out Kira. She rang the bell, he fell unconscious… and remembers it. So why doesn’t anyone ever realize they were unconscious the rest of the time?

Enough of that plot hole. We’ve got more to cover.

Here’s a little oddity to consider–because this completely-logical-magic-free world includes a character who can talk to animals, the hypnosis, brainwashing, and silver-unconsciousness-trick must work on them as well as humans. When animals talk to Luke, they’re usually shown to have human-level comprehension and communication skills. Therefore, Constantine, Eve (the cat), Hoot, or Cracker could have revealed the truth if they weren’t under the same hypnosis.

That’s just a minor point. Why not try to figure out how Darklaw kidnapped Phoenix and Maya from the middle of a courthouse. Or better yet…

How is the entire first prologue possible? They explain in the ending that those invisible pure black cranes are what allow witches to “fly.” But Darklaw flies through the streets of London! A bird flies through Layton’s window and turns into her! She does all kinds of crazy stuff that would be questionable enough if it was in Labyrinthia, but it’s in LONDON!

“Robots” is the explanation for the statue that smacked Carmine’s car into a tree, and even the game acknowledges the absurdity, but the rest?

London Magic in PL vs PW

HOW???

It just doesn’t work…

There’s probably more, so please chime in with any Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright plot holes I missed.
Despite all of this ranting and raving, I really loved this game. The Special Episodes, while they can’t fix the plot holes, have expanded on some of the loose ends, while also providing additional humor and puzzles (and the occasional bit of tragedy). If you haven’t played it… you really shouldn’t be reading this article… but anyway, if you haven’t played it, don’t let this deter you.

It really is a fantastic game, and I encourage everyone to play it.

I can’t wait to start on an alternate ending fanfic… and I hope to keep these important lessons in mind for all my writing!

Do you agree with me? Disagree? Just want to talk about the ending and twists in general? Let this be your haven for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright spoiler-filled discussion! I look forward to seeing your thoughts in the comments.

Update: Reddit user italianspy has asked a new one: how did Carmine Accidenti and Espella escape Labyrinthia? Under the brainwashing, they couldn’t see the way out, and they couldn’t have just stumbled into the fake fire pit. Carmine’s letter made it clear he didn’t know the truth about Labyrinthia, and even if Darklaw secretly helped them escape (to get Layton involved), that doesn’t answer how.

Any ideas? Any other plot holes I missed?

  22 Responses to “5 Lessons Learned From PL vs. PW’s Ending”

  1. Played the special episodes yet?

  2. Lemme edit that
    *I meant the newer ones that you had to wait for (they’re all out now). They covered up the character development problem.

    • Yes, I’ve played all of the special episodes now, and I really liked them! 😀 I was definitely pleased they did more with the character development, but it still doesn’t make up for just chopping Barnham out of the ending–and he never got to complete THAT character arc, since everyone has just happily moved on with their lives.

  3. “no one died” ummm, pretty sure belduke died from that poison

  4. Every one of your points is….well, on point, but this one:
    “Ignaize: how do they know what the witch was aiming at? For example, how did they know Kira was targeting Robbs and Muggs, and not Espella?”
    This is actually explained in the game that they themselves are shades. I admit it’s not made entirely clear how the explosion works, but they knew well in advance who they were targeting.

    • Them being Shades lets them know who Kira was aiming at? I don’t quite understand. (I mean, it’s not like Shades can read minds.) Could you explain that a little more?

      • It was all part of Darklaw’s plan to frame Espella. She had Kira cast the “Spell” on Robbs and Muggs ( Who were in on the plan) and the shades “caught them on fire”.

        • But Kira didn’t know the truth about Shades at that point, right? She wouldn’t know what Darklaw was up to. Kira wanted to frame Espella, too, but she didn’t conspire with the others about it.

    • Well, I know I’m a little late, since I just finished the game, but here I am…
      Just wanted to point out the fact that Robbs and Muggs WEREN’T shades at the time. The “victims” of “witchcraft” were sent to the Eldwitch Woods to become Shades after supposedly dying, meaning that Robbs and Muggs became Shades after the incident you’re referring to. So I believe your assumption to be wrong here 😛

  5. I just finished the game (I bet even Internet Explorer must have done so before me, but I just got it 😛 ), and I have to admit that this post of yours was totally on point. You covered EVERY. SINGLE. PLOTHOLE I had come up with during my playthrough of the game, and even pointed out some more. Thank you for that. I think Level-5 generally fails when it comes to plotholes-less storylines and character arcs, seeing as they have made the same mistakes with most Layton games, like only having us interact with a (usually completely random) villain 5 minutes before the story’s end *cough cough* Don Paolo *cough cough* . But these games (including this one) were enjoyable nontheless.

    As a major Ace Attorney fan though (and only a minor Layton fan), I must say I was disappointed with how Pheonix was treated like an idiot at times, while Layton was the “smart guy who’s got it all figured out”. I know this is how Layton works, but I think they could have let Pheonix shine a bit more instead of simply looking up to the “oh so smart and wonderful etc.” professor as if Pheonix himself was Layton’s pet dog.
    Also, Maya was portrayed as dumb as well. She *is* more upbeat than the rest of the cast, I’ll give you that, but in the AA games she doesn’t CONSTANTLY act like a three year old, which is the case in PL vs AA.
    Also can I mention how much I dislike Luke’s being able to talk to animals? It’s dumb. At least Maya’s ESP wasn’t brought up, so why should this ability of his come up? It’s ridiculous and looks, how do I put it… childish? Well, I generally strongly dislike Luke as a character anyway, but that’s a different story. (I’d prefer Emmy over this annoying, lightheaded, whiny kid any time).
    Last, but certainly not least, it is as you say: Why did they have to go so over the top when it comes to the prologue if they knew they wouldn’t be able to explain the gaping holes it left in the plot? Thanks, Level-5, but I’m sticking to the more realistic world of Capcom’s AA.

    Anyway, congrats once again for the spot-on post!

    • Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed the post!

      I love the Professor Layton games and their absurd twists, and usually I can suspend my disbelief enough to just go with it. In this case, though, it was just too much. (I can’t stand the twist in Diabolical Box, either, so it might be a particular type of twist that really bugs me.)

      Yeah, I think they mainly did that with Layton so he could do his typical routine of explaining everything at the end. And I have nothing against Luke talking to animals… just not when the game is claiming magic is illogical.

      What disappoints me the most is that for the majority of this game, I really loved it. The plot holes disappointed me all the more because of how much I enjoyed the game up until then.

  6. Having played the game a second time, I do agree with your points. I didn’t even think of all the psychological trauma that the characters would go through afterward and that makes me sad… But anyway, there were way too many plotholes. I don’t know if they explain this in the game (I haven’t fully finished the game yet and I don’t remember the details of what happens but I remember the major stuff) but how do Layton and Luke arrive in Labyrinthia? They thought they had come through some sort of doorway into the main square but then they turn around and there’s nothing there?

    • A few plot holes would have been fine (practically expected for a Professor Layton game), but there were just too many.

      Hmm… I’m not sure now how they got there. Did Darklaw have them attacked or something?

    • I don’t think that’s ever explained. Perhaps the special ink used in Espella’s book knocks them out and Darklaw just straight out abducts them?
      However, the gate’s disappearance is explained: It was covered with the invisibility robes. Which, as pointed out in this article, is completely dumb. Not being able to see what something is doesn’t mean you can see through it! That’s physically impossible!!

  7. All the issues with the invisibility cloaks are easy to address. It’s a perception filter. Your subconsciousness sees the objects just fine. Thus you wont run into stuff too often. And when you do, just blame witchcraft. Or just ignore it entirely if it wasn’t a big bump.

    As for the issue of seeing thru the occluding object, the human mind is very good at doing exactly that. Ever heard of the blind spot in the eye? Your brain fudges the missing area with what it expects to be there. This even happens for acquired eye damage later in life, the brain will cover it up as long as it can. And that’s just one of the many ways the brain fudges vision.

    And when all else fails, blame witchcraft.

  8. I’m so late here but I just finished the game and I agree with all your points! I especially find it impossible for the big machineries to just scatter around there and not a single villager bumps into it! Also, they never really explained how exactly Layton, Luke, Phoenix, and Maya get inside Labyrinthia, did they? Being a huge AA fan, I absolutely hate the way they overglorify Layton and put him on a pedestal while making Phoenix to be such a “Oh yeah I see what the Professor meant now”. I enjoy playing Prof Layton, but this is too much… Also, I find it hard to like Espella. She’s supposed to be this main character but she’s always just potrayed as someone who’s kind and that’s it—no other personalities. And it was such a missed opportunity how they discarded my boy Barnham like that 🙁
    …and boy, Darklaw. Imagine how she must’ve felt. If I were her I’d end up in a mental institution. Burning hundreds of people and pinning your best friend for that that (albeit subconsciously)??

    • I think Darklaw is supposed to have brought Layton and Luke into Labyrinthia somehow, but I’m not sure about Phoenix and Maya. I didn’t mind their portrayal of Layton compared to Phoenix, although I can see how it would be a little frustrating, haha.

      Oh, the Barnham thing will always disappoint (and confuse) me the most. They were doing such a good job building up his character development, so why just write him out of the plot like that?

  9. Im several years late lol but just finished replaying this game and one big thing that bothered me is- the townspeople couldn’t see the machines bc when they signed the contract, they got the instruction that they couldn’t see pure black

    but… layton luke nick & maya weren’t hypnotised like that, nick and maya were even unexpected visitors so it’s not like they couldve been given that suggestion in advance or something

    so why didn’t they notice the huge machines as soon as they entered?!?!?

    also in the ending scene (with our heroes leaving in the boat), the bell is rung, but everyone is wide awake, what’s up with that? did they find a way to block the effects of the water?

    • also!!! not exactly a plot hole per se, but… dad cantabella & Newton belduke were planning to ring the bell during the festival anyway so the outcome would’ve been the same (with the girls probably dying as well-) right?

      oh AND it seemed a bit unnecessary for cantabella to make up that whole story to espella JUST to stop her ringing the bell? I’d get it if he knew it was dangerous so told her that to scare her away from it, but they were planning to ring it anyway!!
      like why tell a kid “you must never ever ring this bell or terrible things will happen” just to get them to stop pestering you… just seems a bit of overkill lmao

      • I think the four main characters are supposed to have been hypnotized like the others after coming into contact with the ink from the book, although that does leave some questions (especially in the case of Phoenix and Maya).

        The scene with the bell at the end might have been explained, but it’s been long enough since I played it that I can’t remember for sure.

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