The Professor Layton series suffers from a curse shared by all franchises which create and define their own genres. While games cut from a less original cloth can change wildly between iterations, a logic-puzzle-adventure-mystery series like Layton doesn't really have much room to mix things up without defying the tropes that made everyone fall in love with it in the first place. In short, don't expect the Good Professor to engage in any first-person deathmatches any time soon.

The way franchises like Layton introduce change between entries is by expanding the game's universe and deepening the player's connections with its characters. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future does so swimmingly -- but wow, does it take its sweet, gentlemanly time in doing so.