The Real Reason (Also Trilogy Spoilers)

It’s strange how surface level we are about why the crossover feels like Professor Layton with Phoenix Wright in it

The biggest reason is who the cases are thematically about

Edgeworth’s all tie into DL-6

Franziska’s are about losing a sibling

Godot’s are about men failing to protect women

In these games, the cases are thematically all about the prosecutor, except the tutorial which can get away with being irrelevant as it’s teaching you the mechanics

This game revolves around Espella Cantabella

She created the great fire in her backstory, and the first witch trial has fire kill the victims

In the Golden Court, the case is all started because a man would rather die than expose harm done by his daughter, just like the Storyteller with Espella

All the cases are about her… but she’s not the prosecutor, Zacharias Barnham is

This is because a Layton game is all about helping someone like Espella, but it would be weird for his format if she was also an antagonist, being the rival prosecutor

Thus, Barnum becomes one of the weakest prosecutors in the franchise

He tries to have an arc where he questions the system but it happens after he’s prosecuted for the last time

We also can’t explore his backstory as everyone in Labrythia is living a fake life, whatever Barnum’s backstory was, literally didn’t happen