Category Archives: Unwound Future

Thanksgiving Break Games

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Just a quick update, since I beat a game! A couple days ago I finished Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. I’ll get to that momentarily.

During the break I also played a bit of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I’m completely breaking my “one game at a time” rule, but I wanted to mix things up a bit. I’m pretty close to the end, I think, and I may go for it. I’m going to try to throw some FF XIII-2 in here and there so it stays fresh.

Oh, and I also started Professor Layton and the Last Specter.

See? I can’t just stick with one game.

Anyway, here’s a quick commentary on Unwound Future. SPOILERS follow.

I liked the ending better than Diabolical Box. The explanation for the “time travel” wasn’t completely bonkers. London had been re-created deep underground and the time machine was actually a large elevator. It’s financially and possibly physically improbable, but it’s within the realm of belief. Less believable to me is how they made a convincing sky — or maybe the London sky really is that dull?

Anyway, this Truman Show-esque ending wasn’t bad. What I’ve liked about the Layton series is that (so far) it hasn’t given supernatural explanations for things. Even if the explanation is insane and improbable (Diabolical Mask), they still give something resembling a scientific explanation. They come close to violating this in Unwound — Layton’s old girlfriend, who had died 10 years ago in a time machine accident, had been propelled 10 years into the future. That’s cool — time travel to the future is definitely possible, given enough speed. What was less cool was that her (ahem) molecules wanted to return to her own time. Then she started glowing, walked around a corner and then presumably went back to when her homesick molecules wanted to be. Then, of course, she was vaporized by the time machine explosion, since they never found her body.

Also, the bad guys “came to [their] senses” remarkably fast at the end of the game. I’m pretty sure that’s not how things work.

Still, all that weirdness didn’t ruin it by any stretch. The puzzles were lots of fun, and the story (while somewhat silly) was entertaining.

Back from Vacation

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I got back a couple days ago from a visit with the in-laws. It was in St. Louis, so of course we all melted.

I figure that a vacation allows for a few broken rules, so I broke a few. I played a lot of Fez, getting (I’m guessing) about half-way through. Fez is a ton of fun. My only gripe is that traveling to any particular level can take a while.

I also played and beat Contre Jour HD for iPad. It’s a pretty clever game, in some ways resembling Cut the Rope, also from the same publisher. The idea is to maneuver a weird circular eyeball thing around, optionally collecting clusters of light, to a large blob of light, thereby completing the level. I managed to collect all lights from every level except for all three from level 5–19. I resorted to trying to cheat for that level, but there’s no info online for it, oddly.

I also purchased a couple games. I found Professor Layton and the Last Specter on clearance for $20, so I grabbed that. I also bought a used copy of Dissidia Final Fantasy and I’m already regretting it. I don’t think I’m going to buy used games from Game Stop in the future — I didn’t get a manual. Just the box and game. And there was no “Hey, just so you know, there’s no manual included; is that okay?” or anything like that. They just assumed I didn’t care. Plus the box was a little beat up. Not a big deal, I guess, but it’s a weird assumption to make.

I also played some more of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, which I’ve been playing on and off for a while now. There’s not much to say about it, other than I’m a little worried about the plot. The explanation given at the end of Diabolical Box for all the strangeness in the game was a little weak, I thought. Not that it matters much — the enjoyment from Layton games comes from the puzzles and not the plot, but I really did groan at the end of Diabolical Box.

So I bought two games, played some of two others and beat yet another. That breaks two rules, but hey: I was on vacation.

Now that I’m back, I’ll set aside Fez and Unwound Future to finish Final Fantasy XIII-2. Then I’ll probably finish Fez. I also might make an exception to the “one game at a time” rule to occasionally play Unwound Future. I mean, I’ve certainly played games like Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies since the creation of this blog. The idea is to not play more involved games like FFXIII-2 and Dragon Age at the same time.