Professor Layton and the Curious Village

The Good
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first one in a puzzle game series that follows the story of our title character Professor Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke Triton as they solve an inheritance dispute in the town of St. Mystere, what follows is a case with tons of mysteries to solve (hence the name St. Mystere) and a ton of puzzles to solve in between.

The style of play is an adventure/mystery game with puzzles placed throughout the game. I am not entirely positive if there are other games like this, but this is a game that uses the mechanic effectively. Some of the puzzles are required to move forward in the game, others can be found by looking hard enough in the world. This might have been the only way they could had done it, any other way wouldn't be as effective.

The story was also pretty fun too, but I don't want to give much away, even if your not planning to play it anytime soon. But I will say this, it won't be just an inheritance dispute you have to worry about, as the town and the Reinhold family has a few secrets to hide.

The two main characters, Hershel Layton and Luke Triton have their own quirks that people may enjoy. With Layton as the English gentleman who is always calm and collected, and Luke as the kid who sticks by the professor's side... albeit he could be way over his head once in a while.

The Bad
There are a few things with the game that would only tick off those who actually want to complete the game 100 percent.

Let's just simplify the completion progress like this: In order to complete the game, you have to complete all the puzzles, including the Layton's Challenges at the end of the game. How do we take on the challenges? We have to go to the bonus section and it will have its own place in said section. But wait! Most of the houses are locked! How do we get them open? Well, there are other things in the game such as collecting scraps of paper for a picture, finding parts for a robot and collecting furniture for the hotel rooms, and that can very well make you have to solve every puzzle in the main story to get everything. After you complete the side goals, then all the houses will be available. Just solve them, and THEN you complete the game.

That may seem like a very big nitpick, but for those people who like 100 percent completion, this game may become a chore after the main game is done.

I also have an issue with the picarats in the game, the only good thing that comes out of them is to unlock the other bonus features after the game is finished. It's like why should there be even this system to begin with?

Some people may also be annoyed that in some places, in order to progress, you are going to need to solve a certain amount of puzzles in order to progress forward, it usually doesn't matter, but when it does, it's a huge bother.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this game is an enjoyable adventure/mystery game with lots of challenging puzzles. The story is easy to follow and you might even get a laugh or two from the characters in this game. There might be some issues with the game, but only if you are planning to go the extra mile. This is a fine introduction to how the Professor Layton series works, but there are other games in the series that will be better than the first one.