All in the Family: ‘Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy — Deluxe Edition’ for Nintendo Switch

The puzzle-filled adventures of Professor Hershel Layton have been delighting gamers since the early 2000s. Level-5’s Professor Layton and the Curious Village hit the Nintendo DS in 2007, and since then, the franchise has effortlessly migrated to the 3DS and smartphones, been translated to other media like film and manga, and even managed an epic crossover with the similarly mystery-minded Phoenix Wright.

The latest chapter in the Layton saga is a spin-off of sorts. It features Katrielle, the good professor’s daughter, who solves the seemingly unsolvable with the help of her own boy Friday, Ernest Greeves, as well as a talking dog, Sherl. If this narrative fever dream sounds oddly familiar, it should; it was originally released for Android, iOS, and Nintendo 3DS back in the summer of 2017.

Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy initially received a bit of a mixed reception on the 3DS, likely due in part to the lack of Layton the elder, but this new deluxe edition — beautifully remastered in HD for the Nintendo Switch — fleshes out the original offering with new content and fills a peculiar, mysteriously-shaped hole in the domestic Switch lineup.

The overall shape of the game shouldn’t surprise those who played it on the 3DS or, for that matter, anyone who’s ever put themselves into the crime-fighting shoes of a member of the Layton clan. You will navigate cityscape maps, explore crime scenes and talk to the denizens of this quirky, timeless London, and regularly solve clever, humorous puzzles as you unravel larger, thematically linked mysteries.

You’ll also be regularly treated to gorgeous anime-style cut-scenes that truly bring the game world to life. While Level-5 has always gone the extra mile for its tent pole franchises like Layton and Yo-kai Watch, I cannot overstate how amazing this new Switch version looks and sounds. It’s a feast for the senses that, in truth, makes me more than a little impatient for an American release of Yo-kai…