Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a delightful puzzle-based visual-novel-style game. Through the unique artistic style and the humorous dialogue, the developers were able to craft a cute little world chock-full of bite-sized puzzles which make up the core gameplay. However, as the eponymous professor's first adventure, it's still a little rough around the edges. The game's core structure is solid, but the tactics used to increase the playtime could definitely use some polishing. I'm still more than satisfied with the time I spent with the game, it's just unlikely that this is an entry in the series that I will be returning to.

In the Curious Village, you take control of Professor Layton, and his apprentice, Luke. Your goal is to solve a variety of mysteries that arise during your time in St. Mystere, which you do by investigating the town, speaking with its residents, and solving puzzles. The town itself is interesting, but the real fun happens during interactions with the strange people who live there. They each have unique over-the-top personalities and a somewhat concerning affinity for puzzles. The puzzles make up the bulk of the Curious Village, and although they don't actually pertain to the story in any way, solving them is often a requirement for progressing. Without the story, this game would lose a lot of its charm, and I probably wouldn't have played it. However, I often found myself rushing to find the next puzzle, caring more about testing my brain than reading dialogue.

Unfortunately, the puzzles are where the game's flaws show the most. In order to get enough puzzles in the game, the developers often reused puzzle types, modifying them a little bit to make them more difficult. Recycled puzzles were still fun the second time, and sometimes even the third, but arranging queens on a chessboard can only be fun for so long. The game also had a bit of an issue with balance, making the last few puzzles unreasonably difficult without any sort of transition. I wouldn't have been so annoyed if I felt like the game worked me up to that point, but the game's difficulty felt pretty steady until it jumped up with those last few challenges.

Despite all of my complaints, this game was still a joy to play through, and although the story wasn't my main focus, I appreciated that it was there, and I am excited to see what's next for the characters. Every time I solved a puzzle, recycled or not, I felt a nice sense of accomplishment, and I was encouraged to keep on playing. I'm already sure that this won't be the definitive title in the series, so I can be confident in saying that I probably won't return to this game, but I think it was worth the playthrough, and would absolutely recommend it to series newbies.

The game is available for Android here (as of 4/16/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Level5.LT1REU&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 4/16/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/layton-curious-village-in-hd/id1361524540

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