Professor Layton - Series

The only games and media with overarching structure are The Last Specter, The Eternal Diva, The Miracle Mask and The Azran Legacy. Other games and media in the Professor Layton series do not have any overarching structure or direct connection to each other, but do follow a chronological order through the appearance of reoccurring characters met in earlier works.

Main series
Professor Layton and the Curious Village: The first game in the series, released for the Nintendo DS in Japan during 2007 and localized elsewhere during 2008. Layton and his young apprentice Luke are invited to the town of St. Mystere by the family of late Baron Augustus Reinhold to figure out the secret behind his last will and testament, in which he stated that anyone who found the Golden Apple hidden within the town would be entitled to his entire fortune. Upon entering the town, it is clear to both of them that the curious village holds many more secrets than they had expected. They solve their way through 138 puzzles to discover the truth behind St. Mystere.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box: The second game in the series, released for the Nintendo DS in Japan during 2007 and localized elsewhere during 2009. It is known in PAL regions as Professor Layton and Pandora's Box. It begins with the Professor and Luke traveling to meet Layton's mentor, Dr. Schrader, who has sent the pair a letter detailing his procuring of the Elysian Box, a chest rumored to kill anyone who tried to open it. Upon walking into his apartment, he is found lying on the floor, dead, with the box missing. The only clue he left behind was a train ticket for the high-class Molentary Express without a mentioned destination, which they promptly catch to begin their investigation to find out more on the fate of Dr. Schrader, and the whereabouts of his diabolical box. During their search, they encounter 153 additional puzzles.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: The third game in the series, released for the Nintendo DS in Japan during 2008 and localized elsewhere during 2010. It is known in PAL regions as Professor Layton and the Lost Future. The game starts upon Luke receiving a letter purportedly sent by himself, ten years into the future, only a week after an accident in which Dr. Stahngun's failed demonstration of a time machine caused himself and the Prime Minister to vanish. He and Layton travel to a desolate part of town to investigate a clock shop, but upon walking out, find themselves to have been thrust forward into the future London, ten years from then. In their efforts to find the truth of their unwound future, they are forced to solve 168 new puzzles, and to remember a forgotten past. This game is currently the last in the series chronologically.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter: The fourth game in the series was released for the Nintendo DS in Japan during 2009 and North America on October 17, 2011. It is known in Europe as Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call. It is, chronologically, the first game in the series, in which Layton is called by an old friend named Clark to the mysterious, dark, and foggy town of Misthallery, where legends exist of a great, shadowy giant who protects the region whenever a special flute is played to summon him. However, recently, the figure has turned against the village, and it is up to the Professor, a young boy of the village named Luke Triton who is heavily involved in the legend of the Specter, and Layton's new assistant Emmy Altava, to figure out why the specter is wreaking havoc in the town. Together, they investigate the village and the Last Specter, and, while doing so, solve another 170 puzzles. In the USA and Japan, the game also includes an RPG called London Life, which was co-developed by Brownie Brown. It was excluded from the EU version due to 'time constraints'.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask: The fifth game in the series, released as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS on February 26, 2011 in Japan, releasing in the UK on the 26 October 2012, and in North America on the 28 October 2012. Professor Layton, Luke, and Emmy travel to a place known as Monte d'Or in search of a powerful mask said to have created the city. Professor Layton is forced to recall his past in order to uncover the secret of the mask in the present. The truth is hidden deep within the Miracle Mask. Level-5 claims that the game will have daily puzzles available for download over Nintendo Network via SpotPass for a full year.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy: Level-5 confirmed a 6th and final game for the second trilogy taking place after The Miracle Mask and the second film chronologically. In a Nintendo Direct presentation on August 29, 2012, the title was revealed to be Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy for the Nintendo 3DS and, according to Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino, is the last Layton title to star Layton himself as the protagonist. It was released in Japan on February 28, 2013, Europe on November 8, 2013, and North America on February 28, 2014.

Lady Layton: The Millionaire Ariadone's Conspiracy: A Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android video game developed by Level-5. It stars Professor Layton's daughter, and is set to be released in Japan in the first quarter of 2017.

Spin-Off
Layton Brothers: Mystery Room: An iOS/Android video game, Layton Brothers: Mystery Room (レイトンブラザーズ・ミステリールーム Reiton Burazāzu Misuterī Rūmu?), was released on September 21, 2012 with the main protagonists being Lucy Baker and Alfendi Layton, son of Professor Layton. This is Level-5's first iOS game.

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Announced on October 19, 2010 at Level-5's annual vision event, this game is a cooperative project between Level-5 and Capcom, and a crossover between the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series. In it, Professor Layton, Luke, Phoenix Wright, and Maya Fey, find themselves in a medieval world separate from their own, known as Labyrinthia. This world is controlled by a man known as the Storyteller, who can make anything he writes down a reality. The land also speaks tales of witches, who hide in the shadows. It was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS on 29 November 2012, in Europe on 28 March 2014, a day later in Australia and in North America on the 29 August 2014.

The game is essentially a collection of puzzles with exploration sections between them. The player (as Professor Layton, Luke and other characters) explore their environments in a point-and-click adventure game fashion using the DS's touchscreen. This can be used to talk with non-player characters, learn more about the environment, moving between different areas, or to find hint coins that are used during puzzles. Often, when interacting with a person or object, the player will be presented with a puzzle, valued at a number of "picarats", a type of currency within the game. Solving the puzzle correctly will earn the player that many picarats, but a wrong answer will reduce the value a small amount on subsequent attempts down to a minimal picarat number. In order to progress the plot, the player is required to solve specific puzzles, or to solve a minimum number of puzzles or gain a minimum amount of picarats. When the player leaves an area due to progression of the plot, puzzles they have yet to find or solve are collected and placed into a "Puzzle Shack" owned by a fictional character known as "Granny Riddleton", where they can return and attempt to resolve later. The Curious Village contains 135 puzzles, The Diabolical Box contains 153 puzzles, The Unwound Future contains 168 (The later two having another special puzzle obtained via the use of codes found in the previous game), The Last Specter contains 170, The Miracle Mask contains 150, and The Azran Legacy contains 165.

The puzzles take the form of brain teasers and are only loosely tied to the plot. All puzzles were created for this series by Akira Tago, who is famous for his best-selling Mental Gymnastics series. They take the forms of math problems, logic puzzles, mazes, sliding-block puzzles, and brain teasers. The games give the player the opportunity to bring up a translucent memo screen they can write on using the stylus to work out their answer before submission. If the player is stuck, they may spend one hint coin to receive a hint. Each puzzle has three hints available, and within The Unwound Future, the game introduces "super hints" that nearly solve the puzzle for the player but which can only be bought with two hint coins and after the three other hints have been revealed. The puzzles are not timed, though for puzzles such as mazes or sliding blocks, the player may be challenged to complete the puzzle in a limited number of moves.

Each game features an additional set of three unique meta-puzzles that can be accessed at any time through "Layton's Trunk". These puzzles generally require the player to complete specific puzzles in the game to receive items to use within the meta puzzle; for example, The Curious Village gives the player furniture as a reward for some puzzles, which then must be placed within a set of apartments to Layton's and Luke's exacting desires in the meta puzzle; the meta puzzle cannot be solved completely until all the furniture has been collected. Completing the game also opens a number of series of more difficult puzzles to be solved, including one that involves a curiously heavily-locked door that the player may encounter during the game. Until its cancellation in 2014, the games could use the DS Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection features to connect to Nintendo world network and unlock additional puzzles for play for a number of weeks after each game's release.

2007: Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Professor Layton and the Diabolical/Pandora's Box
2008: Professor Layton and the Unwound/Lost Future
2009: Professor Layton and the Last Specter/Spectre's Call
2011: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
2012: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
2013: Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
2017: Lady Layton: The Millionaire Ariadone's Conspiracy