Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Professor Layton's first (albeit a bit rough) jump into 3D, where he and his flunkies are summoned to a desert city in the middle of nowhere because a strange masked man keeps threatening residents and tourists with malicious stage magic. Just another average day for the professor, it seems.

In 2013, a Kiseki no Kamen Plus version was released on the Japanese 3DS eShop which added a couple of new cutscenes, new puzzles, and features that were previously only in the overseas versions of Miracle Mask.

StreetPass FeatureExclusive to the first Japanese release. Lost in TranslationFewer puzzle changes than previous Layton games. English Translation Differences(Contains spoilers!)

Unused Graphics#

Bottom Screen Maps#

g107.xi, g112.xi, g207.xi, g212.xi, and g221.xi in lt5_b.fa/gmp are all early Touch Screen maps. g107 and g112 appear to be maps for areas within Monte d'Or and have their own nighttime variants, and g221 appears to be for the school from the past (possibly an unused nighttime version given the dark blue background).

file:PL5- g112.png
file:PL5- g212.png

E3 Demo Leftovers#

lt5_b.fa/menu has two parts of a generic thank-you screen typically seen in 3DS game demos at E3, labeled e3_thank_a.xi and e3_thank_b.xi.

000.xi and 001.xi in lt5_b.fa/menu/e3_title_a.xp are top screen background graphics for the E3 demo's title screen. try_a_bg.xp in the menu subfolder has the same files.

Volume Sprites#

vlm_old.xa in lt5_en.fa/menu/en has old graphics for the volume settings. Interestingly, they feature a sprite of young Layton, whereas the final ones have his adult self.

Early	Final

Story Puzzles#

Temporary Puzzle Graphics#

These two images are present in lt5_en.fa/nazo/en/bg. The first one appears under n057b.xi and n079b.xi, and the second one appears under n060a.xi, n063a.xi, n078a.xi, n079.xi, and n105a.xi. The text reads "puzzle (temporary) image".

file:PL5- TemporaryPuzzle1.png file:PL5- TemporaryPuzzle2.png

Daily Puzzles#

Tile/Tetraton#

d02_tetraton_bg_chr.xi and d02_tetraton01_ani_hat.xi in lt5_en.fa/nkl/en/bg are early versions of Layton's blocks and hat.

file:PL5- d02_tetraton_bg_chr.png file:PL5- d02_tetraton01_ani_hat.png

Trains and Trainspotters#

d17_park_chr.xi d17_park01_bg_a.xi in lt5_en.fa/nkl/bg are some placeholder sprites as well as what appears to be an early bottom-screen background.

file:PL5- d17_park_chr.png file:PL5- d17_park01_bg_a.png

Pipework Patchup#

_d20_colony01_bg_b.xi in lt5_en.fa/nkl/bg is an early version of the input screen's background. From the looks of it, the puzzle was initially meant to have something to do with space and possibly repairing spaceships rather than fixing the pipes of a park fountain.

file:PL5- _d20_colony01_bg_b.png

Bronev's Unseen Eyes#

Despite not playing a big role until Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, Miracle Mask marked the first appearance of the Targent organization's infamous leader Leon Bronev. Looking at the texture file for his face reveals that he has eyes under his sunglasses, although he never removes them in Miracle Mask and only does so late in Azran Legacy.

Interestingly, his Miracle Mask eye graphics are rather different from his Azran Legacy ones, such as the fact his eyes are a dark blue here instead of the reddish-brown used there.

Miracle Mask	Azran Legacy

Alternate NPC Names#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Are there any languages that use these names? And do they exist within the game files for the European release as well?

40_001200.xs in lt5_en.fa/txt/en/40 contains the text for the character profiles, with a name before each entry to indicate who it belongs to. While the US version uses all of the EU names, there are a few in there that aren't used in either and bear no resemblance to the characters' Japanese names.

Regional Differences#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Save File Count#

The first Japanese release only has one save file, so it has a yes/no prompt for "Load this file?" instead of a file select. The US and Japanese Plus versions have the usual three save files.

The "confirm load" screen uses the extra screen space to display the file's Hint Coin counts (remaining out of total), the number and title of the current chapter, and a sprite of Layton as his present or past self depending on the chapter.

Prompt for Entering Filename#

Upon starting a new file, the first Japanese release shows a warning because the entered name is also used for the StreetPass profile. The US and Japanese Plus versions simply ask "Please enter your name."

Additionally, the keyboard itself was edited. Beyond removing kana as expected and adding a screen of accented letters, it also removes a vertical bar and a row of symbols.

Character Names#

'...But does it make sense?' The translations on this page need to be proofread. If you are fluent enough in this language, please make any corrections necessary!

Emmy's Puzzle Result Poses#

As is typical for the series, all the puzzle result poses in the Japanese versions show ナゾ解明! "Puzzle Solved!" or 残念 "Too Bad..." as appropriate.

Interestingly, Emmy stands closer to the camera in her "correct" pose for the first Japanese release compared to the US release, whereas the opposite is true for her "wrong" pose. All the other characters' poses are more or less the same.

City Hall Sign#

The sign at the Monte d'Or City Hall has a different design in the Japanese and US versions. It appears to read "English Script" in the Japanese version.

Japan	US

Misc. Differences for First Japanese Release#

The Guide Mode for the Akbadain Ruins' Puzzle and Mummy Chambers is not present in the first Japanese release. It allows the player to see a tip for how to progress, in exchange for one Hint Coin.

The first Japanese release has phrases for its StreetPass profile as rewards for collecting all the flags in each course of the horseback riding minigame. There are no rewards for these perfect scores in other releases, as they do not have the profile feature.