Doctor Lautrec And The Forgotten Knights - is it a Professor Layton clone?

Doctor Lautrec And The Forgotten Knights is a soon-to-be 3DS game, created by Konami and Winkysoft. It revolves around an archaeologist named Jean-Pierre Lautrec during the 19th century in (and under) the city of Paris, who is fascinated by puzzles and mysteries. The plot of the game is basically this - the good doctor finds an ancient map leading to a long lost treasure, but is being hunted by an order of knights for unknown reasons. To me, it sounds a bit cliche and old, but thats just me. Also, the game will switch from 2D graphics to 3D graphics quite frequently and is stylized in a cartoonish way, but a mature cartoonish if that makes any sense.

Okay, so the whole plot and story doesn't sound all that original...at least the style of the game is, right? Well...not exactly. You see, there's already a hugely popular game series under the name of Professor Layton, who is coincidentally in love with riddles as well. Not only is the main character ripped off, the entire art design is! I'll compare two photos below, and I think you'll be able to pick up what I mean pretty easily. On the other hand, Doctor Lautrec has a few tricks up his sleeve as well. First off, he hides behind a big name in the gaming industry - Konami. Konami has produced some amazing game series' in the past, such as Castlevania or the Metal Gear games. Hence, Doctor Lautrec has a chance to gain a foothold within the community, though it might be quite small. Second, this isn't just a puzzle game like Professor Layton is. You can actually move your character around on the screen, in a top-down fashion instead of only seeing the scene set before you. And more importantly, there will actually be combat in the game. Its not quite clear how this will work, but it seems as if it'll be a turned base type of fighting, such as in RPGs. If Konami can put together an interesting and immersive enough combat system, Doctor Lautrec might be able to give Professor Layton a run for his money. It won't be easy though, as Professor Layton already has a steady line-up of games and strong fan base within the community.