I've had an idea and I'm hoping it will work. Rinrei and I both love the Professor Layton Nintendo DS games, so I decided that a pair of reviews with both of our opinions in them would be nice. This is my side of the review. Enjoy the fireworks as the possible clash of opinions takes place!
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the first of a possible load of game reviews. For this one, I shall be reviewing the Nintendo DS game 'Professor Layton and the Curious Village'.
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| Shown above is the box in which the games arrives. A fairly sombre cover, but I assure you, delight lies within. Spot the Layton. |
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first in a series of games manufactured for the Nintendo DS in which the player must guide the characters, Professor Hershel Layton and Luke Triton, through the story in the hope of solving a mystery. The mystery is solved by exploring different areas and solving puzles, of which there are many varieties and types. Players gain special points from solving these puzzles, known as 'Picarats'. These go towards bonuses at the end.
The plot is not as simple as is made out to be on the box; rather the gameplay beats about the bush at times. The underlying idea beneath it all is that Layton and Luke are summoned by a certain Lady Dahlia to the quaint little town of St Mystere to help solve an inheritance dispute. The late Baron, a very rich man, has died, and certain people want their fair share of the loot. Unfortunately for them, the Baron was not a man who liked things to be easy: in his will, he left a clue that, if solved, would grant the solver the Baron's fortune. This clue refers to a 'Golden Apple' that no-one has ever seen or heard of before. Layton is charged with the task of finding the Golden Apple.
So begins brilliant journey along a path fraught with puzzles, danger and cats.
Gameplay
When I played the game, I found that the beginning was rather abrupt. It didn't really tell us who the characters were - it sort of left that to be explained and built upon later on. Instead of a nice, simple cutscene of moderate length, it gives the player a rather long conversation between Layton and Luke. The lack of cutscene in this bit of the game makes it a slightly tedious, though most informative, part of the game. However, it leaves out some of the most essential info of all: who the heck are these guys? This is possibly an effort on the part of the producers to create what we writers call a 'hook' - something that 'hook's you in. Still, if this is so then it's an annoying and simply unnecessary one. If I've bought/rented the game, I'm playing it all the way through, if only to get my full money's worth of product. Anyway, all of this is before the credits have even rolled, so I'll not dwell.
The rest of game is brilliant. The beginning of the actual story and therefore the adventure is rather slow, taking you around the village in search of a certain animal of feline sort. I do believe this is more an attempt to help the gamer to get to grips with the environment and explore some more of the village than anything else. This rather back and forth sort of gameplay makes up a good part of the first half of the game, before certain clues are found that advance the case and make life a whole lot more interesting.
So how is the game played? Well, because it is a game designed solely for use upon the Nintendo DS, the creators have obviously decided to make everything touch screen oriented. Clues are found by either tapping promising objects or areas with the stylus or solving puzzles, again using the stylus. All the main action takes place on the touch screen, whereas the top screen is used mostly to alert you as to where you are on the map, display puzzle information or show you a nice picture during a conversation with, say, the butler. This excessive use of the touch screen works very well with the format of the game. Lettering and number recognition tech integrated into the programming translates written answers into numbers and/or letters, depending on the puzzle and how good or bad your writing is. I am ashamed to say that this accidental misinterpretation of a letter 'Y' as a very strangely written 'X' has in fact resulted in the loss of several dozen Picarats of puzzle points. This is a rather annoying feature, but there is really no way around it other than to check very carefully that your answer has been correctly written into the system.
The sheer variety of puzzles available means that there is a puzzle here for everyone, no matter what sort of intelligence you may or may not be in possession of. Shifting block, logic, mental imaging and by process of elimination type puzzles are all around, if you know where to look. Not much mathematical know-how is needed at all, and potential gamers should bear this in mind when looking at a puzzle that looks like it needs Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity to solve it. The answer's often in plain sight, and much simpler than you would think. Puzzlers, bear this in mind. It's probably listed as cheating to bear this fact in mind whilst playing such a game, but even so, it's good to know. (I'm using an interesting new thing called common sense here. That's another thing that comes in useful when playing this game.) Despite this, there are puzzles that do need at least a little mathematical knowledge to pass through them.
When you're finished the game, the fun doesn't end. Through either a) scouring every single scene in the whole of the game or b) using Granny Riddleton's Shack (don't even ask) you can set yourself the challenge of finding and completing every single puzzle in the game. Doing so means finishing several extra challenges, which present themselves in the form of minigames, which unlock special puzzle sets that can be accessed outside the actual game. (I'll explain that later.) Even so, it's not an easy task. It gets really rather frustrating when you're scanning a scene for the ten millionth time trying to find that one last puzzle. However, I think the sheer satisfaction you gain from having completed every single puzzle more than covers the potential hardships you may find yourself in the midst of.
Extras
There are a number of other things in this game that merit a mention. Firstly, let's look at the music. Throughout the game, one tune or another is constantly playing, unless there is a suspiciously quiet cutscene or possibly a large amount of background silence during a remarkably short or important conversation. This could be viewed by many people to be a good thing, but there are downsides to having the same track looping constantly while you're attempting to solve a particularly difficult puzzle. With French influences evident throughout the music, you know that you're never going to listen to some proper accordian music again without thinking of a top hat and a small child dressed in blue. In short, the music annoys you after the tenth run through and stays with you forever after.
Secondly, let's have a look at the graphics and the art involved. Beautiful hand-drawn characters fill your screen no matter where you are: the town square, the sewers, in the middle of a conversation and, of course, throughout the various cutscenes insinuated throughout the game. Being drawn in a Japanese style that I think could be refered to as manga (in a way; it has subtle influences but doesn't have the massive eyes and pin-sharp chins). Each character appears to have some sort of exagerated feature. For example, the Professor has an oversized hat, Luke is small and a little bit dense at the best of times and Duke is exceedingly tall with a very square chin. The charming characters really do make the game half of what it is. Of course, at least a quarter of this can be attributed to the quality of the background images and the scenery. Very fine work has gone into every scene so that each one contains some sort of hidden thing to look for. Then there's the cutscenes. Lovely animation has been made good use of here: smooth transitions, tailor-made music for each and voicing that actually matches the movements made by the character's mouths all add up to make a wonderful little collection of films. No wonder they went on to make themselves a movie of the fourth adventure released ('The Eternal Diva'). So the graphics are good, and the art is admirably excellent.
Rating
This game is truly fantastic. Combining elements of complete surrealness with an element of charm, wit and good old-fashioned detective work (despite the only official detective in the story not really doing his job), this game makes for an all-round brilliant experience. I would reccommend this game to any DS owner with a love of puzzles, general mystery or good taste.
Despite this being one of the best games I've ever played in my life so far, it doesn't quite reach the 10/10 mark for a simple reason that lies in the following word: replayability. (Editor, I'm pretty sure that's a word. Get over it.)
The game has limited replayability due to the fact that the human brain retains a lot of a) simple b) useless or c) simply useless, ie trivial information. The answers to many of the puzzles involved in this game are retained by simple humanity, especially when you start telling your friends puzzles and betting that they can't solve them all on their own. There are certain puzzles that contain an element of luck in them (eg. the one where you swap balls around on a marble solitaire board in order to end up with one ball left), but most are ones in which you can remember the answer just by looking at them. (For me, these are usually multiple choice or one-word answers.) However, if this is the only downside to this game, then the creators have done exceedingly well indeed.
I'm giving this an 8.9 on my scale. As the esteemed Professor would say, in a rather nonplussed sort of way, "Indeed."
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