Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Also known as: Professor Layton and the Lost Future (EU/AU), Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou (JP) Developer: Level-5 Publishers: Level-5 (JP), Nintendo (US/EU) Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: November 27, 2008 Released in US: September 12, 2010 Released in EU: October 21, 2010 This game has unused areas. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences.

To do: Document the many text differences between the US and UK versions (ex. puzzle names being different for the same puzzles and even cutscenes with reworked dialogue).

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the absolute highlight of Level-5's first trilogy of Professor Layton puzzle games: coming with 200 (including DLC) of the best puzzles in the series after those of Diabolical Box, it offers a very well-crafted storyline concluding the trilogy, supported by gorgeous cutscenes from Production I.G. and a surprisingly good localization from Nintendo.

Actually, given the game's heavy reliance on some puzzles on Japanese language subtleties, it's rather surprising it got localized.

Sub-Pages

Lost in Translation The altered puzzles, some of which can be solved without any prior knowledge of Japanese.

English Translation Differences (Contains spoilers!) A lot more change in English text this time around.

Unused Text

Untranslated Japanese Dialogue

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

06.cpck contains two untranslated lines, belonging to Luke and Layton respectively.

\0ルーク\0<T>先生！あれがオウムでしょうか。

\0レイトン\0<T>そのようだね。

元気に飛んでいるなあ。\0<T>なんとか近くで

物まねを聞いてみたいな。

Placeholders

11.cpck contains a line of, well...self-explanatory.

When point is tapped again after puzzle is solved. Placeholder text.

12.cpck contains a line of text explaining what the next cutscene to be played is.

Movie of Dimitri rushing to the 

lab after the explosion. Bill

wounded and Claire dead.

The exact reason why this is present is unknown, as there are no other brief summaries of cutscenes in between text where they happen. It's possible that it was put there to remind one of the localizers to go back and add the code to play the movie and they simply forgot to remove it, or it was to give context of the scene to the other localizers translating/proofreading the text.

13.cpck contains another line that explains itself.

Placeholder text. Puzzle Cleared.

Unused Ending Text

14.cpck contains rather bittersweet words from Professor Layton, talking about Claire. This is placed between the last line of non-cutscene dialogue and Luke's letter, meaning it was likely intended to show up after the cutscene of his final farewell to her and before the cutscene of Luke's departure, or after both cutscenes but before showing the contents of Luke's letter. Note that the Japanese version has been slightly edited to remove the code for furigana (writing kana on top of kanji to help kids pronounce it), which may look like regular characters in the same sentence to non-Japanese speakers.

English (Unwound Future)

Japanese (Saigo no Jikan Ryokou)

\0レイトン\0That day I met the first and only puzzle that ever left me completely at a loss for its solution.\0In fact, I'm still unsure if what I witnessed was real, or just the product of my heart's dearest wish.\0It's a riddle to which no one has an answer. But I do know that even now the warmth of her hand lingers upon my cheek.\0I'm uncertain about much of what transpired but I know that I loved Claire dearly, and that fact is indisputible.

\0レイトン\0<V0010><T>あの日、私は初めて解明できない ナゾがあることを知った。</V>\0<V0020><T>それは、本当に起こったことなのか… 幻だったのか。</V>\0<V0030><T>今となってはもう誰にもわからない。 ただ、私の頬には彼女の手のぬくもり が、今も残っていた。</V>\0<V0040><T>ひとつだけ確かなことがある。 私は、間違いなく… 誰かを愛していたのだということ…。

Miscellaneous Text

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

99.cpck features various Japanese text, as well as three pieces of text that each say 'test'.

 \0てすと\0アルパカさんと触れ合ってみよう。\0テスト\0もっとタッチしてみよう。\0もっともっとタッチしてみよう。\0モフモフしてみよう。\0モフモフ！\0さらばだ！

\0上\0ガチャピンチャレンジ\0下通常\0枠が赤いときに大ガチャをタッチ！\0下ヒット\0ヒット！\0下ミス\0ミス。。。

 \0test1\0\0test2\0\0test3 

Regional Differences

Name Entry Screen

As with most localized Japanese games, the sub-menus for kana are dummied out: Only alphanumeric characters are left. Oddly enough, a set of symbol characters got excised as well, though it is not difficult to see why. Circle, Square, Cross and Triangle symbols would be out of place in a game localized by Nintendo.

Talking Parrot Minigame

The parrot in the Japanese version can talk to twelve people in the game. And by talking, we mean using 45 pre-defined words to complete sentences, to answer them. Your parrot starts without knowing any words, but he learns new words as rewards for some puzzles.

You would choose from the Parrot menu the person you want to play the minigame with. When you get to the place where that person is, the parrot would appear above their heads. Talking to the person would start a minigame where they would say two sentences: you have to fill in the blanks of the reply correctly.

A percentage appears on the menu as well of how friendly the parrot is with Luke: it unlocks the bonus puzzles when reaching 100%.

In the localized versions, this minigame has been replaced with another one where you tie ropes between sticks so that the Parrot bounces on it. The goal is to deliver objects to these twelve persons, and there are no more words to unlock, but just the twelve delivery missions for each of these people.

The text relevant to the parrot conversations is still more or less used in the English version, only as a regular discussion. The minigame might have been removed due to being redundant, with the Story Book already offering a similar challenge.

Japan	International

Change in Picarats

The international versions of the game changed the amount of Picarats obtainable for a few of the puzzles. The maximum Picarats obtainable remains the same however.

Puzzle Number	JP	US/Europe
#27	10	30
#96	50	40
#108	40	30

Unused Wi-Fi Puzzles

To do: Get a better video, or replace with screenshots.

While the main story puzzle count is the same between all versions, it is not the case for the downloadable puzzles… The original Japanese games all offered 52 Wi-fi puzzles, out of which 35 were localized for the third and fourth games (an improvement over the 26 of the first two games). Some of the DLC puzzles were added in the main story, and NoA considered it wasn’t worth it to replace the pun-heavy DLC ones as they were already struggling with the main puzzles.

However, the rest of the DLC puzzles (17 puzzles) are still in the US version, complete with unaltered Japanese graphics and fully working with the solutions of the JP release. Only their titles and texts are blanked out. They can be accessed by hacking the save file to unlock them.

Oddly enough, there is another unused puzzle, Puzzle W034: Cluttered Bag 2: Despite being functional and fully translated in English, this puzzle is never unlocked in the US/EU, which is a shame.