So. Farewell then, Hershel Layton. Six games of puzzling, investigation and tea drinking, and the professor is hanging up his iconic silk top hat. It’s a bittersweet ending - there are moments of invention in Azran Legacy that suggest he could carry on for a while yet, even if the studio’s puzzle guru Akira Tago must surely be running out of riddles. And yet, perhaps it’s the right time to bow out, before its formula grows stale. Besides, I’m sure Layton would acknowledge that leaving before your guests tire of your presence is surely the gentlemanly thing to do.

In the main, Azran Legacy sticks to that tried-and-tested template. There’s an overarching mystery to solve, with several secrets to uncover along the way. Your investigations are regularly interrupted by various crackpots and misfits asking you to solve puzzles, which earn you picarats (currency) for correct answers. Get them wrong, and your picarat tally will be reduced, though this time there are more puzzles that allow you to adjust your answer before committing to a solution. Outside the story, there are episodes that fill in background details on minor characters and incidents, while Layton’s capacious trunk holds three mini-games. In that regard, little has changed.

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Yet Level-5 has chosen a more expansive adventure for the professor’s final bow. Layton and his allies are still investigating the artefacts they unearthed in the previous two games, their journey leading them to a startling discovery which sparks a continent-hopping adventure. Not only does this allow for more location variety (you’ll visit a walled city, a tropical island and a rustic village battered by high winds), it makes progress a little less linear, as you can fly between the various locations at will. It’s a welcome change, partly because it ups the stakes, lending the game a sense of grand scale previous adventures with their smaller, self-contained mysteries have lacked. But it also helps when you get stuck - instead of chewing your stylus until the solution presents itself, you can take a break by exploring another location.

The puzzles themselves are more skilfully woven into the narrative than before, even if the connections at times can be tenuous - and, at times, faintly ridiculous. Action scenes are twisted into environmental conundrums, as Layton dodges swinging hooks to reach enemy agents, while one flight is interrupted by a swarm of drones, the professor shooting down odd-numbered or uniquely-shaped ones to shake off the rest. It’s essentially the most sedate turret sequence in video game history.

Those riddles that don’t quite fit into the plot are tied into events detailed in newspaper stories accessed from the trunk, encouraging you to pay repeat visits to locations you’ve already mined for puzzles, hint coins and collectable knick-knacks. Meanwhile, two of the three new asides are well worth taking time out for. Nut Roller sees a squirrel pushing a walnut around a 3D grid, rolling boulders and acorns to guide it to the goal tent, in a surprisingly tricky set of challenges. Blooms and Shrooms asks you to reinvigorate withered gardens by positioning flowers with powerful cross-pollination abilities, sparking chain reactions to cover the grids in greenery, without disturbing spore-spitting fungi in the process. Dress Up is the only letdown, a tedious and simplistic aside that tasks you with selecting outfits for various NPCs based on their requests.

Any Layton game lives or dies on the quality of its puzzles and its plot, and thankfully both are well up to scratch. As the last episode of a prequel story, we obviously know the fate of most characters, which invariably means it can’t possibly have the emotive wallop of Lost Future’s finale. Yet the knowledge that this is the last adventure for the professor still makes for an oddly touching climax, and its final act certainly isn’t without its surprises (or, indeed, fan-pleasing cameos). And while a few puzzle ideas repeat themselves - though most are given a fresh contextual twist - this is the first even-numbered Layton whose riddles match up to the first and third games; indeed, it’s arguably the finest outing since the original trilogy.

That its formula has endured for so long is testament to how unique Layton is. There’s still nothing quite like it: its success inspired a handful of copycats, but no game has captured its potent blend of puzzle solving, mystery and gentlemanly etiquette. There’s something utterly disarming about its quaint depiction of a very English world. Perhaps it’s that innocent outsider view that makes it so charming, a Japanese developer and an American actor combining to create a memorably different type of videogame hero; one who says “good grief” when surprised, rather than “holy f***”. Indeed, Christopher Robin Miller is undoubtedly one of the secrets of Layton’s success, a likeable, avuncular presence, who at times appears to channel Sir Alec Guinness in the way he talks to apprentice Luke.

As the credits roll, you may well be left with an oddly wistful sensation, a longing to spend more time with Layton and Luke. And that’s a testament to Level-5’s achievement: the Layton games are not just great mystery stories with terrific pacing, beautifully judged twists and memorable characters, they’re defiantly unfashionable. In a generation dominated by noise and violence, here is a quiet, polite triumph, a series that demands you use your brain rather than your fists or a gun to win. In light of that, Layton’s catchphrase feels more like an ethos for his games: critical thinking really is the key to success.