Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright:
This is a 3DS collaboration between Capcom and Level-5.
Gameplay:The game is divided up into chapters, much like in the Professor Layton games. Chapters alternate between Court cases, and exploring the town, where talking to, and examining the scenery may lead to a puzzle. There aren't as many puzzles in this game as there are in any Professor Layton game, and they are, on the whole, not quite as tricky.
Court cases play out much the same as they do in the Ace Attorney games. One thing that has been added is cross-examining multiple witnesses at the same time. When this happens, while you are pressing one witness, another witness may react to whatever the witness being pressed is saying, giving you the option to then question the other witness to see why they reacted. This can be quite interesting, but it does cause slowdown sometimes when you have a number of witnesses on the stand at the same time. You also don't have the option to speed up text that you've already seen, so if two witnesses react to one statement, you'll need to go through the first witnesses statement at least twice to be able to question both the witnesses that reacted.
Hint coins also return, and these can be used both for puzzles, or in the court. Using a hint coin for a puzzle works in the same way as the Layton games, you can spend a coin for each individual hint, except for the last "super" hint, which costs two hint coins. In the Court using a hint coin will point you to the statement you need to press, or present evidence at, and if evidence is required, the hint coin will also reduce the amount of available evidence.
Picarats are used to score puzzles, the higher the Picarat score, the more difficult (usually) the puzzle is. Answering a puzzle incorrectly will lead the number of Picarats you receive when you do answer the puzzle correctly to be reduced. You cannot lose the game by answering puzzles incorrectly, the loss of Picarats are the only consequence. In the Court, you are able to make five mistakes before losing the trial (as in the first Ace Attorney.) Losing a trial will lead to a game over.
Story:The story starts with one of Professor Layton's former students, Carmine Accidenti escaping from a place known as "Labyrinthia" with one of it's residents, a girl called Espella Cantabella. They are pursued by shadowy figures that appear to be witches, and Carmine ends up injured in a car crash. Espella is unharmed, and manages to make her way over to Professor Layton's office, where he and Luke decide to protect Espella from the witches that are chasing her.
At the same time, Phoenix and Maya have just arrived in London as part of some kind of legal exchange program.
The witches break into Layton's office, and a chase ensures, which ends with Espella on a ship, and Layton and Luke in Labyrinthia. While on the ship, Espella is accused of theft and assault, and Phoenix ends up defending her, only for the trial to end with Phoenix and Maya arriving in Labyrinthia, where they meet Layton and Luke, who decide to work as a team to uncover Labyrinthia's secrets.
I personally feel that the game sometimes went a little too heavy on the whole friendship between Layton/Luke and Phoenix/Maya, and how anything could be solved as long as they worked together.
One criticism I have read from several players about this game is that Layton is stuck-up. I didn't think Layton really acted any differently in this game than how he does in the Professor Layton series (though it must be said, I'm not fond of Professor Layton as a character), but I did find him a little intrusive in some of the court chapters. You don't get the option to distract him by waving a shiny puzzle in front of his face either.
Espella, a central character in this game is unfortunately rather bland. She's very kind and brave, but lacks any sort of quirks or anything that really makes the player invested in her and her welfare.
The Prosecutor is probably the nicest one in an Ace Attorney game to date, even more so than Klavier. Not a bad thing in itself, but after Klavier and Blackquill, whom while he wasn't the friendliest of prosecutors, did fight completely fairly in court, you do start to miss having a prosecutor that you really fight against, rather than work with.
The story was written by Takumi, the writer for the first three Ace Attorney games. Despite this, the story, and definitely the ending, are more reminiscent of a Professor Layton game, rather than an Ace Attorney game.
Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright takes around 15-20 hours to complete, depending on whether you want to search everywhere to find all the puzzles. If you have an interest in either the Professor Layton or Ace Attorney games, I'd say this game is worth a play, just be aware that you won't be getting a full Layton game or a full Ace Attorney game experience.