Despite its looks, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is far from
being a game just for kids. Developed by Level-5, the studio behind
Dragon Quest VIII and Dark Cloud, it combines two brain twisting genres
into an unique title on the Nintendo DS.
The story begins when Professor Layton, a puzzle fanatic and part time
detective, and his side kick, Luke, receive a message from Lady Dhalia,
a rich widow in search of a lost valuable memento left by her late
husband, called the Golden Apple. Before even setting foot in St.
Mystérie, the tone of the game reveals itself, throwing a puzzle the
player's way in order to discover the actual location of the village.
Along the way to solve the Golden Apple and the many other mysteries
found in St. Mystérie, the villagers present brainteasers that
sometimes lead to clues when solved. Upon exploration of the
environment, more puzzles can be discovered, amassing to around 150
puzzles total. However, only a fraction of these has to be solved in
order to complete the game's story.
The puzzles themselves range from all kinds of problems, mixing
mathematically heavy enigmas, simple jigsaw puzzles and even
Tetris-like block pushers. For each of these, a certain amount of
piccarats, the game's currency, is awarded. These are used to acquire
the many bonuses locked up in the bonus menu found outside the story
mode, and range from a variety of puzzles. There is no time limit to
solving the problems presented, but for each wrong answer, a certain
amount of piccarats is taken away. However, they are never completely
zeroed out, stopping at a certain minimum number available to earn.
Tips can also be used at the cost of hint coins, which can be found
through good, old fashioned, pixel hunting of the village's
backgrounds, in the form of stylus tapping. Even though there are lots
of possibilities to get help, the puzzles are no push overs, and often
provide interesting challenges that require an "outside the box" method
of thinking. These were created with the help of Chiba University's
Professor Akira Tago, which is a known Japanese puzzle creator, author
of many books in the subject.
Artistically, Professor Layton and the Curious Village has high
production values. The visual style is influenced by European art, with
a color palette and character design that is clearly based on The
Triplets of Belleville. No two characters look alike, all with their
own spirit and personality brought by a simple, yet charismatic line of
drawing. The story moves in the form of dialog bubbles with character
stills similar to the Phoenix Wright games, but important elements are
presented through fully animated cut scenes, with voice acting. The
overall quality of the presentation is very, very high, which provides
are great deal of the immersion, sharing space with the main objective
of the game, that is, presenting increasingly challenging puzzles.
Controls rely on the DS touch screen almost completely, and are precise
up to a certain limit of the screen sensitivity space.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village will provide a drawn out
experience to the casual DS player, with around ten hours in the main
story mode, with even more challenges after its completion. Bonus
sections open up after the story closes, and the puzzles that were
missed during play through can be solved by going to a sort of puzzle
house located in the village. Also, there are special puzzle rooms that
can be unlocked by collecting pieces of furniture, a painting and a
robotic creature, given by specific puzzles found in St. Mystérie. More
puzzles also be obtained through the DS' wireless connection, as weekly
additions make their way to your personal collection. The occasionally
head scratching and random pixel hunt might turn some more impatient
players away, but for those looking for an intelligent and unique
adventure game for their DS, their is no need to look much further.
Just knock on the Professor's door.
