I think the fact that they gave Layton yet another adopted child when he already had two before that they weren't really doing much with probably ticked off some fans as well. It was, a bit of a mess to say the least...
I haven't played the game myself yet, but from what I've heard, they relied a bit too much on trick questions and poorly worded puzzles or the "gotcha" type of variety, but also not really on a particularly clever way, which ends up frustrating the player more than anything, or a lot of puzzles having the same solutions, there was apparently even one that had two correct answers, but the game only accepted one of them, I've heard that their going to fix those issues with the upcoming Switch port but I guess we'll see...
You'll probably have a better experience with Katrielle and her series if you just watch the anime instead whenever that airs in the west.