Recently, Level-5 announced that they are releasing a game called Lady Layton. It’s a Professor Layton dating sim / puzzle game, where you need to find clues and piece them together to learn what your girlfriend’s personality REALLY is.
No, just kidding. It’s a game starring Professor Layton’s daughter. She wears a hat, hangs out with a dog, and solves mysteries.
Fans of the series will be quick to point out that Layton doesn’t HAVE a daughter. He doesn’t even have a wife who can bear his young. Romance has totally been off the table for Layton after the tragic death of his true love in Game #3. Unless this game includes some Time Traveling Layton Loving, there is no reason for this girl to exist.
The official explanation is that this game takes place some 20 or 30 years in the future, which gives Layton enough time to settle down from his adventures, become a family man, and have a daughter whom he never sees anymore. That’s a perfectly good explanation, except for one minor problem: That already happened.
Specifically, that was the premise of the 2013 iOS game, Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. That is an unrelated game which had the Professor Layton license slapped onto it, so it would sell better. Professor Layton never appears in the game at any point, but the main character is his son, who has never been seen or mentioned ever.
So now Professor Layton has TWO grown-up children whom he never mentions or interacts with. I don’t care if this is 20 years in the future. Layton should at least call his kids every once in a while! Especially since his son is suffering from a dramatic, tragic backstory that causes him to [spoilers]. That’s the sort of thing you’d want to keep an eye on.
Like Professor Layton, I have examined all the possibilities and solved the mystery. Does he skip ahead in time 30 years to start a secret life as an absentee father? No. The real explanation is much simpler: Professor Layton is a deadbeat dad.
He’s got two to five kids with various women. He never mentions them, never sees them—because he doesn’t care about them. He only cares about himself. The “adventurous professor” thing is just a cover story. The REAL reason he constantly travels is so he can avoid paying child support. No wonder he has so many enemies!
I found this after playing the new Layton game, after getting into the second Case, I instantly googled “Is Professor Layton a deadbeat dad?”.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought this.