Professor Layton and the Curious Village

I was a big fan of the Professor Layton series when I was younger! I had all of the original trilogy on my Nintendo DS and would go back to watch the videos and try out the puzzles I was stuck on again. So when I was seeking something a little more fulfilling to download on my phone, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the Layton series was all available for Android!

The plot of the game is fairly simple. You play as the genius Professor Layton and his assistant Luke as they head to the curious village of St. Mystere. You were called there by the widow baron of the village to uncover the puzzles surrounding the late baron’s estate. It has something to do with finding the Golden Apple. As you progress, the villagers ask you to solve puzzles. Quickly though, something is up. One of the members of the household is murdered, and a Detective Inspector Chelmy shows up acting oddly and accusing Layton of the murder. Eventually, Layton makes it to a tower at the north of town and finds Bruno who is the mechanic who has made all of the villagers! At the top of the tower is the Baron’s daughter Flora! Chelmy is exposed as Don Paolo who is Layton’s nemesis, and it’s revealed that when Flora laughs, a birthmark shaped like a heart appears on her collarbone. Tapping that location in a portrait of her reveals a big treasure. However, removing any of the treasure will cause all of the villagers to cease to function. Flora decides to leave the treasure, and she heads back to London with Layton and Luke.

So the story is very cute, it’s all about finding family in odd places and being open to people joining that family. What I also really appreciate is all of the in game reasons for how the game works. All of the villagers repeat the same phrases because they’re mechanics! They present you with puzzles because they’re testing your worthiness of finding the Golden Apple! It’s these things that don’t come together until you get to the end of the story.

The mechanics are really simple, you just solve puzzles. Some puzzles give bonuses, like a painting you put together to get a bonus and things like that. And if you get through the painting then you get a secret category of harder puzzles! It works so well as a mobile game because I can pick it up and put it down and not worry too much about losing lives or something. I was able to get through all of the puzzles, except for the very last one ugh, on my own. So the puzzles really run the gamut, most are easy enough for children but adults will still have fun with it.

The most frustrating part, to me, is that the game doesn’t come with great ways to replay it. You have to set up a whole new save slot, even if you just want to go through the story again. But such is life.

I’m excited to replay the next one! It’s such a fun series.