Game Review: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

April 11th, 2008 by lynnylchan under Comments and Leisure

“Professor Layton”, as I shall refer to the game, is quite good. But you can read the details elsewhere, like the metareview on DS Fanboy and Metacritic. As a mostly casual, female gamer, I give my opinion from that standpoint.

First, it’s rather a short game. I finished all 135 puzzles in 10 hours, as the in-game timer shows. It would have been longer if I’d used my brain on all the puzzles, but some of them were so frustratingly hard that I gave in and used the walkthrough.

That’s not to say that the puzzles are unsolvable. The final one that stumped me was just a more difficult version of a puzzle I’d solved on my own prior to that. There are some “sets” of puzzles that proceed that way - you start off on the easiest one, and the more difficult variations on the same theme will show up later.

Second, the storyline revolves around a mystery, that branches off into several mysteries, which are ultimately tied together by one giant mystery. This reduces replayability because once you’ve solved the mystery, that’s it. You can, however, play the puzzles again and again, which I do. I practiced one puzzle until I could do it on my own, plus I reduced the number of moves needed, so you could say I improved, I suppose. These little puzzles work very well as time fillers when you’re waiting for the bus. And because there’s a large variety of puzzles - maths, logic, spatial, spot-the-difference, to name a few - you can play your favourites and leave the rest.

Third, the storyline actually integrates very well with the puzzles. Sure the gameplay has been attacked as being populated by puzzle-obsessed non-player characters (NPCs), but that’s not just how the game works, there’s also a perfectly good plot reason for that. Some comments that I’ve read said that the puzzles themselves had nothing to do with the storyline. Well, would you rather they substituted their own names and occupations for everything in the puzzles? That would just be awkward. Plus, if you actually pay attention, certain NPCs seem to prefer certain kinds of puzzles. For example, water-pouring puzzles are found at the restaurant, under the premise that the chef has lost his measuring cups.

Fourth, I just plain love puzzle games. The fact that this one comes with a storyline, cute characters and a gorgeous visual style adds to the appeal. I’m also a huge fan of the Ace Attorney series, which is a puzzle game at its very core. C’mon, finding contradictions and figuring out which bits match which statements? That’s a logic puzzle, right there!

So, my conclusion on “Professor Layton”: Quick to finish, suitable for all ages (as long as they have the intelligence to solve the puzzles), easy to play in short bursts as a pick-up game, and visually pleasing. Also, candy for the brain. And you can’t beat the dopamine high when you solve a difficult puzzle all by yourself!

Rating: Highly recommended