#the return of rucy the layton infodumper

[call-me-rucy]

Do you think Professor Layton and Sycamore are color coordinated? I suppose Descole and Layton have a cool vs warm color thing going but I wasn't sure if Sycamore's design related to Layton's design in any obvious way. I think I may be over looking something.

Hey, thanks a lot for this ask, this kind of questions are right up my alley! :D

Before diving in, a disclaimer. I'm not a character designer (although I draw as a hobby) so my info/insight on this matter is merely from the unhinged Layton fan perspective ^^

Second disclaimer: I have already a post that touches about this topic, which can be read here: link. But I believe I will be able to better articulate my thoughts on the topic this time, thanks to the question.

Basically, I believe Layton and Sycamore are indeed color coordinated! And I rise the bet: Sycamore had no right to have the same colours as Layton, but he does.

Here is an image where their palettes are compared. They’re identical!

I think it’s pretty clear they have the same colours, now let’s think, why??

Think of Luke, and Emmy, and Aurora. They all have their distinctive, separate colour patterns. Luke is designed in blue so it can even in tiny pixel distorted form be distingished from Layton at a glance. Emmy follows the same pattern. So why on earth would a character designer so worried about character differentiation give two characters the exact same colours? And more so when one of them is the very main character?! In other words: why isn’t Sycamore color coded green?? (Or white?? Or any other colour??)

And it’s not like it didn’t occur to the character designer. Look at the Decapolice cast, also by Nagano:

The answer I propose is this:

AZRAN LEGACY SPOILERS FOLLOW:

I think this is because the main character of the Professor Layton series is Hershel Layton. And that’s the character that owns the orangey-red and black pallette, the one who screams to us “main character”.

Let me explain: According to the story, the main character of the Layton series was going to be Hershel Bronev. And it is because of this original role of main character that he has the orangey-red and black pallette. And that's so fucking smart.

It would have been so easy to just give design pre-Hershel Layton as the one with the red-black pallete and give the other character another colour. But instead!! The colour goes with the role!! So when Theo takes the role of "Hershel" and "main character", he takes the colours associated with those things, too!!

And this is a bit more watsonian but Hershel gives up the name and the role but not the red-black combo cause they are no other colours for him. So Des keeps his colours (which from a doylistic perspective, he doesn't strictly have to) and Hershel uses Hershel's colours so they both use the same, and also they have the same hair colour and skin colour which totally makes sense. And the Bostonius is the same colour as the Laytonmobile. Because of course it is, they're the same thing!

So here's Desmond Sycamore, a design that copies the professor's main character energy on the basis that he was supposed to be it but is also inspired by Descole's design (see the purple buttons and the shoes) so you see him and he looks like the ultimate rival. (But also Nagano managed to despite using the same colours, make it enough visibly different?? Which is so hard??)

Meanwhile, in a darker timeline where they didn't think the designs as much:

Would still have screamed rival, yes, but it doesn't say "we're made of the same thing" as the true design does.

I think it's impressive, honestly. It's peak storytelling STRICTLY IN COLOUR CHOICES. I wish to be half as good writer/designer as whoever it was that made this call (Nagano or Hino).

And this concludes this session of infodumping. I hope you enjoyed if you stuck enough to read this far.

Thanks again for the question, sweet anon! <3

Please, everyone feel free to send more Layton inquires and/or add your own thoughts to this post. Cheers!

[call-me-rucy]

Was Layton skipping his lectures unnanounced?

Cause people always say he is never doing his job so I thought I’d check.

Last Spectre

Kinda but not completely.

Rosa was on duty and the campus was full of students, but when Emmy encounters Dean Delmona in the Japanese version he says he had promised to give Layton the next few days off. Whether the classes were actually cancelled before Layton left is unclear but I’d say this one is on the Dean and not on Layton.

Eternal Diva

Unlikely.

My take is that it was in a weekend cause I don’t think Luke would’ve been allowed to go to the opera if he had school the next day, it was quite far and it got late by the end of it. Also, recall Schräder was at his home when Emmy visited the next day, and we know he still had an office in Gressenheller by that point!

Miracle Mask

We will never know.

The lack of Gressenheller related characters in this game makes it difficult to know.

Azran Legacy

I guess not?

Yes, he is gone for several months/almost a year on an archaeological investigation, but he has taken the leave of absence before setting off around the world. Interestingly, in the Japanese version he informs Dean Delmona, while in the English version, the Dean already knows he’s going off to investigate.

Curious Village

No.

It’s either late July or August, there’re no lectures.

London’s Holiday

No.

It’s either late July or August, and a Sunday iirc! There’re no lectures.

Pandora’s Box

No.

It’s August. There’re no lectures.

vs. Ace Attorney

Most likely.

In his defense, this time he was kidnapped.

Unwound Future

Yes.

Rosetta specifically mentions that that day’s lecture was cancelled. However, Layton promises there will be another one to make up for it. And he did warn the Dean, although it was probably that same morning.

NWOS

We’ll see.

LMDA

Oh, at some point, definetely.

[call-me-rucy]

On how Hino had two problems when making a new Layton game so he made the two problems cancel each other out and that’s how we got NWOS

It’s so brilliant I’m upset I didn’t think of it first. Not that I work for Level-5 but I always love a good meta theory. Then again, I never imagined we could even get a new Layton game, like, ever. We had no puzzle master, Level-5 in dubious economic state and again, even though they are tiny when compared to the others, these two plot-meta problems.

The first problem is the one which got us the prequel trilogy. 

So Level-5 had made great story-driven puzzle game trilogy! And to end it, the writer (Hino) decides to give us the bittersweet ending ever. Our beloved duo is separated! Oh no! But worry not, because the adventures continues. Eventually, Luke writes from America. The duo will be together once again, surely someday.

Here L-5 pauses to breathe.

Now, Layton has sold really well. The world needs more Layton games. So they think, how do we continue the story? What would Layton going to America even look like? Because Layton will go to America, surely, that’s the kind of friendship Layton and Luke have, of course. Hm... Speaking of which, we’ve never actually explained how that friendship started. That’s interesting, maybe we could do something with that.

Hence: prequel trilogy!

The second problem is the one that got us Katrielle Layton.

By the end of the prequel trilogy, Professor Layton is famous, both in and out-universe. In the Azran Legacy, our beloved characters save the whole freaking world! Suddenly Luke being all “Seriously? An inheritance dispute?” at the beginning of CV takes a whole other level of meaning. Well, it was only fair that they went all out in AL: it was promised to be the final adventure of Professor Layton.

So, even if they were to continue the Layton series, they couldn’t just get Professor Layton, solver of puzzles, savior of worlds and put him in situations. I mean, they could, but they had just promised us that AL was the last adventure, and we cried about it, so it would feel cheap to bring him back soon for a simple mystery. (This later changed as the years passed and there was, effectively, no more Professor Layton).

So! We have a Layton series with no more Professor Layton available. There’s also this mobile game we slapped the Layton brand on that only five nerds have heard about and only three of them played. No one was buying Mystery Room. (Again, this later changed as the years passed and there was, effectively, no more Professor Layton) (I love you Alfendi).

The solution they had was to create a fresh new protagonist, someone who was more similar to the professor (sorry, Al) but had to start from the ground up when talking about solving mysteries.

Hence: Katrielle Layton! (I love you Kat, you deserved better).

So, the conclusion is, if we were going to make a new Professor Layton game, specifically about the cliffhanger ten years ago, we’d have to:

Figure out how America would be different from the usual Professor Layton settings, in familiar England where he moves with ease.

Nerf Layton so that he is not the almighty famous puzzle solver that could clear any mystery in minutes.

AND THE PREMISE OF NWOS SOLVES THOSE TWO PROBLEMS:

The American setting is different from the England one because no one there knows Professsor Layton, just Luke!! He will have to prove himself from zero because it’s an absolutely new setting!! If it is just “Luke and the random guy in a top hat”, you don’t need him to save the world, you just need the story to prove that he not only is “random guy in a top hat”, but that he is Professor Layton.

The two problems solve each other AND I THINK THAT’S BEAUTIFUL!

[call-me-rucy]

Eternal Diva’s leitmotifs

Today in “Rucy won’t shut up about Layton”: I’m obsessed with Janice’s songs.

Basically, I’ve dedicated a few hours of my life to break down the songs of the CD: The Eternal Diva Janice Quatlane into the diferent themes that play during the movie. My post about doing it is gaining a lot of notes, so I hope this is well received and y’all are not liking that other post because astrophysics is cool (it is, but, so is Layton!).

Please be careful: This contains SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE!

Brief disclaimer: While I know a bunch about music theory, it’s been a while since I’ve done a serious analysis and not having the sheets for the music it’s the opposite of convinient. So it may not be 100% perfect, but here we go!

Click in the image for better quality/readability! (The numbers in each cell indicate the approximate time in seconds each motive plays).

The first, most obvious theme in the movie --the whole plot revolves about it-- is the Song of the Sea. In the image it’s represented by the colour dark blue. I divided it in two parts “Song of the Sea” and “Song of the Sea Extended”, because it sometimes the first part pops out alone, like when Layton plays it with the piano or when Nina sings it in the beach.

However, the Song of the Sea is both parts together! As proof for this we have:

In Melina’s room, the Song of the Sea part 1 was fully written out, that’s how Layton can play it. Part 2, “Extended”, was only half written. Descole wouldn’t need Melina if he already had the song written out, would he?

Ambrosia only begins to rise when Melina starts to sing the part of the Song of the Sun I’ve labeled in light blue, the variations of “Song of the Sea Extended”.

It’d be fun, wouldn’t it? If Descole had had the Song of the Sea all that time without needing the Detragan... I wonder if he knew that he had part of it already. While it’s not exactly the version that’s sung in the Song of the Sun, in the song “A transient life’s departure”, which is from the opera, there’s already the long version of the Song of the Sea! Not even 12 minutes into the film, the Song of the Sea is heard as Ambrosia’s Queen dies and Layton narrates.

About the Song of the Sea, the longest version of the leitmotif outside when it’s specifically being sung in the Song of the Sun is in “Janice Tears”, that plays when Melina reveals herself. Interestingly, Indigo Memories has the exact same themes but doesn’t play in the movie (or at least I haven’t found it). In the non-vocal soundtrack there’s also a piece, “Travel Guide”, a version of Descole’s theme, that’s not used.

Aside from that theme, there are other three important leitmotives that I named after their lyrics in the final song: “senya”, in green, “anata dake”, in red, and “fukai” in yellow. “senya” and “anata dake” appear to be the leitmotifs of the opera “The Eternal Kigndom” itself, as they play in all the songs we hear that are part of the opera: “Record of Memories”, “Let this happiness be eternal” and “A transient life’s departure”. Interestingly, “senya” is the theme that Luke recognizes in the vinyl and reminds him of the whole movie.

This way, we can see that the final song of the movie consists basically of Janice singing the Song of the Sea in it’s “Janice’s Tears” version (aka, “Melina is revealed to be alive version”) and then singing all of “The Eternal Kingdom” opera leitmotifs. 7 full minutes of musical callbacks to Melina, that only ends when the credits do, as the Song of the Stars (the first of the three Songs, being also played by the vinyl!) brings us once more back to Layton’s office.

[call-me-rucy]

About Desmond Sycamore

This is the year 2021 and I’m not done talking about this man and his amazing tearjerking plot twist, so thanks to popular demand, here’s the 1k essay.

About his name

This post is brought to you by my brain, who, after 8 years, finally had an epiphany on what the meaning of Sycamore’s original surname is. Well, I say meaning. More like “way of writing”.

As you may know, Desmond’s original name in the Japanese version is “Foster Sahaiman”, originally “Fosutaa Saahaiman”, but that’s the regular Japanese way of spelling Foster so no problem there. Now, about the surname. Most common ways of spellling I’ve seen is either directly like it is in Japanese or, trying to English-ify it by ignoring a bunch of sylabes and going with “Simon”.

I finally found a way to write it in “English”, not ignoring any syllables.

My take is “Sirhighman“. Foster Sirhighman. It’s English sounding, non-existent and tbh sounds like the kind of name Hino would give to such a character. Basically, named him “Dr. Adopted Important-Chatacter”. And then again, we’re talking about the same character than later renamed himself “Desukooru” aka Deathcall (you can pry my headcanon of that being the intended meaning from my call death hands), so, in my opinion, it checks out.

About his colours

Back in the day, before we even knew what the sixth game would be titled, I already had the idea that it would include information about the professor’s early childhood. It was only natural, as the first time we’d heard about Layton’s past had been the end of the first trilogy and then in Miracle Mask we had explored his teen years. We were working backwards to a great and final backstory to close it all. The only problem I had with this deduction was, what would he get from this backstory? From Claire he got the “professor”, the “gentleman”and the hat; from Randall, he got the archaeology and the puzzling solving. If you removed that, all that was left of the character was just a man called Hershel Layton! , I remember thinking, annoyed, not knowing that that “Hershel Layton” was in fact the answer I was looking for.

On an apparent change of subject, I’d like to point out that Takuzo Nagano is an amazing character designer. He’s responsible for most Layton character designs, including Layton, Luke, Flora, Emmy... and of course Sycamore. The main characters are designed so that you can tell who it is with a glance. Blue? Luke. Yellow? Emmy. Orange and light brown? Flora. Dark Blue? Dark Future Luke. Except. Except. Sycamore shares the black and red palette with Layton. And when I say shares, I mean it.

Here I picked the colours to compare: in the scene, their skin, hair, suit and red details colours are extremely, extremely similar. In the credit images they’re downright identical. So much I had to put the shoe colours too so that I wouldnt confuse whose line is whose.

Slow clap for Nagano for designing two such visually different characters even though they share most of their colours.

Desmond’s suit is also (understandably) heavily inspired by Descole’s disguise: see the purple buttons, similar to Descole’s purple ribbon and how the shoes are literally the same. Real fun that Level-5 decided to make obvious from minute 1 of AL (aka the moment Raymond shows up, an then Desmond’s suit and voice) that these two were the same person only to then leave us with the existencial question of “Was Sycamore’s real identity Descole or was Descole’s real identity Sycamore?”.

Where am I going with all this? I’m not certain myself, I’m not particularly good at formalizing my ideas but imagine for a second that you have played all Professor Layton games with the exception of Azran Legacy, and you have no idea who even Sycamore is. And then I present you the following image, tell you it’s an image from the game you haven’t played, and I ask you to point to Hershel.

You’d do it right.

You’d correctly point to the figure with brown hair and dressed in orangey-red and go “That’s Hershel”. And that fact drives me crazy.

Because it there’s one thing Hershel Layton had before Claire, before Randall, apart from his name, it’s his colour scheme. I can only think of two instances before Azran Legacy in which Layton isn’t wearing anything orange or orangy-red (the fencing suit and a credit image in MM; no, I’m not counting Luke’s dream). Even future Layton in LF and the unused AA evil Layton designs had red in them!

So when Hershel gave his brother his name, he was giving him his place in the world, but, design-wise, he was also giving him his character place. The red colour we have learned during 5 games it means “Professor Layton” and “main character”, was not his own but given to him along with the name. Hershel Layton only starts wearing red and orange AFTER he is Hershel Layton, because those colours are the ones inherent to the character named Hershel which he wasn’t before.

It’s also interesting how they both got the same black. Story-wise, Layton wears black to match his hat, who was given by Claire, but she might have chose the colours based on clothes Layton already owned, as seen in the last credit picture of Unwound Future. But design-wise it’s just because he was thought like this. He was the main character and presumibly the first designed and they thought black was nice. I guess Sycamore’s black it’s also a nod to Descole but, for all that, Sycamone could have been in green. Or purple. Or, if you want it plain looking, just brown. Also Descole has a darker black in his cape and shoes, they could have gone with that. The point is: they didn’t need to copy paste Layton’s colour palette into another archaeology professor, but they did, and it’s entirely justified and supported by the story and that’s just beautiful and really clever.

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed reading, feel free to add your own comments on the subject! :D