If you’ve never played Professor Layton and the Last Time Traveler, you’re missing out on a unique gaming experience – but thanks to its dedicated fan base, that’s about to change.
Prior to the advent of smartphones, Japan had a significant lead in mobile phone technology. Individuals may engage in everyday activities that are now familiar, such as sending emails, streaming live videos, capturing photographs, and playing online games. In-depth video games, including prominent titles such as Final Fantasy, were released on Japan-only mobile phones, also known as Keitai phones. For instance, Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis was a notable release in this category, alongside several Kingdom Hearts games, with the most notable being the original Kingdom Hearts Coded – the remaining titles being relatively minor minigames. While many of these apps were initially absent from global availability, their absence on non-Japanese phones meant fans had to compensate by finding alternative solutions.
Players are eagerly filling in the gaps of Professor Layton and the Mansion of the Deathly Mirror, a popular Japanese cellphone game that has finally reached its conclusion. Last week, RockmanCosmo, a prominent recreation preservationist, revealed that his colleague Yuvi had stumbled upon a discarded Fujitsu F906i cellphone, which just so happened to contain all six chapters of the popular Professor Layton mobile game. Initially, RockmanCosmo noted that previously, they solely possessed the initial three chapters. The forthcoming English translation is assured to materialise! The sports equipment arrived in a woefully battered condition, as if it had narrowly escaped a domestic inferno – a veritable miracle that the entirety remains salvageable.
It’s a genuine shame that more games like these are not available today, as one of my favorites, Ni no Kuni, even received a Keitai cellphone game, essentially a clone of Earthbound. A spin-off, such as Persona 3, even garnered a Nintendo Switch and PC port in June, making it an ideal starting point for exploring older Japanese phones’ capabilities prior to the unofficial translation of the Professor Layton game?
