Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is a great follow up to the Curious Village that improves upon some of the issues I had it. Firstly I feel like the story is a lot more engaging in many ways than it's predecessor, especially when it comes to the big twist at the end which was my biggest issue with Curious Village. There is also a lot more variety in the puzzle selection with this entry which allows for a more interesting game play session every time you boot up a save. This game is not without it's flaws however, as the start of the story felt incredibly slow, especially when in comparison to the previous entry. Despite this once the story gets going, you are in for a great time full of mystery, intrigue and heartbreak. I can't wait to see what the next entry holds as I can only see it going up from here!

Just the first game but better in most regards. The kinda crappy movement controls are still here (and from what I've heard they're here to stay), but thankfully puzzles are a lot easier to come by with much better minigames and certainly a more interesting narrative. The ending hit hard, but I have some small criticisms of it that I'd rather not get into here since I'm not in the mood to make a spoilered review. The general pacing of this game was both better and worse than the first in that this time there was way more actual plot going on at any given time and the mysteries were spaced out far better... but like with the first game, the final area with the final twists hit all at the same time riiiight at the very end, with barely any time for a resolution. Also like the first game, the sheer volume of puzzles began to feel fillery after around the halfway point, but I'd chalk that up more to me binging these games. In any case, the half-star up from the first game is a very big half-star up. I just hope the next games will be even better.

Boy howdy this was a long time coming, had this one in the background for a while but happy I finally got through with it. As a stepping stone forward for the series it does its job quite well and streamlines a lot of little issues Curious Village had. Puzzles feel a lot less "trollish" than ones in CV often did and having 3-5 smaller locations that you progress through across the game, rather than just one big location that expanded as you went, definitely helped the game feel more adventurous and varied in its pacing.

There's definitely an argument to be made that the sense of atmosphere St. Mystere from the first game had was lost in this transition, but I think both approaches work. Having this game settle into its final atmospheric area in the 2nd half of the game also works really well with the story and its twist. On the point of story, it was intriguing but didnt feel quite as well paced as Curious Village. The beats that did happen later on were definitely more interesting and the early on stuff was still fun to go through, but I don't feel the breadcrumb hints were as well done here. The twist kind of just "comes out of nowhere", even if it does make sense and is a cool way to resolve things.

Overall though it was definitely an enjoyable time, even if these kinds of brain-teaser puzzles are so hit and miss with me. The story and world and characters are engaging enough on their own and you get plenty of hint coins to help you through it all. I'm quickly seeing why Layton is held in such high regard among DS owners and can't wait to get started with Unwound Future / Lost Future later this year

[Playtime: 18 Hours]
[Key Word: Progress]