Oh boy, I heard the news. My Layton hype meter went off the charts for a good 15 minutes before I calmed down.
I am kind of shocked Christopher Robin Miller would leave a message like that. I mean, it could go both ways. On one hand, he could be lying. He probably knows that he could end up in deep trouble if he ever leaked some important details, but he realized if he if he said that this IMDb deal was all a lie, people would lose hope. Maybe he looked back at the initial circumstances and understood how highly requested Layton is for Smash Bros, so he decided to leave this message so that the Layton support would be maintained.
On the other hand, he could be telling the truth. If he won't voice Layton in Smash Bros, I think his name should've been removed from the Smash Bros IMDb page by now.
In fact, his name is still present on the Smash Bros 3DS IMDb page. Perhaps this is Miller's way of confirming it after all, though I fear his job is at risk for doing that. In fact, I have a feeling that could be way why he made his account private shortly after leaving the message, as well as the fact fans will come after him and ask for more information.
What do I think? He could be speaking the truth. I believe Miller is an honest man, and I really can't imagine him lying to destroy our hearts. Even then, it's also worth mentioning that in the Smash Bros 3DS IMDb page, Yo Oizumi, Layton's Japanese VA, has also appeared on that same page. Perhaps someone should ask him as well if there is any validity to this (assuming one of us can speak Japanese). Yet again, if Yo Oizumi isn't doing any voice acting for Smash Bros, shouldn't he have done something by now? Since his and Miller's name are still up there, I can't help but think to myself, "Something is going on here!"
Of course, I won't be surprised if it turns out he was just toying with our hearts. Since Professor Layton is my most wanted character for Smash Bros, I should take today's news as a promising sign, yet I must be ready for the worst.
Even then, I'm kind of glad news like this has emerged. It's giving the Professor more attention than before. Whether a rumor becomes real or not, it can still generate additional support for that character thanks to the hype surrounding such news.
I'm also skeptical about Layton appearing in Smash, but he would definitely be a welcome addition to me. If he does make it in, here's the question: Will he have made it in as a Smash Ballot winner, or as a surprise preballot choice?
At the moment, I think Layton could be a preballot choice. Sakurai is a master troll, and perhaps he was lying about Ryu, Roy, and Lucas being the last of the pre-Smash Ballot DLC to catch us off guard for a bigger surprise (Layton) later on. The ballot doesn't close until October 3rd, so I don't think Sakurai will start looking at the results until then (although it could be possible he might be reading some of the ballots for his spare time, so there could be the small chance that Layton could indeed be a Ballot winner; again, this is under the assumption that Layton does make it in).
Now to temporarily change the topic.
I was just wondering. Is there any particular professor Layton game you guys would recommend for newcomers to the series?
I know some users have already provided some suggestions, but I thought I'd help contribute.
Pretty much like everyone else suggested, start with Curious Village and play the games in order of release date. Once you finish Last Specter, watch Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (the Layton movie), then continue playing the games. The Layton movie is actually canon to the Layton storyline, and the events in the film take place between Last Specter and Miracle Mask. The second trilogy of the Layton games, the prequel trilogy as it is called, does a really good job at introducing new mysteries that will make you want to play the next game, and the movie will definitely leave some questions that adds the hype value to the following games. It's also an awesome movie, and you can watch it on Youtube at the moment (just type in the movie's name on the Youtube search bar and it should be one of the first results). I'm just mentioning all of these details about the movie to get you hyped for the future.
Have fun playing the Layton games and watching the movie when you get the chance! The puzzles can be entertaining, and the stories in the Layton series are my favorite from all video game series I've ever experienced.
Either way though, this is still exciting news (at least this is spurring some chat, lol) and hopefully it'll at least bring some more support out from fans if it gets big.
This could ALSO mean that he's being brought back for DLC with the assets that went unused.
