School. School school school. Now that I'm taken up for seven hours of the day for five days a week with things going on after, the time for playing games for hours and hours on end is over. And with the first week already demanding essays and projects, I'm in exactly the right mood to do something to get my brain working again. So I read a book. And then decided to play Professor Layton once I decided that the particular book I was reading was boring.
Professor Layton and the Curious Villages is the first game in the Professor Layton series released on the Nintendo DS in 2007. The story follows Professor
Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke Triton as they are summoned to the village of St. Mystere to track down the Golden Apple, an item left by the late Barron in order to see who will gain his fortune. Shortly after arriving at St. Mystere, the crank to the bridge, the only way out of the village, is stolen, and mysterious abductions and a murder mystery show that there's more going on in this case than meets the eye.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a puzzle game, where your goal is to go around, solve puzzles, and discover the mystery of St. Mystere and the Golden Apple. Gameplay is kept to the bottom screen using the stylus to move around town, talk to people, and examine things. The people of St. Mystere really like puzzles, and they're not going to tell you much of anything unless you solve a puzzle for them. These are also controlled by the stylus and let me tell you, they are not a cakewalk. Some may be easy, but others will test your brain like nothing else. And there's a lot of them. Over 120 in fact, and that's just the main story. When you solve a puzzle, you earn picarats which act as your score. If you get there puzzle wrong, you earn less picarats, but they don't really do anything so don't worry. If a puzzle has you stumped, you can use a hint coin, which you find hidden in the town, which will give you a hint. You can use up to three per puzzle, but if you really can't figure it out, you can quit the puzzle with no consequence, though there are puzzles that are required, and there will be points where you will have had to solve a certain number of puzzles in order to advance, so its good to try to solve every puzzle.
In terms of presentation, the hand drawn backgrounds and characters look great, the animated cut scenes look good and the voice acting, what little there is, is good as well. Though during animated cut scenes the voices can sound a bit blurry. The soundtrack as well is great also, with nice violin pieces playing while in the village, and a puzzle theme that really gets you in the mood for thinking. Also, there's the main theme, which is amazing. Not as good as Unwound Future's theme, but still great. Just listen to it you won't regret it.
Buying Professor Layton and the Curious Village is cheap, with copies going for under $20, but is it worth picking up? The puzzles are hard and very well put together making it great for people who like things such as puzzles books. There were parts in this game where I thought "Darn, why is this game so clever?". You need to be ready to think if you want to track down the Golden Apple and solve the mystery of St. Mystere, so if your not ready to think like a pro, you might not like this, and if your not big on puzzles, this won't change your mind. But for everyone else, this game is certainly worth a play through.
The Silent Protagonist says that everyone is Don Paolo. And Don Paolo is everyone.
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