Lady Layton takes her professor dad’s spotlight in the next entry in the puzzle series

A new face is getting into the family business of solving stranger’s riddles and finishing their math homework.

Developer Level-5 has announced a new entry in its Professor Layton series of puzzle-based games, called Lady Layton. It stars the professor’s daughter, and it will launch in Japan in spring 2017 for 3DS, iOS, and Android. We don’t have a Western release date yet. The Layton series has so far sold over 15.5 million copies worldwide. It’s a unique franchise. Many games focus on action, but Layton titles are all about solving riddles, puzzles, and logic problems. Each game also features a mystery, with the hero using Sherlock Holmes-like deduction to save the day.

You can watch a Japanese trailer for Lady Layton below, which includes familiar hallmarks of the series like 2D animation, beautiful animation, and intense finger-pointing.

While the style looks familiar, the original games’ hero, Professor Layton, and his sidekick, Luke, don’t appear. We do get a talking dog, though, so that’s a nice consolation.

The original game in the series, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, released for the DS in Japan in 2007. It was followed by two sequels that made up a trilogy, which was followed up by another three games in a prequel trilogy. The franchise also had its own animated film, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, in 2010.

Mike Minotti

Mike Minotti has been with GamesBeat since 2012, starting as an intern. Based near Youngstown, Ohio, he now manages GamesBeat's editorial team. He's also a prolific podcaster, appearing on multiple shows covering the gaming industry.