The Professor Layton series follows an English gentleman solving brain teasers and occult mysteries with his apprentice Luke. The Ace Attorney series follows lawyer Phoenix Wright as he breaks down the logical flaws in witnesses' testimonies to protect his clients and uncover the truth in a court of law. At first glance they might not seem all that similar. But upon closer inspection, they both revolve around one simple concept: challenging your very ability to think. And it is this very reason that Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is one of the best crossover games ever made.

Good — True to the Feel of Both Parent Titles

The most obvious potential problem when combining Ace Attorney and Professor Layton is the setting. Ace Attorney takes place almost exclusively at the crime scene or in a courtroom. Layton, on the other hand, often takes place in various isolated and mystical locations. Yet, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney overcomes this potential obstacle by picking the perfect setting for both: a witch trial in a self-contained (and quite literal) storybook world. Thus when it comes time to gather evidence, Layton and Luke are free to wander around the city contained inside the book, doing puzzles and solving mysteries. Then when it's time for the trial, Phoenix and Maya can use the collected evidence and revelations to protect their accused client in the medieval courtroom setting. In other words, it is a game that perfectly manages to combine the spirit of both parent series.

Good — Phoenix and Layton vs. God

Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is not, however, what the title implies. While hardly seeing eye to eye all the time, Layton and Phoenix are both firmly on the side of the young girl Mahone who has been accused of being a witch. The villain in the story is actually the "Storyteller," the writer of the book they are in. The Storyteller quite literally controls the fate of all those inside the book. Even those coming from the outside can be influenced to some degree by what he writes once in his world. So in reality, this game isn't really Phoenix versus Layton, it's much more along the lines of "Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton vs. God."

Of course, given the enemies the two of them have faced in their respective series, this "god" might need to ask them for a handicap.

Good — The Mixture of New and Old

The gameplay style of the Professor Layton section is virtually unchanged from the games in the main series. But the Ace Attorney parts of the game now include multiple witness testimony and a spell book (for reference), among several other changes.

While I have only played the first two Layton games and can't make an across-the-board comparison, I found the puzzles in Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney to be quite good in general as they almost always seem to have a well implemented visual component ranging from picture matching to mazes.

The witch trials, on the other hand, are often on par with the best courtroom scenes the Ace Attorney series has to offer. This comes largely from the handicaps facing Phoenix. He is in a world where he is ignorant of the local laws and customs—not to mention the actual physical laws of a world where magic exists. Moreover, this reality is akin to a medieval fantasy. Thus, the majority of forensic science is non-existent—forcing him to rely on critical thinking more than ever before.

Good — Excellent Presentation

While the Professor Layton games have had voice acting sprinkled through their narratives from the beginning (not to mention an animated feature film), the Ace Attorney games have always been voice free (other than the lawyers' shouted commands of "objection!" "hold it!" and "take that!"). Thus Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is the first time gamers will get to hear Phoenix and Maya speak. In the Japanese version, they are voiced by Hiroki Narimiya and Mirei Kiritani, reprising their roles as Phoenix and Maya from this year's Ace Attorney live action film which makes for a great sense of continuity.

While nowhere near every line is voiced, the climactic (or fan service-filled) moments in each chapter are voiced. There are also more than a few anime cutscenes where the animation is easily on par with Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. The only odd thing about the visual presentation is that the Layton characters and Ace Attorney characters retain their original character designs from their respective series. But while the two styles do clash a bit at first glance, within a few minutes of playing you won't notice.

Mixed — Two Games Long

If the game has any one potential problem, it's how long it is. The game is separated into twelve chapters—six for Phoenix and six for Layton—which each take two to three hours to complete. Thus this is easily a 30-plus hour game—and that's assuming you don't get stuck. On one hand, that means it really is as long as a Layton game and an Ace Attorney game put together; so you have an epically long adventure. On the other, it means that if you only care about one of the principal leads, you'll have to slog through an entire game's worth of "irrelevant" content to see the resolution of the story.

Final Thoughts

In Japanese gaming, major company crossovers are nothing new. But Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is far more than a simple character crossover. It is a true combination of two games—not only in characters but also in gameplay and tone. If you are a fan of both the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series, this game may live up to even your wildest expectations. But even if you only like one of the parent series, this game is still worth a play. In the end, it really is a strong entry into both series.

Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney was released in Japan on November 29, 2012, for the 3DS in Japan. There has yet to be an announcement one way or the other in regard to an international release.

Resident Evil 4 was released as a GameCube exclusive. And when Capcom ported the game to the PlayStation 2, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is quoted as saying he would "cut [his] own head off". That infamous quote was probably a mistranslation. But there's a reason why Mikami seemed so antagonistic towards Sony. What's more, there's a reason why the game didn't end up first on the original Xbox, instead.

According to Eurogamer, Mikami wanted to get Resident Evil away from Sony. He saw two new, upcoming consoles: the GameCube and the Xbox. Xbox co-creator Kevin Bachus recalls the meeting with Mikami—a meeting that went horribly.

The entire meeting was conducted in Japanese, and Bachus, who doesn't speak Japanese, got notes explaining what was being said. Mikami's body language and tone, however, showed that he wasn't exactly pleased by what he was hearing from the Xbox Japan staff. The meeting ended abruptly, Mikami bowed, and left.

From the Eurogamer piece:

The translator explained: Mikami had confirmed what Microsoft had heard, that he was frustrated developing for PlayStation 2, which was tough to work with. But his team's bonuses were tied to game sales. He needed a reason, a way to explain the shift away from the wildly successful PlayStation 2, the dominant platform of the time, to the Xbox, which had yet to launch, and which in most Japanese eyes was doomed to failure. "What do you guys have to offer?" he asked, bluntly.

For Mikami, Nintendo said games were toys, created by the brilliant Shigeru Miyamoto. Sony said games are entertainment, powered by the Emotion Engine. And Microsoft had no answer.

"I almost jumped out the window because we had said repeatedly over and over and over that we aspire to enable games that could be considered to be art, much like film," Bachus recalls. "So the guy who reported to me said, 'Oh that's so great! I wish that I had known that.' But unfortunately it was too late."

Microsoft tried to make another go with Mikami, but the Resident Evil creator had already made an agreement with Nintendo. "That's why Resident Evil 4 was a Nintendo exclusive, and it took a while for it to come to Xbox," says Bachus. "That was very frustrating." If it's any consolation, the whole ordeal didn't seem like a cake walk for Mikami, either.

Why Xbox Failed in Japan [Eurogamer]

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In the upcoming Hollywood flick Pacific Rim, actress Rinko Kikuchi is Mako Mori, one of the film's lead pilots to battle the dreaded kaiju.

Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro's big love letter to Japanese monster movies like Godzilla and anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion. Too bad Japan isn't exactly in love with Kikuchi.

The actor made a big splash internationally with her role as Chieko, a deaf high school girl. This didn't only put her on the map in the West, it did the same for her in Japan. Nobody really knew who the heck she was.

Kikuchi didn't make a name for herself like many Japanese celebrities and actors typically do, which is either by appearing in numerous TV dramas, variety shows, or in a string of commercials. The Japanese film industry is a shell of its former self. TV is king.

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Even though she did appear in a few dramas, such as Liar Game, prior to Babel, and she did some car ads, Kikuchi never was really able to parlay that into becoming a huge star in Japan.

After Kikuchi was nominated for an Academy Award, the first Japanese female to get an Oscar nod in 57 years, and became the face of Chanel, Japanese success remained elusive. She did top an opinion poll about who Japan was most proud of internationally, but that seemed to flitter away. The TV commercials dried up, and she didn't appear on variety or talk shows. Thus, people just kind of forgot about her.

A Livedoor News article from 2007 talked how in the wake of her international success, Kikuchi wasn't exactly in demand back at home and wasn't popular with Japanese housewives. When you don't have a fan base, being a talented actor isn't enough in Japan.

On 2ch, Japan's largest bulletin board, a thread talked about why Kikuchi hadn't become popular in her home country. The thread is fairly brutal (actually, it's really brutal), and some say her looks aren't appealing to Japanese, while others commented about the graphic nudity in Babel. Some didn't even know who she was.

But one of the main issues seemed to be how in Japan the mass media and the country's entertainment complex work in tandem. Her success was achieved outside of that realm. And then when she actually did appear on Japanese TV, she seemed somewhat awkward and not exactly quick with quips—a necessity to survive in mainstream Japanese show business. For many Japanese it's perhaps baffling why she, out of all the Japanese actors, has been successful abroad. For Americans, it's probably akin to when particular entertainers become far more popular in foreign countries than in Hollywood.

Since Babel, Kikuchi has done mostly foreign film work (though, she did do voice acting on two Mamoru Oshii anime). Next year, she'll be appearing in two major films, 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves and the previously mentioned Pacific Rim. This one-two punch could help her finally achieve widespread popularity at home. Or, more likely, those films will add to an already impressive resume.

菊地凛子はなぜ人気が出ないのか [2ch]

The End of Gyaku-Yu'nyū [Neomarxisme]

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Back in the days before the infamous Grand Theft Auto "Hot Coffee" scandal, it was common practice in game development to simply leave unfinished content on the disk. Sometimes this data was cut due to time issues, other times it was old data from early in the game's development that no longer fit the vision of the final game. Early PlayStation one games often have a wealth of this "dummied content." In the past here at Kotaku East, we've taken a look at some of the dummied content from Final Fantasy VII—namely the greatly expanded scenes at the Honey Bee Inn. Today, we're going to look at another early PS1 Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Tactics to see what remains from parts of the game that for some reason never came to be.

Perhaps the biggest cut in Final Fantasy Tactics comes in the form of six battle stages hidden in the games code. Three of these are complete and fully playable (via gameshark): Hospital in Slums, Warjilis Trade City, and Gate of Limberry Castle—though each room in the hospital can only be seen from a specific angle. The other three battlefields—Inside Castle Gate at Lesalia, Outside Castle Gate at Lesalia, and Main Street of Lesalia—are somewhat playable but there are glitches which make the wrong movement and attack range information appear. Also hidden in the code are four maps which appear to be prototype maps to test the game's battle system.

There are 20 normal job classes in Final Fantasy Tactics (as well as an additional nine special classes), however the game's code hides an additional nine jobs on top of those that are never seen in the game proper. These classes are: Cardinal, Duke (Goltanna), Duke (Larg), Grand Duke, Elder, False Saint, High Confessor, Viscount, and Witch of the Coven. Basically, every character in the game has a job, regardless of whether they ever enter battle or not. So, these classes don't have any skills in them, but oddly, they do each have a description for each of the classes.

There is also one giant piece of content cut from only the Western versions (both PS1 and PSP) of the game: The Sound Novels. These are a set of four choose-your-own-adventure-style side quests. They are not part of the main story, but they do flesh out the world of Ivalice. (They can be found fan translated into English here).

In addition to the maps, jobs, and sound novels mentioned above, there are also dummied skill sets, abilities, and several unused enemy/item/character sprites—including one character spite complete with portrait.

Frankly there's a lot of content hidden on the Final Fantasy Tactics disk. And getting to see it all these years later is an interesting look into the design process of it and other similar games. To see the full list of dummied content in Final Fantasy Tactics check out the full entry at the Final Fantasy Wiki.

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Yes, right here! Watch it! Originally released in 2000 on the PlayStation, Dragon Quest VII is headed to the 3DS in Japan next February.

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To show its gratitude to the Final Fantasy and the Metal Gear series, Sony is launching a special "character bento" (kinda like this, I assume). Sony hasn't yet unveiled the actual meal, but today it did show off the bento box the food will go in. The bento box that looks like a new PlayStation 3, that is.

Creating this bento box required both the work of a laser cutting machine as well as a traditional wood craftsman. According to 4Gamer, the box was then treated at a traditional lacquerware studio in Kyoto. The resulting lunch container is an elegant combination of tech and tradition.

「究極のキャラ弁」を収めるPS3型の"お重"が完成 [4Gamer]

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After what seems like an eternity on the horizon, Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot is almost with us. To help you get up to speed on what's going down, here's five minutes of footage giving you the rundown on DMC, some of it helpful, some of it... less so.

But that's OK, because these are the samurai of tomorrow, not yesterday. They're by the toy masters at ThreeA, and while there's no price yet, that's irrelevant, because I want one.

Looks like they go on sale on December 20.

They say.. [ThreeA]

A petition calling on the United States to begin construction of a moon-sized superweapon has achieved 25,000 signatures, which according to the rules of the Obama administration's feel-good bullshit platform "We the People," requires a response from the White House. None has yet been made.

You might recall all those articles of secession a bunch of folks drew up and signed after Obama was re-elected, and the fact they've also gotten the requisite 25,000 twangs of approval from America's spittoon. The 30-day signing window just closed for them, too, presumably meaning an official administration response is forthcoming. Wouldn't it be awesome if the White House engaged this one first, just to troll the neo-secessionists?

How reasonable is this proposal, anyway? Well, an actual Death Star costs $852 quadrillion (it's in the Skymall catalog, next to the high speed money counter and the limited edition 14K gold Dale Earnhardt hotdog cooker.) Even if it's a virtual lock defense spending will not be touched in the current fiscal cliff pose-off; I think even Republicans would find that kind of a big ticket item to be a hard sell right now.

If this particular initiative results in the total destruction of anything, maybe it's the idea that these petition efforts are useful for anything other than making people feel like they're doing something without actually doing something.

It would be as if thousands of voices suddenly cried out, and were silenced. Good.

Empire strikes: White House to respond to Death Star petition. [CNET]

Sorry if that sounded like an idle fanfic question. I couldn't care less what your imagination says. What I do care about is videos going to the trouble of dressing up professional stunt people/fighters and having them go at it... in the name of idle fanfic curiosity.

Chun-Li vs Tifa (Street Fighter 2 vs Final Fantasy VII) - Girl Fight! [YouTube]