The ending leads back in to the first game, though (it even says 'To be Continued' with an image of the Curious Village', so in that sense when you finish it you don't feel like it's the final installment in the Layton series. I suppose that really is the Lost Future. It's a brilliant game though, I loved every moment of it. The locations are GORGEOUS.

At the end of the game, Luke sends a letter to Layton saying that there is something going on in the town that he moved into and asks the Professor to come and help. To which Layton looks out his window and the game says "To be continued...". This may mean that this is truly not the end of Layton, but from what I've seen this is the end of Layton. But at the same time it can't be bacause of the ending I just mentioned. So how else do you explain it?

Didn't the whole revelation about Layton being adopted and Descole being his brother have seemed to come out of nowhere? There was little to no foreshadowing to it whatsoever (maybe save a certain line from Layton's dad in the Miracle Mask) and it doesn't feel as if it contributed to anything that happens in the endgame.

Yes, I do agree that Descole and Layton being brothers came out of nowhere. Not to mention that that plotline is a bit cliche. Two rivals/enimes are actually siblings and seperated when they were young? Come on, it's cliche. However I do still think that Descole giving Hershel his name so he can be adopted and happy is really sweet. By the way, I know he was young, but in the cutscene he only seemed to be four or five years old, and that is old enough to not forget you brother, your real name, and something as important as your parents gone missing. I don't care what anyone says, he should deffinetly remember. I remember much less important things from when I was five years old.
Also about Emmy working for Targent, I happened to like that and at the same time did not. Some might argue that that was a big ol' surprise, I disagree. When I first met Emmy is Last Specter, I was suspicious or her. She was always taking pictures and gave me a bad first impression when she was all "You name is Hershel Layton. 34 years old. Became a professor at the age of 27. Capricorn, I just made that last part up, but you look like a capricorn! C'mon, stalker much? Certainly not the atitude for someone who wants to be an assitant. More for someone who did research for a organization like Targent.

Well, part of me agrees that the adoption thing came out of nowhere... not the adoption itself, but everything tied to it. I could buy Layton being adopted... or Layton and Descole being brothers... or Descole being Bronev's long lost son... but all three "twists" together made it seem like they were digging hard for some serious drama.

On the other hand, wasn't there a movie based on the Ambrosia site? I haven't seen it, but I wonder if maybe there were more hints there about their relationship.

I felt more sad about Aurora being erased from existence than I did about Bronev's and Descole's tragic pasts (and damn, Bronev is a dick, stabbing what appeared to be a young girl in the heart so that he could get his prize), but I was glad to see Descole survive, and Layton showing a lot of wisdom about his relationships with all of his parents and extending an olive branch to a man who was both a victim and perpetrator.

On the topic of Descole, I don't know why I didn't realize right away who Sycamore really was. I did figure it out fairly early into the game (the first time a glare passed over his glasses), but damn, the butler should have tipped me off right away ...but then, it's been several months since I last played Miracle Mask, so I just didn't recall Descole having a butler.

On the topic of Layton, it's true that 4 or 5 seems a bit old to have forgotten parts of one's childhood that had an impact... but it's also possible that Layton's adoptive parents provided him with enough love and security that he just never had a reason to remember the traumatic parts of his childhood. He was always looking forward, not backward... except in the case of the Azran, of course. Okay, and he may have had some inner drama and guilt about Randall.

Emmy being a spy actually did shock me, but it was good to see she was at least conflicted about some of it. In the end, she wanted Layton to slap a little sense into "Uncle Leon." Her goodbyes with Layton and Luke were bittersweet.

Aurora

Descole joins your party at least briefly

Before I say anything else, let me just say that the movie about Ambrosia also didn't have any hints about Layton and Descole's relationship. In fact, the movie really makes Descole kind of... blood hungry? Oh gosh it sounds like I'm talking about a vampire movie... For instance Layton builds this little flying boat thingy and basically a part of Descole's machine rams into the side of it and blows it up with Layton still in it and Descole laughs like he doesn't give a shit. Then in another scene Hershel figures out something and Descole gets pissed and charges at him with a sword screaming his name. Reminded me of Last Specter when Descole was throwing these huge cinder block like things at Layton, Emmy, and Luke. I don't know about anyone else but it certainly doesn't show any "brotherly love"like Descole showed when he was a kid and in some really short moments in Azran Legacy.

Really? Oh well... left field it is.

I'm guessing that either Descole would have settled for any kind of contact with Layton, even if it was by destructive means, or else he ended up giving more of a shit about the Azran (or in his case, destroying it) than reuniting his own family. Like father, like son?

I don't suppose they mentioned anything about Descole having a dead wife and kid, either? Or was that something Sycamore made up?

True, but what if he accidently ended up killing Hershel? That would suck just for some kind of contact. When I first heard about the dead wife and kid thing I thought that Sycamore made it up but according to then wikia when another family adopted him and gave him the name Desmond Sycamore he later really did get married and had a daughter and they both died for unknown reasons. Great, now I feel even more bad for him than I did before.

Descole does have a dead wife and daughter. In one of the episodes, he's talking to Aurora about them.

Well, if he'd killed Hershel, that would've put an end to the games. Ha. No, but seriously, it's hard to say what was going on in the man's mind. We're supposed to think he's some heartless dick obsessed with the Azran, but he suddenly puts himself in harm's way in order to protect Luke. Obviously I can't speak for the man, but I like to think (since they went and dropped the damn brothers bomb) that he was conflicted about what he was doing, from time to time.

Yeah, you're right. I had to watch it again, but he did repeat the line to Aurora as Descole. But like the bombshell about Layton's adoption, and Layton, Descole, and Bronev all being related, it seemed to come out of nowhere. And it didn't help that the details were vague. But I can see now he wasn't making it up.

Descole wanting to kill Layton doesn't make a lot of sense... but there are two reasons why I can think why he would.
1: Descole needs to remove Layton because if Layton discovers the Azran wonders, Targent will be one step behind him. If he removes Layton, Targent will not be able to follow Descole in his conquest of the Azran wonders. (If this were true, it would be subverted in the movie because Descole actually found the island of Ambrosia before anyone else did. Descole's motives in the movie make no sense.)
2: In the profiles section in the bonus area, Descole's profile says that "If Sycamore represents the man's hope, then Descole is the manifestation of his despair."
Perhaps Descole is in such madness and despair that he attempts to take out Layton. The only two times he attempts to take Layton's life is during the robot chase in the last specter and the giant-robot in the Eternal Diva. Perhaps in both moments Descole is so close to achieving his plan that he will kill Layton to fulfill his goals.

-Also, one other thing that didn't make sense... in the Miracle Mask, after Bronev steps out of his car, says: "This is perfect weather for a day of world domination." Awesome quote, but he never actually wanted world domination. He would do anything to accomplish his goal, but his goal was to discover the Azran for their scientific breakthroughs and technology. (Apparently in the UK version, Bronev does not say this line. That makes sense.)

Man... it's now twice that I've been completely fooled. Typically I can point out who's the murderer/villain in disguise, but I've been tricked badly twice in a row. First, Detective Fulbright completely came out of nowhere and turned out to be the Phantom. I also didn't see Emmy being a Targent mole coming, not at all. I felt betrayed. Seriously. They did a good job of foreshadowing Emmy's betrayal but really should have foreshadowed about Descole's and Bronev's true identities.

Well now, that is interesting. I wonder if the line was present in the Japanese version? Makes me wonder if it is a localization issue, or if the story writers weren't thinking that far ahead at the time.

The line wasn't in the japanese version. So I guessing a localization issue.

What with Emmy being a semi-traitor (when she held that ice knife to Luke's throat, I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart), Descole's backstory (which, by the way, helped turn him from detestable to someone likable in my books. Plus, I like the things he says after solving puzzles; it made me laugh), the twist about Bronev being Hershel's biological father, Aurora dying/disappearing and of course, Emmy quitting her post as position after the credits. SO MANY FEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS! I may be a man, but I admit I shed a few tears near the end of the game; I just felt so dang attached to essentially the entire cast at the end of it, I just liked them all so much, a lot of their stories were tragic, and there was no real 'bad guy' in the whole bunch, really.

I disagree with some of the other posts on here early on about how the whole brother thing is totally random(don't feel like quoting them), so listen up. Descole says in a cutscene in Last Specter (Spectre's Call for all you Brits) that "Fate is so... interesting sometimes." Also, the fact that he knows pretty much everything about Prof. Layton is a big hint. ALSO... Layton says that the name Descole is familiar to him somehow. ALSO... The fact that Descole has only been using Layton to fulfill his plans suggests that Descole had no intention of leaving that fact unsaid.
JUST SAYIN'

Why does Layton think the name Descole sounds familiar? I don't think he heard the name before at all, maybe he just meant the person though.

A completely vague statement that could apply to anything.



There are other ways of obtaining information on someone else. Emmy was a spy, Layton's adoptive parents are not exactly hidden from the world, any friends of Layton might have dropped some information that prompted further research. And as a professor, he was pretty well known around London.



Well, unless young Hershel (Descole) was using the name to play make-believe at one point in his young life, there's nothing to suggest why Layton would have found the name familiar.



I have no idea what you are trying to say here.

Anyway, I'm not saying none of this hints towards some big reveal... I'm just saying it ONLY hints toward some big reveal. Not the "Layton and Descole are brothers, and Bronev is their dad!" thing. There are no real clues that any of it is pointing toward the familial relationship between three men. Bronev wasn't secretly hiding a small picture of his broken family in his shirt pocket. Descole never indicated the closeness he and Layton once had as children. And it's not like Layton carried around some special token from his big brother and looked back on it longingly from time to time. He had completely forgotten about his own brother! Oh sure, he had his name, but there was no reason to even suspect it came from someone else. There are no flashbacks about the matter until the very end.

This is why I don't like the reveal. It's no better than the lame daily horoscope or fortune-telling website/number that lays down just enough details to intrigue the person reading it, but keeps it vague enough so that if anything during their day happens, they can just point back at the horoscope and go "aha! See, it totally happened!" They think they're being clever by throwing it out of left field, but it's just lazy writing. Which just makes me think that maybe they had a vague idea of how they wanted the Descole/Layton thing to play out but only figured it out by the end.

Since they probably recognize each other and did she knew Sycamore was Descole? Were they puting an act this whole time?

Now that I've seen Eternal Diva, it kind of makes sense that Jean Descole is so aggressively batshit and Desmond Sycamore is a kind, gentle soul, especially with the descriptions in Azran Legacy.

If Desmond Sycamore was the original man who occasionally entertained the notion of revenge against Targent and the Azran, I could see him giving into despair once his happiness was taken away. The aggression and violence Descole displays in Eternal Diva seems so over-the-top, I have to wonder if he is forcing it at times since he feels he has nothing else. Kind of like how one would grab on tightly to what they have left when they lose something important in their lives, even if they don't realize this is what they are doing. Of course, Descole always had revenge in mind, but it was something to return to when tragedy struck once again.

I wonder what was going on in his mind all those times he faced off against Layton... did he feel some resentment towards his younger brother, whose life turned out much better? Did he regret the decision he made that day, letting the Laytons adopt Theodore instead? Did he enjoy any of the time he spent with Layton as Sycamore, bonding with him as a fellow professor and friendly rival? Though he says he was only using Layton, was he really faking everything once he stepped back into Sycamore's skin?

Don't mind me, these are just questions that are swirling in my mind right now. Truthfully, I'm fighting the urge to take them to fanfiction.

See, here's the thing. Compare the times that Descole is mad in the games to the ones in Eternal Diva, and your result is that Descole's whole demeanor has changed from game to movie. That may be a result of the voice actor change (which I still dislike), but still... I mean, I can understand that he probably spent major cash on the whole castle/robot thing, and he spent so much time on the songs only to see that he missed one must be frustrating, but so is not being able to find the Golden Garden and spending a whole buncha money on the Specters! In the Last Specter, he calmly explains his plan, says that he failed, and quite calmly tries to destroy Misthallery. Quite. Calmly. Then when that plan fails too, he shrugs it off with a "hmph" and tells Layton this won't be the last we see of him. QUITE. A. PUZZLE.

As for the whole Desmond/Descole feelings thing, I'm quite sure that he meant every single nice thing he said as Sycamore. He probably didn't even resent Layton for being successful, because his true target was the Azran and Targent all along. He simply used Layton's talents and success to his benefit. And, as shown when he is like half dying after trying to protect Luke, he says this... "I... wanted to get back at them for taking our parents from us, for ruining our lives..." Note he says OUR lives, OUR parents. He truly does still feel affection for his little brother. (And not in a gay way)

Rant over. Sorry, but I just had to rant on for a bit, y'know. Get all that outta my system.