subject: Review: Professor Layton And The Curious Village - Puzzle Solving At Its Finest! [print this page] There have been a lot of puzzle games made throughout the history of video games. These puzzles games range from putting blocks together, guiding a character through a course of obstacles, or even adding 1+1. One thing to be sure of about puzzle games is that they tend to always be one type of puzzle throughout the whole game. Tetris will always have you putting blocks together, the Phoenix Wright series will always have you searching for clues and then going to trial, and Picross will only require you to put dots on a board while following requirements. My point is that I never played a puzzle game that had so much variety of puzzles in it, so that a puzzle isn't only harder because its longer but harder because it becomes more complicated and requires you to really think hard. That game is Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the first game of the Professor Layton trilogy.
Title: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: E
Release Date: February 10, 2008
Publisher: Nintendo
Story: 9/10
Professor Layton and the Curious Village...well the title pretty much tells the whole story in a way. In more detail, this game is about Professor Layton, a man who really loves puzzles, and his apprentice Luke. They are summoned to a village called St. Mystere. At the village, they are to solve an inheritance dispute regarding the "Golden Apple" which was a treasure left away by a deceased Baron Reinhold. Even more mysteries will soon reveal themselves, like a murder mystery, and even a mystery regarding the village and its villagers.
In order to solve these mysteries, Layton will have to investigate St. Mystere and talk with its villagers. Some villagers may have very helpful info, but in order to get it, you will have to solve the puzzles they give you. Puzzles are what drives the game forward, as the story will not progress unless you complete certain puzzles.
The story is very interesting and may also be a mystery itself. So I was pretty drawn to it from beginning to end.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
The gameplay aspect of PL & the Curious Village is a simple point and click style. You pretty much click where you want to go and where to explore. You pretty much do that for the whole game, until you click certain spots which trigger puzzles. Pretty much all the villagers have a puzzle for you so these puzzles aren't hard to find. There are some hidden puzzles, so I recommend searching an area closely before moving on.
The main part of the game is, of course, the puzzles. One thing I liked about this game is the variation of puzzles and the ranges of difficulty. Each puzzle is given a story, a situation, or a description. Then you will be given a problem that you must solve using the info you were given. These puzzles range from mathematics, sliding pieces around, finding a certain object within a picture, logic(my favorite), as well as many others. You will solve these puzzles via the touch screen. Requiring touch controls that range from drag and drop, drawing a line, or to simply write a number or letter.
Graphics: 8/10
The graphics in PL & the Curious Village aren't anything revolutionary or mind-blowing, but the style does give off a unique atmosphere. The exploring part pretty much just shows you a background of the town with the animated villagers simply pasted on it. The puzzles are just a bunch of text with a picture for you to interact with. There are some animated cutscenes in the game, so its not all pictures and text. Nothing over-the-top, but the animated style really helps draw out the feeling of the game.
Sound: 8/10
Just like with the graphics, the music really suits this game also. Matching its modern England type style the music really draws you into it. The music is constantly looping over and over but it doesn't get annoying since it matches so well with the game. Take for instance the puzzle theme, which plays whenever you're doing a puzzle, it really makes you feel like a detective and gets you thinking. Due to the repetition of these music tracks these songs will grow on you and don't be surprised if you just suddenly start humming one of the tunes.
There are voices for the characters but it only happens in the introduction and in the cutscenes. Everything else in the game relies on text, so it kinda hurts that there was no voice-over for the whole game since it would really add more feeling to the unique atmosphere surrounding this game. With that aside, the voices that are in, really match the characters and is very well done.
Let me just tell you right now, PL & the Curious Village will make you feel dumb at times. Mainly because of the heavy logic behind these puzzles. Another thing though is the sense of accomplishment you will feel when solving these difficult puzzles. Not all these puzzles are hard though and with a little thinking some puzzles are really easy. If you get stuck though, you are given three hints to help you solve the puzzle. Also if you get the answer wrong you will also be given a hint. These hints aren't free to use however, and require hint coins which are hidden throughout the game. These coins aren't too hard to find and their locations are kinda obvious.
You can tell the difficulty of a puzzle by how many "picarats" they are giving you. "Picarats" is this number value that's attached to each puzzle. The higher the "picarat" rating the more difficult the puzzle. These "picarats" don't have any real value in the game but they are more like a rating system. Each time you get a puzzle wrong the amount of "Picarats" you receive will decrease. Don't worry about it decreasing to zero though, the rating will only decrease two times. You can use this to show people how smart you are with a high "Picarat" rating. Although you can cheat by starting the game over once you get the answer, but please don't and learn to accept your mistakes.
The challenge in Professor Layton and The Curious Village will differ with many people. The reason is because there are so many different puzzles in here and each one will require different amounts of thinking.
Replay Value: 6/10
The length of this game really depends on how long it takes you to solve these puzzles. If you get stuck, it could take you from around 5 minutes to even a day, if the puzzle really has you stumped. That is unless you look to a place like Gamefaqs for the answer.
There are a lot of puzzles to solve with over 130 in all so this game will take you a while to complete no matter what. I beat this game around 19 and a half hours and some people beat in lesser time, so its gonna differ based on how fast you get through the puzzles and how often you play it. I was addicted to this game when I first got it and kinda played it non-stop, but if you limit yourself to like a few puzzles a day or so this game will last a while.
There isn't much replayability to this game since it relies on puzzles. Once you beat a puzzle theres no sense in going back and solving it again. There are some puzzles though with different ways to solve them so if you're up for a challenge you can try to find every solution possible for one puzzle. You can also share the game with friends and see how they fare against these puzzles. Another good thing about this game is its Weekly Puzzles. Each week a new puzzle will be released via Wi-fi and you can download it and then solve it. You won't be given hints to help out, until the following week of that puzzle's release. Also don't worry if you missed a puzzle of a certain week because you will be able to download all the puzzles available and they are dated so you can see which one you missed.
At the time of writing this review, all the weekly Wi-fi puzzles have now been released. There is 26 in all so even after beating all the puzzles the game has to offer, there will be a bit more to solve via Wi-fi.
Closing Comments
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a great game, and the first of three(which I hope will come to the US soon). I recommend this game to any puzzle lover out there. Lots of puzzles are packed into this game, with a nice story, and a unique style to go along with it. The game will last you quite a while, but its hard to replay a puzzle once you know the answer. Overall though, this game is great, and is one of my favorites. With its addictive and rewarding gameplay, Professor Layton is a game you musn't overlook.
Review: Professor Layton And The Curious Village - Puzzle Solving At Its Finest!
By: gamepodunk
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