You follow Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke as they make their way to St. Mystere to help with a puzzling inheritance case. The deceased left everything to whomever could locate the "Golden Apple," yet no one has ever even heard of it. Explore the village for clues, help villagers, and solve puzzles all on the way to figuring it out!
Visuals
I absolutely love the artstyle in Professor Layton and the Curious Village! It stood out to me as soon as the game loaded.The backgrounds have a hand-painted storybook feel to them, and the characters look straight out of an old cartoon! In fact, the fully animated cutscenes could be clips from a real series!
Sound Effects + Music
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is partially voice acted. The major cutscenes are fully voiced, and everyone sounds great. Other than that, there are just minimal sound effects when interacting with the environment, no ambient noises.
I also really enjoyed the music too. There's only a few tracks, so it does get repetitive if you play for long stretches. But the music fits the slightly uncanny feel of the village perfectly.
Gameplay + Controls
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and puzzle game. You tap arrows on the screen to move from location to location, along with on other areas to find secrets. However, rather than finding an assortment of objects to combine and use in the environment, you find a wide variety of puzzles and riddles to progress your journey.
The puzzles range from slide puzzles to math riddles to optical illusions and more. You'll need to think logical and often times literally to solve some of them. There is a hint system and most puzzles are skippable. You are required to solve some specific ones to get the evidence you need, as well as needing 75 total to unlock the final area. However, you can skip non-story puzzles and return to them later if you need to. It's fairly generous.
Replayability
As much as I enjoyed my time with Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the nature of being a mystery makes it non-replayable for me. The surprise is gone, so there's no real need to go through it again. You can always revisit the puzzles or continue solving the ones you missed though without restarting.
Overall
I absolutely adored Professor Layton and the Curious Village from the opening cutscene! It's so engaging and charming. If you like brain teasers and silly mystery stories, make sure to check this one out!
Visuals
I absolutely love the artstyle in Professor Layton and the Curious Village! It stood out to me as soon as the game loaded.The backgrounds have a hand-painted storybook feel to them, and the characters look straight out of an old cartoon! In fact, the fully animated cutscenes could be clips from a real series!
Sound Effects + Music
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is partially voice acted. The major cutscenes are fully voiced, and everyone sounds great. Other than that, there are just minimal sound effects when interacting with the environment, no ambient noises.
I also really enjoyed the music too. There's only a few tracks, so it does get repetitive if you play for long stretches. But the music fits the slightly uncanny feel of the village perfectly.
Gameplay + Controls
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and puzzle game. You tap arrows on the screen to move from location to location, along with on other areas to find secrets. However, rather than finding an assortment of objects to combine and use in the environment, you find a wide variety of puzzles and riddles to progress your journey.
The puzzles range from slide puzzles to math riddles to optical illusions and more. You'll need to think logical and often times literally to solve some of them. There is a hint system and most puzzles are skippable. You are required to solve some specific ones to get the evidence you need, as well as needing 75 total to unlock the final area. However, you can skip non-story puzzles and return to them later if you need to. It's fairly generous.
Replayability
As much as I enjoyed my time with Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the nature of being a mystery makes it non-replayable for me. The surprise is gone, so there's no real need to go through it again. You can always revisit the puzzles or continue solving the ones you missed though without restarting.
Overall
I absolutely adored Professor Layton and the Curious Village from the opening cutscene! It's so engaging and charming. If you like brain teasers and silly mystery stories, make sure to check this one out!