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 graphics. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences.

This game/console's online features are no longer supported. While this game/console's online features were once accessible, they are (as of May 20, 2014) no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

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

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the third and probably most well-received game in the Layton saga, where Layton and Luke travel to a London set 10 years forward to stop the professor's future self, who has supposedly turned evil. It's the longest game in the series with a whopping 15 chapters (prologue and epilogue included) and over 200 puzzles counting the weekly ones, but it still got a surprisingly good localization from Nintendo.

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

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 Graphics

Dummies

c904.limg and c905.limg are sprites of dummy characters, used for testing dialogue.

c904.cimg and c905.cimg are their names, Dummy 1 and Dummy 2.

Maps

g19.cimg is a very poorly-drawn top-screen map, likely used as a placeholder or for testing purposes.

m1014a.cimg and m1015a.cimg share this graphic that was probably also just for testing, as suggested by the quality and little location markers with labels.

The texts in the graphic are:

• スコットランドヤード (Scotland Yard)
• 犬学 (Cynology)
• ミッドレント (from the in-game location ミッドレント通り? (Midland Road))
• ぬける ("(to be) omitted")

Test Sprites

p1601a_tst.limg, p1701a_tst.limg, p1806a_tst.limg, and p1808_tst.limg are exactly as described: test sprites for objects and people on the Touch Screen. One is Don Paolo's flying machine from the front, one is a static NPC sprite of Bostro, one is Don Paolo's flying machine again but from the side (and drained of color), and the other is the glass cage Flora was trapped in and the machine Bill Hawks was hooked up to.

Other

ebg093.limg is an image from Curious Village's end credits (as well as Hidden Door).

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 and pertaining to a parrot in good health.

\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 play. 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 that 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

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is there a way to get this to actually show up in-game to see how it might have looked?

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…。

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Miscellaneous Text

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 

Translation:

(Te)st: Let's interact with the alpaca(s).\ Test: Try touching it more.\ Try touching it even more.\ Let's make it fluffy.\ (It's) fluffy!\ Farewell!\
(??): Gachapin Challenge.\ (??, lower touch screen?)\: Touch the big Gacha when it appears red!\ (Bottom) hit.\ Hit!\ (Bottom) Miss\Miss...

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.

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 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 will appear above their heads. Talking to the person starts a minigame where they'll 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 it reaches 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 longer words to unlock, 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, repurposed as regular discussions. The minigame might have been removed due to being redundant, since the Story Book already offers 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's puzzle count is the same between all versions, this 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 decided 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-functional solutions. 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, that's never unlocked in the US/EU despite being functional and fully translated in English; that's a shame...