Gamescom Azran Legacy Rough Translation

[Taken from my Twitter where I started typing the dialogue of Layton 6 into Google Translate to see what it said.]

Luke: Professor, can it really be that someone has a living mummy found?
Emmy: Professor Locklair is a real authority in his field and is familiar with excavations.
[Insert Google Translate derp here for next sentence which translated to: "He would not just make sure the."]
Layton: Whereby the Fund [find?] sounds very strange ... But we will see it soon.
Luke: How is she supposed to still be alive? I hope she is not jinxed ...
Emmy: Do not worry, Luke. I'll take good care of you!
-
Luke: Wow, that's great! As on a cruise ship!
Emmy: Let the land Kasper!" [Sorry Google Translate, that's not how you say, "Calm down, Luke!"]
Layton: Quite amazing how the [luxurious] interior of this airship.
Raymond: Welcome aboard the Bostonius! My name is Raymond and I would like to welcome you in the name of Professor Locklair on our humble ship. [There's a missing word in this line that changed "welcome" to "buried" because I don't have the weird looking B in it. That made me laugh.]
Emmy: Very [pleasant/enjoyable]!
Layton: Thank you for the warm welcome, Raymond.
[Insert Layton and Luke introducing themselves to Raymond here.]
Raymond: Since now all have gathered, we can begin with the launch preparations. [Translate derp again. ["I was told to confirm your identity before leaving"?] Professor Locklair is keen to speak to the true Professor Layton. I would like very much to apologize for the circumstances.
Luke: Huh?! What?
Raymond: If you were to turn your attention to this puzzle ... You only need to determine the destination of our journey, which is located on this map right behind me. This should certainly be an easy matter for the famous Professor Layton.
[puzzle blah blah blah]
Raymond: [Admirably done!] You are without a doubt Professor Layton. Please make yourself comfortable on the Bostonius. They are guests of honor on this trip.We do get back on track.
Luke: We're flying! Hooray! Professor, look! We're flying! 
 -
Emmy: (Narrating) And so we went together in the Bostonius on the way. We wanted to explore the mystery of the "living mummy". This was only the beginning of an exciting journey around the globe. And it was the last adventure that I was issued me the unique Professor Layton. 
-
Luke: Oooh! 
Layton: We should arrive very soon. 
Emmy: [I have no idea what she says here.]
Luke: This is Sneborg ...  

Yes, I know I'm a huge Layton geek. Tell me something I don't know. :P 

My Emmy Theory

Pretty much since the first moment I saw her, I loved Emmy Altava. I don't know, maybe it was the general air of fun and adventure she had about her. Maybe it was because, while I didn't hate Flora, she seemed to be a much better female protagonist.

Or maybe it was the fact that this scene exists and it's AWESOME.

To this day, Emmy still remains one of my favorite Layton characters. ...Which is why I really hate writing a theory like this about her. But once I've noticed something, it's hard to get my mind off of it.

By the way, this will contain spoilers for Miracle Mask and (maybe) Last Specter. You've been warned.

I didn't really start thinking about Emmy that much until I read a topic on a forum with speculations about the ending of Miracle Mask. (Topic is here; I'll probably refer to it again in one of the next posts, too.) Somebody made a connection between Emmy having a camera and the photos that Bronev looks at in his introductory scene, saying that she could've taken those photos for him. While I don't think this is right, (the pics are of the Akbadain Ruins, which Emmy hasn't been to, as far as we know.) it brought her to my attention.

At first, I was really defensive for her. I tried to find every single possibility or hint that she was connected to Targent and shoot it down. All this did, though, was help me find an actual link.

Back before Last Specter released in America, I was super SUPER excited for it. So, while I was busy waiting, I went ahead and watched the Japanese version of the scene above. (Hey, what do you know? It's still on Youtube! It was uploaded by the same person too. Go figure.) The description also had an english translation that, while being an incredibly bad translation, contained one interesting bit of information. Emmy has an uncle, and he was the one who taught her how to fight.

However, this line was not included in the official english release. In fact, there is no mention of Emmy's uncle at all or where she learned her awesome fighting skills. So naturally, I assumed that it was unimportant and forgot about it.

But then Miracle Mask came out.

I'm not sure how many people still read the game manuals these days, but I still find it a habit to flip through them. Because of this, the first thing I did after buying the game was skim through the manual. The first page I opened to was the character profiles, and Emmy's profile caught my eye:

"Professor Layton's official assistant is a dedicated, intelligent, and energetic young woman. She is a keen photographer with excellent research skills. Her background is a bit of a mystery, but we do know that she studied martial arts under her uncle."

The fact that that was there blew my mind. If they were mentioning a detail that was lost in translation (even if it was only put in the game manual), that meant it was a big deal.

This came to mind soon after I rewatched this scene in my effort to prove Emmy's innocence.

Though the fight between Descole and Bronev doesn't last more than five seconds (dang it, Descole!), it's fairly obvious that Bronev has at least a little fighting experience under his belt. Even with how little they show, you can compare it to how Emmy fights and see a resemblance in the almost effortless dodging and tossing.

So... yeah, I think Bronev is Emmy's uncle.

 And if that wasn't enough, the Secret Episode unlocked by entering the secret code from Last Specter into Miracle Mask pretty much hits the final nail in the coffin. When Luke asks her why she's being so defensive about being Layton's assistant and being given the job by Dean Delmona, she stutters, "I-I'm not being defensive!" and changes the subject.

Obvious hint is obvious. She's definitely working for Targent. It would explain how she so conveniently shows up right before Layton goes to investigate the first Azran Legacy, too.

Just what it is she's doing for them, except possibly keeping tabs on Layton, I have no clue.

P.S. Oh hey, first blog post in almost two years! Yay?

The Fourth Professor Layton

Well, E3 has rolled into town again, bringing all the big game news and announcements with it. One of those being something I've been waiting for for a long time.

That's right! The next Professor Layton title has been unveiled! The fourth game in the series, Professor Layton and the Last Specter is the first in a new prequel trilogy. Taking place three years before Curious Village, this game will show how the Professor and his apprentice Luke met. You can watch the new trailer below.



While it is exciting to see more confirmation of Western localization for this title (there was some speculation that this game was going to be skipped over because of the fifth game, which is for the 3DS), I was a bit disappointed by the trailer. Basically, all it is is a bunch of scenes that we've seen before with background music; no voice acting at all. If you compare it to the trailers for the other games, you can really tell the difference. So really the only new things we've seen about this game are the logo and some of the puzzles.

Usually, these games get one trailer per installment. I seriously hope that won't be the case here.

Final Thoughts About Hoodwinked 2

I need something else to blog about. Several weeks after I see Hoodwinked 2 and not a single post. Something's wrong here.

Even though I need to "get a life"* according to Wolf, I'd like to make one more post about this movie.

I saw it again this Saturday with some other friends and I have to say, it's better when you don't have high expectations. I take back what I said about some scenes having little to no meaning; they all worked together pretty well to get the characters where they needed to go, altough I wish they connected them together more.

However, this doesn't mean there aren't things out of place. The song "I Can Do it Alone" that plays when Red is in the city is really random and awkward, especially considering the fact that there are no other songs in the movie. It's not that I don't like the song, I think it's great and shows an interesting bit of Red's personality, but I don't like how it was put in the movie.

One thing that hasn't changed, though, is my dislike for the Boingo scene. I still don't know what he had to do with anything and he looks really weird. I mean, seriously weird. Does being in an asylym put on pounds, cause he looks bigger and his mouth has grown to a strange extent. Not to mention that his fur doesn't look realistic at all. It looks like it was painted on him, for crying out loud!

So yeah, if you're going to see this movie in its final week (according to its Facebook page), don't come with expectations and you'll more than likely be happier than I was the first time I saw it.

By the way, not to confirm anything, but after coming back from Hoodwinked 2 my friends came up with an idea for something we might write. There's nothing yet, but I'll talk more about this after we start to work on it. :)

*:  (From HW2) Flippers- "[The Giant] is known for. . . [blogging] about animated films?" Wolf- "He should get a life."

Not All Fairytales Go by the Book

I've never been so anxious to see a movie before. Ever.

Sure, I was really excited for Tangled, but I kind of knew what to expect from it. I knew that she was going to go outside her tower to go to the kingdom with a thief named Flynn Rider. While that wasn't the entire plotline, I had a bit of an idea of where the movie was going. With Hoodwinked 2, I didn't.

In some ways, I was pleasantly surprised. And in others, a little let down. But I'll get to that later.

Hoodwinked 2 (or Too, as the posters say) takes place sometime after the Red and the gang join the HEA in the original Hoodwinked. Red has gone away for some "secret training" at an undisclosed location, leaving the team in a bit of disaray. Meanwhile, Wolf and Granny have been called out on a mission to help save two kidnapped children, Hansel and Gretel. Seeing that "Red Riding Rogue" didn't show up again, Wolf takes matters into his own hands... er, paws. And everything goes horribly wrong.

Cut to Red, who is far far far far far far far away out in the mountains, finishing her training with a covert group called The Sisters of the Hood. But it's interrupted when she gets an urgent call from Nicky Flippers, the head of the HEA. Her granny has been kidnapped, and he teams up Red and Wolf together for the rescue mission. But more is on the line than it seems.

The story was well done, although some things were kinda a stretch for me, and I was engaged almost the whole time. It was especially cool to see how all the characters worked together. When Red and Wolf are partnered up, they both have their own way of doing things. They really rub up against each other before the conflict is resolved, and some interesting character development is introduced. There are some pretty nice plot twists as well, and most of the jokes were hilarious.

Now to the downside of the story. While the majority of it is good, some parts of it seem to have little or no meaning. While this may have been done on purpose (to direct the main characters about where to go next), I found it a little disappointing. Especially when Boingo shows up, a la Cats and Dogs 2.

One thing that gets me is that this movie was originally delayed because of "glitches in the animation" or something like that. And it seems that even with a year of extra time to fix it, it survived. Although how obvious it is probably depends on the person, there are some problems lip-syncing the animation to the voice acting. I think it's mostly just at the beginning, though.

When the credits began to roll, I began to wonder if the filmmakers were trying to send the audience a message with the song they played at the end. "You got Hoodwinked Too, but you got hoodwinked, too. We got you good. Yeah, you know it!"

I don't know, maybe I'm being too nitpicky. Maybe I'm such a fangirl of the original that the flaws of the sequel stand out more. Or perhaps my expectations were higher than they should've been. It just feels that this movie has the potential to be more than what showed up on the big screen. :/

So I'll end by saying that it wasn't the best sequel I've ever seen, but it has its good moments and is worth a watch. If you want to introduce someone to the Hoodwinked franchise, though, show them the original.

The OTHER Soundtrack

So it turns out that the Murray Gold score wasn't the only thing that came out yesterday. An album of eleven songs with lyrics was also released on iTunes. If you have iTunes on your computer, you can preview the songs here. It's nothing special, really. It's worth a listen to, but it's not as good as the score. There are a few songs that I like a lot, and one in particular that I find very interesting, but I'll talk about that some other time.

In other news, another clip has been released on MovieTickets. I'd put a link up, but I decided last night that I wouldn't look up anything more about Hoodwinked 2 until after I saw the movie, so I haven't even clicked the link. So visit the Hoodwinked 2 page on MovieTickets or click the link on their Twitter to watch it. Just don't tell me what it's about. The reason I'm not watching it is because I've already spoiled too much for myself.

Music Video

EDIT: Here's the Youtube video:

Yep, I got more Hoodwinked news. Earlier today I found a music video on the movie's IMDb page. The song is catchy, but the choreography was terrible and it also contains a few interesting clips. And by "a few" I mean "a LOT". There are extended versions of clips we've already seen, as well as glimpses at new places and characters. Most of these clips have been sped up to some degree, though, so they go by in a flash.

Fun fact: Chief Grizzly, P-Biggie, and the Lizard Director can be seen in some of the clips if you pause at the right moment.

 

Three days left! I'm looking forward to it! :D