Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Review

Popular in Japan selling more than half a million and now it comes to America and European shores and with it, it bring some of the most fascinating puzzles that you could ever think of, a twisty storyline where anything can happen, and an adventure where in order to succeed is to use your mind and your expertness in puzzles, and a mystery where anyone could be a suspect.



Now when you turn on the DS to play this game, you suddenly feel that you are playing a game where the setting is somewhere in Europe due to the presentation of the game having some sort of European art style. As you start it you are suddenly finding the main characters of the game, one of them is a friendly brown-suit, puzzle-lover intelligent man who’s an archeologist and his young assistant Luke, who’s like a friend to the professor. Both are eager to solve at whatever puzzle they have encounter on their way and it’s that eagerness brought them to the mysterious town of St. Mystere. The story starts with a theater-like screen that involves the characters to talk in it as the words on the bottom follows their dialogue. Doing this, Luke asks the professor what was going on and where were they going, in that beginning story, he tells him and that’s when we learn what’s the main achievement of the game. Apparently there’s a situation going on in the town of St. Mystere and since the professor got the knack for puzzles, he decided to go and find out what was troubling the town. They’re looking for the golden apple as the professor told Luke in the conversation. The professor thinks that the so called “golden apple” may have foreshadowed something even bigger as he is right when you get deeper into the game.

Now before you have arrive to town the professor asks Luke to figure out a puzzle to locate the town, that’s where the first puzzle of the game comes in. All Puzzles require the touch screen and no buttons at all to solve, a time-less limit, and you are given 3 hints only as you are solving a puzzle. Now the first puzzle of the game may seem easy, but don’t stereotype all puzzles of the game on just one puzzle as it does get more challenging along the way. You start with puzzle number one with having zero picarats and ten coins. The picarats are points that you get for solving a puzzle. Solve a puzzle without getting it wrong then you get the entire amount of picarats, if you get it wrong a first and second time then the amount you get for solving goes down until the second time losing and it remains in that low amount from the second time and on. Your number of picarats increases and accumulates at each puzzle you solve. Only useful things that the picarats can come in are the extras that are unlocked after the game, until then you are to collect the picarats for it. As I said you’re given three hints in each puzzle to solve. This is where the items “hint coins” come to play. A hint cost one coin, so you might want to save your coins for one of those extreme puzzles you may have encounter one day. Puzzle coins can be found in different sections of the village of St. Mystere by tapping a certain place, either can be on top of a rooftop or under the ground. Either way you’re better off by tapping everywhere the village to look for these coins. After you have solved your first puzzle you’re on your way to the village and that’s where the game begins! You now have started Layton!

The citizens of the village absolutely love puzzles! You can find puzzles by tapping on random people, tapping on a certain designated spot, or maybe it will just come directly at you in its storyline. The village is made up of different sections and in the start, only half of the village is accessible. You view the village in Layton’s eyes, so you see what Layton is seeing as he does not appear in the village as you are going around looking for puzzles. To go to different places there’s a “foot” icon and arrows appears, thus you go to that spot. As you progress through the game, then you will have a reason to go in the part of town where it’s not accessible when you start the game. Now in order to go to a part of town where you have never been before, you will need to go through a couple of storylines and have a certain number of puzzles solved. Whoever’s guarding the way to the part of town may say it themselves, “you need this amount of puzzles to get through”. In that case, solving random puzzles from strangers is mandatory. As you do some puzzles, they may be either obvious, or really heavy thinking that you are forced to look up the puzzle and find the answer. After you have the required number to go through, and a new chapter will start.

Yes, the game is split up in chapters. With the chapters also comes some sort of “quests” called “unsolved mysteries”. These are mysterious things that you’ve encounter while doing your errands around the town that needs solving. They all do get solved but that’s till later in the game. As a new part of the town is unlocked there are even more puzzles to solve and more coins to find. With it even more characters that you will meet, and yes they may be either a suspect to a case or just some random guy that may be your foe or your friend. Most likely they will have puzzles with them just as any other citizen of the village has. Now when you do complete a puzzle, then the solved puzzles are stored in your inventory menu AKA; The professor’s trunk. In it comes a journal, which contains the story of the game itself and what happens. A mystery list on what mysteries Layton is investigating. Puzzle index book, where the solved puzzles are happen to be found. And other items that need collecting called gizmos and painting pieces that you get as a prize for solving a puzzle.

Only certain parts of the story has that voice acting movie theme to it. There are parts of the story where your skill of reading are needed and maybe some vocabulary skills wouldn’t hurt at all as both Layton and his arch nemesis Don Poalo are both super intellectual geniuses. Now Don Poalo doesn’t appear at the game at first, but will after some twisty part of the game takes place.

The game doesn’t have that much music to listen to, but the music are very mysterious sounding. Though it can get repetitive as each puzzle has only one music and it plays over and over again till you solved it. Hook up your Layton game with internet connection so you can solve brand new puzzles sent over by Nintendo into your DS. Although they may be tough and they don’t really have that many hints to help you along the way. Like I said, some of the puzzles are really tough to solve, and may force you to look up the puzzle somewhere to progress, That’s one problem. You can easily put save before a puzzle after you have lost a few picarats and go back to it and get the initial amount of picarats you were suppose to get by getting the right answer. You can easily cheat in this game. This game also tries to win you back after you have completed the game with a few puzzles that are made to solve again, unsolved puzzles, or downloadable puzzles. Also there are a few items that need to be collected like the gizmos and the painting pieces but again, you need to solve puzzles to get them. Story of the game is fifteen hours long, so it’s pretty much average just like any other game in terms of length. Still you have the extras to keep you occupied longer. This game is part one of three in the Layton series. So a sequel is inevitable.

So yeah, if you’re someone that happens to like puzzles and have a sense of adventure and mystery, then you will like this point and click game. Another thing that’s inevitable is cheating, and it’s hard to not cheat so try to at least take your time on a puzzle if you can’t solve it unless that trip to the walkthrough is necessary. Still this game is fun when you’re solving puzzles and the story will definitely shock you in some parts of the game. You need to prove the village that you are a puzzle master and solve the ominous secret that lie within.


Gameplay: 8 / 10
Graphics: 9 / 10
Story: 9.5 / 10
Sound/Music: 7 / 10
Replay Value: 8 / 10



Final Tally -


8 / 10

Good review I'll have to look into picking this up.

Nice review, i really want this game but the destiny ain't let me get it! I'll eventually

I disagree with the final score, the game deserves a 9+, but nice review anyway

Don Ramón wrote:I disagree with the final score, the game deserves a 9+, but nice review anyway

The tougher reviewers get more respect in this industry. Course I don't care what other people think. But who doesn't not care what other people think?

^^ do you work on VGC???? You just sounded like Naznatips

Don Ramón wrote:^^ do you work on VGC???? You just sounded like Naznatips

No, I don't work for anybody. I'm lazy and proud of it. Also, I can sound like anyone you ask me to.

pichu wrote:

Don Ramón wrote:^^ do you work on VGC???? You just sounded like Naznatips

No, I don't work for anybody. I'm lazy and proud of it. Also, I can sound like anyone you ask me to.

Sound like kirby!

zexen wrote:

pichu wrote:

Don Ramón wrote:^^ do you work on VGC???? You just sounded like Naznatips

No, I don't work for anybody. I'm lazy and proud of it. Also, I can sound like anyone you ask me to.

Sound like kirby!

Boca stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pichu wrote:

zexen wrote:

pichu wrote:

Don Ramón wrote:^^ do you work on VGC???? You just sounded like Naznatips

No, I don't work for anybody. I'm lazy and proud of it. Also, I can sound like anyone you ask me to.

Sound like kirby!

Boca stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's not kirby, he doesn't care about my team. He only cares about Ajax and beer