Ah, revisiting Layton in HD is amazing! Sharp, full resolution graphics and sound make a huge difference. It's amazing that we can see the game in this way, it's the video game equivalent to a movie recorded on film getting a modern release at full resolution. No new art, the same but finally at the highest quality. Also, having all puzzles (weekly downloadable puzzles + hidden door + game's own set) in one place is awesome. I'm glad they didn't leave anything out.

Other than the HD upgrade, there are very few new additions. The memo pad has wider array of tools, there's an options menu with a playguide and volume adjustments, some very minor puzzle adjustments to accommodate for mobile... and that's about it.

While there wasn't much room for improvement over the original, I'm disappointed by a few choices. First, the most grievous error is in the one functionality that was updated: the memo pad.

The original DS release's memo pad was extremely bare bones: you could write in black, and you could clear the screen. But it did the job most of the time. The HD version added: colors! stamps! pen sizes! an eraser! undo/redo buttons! And yet somehow they really screwed it up. It's already hard enough to write memos with a fingertip (next time I will definitely use a pen with a touchscreen nub), but the memo pad's functionality will make you want to use it as little as possible. To write anything other than in the thinnest pen size in black, like let's say, in a second color, you have to: press the colorpad, choose a color, press the pencil icon, tap the screen, and then you can begin writing. It's hard to understand how frustrating this is unless you experience it yourself. Note-taking can be so crucial in many of the puzzles and it was turned into such a chore for no good reason.

Another weird decision was: they actually added an an accommodation for writing on a touchscreen with your finger! Awesome! It is used on one single puzzle. What. On puzzle 68, and only on puzzle 68, a magnifying circle appears besides where you tap and shows where you are drawing your line. I almost wish they never added to that puzzle, because every puzzle after that I kept thinking how a magnifying glass would be so useful. I just don't understand why that wasn't a game-wide option.

Overall, while I think this is the best way to play the game, I wish they did just that little bit more to make the definitive version.

The story for this one is probably my favourite overall, a crazy-ass love story. Although it is strange that the train, that was set-up as the main location and key to the plot, is only really used for half of the game, with the latter half being spent in another curious village. I guess they just ran out of ideas for the train but still had more puzzles left.

Gameplay-wise, this feels much more polished than Curious Village, but not quite as much as Unwound Future, which is fair enough for the second game. However, this one really excels in its charming soundtrack and visual choices. The swordfight scene in particular is still as incredible as it was to 10-year old me.

Finally, to specifically talk about the android port for a second, this shows the same level of polish as Curious Village HD did to be honest, but it had less work to do because the original game was already more polished.

Went back to this one, specifically, after an itch for a puzzle game on my phone needed to be scratched, mainly because this is the installment in the first trilogy that I was farthest from 100%-ing as of my latest playthrough. So, I figured, I try harder to find every puzzle and complete every mini-game. Unfortunately, there is something about arriving in Folsense that really takes the wind out of my desire to sink my teeth deep here.

Something I noticed, and I’ll admit quickly that this may be a symptom of my last ‘Layton’ playthrough being the latest installment, is that the numbered order of puzzles does not run very parallel to the order in which a player might organically discover each puzzle throughout the game. Maybe not a design flaw, in the grand scheme of things, but it definitely will throw off returning players as they begin back-tracking once they find the next puzzle they found after No. 11 was No. 19. Then after retracing one’s steps only nets most of those missing puzzles, you’ll find that puzzle No. 12 was actually a story puzzle waiting for you at the end of a chapter.

Back-tracking and retracing is not a huge problem, of course. It’s a point & click adventure game, you’re going to do plenty of that. Though, it’s a lot easier in an area like the Molentary Express and the small village of Dropstone, but then you’re dropped into the town of Folsense. Once I was finding puzzles No. 129 and No. 67 back-to-back, it was feeling very daunting to fully complete this one. Then, not finding every puzzle means not getting everything you need for each mini-game. The ones in this one being SO. MID. The camera is great (both constructing it and using it), but the Hamster feels not super imaginative and the tea set can go fuck itself, frankly.

I half-felt like just blasting through the last couple of chapters because I like the ending, but a quick YouTube search for the finale would be the final nail in this playthrough’s coffin. Sorry, professor.

The pacing in this one is weird! It was really drawing me in, and I found myself not really having a desire to find every hint coin and every puzzle and really 100% this one. I think it’s mostly because I just wanted to get this one over with so I could get to Unwound Future. It’s just interesting, the direction of this story and scenario. I always thought we might get back on the train, or have to go back to Dropstone for a minute, or maybe we’d visit the castle and escape and need to investigate more, but it’s a very linear storyline and before I knew it, all of the mysteries were being solved one after the other! The puzzles felt a little more repetitive this time, not that many satisfying ones, a lot of either just following some string or wires, etc. Just really wasn’t feeling this one, though when it finally all unraveled and I got the bigger picture, this is still a good installment, just not really as punchy as Curious Village. I’m a little worried, now, that Unwound Future isn’t the masterpiece I think of it as.

Ignoring all the plot holes the narrative is more interesting than I remembered. Ghosts of the past and all that. Still has all the same problems as the last game, only compounded. Puzzles are much more logic based affairs involving math or simple arithmetic. I liked the weird tricky puzzles of the first game. Nothing here is trying to catch you out, but it's all the worse for it.
The aesthetic, music, and tone of the game is certainly more notable though. Again not much logic to the twist, but if we take it as a world propped up by this thin hope then it works. Now that I think about it that castle certainly supports that theme.
Like the first, it's just as pleasant, but still missing some key element I can't quite place. Perhaps the third will provide more insight.