Professor Layton and the Curious Village tells the story of a tall man with a big hat, a long coat, and a pet boy (that he dresses in a pageboy outfit for reasons not directly explained in the game) and their quest to solve the mystery of The Golden Apple and discover the hiding place of a wealthy dead guy’s fortune. That I would feel awkward turning that into more of a joke than I already have should stand as a glowing testament to the innocent quaintness the story, setting, and atmosphere of the game carry. Indeed – Layton is possibly the most aggressively quaint experience that I’ve had since the last Wodehouse book I finished. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not a bad thing, but if you’re the sort that doesn’t appreciate that turn of the (20th) century vibe, it’s possible that you’ll be quickly and thoroughly annoyed with the almost overbearing feeling of rural British charm that pervades the game. In that vein, the game tells what basically ends up as a simple mystery story in the Arthur Conan Doyle tradition (albeit with a lot less edge to it). The game’s story successfully does what it sets out to do, in that it serves as an effective structure on which to pin the hundred and thirty five logic puzzles that serve as the game’s core mechanic. The overall mystery, however, is a little shallow (I had solved the entire case before the story was even half done), and the fact that you’re basically stuck following the characters around as they conduct their own investigation strains the game’s story structure.
The individual logic puzzles are all reasonably well constructed and entertaining, if you’re the sort that, you know, enjoys solving logic puzzles. The specific mechanics of solving some of those puzzles, however, comes up short in a few areas. Specifically, when you’re trying to solve a puzzle about, for example, what the size of a square containing a circle containing a square containing a circle containing yet another square is relative to that smallest internal square, you need a little bit of space to make notes and jot down algebraic and geometric equations. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t lend itself well to this sort of note taking. The lines that you draw on the screen are frankly pretty fat, and if you try to take notes or doodle or experiment on the screen, you’ll quickly discover that there simply isn’t enough space to solve most of the problems that the game presents. On top of that, a number of the puzzles really turn out to be little more than linguistic riddles (i.e. the solution to the puzzle relies on determining that something attached to the ground but terminating “in the sky” should be used as part of the answer), which are certainly fine in moderation, but by the time I finished with the primary storyline, I was fully prepared to never again see such a riddle for a very long time.
Visually, Professor Layton has a look and feel consistent with its general atmosphere. The game does a good job of graphically replicating the feel of a typical British comic novel in the Wodehouse mold, which itself constitutes a commendable achievement. That said, it certainly doesn’t press any graphical boundaries. The game presents itself as a simple fixed-screen adventure game, and, as you might expect, that means that there isn’t much movement or action on any of the various and sundry game screens. While each of the fifty and change screens does a good job of capturing the eye on first viewing, the third or fourth (or seventy third) time through, there really isn’t much to gape at in slack-jawed amazement. Similarly, the audio in the game is fairly sparse and consists primarily of the constant background music that accompanies the characters on their adventure. It’s worth mentioning that Layton does, on rare occasion, depart into animated FMV sequences, which are fairly well done from a visual perspective, but the speakers in my old, first generation DS simply weren’t up to the task and the audio (particularly the voice work) ended up washed out and hard to parse.
On the whole, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an exceptional puzzle game for puzzle enthusiasts, but it doesn’t try very hard to capture gamers that might not hold much of an interest in the genre. In that regard, I’m a pretty terrible person to review the game, since I was the sort of child that took a book of exactly the same kinds of puzzles that this game is filled with on long car trips. And to the doctor’s office. And to activities that I thought would be boring. If I had ever gone to parties (or social events of any kind), I suspect that I probably would have been tempted to cart a book of puzzles with me to those, too. Fortunately, I can recognize my own aberrance, and I can definitely understand how some gamers might not be interested at all by the gameplay in Layton. Really, there’s not much going on here more advanced than Zork or King’s Quest, albeit with better intellectual challenges than either of those two classic adventure titles. With a sequel already out in Japan, it’s certainly nice to see a continuing interest in the genre, and after the pleasant, if slightly flawed experience of Professor Layton and the Curious Village, I’m definitely looking forward to further entries in the franchise. For now, any fan of the classic puzzle genre will be more than happy with the game, and certainly any gamer with an intellectual bent should give Professor Layton a look.
"Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)" is on sale February 10, 2008 and is rated E. Strategy.
