Some friends of ours let us borrow Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and it has been a really great experience so far. Finally, after so long, I've gotten a chance to experience this series and, as expected from Level 5, it is highly polished with fun characters, great art direction, and pleasing music. The puzzles have been nice, playful and even whimsical while still providing some challenges that will leave you in the cold. I should have expected the production value would be high, but experiencing it firsthand on the 3DS was a sweet surprise with all of the animated cutscenes and impressive 3D work.

I've heard that some people can consider the 3D in the 3DS as a gimmick and would rather play with it off, but I feel like that it really is up to the developers to execute it properly. It all has to do with how well the depth of field is presented in the game and how well they utilize the technology. Fire Emblem and Professor Layton are really masterful at utilizing a shallow focus to blur foreground objects and simultaneously giving even singular objects several different depths that can be seen very clearly.

It isn't enough to have 3D objects at different depths, objects themselves need to have varying depths to really pop. As much as I love Etrian Odyssey 4, I feel like the depth of field isn't nearly as complex, making monsters feel somewhat two dimensional on a 3D field, for instance. Going back to Fire Emblem, you can easily see how nicely the playing field gradually gets further into the background while foreground elements such as fire embers are blurred from vision to give the illusion that they are coming out of the screen itself.

While Professor Layton may not have as much sophistication as Fire Emblem in the 3D department, it is still rather impressive! Make sure to check each game you have to see if these nuances are done well as it can dramatically improve the immersion of your experience!

PS: OH SHIIIIIP!!! I just realized it's our 3rd Year Anniversary! Thank you so much to everyone who has enjoyed a comic we've made and to those of you who continue to read! We can't thank you all enough for all the support you've given us as it continually fuels us to want to get better and keep making fun things! Also, we wanted to express our deepest gratitude to our family and friends, who have nothing but the most amazing patience and support in our silly comic-making dreams.

Pie and I are truly blessed to have you all in our lives. <3