7) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
If you’ve played basically any Professor Layton game but Unwound Future, you probably would not expect what is traditionally a lighthearted series more famous for brainteasers than its plot to end up on this list. But the third entry in the series does indeed have a major emotional sucker punch up its sleeve that it saves for the very end.
Layton and his assistant Luke have saved the day once again, and along the way encountered and indeed been helped out by Celeste, a woman who happens to be the younger sister of Layton’s old girlfriend Claire, who lost her life in an explosion while attempting to test a time machine prototype.
After the main story is wrapped up, the big shocker is dropped: Not only did Claire not have a younger sister, but Celeste has been Claire this whole time. Right before the explosion, the time machine did in fact work, transporting Claire a decade into the future.
This might sound like a setup for a happy ending, one in which Layton is reunited with his long-lost love, but that is not the case. As a former colleague of Claire’s explains, telltale signs pop up that Claire’s body is automatically attempting to return to the past, at the moment before her death in the prototype’s explosion. There ends up only being enough time for Layton and Claire to have a final farewell before she departs for good.
All of this culminates in what is easily the most emotional and heartbreaking moment of the entire Layton series, mainly due to the way our lead himself acts in it. Throughout every game, Professor Layton shows himself to be extremely level-headed and stoic, always keeping a cool head and never letting rash emotions get the better of him. But when faced with the idea of being reunited with Claire, only to lose her all over again, he can’t cope, and for the first time, we see Layton finally break down, screaming at Claire that she can’t leave despite knowing that there’s nothing he can do.
After Claire’s final departure, we get our big heartbreak. Not only do we witness Layton shedding some tears, but for the first and only time in the series, what was a running joke becomes something poignant, as the professor removes his iconic top hat. Numerous characters throughout the original trilogy often ask why he never takes it off, with his most common response being that it’s ungentlemanly. As it turns out, the hat was the last gift he received from Claire shortly before her death, so we can assume he was holding on to it to remember her by.
The fact that this is chronologically the final entry in the Professor Layton series and ends on such a melancholic note is pretty astounding but, at the same time, commendable, as it will likely leave a more lasting impression on fans of the franchise than a more traditional and tidy wrap-up. The fact that we get additional sadness after the credits, as Luke is forced to move and say farewell to his longtime mentor, only enhances it.
– John Fleury
