Alright, the third one of these and I promise to make it shorter. Now I imagine most of you will have heard of this series, it was quite a fad a while back. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I tried it myself with the first entry, Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, other than a bunch of puzzles. The game has a plot, but it’s really not the focus. Basically, a lord has died and his Will states that only a person capable of finding the Golden Apple can inherit his ridiculously large fortune. Nobody in town’s been able to do it, so they contact respected Archaeologist Professor Hershel Layton to find it.
That’s the set up, and it never really moves on from there. Still, that’s not really a negative and whenever there’s a pre-rendered cutscene it has some really charming animation and solid voicework. Really, the whole visual aesthetic of the game is simple, yet consistent and has a style that really suits the game. And though the music tracks are few in number, they’re gentle and relaxing that can really cool your temper when you can’t answer that damn puzzle.
If you do get easily frustrated by brainteasers though, this isn’t something for you. If you don’t mind challenging your brain once in a while however, you’ll find a range of puzzles that’ll test your arithmetic, language skills, spatial awareness and lateral thinking. Some of the puzzles get repeated a few times, but each time the puzzle is made harder with a new twist or level of complexity.
It can get a bit tiresome to have to solve a problem every time you talk to someone or are trying to get some information, but if you let them take you, you’ll get plenty of mileage out of them.
This is a solid game for play on the go as you attempt a tricky puzzle or two, or for an extended play session when you want to go through a bunch of them. And once you’ve unlocked a puzzle or cutscene, you can replay them at your leisure from the main menu.
So yeah, if you want something intellectual to sink some time into, you could do a lot worse than Professor Layton. It doesn’t matter too much which game you play from the series, each is a self contained story but as ever you’ll miss some backstory or character beats by doing so. That’s not a big deal though, these games are all about the puzzles. The fact that the characters, art and sound design are great too are just a bonus.
Unfortunately, getting one of these games will be about £15 at the easiest, and they’ll easily reach £25. If you want something similar, there’s the much shorter but still fun Puzzle Agent available on Steam for £5. I’d recommend that too.
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