The LAYTON’S MYSTERY JOURNEY: Real World Puzzling Solving promotional event took place over
approximately three months between Tuesday, 20th June and Wednesday, 21st September 2017.
We can report here that 500,000 people from 183 different countries took part in the action!
What is ‘LAYTON’S MYSTERY JOURNEY: Real World Puzzling Solving’?
To mark the release of ‘LAYTON’S MYSTERY JOURNEY: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy’, LEVEL-5 Inc. teamed up with SCRAP Co. — specialists in ‘real escape games’ — to create a series of fifty puzzle-solving events between 20th June and 21st September 2017. These puzzles appeared on the Internet as well as physically in ten countries around the world, including Japan, the USA, England, Korea and Australia.
20th June 2017: ‘I Have a Puzzle…’ on YouTube
A puzzle song performed by Pikotaro kicked off the whole program of events. The song, entitled ‘PPAP Puzzle 2017’, appeared on YouTube. A top-hatted Pikotaro sang the original PPAP parody and the lyrics of the song actually formed the puzzle.
23rd – 30th June 2017: ‘Chew On This Puzzle!’ in Japan
Completely unexpectedly, some English gentlemen and a giant Sherl appeared outside the 109 building in Shibuya, the canine sidekick having a symbolic Layton top hat in his jaws! The gentlemen were holding boards showing everything needed to solve the puzzle. People around the world, simultaneously chatting with each other in their mother tongues by means of a special messaging system dubbed ‘TRANSLAYTON’, were able to exchange ideas as they tried to solve the puzzle.
1st – 3rd July 2017: ‘A Curious Math Puzzle’ in France
Puzzle solving in a kiosk at the foot of the Eiffel Tower! The kiosk menu was the key to solving this particular puzzle. It was the first puzzle to appear that was neither in Japanese or English, and social media came alight with discussion about it!
10th – 16th July 2017: ‘A Puzzle of Fractions’ in Korea
At a crossroads on the main street outside Seoul’s Gangnam Station, a puzzle appeared on a huge electronic display! As soon as the puzzle was posed on the display, relevant hints were revealed via the TRANSLAYTON system.
20th – 23rd July 2017: ‘Full to the Brim’ in England
An enormous puzzle door appeared out of the blue in London’s great Waterloo Station! Some seven hundred top hats were spilling out of the door, each sporting a letter of the alphabet as part of the puzzle. Passers-by couldn’t help but be intrigued, and many tried their hand at solving the puzzle.
28th July 2017: ‘Two Times Topsy-Turvy’ in The New York Times
A puzzle even appeared in The New York Times! This was unusual, being one of the few puzzles from the Real World Puzzling Solving event of which people could physically obtain a copy.
31st August 2017: ‘A Magnified Mystery’ in England
The Layton Detective Agency materialised in real-world London being an exact replica of Katrielle’s office from LAYTON’S MYSTERY JOURNEY: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy, there were many calls from fans longing to visit the location.
19th September 2017: ‘Something’s Missing’ in Italy
Where else for a puzzle in Venice, the City of Water, to appear than on a gondola? This refined conundrum required puzzle-solvers to choose the colour associated with the question marks appearing on four national flags.
There were plenty of other puzzles
that appeared around the world!
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30th June 2017:
‘A Bridge Puzzle’ in the USA
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7th July 2017:
‘A Bullfighter Puzzle’ in Spain
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10th – 16th July 2017:
‘A Pizza Puzzle’ in Italy
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24th – 30th July 2017:
‘A Hidden Hint’ on Tokyo’s Yamanote train line
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27th August 2017:
‘A Colourful Trap’ in France
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7th September 2017:
‘A Problem of Scale’ in Spain
