Professor Layton and the Curious Village
by Nintendo
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Video Game Reviews of Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Customer Review: Fun mystery/puzzle game!
Summary: 5 Stars
Overall this is a very fun game and I am looking forward to the Diabolical Box sequel which just came out last month. The puzzles for the most part are fun and challenging. What makes this game interesting is that there are several different types of puzzles so if you like a variety of puzzles there is something for everyone. Some are quite easy, others seem easy at first glance but aren't, while others seem impossible at first, but as Professor Layton will tell you, all puzzles have an answer.
I must admit I got very frustrated at times, and some of the "solutions" made me groan because I didn't always agree with the answer, but this is a really fun game that will take hours to complete (at least it did for me). There is also a few ongoing mysteries in addition to the puzzles, but this is secondary as the puzzles are the main attraction.
Tip: Don't be afraid to use your hint coins! I finished the game and had about 100 left over because I was afraid of using too many and running out! However, there are plenty throughout the game so use them if you need help.
Tip #2: Tap everywhere! There are a lot of hidden puzzles/coins that you will find simply by tapping all over the screen.
Customer Review: Great, not perfect game
Summary: 4 Stars
I loved this game, and even got my non-gamer parents pouring over some of the puzzles. There are 135 puzzles, ranging in difficulty from 10 "Picarats" (their point system) to 99 Picarats. If you get a puzzle wrong, the number of Picarats you can earn decreases by about 10% for your first two guesses, then plateaus until you get it right. Most puzzles are stumbled upon or hidden, and only a handful are necessary to complete the game.
I found the mathy puzzles and the sliding puzzles the most fun. Being very analytic and precise (I am a graduate student in engineering), I found the many of the word/logic puzzles frustratingly ambiguous. I think all of the required puzzles were straightforward, however, and there are enough great, clever puzzles to make up for the imperfect ones.
Good points:
+ The sliding puzzles make excellent use of the DS's capabilities and are well-crafted.
+ After you solve a puzzle, you can go back and play it again any time from the menu and even create a "favorites" list.
+ A handful of puzzles have replay value; some can be optimized (e.g. sliding puzzles, liquid distribution puzzles) so you may want to play them over again.
Bad points:
- The puzzle rating system is incredibly subjective. I found Puzzle 107, "A Worm's Dream," one of the hardest in the game, and it's worth only 30. Conversely, I found Puzzle 133, "Finish the Equation," very easy for 70 Picarats.
- I found several of the word/logic puzzles ambiguous or cheap (as opposed to math or sliding puzzles, which were all very unequivocal). Examples:
* Puzzle 15, "How Many Are Left?" It asks how many candles are left in a scenario "in the end" without defining when "the end" is -- after you complete all the actions in the scenario? At the end of all eternity? Sometime right before the giant meteor smashes Earth up?
* Puzzle 56, "The Lazy Guard." You have to know/assume that the map (size of rooms and length of walls) are drawn to scale. Unless something says "drawn to scale," I assume it's an illustrative sketch.
- Sometimes vital information isn't given in the problem. I don't believe that one should *need* to use a hint to solve a puzzle, but I found this to be the case a few times. For example, puzzle 21, "Pill Prescription," states that a man has to take one pill a day, starting today. Today being right now, or later tonight? (Some pills have to be taken at certain times of the day, right?) Hint 2 clarifies this.
- Corollary to above: to get useful information, you almost always need to spend at least 2 Hint Coins. The first usually only restates the problem.
- Although you can usually write on the bottom screen of the DS when solving puzzles, this is not enough room (or the background is distracting) for a small handful of them and you may want to grab some paper.
- No way to skip the dialog. Since the story unfolds automatically, I cared about the plot about as much as when I play a Mario Party game.
- The animated, voiced videos are grainy, which was a tad distracting. Again, no way to skip.
A couple of notes that are neither positive or negative:
* The whole "feel" of the game is unique to a person who grew up on platformers like me. For example, there is almost no continuous animation except for a few cutscenes. You move from area-to-area in a discrete manner by clicking the edge of the screen in the direction you want to move, and the townspeople typically are plopped onto fixed backgrounds, flicking between two sprites.
* This is more hardware-related than game-related. Nintendo DS works only with WEP security. I have WPA, so I can't go online to download the weekly puzzles. The DSi works with both.
* There is no bonus for not using hint coins, nor for obtaining the maximum number of Picarats. The Picarats allow you to unlock bonuses, but I believe that if you solve every puzzle in the game even at the lowest number of Picarats (i.e. you guessed wrong twice on every single puzzle), you still have enough to unlock every bonus.
Customer Review: Great for casual play
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this game to play with my wife when we fly. Its great to pick up, play for a couple hours with my wife, then put down for a few days. We both enjoy puzzles to begin with, so if you haven't been a fan of puzzles in the past this really is not the game for you.
What makes this game a particularly great puzzle game is that the puzzles range from easy to difficult, allow you to try to solve them multiple times, and allow you to purchase hints if you are stumped on some of the harder ones.
The only down side is sometimes not having space on the screen to write notes. You play the game using the touch stylus exclusively, which is great; but I wish there was more room to write out possible solutions on the screen while you're trying to solve the puzzle. This is a very minor detail and has been fixed in the next game (Professor Layton and the Diabolic Box).
All in all I'd recommend this game to anyone looking for a puzzle gaming experience, and its great to play with someone as you help each other solve the puzzles. There is plenty of content to keep you busy, well worth the money.
Customer Review: Well worth your time!
Summary: 5 Stars
Well worth your time. Puzzles vary from easy to challenging. Story is interesting and graphics are good. Looking forward to their next Professor Layton game.Customer Review: Definitely in my Top 10 DS Games
Summary: 5 Stars
Professor Layton is a fantastic game - it's one of the few DS games that has a really great story to go along with it. If you like puzzles and brainteasers, this game features puzzles that vary from fairly easy to the downright difficult. No matter how frustrating some of the puzzles were, I always came back to play more. Not much replay value, for once you get all the puzzles it's pretty much over - although it is fun to go back and get a perfect score on everything.
The animation and hand-drawn look of this game is really great - it reminds me of a combination of the Triplets of Belleville and Hayao Miyazaki. I also loved the music they played throughout the game - very delightful.
This is definitely a game to have in your DS collection - and if you enjoy this one, definitely check out its sequel: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box!